THE BLOG
Color on the Wall
The boys watched intently for one and a half minutes as I opened the jars of paint. Rule # 1 separate the boys and their blankets from the paint. If a white canvas is intimidating, then a whole wall is insurmountable but I dived in. That’s the best way to get started.
The boys wanted to help by taking pictures. Here they are discussing who get’s to take the first picture.
I used acrylic paint but it had a watercolor feel. It left some great textures on the wall.
Everybody wanted to participate. It took two hands. He was really concentrating.
Going outside the lines.
I worked a square at a time.
The momma dived in to help with a meerkat and a frog. She is a great artist who usually paints with oils but the acrylics worked much the same way.
My favorite character was the lion cub.
You can pull a pretty straight stroke if you use your whole arm.
Two hands and a foot placed on the wall as a permanent reminder of the day.
I had no clue how long it would take to paint. I was amazed to get it done in one weekend.
And then the inevitable question, Grandma are you going to paint something on my wall?
The WIYFR Conference
Today we have a guest blogger Melanie Skelton: Raising six children gave me a good reason to discover the magic of picture books early in motherhood. You pull that busy toddler on your lap, or gather several children around and let them get lost in the illustrations as you read the story. Sometimes you pause to point out details, whether funny or interesting. Each page turn brings added magic to the moment as you delve into the life of a character and introduce these young pre-readers to the world of reading.
That magic is in the hands of the illustrator as they use their ability to bring the words of the author to life. Illustrators capture the details of a story and give it to us in a unique combination of lines and color. How does an illustrator step into that world to create the illustration that will hold the attention of those busy children who pick up the book? Sherry does this with her illustrations and will be teaching others the tools for accomplishing this at Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (WIFYR) on June 17.
I am intrigued by her topic, “Stepping into Your Picture.” It reminds me of one of Sherry’s books. Although “The Day the Picture Man Came” is not about an illustrator, but an old time photographer, her illustrations do create that magic of people stepping into a picture.
In Sherry’s description of the WIFYR workshop, Sherry asks, “How do you put down on paper what you are feeling about the character and the story? How do you create motion and life in your illustrations? What does the setting say about the story and the character? Will use of color and design help to create a mood for your story?” These are the things that make picture book magic and will continue to pull generations of readers in before they even understand the words on the page.
Writing & Illustrating for Young Readers
http://melanieskelton.blogspot.com/
Getting Ready
It takes several sketches to get a drawing ready for the finished painting. This is a sketch for a watercolor I am now working on, “Old Glory”. I am also getting ready to present a mini-workshop at the “Writing & Illustrating for Young Readers Conference on June 17th. I am going to teach “Stepping into Your Picture”. That is something that we have to do as illustrators. We have to use our imagination to enter the picture we are working on and make it believable to those who view the picture. I am taking notes and pictures as I work through my current picture book project.
The WIFYR Conference has been a place where I have met and been taught by many great illustrators and writers. I took a workshop from the great writer Eve Bunting and the illustrator Eric Rohmann who did the Caldecott winning book “My Friend Rabbit”. It has been a place where you can be taught by some of the greatest in the country and not have to pay for a plane ticket and a hotel. This year I’m teaching the illustrating mini-workshop. So to live up to the great illustrators from the past I will be getting ready to make it the best experience I can for the illustrators that attend. When they leave, I want them to feel like they have learned and worked and received information that will change their illustrations. They are using my illustrations on the web site. For more information on the workshops that are available, check out www.wifyr.com
What could possibly go wrong?
The line had to be dry when the boy took his nap. He loved to clap on the wall. It is going to be inevitable. The boy is going to try to do his own art work on the wall. Sometime during his nap, he did a little artwork with the only medium he had, his diaper. Next trip I’ll try to add the color. Keep the boy, the crayons and the wall separated.
Trying to Make the Connection
I grabbed my carry on out of the overhead bin and hurried down the aisle of the plane. The man in the seat behind me was trying to make the same connection to Laguardia. He was muttering, “I have to make my flight. They are boarding right now. I have to get home.” That put a certain rush to my step. If I didn’t get on that plane, I might miss the SCBWI Illustrator Intensive in New York and I didn’t want to do that.
I searched for flight information and started headed down the long terminal of the Denver Airport. Walk fast, don’t run. Walking faster, don’t run over the little old ladies. Wow it was a long terminal and no gate in sight. When I made it to the gate, no one was sitting down. They were all on the plane. I made it on board, out of breath and a bit sweaty and made it to the big city. Once again I had the opportunity of attending the SCBWI New York Conference.
I love making sketches of the presenters. I jot down what they say and try to capture their faces.
Linn shared some great olympic jokes written by those who attended which brought her to tears.
There was a great panel of illustrators that was moderated by Arthur Levine.
When you hear Jack Gantos and Kate Messner talk, you can become so mesmerized that you forget to sketch.
I made a few new friends like James Armstrong from the Boston area who taught me about clams and the night sky. Here is a watercolor he painted of a clam.
There were a few great friends that I got to hang out with at the conference and a few more that I met in person.
I got to have my Strega Nona Does it Again by Tomie dePaola autographed by Tomie. I ran into Bailey and he slipped into a picture with me and Tomie and Lin Oliver. They worked together on “Little Poems for Tiny Ears” Tomie did the illustrations and Lin did the poems.
And with a bit of good luck when I flew home, the gate I got off in Houston, was the same gate I had to get back on to catch the flight home so no running around the airport. The children’s book writing and illustrating community is filled with some very nice people and I met many of them.
Running For My Sketchbook
Richard Ormond, the grandnephew of John Singer Sargeant who was being interviewed with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts over the web. As I watched the interview I got the strong urge to run and grab my sketch book and try to capture his face. I’m not sure why it hits, but some things just beg to be captured in my sketch book. Was it the strong shadow that the lights created? Was it the nice design of black against white? I’m not sure and usually don’t know the reason why. It just has to be painted or sketched.
A similar thing happened as I sketched a house down in Orderville. I sat on the front porch painting the white pioneer house across the street and I saw in my mind how it would look in a larger finished painting. I just had to paint it. “House of Order” will be on it’s way down to St. George. It will hang in the 27th Annual Robert N. & Peggy Sears Dixie Invitational Art Show and Sale, Delores Dore’ Eccles Fine Arts Center 155 S. University Avenue, St. George, Utah 84770, February 14 through March 30th.
Boston Museum of Fine Arts www.mfa.org
Sears Museum Galley http://dixieculturalarts.com/sears-museum/