Bridging images by Bridget Strevens-Marzo

Parsons New York, post the SCBWI Midwinter conference

2012-01-24T10:50:00.006+01:00

If you happen to be in New York, next Monday lunchtime, Pat Cummings has invited me to give a talk at Parsons, New York. See - she's put up my whole name, in big letters!

Hope to touch on the core, the 'coeur' , the heart of what it's all about for artists.
Knowing our strengths, overcoming self-doubt, appreciating others and our context, and plain old plugging on are all part of it. It seems so obvious, even banal when put like this.
The brilliantly smart comic artist Jamie Smart puts it in much more colourful language. By the way he's also got a kids and adult version of his site and a bunch of wonderful characters, and kids books and comics and TV pilots and all.
And here are a few more serious words of his wisdom.... I couldn't have put it better myself! And yes it IS fun!

"Even though I look back and think much of my older work is pretty terrible, it is still essentially me, and it’s fascinating to watch how that’s evolved and become more distinct. That process never ends. You’ll die and never reach the pinnacle of what you’re trying to do, but that’s irrelevant.There’s no such thing as an end point with art, you’re going to keep going and growing and that’s the fun of it

Off with Tiz & Ott & more, to New York on Thursday

2012-01-22T19:45:00.000+01:00

For once, I have no time for words, just Tiz and Ott who are slowly growing...

Let's play with Tiz and Ott - in the Idea Store

2012-01-17T16:31:00.006+01:00

A story I've been struggling with for months is ready to show, at last.
Could it be the pressure of my upcoming week in New York then Bologna mid-March?

And last week, I had a new idea. I was enjoying a baked potato and the view from the top floor of the Whitechapel Idea Store Anyway, I put down my fork, and started sketching two new characters.

Meet Tiz and Ott. Maybe that's what an Idea Store is for?

Ronald Searle, Kaye Webb, Puffins and all

2012-01-05T03:13:00.093+01:00

‎"Did I do all that?" Ronald Searle says in this interview on his 90th birthday. Kilometres of line!

Right from his early traumas as a prisoner of war on the Siam-Burma railway, drawing helped him survive.

Ronald Searle had been on my mind for some months. This week he died at the age of 91.

Returning to London after so many years in France, I found myself thinking about my childhood reading. When I grew old enough to buy paperback books for myself, I felt oddly close to Kaye Webb and Searle. Kaye 'signed' every Puffin book I collected, and I treasure the card she wrote to me as a young Puffin club member. Searle felt like my best friend in the shape of Molesworth himself. Among others, I loved his pictures in Down with Skool.

So last autumn, I read the biography of Searle's first wife, Kaye Webb, Valerie Grove's, So Much to Tell which I had picked up at the wonderful Puffin Club exhibition at Seven Stories Newcastle.

Kaye Webb's biography suggests that she never really got over Searle's sudden departure for France and his new love, Monica.

Her work at Puffin really filled a hole in her life. Out of that, she touched and linked the lives of many young readers together in an amazing community of young readers, and budding young writers and illustrators - a kind of SCBWI for the under 16s.

Before the shock of her break up with Searle, their life together in London in the 1950s sounded exciting and creative - their Fleet Street meetings, their working trips, their full life and New Year's parties at their eccentrically decorated house with its novel exterior, by Denys Lasdun, future architect of National Theatre. (They were far-sighted and bought it cheaply - its modernity had frightened other buyers.)

Thanks to Kaye Webb I rediscovered Searle. I hadn't seen the POW drawings for a start. I went to the Cartoon Museum and bought the excellent catalogue of his exhibition there. And I I'm still taking in the incredible breadth of vision he had, working in different fields from reportage, book illustration to cartooning...and defying the labels we all too easily give him.

The UK press continue to shackle Searle with the label of his least favourite series, St Trinian's. As he says in this interview, 'The moment it's successful - kill it!"

An ability to move on, hard work, joy and champagne bubbles; Searle's key to a long working life...

Happy New Year to all, and cheers!

Signing at the French children's book fair, Montreuil with Hervé Tullet, Brian Selznick (of Hugo Cabret), Lorenzo Mattotti, and all...

2011-12-09T02:26:00.001+01:00

I caught this boy reading - totally absorbed - on the Sunday of the French national children's book fair in Montreuil near Paris....

Then I looked left and up - and at the top of the pile of cubes was my bouncing black rabbit from my box of my Sept Comptines à Chanter!

Here's me getting distracted by another child wandering past, while I was signing my Sept Comptines, the original French edition of The Big Book for Little Hands and other books I've illustrated at the Bayard stall. I was sandwiched between (to the right) Nicolas Hubesch, a brilliant comic book illustrator among other things, of Serge Bloch's Zouk series, and to the left, the amazing, innovative artist Hervé Tullet, and author of Moi, c'est Blops.

You can see Hervé Tullet's pink and orange Blops above and the blue spot from the cover of the minimalist Press Me! which is a huge success in the US, as well as in France (where it's simply called Un Livre.)

And there's a blue and green Blops in front of a girl watching Hervé draw.

Does anyone know of another book with a cover that comes in a choice of colours?

Or another book with a whole in the spine like Hervé's Book with a Hole?

And the best thing is that it's not just about the cover - his work changes the way you see and think, all the way through each book....and they are fun and always surprising.

Brian Selznick was also signing at the Bayard stall on Sunday. He seemed to be having a great time behind piles of the French translation of his book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

I love this book for the innovative way it alternates with words, great swathes of pictures when words aren't needed. You need to use your eyes to follow the story. It's a perfect example of the power of visual story telling. Martin Scorcese understands that alright, being a film maker. I heard Selznick talk in Bologna about how film had always been a huge influence on him. (Coincidentally, Shaun Tan said the same thing in Newcastle). I can't wait to see Hugo, Scorcese's film adaptation just out in France and the UK.

And while we're still on guys and Italians - here is the great comic book artist and illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti signing his black and white Hansel and Gretel

However for me, the best thing about the French children's book fair is the huge diversity of beautifully designed books and pictures and illustrators signing with creative colourful 'dedicaces' on every publisher's stall. Above Rue du Monde....below Editions Memo.

and above all a huge diversity of kids of all ages from tiny tots...

to toddlers, not to mention teens....

and their parents and teachers.

What better way to encourage kids to love books than to show all the love and attention put into the creation of books of all kinds at fairs such as this?

My Munich SCBWI picture book workshop -this weekend Oct 22-3, 2011

2011-10-20T13:46:00.000+02:00

This weekend I'm off to give a nice, slow 2 day stir of a big cauldron of creative juices.

If in some way my own stirrings can help some other illustrators get a story down, and help writers see spaces for illustrators on the page - I'll be happy. We'll have plenty to cook up, at any rate. It's also very exciting also to be bringing together SCBWI Germany members, with some illustrators from the German Illustratoren Organisation EV

and from the Austrian Illustria. Thanks to the brilliant young German illustrators and SCBWI members, Constanze von Kitzing and Andrea Offerman (whom I mentored at the SCBWI Los Angeles conference in 2010) for helping us expand the network of child-minded creators across Europe. That sounds weird - but we know what we mean! And biggest thanks - in advance - go to the generous and talented illustrator and coordinator Kirsten Carlson and Donna Weidner RA of SCBWI Germany, without whom none of us would be heading to such a great looking place.

Back to school

2011-09-16T19:28:00.036+02:00

Just got copies of this month's Pomme d'Api magazine from Bayard Presse France which features the illustrations I did in June before I left France, for a 'back to school' story by Hélène Crosnier. And I received a nice note via Bayard from the author...

Little Lea meets a frog on the way to her first day of school.

She's mortified when froggie leaps out of her pocket during class...

Lea slips frog back into her pocket during the mayhem,
but he leaps out again during lunch...

and even joins in on the piano during music class...

To cut the story short, teacher makes the best class use of frog - without dissecting it!

Lea overcomes her shyness and it all ends well.

The deeper story is about overcoming first-day fear, so it needed a softer more reassuring treatment than usual. My in-house teen critic Ella said it reminds her of my very first Toto books published 20 years ago. Having illustrated so many animals, it was great to have the chance to do different kids' characters and expressions here.

Back to school for us all now - but first, now my two resident 16 year olds, Ella and Sam, fresh from France have got into the rhythm of English Sixth Form, I want to take stock of the summer...next post!

Shaun Tan, Puffins and Seven Stories, Newcastle

2011-08-26T03:02:00.000+02:00

"I find", says Tan in his book of sketches The Bird King, "that good drawing requires conscientious effort: active research, careful observation of things around me, ongoing experimentation and reference gathering, all of which exist 'behind the scenes'."

Well I'm so glad I booked some hours off yesterday, away from my usual juggling, crossing England to do a little of that 'behind the scenes' stuff myself, to sketch on the red-eye from London to Newcastle

see Shaun Tan talk and a show celebrating Puffin Books, and meet some scbwi friends at the wonderful Seven Stories.

First, as a young Puffineer (from - arrgh!- the late 60s) the excellent Puffin exhibition at Seven Stories until the end of September was a treat. Very moving to see all the dedicated, 'behind the scenes' work of publishers, authors and illustrators, working together for kids.

The chronogical layout of the show revealed a shift - hum, cultural or commercial? - from what seemed like 'deeper' if not quieter book covers up to the 1970s, which seemed to whisper "open this and give the story a go!"to more marketed, type-cast covers from the 1980s onwards, that seem to shout 'buy this if you like this genre!'

The legendary editor and original Puffin club founder Kaye Webb wrote to me on winning an essay prize when I was 10 or so in red pen, and with some concern "I do hope you like this prize as it's hard to know what you haven't already got." And a similar spirit of openness, respect and delight rings out in all her letters on display sent to authors and illustrators as well as kids. To see preparatory sketches for such masterpieces as Janet Ahlberg's Each Peach, Pear, Plum.. and writers' drafts was like coming home. No photos where allowed in the Puffin show for copyright reasons, so here are some snaps of the lowest of the Seven Stories - the children's Creation Station.

A curiously apt way to tune up for an afternoon in Shaun Tan's imagination...

And so up to the Seventh floor for Shaun Tan's talk.

In a large but intimate attic space, with books hanging in constellations from the rafters,
Shaun Tan began with a disarming smile and spoke in a soft Aussie accent. He was wonderfully unassuming and lucid. He ended too by insisting that he wasn't wise, and didn't want to preach...all he did was "report things in a strange way".

"Staring at a blank piece of paper "Shaun Tan writes in his book The Bird King and other sketches,

"I can't think of anything original. I feel utterly uninspired and unreceptive....in such such circumstances there is only one thing to do: just start drawing....

...Images are not preconceived and then drawn, they are conceived as they are drawn. Indeed, drawing is its own form of thinking, in the same way birdsong is 'thought about" within a bird's throat."

Shaun Tan then quotes the artist Paul Klee's metaphor of the artist as a tree, "drawing from a rich compost of experience - things seen, read, told and dreamt - in order to grow leaves, flowers and fruit...artists do not create so much as transform. That's not to say, the process is a casual or simple one." He talked a bit more about what he wrote here, when I questioned him at the end of his talk. Observational drawing gives you a mental library which you can refer to in the emergency of drawing without having to go back to refer to the original...

Shaun began by speaking of how he liked to resist impossible-to-answer questions such as "what is your 'typical day?" by responding in pictures as he did for the recent newspaper interview in Der Spiegel, which you can see here.
He talked about
- lazy and workful days, all different, in a workplace which is pretty banal, "like a kitchen but with pencils"
- the drafts that land on the floor, the wastage, the starting-over
- the moment somewhere in the middle of a project when it all seems pointless.
That moment when it feels like you are "providing goods and services that no one is asking for and it all seems self-indulgent"
- and then somehow, unexpectedly there's a turning point, when you tell yourself not to worry so much,
a point of uncluttered, un-self-conscious creativity that feels truthful, that is simple and straightforward. Something akin to what child make, unquestioningly as this....

by 3 year old Shaun Tan...pretty amazing!

from Shuan Tan's dinosaur drawing phase at 6 or 7,

From learning that drawing could help him make school friends, and watching lots of TV and films, Shaun moved to writing SciFi. The stories were rejected but he got his first commission for Sci Fi books from the age of 16, illustrating an impressive 200 books in his student years.

This led eventually to his first children's book commission, to illustrate a picture book by the popular young adult fiction writer John Marsden called The Rabbits. Shaun said that to start with he couldn't think of what to draw and then realized that "rabbit" doesn't have to mean a rabbit. It taught him early on something many of us, publishers included, often seem to forget these days - that picture books can be about difficult subjects.

My sketchbook filled fast.
Shaun talked a lot about going against language and fighting preconceptions in his books. We use language, he said, to describe a nameless world...

Finding a new way of looking can help to resist preconceptions.
Humour too can help you think laterally.
And an unexpected reaction in a character can be the source of a story as the surprisingly dead pan manner the main character responds in The Lost Thing.
Shaun stressed how he never 'explains' emotion in his books but hopes to allow a space for the reader to do that. And yet he didn't want to distance readers too much. His mum finds fantasy hard so he does seek some sort of emotional connection.

Here's a model Shaun Tan made to help him develop a book character

In a world of a quickly digested stream of images, Shaun wondered how could you get people to examine pictures for longer, meditatively.
Puzzling or incongruous juxtapositions are one way, and an engaging narrative is another.
His book The Arrival started off as a 32 page picture book with a text. It ended up as a 128 page wordless graphic novel. He got rid of the words. They had pulled the story forward too fast. The beauty of a wordless book is that with pictures you can set the pace to quick or slow, expand or contract it in time, and feel free, unlike in a novel or movie, to jump or flip back easily.

I could go on. But better still, go to Shaun Tan's site for much much more:
http://www.shauntan.net/

Just as when you leave a good exhibition and you find yourself looking at the world in a new way, the evening took on a colour after that spell of Tan's in Seven Stories. Walking along the Tyne towards the train station, marvelling at Newcastle's bridges against a glorious sunset, there were Lost Things everywhere I looked and I wanted to record them all, if only the train hadn't drawn me forward...

The first Summer Solstice Scrawl Crawl in London

2011-06-22T20:11:00.000+02:00

I moved a car load of stuff to our little London house last Friday. It broke down as we got to London in the pouring rain. I must have broken the record for how much you can fit into a teeny Citroen C1 and the fan belt went. All mended now.

Yesterday, the longest day, I cycled from our new home near Brick Lane to the South Bank, near Waterloo Bridge to meet the British SCBWI illustrator coordinator for a day of walking and sketching along the Thames and into the City.

What a great way to re-connect with London!

We chatted and worked and stopped at cafés along the way to blog snapshots of our drawings to others across Europe - all thanks to Kirsten in Germany and Tioka in Paris and the Summer Solstice Scrawl Crawl blog they set up for SCBWI members to post on. Some of my own sketches are here and here

It's great to share processes and see just how different we respond to similar things. And as I said on FB, it's a little like yoga - you stretch in ways you forget about when you're bent over your regular work.

Children's illustrators concerned over UK market

2011-06-15T11:18:00.001+02:00

In the recent issue of the UK Bookseller, Caroline Horn quotes UK illustrator:

Frann Preston-Gannon, who was recently awarded a Maurice Sendak Fellowship in the US, said: "I have had a number of openings for my work in the US, while in the UK, I have been told to change my style to make it more commercial. As a new illustrator [in the UK], the kinds of projects you get are reissues of fairy tales rather than brand new books."

It's a topic that's close to my heart since I stopped working for UK publishers in the early 1990s when a UK publisher a wanted a novelty project I'd written but wanted to use a more "conservative, less European-style" illustrator. I took the project to a French publisher and didn't look back. I've only recently returned with a book published by Bloomsbury US/UK.

Anyhow The Bookseller asked me for my feedback as SCBWI international illustrator advisor. Anyone who knows me would realize that the quote they used, was not all I had to say about the subject. So for what it's worth, here's my expanded 'take', coloured by my own experience.

As I see it, if there is a problem that unpublished, talented illustrators have in the UK, it's not due to the lack of support. Aside from a great variety of workshops and conferences that British Isles SCBWI organizes and the professional back-up of Association of Illustrators, there are initiatives like Booktrust's Best New Illustrators award. A handful of new UK illustrators hit the shelves each year and the lucky few are the object of media attention, prizes and focused marketing. But emerging talent from previous years and 'mid-list' published illustrators have increasingly had to fend for themselves and go wherever the work is.

The problem is more about a shrinking UK home market. Since the first reductions of library budgets in the early 90s, UK publishers have had to be more careful about the new talent they take on. They've done really well on foreign rights sales, second-guessing what other countries want. But the dependency on foreign sales, alongside the restricted commercial demands of UK chain stores, means it's economically well-nigh impossible for a publisher to strike out with a new look with nothing but the courage of your convictions - unless a) you have a niche market like Tate does with its own museum shops, or b) you go into e-publishing and don't expect any fast return. So many UK publishers have been forced to be more cautious than the US or French counterparts, and the kind of ground-breaking, expensive black and white tome like Brian Selnick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret could simply not have been launched in the UK.

I want to believe that this may be changing. British publishers are looking harder for ways to by-pass conservative retailers, and for innovative ways to promote and sell books in online as well as off, and there are e-books and apps.

Book festivals such as at Hay on Wye seem to be increasingly successful at drawing in book-buying crowds and children. Could festival sales help to expand the market for illustrators? Across the Channel, that's what I think happens at the huge French children's book fair which is both a professional fair and a buying jamboree. Held in Montreuil, near Paris, it attracts more UK illustrator visitors each year. Not only is it a diverse window - with many pictures - for stunning new and older talent, but a major if not the primary source for some French publishers of their annual book sales - to school teachers, librarians (armed with larger budgets, it's true, than their UK counterparts), as well as families...and collectors. This in turn means that French publishers can also take risks with new illustrators and foster less 'commercial' but more critically interesting work. And illustrators can arrange to meet editors and art directors at their stands. Sue Porter is just one example of a UK illustrator who did that and found her first French publisher there last year, having become disenchanted with UK commercial constraints.

Another good springboard for new ( not always young!) children's illustrators that used to exist in the UK, but has gone down the television tube, are the richly-illustrated monthly children's magazines which still are going strong in France, the US and elsewhere. Such magazines kept me thinking laterally and paying my bills for years. The French magazines publisher by Bayard, Fleurus and Milan, use a wide range of styles, even edgy and conceptual ones at times, and they are open to foreign talent. As David McKee told me, when he suggested I contact them back in the 90s, working on a monthly project expands your repertoire and allows you to experiment. As turnover is rapid, feedback from experienced art directors is much faster than in the book world. I've seen the work of Helen Stephens, Bob Graham, and Helen Oxenbury among other non-French illustrators in their pages.

Caroline Horn wondered in the Bookseller if the UK needed a Maurice Sendak-like fellowship. Of course a star like Sendak can give confidence to a new illustrator, and help put their name on the map as Quentin Blake did for his Royal College students. But the risk of a star system of mentorship, like some contests, is that it perpetuates a certain 'line' of illustration. From my own experience at the huge SCBWI Los Angeles conference last year, I'd argue that pooling several mentors together, with different viewpoints might work better. But what the six illustrators selected out of the portfolio display needed most of all - what we all need - is the confidence boost that comes from working with an agent, art director or editor.

So what to do if you're a budding book illustrator in the UK? My answer is, expand your horizons! I think Bologna should be on every children's book illustrators agenda, at least once in their life. Its size is daunting but aside from making your mark on the famous Illustrator Wall, it gives you a global sense of the whole publishing business. The Bologna Illustrators competition which tends to foster less commercial illustration, might be worth sending in to. The organizers have told me they don't receive enough work from UK and US artists... And aside from the Illustrator and Author's cafes (where I saw Selznick talk last year) the kilometers of publishers stands display every kind of book for every age from across the world. There are inspiring illustration exhibitions in the centre of town too. In 2012, SCBWI will have its biennial stand in the fair and shows the work of selected members there and online in the Illustrator Display portfolio. It also provides a number of showcase slots for published SCBWI members and pre-booked individual reviews for illustrators with art directors - another reason to join SCBWI wherever you are!

It's worth remembering the cliché that pictures travel. We should embrace the global market more, and learn from it. After all, we are one small planet. And children's author-illustrators are rare birds even if we do all flock together at times.

Big bow wow for this great blog!

2011-04-30T11:47:00.000+02:00

This review makes me want to buy Mini Racer. What am I saying? I'm the illustrator. Oops!
Okay so if the review was for sale, I would buy it. Violet describes my pictures in words. Not many people can do that. Not many people count how the owls there are.
Violet certainly has a power. And her friend Morzant likes snails, like I do.
She also says

"Here is a list of who will like this book

Readers who like to race.
Racers who like read.

Readers who think a car makes a good snack.

Morzant."

If you are not on this list of people who will like this book, don't feel bad.
You can find other reviews on this wonderful blog by Bigfoot and his Crytpic pals including Violet.
I've never had the pleasure of meeting them but I'm so glad they are online. And I like their pictures too.

More pics, less words from Bologna

2011-04-05T23:21:00.000+02:00

Where would the Bologna International Children's Book Fair be without these small people who aren't allowed into it?

But the Book Fair is a serious business. And authors and illustrators' futures can sometimes depend on it. Their publishers may need to sell foreign rights to survive, and make sure their work ends up in childrens' hands.

I discovered this baby in central Bologna. Wenzel Saves the World, is a poor snap of one of Nikolaus Heidelbach's arresting illustrations in the exhibition of his work off the Piazza Maggiore, open until April 17. His beautifully crafted, sometimes disturbing images stayed with me like questions. Here's another from a book about food...

But back to the Fair, starting with a snippet from the famous Illustrator wall.

The 3D stuff this year stood out - though not always their names...

I've always had a problem with illustrations displays. Most children's illustrators aren't working for walls but for books. The Lithuanian artists' exhibition had the best solution I've seen to remind us of this:

and look at the slots where the book was available for consultation!

There's a nice School Library Journal review of some of the Illustrator Competition winners.

Here are some others I liked and snapped (again apologies for the photo quality).

But no trace of an online catalogue so I regret giving my printed catalogue away (I was over my luggage limit) so help - I don't have their names! Can anyone tell me who they are?

Wonderful to wander through the US area and come across the name of a friend on the Scholastic wall...Way to go Brian!

We invited Brian Karas to speak at our SCBWI Bologna conference in....was it 2005? He makes great dummies, books AND trailers for his books. In his trailer for Neville, he talks about his process and the emotion behind that picture book.

And wonderful also to be with another friend, SCBWI international ARA wonder woman, Angela Cerrito as she discovers a copy of her first book The End of the Line for the first time at the Holiday House US publishers' stand! Hot off the press as it's out this month - yay!

Spotted on a poster for a book on the Blue Apple / Chronicle stand,

is a question which could also apply to publishing, illustrators, authors, ideas...

Tools of Change Bologna March 27, 2011

2011-04-04T03:32:00.000+02:00

Well I promised to write it up for SCBWI BI so I took pages of notes at the 2011 Bologna Book Fair's first ever Tools of Change for Publishing Conference entitled "The World of Storytelling is Changing".

Big thanks to Bologna's Roberta Chinni and Neal Hoskins, of Winged Chariot Press who specializes in beautiful children's translated picture books for organizing this new conference. Big news at the Fair afterwards by the way, in case you missed it on the Bookseller, was that WInged Chariot has joined forces with Walker Books.

But how to sum up so much talk in a digestible nugget for all of us time-skint skim readers?

Everyone will have a different angle but I'll start slowly with O'Reilly Media's Joe Wickert who welcomed us early last Sunday morning.
Early television, he said, took a while to develop its own identity, distinct from the radio format it began by emulating. Now similarly we are witnessing the early days of a new form of media. That said, we are still all about storytelling.

Hum. If there was a story to this day, it was a opening chapter with many paths to follow and no sign of a neat plot or ending. The main characters in Bologna were book publishers and digital developers looking at the marketplace, sharing their experience from their many different perspectives, and deciding how to come to terms with new publishing formats and tools that are still evolving rapidly.

With this inevitably comes jargon. From e-pub to android devices and more.
But first, there's a clear difference between e-books which at their simplest are basicially scrollable PDF files of printed books, and apps - applications which can take an enormous variety of forms, not just games or enhanced books.

I wonder how many 'primary content providers' - authors and illustrators from the children's book industry - were there?

Why did I go? On a personal level, because I've got an app project of my own, and I was curious to go back to the Future having experienced the pre history of CD Roms.
After my first children's books were published in the 1990s, I landed a rare salaried job in Paris, brainstorming and storyboarding ideas for 'quality' CD-Roms for children.   I think I did better than the company investors. They paid for my first Mac. Once that bubble burst two or so years later, I was happy to return to books and magazines. But I still have a few of the best, authored CD-Roms on my shelf, by David Macaulay, Claude Delafosse and Roman Victor-Pujebet who paved the way for now, pushing the constraints of that medium to imaginative and playful levels.

I was curious to see if there was any connection. Of course CD-Roms are the skeletons in the cupboard. No one in publishing wants to be reminded of the time and money wasted on them.    Nevertheless, we did learn a few things about that overused word, interactivity. We learnt for a start to be dismissive about the worst excesses of "click and chirp" animation that children quickly tired of, way back, and seem to be resurfacing in digital books at the touch of a finger on the screen.

But this wasn't the time or place to discuss content - and the quality of interaction - at any length. Everyone is still dealing with rapidly changing parameters, the tools, as O'Reilly rightly says, but just the tools, of change.

So here are just a few key notes I made...and if you want more, or want to correct me, please fire away!

Keynote speaker, internationally-known UK publisher Kate Wilson started us off with an impressive battery of facts, figures and market studies. She founded Nosy Crow a year ago and it's growing strong. Their Three Little Pigs app is now out, and Cinderella is on its way, alongside their book list.

Her recent statistics revealed the sharp rise in digital book buying in the US, with the UK lagging behind, though still slightly ahead of the rest of the world.
She talked of traditional book buying going down in the UK mainly due to TV. But can my notes be right? Does the average UK child really watch 2 hours of television a day?

The increase in online buying of books means less impulse buying which is one reason for lower sales. Book stores, she said, need to think about how to create a greater experience to attract customers.
But how to attract people to digital books?   You can't ignore the power of free and cheap so she believes in creating "lite" versions as tasters to tempt people to buy and download the full version later. Most other publishers referred to the need for buyers to sample free 'hooks' or tasters.
Social media like Facebook are increasingly important for promotion. Authors who WERE interested in digital books need to be aware of their own role in this. But there is also a rise of niche critics - the mavens - offering a new source of opinion,"uncorrupt real people on independant forums whose opinion you can trust ". The gatekeepers are changing too.

I'm glad I attended the popular breakout session "The Co-Production Model. Best Practices for Collaborating on eBook and App development " because it was the first time that day I'd heard the name of a specific author-illustrator. This was Lizbeth Zwerger, whose Little Mermaid has been developed digitally by Umesh Shukla of Auryn Inc in a beautiful co-release with Michael Neugebauer, founder of Mineditions and formerly of North South books. I had stumbled upon Auryn/Minedition's app Teddy's Day a month ago and bought it because it looked warm and intriguing. I wasn't disappointed. There were a lot more than "tap and chirp" in the interactions I found in Teddy's room. For example, you could paint a picture you in a little sub activity of the story, and then see it appear reduced at the back of Teddy's room, pinned up on the wall.

Of the other breakouts, I thought the Moms with Apps presentation the most clear and interesting. This is a loose group of independent creators in the US, mothers, fathers, teachers so passionate about educating their children, during a period of educational cutbacks, that they have all created apps of different kinds mostly to make learning fun in original ways. Though lacking the track record and backlist of book publishers, the focus of their work is children, including those with special needs, more than financial gain. Their group site is worth looking at and you can now download an app which is actually a catalogue of all their peer-approved apps.

Martin Salisbury's afternoon keynote, Digital Picturebooks, An Artist's Perspective, was a feast after all the flow charts. Professor of Illustration for the MA Children's Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art and author of some great books about illustration, he described himself as a dinosaur in the digital world, showing some great examples of interaction in the traditional picture book form. He raised some questions as to content. Could narrative structure and the new idea of interactivity be opposing forces? How will we fill those gaps between pictures or page turns that leave us a space to imagine in the way that Scott McCloud describes so well in his Understanding Comics?   He stressed how vital it was to think of this digital book or app, creatively, as an entirely new media.   I agree!

And he ended with the back of Lane Smith's book....

Can it text? Blog? Scroll?

Perfect prelude to the days at the Fair, about which more later!
And big closing news from Roberta Chinni. Next year there'll be two new Bologna awards - one for an ebook and one for an app. Watch this space content providers!

Voice not style

2011-03-23T19:11:00.001+01:00

You can whisper or shout, hum or sing, but we'll recognize your voice - unless you're a perfect mimic. It's that simple, I tell my students who often fret about 'style'. I tell them the style's not what matters...any style could work as long as they are sure about what they're doing, the content that they're talking about - as long as they have a voice.

But not everyone's voice is confident and clear, especially when you're having to prove yourself, do a test piece for a competition or hook a publisher.
It's just like walking onto a stage. You become self-conscious and then shaky.
It's only when you forget about yourself and you think of the message you want to get across, then your voice takes off.

The metaphor works for me, at least, especially as I've often played with styles - and worried in the past, about having different styles. It wasn't until Bayard Jeunesse 'found me out' a few years ago, that I started to relax about my different styles. Bayard had used my bold graphic style in games for their magazines and posters for toddlers, which culminated in this, the Big Book for Little Hands....

which was first published in France in 2006 and then in the UK and elsewhere (and was one of the first 'doodle books' of many following in the wake of Taro Gomi's books for older children)
By that time, they had already tumbled other styles I used for other books in other countries, discovering this

at the 2003 Bologna Book Fair and later this

"But my Kiss, kiss! style is so different from what you know of me! " I told my Bayard art director. "Yes is it", she said, "but it has the same voice".
Funny thing is, you can't quite hear your own voice as it sounds to others. And most people, including me, don't like listening to their own recorded voices. So you can't be self-conscious about it. It just IS!

And here today is Anthony Browne, master of the picture book and British Children's Laureate saying the same thing about voice, at the end of this video. What a wide variety of voices were chosen for this years UK Best New Illustrators awards!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/audioslideshow/2011/mar/22/best-new-illustrators-awards-audio-slideshow?CMP=twt_gu

Brian G Karas's process in Neville, by Norton Juster

2011-03-19T17:55:00.002+01:00

Artist and children's author-illustrator Brian Karas, whom I invited a while back to talk for SCBWI France about his book The Young Zeus,
shows a great way to use a free 3D computer modelling tool, Google Sketchup for visualizing a house and neighbourhood, in his great trailer for his new book Neville written by Norton Juster (of Phantom Tollbooth fame).

But what really makes it all work, in my book, is the feeling behind the process, how he puts himself in in the shoes of his main character, into his world.

When you've got that identification right, when you feel at home in the story, any or every tool you use to help you illustrate it, will work.

As illustrators we can easily get hung up on style - one way to do things, one type of process. To me, that's putting the cart before the horse. The horse is the content - that's what drives us. And with that, we can draw along (excuse the pun!) with a single nib or a whole wonderful cartload of pens, computer software, paints, paper - you name it!

Dots and Dogs

2011-03-15T01:38:00.001+01:00

Spread from Mini Racer © Bridget Strevens-Marzo

I like dots.
I like dogs (and cats).
I like the way a small kid's finger is drawn to touch a dot,
first of all, before any square or a triangle.
I like how the eye of a small child,
the tip of their finger
and the dot,
meet.

If on GotStory Countdown
you scroll beyond Jed Henry's dogs
and Patricia Intriago's book about dots,
you can peek inside a bit more of my work for Mini Racer including a storyboard rough.
And I just realized that it's a a neat visual conclusion;
my Dog car is a Dot car.
In fact it always was a
dotty dog car
from the word GO
as you can see below.
Thank you Joy Chu for putting dogs and dots together and making us all happy!

first sketches for Mini Racers © Bridget Strevens-Marzo with a respectful nod to Richard Scarry

It's official. Mini Racer is rolling & being devoured...

2011-02-15T20:27:00.000+01:00

Woke up my computer today to happen upon a-once-in-a-lifetime feast of a review
for a picture book I've mentioned before but which is officially launched today with Bloomsbury US and UK.

http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com/510925.html

I've never met Jama but I'm so glad to have discovered her Alphabet Soup blog about two great creative obsessions - kid's books and food. Hilarious to discover whole new drama enfold in a kind of afterword, when Little Ted tucks into a 3D version of my Mini Racer mouse's cheese car - in real cheese (don't miss that picture!)

I'm sure Mini Racer author Kristy Dempsey, Jama and I would have such fun planning a Mini Racer party for a bunch of kids - of all ages...
Anyone want to book us?
If not I'll have a go in Photoshop when I've more time. (Happen to be buying a house this week!)

Following Jama's real life lead, in addition to my drawings, I'd bring a few more bits and pieces to play with:

- a French "Langue de Chat" for Snail's skateboard

-
- a British Cadbury's Flake chocolate log for the Racer Owl family to ride on.

- some spare tyres

- and we'd get rolling on top of some wide tape with road markings and all. I must thank Paris-based illustrator friend Jeanne de Sainte Marie (who, incidentally, started off in automotive design) for this great gift.

According to the label, this Road tape is called : A Path to the Future.

And it continues: "This Tape will enhance any package and expand your enjoyment of life".

http://www.dedeceplus.com/plus/dedeceplus_product.cfm?ID=2199

What a great start!

Sorting the mess and 'deskavation'

2011-01-23T20:03:00.005+01:00

Last year was busy, crazily so at times, and there was no time for pondering projects.

Just one commission which I've mentioned before. A cube-shaped bookshelf of seven mini board books of rhymes, Ma Petite Bibliothèque de Sept Comptines à Chanter, published next month with Bayard.

My illustrations to Mini Racer by Kristy Dempsey, are also due out in February 2011 but they were mostly done in 2008-9.

I've talked already about clearing out my parent's home. Many of us have to do that at least once in our lives. Are we ever prepared for it?   I groped for some kind of structure for dealing with it all.
First I archived my father's paintings. In his very limited spare time, Mick helped me put online a web site I wrote about my dad's work.

But I had to tackle the real physical stuff by myself. My father's wall-to-ceiling bookcases of dusty old tomes nearly undid me. I thought of old Soames in the Forsyth Saga, killed by a bookcase falling on top of him. I gave myself a deadline, setting sights on a a time when I'd be free from some of the weight.
Auctioneers, a local charity, and clearance people came for the final haul. I had never appreciated what an essential role such people play in the human ecological cycle; excavating, digesting and recycling for other lives.
And what a lot of stuff there was - half a century of my father and mother's lives, both makers and hoarders in their very different ways.

I kept asking myself, how much more space is there in our world, to fill?
Anyway it got me thinking about creative processes and how much it's about sorting out, structuring, giving meaning, throwing away, bringing to life.
Our shrinking spaces may be one reason why increasing numbers of contemporary artists work with archives.   Rather than generate more stuff, they sort. They take some aspect of the pre-existing stuff, and invent new structures for ordering it, creating new meanings for what's already there.

And I thought about how small kids learn from structures, and want order almost more than they want information, at kindergarten. "Chaque chose à sa place / Everything has its place" my kids were told, encouragingly, in French maternelle school from aged 3. ("If only that were true!" I sometimes think...)   But how kids love putting things in boxes, laying out bricks or plates, fitting one lego onto another - and breaking the order and re-inventing it too.

Back in my home, on a much smaller scale: all the work I'd done for Mini Racer  jammed and finally broke my cheap Ikea drawer. To sort it out, I had to spread the mess all over the floor

I've sorted and kept about a quarter of this 'archive'. A lot has gone into paper recycling.
Really the whole process is all about making messes and sorting them out.

I was delighted to receive last week my pile of advance copies of the US edition. In a real sense, it's a re-ordered fragment of the mess above, condensed into a coherent, beautifully-designed and bound 32 page fly-leaf hardback.

And bravo to all involved in helping make that happen from the first words that Kristy put on a page to send to her agent, to the editor, art director, designer, printers, not to mention the distributors and the guy who packed the box and the delivery man who knocked on my door!
But now I have to find a space for them in my house.
Better get back to excavating papers on my desk and drawing table - a repetitive task which I never quite get to the bottom of....Deskavation - a new word proposed by a listener to Broadcasting house on BBC Radio 4 today.

Back soon but in the meantime, happy new year!

2011-01-09T13:13:00.000+01:00

Starred review and "it's a wild" or Scarry ride?

2010-12-18T20:01:00.004+01:00

Hooray! Mini Racer got a starred review in that venerable US publication, the School Library Journal!

“An array of animals takes off in a race, ensconced in vehicles of every description, from a rainbow-wheeled wheelchair to tricked-out motorcycles and cars made of bananas, logs, carrots, or cheese.

Bouncy rhymes curve along the race course as the critters speed, swerve, and careen around the serpentine country roads, encountering obstacles, crashes, and even having time for a swim.

The journey is as much fun as seeing the skateboarding snail take the winner’s cup for his slow, undistracted pace. Bright, colorful illustrations feature bold dark lines and saucy, big-eyed characters zooming across the spreads.

With a line or two on every page, this book can be used with groups, although kids with the need for speed and a love of vehicles will pore over the pictures and find details to delight on their own.”

- School Library Journal, starred review

This week I've received an advance copy of the Bloomsbury US version - my original choice of 'road' coloured background, elegant dust jacket and all. Here's the back of the Mini Racer:

For the Bloomsbury UK version which is in paperback only, the powerful bookstore chain Waterstones wanted the background yellow - so the designer had to change the tanker top right, to blue. I reckon this background makes it look more Richard Scarry-like.

And talking of Scarry, it's scary how things come back to haunt you from the depths of your childhood. I'm pretty sure Scarry used a cheese or carrot car somewhere. It didn't occur to me when I was drawing. Too busy imagining different energy sources for cars - acorns, water, milk...and what kind of characters and vehicles matched.
That said, when I realized Scarry was lurking somewhere in my illustrations for this particular book, I toyed with dedicating the book to him. I've always loved his details. But then I thought that might be risky - he's not around to approve or not so I dedicated the book to a US friend, Brian G. Karas, whose work I love and who encouraged me when I was working on this way back, during a difficult time when my mother was ill.
Anyway spot the difference in the blurbs too. US "It's a wild ride!" / UK "Who will win the race?"

back on track and leaving behind...

2010-11-06T15:23:00.002+01:00

There are times when you really need to be reminded of what you do and why.

Next week I'm giving two workshops at the SCBWI British Isles conference in Winchester which will help put me back on track.

And now I've just had this first - wonderful - review by Kirkus in the US, a month ahead of the Bloomsbury US publication date for my upcoming book, Mini Racer (author Kristy Dempsey). The UK edition is due out in January:

"'Start your engines! Time to race, / round the corners, take your place.'

So begins this fast-paced rhyming book featuring a diverse animal menagerie in a humorous variety of unique, coordinating vehicles revving to cross the finish line.

Both preschoolers and adults will find much to explore in the bright cartoon-like illustrations as the track weaves past town and “Over, under, in, and through.”

Strevens-Marzo successfully shows the circuitous route through the use of varying, at times almost Cubist perspectives. Each creature’s emotions during the race come across clearly, including frustration at crashing, panicked urgency during a pit stop and the mix of disappointment and elation at the end with the surprise winner. ... Full of zooming action and fender-bender drama, it has definite appeal for youngsters"--Kirkus Reviews

I've had no time to sit down and think about new projects - let alone blog - since my last post. Shuttling between France and England, I've been clearing the way for a new stage in my life.

My parent's house and my father's studio, two lifetimes of memories, is a heavy weight - to shift and to share. Years of 200+ paintings in their home which he didn't sell or give away (there are many more that he did!) . Shelves of books, old music, the trappings of an incurable romantic. Notes by my ma, when as a young Catalan woman, she came to England in the 1950s, not knowing a word of English, and how a guitar (bought on impulse with the money saved for a winter coat) let to her meeting my pa.

Little by little I'm recording what I can. There are stories to share there.

A friend gave me this short film of the place, accompanied by a guitar piece that my father used to play. I've put it on the John Strevens site. It's a lovely gift. And it helps make the letting-go lighter.

And it helps too when I hear my work has got through to the toughest critics of all.

There's nice write-up in a French blog about a certain baby Raoul who has tested and approves of my Snail bath book.

kid's book agents and a new generation of techno mothers

2010-09-12T20:10:00.011+02:00

This past Thursday morning, having finished a small adjustment to a cover for my Bayard book, I took the train into Paris for my first weekly class of the art school year at Parsons Paris - 17 keen new students. After a quick preview of my partner Mick’s painting show near Notre Dame, I made it for 2h15 minutes of Eurostar across the channel to the London tube, then in a rush, a rickshaw through Trafalgar square.

Destination? A top floor of a London pub, before a line up of 5 kid's book agents.

I thought I'd had a busy day. You should have seen the agents!

First at the panel they talked about their aims, practices and history before responding to impromptu questions from the crowded room.

Then, fuelled only by the odd sip of wine, they seemed happy to chat away to a never-ending but polite huddle of authors and illustrators. We were warned not to bombard them with actual projects but still, there was sharing and networking all round.

Not everyone got to talk with the agents - some like me, needed to eat.

As I watched the rapidly diminishing delicious buffet, I poked my head into their huddles simply to offer them a plate of food. No need. As one agent said, she was way beyond hunger.

So, if you need proof, this is it: agents love us authors and illustrators, and go hungry for us.

Nancy Miles of Miles Stot t:

explained they are a small agency representing 40% PB creators, 60% fiction.

They are actively looking for fresh voices, originality, humour and “an innate sense of what resonates with young children of picture book age, generally 3-5 years”.

While proactive in looking for fresh talent and submissions from debut as well as mid-career authors and illustrators, they ARE highly selective.

Nancy’s other comments:

“We’ve always been told it’s tough times for picture books but there is a rise in sale right now though most are classics or one-off bold ventures”.

Writers out there - read this and get going! There is a dearth of middle grade books for feisty females.

You knew of course about the resurgence of YA. She’s looking for yes, dark , but especially, funny YA.

what is Nancy’s editorial input?

It’s part of her job to help edit - and “beat into shape” - a promising project. t’s the agents responsibility she feels, to present the best version possible and save the publisher time.

what is Nancy’s take on the new media?

She’s positive about ebooks, apps etc - the more formats there are, the better for everyone but exactly how much authors will gain is still up for grabs.

Penny Holroyd of Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency Ltd

Penny started out in foriegn rights at Walker Books UK and then went to work in Boston for their sister US company Candlewick for several years, before returning to the UK to become an agent.

Penny's comments:

They push UK publishers to get PBs out despite the reticence of UK retailers.

They are very active in exploring audio, film, tv and merchandizing potential.

Penny’s looking for exciting projects by debut authors in children’s but adult books too. They select v few out of the large pile of submissions. They try to reply in 6 weeks but there are busy seasonal periods so be patient. and please say if you are submitting elsewhere.

Small but punchy she said they look for the stars of tomorrow and are desperate for good picture books - in short, 600 words or less, good character development, a beginning and middle and a funny or heart rending end.

what is her take on the new media?

a true fair royalty for ebooks has yet to emerge.

The tendency is to go for established titles, though she would hate to see that a child’s first discover of a book like The Gruffalo was as an app.

Market is changing everyday.

New media from web sites to video trailers are enabling for authors

so do it!

what is Penny’s editorial input?

Like Nancy she is more than happy to edit

A good PB project may need a lot of work to get it at its best to show a publisher.

what grabs Penny in a new submission?

Title, title, title! A strong voice. Humour. The authors sense of potential for their ideas in other media.

And the cult of the author personality is important.

Jodie Marsh of United Agents

started out as assistant to the highly respected and visually-savvy agent Rosemary Canter when the agency was called PFD .

Jodie now has 16 clients of her own in addition to Rosemary’s 65-70 and is actively seeking more across the board, from YA to PB, both from new and established authors and illustrators.

Jodie said

there’s a movement to more highly illustrated older fiction and is interest in graphic novels and the humour that comes out of comics.

what is Jodie’s editorial input?

Focusing tonight on the illustration side, she said they would happily edit and develop a portfolio ready for presentation and research their potential with publishers before taking on the artist.

Salyanne Sweeney of Watson, Little Ltd

is looking for fresh voices from adult to YA to MG, includes authors like Margaret Mahy and Adam Hart-Davis,

Also has a small numer of illustrators too including Stephen Beisty.

The agency doesn’t take on science fiction or poetry.

What grabs her in a new submission?

A good story hook.

what is Salyanne’s editorial input?

A lot - she does considerable editorial work at times and enjoys it, even if the project doesn’t eventually go further.

Jenny Savill of Andrew Nurnberg Associates

The only agent present to also represent non-fiction. Unlike the others she does not represent picture books.
After a background in kids theatre Jenny started as PA to Andrew Nurnberg. They represent rights for agent and publisher clients in the UK and US and have several offices abroad selling rights of English language books successfully in Western and Eastern European countries and elsewhere.

Jenny's comments
She’s been building their kids author list, actively involved with the amazing book venture of SCBWI British Isles's Undiscovered Voices, among other things. She loves a quirky take, unpredictability, surprise, humour and doesn’t like too much description. She feels that YA for boys is under represented. Write from within, not for the market.
And writers - where is romance for boys? They need it too!
what is Jenny’s take on the new media?
They are watching different countries.
"The app is spawning a new species of techno mummy who will buy an app for her baby first before buying the book."

Thank you to Liz , Miriam and all at the British SCBWI for a buzz of an evening! My ears are still ringing.

And if you were there too, well, I was standing up during their panel with a beer in my hand so my jottings were sketchy. If you were sitting down, please add to, or correct this report!

Back home now, my assistants below, are helping me sort out papers...

All boxed up and ready to go!

2010-08-13T14:49:00.000+02:00

I hit the ground hopping after the LA conference, designing the cover of the little box for the seven French rhyme books to slot into. Bayard explained they'd be sold with a wrapper so I'd need to suggest something of the action of the inside spreads on the outside.

Here's me bleary-eyed in the early hours, with the first prototype to show my editor.

And here's the top of the box with my favourite characters* - the Trois Petits Minous (in the French version of the Three Little Kittens, they get chocolate cream for finding their mittens).

Here are the 3 sides of the box with

the Furet (ferret), the Escargot, the Souris Vert, the Petit Lapin, the Coccinelle ...

Away in the distance, another creature as bleary-eyed as me, brother Jacques.

Ring a bell?

Ding, dong! I'm ready for a real break. Off tomorrow with Mick and Ella to Italy for a week.

I'd hoped to buy an Ipad to use simply as a lightweight colour sketchbook - but they had run out of all Ipads in LA, and in France so I'll bring whatever paints are allowed on the plane.

*The black and white kitty was my childhood mog, Freddy Whiskers. Our current elderly grey Pousse Pousse has had a facelift here. And last but not least, before we even got our new ginger kitten Bowie, I'd drawn this ginger one like a wish...

Another seven books just done

2010-07-27T22:13:00.000+02:00

Here are the covers of seven little board books - each a rhyme - which I just finished this yesterday for Bayard France to slot into a 'bookshelf-cube' which I still have to design. Each book is six spreads. Once again it was all about weaving a picture-story out of a very few words. I added a kind of visual afterword on each back cover ( left sides here are backcovers). Ah yes, another snail - what is it about me and snails this year?!

All that work has left me barely 24 hours to prepare thoughts, words, pictures and clothes for the SCBWI Los Angeles conference and board meeting. Better stop blogging now!

Underwater testing

2010-07-27T20:04:00.000+02:00

Here's the first serious reader of my bath book. His ma tells me he's fascinated by the colourful pictures and its buoyancy. I'm glad it made a big splash.

It's raining snails!

2010-07-01T16:56:00.001+02:00

Just got a big box of my bath books from French Editions Tourbillon. Anyone out there who'd like a snail bath book to review or play with? My bath ain't big enough!

Petit Escargot is an old French rhyme. I showed Snail playing hide and seek with his friends, the ladybird (another back to show off!), and a ant, carrying a strawberry. Why a strawberry? Well aside from matching the colour of all their loads, I see now there's also an ant bearing a strawberry in Ann and Paul Rand's book 'I know a lot of things'. It must have imprinted itself on my memory.
Their wonderful timeless book was published the year I was born and it's been recently reprinted by Chronicle.

My spongy Snail book has with it, a larger than life blow-up snail.
They couldn't add tentacles on the blow-up shape. In the book I drew the eyes on the end of the tentacles. That's where snail's eyes are. It also meant I could hint at a smile in the head shape between in eyes...

Bath books are screen printed - so a limited number of colours - but I wanted to avoid the usual red, yellow, blue combos... It was a pleasure to work with Tourbillon. I love their beautiful books for toddlers - designed with respect for new - and used - eyes!

This says a lot - clever Christophe Niemann!

2010-06-10T19:36:00.004+02:00

http://christophniemann.com/man/bpages/gallery6.html

Maurice Sendak on his work, childhood, inspirations

2010-05-31T22:48:00.000+02:00

Pinning it down

2010-05-19T18:19:00.001+02:00

The wonderful, generous illustrator, author and teacher Pat Cummings came to stay with me in Senlis earlier this month. She and I had fun working together, sharing our pictures and experiences of US, UK and French children's books, publishing and teaching. And we gave a joint 5 hour workshop for Parsons Paris art students and SCBWI France and Germany members called

Shaping a Picture Book and Shaping Character.

We showed a lot of pictures but mostly it was about writing it all out.
When drawing can tend to flutter about or meander from one tempting squiggle to another, words are like pins. Straight, sharp and effective.

We gave a brief advance assignment for part of the workshop:

up to 50 words describing one character of your choice.
up to 50 words describing the setting your character inhabits.
up to 50 words describing a conflict, predicament, or obstacle your character has to confront.

People used this checklist to look over each other's assignments and pin down a character-led picture book structure that could work:

Whose story is it?
Does character description fit the story?
Are the emotions clear? (language, eye-contact, gesture)
How are relationships between characters shown (visual tools, actions, dialogue )
Is the character's behaviour logical for his/her age and situation?
How would the character resolve his/her own problem?
Why do we care?

We ended with another checklist, the final HOT SEAT checklist, in the hunt for that shiver-of-delight picture book ending, rare even in published books.

Is the outcome consistent with the character?
Is it truly surprising? (I’m Coming to Get You! by Tony Ross is a perfect example of a surprise that works - in this case an unexpected change of scale...)
Has the character grown or changed?
Is the conclusion truly satisfying?

Ah yes, editing and endings.
Cutting down to essentials feels easy in the shared energy of a workshop.

So much harder to stay on track back home with distractions on and off screen.
Here's one worthwhile distraction about just this problem, from UK writer Meg Rosoff:
http://www.megrosoff.co.uk/2010/05/11/eight-secrets-for-great-writing/

AimeeLouise Photography: SCBWI - Bologna, Italy

2010-04-06T11:37:00.000+02:00

AimeeLouise Photography: SCBWI - Bologna, Italy

Spring starts in Bologna

2010-03-18T23:22:00.000+01:00

Bologna gets the spring fever going, for kids book people at least.
Publishers are gathering dummies, books, figures and worrying about flights and stands, illustrators might be polishing off a final pic to show, the Italian fair organizers are doing their best to keep calm and organized...

I'm off on Saturday from Paris, to meet SCBWI Bologna keynote speaker and friend Leonard Marcus off his NY plane. I'll be carrying a pile of stuff for the SCBWI Symposium on Monday, as well as a few books and illustrations for my own showcase at the SCBWI Stand (Hall 26, stand A 66) on Tuesday from 1-2pm.

Still caught up with SCBWI emails and powerpoints, so haven't finished my story roughs I was hoping to show.

So hard to get the balance right but when you've been dubbed International Illustrator Liaison you can't procrastinate. I have to think about the group first - a lot of expectations to fulfill the day before the fair opens, moderating panels, helping it go smoothly as possible. And there's an incredible energy in a group of creative people planning together online from many corners across the world, and then converging or a day's conference and a night in the old town.

Then comes the Fair, and work for the SCBWI stand. Last but NOT least, I tell myself, my own work for my own Showcase. I have some cards, and books to show. Do I need to put a small portfolio together at this point? Do I have time? Will I have the energy to paint with my favourite gouaches in the Duelling illustrator event at 3pm ? And where to go next? Well I want to see Shaun Tan at the Illustrators Café at 4pm for a start.

The Fair is first and foremost for publisher to sell co-editions of their books to other countries. I've never been one to push my stuff. Some people manage to do that so well. But it's painful to see young illustrators hugging portfolios like camp beds, looking in vain for a shelter. But who knows what I'll see and who I'll run into? I'm looking forward to exploring Korea and China and Slovakia and....And I can't wait to see the final mock-up of the book I've just done for Bloomsbury. Here's to them selling lots of co-editions of Mini Racer -a whacky race with an ecological twist.
Here's the final final rough cover with a better road colour and another spread.

Pictures and text: Gita Wolf "An expanded organisation of meaning"

2010-03-13T12:37:00.001+01:00

This article by Gita Wolf, publisher of Tara Books, India (who will be joining us on our publishers panel in the SCBWI Bologna symposium next week) says it all so well.
Picture Literature
Here are some snippets from it.

Thought is impossible without an image — Aristotle
When you look at a newspaper article — or an advertisement — what do you see first? The words or the image? And what do you remember later? If you are like most people, the odds are that the picture — the frozen moment or the carefully constructed image — will stay with you longer.
This is simply part of the human condition...

But when it comes to books and literature, pictures (at least for the adult reader) are traditionally seen as mere supplements to the text. Literature has largely come to mean the written word. There is a long and complex history behind why this is so, but the fact remains that in the literate world, the word triumphs over the image...

This is most obvious when we consider children. In children’s literature, we assume that it is the very young child who enjoys picture books. The older a child gets, the more she is lead towards reading ‘proper’ books. Children typically graduate from the visual to the word.
Seen another way, it is implicit that those who can read well will not spend too much time on a visual account of the same thing...

We forget that when a subject is rendered visually, it will not be the same thing.

The way we construct meaning from an image is through our perception of line, colour, form, depth and motion. Even with all this, our perception of the image as a whole is still more than just the sum of its parts. ‘Image’ resonates with the possibilities inherent in ‘imagination’. When words and images work together well, they don’t just say the same thing in two different ways.
They amplify each other, creating an experience that is an altogether distinct and expanded organisation of meaning.

Combining pictures & words
Delving into what this special experience could be has been a key project with Tara — the publishing house I’m part of — for the past decade. We’ve experimented with picture books not only for children, but for readers of all ages, trying to widen the experience of literature, given our fascination with visual communication. Gita Wolf.

Gita Wolf of Tara Books will be talking in our SCBWI Bologna symposium.

On to Bologna!

2010-03-12T01:06:00.000+01:00

On to Bologna!: " As children's publishers from the world over convene in I..."

Re-do and to do!

2010-02-23T23:14:00.002+01:00

My website badly needs updating in time for the Bologna international book fair and our scbwi symposium & showcase there. Last week while in London, I was all set to get that done.

Then I got Mini Racer back from my publishers with their edits . I like their cover rough, and font choice and the basic design but still...

I spent a week editing the edits - in London - on the Channel ferry - and back home in Senlis. Finished at 3am on Monday morning.

The problem with digitally submitted images (although this book was part gouache...) is that it's so easy to cut and paste. Easy as text editing. And everyone has their colour preferences.
And you can re-do and re-do...
Enough said. I'm happier with it now. Here's a small peek (text is roughed in).

This page was the only one I didn't re-touch:

Fingers crossed Mini Racer (written by Kristy Dempsey) will be out this year or next...I should check the date!

All I've got ready for Bologna, is my sample for the Illustrators Display Portfolio on show at the SCBWI stand Hall 26, A 66.
Another glimpse of Mini Racer plus some "cat kids" for Bayard France - a snippet of my line-free work...

Naughty cats kids - they managed to slip out of the SCBWI Bologna online gallery!
http://www.scbwibologna.org/displayportfolio/illustrators-gallery.php

Back in London, back on the plot

2010-02-11T17:16:00.001+01:00

Back to my own work at last, though not at home. Weeks of driving (Senlis to Paris and then across the Channel) and running in the other sense, for the SCBWI Bologna Book Fair symposium and showcase illustrator events in March. http://www.scbwibologna.org.

All this in-betweening takes time. Am I dissappearing into the in-between? Any volunteer will know what I mean. But there's always the pull - the excitement over kids book obsessives like me, converging from across the world to meet in Bologna especially in the old town, at night.

Now, surprisingly at a table looking over a London street, I'm back on a story line, moving only across paper - a welcome change...
And another brief diversion - this phone snap I took later last year, when wandering around the wonderful Oxford Blackwell's. Heartening to see my book in my favourite bookshop. Odd it was under Hobbies and labelled 'Art Appreciation'.
Art Appreciation - I ask you! Sounds so precious.
The Big Book of Shapes, like the Big Book for Little Hands, is not about art or appreciation. It's about action - a book to draw in, with story pictures to complete for fun and as freely as any small hand can and wants to...And that's that! Glad it was on offer. Hope someone small might enjoy it. If anyone can reach up that high to that shelf.
Now better get back to that plot!

B is for Books and borrowing. You can read about everything.

2010-01-19T12:57:00.000+01:00

O be amazed that art and wire
Can so artfully conspire
to reveal that part of man
Which himself he cannot scan!

It's not just about X-rays.
http://www.kb.nl/nieuws/2004/abcboeken/tweedereeks.html
This alphabetical sample of apparently benign ABC books from all cultures and times contains more than this by Joyce Dennys in 1916.

or T for torpedo. Spanning informal sketches to highly designed prints and photography, the transitions reveal extraoridinary cultural shifts as well as some interesting art work.
Enough to keep cultural and political studies people mulling, let alone illustrators.
I nearly missed Zola in a 1900 English parody of Hoffman's 1845 Struwwelpeter
"Z is Zola, see his rage,
Look at him on this very page..."

Pass the parcel

2010-01-18T23:36:00.002+01:00

DSCF0410, originally uploaded by bridget strevens-marzo.

Postman delivered a huge carton box this morning.
Rattling around inside, were 3 tiny boxes - each a bijou collection of board books by different artists.

Very nice of the publisher to send me samples to help me weigh up ideas for a new collection.
Really it's all about scale.
Something their mailing department doesn't understand!

Not quite ready?

2010-01-16T11:04:00.000+01:00

That's my baby!

2010-01-03T17:36:00.000+01:00

As I've told a few friends, it was a surprise bordering on stage-fright.
In London I picked off the shelf of Foyles, this new, unusual-looking book:
Illustrating Children's Picture Books by Steven & Lesley Breen Withrow.
Turn to the title page.
Hey - that's my baby!

A quick sketch of a cover idea for my 2007 Harper US picture book, How do you make a baby smile? by Philemon Sturges.
I wanted a glum baby all alone on the cover. The title called for it. Besides, there are far too many smiles in children's books.
Sadly, glum was not on the marketing menu then.
Now, who'd have guessed? Baby Glum has gone public, ballooning the title at the opening of this new book.

I had received an email from Steven Withrow not long after my piece in the 2007 Original art show at the Society of Illustrators in NY. He interviewed me and asked for some sketches and for my take on picture book form. Answer on page 15.

And here I am in print with 4 pages of 'Artist's Profile' among some illustrious company - Shaun Tan, Polly Dunbar, Bob Staake among them. And there are good words from wonderful writers, Leonard Marcus and Jack Gantos and editors Tessa Strickland and Susan Sherman.

As I'm so colour-obsessed, it's odd there are no finished colour spreads for How do you make a baby smile? - just a big bunch of black ink sketches. Reproduction rights got held up I guess.
But some colour is shown in this particularly messy corner of my studio, post Bologna when I was juggling with a Bayard story and a school visit.

I've not yet had time to read the whole book yet, but already it stands out for its for its variety of voices and viewpoints, and an intelligently wide approach to process. Bravo to Stephen and Leslie Breen Withrow for putting so many goodies together and to Rotovision for the original design.

As for me, I better get over the stage-fright with a better-than-ever book to come!

Quick, quick, slow

2009-12-18T00:36:00.000+01:00

In a week I've been to London and back and wound up Paris courses at Parsons and the American University and revised and got the go-ahead on finals for the Snail book and accepted and done roughs for two spreads for Pomme d'Api and caught up with emails for the scbwi Bologna conference with the great result that Harper US art director Martha Rago and publisher Neal Porter of Roaring Brook US will be joining my First Look panel.
That had to be one sentence.
It was a quick, quick week.
But this morning and evening - a slow slow drive through thick snow to Chantilly station and Paris for my last teaching day until late January.
Here's a colour revison of the rainy Snail cover. Tourbillon like these colours - more spring like?
Now to polishing this (so the rain doesn't look like snow) along with the other 4 spreads up to finals, before we drive off to Blighty on Saturday. Snail's pace again if there's more ice and snow.

The snail's progress

2009-12-08T22:45:00.000+01:00

The French national children's book fair, the Salon du livre de Montreuil always blows a small whirlwind through my studio. I come back with new books and catalogues and leaflets about kids books and receipts with little time to focus on them and sort.
This year I was drawn to several stands like a kid to a sweet shop, intrigued by a flush of interesting colour schemes and playfulness. The first stand that attracted me by happy chance was Tourbillon. Loved their adventurous novelty books. Particularly a little bold black, white and red board book by Xavier Deneux, Mon Cirque which played so cleverly with windows and surprises.   http://www.editions-tourbillon.fr/spip.php?article239

As luck would have it, they were the publishers that contacted me to do the little bath book about the snail. I had said yes, without realizing how much I'd like their books.    It's only 5 spreads. As it's to be screen-printed on plastic, I can only use 5 pantone colours. Refreshed by the Salon, I moved on from my previous snails posted.
Not sure what the art director will say but at the top here is an inside spread of the snail, before we get to his 'house'. It's quite a developed rough.   And here's my rough cover ( back and front on the right) for the bath book which shows the snail's progress since my first post. Does it look like it's raining? I've got puddles on the last page...

Uphill struggles

2009-12-05T11:13:00.000+01:00

There are times when instead of drawing, I feel like this mouse - sleepy from distraction. (In her case she's eaten most of her cheese-cart) Times when like my snail here, I struggle onwards, as the cliche goes - and upwards. And sometimes drawing is speedy - almost too speedy. You love the idea. Woo-ahh! Hang on! Were are you heading? Slow down! This is spread 6 of Mini Racer.

Right on cue, Pat Cummings posted a great cartoon - who's drawing who on? Literally!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50881504643&ref=mf&v=info#/photo.php?pid=31030966&id=1305677000&ref=mf

Snail pace

2009-12-03T00:12:00.000+01:00

I just finished illustrating Mini Racer, a kid's book about a race where I decided a long, long time ago that the snail wins. The author Kristy Dempsey kindly left all the character choices open to me the illustrator. I normally meet deadlines. But this was over a year overdue, more.

Bloomsbury UK/US have been very understanding. My mother died and my son was very ill and I was channel hopping between my daughter continuing school, back home in France and my mother's house near London and my partner's part-time London flat.
There was a lot to sort out.
Including an old studio full of my artist-illustrator father's work. He worked almost every day of the week, almost every month of the year, until he was over 80 - a lot of pictures to take stock of.
But at last, picture by picture, the web site about him which I had promised my mother before she died, is now up. http://www.johnstrevens.com

My son is, fingers crossed, well on the mend.
And picture by picture, the two very different picture books commissioned way back by Little Hare and by Bloomsbury US/UK are now done. I'll talk about them more one day. I better update my own website too one day.

For now, enough that my snail finally crawled, slithered and skated to completion, leaving behind him a lot of work on eleven fellow mini racers, among them gas-guzzling crocs, a high, haughty giraffe that gets stuck in her SUV, an owl family on a trunk, cats on a cycle, a seal on a wheelchair...

Barely had my snail passed the post, than I get a commission for a bath book in limited colours, from a nice French publisher Tourbillon, for another snail. Pourquoi pas?
My first bath book.
And a more graphic snail is now on the menu.
I crawl slowly into any work and into this blog. Patience! Here are first sketches...

and a second roughed in photoshop

Below is an alternative snail. More clumpy but stronger, more bath-like, perhaps.

Choices, choices. Which do you prefer? Maybe I'll find some more in my garden.