pop up show at Charlesbridge

In honor of Children's Book Week, Charlesbridge Publishing had the brilliant idea for a pop-up show in the empty office space two flights below theirs, on Main Street in Watertown, MA.

I bopped down with Curious Co-Pilot, Kirsten Cappy, in dotty style. Trivia question: what are we holding?

I brought along original sketches and my toy polar bear that provided handy reference for A Warmer World.

Some framed pieces were part of an incredibly abundant exhibit of children's book illustration.

I'm thrilled by the company I'm in! Here's one of Rafael Lopez's paintings:

Love this phoenix by Ralph Masiello:

And I was delighted to see a piggy by David Hyde Costello:

I had the honor of meeting several folks, like Hazel Mitchell, Leslie Evans, and Stuart J. Murphy.
And the publisher, Brent Farmer!

Familiar faces not seen in way too long totally made my day: Richard Goldberg, Jim Roldan, Sarah Goodman, Sue Gilzow, and Ina Rubin.

Nancy Wovers brought her talented daughter, Isabelle, who shared her sketchbooks and some recent paintings. Wow, the girl is good!

Keep drawing and painting, Isabelle!

I also saw first proofs for my most recent project, Here Come the Humpbacks, due out next year.

 

Lots and lots of blue, yes.

On a good tip, we discovered a rare breakfast destination before leaving town the next morning.

The Deluxe Station Diner is something out of the past and the future, with stylings by none other than Mark Fisher. He happened to be on the same trolley I took to my first portfolio visit at the Boston Globe. Um, over thirty years ago.

 We gobbled down banana bread under the shiny eyes of this fellow.

Time to hit the road. My trusty co-pilot led the way from our blast to the past back to Maine.

Thanks to Donna Spurlock, princess of the pop-up show, and Charlesbridge for showcasing the joyful labors of the children's book world!

suessian school visits

Thank you, Dr. Suess, for your brilliant birthday and Read Across America. In your honor, I was invited to two schools to read and draw on March 2. First stop was right down the street, to the Peaks Island School, where I was greeted by the cheery principal, Cindy Nilsen, sporting her Suessian best.

I met with 4 classes during the morning, each as eager and energetic as the next. We began by singing happy birthday to Dr. Seuss and then I read one of my favorite stories, Yertle the Turtle.

This parable about a bossy turtle never goes out of style, and ends with the line that all creatures should be free. This lead to reading a poem from Nest, Nook & Cranny about the mouse in the house. Plenty of island homes have hosted these critters, and in mine we have gently brought them to new fields on the back shore, where they can be even..freer, we hope.

I talked a bit about being an illustrator, using models for reference, and drawing from life. I strongly believe in the powers of observation. Pausing for even a few minutes to really look at something is an important act of authentic discovery.

Each student then drew a small life-like animal toy from a bag. I gave a quick demonstration of finding the shape of an object, using simple shapes to begin a sketch.

I made a big sketchy sketch for them, starting with the bear's pear shape from a side view.

Believe it or not, I used a little polar bear for my jacket design sketches for A Warmer World.
That little toy came in handy for finding a variety of compositions from different points of view.

The biggest surprise here is that illustrators do LOTS of sketches. It takes many drawings sometimes to get the right look. I asked them to sharpen their eyes and their pencils.

They dove in with gusto. Here is Noah's drawing, who not only drew the polar bear, but gave him a wonderful habitat.

Maisy drew a lyrical setting for her deer.

Here's a girl like me who loves black and white!

Zeke had time to draw a shark and then write a poem that began with "a shining shimmering shark slooming through the night." Loved his invented word, very Seussian indeed!

This young artist redrew the animal to create a sunny scene. Bravo!

 

In the blink of an eye, it was time to pack up pastels and paper and head to the ferry. Thanks, Peaks Island School! You're awesome artists, every one.

I crossed Casco Bay and was warmly welcomed to Nancy March's 4th grade class at Yarmouth Elementary School.

Her lively class asked great questions and made their drawings with incredible focus.

This artist also drew a penguin, big and bold as can be.

Love the line quality and expression here:

Artists make visual decisions intuitively all the time: what to leave out, what to put in, emphasis, mark-making, detail. This artist focused on the face, and big, too.

This artist is drawing the subject many times, examining the symmetry and pattern.

Visual awareness is a skill put to task in many areas other than art. I just began reading a fascinating book, Field Notes on Science and Nature, in which Jenny Keller writes:

From Da Vinci to Darwin, drawing has a long and illustrious history as a means of scientific investigation and communication. Although technological innovations have provided powerful new tools for documenting information, all field scientists can benefit from understanding how to think visually and can use simple drawing techniques to improve the way they document their corner of the world.

Have pencils, will SEE!

Here the artist drew just about actual size, but completely changed the scale by adding the rock as a perch. I encourage illustration students to do precisely this: draw with observation and imagination.

Here's another inversion of scale in this coincidental pair of elephants. Najee happened to get an elephant, and drew it about the same size as an elephant that appears on a book he's reading.
I happen to know the author, another coincidence.

I like how his drawn elephant is facing the book cover's elephant. Maybe they will meet in another story, yet to be written.

I was delighted to receive written comments via the teacher a few days later. 

Najee wrote:

“I like your demonstrations on how to draw animals.  When you told me I was doing a good job, it gave me more energy and potential to put a lot of effort into my drawing.”


Ellie wrote:

"Jamie, I like it when you showed us your original drawings for your book about Polar Bears and Butterflies.  I was interested when you told us the process of a published book.  I never knew that it took soooo long for the book to get illustrated.  I enjoyed drawing and trying out some of your ideas.  That made me feel like an illustrator myself.”

Hooray!

It's gratifying to learn that Lauren got a model to pose for her, a very common tactic of mine, as my family will attest. She wrote:

“I loved the way you showed us all your different illustrations.  After I got home I asked my dad to pose for me.  I was inspired by your drawings and now I understand how much it takes to draw a picture.”

Thanks, Yarmouth Elementary for inviting me into your classroom so full of curiosity and cool artists. 

Everybody get ready to sharpen their eyes and their pencils. Oh, the places you will go!

And if you're a fan of animals and the planet we share, flick off your lights at 8:30 PM
on March 31 during World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour.

It's an invitation to change your world.

boston blast

I've been digging in to my current project with all hands on deck. Drawing a multitude of animals, and taking lots of notes.

  

I scavenged a plastic bear from my daughter's neglected toy bin to help with shadows and form for the book jacket sketches.

These two sketches (cropped here) were the favorites out of 8 variations.

 

I did a color comp for the publisher's jacket meeting. Again, here is just the bear.

While awaiting feedback on cover issues, I resumed working on the interior illustrations. Just as I was about to tackle a complex page of penguins underwater eating krill, DING! The bell rang for school vacation. 

We made a blast down to Boston, where my better half and I met, so many moons ago at the Boston Globe. And where did we go first? Yes, the penguin pool at the New England Aquarium. They have a little comic "Penguin Power Adventure Guide" that educates about climate change and overfishing in simplified, graphic form. I tried sketching the zippy penguins, who zip far too fast for my camera. Seen from above, it's like they are flying in the wave pool.

Quite a few are content to just chill in the shower.

Had my eyes peeled for lots of other things I still need to draw, such as coral. Of course, the coral in these tanks are fake. But I marvel at who fabricated these. The problem is that climate change is draining coral of color like this.

We circled and circled the central tank, mesmerized. Along with about a jillion other families. It made my day to have a face-to-face with this guy.

So much immersion led us to get wet, too. The hotel has a nice view from the pool.

From there we headed to the Boston Athenaeum, for a fantastic exhibit of Edward Gorey's work.
Croquet in the snow, anyone?

Gorey's work has surely inspired Tim Burton, Peter Sis, and countless others, with his meticulously detailed line and eccentric wit. I loved seeing sketches and lists of made-up words, decorated envelopes, and hand-stitched toys alongside unpublished pieces and fond favorites. Go see it!

Next stop was Mass Art, for an animation exhibit, "Astatic." I thought my daughter might find some inspiration for an animation project she's doing. But, the show was not entirely appropriate for children. Some of it was fun, but a room of Nathalie Djurberg's work was unwatchable after just a few seconds.

Nothing can just be what it is anymore. Like our multi-tasking society, art often has multiple layers now, of both meaning and form. This piece by Atsushi Kaga was an installation as well as a  naive animation made with child-like lines, but it was by no means simple-minded. It had a charming quality that made you want to play with it.

In the Stephen D. Paine Gallery, we encountered a much more satisfying show. Artist Joe Fig interviewed a group of artists and then made miniatures of their studios, displayed along with their work. It was fresh and engaging;  his ability to displace one's sense of scale and consider the maker, the maker's space, and the viewer's relationship to all that creation, made so perfectly tangible, was stunning.

This is a view inside the studio of April Gornik.

Here, from another angle, is a giant viewer.

The mental scale transport was incredibly fun. One can pretend to be a giant looking at the whole gallery, or imagine an enormous face peering over gallery goers.

With that, another bell rang. Time to head back to Maine, the vacation meter had expired. We've returned to our island orbit. Nothing like a blast to Boston to refresh our sights!