Did you know that the first children’s picture books featured illustrations produced from wood engravings? Technology made way for lithographs and drum rollers and eventually computers which aren’t just part of the printing process — they figure prominently in the creative process.
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It was like picture-book-boot-camp. We had an 8am workshop and our training officer, one Jarrett Krosoczka (on JOMB), didn’t waste any time. After a quick introduction to his pug Ralph Macchio and his fantastic creative environment, Jarrett demonstrated his illustrating and painting technique. Before long, Lucy and Bayla were rolling up their sleeves and trying out what they had just learned; prepping the illustration paper, mixing paint and shading to create three dimensions. At the end of the whole process, we had an original Krosoczka/Ross-Blevis painting to bring home.
Oh yeah, it was when we finally arrived at Jarrett’s (after being coached to his place over the phone) that we decided we weren’t going to get lost en route to any more of our scheduled appointments.
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Mark spent two amazing hours at a table with Jeanne Birdsall (on JOMB), Jane Dyer, Jarrett Krosoczka (on JOMB) and David Ezra Stein, sharing a common love of children’s books and talking about how each found their way into writing and illustrating, children’s books vs. traditional publishing and what keeps them in an industry that isn’t known for generating a lot of wealth for the people in it.
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Listen in as we grab a spot of floor in the home office of author Corinne Demas to talk about books and how stories are researched, the similarity between poets and picture book creators and the best job in the world. Lucy started us off with a read-aloud of Corinne’s new book, Always in Trouble, and Corinne explains the origins of Lucy’s favourite phrase from the book “quiet as a goldfish”.
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Author/Illustrator Diane de Groat walks us through the digital process of putting dogs in poses they don’t do — like lounging on a couch with a newspaper — for her upcoming book (with Shelley Rotner), Dogs Don’t Brush Their Teeth (coming in August 2009). She also shows us how she adds digital colour, then real paint to her illustrations. Lucy and Bayla particularly enjoyed having the opportunity to sketch using Diane’s digital tablet.
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Be sure to check out Diane’s contribution to our Love of Reading Gallery.
In the final of three parts that feature Author/Illustrator Lane Smith (on JOMB), we go through Lane’s archives to see ten years worth of idea development for his amazing book John, Paul, George and Ben. Then, we hit the road for Northampton with a fun stop at the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Scultpure Gardens in Springfield, Massachusetts.
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Author/Illustrator Lane Smith (on JOMB) walks us through his thought process and style decisions for two books he’s working on that will be published in 2009 — Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) with Florence Parry Heide due out September 22, 2009; and The Big Elephant in the Room due out July 7, 2009. He also demonstrates how he takes original sketches, imports them into Photoshop and turns them into digital, production-ready artwork.
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Bloggers and podcasters take note of the interview segment with Lane during the end credits!
This is the first of three videos that document our visit with Lane Smith (on JOMB) and Molly Leach. Here, Lane shows us original artwork from The Stinky Cheese Man, describes the production process for The Happy Hocky Family books, shares his passion for children’s books — old and new — and compares traditional collage with digital collage.
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It was a little idea that turned into a couple of phone calls, then a few emails and eventually exploded into two-and-a-half months of planning. Finally, after a restless night, Just One More Book!! (Mark and Andrea, and their two daughters, Lucy and Bayla) set out early in the morning of November 12, 2008 for a six-day road trip to live, eat, socialize, paint and read with children’s book creators in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Part 1 of this series recounts the story of how the trip came to be and includes footage of the drive from Ottawa, Ontario to Roxbury, Connecticut. It also features photographs and video footage of some of the people we spent time with and places we visited — all of which will appear later in the series. The travel sequence ends with our arrival at Lane Smith’s and Molly Leach’s home.
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Finally!!! Mark has produced more than half of the videos from our six-day holiday to Connecticut and Northampton — our November 2008 Rock Stars of Reading road trip. This means we’ll begin publishing the video series, one video at-a-time, beginning on March 31; filling up the “off-days” in the Just One More Book!! publishing cycle until all of the videos are available.
To prove this is really happening, here is a promotional video for the series. It’s an extract from Part 1 and features some of our car travel as well as photographs and video clips from the entire trip, all cut to the amazing song Animus Girl by savium. Look for the faces of Richard Michelson, Paul O. Zelinsky, Jane Yolen, Jeanne Birdsall, Mo Willems, Jane Dyer, Jarrett Krosoczka, Diane de Groat, Lane Smith, Corinne Dumas, Jeff Mack and MANY MORE!
With the exception of this promotional video, we will not be embedding the videos into the Just One More Book!! RSS feed. You’ll have to come here to watch them. Each video will be about 15 minutes long.
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