A simple first at the Library

Yesterday I went to the library with my two-year-old son, Oscar. He picked out a book for me to read to him.

Mid-way through he said: "I don't like this book."

Me: "I don't either, do you want to pick out another one?"

O: "No. Let's finish it."
[I proceed to read more]

Two pages from the end, O: "I don't like this book."

Me: "Should I stop reading it? Do you want another one?"

O: "Hmm. yes. Here, I'll put that back on the shelf." [puts book on top of the shelf, turns back to me.] "Do they have any books with buses?"

Me: "Probably, maybe we should ask."

O: "O-tay. I'll do it all by myself." [he walks up to the counter, careful to make sure I wasn't following him too closely -- "No Mommy, I'm doing it all by myself!"]

At the counter, Bethany (Children's librarian extraordinaire): "Hi, Oscar, what's up?"

O: "Do you have any books with buses?"

Bethany: "Let me check the computer to see what's in. [checks] Yes we do! A school bus book just came in. Should I get it for you from the back?"

O: "O-tay."
[Bethany goes to the back and gets a book, comes back with a Donald Crews Book about school buses -- this woman knows her books.]

O: [smiles big at the school bus book]

Bethany: "Will this one work?"

Still with a big smile on his face, O: "I'll take it!"
[Gives Bethany the library card that I gave him while she was retrieving the book, Bethany checks out the book. O turns back to me hugging his book.]

O: "I did it all by myself!" [Big toothy grin on both his face and Bethany's. ]


Life does not get better than this.

I heart Village Books

I've been stocking up on books to take with me to Malaysia. Apparently there are no libraries where I'm going.
So I've been hanging out a lot at my local indie book store, possibly the best local indie book store north of Powells in Portland:
Village Books.
Village Books has been named the best book store in Western Washington and for good reason. Three stories of awesome independent book store glory. Fantastic literature live events. Great service. And a sweet reader rewards club. Also there's a cafe on the top story with a cozy fireplace and sweeping views of Bellingham Bay. Life does not get much better than hanging out at Village Books.
These photos are from the walls just outside VB's front doors. So there's my plug. If you want to see VB for yourself, you'll have to come to Bellingham. And VB would be worth the trip alone.

I heart you, Village Books

Views from my studio


Rock
(This is a view from my computer's IPhoto collection. I often use photos in my collages -- so I collect oodles of "texture" pictures like this one -- everywhere I go. It's fun to look at the world through such a lens)

Paper
(Reams and reams and reams of it. Drawers of it. Piles of it. Confetti all over the floor.)

Scissors
(Run with them.)

Light

I found this forecast in the paper this morning.
So I thought I'd share a little shiny yellow with the world.
My favorite color: Golden Aspen leaves under just the right light
"We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light" -- Mary Dunbar
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet." -- Jack London
I took these pictures this past fall in Southern Utah and the quotes are from my quote journals.
Which are you going to do today -- find a little light to bask in or be a little light and glow?

Change

My studio is my sanctuary.
I'd rather be there than almost anywhere else.
So it's difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I'll be leaving it soon.

I guess I need to make the formal announcement. Here goes: I'm moving -- my family, my studio, my life -- to Malaysia for two years. My husband has taken a two-year assignment for work there.

As you can imagine, my little world flutters in a whirlwind right now.
This week I had to start packing.

I never in my wildest dreams ever imagined I'd be hauling my studio across the ocean!

But I am.
I have a two-year art retreat waiting for me.
You'll still be able to buy stuff from my etsy shop -- a friend said she'd take care of shipping stuff for me while I'm gone (Thanks Marcy!). But I won't be making new journals and photo albums while I'm gone (get them now, folks! I can't very well do craft shows from Malaysia!).

Instead this will be the first time in my life that I'll be dedicating 100% of my work time to children's book illustration and writing.

Watch out world.
Because even though change whirls around me and my to-do list is longer than my leg and I'm bidding adieu to beloved people and places and responsibilities
--
my center dances in the eye of the storm.
Sitting down at my drawing table to work on the children's book dummy I'm working on makes me feel giddy like an ant at a picnic. And the way I've been getting through this transition is to make sure I keep working on that story that holds my heart.
Every single work day. Every. One.

The rest of the to-do list can wait at least a few hours every day.

Question.
Do you ever find yourself whining? Dragging? Wondering how to get through?
Count your blessings.
Seriously.
Get out a journal and write a few down.
Because that's your eye of the storm.
And you can thrive there.

Welcome To Tabitha's Readers

My online friend and fellow writer, Tabitha Bird, keeps a great blog about writing, reading, and enjoying a creative life. She puts cool posts up about being a mom too. I first found her blog because of a post she put up about how how she "created an addict" -- a reading addict -- out of her son (a woman after my own heart). Check out her blog here.

Today, Tabitha has put up a guest post featuring me and my handmade journals! Thanks, Tabitha. You are super nice. And here's a big HI to any of Tabitha's readers who are stopping by my blog. I hope you are all having a lovely day.

The Wizard Of Oz, Kjersten-Style, From Sketch to Final Art: Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion

This past summer I took part in the Nevada SCBWI mentor program. My assignment for the program was to illustrate three scenes from The Wizard Of Oz, interpreting the story however I wished. The program finished with a fantastic retreat in Virginia City where I had the opportunity to share my final original art with my mentor and fellow mentees (I loved that I got to see my peers' work after they had gone through the same process -- so fun and interesting!). The following is an abbreviated walk-through of parts of my process as I presented it to them. 


SCENE II

The Text:
From Chapter VI of the Wizard of Oz: The Cowardly Lion :
"Don't you dare to bite Toto! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a big beast like you, to bite a poor little dog!"
"I didn't bite him," said the Lion, as he rubbed his nose where Dorothy had hit it.
"No, but you tried to," she retorted. "You are nothing but a big coward."
Thumbnail:
This is a revised thumbnail I based the final drawing on:

The First Drawing:
To prevent my drawings from stiffening too much along the journey from drawing to cut-out collage I piece together my drawings in photoshop.
This allows me to use the freshest sketches I can as templates when I cut my final art. It allows me to size the characters and other elements of the drawing right without redrawing or tracing them a lot.
Often I'll draw the characters first, scan them into photoshop and re-size them so they are proportional to one another. Then I draw the background separately and piece it together in photoshop.
Revision:
  • I changed the Scarecrow and tin-man's poses. While I liked their poses in my first draft, they kind of looked like they were watching a play or resting, rather than being scared of the lion or crumpled on the ground. Plus my third scene had them crumpled on the ground and I wanted variety. I decided to try more active poses. Here's a sketch of the scarecrow in a more active pose that I didn't use for the final drawing:
  • In the end I changed the poses but kept the focus of the action on the relationship between the lion and Dorothy. I thought if I got too dramatic with the tin-man and scarecrow, it would take focus away from the main characters in the scene.
The Final Drawing:
Making the Final Art:

On Risks and Revision in the final stages of work:
Notice how the greenery changes in the last couple of frames of this photo sequence. Occasionally when I "finish" a piece I decide something I did with the background (that's already glued down) needs to be changed. It can be tricky to peel up one paper in favor of a change --and scary --what if it doesn't work?

Defense one:
I've worked with paper enough making my handmade books over the course of the last decade that I generally can tell when I can get away with it or not. So knowing my medium is defense one.

And if it indeed hadn't worked?
Defense two:
Problem solving and brain-storming. Being creative does not only mean drawing pretty pictures. It also means creatively solving problems.

It's exciting (and terrifying) to take a risk when a piece is almost finished. But my job is to make my illustrations the best that they can be. Sometimes to make things the best you have to take scary risks. You have to know your medium well enough (through lots of practice) to have a good idea of when those risks are worth it. Then you have to know your medium well enough to be able to problem-solve and brainstorm when a risk goes awry and new challenges presents themselves.

Final Collage:
I listened to the audio versions of The Hunger Games, and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins while I made this illustration. I can't look at that forest without thinking of those books. Do you ever listen to books on tape that influence your art?


P.S. I made two other Wizard of Oz illustration samples as part of the mentor program. Here are links to posts about the process for those scenes:
Scene I
Scene III

The Wizard Of Oz, Kjersten-Style, From Sketch to Final Art: Glinda and Dorothy

This past summer I took part in the Nevada SCBWI mentor program. My assignment for the program was to illustrate three scenes from The Wizard Of Oz, interpreting the story however I wished. The program finished with a fantastic retreat in Virginia City where I had the opportunity to share my final original art with my mentor and fellow mentees (I loved that I got to see my peers' work after they had gone through the same process -- so fun and interesting!). The following is an abbreviated walk-through of parts of my process as I presented it to them.

SCENE I

The Text:
From Chapter II of the Wizard of Oz: The Council With The Munchkins (edited slightly to be more picture-book friendly, or in other words, more concise)
Dorothy began to sob, at this, for she felt lonely among all these strange people. So Glinda took off her cap and balanced the point on the tip of her nose. She counted "one, two, three!" And the cap changed to a slate on which was written:
"LET DOROTHY GO TO THE CITY OF EMERALDS."
Thumbnails:
I drew many pages of thumbnails to get an idea of my composition. None of the thumbnails pictured here were ones I ended up using, but they show the process.
Detailed Roughs:
After drawing lots of thumbnails I chose two I liked best.
Both had Dorothy and Glinda in prominent places. Since they are the main characters in the scene I drew them more cleanly, scanned them into photoshop and made rough drawings based on the two thumbnails I liked to help me choose which composition I liked more.
I ended up choosing the second composition because I liked how it showed the promise of Oz in the background. I thought it captured the spirit of the moment better.

Scenes from my sketchbook:



First Full Drawing:Revisions:
  • Changed the munchkins to have more variety in their expressions. Even though the original text suggested the munchkins were all sad for Dorothy, they would react to what Glinda was doing, and I needed to show that.
  • Changed the background so it had more depth -- a foreshadowing of the journey Dorothy is about to embark on.
Final Drawing:
Notes of interest: I was at liberty to interpret the Wizard of Oz how I chose. In the book, L. Frank Baum never refers to the Witch of the North as "Glinda." But we all know her as Glinda from the movie, so I edited the text to include her name.

Making the Final Art:


Final Collage:
P.S. I made two other Wizard of Oz illustration samples as part of the mentor program. Here are links to posts about the process for those scenes:
Scene II
Scene III

Good News in the mail!

The very last piece of mail in the giant stack of mail that was delivered to my house after being gone for a week was an official looking envelope from Writer's Digest.

The letter inside informed me that my story, Patchwork By The River (submitted under the title Patchwork Goodness) got an Honorable Mention in the Children's/Young Adult Fiction category of the 78th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition! Sweet!

It feels pretty awesome to get a happy letter in the mail, even if it's only an honorable mention. Honorable mention is nice. And for my writing, not even my art (plus I never enter contests -- this one was a fluke, I swear). Kinda makes having the flu more tolerable.

Does anyone else feel tired after a great retreat?

My head and heart are still swelling with gratitude, information and illustration stuff after my SCBWI Nevada mentor retreat last weekend! It went great. One of the best SCBWI events I've been a part of. I'm so so so pleased with the program -- I can't say enough good things about it. I can't wait to post my final illustrations, and some about the process and will when I get home.

But right now I'm in southern Utah enjoying canyons and pretty things with the family this week. So I don't want to spend too much time on the internet. BUT! I must share this funny video that my mentor made with Yuyi Morales. It captures the tired and full-headed feeling we all feel at the end of a conference or retreat. To get it you have to watch this oft-watched youtube video first (DAVID AFTER THE DENTIST):



Okay, so here's the art director after the retreat. I'm glad he didn't react that way when he first saw my art! (But that is my art! Mine and Yuyi Morales')



Okay, that's enough internet for me. My head is still full.

KEEPING ALL HATS IN THE AIR FALL FRIDAY SERIES: Mornings are best for routines

There’s the researcher hat, the networking hat, the business hat, the editor hat and the art-spectator or the reader hat – whew! With so much other “work” to do, it can be difficult to find the time to actually write or do your artwork. This series talks about priorities and goal setting. How do you juggle all the aspects of your writing and/or art career? Inspired by a SCBWI WWA Bellingham Network Schmooze that took place in Sept, 2009.

THE TIP:
My friend and fellow writer Barbara Davis-Pyles used to work in psychology. She opened my eyes to the fact that mornings are generally the most habitual time of the day for people. She says that if you want to start a habit, try adding it to your morning ritual.

So, what's the first thing you do in your day?

BEFORE:
I used to start by tackling some email over breakfast. I did this because even though I love correspondence, I'm introverted -- I tend to procrastinate with it. So I figured, tackle the hard stuff first.

But the hard stuff wasn't my first priority! Starting with email used a chunk of the freshest part of the day. Also, because I procrastinate with email, I sometimes ended up surfing the internet between emails. And it set a tone for the rest of the day that didn’t energize me.

AFTER:
For the past two weeks instead of email with breakfast, I've read the paper (as I used to do later in the day) and I've spent time visioning my day out in my day-planner (as I used to after I took time to answer email).

Then after breakfast, everyday, I've spent 15 minutes doing Yoga -- centering myself -- and setting a good tone for the day (YAY! this has been my favorite change!).

Then, if it's a workday, it's art time. I've given myself permission to neglect all correspondence or business until after noon (I’ve shot off the occasional fast email that was pestering my mind, but for the most part, I’ve let it go).

This is a huge deal. I don't procrastinate on my art. Art is what I want to be doing. When I give myself permission to do it, it's what I do.

THE RESULTS:
WOW!
Despite having an incredibly full plate the last two weeks, I've accomplished so much of my own work. That is a good, good feeling.

So I'm curious about your morning ritual? Is there a habit you'd like to start or break? What's your morning going to look like from now on?

P.S. My friend Karen Ann Chalupnik who also attended the schmooze that inspired this series put a great post up on her blog recently about a change she's made based on the schmooze. Read about it here.

FALL FRIDAY SERIES: Keeping All Hats in the Air

How do you juggle all aspects of your art/writing career?

I've been pondering this question a lot over the last week and a half. Actually I'm going to risk sounding overly dramatic here. I feel like I've seen the light.

My life has changed in the last week and a half (in more ways than one -- but that is a teaser for a later blog post...).

The inspiration: A schmooze. No kidding! A regular old SCBWI WWA Bellingham Network Schmooze with the above question as our discussion topic. I got some of the most helpful tips for my art life that I've ever received at that schmooze.

I was about to write the remainders from the evening that still have been percolating in my head and heart but I ran out of my allowed time to finish this post (aha! An idea from the schmooze...) I still have so much to share though!

I've decided this is my cue for a new Friday series. A fall series. Welcome to Keeping All Hats In the Air! Stay tuned for a new tip every Friday throughout the fall. I'm aiming to share helpful things with all of you, AND to keep myself on track...

I'm excited to see how this works out!

Treasure Hunt: Mosaics in The Bay Area

Artists don't only create. We seek. We search.
We seek for a different way to look at the world.
We seek for the old to be fresh again.
We seek for the fresh to also feel old.
We seek color. Rich color.
We seek texture. We seek movement.
We seek inspiration. We seek these things in our own work. We seek these things in others' work. We seek these things in the world.
So we treasure hunt. At least I do. Every now and then, especially while I'm traveling, I set my mind's dial towards a sort of treasure I seek. Maybe an aesthetic. Maybe a color. Maybe a texture.
Or maybe a medium that can teach me something about my own.

Then it's my job to stay open to the possibilities and opportunities that present themselves.
What is it that makes an artist's radar work?
Is it training? Is it fine-tuning one's eye to notice stuff? Is it dumb luck?
I'm not sure.

But I'm always grateful when I stumble upon the treasure I seek.

To be continued...

SUMMER FRIDAY TRAVEL JOURNAL SERIES: In Crayon

THANKS to all moms everywhere who save kid-art.
When I was about 14 I decided the few travel journals I had kept when younger were "so embarrassing." I tossed them.
Or so I thought.
It was like Christmas when my mom drug these out of a box for me a couple years ago.
The drawings pictured here are from one of the first road trips I ever took. While I sat in the back seat of the car, I drew stuff I saw along the way.
One of my favorite pages isn't pictured here. It's of a traffic jam. I was from a really small town. A traffic jam seemed exotic to me at the time.

The other journal my mom saved was a gift from beloved teacher. She gave me the journal below right before I left for a month long road-trip my extended family took in Europe when I was 10 years old. We met relatives in Sweden. We went to the original LEGOLAND in Denmark. And most memorable of all: My Grandfather revisited places he fought in WWII, including the beaches of Normandy, where he landed on D-day. He told us stories. Old people hugged him in the streets and gave us free hot dogs. Wow.
It's funny. I wrote about things like the quality of the water in the showers instead of Grandpa's stories (although I did write quite a bit about Legoland). I guess that's why I tossed the thing when I was 14. I felt I hadn't written about any of the real stuff.

But I'm so happy now to re-read what the showers were like on that trip.
I'm happy to see my old hand-writing and remember the trip through the lines.
Thanks Mom, for saving me from my own inner critic!

Hopefully I can do the same for Oscar.

P.S. Okay ya, you are right. It is Saturday, not Friday. I'm a day late. And sad, but true -- the summer is winding down it is just about time to bid farewell to my Summer series and cook up something new for the fall. How about 2 more weeks of travel journals though? After all, summer isn't quite over yet...


Me As A Muppet

Have you been to the Jim Henson exhibit at Experience Music Project in Seattle yet?
You only have until August 16!
I put this quote from one of the exhibit's signs in my journal:
"Jim Henson described his characters as his palette."
The best part of the day: I GOT TO BE A MUPPET!!!!!!
I even got to play in a Muppet band a few times.
Lest you think I'm exaggerating when I tell you that this moment was a dream come true, here is a picture of me from high school with my favorite puppet that I made back then:
The puppet's name is Boris. He lives above my drawing table (next to a few other puppets) and distracts my muse when I should be working. Or maybe he reminds me to use my characters as palette. Ya, that's the ticket!

As a bonus after I checked out the Jim Henson exhibit, I also checked out the exhibit: American Letterpress: The Art Of The Hatch Show Print.
I'm sorry, I failed and am blogging about this after the show is over.
But if you like letterpress work, here's a cool video that was at the show about Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest letterpress companies in the US:

We're Off to See The Wizard!

I've been working on sample illustrations for THE WIZARD OF OZ.

They're a part of my Nevada SCBWI mentor program assignment.
So far I've been working on my characters and the overall feel that the samples will have.
Pictured here: what I did for the assignment in May and June.
I started this project by checking out every version of the Wizard of Oz that my library had on file. I looked through all the pictures. I read the story, listened to it again on tape and read the graphic novel. I watched 3 different movie versions.
Finding my own angle was the biggest challenge. What could I add to the story?
After looking through so many versions and brainstorming a lot, my favorite approach to the characters turned out to be rather traditional but with a certain younger-kid-appeal/simplicity that I felt wasn't always there in other versions. I'm not sure if I achieved that or not, or if it matters, but that's what I was trying for.
These characters are not set in stone, I may still change parts of them. And I may not use all of them.
It's pretty common for illustrators to illustrate a few scenes from a well-known story to make samples for their portfolio. It's been a fun challenge for me.
The illustrations I'll be making are not for anything that will be published so I'll try to share some of my process over the summer.
It makes me happy to be filled with Wizard Of Oz thoughts so much this summer. I often sing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," to my son at night. It's one of my favorite songs.

SUMMER FRIDAY TRAVEL JOURNAL SERIES: Notetaking in Museums and Art Pilgrimages

Have you ever taken a pilgrimage for art? How did you document your trip, if you did at all?

In 1999, fresh from graduating from college, I was lucky enough to go to Europe to spend 3 months looking at art (I spent all my frequent flier miles to get there -- I had a lot, I was an out-of-state student, plus I also think I used some of my mom's miles, thanks mom!).
I spent on average about 8-10 hours a day in museums (honestly), planning my day around what museums opened earliest and which ones closed latest. I often didn't stop for eating (not a good idea -- unless you want to loose a lot of weight fast, which I did; my sister wanted to know if I had an eating disorder when I got home).And everywhere I went I bought postcards. While I was at the museums and galleries, I took copious notes that I transferred onto the backs of the postcards at night. I thought I'd have a little booklet of postcards by the end of the trip. HA! I had 4 enormous binders full (I ditched lots of stuff from my pack as I went along, to make room for my journals, by the end of the trip I was REALLY sick of my 2 shirts).
Anyway, it was a dream trip. I spent days in places like the Prado, the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and countless others. I spent entire hours in front of single paintings (like Guernica).By taking notes, I forced myself to slow down and really look at all sorts of things, color, texture, composition. The notes were silly (and are tedious to look back at), but the act of taking them helped train my eye to look. After all, I had to look for something to write about.I also made a point to never spend longer reading or writing than I spent looking. Looking took precedence. And making a point to spend more time looking also trained me to look. By the end of the trip I took hardly any notes at all. It was like meditation. I would just loose that side of my brain and be a part of the colors and vistas before me.
Because I only had three months, I edited lots of locations from my initial itinerary. I wanted to enjoy the places I did go, and look at ALL the art I wanted to see in each of those places.

My biggest regret from the trip (save for missing things that were closed for renovation -- it seemed that many places were closed for renovation in 1999 -- prep work for 2000?) was that I skipped out on a few amazing art towns in Spain.
Like Toledo, and Bilbao.
While I planned the trip I took to Spain this past February, I swore I would make up for lost time.
It didn't end up working for us to go to Bilbao, But I made my Grandma skip Madrid so we could spend time in Toledo.
Unfortunately when we got to Toledo, quite a few places were closed for renovation (go figure!) but what was open turned out to be the perfect amount to see in the amount of time we had there anyway.
This time I didn't take notes while I looked at the art at all. I just soaked it all in.

P.S. Interesting side note to this post: I took something home other than 4 enormous binders of art postcards from my trip in 1999. I fell in love on that trip. No kidding. My husband and I met in Rome and then again in Venice. And then again in Paris... And then again in Seattle. Bryce was touring around checking out the spring classic bike races (his biggest passion is bike racing). Our first kiss was in front of Claes Oldenburg's Buried Bicycle sculpture in Paris: