the story of a groundhog

When my friend, editor Tracey Keevan, asked if I’d like to help her with a belated holiday card to send to her authors and colleagues, I really wasn’t sure if my schedule would allow. 

Then she described what she wanted, and I was hooked. It had been a few months since I’d sent out any promos of my own, and with a small window in between a few large projects, I knew it would be even more months before I’d get my act together for a mailing. I decided if I could figure out a way for the piece to serve me as well, I’d do it.

On the surface, Tracey’s idea was simple: a groundhog in winter, at work on his home typewriter, composing letters. But she wanted a way to personalize the cards with a note of her own. This would be in the form of a separate piece of paper emerging from the typewriter that she could compose, cut out, and affix to the card for mailing. 

I also knew in the interest of time management, I’d have to collage some of the more complicated elements—namely the typewriter and wallpaper. I haven’t done that much in my work, and but it seemed like a really good solution in this case. For Tracey’s version, I added a little holiday card on top of the bookcase which reads “Keevan’s Greetings.” Get it? Here’s the sketch...

I love a puzzle, and this one seemed to satisfy my designer and illustrator brains. But I knew I wouldn’t have time to compose and assemble letters for my entire mailing list of 100 plus children’s book editors and art directors. The card also had to function as a simple two-sided postcard to suit my time-crunched needs.

Lately when I’ve been sending out mailings that aren’t associated with one of my books, I like to tell somewhat of a story with the images. I remembered a painting I did around the holidays of a little village where I could imagine this groundhog fellow vacationing or something. Here it is...

And below is the final product, dummied up with a letter. This was such a fun project, I wrote a really long process blog entry for it. And I think there’s potential for a complete story for this little guy too—I do seem to like painting rodents.

If you’ve read this far, thanks and here’s hoping the little guy doesn’t see his shadow—this winter has been brutal. Happy Groundhog Day!

A look at the year to come

Happy New Year! I hope yours it getting off to a great start. For me, 2014 is already shaping up into a busy year. 

As I mentioned on this page a few months ago, I’m in the process of sketching 2 new picture books that will be released in 2015: The Wrong Side of the Bed, by Lisa Bakos, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons; and Simple Machines, another non-fiction picture book by David A. Adler, published by Holiday House. I look forward to sharing a few teaser images as I get further into the painting process.

And great news! It looks like I’ll be illustrating another book for Candlewick, my World Rat Day publisher. I’ll share more details at a later date. 

My work for Kiwi Magazine continues. If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to eat more leafy greens, then the current issue’s “Cooking with Kids” section is just what you’ll need to learn how to clean and prepare kale, minus the army of industrious green peas, of course. 

If you were unable to see the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators over the last few months, you might be able to catch the traveling show. For more information, click here. I was very pleased that my image from World Rat Day was included.

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2014!

An Ode to the Art Director (et. al.)

I usually fill this space with news about my illustration career. In this post, I’d like to change focus to take a moment to celebrate some of the unsung heroes of children’s books. I have newfound appreciation for these brilliant, indispensable folk who can can so often be overlooked in the complex maze of the publishing process. 

For the past five weeks, I’ve been filling in at a New York City publisher for an art director on leave. It marks the first time since I left my job at The Metropolitan Museum for grad school that I’d spent any extended time in an office. That’s the first thing—it’s amazing how soon you forget as a freelancer what it's like to go to an office every day of the week (full disclosure—I only came in four). My commute is usually about ten seconds to the drawing board within my one bedroom apartment. Sure many of my illustrator colleagues have separate studios, but my point is, you’re going to a place where for the most part you get to control your day. In an office, not so much. The books in the pipeline guide you through, and by that, I mean a fast-moving trajectory of projects some with countless complications and many, many hands in them. Slow down, and you’ll get slammed by the unstoppable force of them piling up. That’s your day—along with a bunch of meetings, too much air-conditioning, and the need for a steady supply of snacks.

It took me a while to get up to speed, and by that I mean about half speed of the person I was replacing. Just keeping all the titles straight across six seasons plus was a major challenge. There are so many checks and balances, it would make your head spin if you weren’t just trying to keep up with the flurry of activity. This is both a blessing and a curse, especially if you are not familiar with established systems. It’s easy to forget when you’re not witnessing it firsthand, how vital systems are to the process, and how difficult the job is for the art director, designer, editor, editorial assistant, copy editor, production associates, sales, marketing… to keep it all organized and moving along with aplomb, professionalism, and damn good typography. 

Next time you get revisions from an AD telling you that you didn’t leave enough room for the type or the gutter, or your main character’s left eye had 16 eyelashes on page 5, but just 15 on pages 8, 17, and 29, know that they’re not trying to make your life difficult. They’ve got to answer to a lot of people, and everyone just wants to make the books better. This might be my most important point to my fellow illustrators, especially those just starting out: art directors, designers—pretty much everyone who has contact with you as an author and/or illustrator, bends over backwards to make you feel confident in their shepherding your work into book form. They choose their words very, very carefully so as to not upset or over influence, yet often they need to seriously coax and motivate. It is an art form in and of itself. I was so impressed by the extent of understanding the art directors have of each individual illustrator’s process—whether they worked fast or slow, don’t draw that realistically thus can’t be required to do certain things—the how, when, why to gracefully push illustrators toward their best work. 

One of the biggest misconceptions among those new to publishing is that a book arrives at a house complete with author already paired to illustrator. This is pretty far from the norm in traditional publishing. I’ve always thought of this as the “secret sauce” of children’s books—that inspired pairing of words to art—and it’s the publishing house, usually the art director who deserves credit. That was really fascinating for me to observe firsthand over the last month—who they consider for a certain story and why, which sometimes is completely counterintuitive. When you’re just starting out as an illustrator, you might have a very clear concept of what you do in your own mind, but it might not come across to the people hiring. It takes a while for trust to be established, meaning art directors need to see a broad enough scope of your work to see how you’d fit to a particular project. And they think about it long and hard. There’s so much stuff (and junk) that comes across their desks, we illustrators need to remember to have patience. It’s a long process—I’ve done three books so far, and each took nearly two years from contract to finished product.

So that’s my shoutout—to all the art directors, and designers, and copy editors, production, et. al. I could go on and on. A big thanks to them for answering all my dumb questions, and especially for their patience.

Now with these five weeks behind me, I have the luxury of returning my complete focus to my own books. If you’ve been keeping up with this page, you know I’m in the middle of illustrating two new picture books that will be released in 2015, and—great news—potentially a third. This past month was a great reminder to me of the importance of children’s book publishing as a collaborative process, one in which I’m honored to play a small part.

accolades that float

Although I’m a few weeks late announcing it here, I recently received some terrific news about Things That Float and Things That Don’t. To be honest, the book is up for an award that up until now, I never knew existed... 

Each year, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) teams up with Subaru in awarding the SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books, and Things That Float... (written by David A. Adler) is among three nominees in the Picture Book Category for 2014. I doubt this means I’ll be driving away in an Outback any time soon, but it’s great news nonetheless. To learn more about the award and the other nominees, click here.

Add this to the many great reviews over the past few months from The Horn Book, Booklist, School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly who said... 

“It’s rare to find a picture book that uses simple, hands-on activities so successfully, leading young children to a fuller understanding of a scientific concept.”

This is great inspiration as I sketch out another picture book by David to be published by Holiday House. This one features simple machines and is full of all kinds of visual problem-solving, which I love. I look forward to sharing some teasers here in the coming months. To tide you over, there are two small details at the end of this post.

In the meantime, my work continues on The Wrong Side of the Bed written by Lisa M. Bakos and to be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in 2015. It’s going to be a fun 2014 as I dive into the finished drawings.

Rats! Pick of the Month by the Poetry Foundation

It’s always a pleasure to receive emails from author J. Patrick Lewis. This morning, in addition to pointing out that today (Nov. 2) is “Plan Your Epitaph Day”, he shared the terrific news that World Rat Day is the pick of the month by The Poetry Foundation. Thank you current Children’s Laureate Kenn Nesbitt for your kind words:

“With splendidly silly illustrations by Anna Raff, and poems about everything from ‘Dragon Appreciation Day’ to ‘International Cephalopod Awareness Day’ (and, of course ‘World Rat Day’) this cleverly-crafted collection includes shape poems, limericks, and enough rib-tickling rhymes that you can have fun celebrating ‘The Holidays’ all year long.”

Now I have to go revise my epitaph...

The Society of Illustrators: Original Art Show

Hello Hello! Word on the street is that The Original Art Show is already open for viewing at the Society of Illustrators. I am thrilled that World Rat Day was chosen one of the best illustrated children’s books of the year, and that my rats lineup will be representing. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s an amazing event, and one of few chances to see the actual art from these great books in person. On top of that, if you’re in New York City tomorrow evening (October 24th), the opening reception will give you the added opportunity to meet the artists.

A big shout out goes to the terrific folks at Candlewick—Art Directors Anne Moore and Kristen Nobles made this a really fun project for me, from beginning to end. World Rat Day was written by U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, and is a collection of hilarious “Poems About Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of.”

The Original Art Show runs from October 23 through December 21 at The Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, between Park and Lexington. For more information, click here.

new book news and some nice reviews

It’s been difficult keeping this page current of late, and now somehow it’s already the first day of autumn. Which reminds me...time to go balance an egg!

Okay, now that’s out of the way...

I should have shared this a while back, but some great reviews have been coming in for Things That Float and Things That Don’t by David A. Adler. Both Booklist and Publishers Weekly gave it starred reviews. Here’s a quick quote from the former:

“Raff's jaunty, imaginative illustrations feature two curious children and their dog playing around with objects and water. It’s rare to find a picture book that uses simple, hands-on activities so successfully, leading young children to a fuller understanding of a scientific concept.”

And to top things off, about a week ago, I received news from Holiday House that the book has been awarded a “Junior Library Guild Selection.”  This designation comes with its own accessory...

Now for new book news: I’ve signed on with G. P. Putnam’s Sons to illustrate a new picture book by Lisa M. Bakos called The Wrong Side of the Bed. I for one, have been thoroughly entertained during the sketching phase, which is nearly complete. Of course, I look forward to sharing some visuals when the time comes. To tide you over, here’s an early sketch of one of the book’s many characters...

And on the heels of that, I’ll be illustrating another non-fiction picture book for Holiday House by David A. Adler. So it looks like it’s going to be another busy year.

By now your eggs have rolled over...so back to it then...Happy Fall!