Yes, the date over the door says 1658.
The Walk to St. Andrews
From Jane's house we walked down Lade Braes to St. Andrews.
Yes, the date over the door says 1658.
Yes, the date over the door says 1658.
Coloring Page Tuesday - Sleeping Knight
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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.
Jane's House
From the train station we took a taxi into St. Andrews proper and Jane Yolen's house. Jane is one of our best and most beloved writers for children and happily, she spends about four months out of the year in St. Andrews in this lovely home.
From there, we walked into St. Andrews...
From there, we walked into St. Andrews...
A Trip to St. Andrews
The other day Stan and I took a mini-adventure - we headed to St. Andrews to visit the amazing Jane Yolen, who lives in St. Andrews several months out of the year, and to wander this sweet city. The pictures are amazing and plentiful, so it will take several posts to get through this wonderful journey. We'll begin with the journey itself.
I love the trains here in the UK. You can get just about anywhere in comfort and with amazing views. And the main train station in Edinburgh is a ten-minute walk away, which means the entire island is available to us fairly easily. And most train rides through this beautiful country offer amazing views.
I love the trains here in the UK. You can get just about anywhere in comfort and with amazing views. And the main train station in Edinburgh is a ten-minute walk away, which means the entire island is available to us fairly easily. And most train rides through this beautiful country offer amazing views.
VIDEO: Jon Klassen does it again!
Here is the trailer for the third book in the "hat" series by Jon Klassen - WE FOUND A HAT. I can't wait to read it! Click the image to watch on Youtube.
A BIRD ON WATER STREET - Skype visit
The other day I had the pleasure of talking to a book club right in the heart of where my novel, A BIRD ON WATER STREET takes place at the gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains (Appalachia). When the book came out, I made it my policy to Skype with folks in Fannin County and Polk County for free. Because I leaned on so many of them to share their stories and history with me, it was the least I could do. Here was the announcement in the Blue Ridge newspaper.
Photo Credit: Marci Watson representing the Fannin Focus
FRINGE wrap-up
Fringe ended along with August. The crowds are already thinning out as the city dismantles all the pop-ups and signage (which is everywhere). FRINGE is a blast, but it's nice when it's over too. There are some things I won't miss, like the crowds which make a walk across town take twice as long.
So now life goes back to normal. Restaurants will be easier to get into. Bridges easier to cross. And we'll stop being told to 'have a nice visit.' Now we get our home back, and what a lovely home it is!
So now life goes back to normal. Restaurants will be easier to get into. Bridges easier to cross. And we'll stop being told to 'have a nice visit.' Now we get our home back, and what a lovely home it is!
Friday Linky List - 2 September 2016
From SLJ's Fuse #8: When Celebrity Picture Books Go Kuh-kuh-kuh-KRAZY!
From TES: The YA fan hits back: 'Sorry, Mr Nutt, you clearly don't understand the value of teen literature'
From 99U: Why Every Artist Should Be a Great Storyteller
From SCBWI British Isles: To Share or Not to Share
From Muddy Colors: Painting Progression - Yuki (WOW)
From Inkygirl: Want to support an author's or illustrator's new book but can't afford to buy it? Here's what you can do.
From Tech Insider: The 13 Most Innovative Schools In The World
From Open Culture: Enter an Archive of 6,000 Historical Children's Books, All Digitized and Free to Read Online (!!!)
From TES: The YA fan hits back: 'Sorry, Mr Nutt, you clearly don't understand the value of teen literature'
From 99U: Why Every Artist Should Be a Great Storyteller
From SCBWI British Isles: To Share or Not to Share
From Muddy Colors: Painting Progression - Yuki (WOW)
From Inkygirl: Want to support an author's or illustrator's new book but can't afford to buy it? Here's what you can do.
From Tech Insider: The 13 Most Innovative Schools In The World
From Open Culture: Enter an Archive of 6,000 Historical Children's Books, All Digitized and Free to Read Online (!!!)
Eliza Wheeler on Method
I am a huge fan of Eliza Wheeler's work, so am absolutely thrilled she was able to spare some time from her very busy schedule to stop by and share her creative process with us today. Happy reading!
Eliza Wheeler on Method
I have illustrations in two books that came out in August; the first is a picture book by Varsha Bajaj, THIS IS OUR BABY, BORN TODAY, and the second is a middle-grade novel by Kate Milford, THE LEFT-HANDED FATE.
Since I started illustrating full time, about half the books that I illustrate are picture-books, the other half are middle-grade novels. It’s a great balance of work that’s bright and sweet, and dark and more mature. I’ve experienced distinct differences illustrating for both formats that I’d love to share with fans of the children’s book genre. For simplicity’s sake, my examples are traditionally formatted middle-grade novels and picture books. But, it’s worth mentioning that there have been a growing number of highly-illustrated middle grade novels and chapter books these days (for example, THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET and other Brian Selznick novels), which is exciting for both illustrators and kids resistant to books without pictures (which I is how I was as a kid).
FORMAT
Picture Books: Typically consist of 32 full color pages, with every spread of the book covered in artwork. The text and artwork share page space. The size of the book is often somewhere around 9”x11” (closed), which means that the physical paintings are larger in size. (I work at 100% to the print size.)
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
Middle Grades: Vary in length, but are usually a hundred to several hundred pages long. Occasional illustrations supplement the text throughout (typically one image per chapter; sometimes less, sometimes more). The book size also varies, but they are often around 5.5”x8” (closed), and the illustrations are a mix of black and white full page and spot illustrations laid out separately from the text. For THE LEFT-HANDED FATE, I also created a few illustrations that cover an entire wordless spread. The physical paintings are much smaller than picture book artwork.
VISUAL FUNCTION and FLOW
Picture Books: The words and pictures play their own equally important roles in telling the story. The visuals flow from page to page, and need to have rhythm, cohesion in characters and colors, and variety in compositions. The way that the pages are strung together is as important as creating singular successful images. I begin every picture book by working first on storyboards to get a sense of how all these elements are flowing together. In THIS IS OUR BABY, BORN TODAY, the book begins in the morning and ends at night, so I used these storyboards to plan how the colors would flow as well.
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
Middle Grades: The words are the main vehicle for the story, while the images work as stand-alone scenes sprinkled throughout the text. They’re less about telling the story, and more about giving little windows into the world the author has described. While the images’ relationships to each other are not as important, what is important is that they correctly correspond with the scenes in the text.
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
CONTENT
Picture Books: The child audience is usually ages 3-7, and so the child characters in the book should be somewhere around that age, too. Picture books have another important audience—the adult who’s reading the book aloud to the child. When I create the artwork, I’m hoping that it will appeal in some way to both of these audiences. Generally, picture book artwork is sweet, colorful, and playful.
Middle Grades: The audience here is generally in the 8-12 year-old range, so the characters in the book are often in that age range as well. I’ve had to study visual differences between kids that are 5, 8, and 12. I seem to naturally draw 5 year-olds and 80 year-olds. Anything in between takes some work! As with the writing style and topics of middle-grades, the artwork is often darker and more mature.
SCHEDULE and PAY
Picture Books: Have longer schedules; I typically need a year for sketches, revisions, and final artwork. The art deadline is 1 year from the publication date, so if a book is going to be published in the spring, the artwork is due the previous spring. As for pay, advances for picture books are higher than middle grades, and as the illustrator, the royalty earnings are split equally with the author (generally 5% for each).
Middle Grades: The sketching process can stretch out over months (or years) due to the editorial process between the writer and editor, and I find with novels there’s a lot more “hurry up and wait” time involved. Once the sketches are approved, the time to create the final artwork is much shorter than for picture books, usually a couple months, and it happens closer to the publication date. The pay for middle grade artwork is lower than picture book work as well, and for books with minimal illustrations it’s rare to get royalties for the work. For the novels like THE LEFT-HANDED FATE, with a high quantity of drawings, the illustrator usually gets a small royalty.
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
WORKING PROCESS
The difference between working on large full-color paintings and smaller grayscale paintings is a big one. With grayscale painting, the biggest focus is on tone and contrast. With full-color art, there are so many more decisions to be made about color palette, saturation, brightness, contrast, etc. As a result, I find working on a picture book to be a more immersive, all-consuming process. I try to keep my schedule completely free of other work during the last months on picture book final artwork, and often I’m exhausted, physically and creatively, when finished. Since middle grade books are less labor intensive, the work is often refreshing coming after months on picture book art. That said, the immersive quality of a picture book is thrilling, and creates an emotional bond with the world and characters that’s intrinsically rewarding.
I love creating bright, sweet artwork for very young readers, and dark, magical art for older audiences. The differences in these formats are what make them a perfect balance of projects for me.
Thanks so much to Elizabeth for inviting me to share about this work with everyone!
Thank YOU Eliza! - e
I have illustrations in two books that came out in August; the first is a picture book by Varsha Bajaj, THIS IS OUR BABY, BORN TODAY, and the second is a middle-grade novel by Kate Milford, THE LEFT-HANDED FATE.
Since I started illustrating full time, about half the books that I illustrate are picture-books, the other half are middle-grade novels. It’s a great balance of work that’s bright and sweet, and dark and more mature. I’ve experienced distinct differences illustrating for both formats that I’d love to share with fans of the children’s book genre. For simplicity’s sake, my examples are traditionally formatted middle-grade novels and picture books. But, it’s worth mentioning that there have been a growing number of highly-illustrated middle grade novels and chapter books these days (for example, THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET and other Brian Selznick novels), which is exciting for both illustrators and kids resistant to books without pictures (which I is how I was as a kid).
FORMAT
Picture Books: Typically consist of 32 full color pages, with every spread of the book covered in artwork. The text and artwork share page space. The size of the book is often somewhere around 9”x11” (closed), which means that the physical paintings are larger in size. (I work at 100% to the print size.)
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
Middle Grades: Vary in length, but are usually a hundred to several hundred pages long. Occasional illustrations supplement the text throughout (typically one image per chapter; sometimes less, sometimes more). The book size also varies, but they are often around 5.5”x8” (closed), and the illustrations are a mix of black and white full page and spot illustrations laid out separately from the text. For THE LEFT-HANDED FATE, I also created a few illustrations that cover an entire wordless spread. The physical paintings are much smaller than picture book artwork.
VISUAL FUNCTION and FLOW
Picture Books: The words and pictures play their own equally important roles in telling the story. The visuals flow from page to page, and need to have rhythm, cohesion in characters and colors, and variety in compositions. The way that the pages are strung together is as important as creating singular successful images. I begin every picture book by working first on storyboards to get a sense of how all these elements are flowing together. In THIS IS OUR BABY, BORN TODAY, the book begins in the morning and ends at night, so I used these storyboards to plan how the colors would flow as well.
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
Middle Grades: The words are the main vehicle for the story, while the images work as stand-alone scenes sprinkled throughout the text. They’re less about telling the story, and more about giving little windows into the world the author has described. While the images’ relationships to each other are not as important, what is important is that they correctly correspond with the scenes in the text.
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
CONTENT
Picture Books: The child audience is usually ages 3-7, and so the child characters in the book should be somewhere around that age, too. Picture books have another important audience—the adult who’s reading the book aloud to the child. When I create the artwork, I’m hoping that it will appeal in some way to both of these audiences. Generally, picture book artwork is sweet, colorful, and playful.
Middle Grades: The audience here is generally in the 8-12 year-old range, so the characters in the book are often in that age range as well. I’ve had to study visual differences between kids that are 5, 8, and 12. I seem to naturally draw 5 year-olds and 80 year-olds. Anything in between takes some work! As with the writing style and topics of middle-grades, the artwork is often darker and more mature.
SCHEDULE and PAY
Picture Books: Have longer schedules; I typically need a year for sketches, revisions, and final artwork. The art deadline is 1 year from the publication date, so if a book is going to be published in the spring, the artwork is due the previous spring. As for pay, advances for picture books are higher than middle grades, and as the illustrator, the royalty earnings are split equally with the author (generally 5% for each).
Middle Grades: The sketching process can stretch out over months (or years) due to the editorial process between the writer and editor, and I find with novels there’s a lot more “hurry up and wait” time involved. Once the sketches are approved, the time to create the final artwork is much shorter than for picture books, usually a couple months, and it happens closer to the publication date. The pay for middle grade artwork is lower than picture book work as well, and for books with minimal illustrations it’s rare to get royalties for the work. For the novels like THE LEFT-HANDED FATE, with a high quantity of drawings, the illustrator usually gets a small royalty.
Click the image to see a larger version in a new window.
WORKING PROCESS
The difference between working on large full-color paintings and smaller grayscale paintings is a big one. With grayscale painting, the biggest focus is on tone and contrast. With full-color art, there are so many more decisions to be made about color palette, saturation, brightness, contrast, etc. As a result, I find working on a picture book to be a more immersive, all-consuming process. I try to keep my schedule completely free of other work during the last months on picture book final artwork, and often I’m exhausted, physically and creatively, when finished. Since middle grade books are less labor intensive, the work is often refreshing coming after months on picture book art. That said, the immersive quality of a picture book is thrilling, and creates an emotional bond with the world and characters that’s intrinsically rewarding. I love creating bright, sweet artwork for very young readers, and dark, magical art for older audiences. The differences in these formats are what make them a perfect balance of projects for me.
Thanks so much to Elizabeth for inviting me to share about this work with everyone!
Thank YOU Eliza! - e
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