Talk at Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN on June 22nd 2014 2-3 pm

This blog post is to invite y'all to stop by the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, TN on June 22^nd at 2 p.m. To join me for a talk about children's book illustration: Draw Me A Story. It is in conjunction with the Customs House Museum display all about The Wizard of Oz. 

 The talk is open to the public just for the entry fee to the Museum.

You can see more about the Museum   here:  http://customshousemuseum.org/  and more about the lovely interactive Wizard of Oz exhibit here:  http://customshousemuseum.org/temporary-exhibits/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz

I plan tell a bit about my journey thru a little slice of the children's book publishing world. To go along with that I'm posting here a list of websites that I've found most helpful:

My Website: http://www.lyneart.com

Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators http://www.scbwi.org/

Midsouth chapter of SCBWI http://midsouth.scbwi.org/

Predator and Editors website to find out about companies http://pred-ed.com/

Articles about the business of writing/illustrating http://www.underdown.org/

You can find these books and magazines at bookstores or online:

For Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market books http://www.writersdigest.com/

For 2014 copy:

http://www.writersdigestshop.com/2014-childrens-writers-illustrators-market-group

For the Writer Magazine http://www.writermag.com/

For Highlights Magazine info https://www.highlights.com/

During my talk I discuss the importance of laying out your ideas for both the verbal and visual portions of a children's book. To help in that I'm posting a version of a “book chart” used for a 32 page children's book.

Y'all come!

Doing With Out the Lines: A bit about my current illustration techniques

This blog post shares a bit about my current illustration techniques when I'm illustrating a 32 page color picture book.

At this point, my sketches are finalized and I'm ready to paint. I usually do pretty “tight” sketches, (meaning I give enough details in my sketches for the AD to see pretty much all I intend to paint), so at this point there's not to much to adjust.

For instance, in this detail of a page in my current WIP, I have a nice face and hands sketched out for the “mother” character. I take this black and white sketch (after enhancing the dark lines) and print it out (in multiple copies) on a regular piece of paper.

On one of the printed copies,I cut out various main elements of the drawing.....in this case the figure's head and hands. Using this as a stencil, I lay in a light acrylic glaze in the broad stretch of the head/hands. I “cut and repeat” with each of the main elements of the drawing. This is similar to what digital artists do.....laying in different color layers....bounded by a fill line for the selected color.

After the glaze is dry, (about 15 minutes or so) I will remove the stencil and using the light box light coming thru the black and white drawing, the bristol board, and the colored glaze, I will lightly sketch in the main features of the head and hands. I use a watercolor pencil for this step, as it will easily erase as I proceed to paint in the face.

Now I remove the board from the light box, and start painting from the right side, using the watercolor pencil lines for guides. I start painting in the features of the head, using light glazes to build up the face. I use brushes, sponges and finger tips to get the look I'm going for. 

I will do more to the face and hands after I've put in the other surrounding components of the scene. Here's how it looks after the first color pass.

After this I will lay in more of the components of the page in the same fashion.

  

A Question of Stripes; Part Deux

A Question of Stripes

16 x 20 inches 

acrylic on cloth on masonite

This blog post is to show off a recent painting and to tell a bit about it's “second chance”

A while back I did an experimental painting called A Question of Stripes. At the time I painted it, I called it “finished”. But I never did feel that it was quite “done”, but other illustration work intruded.

At the first of this year I had a bit of a lull in my illustration work, so I came back to this piece. I decided that it needed a figure......but I had a bit of a problem.....”bumps”. The painting had been done over some linen material, with woven ridges in the cloth. These ridges were great for texture and breaking up the colored stripes.....but would be murder to paint a figure over.

So instead of doing away with a section of stripes for a proposed figure.....I decided to elevate some of the painting surface to accommodate a figure. I drew my figure and decided to have her interact with the background lines.....as I'd done for the flowered question mark.

I slowly built up layers with Golden Gel Medium, in the outline of the girl in the striped dress. After it reached the level of the black line I was building it over.....I painted the gel medium with a layer of gesso. I now had the figure base all laid in and ready to paint. I painted the girl with acrylic glazes and I was now REALLY finished with this piece.

was lucky enough to have A Question of Stripes juried into the Customs House Museum's National Juried Exhibition: Figuratively Speaking ......on display May 8-July 13, 2014. The Customs House Museum is in Clarksville, TN.

Paint My World

Paint My World

16 x 20 acrylic paint

This recent painting is a bit out of my comfort zone. It features some realistic elements, but has combined them in more of an abstract style.

I like painting realistic historic buildings, like these:

but I usually paint the entire building.

In Paint My World, I decided to show just a section of the stonework of an old building, receding into the shadows of “times gone by”. I showed the young girl painting her ideas (plants, flowers, florescent colors) over the dull cold stones of the past.

I like the combination of buildings and people to tell a story or show a viewpoint. Using this kind of “story telling” lets me indulge in painting “some of my favorite things”. I also like the idea that, in our own minds at least, we might color the world to express our dreams.

I can't seem to stop myself....I HAVE to tell a story

Detail of Raindrops Keep Falling on My.....

I started out working as a “fine artist”.....i.e. I painted for myself and to enter juried shows and sometimes show at sidewalk art fairs. I painted in one of the three standard genres....still life, landscape or portrait. I loved realistic painting, and painted mostly from my photos. So far so good.

Then little bitty stories began creeping into my compositions. At an early age I'd been exposed to all the great historical illustrators thru National Geographic magazine, with lush many page painted spreads. So in my own painting, I began to go outside the “fine art” genre, and painted things with historical themes. In painting historical, I was well on my way to telling stories.....about history.

Fair enough. So.......I began to segue over to illustration. Here, I was commissioned to actually “tell” stories, whether for magazine covers, cards or children's books. But I was still using the “fine art” style to tell stories. This is both good and bad. Good because the “fine art” look did indeed find favor with certain publishers.....bad 'cause it takes a LOT of time to complete final artwork.

Lately I've been having my cake and eating it too, (no calories involved)! I've been planning colored pencil pieces that combine aspects of (still life, landscape or portrait) with a quicker “illustrative” style I.e. “telling an itty bitty story.” My style is still mostly real.....sometimes with just a bit of artistic license. And I'm working hard to “find my whimsy”.

Case in point,this recent colored pencil piece......”Rain Drops Keep Fallin' on My.......”.

It has elements of a still life (leaves), landscape (surrounding ground) and portrait (chipmunks), yet these three things put together, with some red coloured rain drops dripping off a polk berry branch does tell a itsy bitsy story.

To the great amusement of his grinning friend, a busy, full cheeked chipmunk is about to get splashed with a colorful bit of nature. I showed how I got such highlights on the top leaves in this post: http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/white-on-blackhow-do-you-get-there.html

It's a side step from other work I've done..... I'm learning a lot......and it's a lot of fun to boot.

So I guess “it's a good thing” that I just can't stop myself!

 

All my Ducks in a Row

Detail of All My Ducks In A Row (left side)

This is just a bitty post about a recent coloured pencil piece, All My Ducks in a Row.

7 inches by 20 inches

Colored pencil (with a dab of gouche) on black illustration board

(This is the full piece.....it's a bit long for the blog format.)

I finished it just in time to get into the U.S. Bank Celebration of the Arts 2014 Art Show, at the Kentucky Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky....and even managed to score a itty bitty award for “Works on Paper”. I so appreciate the Kentucky Museum's and U.S. Bank's hard work to make a lovely show “happen”. 

Detail of All My Ducks in a Row (right side)

I wrote a brief post http://lyneartblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-not-to-draw-to-make-your-picture-pop.html about this piece, while it was a WIP.

 

Interview with children's author, Nancy Kelly Allen

Today, I have children’s author Nancy Kelly Allen as a guest.

ADL:  Welcome back to my blog. I know it's exciting to have TWO books released this spring. One is a folktale and the other is a middle grade novel. Tell us about your experience writing a folktale.

NKA: Hi Alison. Thanks for inviting me back to your wonderful blog. I’m a retired school librarian, so I’ve been exposed to numerous folktale retellings. These stories were originally told orally to explain the mysteries of the world. The child in me still loves a good mystery. Like kids, I’m curious. Storytelling is an intricate part of many cultures and each culture has its own tales. When I read the Cherokee folktale, First Fire, I was immediately captivated. My great-grandmother was a Cherokee so the story resonated with me on a personal level, but also on a storytelling level. The story has a problem to solve that seems impossible, a moment of high tension, an unlikely hero, and a satisfying conclusion. This creation story tells how animals captured fire for Earth, and in the meantime, each animal that tried to capture fire returned home with unique characteristics. The snake is black, owl has red eyes, etc.

ADL: Did you find that writing a folktale was different from writing a fictional or nonfictional picture book?

NKA: The basic story was already developed, but I wanted my imprint added. I did that by with details. As a writer, I was tempted to enhance the story with elements I invented, but the folklorist in me disagreed and demanded that I remain true to the original version. My folklorist side won the argument. I spent time studying the Cherokee culture and talking with members of the Cherokee Nation to give credence to the retelling and deliver accurate details. FIRST FIRE: A CHEROKEE FOLKTALE, was fun to write and I feel honored that I can pay tribute to my Cherokee heritage with this book. Sherry Roger’s illustrations added colorful realism. This book was published by Sylvan Dell Publishing. The publisher just changed names and is now Arbor Dale Publilshing. http://www.arbordalepublishing.com/

ADL: I, too, love folktales and look forward to reading FIRST FIRE.

Now about AMAZING GRACE, your first middle grade novel. Why did you choose to write this story?

NKA: AMAZING GRACE ( A KENTUCKY GIRL WITH GUMPTION DURING WWII), has a short title with a long subtitle. This book has been a 15-year-long project. The story began as a picture book. I sent it to some editors, and several recommended that I make it into a long story. I rewrote it as a chapter book and got basically the same feedback. The story stayed tucked away, and about three years ago, I decided to write my first middle grade novel. I remembered the feedback I’d received so I decided to revise the story once again.

ADL: Since the setting is during WWII, I imagine you had to do some, maybe a lot, of research.

NKA: I love research and it’s a good thing I do since AMAZING GRACE required a massive amount of it. I began the process by reading fiction and nonfiction books about WWII and life on the home front during the war. I tooled away at the keyboard bouncing between researching and writing. Much of my research was centered on D-Day and facts relating to the troops. Another even larger research effort was based on the Kentucky home front: what people ate, what they grew in Victory Gardens, common WWII phrases, newscasts, school activities, automobiles, and everyday life for families who were helping with the war effort.

My father and uncle both served in WWII. The book is dedicated to them.

ADL: Tell us about the story.

NKA: Eleven-year-old Grace Ann Brewer’s comfortable life is torn apart when her father joins the Army in 1944 during WWII. Her family moves from Hazard to Ashland, Kentucky, to live with her grandmother. Grace enrolls in a new school and is immediately forced to deal with a bully, but the greatest challenge is to keep a positive outlook as she fears that her father has been injured—or worse—when his letters stop arriving in the mail. Gumption, that’s what Grace’s grandmother tells her she must have,but gumption isn’t easy to grasp when she listens to the wireless, a radio, that keeps the home front updated with the frightening events of the war. Grace finds solace in writing letters to her father and even more comfort in talking with her dog, Spot. With amazing strength Grace fights her own battles on the home front. Meryl Shapiro’s black-and-white illustrations depict the characters and setting in small bursts of art scattered throughout the book in each chapter. This book was published by The History Press. http://historypress.net/

ADL: Congratulations, Nancy, on the publications of FIRST FIRE and AMAZING GRACE.

Nancy’s books are available in bookstores nationwide and on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com

Thank you for visiting my blog and good luck with the books.

To learn more about Nancy, please visit her website http://www.nancykellyallen.com and blog http://nancykellyallen.blogspot.com/