New Website! New News Blog!

It’s been a few years since I redesigned my website, and with a couple of new books coming out in early 2016, it seemed like a good time to spruce things up.

Ever since I launched my illustration career around six years ago, my news blog has been located at a separate url. Well, no longer. In an effort to enter the 21st century, I’ve now integrated a news section into my main site.

So when you’re wondering what in the world I might be up to, I hope you’ll redirect your attention there. Thanks for following me here over the years, and thanks for checking out my new site!

Building Character at MICA

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting with the MFA in Illustration Practice students at the Maryland Institute College of Art—a.k.a. MICA. Director Whitney Sherman and her department were kind enough to host me for a few days over which I reviewed this year’s thesis projects, ran a character and world-building workshop, and lectured about my process, focusing on an important personal project I created upon finishing graduate school six years ago. They’re a terrifically talented group, so if you find yourself in Baltimore next spring, be sure to check out their exhibition. I’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone at MICA for a great and inspiring stay, and Whitney’s dog Cooper, who listened most intently during my talk.

Photo courtesy of Whitney Sherman

Photo courtesy of Whitney Sherman

Oinktober Halloween Highlights

In case you hadn’t noticed, my Instagram page has been full of pigs of late. I decided to turn the annual, month-long, illustrative celebration known as Inktober into Oinktober to showcase swines of all kinds. I finished off this week with a few spooky fellas—and today being Halloween—thought I’d share them again here. So…BOO!

WITCHES

FROINKENSTEIN

COUNT DROINKULA

THE MUMMY

Katherine Pryor on PRX’s “Food Sleuth Radio”

Last week, Katherine Pryor was interviewed by Melinda Hemmelgarn for the PRX program “Food Sleuth Radio.” They discussed Zora’s Zucchini, the importance of food literacy for children, and how gardening can help build community. Oh…and they  had some really nice things to say about my illustrations. You can listen to the entire show here.

Some Notes on ZORA and Meet Author Katherine Pryor, or At Least Please Eat Some Zucchini...

I’m not sure if I even knew how to spell z-u-c-c-h-i-n-i when I started illustrating Zora’s Zucchini late last year, but I’m really good at it now.  

Zora has been out for a few weeks, and the response has been great. For those of you on the West Coast, author Katherine Pryor has several signings scheduled in the coming weeks:

Aug. 28 — Mockingbird Books, Seattle, WA, 11am
Aug. 29 — Powell’s City of Books, Portland, WA, 11am
Sept. 3 — University Book Store, Bellevue, WA, 11am
Sept. 23 — Village Books, Bellingham, WA, 3:15pm
Sept. 26 — Eagle Harbor Book Co., Bainbridge Island, time TBD

Speaking of Powell’s, here’s a photo a friend took of Zora in the window. She seems suitably proud...

It’s always fun to see your work out in the wild. It’s especially fun to see it being shared right in front of you. That’s what happened on a recent trip to Rhode Island, when my sister-in-law gave a copy of Zora to her young, next door neighbor. Completely unprompted, the neighbor brought her own string bean to munch on during story time. Ah, yes...everything is working just as I planned. Heh, heh, heh...

It’s hard to believe that end of summer is upon us. Since Zora’s  release, the zucchini crop has come in, and if you follow  Zora’s page on Facebook, you’ve no doubt been marveling at the recipes Katherine Pryor has been posting each day. Inspired by that, and a few gorgeous specimens from my mom’s garden in Connecticut, I assembled my own zucchini quiche with great results. (Note: this photo shows the unfinished, unbaked version; the cooked version was pretty darned delicious.)

Finally, I’ve been getting a lot of queries about my dedication in Zora, which reads, “For the Committee.” Who is the Committee, you ask? No, not the editorial committee. Not the band of kidlit authors and illustrators I meet with over beers in Brooklyn each month. No, the Committee is this motley crew pictured below, albeit with a few members missing. It all has to do with a legendary summer some thirty years or so ago, when everyone’s zucchini crop came in in abundance, and we all had to deal with it. Just between you, me, and the internets, those recipes on Facebook sure would have come in handy. xo

 

Meet “Little Card”

The card’s out of the bag and ready for pre-order! Sure, you’ll have to wait a few more months for his official arrival, but the cover of my second book with Candlewick Press, A Big Surprise for Little Card, written by Charise Mericle Harper was revealed earlier this week. John Schumacher (a.k.a. @MrSchuReads) was kind enough to do the honors. Here’s the link to his site.

This was one of my favorite projects from the past year, and a wonderful collaboration with Charise, Art Director Ann Stott, and Editor Mary Lee Donovan. I can’t wait to share more of it with everyone.

We didn’t sink!

What a wonderful day it was at the Queens Museum Children’s Book Celebration this past Saturday. We bookmakers were set up in the main atrium—a gorgeous open space, filled with natural light—where kids and parents filed through, pausing for conversation, art-making, reading, you name it...and a general good time.

If you’re unfamiliar with this area of Queens, there’s great history behind the space too. The museum is located in the New York City Building, which once housed the New York City Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair. It’s the building next to the iconic Unisphere, a 12-story globe surrounded by a fountain, or what I like to call the best sprinkler in the world.

I was paired up with the Discovery Team from the Queens Children’s Library who created a great program for kids to test their theories of sinking and floating, using some of the experiments from Things That Float and Things That Don’t.

Not only were some of my pals in the New York City kids’ book community there, but I got to meet several authors and illustrators whose work I’ve been admiring from afar. Fingers crossed for this to become an annual event.

The Queens Museum Children’s Book Celebration

Join me and a great group of local award-winning children’s book authors and illustrators this Saturday, July 11th, from 12 to 4 PM for the Queens Museum Children’s Book Celebration! Best of all—it’s free!

illustration by Tim Miller

There will be live readings, art-making, and other fun activities from this list of characters: Mike Curato, Melissa Guion, Frank Dormer, Roxie Munro, Kelly Light, Kat Yeh, Joyce Wan, Sergio Ruzzier, David Ezra Stein, Anna Raff, Adam Auerbach, Kirsten Hall, Dasha Tolstikova, Mike Herrod, Sam Ita, Jen Hill, Ame Dyckman, Zachariah OHora, Carla Torres, Adam Lehrhaupt, Isabel Roxas, and Rowboat Watkins!

The day’s events were organized by the incredibly talented Tim Miller in partnership with the Queens Library Summer Reading Program. And wow!—the first 200 attendees get a free poster! (See Tim’s great illustration above.)

As for me, I’ll be pairing up with the Queens Library Discovery Team to present Things That Float and Things That Don’t, the first in a series of books by David A. Adler that I’ve had the pleasure of illustrating. We’ll be testing out all kinds of experiments to see what sinks, what floats, and how salt water effects buoyancy—so bring your future scientists!

When not stooped over a tub of water sinking stuff, I’ll be at my table located on the first floor sharing my book-making process, a few sneak peeks at some future projects, and tips on how to draw rats and other important things.  I mean everyone needs to know how to draw a proper rat, don’t they?

I’ll also be selling copies of my books, prints and other wares with plenty of free stuff to give away.

And if this line-up of children’s book luminaries wasn’t enough, and you’ve never visited The Queens Museum before, did you know that it houses a gigantic panorama of the city of New York? I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago, and it is truly amazing.

For more information, visit the Museum website. I hope to see you there!

What’s News with Me: You Are Not a Cat…

…and neither am I, but they are really fun to draw.

I just finished the first round of sketches for You Are Not a Cat, the first picture book by Sharon G. Flake to be published by Boyds-Mills Press. Best known for her multiple award-winning young adult novels such as The Skin I’m In, Money Hungry, and Begging for Change, Sharon is a real superstar in the world of children’s literature. So as exasperated as this little cat might look, it’s no reflection on my current mood—I’m having a great time.

The Making of a Cover: The Wrong Side of the Bed

Legendary librarian, teacher, and children’s book advocate John Schu (aka @MrSchuReads in the twittersphere) was kind enough to unveil the front cover of The Wrong Side of the Bed on his blog the other day. Written by Lisa M. Bakos and illustrated by yours truly, the book is scheduled for release by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on March 8, 2016.

It’s been a long time in the making. In fact, next week marks two years since I was first approached about illustrating Lisa’s hilarious text. As anyone in publishing knows, that’s just how things go sometimes. But hip, hip, hooray!—today I turned in the last bit of art for the book, the endpapers.

Anyway, I’m thrilled to have the chance to show off the front cover, and since you’ll have to wait a bit longer for a view of the interiors, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a bit of the cover-making process.

first thumbnail sketches

The first challenge was fitting all ten characters in the story onto the jacket. As you can see above, I tried a couple of variations, with the main character surrounded by, or next to the rowdy group of animals with whom she contends. But none of these really seemed to convey enough mayhem. (One note: even though the sketch on the lower right didn’t make it as a cover, I used a similar arrangement for the endpapers.)

For the second round of sketches, my fabulous Art Director, Cecilia Yung thought that a bed should be used as a component coming in between the main character and the animals—to literally show her on the wrong side of the bed. I had been worried that such a static element might be too dull, but I tried it anyway. Here’s what I came up with, and I even worked it up into several finished variations. We thought we were there, but...

from the second round of sketches

a color finish

It turned out, this worked much better as a black and white sketch than a full-color illustration. So it was back to the drawing board. Our book designer, Annie Ericsson had the brilliant idea of using the bed as a graphic element, rather than making it too realistic. In this option, she suggested hiding the main character under the blankets, thus accentuating the craziness of the animals, who could be peaking over the top.

I loved the idea, and ran with it. As you can see in the first sketch below, on the left side—which would have been the back of the jacket—I pushed things a little too far with the farting penguins (note the dazed and repulsed hippopotamus). As all good art directors do, Cecilia reined me in just a tiny bit. That’s what you see in the final sketch, and in the finished cover.

jacket sketch, third round

final jacket sketch

The Wrong Side of the Bed hits bookshelves in March, but it’s currently available for pre-order through the Penguin Random House website. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!

Summery Summary

Since my last update to this page, I was on the brink of finishing a year-long marathon of picture book painting. Today I’m happy to report, it’s pretty much done. 

Zora’s Zucchini comes out first, this August, just in time for the bounty from your own garden. I’ve added a new section to my website, where you can get a few peeks at the illustrations. The image above, of Zora’s neighborhood, is one of my favorites.

Zora is also available for pre-order, if you are so inclined.  

Today, I spent the better part of my day looking over proofs for A Big Surprise for Little Card, due out in February 2016. The designer geek in me is thrilled that this will be my first book printed on uncoated stock. Thanks Candlewick!

Now it’s onto the next project—I’ve started sketching a picture book written by the great Sharon G. Flake, to be published by Boyds-Mills Press late next year. But more on that in a future post. 

Next week I begin my month-long teaching gig at the School of Visual Art Summer Residency in Illustration. It was such a rewarding experience last year, and I hope to share some of my students’ work here in the coming weeks.

Happy Summer to you!

What’s News with Me . . .

It’s been a busy spring at my drawing board, which explains the silence on this page. Here are a few of the things that I have brewing…

Once again, I’ll be teaching illustration at the School of Visual Arts Summer Residency in June. There’s still time to apply, if you are making summer plans, and would like to study with a great group of industry professionals (led by the venerable Viktor Koen) while exploring New York City. For more information, click here.

Simple Machines received a terrific review from Booklist. Here’s a favorite tidbit: “The charming illustrations, featuring children, adults, and even a cat, enhance the impact of the message by depicting a small community going about their lives and using simple machines to make work easier.” You can order Simple Machines here.

Cue the confetti drop! The final art for A Big Surprise for Little Card by Charise Harper is done! I’m really excited about this book, due out in spring 2016 from World Rat Day publisher, Candlewick Press. What a pleasure it was working with Charise, art director Ann Stott, and editor Mary Lee Donovan.

Also due out in spring 2016, is The Wrong Side of the Bed, by Lisa M. Bakos, to be published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, with pictures by me. It’s a hilarious story about a thoroughly bad day, with an equally hilarious resolution. When I turn in the art, I’m certain I’ll be doing something like this guy here.

And last, but not least—due out this fall will be Zora’s Zucchini, my second collaboration with Sylvia’s Spinach author Katherine Pryor, to be published by Readers to Eaters. It has been a long, dreary winter in New York City this year, so having some bright summer colors on my desk is kind of nice. Also, a good reminder to eat my veggies.

SIMPLE MACHINES is a JLG Selection

I’m very happy to announce that SIMPLE MACHINES has been named a Junior Library Guild Selection. Now if I could just find the other pin I received for THINGS THAT FLOAT… I could fashion myself a fine set of earrings.

Simple Machines — now available

Did you know that your teeth are wedges? Or that a screw is just an inclined plane wrapped around a straight metal nail? Until I started working on this project, I hadn’t given it much thought. But, wow!

The second collaboration between the prolific David A. Adler and me is now available. SIMPLE MACHINES explains the workings of wedges, wheels, levers, pulleys in our everyday lives, and how they make little tasks easier.

As with our award-winning THINGS THAT FLOAT AND THINGS THAT DON’T, I created a simple visual story that takes place behind the scenes of the main text. Below are a few of my favorite images, and detail of a character who doesn’t play much of a role other than to amuse me.

Thanks again to the lovely folks at Holiday House for creating this fun and rewarding partnership of words and pictures.