Today is Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday! Hooray!! Here’s a little drawing in honor of the day:
Although I haven’t yet read very much of his work, Dickens definitely has a spot on my short-list of favorite writers. After reading The Pickwick Papers last year I couldn’t resist exploring three of the characters a little further, and although these fellows were featured in a blog post recently, I wanted to resurrect Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Tupman, and Mr. Winkle to help celebrate their creators’ birthday:
Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Tupman, Mr. Winkle
Dickens’ writing is sensitive and funny, helped to define the literary world in his time, and paved the road ahead for some of my other favorite authors of the 19th and 20th centuries. In celebration of his birthday, I plan on beginning Great Expectations tonight (and I shall refrain here from making any puns on what I expect of that novel based on the title).
Happy Birthday, Dickens! Thank you for creating such enjoyable books.
This past weekend was… SO great. I attended my first SCBWI international conference in New York city, and it was the dramatic capper to a month where I hardly emerged from the studio – the perfect way to celebrate getting lots of work done! The event was three days of making friends, talking about the art and craft of picture books, and taking lots and lots of notes. About 32 sketchbook pages of notes, actually.
While I feel I did do a really great job soaking up information like a sponge and bringing it home to be implemented, I most definitely did not do a great job documenting my experience there. The one and only photo from my trip was a blurry walk-through shot in Grand Central while on my way to grab lunch, seen here. Go me! Words will just have to work instead of pictures here.
The weekend was so densely packed with goodness that it’s hard to narrow the event down to any concise high-point, but a few moments stood out:
- The Illustrators Pre-Conference Intensive was wonderful. I sat in a room full of other serious illustrators as our ears were packed full of valuable knowledge. The speakers were smart and funny, and it was a great start to the event as a whole.
- One of the break-out sessions was particularly excellent: Picture Books for Illustrators with Cathy Goldsmith from Random House. She really broke down the picture book making process one step at a time. She was generous with her knowledge, and extremely helpful.
- The cocktail gala! Being new to the Boston area, and working in a job that keeps me at home, I’ve found it hard to meet people. This took care of that! I got to spend time getting to know my new neighbors and make some friends.
- The Illustrator’s Social!! Back with those illustrators again – such great people! It was inspiring to hear the success stories of others, and to look at each others’ portfolios in person.
- Kathryn Erskine’s Closing keynote. One word: superb.
To really sum it up, my feeling is this: I went to a fantastic art school where I learned a lot about the technique and conceptual craft of illustration, but I did not learn much about the specific business of children’s book illustration, primarily because classes in that subject were first offered the year after I graduated. This weekend filled in many of those knowledge gaps in one fell swoop. Worth it? Totally.
P.S: To further cap it off, I came home after the conference to find this on my door-step:
It’s a copy of the new 3×3 Illustration Directory! And they were incredibly generous to me:
Hello there, two-page spread! Thank you so much, 3×3, for including my work in your directory, and for giving my Moon Sisters a wonderfully mysterious environment.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get to work on a picture book!
In a few hours I am leaving for a trip down to New York for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators annual conference, but before heading out the door I wanted to squeeze in a quick blog entry to share some recent work. Here are two illustrations I created for the current (January 2012) issue of “The Little Lutheran” and “The Little Christian” magazines. The assignment was to illustrate an article about Dan West, the founder of Heifer International, which, in my opinion, is one of the best charity organizations that exists today. Learning more about Dan’s life was such a treat; he was an inspiring and compassionate man, and his life’s work has made a profound and lasting positive impact on many of the poorest parts of the world.
The next time you’re feeling charitable, head on over to the Heifer website and give someone the gift of a goat, or some bees, or a flock of geese! There’s a whole menagerie to choose from. Many thanks to my art director Amber for such a wonderful assignment.
This morning I received news that my former teacher, mentor, and great friend Dugald Stermer has passed away. I have known that he was unwell for quite a while now, but the email still felt like a punch in the gut.
In my time at CCA I had the extreme good fortune to kindle lasting friendships with two of the wonderful professors there, one of whom was Dugald. He was the first member of the illustration department that I met (on my very first visit when scouting out the school), and by the time thesis class and graduation rolled around, he had become an inspiring mentor. After graduation he scooped me up to become his teaching assistant and studio assistant, and thus began a friendship that has had profound impact on my life, my career, and the way I view my work.
The first years out of art school can be very hard, but Dugald was a steadying influence in that time, and an encouraging guide into the professional world of illustration. Once a week I got to retreat with Dugald into his studio – a room furnished in rustic wood and leather, with dim, moody lighting, walls lined with rows of antique left-handed guitars and the original artworks of his friends, lots and lots of books, and all manner of interesting and strange objects on display. It was not large, but he had turned the space into a palace of his craft. As his studio assistant my job was to help him prepare his work for clients, send out postcards and mailers, keep things tidy and organized, and catalogue his work in a giant flat file cabinet.
This last “task” was the best of all. Each drawer revealed a treasury of precise craftsmanship and jewel-like watercolors. Dugald’s depictions of animals and botanicals were exquisite, with an old-world quality and a great deal of sensitivity to them. Those drawers contained breathtaking pictures of bears, elephants, octopi, tigers, dogs, seahorses, flowers, fish, trees – it seemed like almost anything living under the sun or the sea was found within. He never rushed me to organize it quickly, so I had the privilege to handle each piece with care, to inspect slowly and soak in his work while preparing his paper menagerie and botanical gardens to be stored away. Dugald could make anything look beautiful. He liked to joke that his strangest commission was one of his recent ones, where the client requested that he draw a pile of dirt. But opening up that large file drawer, there it was: a beautiful pile of dirt, rendered with loving care.
Up in the studio we would chat pleasantly as we worked, but every day he would insist on treating me to lunch, and down in the cafe we could dig in and have real conversations over our break. Getting to know Dugald’s mind was as much a privilege as getting to know his artwork. A man of strong convictions and principles, Dugald was a treat to talk with. Over lunch we would discuss books, history, the illustration community, and current events, all of which he had strong opinions on – I respected him for that. A philanthropist and a generous soul, he gave in a multitude of ways to the Delancy Street foundation, an organization that helps to rehabilitate men and women from prison, allowing them to re-join society gracefully and find strength in themselves. Dugald’s studio was housed in their San Francisco headquarters, and it was evident how much the people there loved and respected him. Out in the courtyard, everyone we crossed paths with would wave and smile and say “Hey, Dugald!” They very clearly loved him, and this was the kind of loyalty and friendship that Dugald inspired naturally.
To say that my time working with him was inspiring is just not saying enough. It was a true privilege to have him as a mentor, and I feel so lucky to have been able to come to his studio once a week and spend time with this great man. The last time I saw Dugald was in June; we went out for lunch one last time before I moved out east. He was kind and encouraging as always, and excited about the new path that life was leading me down. He was always excited for the next generation of illustrators. At the end of that meeting I had the eerie feeling that that was the last time I would be seeing Dugald. It was a hard day then, but it’s an even harder one now.
Whipped out the Wacom and gave my B&W lady from earlier today some saturation.
This small coloring job actually prompted a lot of introspection about my feelings on digital vs. traditional painting; feelings that I will share with you later, when I don’t have to run off and cook up some dinner.
