LISTEN, LOOK

I was recently contacted by Ali Seidabadi, an Iranian editor and author. Seidabadi is promoting a series of picture books that are being published by Tiny Owl, a British publishing house; he would like to bring them to the attention of an American audience. The books will be translations of picture books from around the world, and Seidabadi is involved with a series of Iranian books.

Today I received one of the books from the Iranian series: "A Rainbow In My Pocket", by Ali Seidabadi, illustrated by Hada Haddadi. Author and illustrator are both highly respected in Iran.

When I read the words other people have written, or look at the pictures they have made, I feel as though my soul is reaching out and clasping hands with their soul. The words and pictures in this book are different from what I usually see and hear in an American picture book. But I also recognize the commonalities, and feel an understanding of Iranian culture that I didn't have before. The pages are intriguing...free... playful...resonating with the creative love and humanity that children's book writers and artists all over the world pour into their works.

It's not just professional creators who can speak to us in this way. Everyone has something of themselves to tell or to show, whoever he is, wherever she comes from. Everyone wants to be heard and seen. Today, let's listen to someone's story or look at someone's picture, in whatever medium it comes. It might be from an Iranian on the other side of the globe; or from a stranger a few states away; or from the person sitting next to us. Listen. Look. Reach across the divide. Help bring us closer together.

http://tinyowl.co.uk/ali-seidabadi/
https://www.facebook.com/ali.seidabadi
http://tinyowl.co.uk

ART SALE BENEFIT

Donate to "Thumbelina", receive this art as a reward

Victoria Dobrushina, teacher extraordinaire in Norwich Vermont, has consistently created unique end-of-year recitals and productions for her students, who range in age from 5 to over 70. While these productions always have a classical piano focus, they also incorporate many other instruments, as well as singing, dance, and theater. This year, she and all of her collaborators are hoping to take the performance to a whole new level with a full theatrical production of Thumbelina, created by a team of talented artists including composer E. Krylatov, poet Y. Entin, drama director and librettist I. Khutsieva, choreographer D. Frawley, and Victoria as music director. 

I created this piece of art and have given it to Victoria's organization. They will use it as the program cover, and as a fund-raiser. Donate $150 or more to Thumbelina...and receive the orginal piece as your reward. There are 13 days left to respond!

Go to this link to find out more about the Thumbelina project:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thumbelinainvermont/thumbelina-collaborative-multicultural-childrens-m/description

Click on the tab for "updates" to see a video of Victoria's recital from last year. "Updates" will also show you see details about the artwork reward.  Or go to this link:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thumbelinainvermont/thumbelina-collaborative-multicultural-childrens-m/posts/1608637

AWARD TIME 2016

Today the American Library Association announced its annual "Youth Media Awards", among them the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children. 

This year's winner is "Finding Winnie"---the story of how A. A. Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh came to be.

Sophie Blackall created the award-winning illustrations.

The author was Lindsay Mattick.

Celebrate by clicking on the links below to find out more about illustrator, author, and book.

http://www.sophieblackall.com

http://www.lindsaymattick.com

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lindsay-mattick/finding-winnie/9780316324908/#desc

PERSNICKETY

In a recent email with a colleague-friend , I described myself as "persnickety." He emailed back with the above. After examining this image, I decided that perhaps I should avoid being "persnickety." I'm sorry to come to that conclusion----the word rolls off the tongue in such a delightful manner. 

The moral? Don't be seduced by the superficiality of appearance or sound; it's the content that matters.

STEAM ENGINES

This is one of the double-page spreads I created for "The Cats In Krasinski Square", written by Karen Hesse, and published in 2004. It's a large piece, 24" wide, and executed in pencil, watercolor, and ink. The story was challenging to illustrate, set as it was in Warsaw, Poland, during WWII, and dealing with the hardships of Jews, both in and out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Since the story was historical fiction, I relied heavily on photographs to construct my illustrations. When I had roughed out this composition, using xeroxes of photos and my own very rough figure sketches, I showed it to my dad, Aldren A Watson, the well-known illustrator who was my professional mentor until his death. Dad looked at my compostion for several minutes, clearly uncomfortable about SOMETHING. Finally he said, "You've got an American steam engine here, not a European steam engine." 

 As it happened, my father was not only a terrific artist, but an expert on old trains. (And just a note: I learned that American steam engines had cowcatchers at the front end; European engines had bumpers.) He sent me sketches, photos, and books of European steam engines, as well as historical information about the manufacturers of steam engines, indicating which kind of engine was likely to have been in Warsaw in 1940. Thank goodness he caught this mistake---I'm not sure if anyone else would have seen it until it was too late.

I began to revise my sketch. It was hard to find photos clear enough for me to see all the details of wheels, drive shafts, and other mechanical parts. "Just add a lot of steam" my Dad said. We artists know about "adding steam". Sometimes that's a cop-out; other times it's a practical solution. As my son always said about film and the stage (and equally applicable to illustration): "We're creating an illusion of reality, not reality itself."

On a separate transparent layer I next worked out very carefully the arrangement of the clouds and steam behind the engine.The separate layer avoids messing up any drawing on other sections of the compositions.

Next came the figures of the pursuers...

...and of the pursued.

I combined all these layers into my master sketch. I carry out this process with transparent vellum, but the process is exactly the same if one is doing it on a computer.

And voila (after 4 days of painting and inking)---the finished illustration. 

AUTHORS GUILD MEMBERSHIP SPECIAL ENDS SEPTEMBER 30

If you've been thinking of joining the Authors Guild, now is the time to do it. If you join before September 30, your first year's membership will be reduced from $125 to $100.  It's not just traditionally published authors who qualify for membership; self-published and freelance authors earning at least $500 in writing income can become members of the Guild. Use this link to join and receive the $25 discount:

http://www.authorsguild.net/services/join?rc=b595a67cd52f5db0

Membership benefits include:

• Free legal help on writing and publishing matters—including written book contract reviews. 

• Author website building with our exclusive Sitebuilder software and low-cost hosting (in most cases just $6 per month). 

• Free seminars, covering topics such as marketing and publicity, movie deals, estate planning, and more. 

• Access to our online members' community including the interactive member forum, and exclusive member-only content. 

Most importantly, the Guild has long served as the collective voice of American authors on Capitol Hill, in the courtroom, and at the negotiating table with publishers. We’re all in this together, and in these turbulent times for the book industry, we need the strongest voice we can muster. 

I've been a member of the Guild for my entire career, and it has helped me innumerable times. 

For more information about the Guild, go to https://www.authorsguild.org

To join and receive the $25 discount, be sure to use this link: 

http://www.authorsguild.net/services/join?rc=b595a67cd52f5db0

ABFFE'S HOLIDAY EBAY AUCTION

This piece is my donation to the The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE)'s Holiday eBay Auction of art from children’s books. About 80 other children's book illustrators have also donated works. The auction runs from December 1 to December 8. Proceeds of the auction help support the Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP), which is co-sponsored by ABFFE and the National Coalition Against Censorship. For more info, go to http://www.abffe.org.

And here is the link to join the auction directly:

http://www.ebay.com/usr/abffe

JOHN STEPTOE

 The American author and illustrator John Steptoe was born on September 14, 1950, and died at the age of 39, in August of 1989. His birthday is not in November, obviously.  But I have been thinking a great deal about him, because I recently came across my copy of his book The Story of Jumping Mouse.

It was seeing this title when it was first published that really made me sit up and look at this author/young illustrator. I have always loved using black and white media myself; and I have a great fondness for the black and white work of other artists. It is, after all, the most basic and intimate manner in which we visual artists can communicate.

So when I opened Jumping Mouse back in 1985 and saw those gorgeous black and white images, full of energy, power, contrast, excitement---well, I was hooked. And I still am.

The fascinating thing about this artist is that he was so versatile and had so many ways of seeing. Would you have guessed that this brilliant, in-your-face illustration from the book Stevie was from the hand of the same artist?

Steptoe used another completely different style for Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.

Yet another handling of images.

The publishing world, and sometimes readers as well, often want an illustrator to repeat him or herself in his work---to have a single recognizeable style. If Steptoe had lived longer, he might have begun to prefer one of his styles over others as he matured. Or he might have continued on his glorious path of constant change and unpredictability. It's unfortunate that his early death prevented us from following his career and work for a longer time. But we are fortunate indeed to have had him for as long as we did.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steptoe

http://www.johnsteptoe.com

INGRI AND EDGAR D'AULAIRE

Edgar d'Aulaire was born on September 30, 1898 in Germany. In the children's book world, though, we think not of Edgar on his own, but of Edgar and his wife Ingri d'Aulaire (who was born on December 27, 1904). 

Working together as children's book illustrators, they were one of the most compelling artistic teams I've ever seen in children's books. In fact one of the most compelling illustrators, period, whether a team or solo.

Their work is unique, distinctly their own, immediately recognizable. Their book of Greek myths was one of my earliest introductions to their work.

They were especially interested in folklore and myth.

Norwegian tales of trolls, gods, and goddesses filled many of their books.

Later, after they had emigrated to the United States, they turned their attention to American folklore and American heroic figures, like Pocahontas and Ben Franklin.

Their work is sturdy and full of vitality; it feels very physical. 

Yet at the same time it is delicate and poetic, full of dream-like images and imaginative wanderings.

Indulge yourself---look up some of the books created by this spectacular pair, and take flight!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingri_and_Edgar_Parin_d'Aulaire

FRANCES ISABELLE BRUNDAGE and LYND WARD

Though you may not know her name (I did not until I did my research for this post) you certainly are familiar with her work.  She was France Isabelle Brundage, born June 1854: creator of so many of those sweet Victorian images floating through our Victoriana-hungry culture.

You perhaps are more likely to know of Lynd Ward, born in June 1905: illustrator of some of our best-known children's books:  The Biggest Bear; Johnny Tremain; The Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge.

I am grouping these two illustrators in one post for a couple of reasons.  First, I wanted to highlight the incredibly wide range of artistic expression found in children's books. This variety is present not just in contemporary books; it is there as well in books from earlier generations.

I confess that the images I'm posting do not show the dramatic differences between these two illustrator's styles that I'm wanting to highlight! though the differences become quite clear when one looks at the bodies of work of both, and considers the subject matter of the two. But there's another reason I am grouping these two illustrators together: they both had at least one other side to their work.  

Brundage illustrated classic works for children in a style quite different from her sweet Victoriana---illustrations that are not familiar to today's audiences.

And Lynd Ward---considered a precursor and mentor of the modern gothic novel---created a body of tortuous, nightmarish images that is far removed in content from his work for his younger children's books. In fact it was difficult to find pieces from one of his wordless books that I could comfortably post on this family-friendly blog. 

The reality is that children's book illustrators---like all artists---express their creativity in multiple forms: some pleasant, some unpleasant, some, perhaps, downright horrible. But why should that be surprising?  Artists, children's book illustrators included, are simply expressing visually, for the rest of us, the complexity of being a human being. I urge you to do your own research into the work of both of these outstanding artists. As for the layout of this post, and my valiant attempts to make it legible for my readers---Blogger, I concede defeat.  You have won---but only for the moment---in this battle of graphic design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynd_Ward
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Brundage

WILLIAM PENE DU BOIS

Wiliam Pene Du Bois, an American author and illustrator, was born on May 19, 1916, into a family that had been producing visual artists for generations. Though I have not now been able to locate the source of this quote, I did read once a remark he made about this unusual family propensity. He said that if a young DuBois showed the slightest inclination to deviate from the ancestral profession of artist, that person was immediately bundled off to art school, thus (hopefully) nipping all wayward aspirations in the bud.

Du Bois's style of illustration was unique, distinctive, and immediately recognizable. He was educated primarily in France, and that surely influenced his work, giving it a European---or at least a non-American---flair.

His writing was equally inimitable, and he received the Newberry Medal for "The Twenty-One Balloons". (He also received two Caldecott Honors for his illustrations.)

His imagination was without boundaries; today some commentators call his work "science fiction"..a sort of Jules Verne for the younger set.

He loved his koala bears,

but humans and animals of all kinds

populate his books. 

Many of his titles are still in print---and for good reason! I encourage you to re-aquaint yourself with this artist's charming and stimulating work.

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/william-sherman-pene-du-bois-dlb/

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/07/nyregion/william-p-du-bois-is-dead-at-76-author-and-illustrator-for-children.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pène_du_Bois