Sneak Peek of Page by Paige Laura Lee Gulledge



I first met Laura Lee in the winter of 2008. She had only been in New York for little less than a year and was ready to make her mark. I had seen a zine she had published and was impressed with how she used metaphors to get her ideas across. She began to post her drawings to her blog www. whoislauralee.blogspot.com. I found them all very intimate, tender and honest. I knew that there was a graphic novel in her but to be sure I sent editor extraordinaire Maggie Lehrman a link to Laura Lee's blog. Next thing ya know ( 8 months later ) Laura is working on her first Graphic Novel Page by Paige!


About the book
Paige has just moved to New York with her family, and she's having trouble adjusting to the big city. In the pages of her sketchbook, she tries out different identities, including the ultra-secret one: ARTIST. As she makes friends and explores the city, she starts to bring her secret identity out into the open, which can be great (new, fabulous friends and possible boyfriend) and terrifying (fights with mom and vulnerabilities exposed). Laura Lee crafts stories with images that are thought-provoking, funny, and emotionally resonant. This is not your ironic, precocious, detached Juno-type teenager—this is the real deal, honest and unflinching.



Laura Lee and Maggie working at my desk

Here are some teaser panels from
Laura Lee's first graphic novel!


Rule # 1 Remove excuses! Buy a sketchbook and draw a few pages each week.


Rule #2 Draw what you know. If you feel it or see it DRAW IT!






Rule #3 Shh . . . quiet . . .
listen to what's going on in your head.



Laura Lee is almost done. All that is left is wrapping up the digital shading part of the process, and tackling the lettering. How yeah and the cover. Yikes! Better get on that.




Who is Laura Lee Gulledge?

"Laura Lee is a cartoonist, illustrator, and all around cool chic. Lee’s imagery and sentiments have been called ‘tender, silly, serious, touching and fun all at the same time.’" —Juxtapoz


Laura Lee, is scenic painter (most notably for Macy's famous holiday windows), muralist, street artist, and glitter technician. She has a Master's degree in Art Education and has taught in both Virginia and Africa. She is currently finishing up writing and drawing her first graphic novel called Page by Paige which will be released in Spring 2011 by Amulet Books. Visit her at www. whoislauralee.blogspot.com

Evolution of the The Strange Case of Origami Yoda cover

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . .
Tom Angleberger sent me a small Origami Yoda




He sent chubby ones, some with faces and others without. Tom made dozens of different Origami Yodas. Searching for just the right one for the cover.

Below is a video showing how Tom makes his Origami Yoda.




As Tom searched for just the right Yoda. I began to think of how the cover might be laid out. Below is a 1st attempt sketch using the Star Wars font.


Only this seemed to obvious a direction. Yoda needed a face but how do you get a face from folded paper? The force was strong with Jedi Master Angleberger on this problem. A few weeks later Tom sent me this ( see below ) new and improved Yoda. Now with a light saber and crinkled brow!



Now that we had just the right Yoda. All that was left was to find the correct back drop. Since the story is set in a school the enviroment seem like a no brainer. We through around different ideas for the back drop. Crinkled paper? Lockers? Bulletin board? Final we settled on a chalk board. Which would also give the appearance of looking like space.

My thumbnail sketch ideaHow do you treat the text? Now that we settled on a chalkboard for the backdrop the font and how the text would be rendered must blend into the environment seamlessly. To prevent the text seeming like it was just laid on top of the design. Since Dwight, a loser, talks to his classmates via an origami finger puppet of Yoda. There seemed like only one solution to this problem

Solution: Thought Bubble and a font that looks like it was drawn on a chalkboard.

Next step: Designer Melissa Arnst worked up a thought bubble designs and photographed
a chalk board to get that school time atmosphere.




A font is chosen. Only the design is still not sitting well with me. The colors are to dull and the title doesn't command the space it is in. It's still missing some character.



Solution: Illustrator Jason Rosenstock. Jason using his vast illustration abilities, renders the type to perfection, tweaks the color saturation and drew little chalk drawings as well as a couple x-wings and planets.


And there you have it a perfect Origami Yoda cover! May the force be with you.





The book surrounded by 1,000 Origami Yodas
Italian Edition
About the book
In this funny, uncannily wise portrait of the dynamics of a sixth-grade class and of the greatness that sometimes comes in unlikely packages, Dwight, a loser, talks to his classmates via an origami finger puppet of Yoda. If that weren’t strange enough, the puppet is uncannily wise and prescient. Origami Yoda predicts the date of a pop quiz, guesses who stole the classroom Shakespeare bust, and saves a classmate from popularity-crushing embarrassment with some well-timed advice. Dwight’s classmate Tommy wonders how Yoda can be so smart when Dwight himself is so clueless. With contributions from his puzzled classmates, he assembles the case file that forms this novel.

About the author
Applying for a job as a newspaper artist, Tom Angleberger was mistakenly assigned to cover local government meetings. Fifteen years and countless town council meetings later, he is still writing instead of drawing, currently as a columnist for the Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia. He began work on his first book while in middle school. Tom is married to author-illustrator Cece Bell. They live in Christianburg, Virginia.

The Evolution of the Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies Cover






One day a year he is Santa Claus, but the other 364 days Dan Santat works as a children's book writer and commercial illustrator. He is also the creator of Disney's animated hit, The Replacements.

Dan graduated with honors from the Art Center, College of Design.

He lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, a cat, a bird, and one rabbit

For some time I had been looking for a project that would be just right for Dan's sensibilities. Crazy giant rabbits from outer space fit that bill.

From the beginning our ideas for the direction of the cover were in sync, vintage monster movie posters! Here are some that we looked at.






Here is some photo research of a giant bunny.


Dan's first sketch

Here is Dan's first sketch. A pretty good start. But something isn't right yet. This book is about crazy giant bunnies. I want to see that bunny big and looming. Kinda like this.

Much better! We tweaked the title a bit and things seem to be going along just fine. But of course we still have some meddling left to do.

After a cover meeting the group felt that the bunny might be too scary. I thought how can bunnies be scary?

Oh. That's how.

Solution shave down his teeth and lessen his angry brow.


Next step Dan then sent in the final art . Only those eye's need some Visine.



Aww moist eyes! With a couple of small tweaks our cover starts to come into focus.


Back cover art

Now it's time to place all that pesky type

Type placed!


About the book
When Joules and Kevin Rockman’s parents drop them off at Camp Whatsitooya on their way to an International Spamathon, the twins expect a summer of marshmallows, campfires, and canoe trips. What they do not expect is to defend the earth from an invasion of sugar-addicted, murderous, seven-foot-tall rabbits from another galaxy. Happily, the Rockman twins, veteran watchers of the Late, Late, Late Creepy Show for Insomniacs, are unusually well-prepared for dealing with monstrous beings from outer space. If only their fellow campers were so lucky.
Andrea Beaty, author of several very funny picture books and a mysterious novel, here reaches new heights of hilarity and verbal dexterity in a novel sure to become a camp—ba-dum-dum—classic.

About the author
Andrea Beaty was raised in a small southern Illinois town, where her family ran a tiny grocery store. When she wasn’t roaming the nearby fields with her brothers and sisters, she was reading Nancy Drew mysteries up in the branches of a maple tree. Andrea now lives outside Chicago with her family. She is the author of When Giants Come to Play, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, and Iggy Peck, Architect, illustrated by David Roberts. Andrea blogs about funny books for kids at www.ThreeSillyChicks.com. Learn more about her at www.AndreaBeaty.com. Dan Santat’s Guild of Geniuses (2004) won the Marion Vannett Ridgeway Award for best debut author/illustrator. He has since illustrated The Secret Life of Walter Kitty, by Barbara Jean Hicks; the Otto Undercover series, by Rhea Perlman; The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch, by Anne Isaacs; and Chicken Dance, by Tammi Sauer. He is also the creator of the Disney animated series The Replacements, and is at work on a graphic novel, The Domesticated Four. He lives with his wife and two children in Southern California. Visit him at www.dantat.com.

Nurse, Solider, Spy: Story of Sarah Edmonds—ART SNEAK PEAK!


John Hendrix posted a few final pieces for his next illustrated adventure, Marissa Moss's Nurse, Solider, Spy. The Story of Sarah Edmonds, on his blog. His last book John Brown was met with much critical acclaim. However his art for this new book might in fact be even more impressive!






"For those of you who are not aware of the story of Sarah Edmonds- she was a passionate woman who wanted to fight for the Union in the Civil War. But in order to enlist, dressed up as a man, Frank Thompson. In this book, we tell the tale of her enlistment, her exceptional abilities in the battle field and her adventures as a spy behind the Confederate lines. She went on many clandestine missions, but in this book we depict one where she dressed as a slave. "—John Hendrix


To find out more about John follow his blog Drawing on a Deadline

Art Preview! Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies

A Sneak Peak at the art of ATTACK OF THE FLUFFY BUNNIES
(even though Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies is in-stores as of Mid-May)



Illustrated by
Dan Santat


Story by Andrea Beaty













Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies
Authors: By Andrea Beaty
Imprint: Amulet Books
ISBN: 0-8109-8416-4
EAN: 9780810984165
Availability: In Stock
Publishing Date: 5/1/2010
Trim Size: 5 1/4 x 7 1/2
Page Count: 192
Cover: Hardcover
Illustrations: 15-20 B&W illustrations

About the book
When Joules and Kevin Rockman’s parents drop them off at Camp Whatsitooya on their way to an International Spamathon, the twins expect a summer of marshmallows, campfires, and canoe trips. What they do not expect is to defend the earth from an invasion of sugar-addicted, murderous, seven-foot-tall rabbits from another galaxy. Happily, the Rockman twins, veteran watchers of the Late, Late, Late Creepy Show for Insomniacs, are unusually well-prepared for dealing with monstrous beings from outer space. If only their fellow campers were so lucky.
Andrea Beaty, author of several very funny picture books and a mysterious novel, here reaches new heights of hilarity and verbal dexterity in a novel sure to become a camp—ba-dum-dum—classic.

About the author
Andrea Beaty was raised in a small southern Illinois town, where her family ran a tiny grocery store. When she wasn’t roaming the nearby fields with her brothers and sisters, she was reading Nancy Drew mysteries up in the branches of a maple tree. Andrea now lives outside Chicago with her family. She is the author of When Giants Come to Play, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, and Iggy Peck, Architect, illustrated by David Roberts. Andrea blogs about funny books for kids at www.ThreeSillyChicks.com. Learn more about her at www.AndreaBeaty.com. Dan Santat’s Guild of Geniuses (2004) won the Marion Vannett Ridgeway Award for best debut author/illustrator. He has since illustrated The Secret Life of Walter Kitty, by Barbara Jean Hicks; the Otto Undercover series, by Rhea Perlman; The Ghosts of Luckless Gulch, by Anne Isaacs; and Chicken Dance, by Tammi Sauer. He is also the creator of the Disney animated series The Replacements, and is at work on a graphic novel, The Domesticated Four. He lives with his wife and two children in Southern California. Visit him at www.dantat.com.

Interview Adventure Series—Adam McCauley • 7



Adam McCauley enjoys illustrating, playing music, and making things. His illustrations have appeared in magazines, publications and campaigns world wide. Adam's work has been included in group shows in Osaka, San Francisco, New York, Tokyo and Nashville. He works out of his studio in the sunny Mission district in San Francisco.

Adam's clients have included Time, MTV, Apple Computer, National Geographic, Levi's, Viking, Harper Collins, Microsoft, and many others.

Adam's awards have included American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Print Regional Design Annual, 3 x 3, and How Magazine.

Adam received the Society of Illustrator's Gold Medal for his illustrated monster stamp endpapers for the book "The Monsterologist:A Memoir In Rhyme" by Bobbi Katz.


CW: My goal so far with the various interviews of illustrators is to help of illustrators find there way. The following questions will be add to this underlying idea. Let's get started!


CW: How would you recommend to other illustrators to get there work published?


AM: Do the best work you can do, make it as interesting to look at and experience as it is interesting for you to do. Good work makes for good work received.

CW: Do you have any rituals that you go through before you can get to work?


AM: Lots of procrastinating, usually.

I do the laundry,


paint the back porch,


go shopping.


Then, I pull up a cup of coffee,


turn on some music and buckle down.




CW: What process did you go through to develop your styles.


AM: When I got out of art school, I was broke. It was expensive to make promotional material, unlike now with cheap printing and email. So, I promoted using the neighborhood copy machine. I developed my style so that it would xerox easily, hence my work became high-contrast black and white. This just happened to be exactly what newspapers needed, so I was able to get a lot of work for local and National papers, which in turn got me into color work for magazines and eventually kid’s books.


CW: You have a variety of styles all equally good as the next how do you manage them. Do art directors ever get confused?


AM: The only person who has ever gotten confused about my work is my rep. A lot of styles makes marketing more tricky. I make a point when I’m hired for a job to ask what of my work they like and are responding to. On my website I name the styles to help people communicate their desired style. Some illustrators make actual alias names for themselves, but I always thought that was a bit goofy.


CW: What style did you use for JUNE AND AUGUST?


AM: My “Otown” style,
which is what I’m most known for, especially in kid’s books. This style matured when I was living in Oakland, California, hence the name.



CW: June and August is such and abstract text which leaves a lot up to the illustrator for interpretation. After first reading it what were some of your first thoughts on how to approach illustrating the text?

AM: It was an intimidating book at first for me, mainly because it was Vivian’s first book not illustrated by J. Otto Siebold, who is a god to me. After I got over that, most of it came together pretty fast. The most difficult stretch was were they go through the jungle and everything gets quite holographic. It was a bit tricky to draw it in a way that was clear.


CW: What did you find most challenging and most rewarding about working on June and August?

AM: I enjoyed how easy you are to work with! It’s been great doing some readings with Vivian as well, she’s very cool and it’s fun to hear her read and explain some of her experiences with all of her great books.




CW: Do you also have time to do your own personal work? If so what is it all about?

AM: I try to find time for personal work. Mostly, it happens while on vacation, in my sketchbooks. But at home I try and paint, always abstract – I get tired of representation all the time, and it’s good exercise to focus entirely on color and composition and picture-making. It informs the representative work. Also, I’m a pretty active musician ( http://www.adammccauley.com/music/cannonballs.mp3) – currently playing with three different gigging bands – I consider this personal work, which also informs the visual work and provides a nice social contrast to the insular world of drawing in a studio.




CW: What makes an extraordinary picture book in your eyes?

AM: Good art, good design, good concept, good writing. Sometimes books sneak up me.


CW: Who are your influences.



CW: What is next for you? Have you ever thought of writing as well?

AM: I’ve written one book, my first, “My Friend Chicken,” which is out of print. Maybe Abrams will re-issue? :-)


CW: I for one can't wait to see what you do next. Thanks Adam!



Here is a trailer Adam made for June and August. He even did the voice over!







About the book
This imaginative story explores the concept that the greatest friendships can come to be if you are willing to overlook differences.

Vivian Walsh is the co-creator of several bestselling books for children. In June and August she once again makes a misunderstanding the humorous but pivotal moment that brings together two very unlikely friends. One night in the jungle, June is thrilled to see a shooting star, while August loves looking at the moon. Although they can’t see each other in the dark, the two promise to meet again the next day. But when morning dawns, they face a dilemma. How are June and August going to recognize each other?

About the author
Vivian Walsh lives with her three children in San Francisco, California. She is the co-creator of several bestselling books, including Olive, the Other Reindeer. Visit her Web site at www.vivianwalsh.com. Adam McCauley also lives in San Francisco. He has illustrated a number of books for children, including the Time Warp Trio series, by Jon Scieszka, and The Monsterologist, by Bobbi Katz. Visit his Web site at www.adammccauley.com.

Authors: By Vivian Walsh, illustrated by Adam McCauley
Imprint: Abrams Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0-8109-8410-5
EAN: 9780810984103
Availability: In Stock
Publishing Date: 9/1/2009
Trim Size: 8 1/2 x 11
Page Count: 32
Cover: Hardcover with jacket
Illustrations: 32 pages of full-color illustrations

Crazy big ABRAMS typewriter


This photo was taken at an exhibition in Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall created by O’Callaghan’s students at the School of Visual Art. The typewriter will be assembled at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Monday, May 24.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This Fall . . . Everything Changes.



Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS, revealed today that the fifth volume in Jeff Kinney’s bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series will be on sale nationwide Tuesday, November 9th, 2010. The cover will be purple, which follows the red, blue, green, and yellow of the first four installments. Summer and fall promotions leading up to the release will be announced in July with the cover and title of the book.

“I feel like everything in the series has been leading up to the fifth book, which is about change and the different ways Greg and his best friend, Rowley, deal with it,” said Jeff Kinney. “To me, this book is the lynchpin in the series, and I’m excited to be writing it.”


This new book follows the momentum generated by The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary, a nonfiction book with all-new material by Jeff Kinney that, with over 2 million copies in print, has topped the Wall Street Journal’s nonfiction bestseller list since publication.

Twentieth Century Fox’s live-action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, which debuted in theaters March 19, 2010, generated over $61 million in ticket sales. A second movie is due in theaters March 25, 2011. A 16-month wall calendar with photographs and dialogue direct from the first movie is in stores this summer.

“Since April 2007, Jeff has written and illustrated two books a year,” said Charles Kochman, executive editor of the Wimpy Kid series. “Despite the demands of making the second Wimpy Kid movie, Jeff has been working hard to ensure his fans have a new Wimpy Kid book this year, and to remind readers with Book five why they fell in love with Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson.”

Interview Adventure series—Julia Denos • 6









Julia Denos is the illustrator of DOTTY (FALL 2010) by Erica S. Perl. She doesn't have an imaginary friend of her own, but she does have a loyal feline friend, Serif, who is black with just one white dot on his chest. He doesn't like to wear a leash, but he follows her where ever she goes. Julia grew up in a the small Connecticut town of Cheshire. Oddly I too am from this same town.

Julia's little house in Cheshire, Connecticut (age 9 depiction).


CW: We all got our start somewhere . . . where did you go to school to learn your craft?

JD: My mom was my first teacher. She wrote songs, poetry, helped us put on plays, and encouraged creativity in every moment. We went to the Yale Art Museum often–I liked to stare at Hopper's "Rooms By the Sea"–and to the library to hunt for the books wearing Reading Rainbow stickers.


I was hooked on picture books. When school time came, I took every art class we could afford, and any offered in public school. I ended up in A.P. Studio Art in high school where Ms. Bednarczyk helped me prepare for art school. I attended the Art Institute of Boston for my BFA in Illustration.


CW: What courses or training were helpful in beginning a career in illustration?

JD: At AIB, it was important for me to take as many life drawing, color theory, and traditional media classes (like watercolor) as I could so I could build a strong foundation first, and worry about style last. My advice is: work hard, play and make a giant mess. Let go. Seek out teachers who will push you through a comfort zone into a new place in your art, who will REALLY critique your work. Take typography and design courses too, even if they aren't in your "illustration curriculum". Typography lives with your art in a book and it will be the bridge to the story you are illustrating.

CW: Besides illustrator, what are other jobs you have had?

JD: I've worked at a daycare, florist, children's bookstores (The Alphabet Garden in Cheshire, CT and Curious George in Cambridge, MA), AIB's slide library, one full day as a store-front mannequin dresser.

CW: How long after school did it take to get your work published?

JD: I signed my first contract with a publisher the year after school, and my first book, an early reader about Sojourner Truth, came out later that year.

CW: Do you have any rituals that you go through before you can get to work?

JD:
1.Breakfast!
2. Email
3. Hide and seek with cat (above)
4. Yoga
5. Music/talk radio
6. Coax napping cat from artwork (page 12 of Dotty below)
7. START! I can't work without audio. Sometimes I listen to old movies while I work, I just had "Harvey" on last night, but my Audrey Hepburn collection is in rotation right now.


CW: Every illustrator finds inspiration from somewhere. I for example look always go on walkabouts to focus and be inspired by exploration. What inspires you?

JD: Possibility, picture books, words, messy children, libraries, bookstores, fellow artist blogs, the Boston cityscape (home), classic Hollywood, vintage fashion, runway magazines, ethnic costume, all things historical, scientific, spiritual, ghost stories, passed-down family tales, antiques, music, nature, and COOKING. Something about experimenting with ingredients unlocks part of my art brain when I hit a block. I invented a recipe for mascarpone cheese brownies while working out the Dotty dummy. I would LOVE to illustrate a cookbook!

CW: How would you advise other illustrators on getting their work published?

JD: Have your work ready to go and believe in it, always be reinventing it. Follow it to where it needs to be (look in bookstores and libraries and magazines for clues). Network, attend events and have an online presence, be it blog or website. Let your art be seen and seek constructive criticism. Some illustrators opt for an agent to help promote their work to publishers but it's up to you!



CW: You have illustrated numerous books so far in your young career. Do you see yourself writing in the future?

JD: Yes! I would love to very soon. I've been writing all my life, but I am very careful with it and a little shy. I put my stories away until art school was finished. They are surfacing again and keep popping up on scrap paper, so, yes, things are underway in that department.


CW: When developing Dotty where did you come up with the concept for Dotty?

JD: I was in a coffee shop, sipping something too sweet and eavesdropping on a conversation next to me, doodling on a stack of paper. By late afternoon, Dotty and Ida's characters transformed many times. I just let Dotty do her thing. Here is some concept work for both characters (click to enlarge images!)
Dotty and Ida's FINAL FORM (above)








Author, Erica Perl, sent me amazing pages of her own sketches of what she thought Dotty looked like. I loved her little goat concept (above). I took her lead on the horns!










CW: How did you develop your style?

JD: I just took my art education and pushed and pulled what I wanted out of it. Like many artists, I began as a hyper-realist, and drew mechanical still life and rendered figure drawings per my traditional classes before I loosened up. When I was finally making work that looked more like the "style" I have today I was a senior in art school, and created my last painting of a little girl and a rabbit, "The Cinnamon Rabbit". She became a jumping off point.

Once I began to get illustration jobs out of school, is when I really had style overhaul. It's only recently that I am finally loving some of it and I feel like I'm finally there, at the starting point. This is due not developing a "look" but happened with little steps toward embracing freedom and joy within any job, in various styles. It is also an extreme blessing to get an art director or editor who assists you in letting go, urges you past your own limitations, and waits with you to see what happens. Having the confidence of an art director/editor is being able to run with the manuscript into your happy place!

So long answer short, maybe my "style" is finally here. It's the best place to be: I have the struggle behind me and the messy possibility ahead of me, and tons of room to grow and improve.

CW: What about your style are you still learning as you approach a picture book project?

JD: That I have to let go. Style for a book can't be forced, it has to be an intimate real relationship with the text. Each book and story has a voice that translates into a mode of line and color palette and certain degree of realization or stylization. I read a manuscript and listen and imagine and wait to "see" it. Sometimes I immediately see everything clearly, but other times I can't see the story until late in the game, and I have to be patient with myself.


Dotty switched styles a few times right up until the end. I played with line weight a lot in Dotty, using childlike line and intentional line together, because of the nature of the story. I am learning to block out mental direction and go with the gut. This requires lots of balancing between intention and happy mistakes. It's thrilling when you have no idea what might happen next.

CW: Do you also have time to do your own personal work? If so what is it all about?
JD: I squeeze in sketches when I can. Usually my personal artwork involves me plugging into music, entering the zone and leaving with a big experiment. My goal is to always bring what I learn from my personal work back into my narrative work for clients. I need to constantly be developing as an artist and pushing my style limits to keep my client work fresh, to keep me feeling alive. I am currently teaching myself to loose control while maintaining recognition and life in a character. Things are getting sillier.

My personal work is character centered and about breaking rules. I love pushing the paint out of the lines in flat shapes, but teasing the render line back toward reality. Or mixing odd eras of clothing and time periods to pull something new from the character. Fashion is such an important element in storytelling to me. It is more than costume, because it denotes that character's choices, reality, and beliefs.

I am always wanting to push the limits on time period too. I think the way we view "time" is way too linear (my dad is a major sci-fi/time-travel buff, so that probably explains a lot), and I guess I see time as another rule that can be broken on paper with imagination. It's another facet of character to be played with. I want to push the limits on how we think of who we are and when we are from, and why those things are important to the story we are a part of.

CW: Is there a difference between illustrating a “celebrity book” versus illustrating a professional children’s book author's text?

JD: Based on my recent experience with this (illustrating My Little Girl) I found the differences fell more in the realm of the production of the book...there was an extra team of people attached to the celebrity, through which my work had to be approved. Luckily, I was given ample freedom in my style for the book, which I am grateful for. I enjoyed making art for it, Tim was gracious and I definitely learned a lot from the experience too.


Another difference is the third element beside author and illustrator not always present in picture book creation: the celebrity factor. Good and bad can come with this. There is dangerous potential for the focus to be only on the name branding of the book and the marketing alone, rather than caring for the written and artistic content, sadly making the book into more of a "venue". A celebrity name may generate sales for a while, but substance is what will make it stay on the shelves. I respect the picture book as an art form. I respect its creators, both celebrity and non celebrity, but what's inside the jacket must be held to the same unwavering standard, no matter whose name adorns that jacket. A successful celebrity book will have its heart in the right place.


CW: What makes an extraordinary picture book in your eyes?

JD: A work of art and literature, a trip, a teacher, a friend and home rolled into one square little thing. An extraordinary picture book allows a person of any age to open it, go to a new place, close it and leave, without the book ever really leaving them. Picture books are not just for children either! Amazing things happen to adults when they read them. Good picture books are like friends, ones that you will visit with many times, and even search a lonely bookstore for no matter how old you grow to find that exact book, even when you've forgotten its name.

When I worked in the bookstore, adults were always coming in and asking for a book from childhood that had a “cat that maybe went on a trip, and the colors were all yellow and red, and there were tiny houses in the background...do you know the the name of it? I've been looking for it for years!” That's a powerful thing!
CW: What is a book that has blown your mind lately?

JD: Madeline! I recently fell in love with Ludwig Bemelmans. Like many, I grew up with his books all around me, but this fall it just clicked. I started to see his work with fresh eyes. You can tell from his spontaneity that he trusted his art making. He respected his audience and children with his art. His work seems to be so joyful and tongue in cheek all at once. It encourages me to be more free in my own work. Miss Clavel and the girls have been good studio company lately.


CW: Have you seen Werner Herzog Read Madeline?




JD: YES, I love that Werner Herzog video. Best line is about the vines: "The Norman forest trying in vain to reclaim its ancestral land." I laughed for a good while about that. And poor stifled Ms. Clavel.


CW: Have you ever had an imaginary friend?



JD: No! I was jealous of my younger sisters who had REAL imaginary friends (named Plo-Kla, Kuddongs, Lion and Flea-hat) So I drew my own imaginary friends one day and decided to have two fakes. “Doodie-Dye” was a purple and furious looking squiggle with a bow (similar to Katya's in Dotty-see below) and “Noonie” was a banana with eyes . . .



It’s Ida’s first day of school. She carries her new lunch box and a long, blue string with her special friend Dotty attached to it. A big, colorfully spotted pal with horns, Dotty just happens to be invisible. On that first day of school, Ida and Dotty find out there are plenty of other imaginary friends in attendance. But as the year passes and fewer and fewer imaginary friends come to class, Ida begins to wonder if Dotty is welcome at school anymore . . .
Perceptive and warmly funny, with charming art from exciting illustrator Julia Denos, Dotty is a celebration of the power of friendship and imagination.



Case cover back and front



Endpapers


Interior



For more Behind the scenes of
DOTTY with Julia Denos
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Origami Yoda


Origami Yoda, originally uploaded by chadwbecks.