Art from UP

     Ever wonder about the process animation studios go through to make a movie? Here are some wonderful studies, models, and videos posted by one of the guys working on UP, Lou Romano: Art of UP. The third video is especially nice as it includes some of the soundtrack too - quite soothing.
     Thanks to Wendy Edelson for the link!

Embrace Change NOW

 And go read this fantastic article by Jane Friedman at Writer's Digest: 5 Ways Writers & Book Publishers Need to Embrace Change NOW.

Finger Painting on the iPhone

     Have you seen the cover of the New Yorker? Everybody's talking about it because the illustrator, Jorge Colombo, created it on his iPhone using an application called Brushes. And here's a cool video of his process:







     So, I downloaded the program and gave it a go...
I obviously need practice!!

The new dining room

     Okay - I know this isn't exactly earth-shaking news, or even kids books related, but some of you expressed interest in seeing the "After" when I posted on facebook that I was trying to decide what color to paint our dining room walls. So, for a voyeuristic peek into my life I give you the before:

     It was dark and cavernous, not at all inviting, and frankly didn't set off our awesome new painting by James Dean one bit.
     So, I went with a suede below the chair rail (which picks up on some of the more subtle colors in the painting) and a buckskin above (that's yellow to all you non-artsy types) - which beautifully sets off the painting. (We moved the painting to the left wall where you can see the entire thing without obstruction the moment you walk in the door.) We painted the ceiling a subtle yellow-white too - like meringue. The white trim really 'pops' now. We also pulled the extra end chairs in from other rooms, bought new faux silk drapes in a soft yellow (thank you Target!), and bought a new buffet.
     Hubbie kind of got hoodwinked into that one - he didn't want to paint the kitchen over the holiday weekend and suggested a road trip to Madison, Georgia instead. They happen to have one of my all-time fave stores, In High Cotton, (he knew this) and I said it would cost him... ha! So here is the new buffet:

And... drum roll please... here is the new dining room:

     You should see it at night - it positively glows! Of course, I find it ironic that except for any teal in the room (although there's a bit in the painting), I have once again fallen in with my personal color palette (like in my office re-do). Can't seem to stay away from those colors! We may still add some more art to the walls - but some of it is away at the SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrators' Gallery Show until next Sunday...
     So, last night we ordered Chinese delivery and ate in our new dining room - lovely!

Coloring Page Tuesday - Pigeons

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     Cooo - cooo. Some kids live in urban areas with lots of pigeons. How about you? Here are three pigeons sitting on a sill. What do you suppose they're looking at?
     Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send me your colored version (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog!


     Learn about my Cinderella story picture book, The Prince's Diary, click the cover.

2009 SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrators' Gallery Show

     Our 2nd Annual SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Southern Breeze Children's Book Illustrators' Gallery Show came together beautifully. We had six illustrators participating: Me, Liz Conrad, Ami Blackford, Daniel Powers, Laura Knorr, and Mark Braught.
     This year we employed our new grid system which allowed us to move the show to the main floor of Little Shop of Stories and meant Liz and I didn't have to do any math - yeah! It also provided us with shelves on which to place the corresponding books with each piece of art (still low enough for reaching hands).
     Opening night was Friday during the Decatur Arts Festival's ArtWalk, and despite a light rain, there was a good crowd throughout the evening. We sold books - here's Ami signing for a young fan. I drew some cows. We ate cheese and hummus, drank wine, and got to hang out with our buds.
     Donna Bowman, our Southern Breeze co-regional advisor made wonderful signs to go with each piece, as well as signs explaining what the show was about. She also made sweet things for the illustrators - a name-tag, signing pen, and chocolate bar. Thanks Donna! (She's behind the camera in all these pictures.)
     Daniel wasn't able to join us (he lives in Savannah) but everybody else came by. Here's Me, Liz and Ami:

and Laura and Mark:

and Liz with some of the books that went with the artwork:

     Big fuzzy thanks go out to Diane Capriola and Dave Shallengberger and the staff of Little Shop of Stories as well as Mark Little. Their continued support of our local talent has been an enormous asset to our region. Thanks again to Donna and Southern Breeze. And thanks as well to Decatur, Georgia for giving us the perfect event to tie in with during our annual show!

Update! More pictures!!...
Here's Mark and Little Shop store manager (and author of PURE), Terra McVoy. (You can also see Justin in the background there. He's the 'go to' guy for graphic novels!)

Here's me drawing a cow for a rapt audience:

Laura and me near her art:

and Me and Liz between our art:

And finally one of Donna in front of the camera!

Yeah!

Fabulous Furniture Design

     Ahhhh. Sunday is the day to explore links to things you don't typically have time for during your busy week. And here's a perfect site to go kick around in: Straight Line Designs Inc. It's the furniture you wish you had for a simpler, wonkier world.
     (Thanks to Ann Koffsky for the link.)

Aaarrr, me facebook Matees...

     OMG - are you on facebook? Well, they have a new language option you have GOT to see to believe.
     Go to your facebook page and scroll to the very bottom. On the left you'll see the link "English (US)" - click it. Lots of language options will come up... including "English (Pirate)." OMG. Choose that!
     Suddenly your "friends" will be "Me Hearties." Your "Mail" will become "Bottle o' Messages." And your "wall" will say "What be troublin' ye?"
     It's HILARIOUS!!! You gotta try it out!

Illustration Friday: Cracked

     Senora Soto had broken her eggs and blamed Hugo for the mess. See all those cracked eggs?
     Yup - another sneak peek at Soap, soap, soap ~ Jabón, jabón, jabón! My first picture book as both author and illustrator that comes out this Fall! (Click the image to see it larger.)

SCBWI Gallery Show Opens Tonight!

     Remember Last Year's incredibly successful Gallery Show? Well, it'll be hard to top it - especially considering last year's show was picked up by the Southern Arts Federation (an arm of the National Endowment for the Arts) to travel the South for two years as:

but you never know.
     Tonight (Friday, May 22nd) is ArtWalk - opening night for the Decatur Arts Festival from 5 - 10 pm in downtown Decatur Georgia, and our SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Southern Breeze Children's Book Illustrators' Gallery Show will once again be hosted by our independent children's book store, Little Shop of Stories. All the galleries in downtown Decatur will be open for the event, many will offer wine and snacks. It should be a lovely evening. I sure hope you can come!

Rick Riordan on tour!

     If you haven't heard about the release of the last book in the Percy Jackson series, THE LAST OLYMPIAN, than you obviously don't have a tweener in the house. The author, Rick Riordan, has been on a cross country tour for two weeks promoting it. Monday was his next to last stop in Decatur, Georgia hosted by Little Shop of Stories.
     Obviously the store couldn't hold the crowds, so the event was held at the local rec center. This photo doesn't even begin to do the crowd justice. It wrapped up the bleachers on both sides and was the most crowded book event I have ever seen for one author. Amazingly, Rick signed every book the kids brought - I'm talking hundreds of kids who had every book in the series. The man is surely returning home with a serious case of carpel tunnel syndrome.
     I went with my friend Vicky Alvear Shecter and we couldn't help but wonder if we'd ever get crowds like that. "Not likely," we decided, but it brought up the question of why?
     The answer was simple enough. We don't write those kinds of books. The kinds of books that hit that particular age where kids are soaking up knowledge like a sponge, collecting facts and trying to know as much as they can about a given subject. That age when they adore action-packed series and are not too self-conscious yet to worry about being publicly fired up about something they love.
     Remember being that age? I do. Back then, I was horse crazy and my best friend and I had collected the stats on every thoroughbred on the racing circuit. We knew them backwards and forward and correctly predicted the winning line-up of all the big horse races that year. We knew our stuff.
     So do the fans of Percy Jackson. They know their Greek Mythology, even though it's not traditionally taught in public schools, they know it inside out. And they crave more. Hence, the crowds.
     So, it brings up the question - who is your market? Who are you writing for? Is it a stand-alone novel, a series, or an information junkies dream? All these things will affect your following.
     I'm not saying there's anything wrong with not writing to this demographic, it's just an interesting exercise to be aware of it. And it's a whole lot of fun to watch 4th graders and up when they are really passionate about a subject.
     So who are you writing for?

Thoughts on Line Art

     If you've ever attended one of my Beginning Drawing Classes, you know how hyped up I get about line quality. It's often the difference between amateur and professional looking drawings. Why? Because just like shadowing can imply volume and light, so can line.
     The first thing I have students do in my classes is draw eggs – with line. The line is thinner where the light hits and thicker where shadow will fall.
     The master of good line quality was Charles Shulz - yup, of Peanuts fame. I spent over six years drawing Charlie Brown and Snoopy for a children's clothing company. To mimic his line quality, we'd draw two shaky lines side by side and fill them in. It wasn't easy to do. And when you look at his work closely, you'll see what I mean.
     It's something I try to stress when I create my coloring pages - variation of line. It's important and it creates . . . a sense of quality to a drawing. No way around it.
     Just as I stress getting the color and light correct in your work (read my article, "Illuminating Color"), line is important too.
     So, Loreen Leedy from my Picture Book Artists board turned me onto this fantastic TUTORIAL (click the image) by Bob Ostrom of how he achieves his line quality. I highly suggest reading it if this is something you struggle with.
     And while I don't use the blue or red pencils for sketching, or use Illustrator like he does, his method is very similar to how I create the coloring pages for y'all every week.
     1. Pencil sketch by hand, usually while watching TV with hubbie in the evening.
     2. Scan it into my computer the next day.
     3. Recreate the drawing on a separate layer (sometimes many layers) using my Wacom tablet in Photoshop - so I can get that yummy variation of line.
(Here's a before and after example.)
      And Voila! Groovy, eh?

Coloring Page Tuesday - Gardening Bear

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     It's Spring and I've just been itching to get my fingers in the dirt and make pretty things come out of the ground. You too? Have you planted a tomato plant or a flowering something yet?
     Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send me your colored version (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog!


     Paco planted a pepper plant! Learn more - click the cover.

Michelle Knudsen's The Dragon of Trelian!

     I must admit I'm a sucker for a book with a dragon on the cover. Fantasy is my brain candy - the first books that made me really love reading.
     So when my friend Michelle Knudsen came out with her first novel and it was a fantasy AND it had a dragon on the cover - well... I didn't know whether or not to tell her it took me less than 24 hours to read it. After all the hard work she put into it, and I couldn't put it down. Zoomed right through it, yup. And LOVED IT!!
     So, I'm thrilled to be able to ask Michelle a few questions about it...

Q.     This is your first novel, right? Tell us a bit about your publishing/writing history prior to "The Dragon of Trelian."

A.     It is my first novel, but it's actually my 40th book. Over the last 12 years or so I've written board books, beginning readers, picture books, and coloring and activity books. I started out on the editorial side of the desk, working at Random House Children's Books. While I was there I wrote the text for some "in-house" projects, including lift-the-flap books and mass market picture books. Over time I began writing and submitting my own manuscripts, and eventually left editing full-time in order to focus more on writing. I still do some freelance editing on the side, though. My best-known book so far is my picture book Library Lion, illustrated by the excellent Kevin Hawkes.

Note: Library Lion was a New York Times Best-selling and multiple award-winning picture book!
Q.     What inspired you to write a fantasy novel? Are you a fan of the genre as well?

A.     I've been a devoted fan of fantasy and science fiction since I was a child. In fact, before I knew I wanted to write for children, I knew I wanted to write fantasy novels. That had been my dream since around junior high school. It took me a long time to feel brave enough to start one, though. And a long time to finish it! But I loved working on it - fantasy novels are still my favorite books to read, and I was so excited to try and write one myself.

Q.     I love the strong characters, Calen and Meg (wowsa what a strong female!) - how did they come to you, are they like you at all, do they talk to you?

A.     I never know exactly where my characters come from. I knew at the start that the main characters in this book would be a girl and a boy, and eventually realized they were a princess and a mage's apprentice, but I didn't know very much about them until I started writing the first draft. The writing process was also a process of getting to know Meg and Calen, seeing what happened on the page and learning more about their personalities. I think there is a little bit of me in both of them. I can be nervous like Calen, and I definitely go on and on in my head like he does sometimes! And I can be impulsive like Meg, and stubborn, although I think she's a lot braver than I am. I don't think they've ever talked to me directly, but I do hear them talking to themselves or to each other in my head sometimes.

Q.     I loved the idea of the marked mages - where did you get the idea? Do you have any images/drawings of what you think they might look like?

A.     I'm not sure exactly when I realized the mages were marked - Calen wasn't originally marked in the first draft of the first chapter. I think it might have been a little later, when I was first trying to picture Mage Serek. I was thinking about how the magic was going to work in this book, and what kinds of restrictions would need to be placed on those who could use magic. Having the mages be marked so that they could not practice in secret started to seem important, and it tied in to my developing ideas about the more spiritual side of being a mage, the way they think about consequences and balance and responsibility. I don't have any drawings, although I do have images in my mind. I should probably make some sketches, especially if there's ever a chance an illustrator might need to draw Calen or Serek.

Q.     What events do you have planned to launch "The Dragon of Trelian"?

A.     I had a book launch party on the day it came out (April 14) at Books of Wonder in NYC. It was a wonderful event - a lot of people came, including many dear friends and some old friends I haven't seen since high school or summer camp! It was such a great way to send my book out into the world. Looking ahead, I'll be signing books at the Candlewick booth at BEA on May 30 from 3-4pm, and then over the next few months I'll be signing at various children's book festivals, including The Hudson Children's Book Festival (Hudson, NY) on May 16; The Princeton Children's Book Festival (Princeton, NJ) on September 12; and the Rochester Children's Book Festival (Rochester, NY) on November 7. Any additional events will be posted on my blog (http://michelleknudsen.blogspot.com/) under "Where I'll Be" in the right-hand column.

Q.     Will there be a sequel? (I hope so!)

A.     Yes! I'm working on it now... :)

     Yeah!! Thanks Michelle!

Speaking and Presenting - with Chris Brogan

     We're writers and illustrators. We hide in our offices and studios, butt in chair, rarely coming out to play. Well, if you're working to be published, you're in for a surprising realization. Part of this biz is public speaking - a very large part.
     For some people, public speaking comes easily, for others it's a bit more work. So where can you learn how to become an effective public speaker?
     Chris Brogan is a techno-marketing whiz I like to follow because of his sound and useful advice. Recently he talked about Speaking and Presenting - Your Next Actions. He also links to some of his other articles on the subject which are also worth a look.
     I have a few bits on public speaking myself. Check out What I've learned about speaking engagements. And if you haven't seen it - check out my new video montage of a recent school visit on my Visits page. (And yeah, I gotta get my hair outta my face - my mother's been saying it since I was five.)
     The main thing to understand is that it will get easier. Knowing your material inside and out can create a comfort zone even in front of a crowd. It's natural to be nervous when you first begin public speaking, but the shaking will eventually go away and you will get better at it. Eventually, you may even come to love it. It can be a lot of fun to hold an audience in your hand while you share the things you are most passionate about.