Coloring Page Tuesday - Baby Reads

     Babies are born readers! (Even if they only chew on books to start.)
     CLICK HERE for more coloring pages!
     CLICK HERE to sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and... Please check out my books! Especially...
my debut novel, A BIRD ON WATER STREET - winner of six literary awards. Click the cover to learn more!
     When the birds return to Water Street, will anyone be left to hear them sing? A miner's strike allows green and growing things to return to the Red Hills, but that same strike may force residents to seek new homes and livelihoods elsewhere. Follow the story of Jack Hicks as he struggles to hold onto everything he loves most.
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Walking at Hollins

I've said it before but I never tire of it. One of my favorite things about teaching at Hollins University is my morning walks. This campus, deep in the Blue Ridge mountains of Appalachian Virginia, are absolutely gorgeous. The campus is like a snow globe - without the snow. I can't stop staring at it, especially as Tinker Mountain keeps us all in her care. In fact, several of us make morning walks our daily ritual. Here's Ashley Wolff coming over the hill. From the top of this hill you can see the vultures, who love to sit atop the church steeple and dry their wings in the mornings. Sometimes they can look rather ominous. And sometimes they leave treasures to find. I gave this feather to Candice Ransom - one of our accomplished Professors who happens to adore buzzards (her license plate reads "bzzrd"). I've been spending a lot of time in the library this year, researching my PhD proposal. Don't you feel sorry for me? Just up the hill from the church and the library is a haven for groundhogs. Can you see this one? I've named them all 'George' in honor of Bugs Bunny: "I will love him, and hug him, and call him George." Oh, how I wish I could! I often also spot deer, rabbits, muskrats, and birds, birds, birds! Swooping sparrows, robins, and blue birds, who flash their colors seemingly just for me.
     Past the main entrance, the road runs along the path of a gently gurgling stream. There, I often spot herons - great blues, greens, and night herons. Here is our great blue heron getting his breakfast. Past that the road curves around... to the soccer field. But just beyond the soccer field, we come to the big hill, which we call 'The Widow Maker.' Can you see why? It will give you a work out! The reward is the stables at the top...where I always stop to rub fuzzy noses. Sometimes I even stop to groom a horse or two - it's my meditation. Truly, these are some of the luckiest horses on the planet and I'm lucky to spend time with them. Their view is one of the best on campus and I am lucky indeed to share it with them every morning.

Cece Bell and Tom Angleberger at Hollins

Each summer we have amazing speakers come in to talk to our students. This year so far we've had John Rocco (PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF), Tom Angleberger (ORAGAMI YODA), and Cece Bell (EL DEAFO), who spoke specifically to our illustrators about proudly simplifying one's illustration style - a highly relevant topic right now. She mentioned that Mo Willems says, "I like to create characters that a child reader can learn to draw." Indeed, they make for extremely successful and appealing characters for kids!
     That said, we were all still in awe by the genius behind Cece's seemingly simple style. It's one of the hardest styles to pull off successfully, and wow, she does it!

VIDEO: Beetles redone...

This is a lovely animation of a Beetles classic - enjoy! (Click the image to watch on Youtube.)

Mono Printing at Hollins

The lucky students in Ruth Sanderson's Media class here at Hollins University have been experimenting with mono printing. This is a different method than what I learned in Edinburgh - more tight and controlled. The results have been amazing. And the students have an amazing print lab to work in. I want to be in Ruth's class!

Friday Linky List - 8 July 2016

From The Guardian: Commonwealth short story prize: The Human Phonograph by Jonathan Tel - short story

From The Picture Book Den: Picture book differences between the main bookshop chains in the US and UK - Paeony Lewis

From The Federation of Children's Book Groups: Everything Does Not Happen in English

From Brain Pickings: How to Be a Writer: Hemingway's Advice to Aspiring Authors

From The Art Room Plant: Trouser Book (go make one!)

From The Passive Voice: May 2016 Author Earnings Report: the definitive million-title study of US author earnings

From Electric Lit: Everything You Wanted to Know about Book Sales (But Were Afraid to Ask)

From Marion Dane Bauer: On Being an Aging Children's Writer

From StumbleUpon: The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English

Faculty Catch-up: Mark Braught

Over the next few weeks I'll be featuring my fellow faculty here at Hollins University MFA in Children's Book Writing and Illustrating and Certificate in Illustration programs. Today we begin with our newest faculty member, Mark Braught. His latest release is WHOSE SHADOW DO I SEE?
     Mark says, "This book was drawn initially conventionally with pencil, then finished digitally with Photoshop and Sai. There were a lot of thumbnails for composition and content, as well as lighting studies. Light and how it works in a piece is the magic. It sets the stage and is last word in the story behind a narrative piece of art. This is my first journey into the digital world for children's books."
     About his path to publication, Mark shared that, "Initially, I was approached by the author at a literary festival and finally by the publisher that purchased the title. This process occurred over a year's period."
     Before this book was DEAR BABY, I'M WATCHING OVER YOU, with this stunning interior, which will send chills down your spine.      For this book, he used pastels. You can get a peek into his pastel process via his recent pastel workshop here at Hollins University - CLICK HERE.
     Mark says that, "Creating images that create a story by themselves and bring another dimension to a manuscript in a unique and compelling is a challenge that is very addicting because it is so rewarding."
     Mark has been illustrating picture books for a long time. You may be familiar with P IS FOR PEACH or COSMO'S MOON.
     Mark says that, "The details of my life keep finding their way into the art. Lamps, childhood memorabilia, shoes, haircut of the neighborhood kid add a texture to the story."

     Mark also illustrates other projects outside the children's book industry. A recent project has been watercolor birds, which you can buy in his Etsy Store.      I asked Mark about his opinion of heart art. He said, "We all see things, but some of us see those same things and see a whole story the rest of us missed. They find mystery, adventure and wonder in everything."
     So what's he doing now? Mark says, "Currently working on an image for a storytelling festival, and a couple of book projects. One, I am Illustrating, and the other I'm author/illustrator. That's about it for the kid's genre."
     Sounds good to me - I look forward to seeing it!

Style Bible Workshop

     Recently I had the opportunity to share some creative brilliance from two of my favorite creators. It all began when Judy Schachner visited Hollins University in 2014. She shared part of her creative process in the making of Dewey Bob Crockett - her new raccoon friend who follows her hit series, Skippyjon Jones. Judy always creates a Character Bible before she ever starts writing a story. Here's the one for Dewey.      In these bibles she collects images, colors, sketches - everything that might feed into sharing who her character is.      It was a genius idea, but I didn't see myself making it part of my own creative process.
     Then I went down to Northumberland to have a play date with author/illustrator Julia Patton.     Julia was doing something with a similar concept, but her creation was called a Style Bible. Her idea is to break up a nice sketch book into the alphabet. Under each letter she includes narrative sketches of things that fall under those letters. For "A" - aardvarks, amoebas, antelopes, ants - you get the idea. But the key phrase is narrative. She tries to make sure that everything she includes has a bigger idea around it - the blossom of a story. So it becomes and ant who, or an ant that...     She doesn't actually sketch in the bible. She collects sketches from elsewhere and the Style Bible is constantly changing and evolving. The result is that she eventually has a very clear idea of how she draws trees, or telephones, or bears. It's her look, clearly defined.
     Not only can a Style Bible help illustrators find their illustrative voice, it can also spark ideas. Not only does it give you a context for what to draw (if you happen to be stuck - work on your "B's.") Or put two sketches together and see what happens. New relationships emerge, new idea, and a whole lot of streamlining. It can be the first step before creating Character Bibles or book dummies. It becomes your creative brain on the outside.
     In fact, Julia no longer shares a portfolio with potential editors. Now she shares her bible and she's sold quite a few upcoming books as a result.
     Meanwhile, Julia gave me some homework for the summer and I decided to share it with my students at Hollins University.
      I'm making my very own Style Bible this summer. Julia guarantees that by the end of the summer I'll have a clear direction of my stylistic voice as a result. So I'm sketching away, adding to my alphabet, and finding lots of new story ideas along the way. Won't you join me?

Coloring Page Tuesdays - Allez! Allez! Allez!

     It's time for the Tour de France! 21 days of grueling challenges for 219 dedicated bicyclists pumping it through some of the most beautiful vistas in the world. Gads, I love to watch it and yell at the TV, "Allez! Allez! Allez!" or in English, "Go! Go! Go!!!!"
     CLICK HERE for more coloring pages!
     CLICK HERE to sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and... Please check out my books! Especially...
my debut novel, A BIRD ON WATER STREET - winner of six literary awards. Click the cover to learn more!
     When the birds return to Water Street, will anyone be left to hear them sing? A miner's strike allows green and growing things to return to the Red Hills, but that same strike may force residents to seek new homes and livelihoods elsewhere. Follow the story of Jack Hicks as he struggles to hold onto everything he loves most.
     I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy for free with their children, but you can also purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please contact me. If you have questions about usage, please visit my Angel Policy page.

Happy 4th of July!

It's raining here, but that hasn't stopped two days of fireworks already! If you do end up stuck indoors today, don't forget I have bunches of Independence Day coloring pages for you to enjoy. Click the image to go to the full collection.

VIDEO: Loretta and Willie

This gives me chill bumps - two classic musicians together in their golden years. Fabulous! Click the image to go listen.

Mark Braught's Pastel Workshop

Earlier this week our newest Professor, Mark Braught gave a demo on working with pastels - his favorite medium. Mark decided to honor our most famous graduate and did a portrait of Margaret Wise Brown, author of GOODNIGHT MOON.
     He began with the underdrawing. It's charcoal with an acrylic wash over the top. He said he never likes to work on white. Here are his supplies. The class was glued to his process as he built up layer after layer of COLOR! It was so funny watching all the cameras - our students were fascinated. I was too! I had no idea you used so much pastel on one piece! Mark layered and scrubbed and mixed the colors right there on the paper. He used a bristol which can hold up to the abuse. The workshop lasted for just 1 1/2 hours, and yet, Mark was able to turn this beautiful portrait around! He did tweak it some more after the workshop ended, but it was an impressive accomplishment in that short window. And now the program has a treasure to keep in its permanent collection of Margaret Wise Brown memorabilia - fantastic!

Friday Linky List - 1 July 2016

From Publishing Perspectives: International Publishing and the UK's Vote for Brexit

From The Bookseller: Trade vows to face challenge of Brexit

From Emma Dryden: The Entrepreneurial Spirit: "Do or Don't Do. There is No In-Between." The Inspiring Moves of Indy Publisher, Eileen Robinson

From Heather Alexander: Venturing Forth (on professionalism in writing for the first time)

From Joe Jacobi: How to Perform in a Storm

At OnTheBookshelf: Indonesian Horse Library!

From The New York Times: Why Handwriting Is Still Essential in the Keyboard Age

From the Los Angeles Times: With Curiosity Stream, Discovery founder seeks online success - interesting!

From Muddy Colors: The making of Wicked Kingdom - COOL!

At The Horn Book: 2016 Newbery Acceptance by Matt de la Peña