All boxed up and ready to go!

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

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

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!

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!

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

Maurice Sendak on his work, childhood, inspirations

Pinning it down

 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:

1.   Whose story is it?
2.   Does character description fit the story?
3.   Are the emotions clear?  (language, eye-contact, gesture)
4.   How are relationships between characters shown  (visual tools, actions, dialogue )
5.   Is the character's behaviour logical for his/her age and situation?
6.   How would the character resolve his/her own problem?
7.   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. 

1. Is the outcome consistent with the character?
2. 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...)
3. Has the character grown or changed?
4. 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/