Seven.......more things

Seven things... only seven?

1.) My family, of course, everyone of them from the oldest (94) to the youngest, (just one year) at least that is the youngest we are currently aware of.

2.)MAGIC... I don't care how simple the trick, I love magic and I love to keep guessing and I love to be totally stumped!



3.)Being an illustrator of children's books. My life long dream came true and I am living it.

4.)Chocolate...this has a place on any list I create. It often winds up on the shopping list too.


5.)Dogs...they are so loyal and loveable. I could name them all but then I would be out of blog space. AND don't forget to watch the Westminster Kennel Club competition this coming Mon. and Tues. Last years best in show was .... FINALLY .. A BEAGLE!!!

6.)Teaching. I really enjoy working with young people, little ones especially, but all age groups have a special place in my heart.

7.)Friends...without my dear friends and their support I might not find the constant joy that I do even on a bad day.

Seven things I Love

1) First and foremost, my wonderful husband and my children Josh and Rachel. They are my true meaning of joy. Sounds corny. . .but it's true.

2) I love being outside in my yard whether I am gardening or eating a meal. It's my favorite spot to just hang out.

3) I love my studio. Despite the fact that I do love being outside and would have my computer outside if I could. . .I love being in here creating.

4) I love my friends. I would be lost without my friends. I connect with some on a daily basis here on line and they are truly the ones that keep me together. Others I see once or twice a month and some every few years. But man without every single one of them. . .life would not be worth living.

5) My two dogs and two cats. Luke is our thirteen year old yellow lab. Lazy, lovable and always in the mood to be loved on. Billy is our six year old Tibetan Terrier who thinks he needs to guard the house from outsiders and is my constant companion where ever I am. Lucy our fifteen year old calico cat is a talker and each time I go by her she calls out to me to come and pay attention to her. And last but not least our fourteen year old yellow tabby Margie who used to be our hunter, but as she aged prefers to sit in her bed and just watch the world go by.

6) My 2002 Ford Explorer. I wanted an Explorer since they came out and in 2003 I finally got my dream. It's my favorite car I have ever owned and I will keep it till it can't go down the street anymore.

7) My home. I am painter and a sewer. I have painted all the rooms and sewn all the drapes, curtains and pillows. It has taken me many many years to be able to have the home of my dreams. . .and I love it.

And all of the above makes my life complete. . .

Kreativ Blogger Award From Roz

The Picture Bookies have received the Kreativ Blogger award from our great friend Roz Fulcher. Visit her blog and check out her wonderful felt art

Along with the award came a tag to name 7 things we love. So to all the Picture-Bookies I send out an invitation to participate. . .I will be doing mine right after this post!

Thanks Roz!

Anatomy of a chapter book...

I have just completed work on my first Black and White (inside) chapter book. The cover is done also, in living color, but I can't post that here.

For purposes of this post, however, I wanted to share the process I followed to get from the early sketching stage to the final finishes.

After reading the manuscript several times, (actually lots of times) I began with some character sketches. These are usually large because I like the freedom of just "letting go" and getting a good free feeling to the character.


Once I had pages and pages of these done I created a story board for the entire INSIDE portion of the book. As I finished each rough I printed a tiny copy of it and pasted it into my story board.

All those pencil notes on the story board are the comments from the editor/designer as we worked on composition and character and paid attention to the details in the manuscript that needed to be illustrated.


Each time I FINISHED a drawing I made a print out and posted those larger full size Black & Whites on the Bulletin Board that faces me as I work. I find that this helps to create a consistency of character and mood as I work. Style is important too. It helps me to see the particular type of line or hatching I am using as I go from one finished B&W to the next.

This last photo is the bulletin board with all 18 drawings displayed. I know the story almost by heart now, and it is a beautiful one. When the book is out I will post more information and some close ups as well as the cover, ISBN and places where you can find the finished product.


Although I am a children's book illustrator, this book seems to me to appeal to an older audience, one that moves easily into the adult range with its charm and meaningful message. I'll be sharing more about "WHEN WISHES COME TRUE" by Barbara B Slater, in the coming months.

INTERESTING ITEM: During the work on this book we had a huge ICE STORM here in NH and we were without power for 9 days. Fortunately when the editor called, I had all my storyboard finished and we were able to discuss the entire book over the phone. This is another good reason for digital artists to have a traditionally available copy, or at least a print out of work completed.

SCHOOL PROGRAM PROMOTION

I thought I would share something with you that happened to me today in the hope that it might encourage you to go beyond just illustrating your children's books, and consider school appearances. I think I've harped on this topic before. It's pays so well, it seems like every illustrator would want to pursue it.
Donating your book to a school library is a great way to get invited to do a school program. (The two authors at my wife's school will be paid $1200 and $1800 for one school day.) It works like a charm for me. It seems that schools are always excited to make contact with authors.
I normally drop by a school at the end of the school day so I can catch the librarian at a time when she's not in class with the students. So this afternoon I walked into the school office with my book in hand and said that I had a book for the librarian. The office person was a little reluctant at first. "Are you a salesman?" she asked.
"No, I'm the author and illustrator of this book," I replied as I placed the Washington for Kids book in front of her. Suddenly, her whole demeanor changed.
"Oh! I think Miss Jones is still in the library," she said as she picked up the phone to call the librarian.
Miss Jones picked up immediately. "Miss Jones? We have an "actual" author here with a book to donate to the library!" The librarian was in the school office within a minute. We had a good exchange, and she indicated that they would like to have me bring my program to their school next year.
Today's experience made me glad that I'm an author, and not a salesman. Though I actually am a salesman, selling my school appearances, but they don't think of me in that way.
I hope this anecdote might encourage you to try promoting yourself to schools as an author. You will then have a brand new income source.

Paws, Claws, Hands and Feet - Moose and Magpie

Thought I would update everyone on what I have been working on. This month Paws, Claws, Hands and Feet arrives in stores and on bookshelves. I am very excited about this book.











Published by the Sylvan Dell Publishing
Written By Kimberly Hutmacher
Illustrated by Sherry Rogers

-------------------------------


I just finished another book titled Moose and Magpie. As the title of the book conveys there were initially only two main characters in the book. But through the creative writing of the author I saw a subplot and illustrated three more characters into the book. It was a great fun to illustrate and I am privileged to get to work so much with Donna at Sylvan Dell. She is such a gem!














Published by the Sylvan Dell Publishing
Written By Bettina Restrepo
Illustrated by Sherry Rogers

Cora Cooks Pancit

What have I been working on? Mainly this book: Cora Cooks Pancit for Shen's Books.

Cora loves the kitchen, but her older brother and sisters always get to help with the real cooking while she gets stuck with kid jobs like licking the spoon. When her older siblings head out for the day, Cora finally gets the chance to be Mama's assistant chef. She chooses to make her Grandpa's pancit recipe, a Filipino noodle dish.

The pancit recipe is included in the book, and it's delicious! My husband and I made a big pot of pancit a few weeks ago, and we've already bought ingredients to make it again. Mmmm...

Amazon says the book will be out in April, so look for it in April or May in your bookstore!

-Kristi Valiant

Winston Wednesdays

I thought I would post the newest installment of Winston Wednesdays Here.... the others and this one will be found on my personal illustration blog each Wednesday. If you have little ones, you might want to take a peek each Wednesday to see what happens next in the Adventures of Winston the Wonderhound.

Having been Bumped right out of the moat, Winston and Roxxanne found themselves directly in front of a tearful young lady. Although they were already dripping wet, her tears threatened to keep them from drying off at all.

"What is the matter?" Winston asked.

"I have such a HUGE problem," replied the young lady. " A DRAGON has broken into the kitchen at the castle, where I am the cook. "

"Wow!" Winston was amazed. "Is it still there?"

"Y...Y... YES!" sobbed the cook. "And it is EATING all the fine china!"

"Bummer." Roxxanne had to put in her two cents.

"And, if I can't get all that china back before tonight the Queen will have my head!"

"Oh," said Winston, " she wouldn't do that .... would she?"

"She certainly would," the cook wiped her eyes with the edge of her apron, "and tonight is her birthday party. She plans to serve soup from her Royal Golden Soup Tureen."

"And, I take it that was eaten too." Winston guessed.

"Absolutely," replied the cook,"along with the silver ladle and all the fine crystal. What am I going to do?"

...........good question...... tune in next Wednesday.

Working sketch for this segment.

CARICATURES

I try to avoid caricatures as much as possible. They're my least favorite artistic pursuit,but it's such quick, easy money at $150 an hour, that I usually do them anyway.

These are two from a batch that I did for some teachers at a school that I appeared at some time back. I would encourage you to try your hand at caricatures if you think you have a knack for it. You get booked into an event, you sit there and draw as fast as you can for two hours and up, and pick up a check on the way out the door. I always groan when I take in a caricature job, but I don't have to wait for a month or more to get paid, which is a big plus.

Gift caricatures are my preference. Someone calls and wants a caricature of their Aunt Millie for her retirement party. They usually meet with me with one or more photos for me to draw from, then I go on over to my coffee shop and draw it up. These were done in graphite, but most of my caricatures are drawn in ink on paper, then scanned into Photoshop to be colored.

Let me know if you have any questions about caricaturing and making money at it.

The tiny house

There is a wonderful tree near the roadside with a strange configuration. The top seems to be divided from the bottom by a crossing of roots and stones. Under that crossway is a tiny hole in the lower portion. I always wondered if there used to be a tiny house right there. I suppose the inhabitants have since moved away and that is why it is so dark now, but I just like to imagine what it might have looked like when those tiny creatures made it their home.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year... a bit late

Well, this a bit late, but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends, and had time to reflect on the true meaning of CHRISTmas!
My husband and I took a friend of ours who's an international student here in southern Indiana up to Wisconsin to visit my family for Christmas. There is a crazy amount of snow in Wisconsin this year - close to 30" when we got there! Our international student from Korea had never seen so much snow, so we had lots of fun with snowball fights and giddily playing around in snow. It reminded me of winters when I was young - we would dig snow tunnels through our backyard (see the photo below). When I was little, our small city in Wisconsin would flood all the football fields at the elementary schools to make them into ice skating rinks. We would ice skate for recess! These kind of moments that transport me back to being a kid are incredible bits of momentum for writing and illustrating picture books. May your new year be filled with childhood memory momentum too.

Happiest, magical, New Year to all....

Artist's Agents, 101

Happy New Year, Picture Bookies! Why not check out my latest article for The Prairie Wind, the SCBWI-IL's online newsletter. The article is called "Artist's Agents, 101", where I share with readers the basics of what an artist's agent's job is, and what they can do for you.


I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year!

Pen and Ink Rendering for a gift

Why do I promise things close to Christmas? This one was for a relative...and I am so glad it's done so that I can get back to the oil illustrations.

SHARING IN THE JOY ~

May your New Year be blessed with Joy, Happiness, and Good Health. To all the Picture Bookies, I wish you the blessings of this season and beyond!

White Christmas

This is one of my all time favorite animated cards. Here's to another great year for everyone!

Thanks Everyone!

© Kathleen Rietz
I just wanted to say thank you to all of the Picture Bookies for allowing me to be a part of this group for another fun year. I hope we all have great projects awaiting us in 2009! It's been fun to see you all grow in your craft. Cheers!

Day EIGHT..... a bit of weather....

The VOICE of winter is a silent one. Rain that slowly turns to icy creations...snow that blankets the earth quickly and quietly.


The VOICES we are hearing in the tiny market down in the town, and in churches and on TV are still announcing that there are present outages in our area.
Our street and all those right around us and on up the mountainside are still without power for the 8th day in a row. When we talk to strangers we find everyone has a story, and yet the VOICES are cheerful as is the custom for this time of year. We are still operating on a small generator and we have some internet service from the satillite connection. That puts us in the category of very lucky as many people are still spending their days and nights in our middle school shleter.




So here for your winter enjoyment are scenes of the season...at least up here in the Monadnock Mts. of NH.
The ice is now melted away, and we expect 10 " of snow to top of the small snowfall earlier this week.


People exist with woodstoves, fireplaces, generator, and that typical New England attitude. It seems like they can handle anything with a smile and an ability to rise to any occasion. We have only been here five winters, so we are novice to the challenges, but we are learning FAST.....

Be of good Cheer, Christmas is a few days away. Even in the dark, the light of this Holy season will shine.

The Books ARRIVED *:)

My AFRICAN BEDTIME RHYMES

Words by Brettell Hone  ~ Pictures by Ginger Nielson

The book I illustrated for SHAMWARI PUBLISHING in South Africa is finally here. The inventive rhymes of Brettell Hone have created a newer view of some African animals that might otherwise be overlooked. A pair of trout, an African fly and a Wood Owl are just some of the characters for whom Brettell has created a story in rhyme. And to add to all that, this is a book that BOYS will enjoy very much. There is a bit of action, some surprise, some danger and lots of fun!

The books are available now at Amazon.com and you can take a sneak peek as some of the story here. Books are also available from Atlas Books.

I really enjoyed working with the author on this project. His lifelong association with these animals and his idyllic location in the Limpopo provence of South Africa have given him a unique perspective on the lives of these animals. The books were printed by IMAGO printing and I have to admit that although there were some ups and downs with the process the finished product is gorgeous. The colors are true and vivid and I am totally pleased with the outcome.

If you want the book directly from your bookstore, just ask for it and include the ISBN number which is:978-0-620-40992-6.

POLAR FLEECE

Christmas House

Here's one I drew from a photo that was lacking in details..so there are areas I would like to have been able to see better. It also had much brush that I had to remove and make it look snowy and wintery.

Holiday Help... the Seasonal work force...

Sometimes you might wonder why your mail looks a little the worse for wear. It is the Holiday seasonal helpers, I am sure.

And I am also sure that some of the help has a distraction or two.

Highlights Magazine

I'm so honored to have illustrated a wonderful Christmas poem by Eileen Spinelli in this month's issue of Highlights Magazine. Highlights - "the world's best-loved magazine" - how sweet is that!

The only thing I didn't realize was how dark and dull my illustration would print on magazine newsprint. The top is what it looks like in the magazine, and the bottom is how it's supposed to look. Hmmm... I'm hoping for more assignments from Highlights, and I'll be sure to up my brightness and colors next time around.

Happy THANKSGIVING ~ The Alternative

The Peahen Pen

If you were a peacock with a desire to become a writer, you wouldn' t have to go to far to find a pen with which to write.

SMUDGE TOOL TIPS

As I was creating the current episode of Trowbridge, it occurred to me that I make frequent use of the smudge tool in Photoshop. In the event that you rarely, or never use it, I thought I would call it to your attention. I should preface my comments by acknowledging that I am the last one to give instruction on Photoshop. I know it just enough to get by. But I have become quite familiar with the small part of Photoshop that I use. It has literally transformed all of my work.

For many years all of my illustration was done with "wet paint", watercolor, colored inks and Dr. Martin's Dyes. I never imagined myself painting digitally. But our digital wizard son, Eric, who now works for Disney in Los Angeles as a Flash master, had other ideas. He gently nudged me into the digital world. One of my regrets, however, is that I am a slow learner in all things digital. But I do catch on eventually.

Rather than do a literal step-by-step, I thought I would mention the areas in the painting where I used the smudge tool extensively, and how I used it. First to the Trowbridge page: www.bronsmith.com/trowbridge

I used the smudge tool a lot in the rocks in the stream. I used it to sweep the rock color upstream and downstream from the rocks, to softly blend the rock and the water. Ditto with the texture of the trees in the background, the rock that Mrs. T is sitting on, and the foreground rocks that are cast in shadow, and the moss on the side of the stream.

Also, the smudge tool works well if you want to soften a hard edge, as I did with the rock that Mrs. T is sitting on. When I do rock, bark and moss textures I do tiny swirls with the smudge tool to blend colors together. If you experiment with it, as I did, you may find that it really enhances your work.

Sidebar: The "airbrush" brush came in handy (at 50%) to add a vapor effect at the base of the waterfall in the background.

I thought about the smudge tool as I was working on a full-sheet realistic floral watercolor early this morning for my Painting in Paradise. There were so many times when I felt like a smudge tool would come in handy for blending the leaf and petal colors. But that ain't gonna happen when you're working with traditional media.

www.bronsmith.com
www.funmapsusa.com
http://bronsmith.googlepages.com

Humpty Dumpty Magazine

I recently did a project for Humpty Dumpty Magazine which is in their November/December issue. I got my free copies of the magazine a few weeks ago and much to my delight my illustration was on the inside cover! It was a small project, but I had a great time and they were just wonderful to work for. As you can see I used my simplier style for this project.

Picture

What am I currently working on? A sweet, trade picture book for Shen's Books. Here's a lil' sneak peek at the main character. I'm still in the sketch phase. It's so much fun to create a personality, a tiny life that exists in this book.

A new direction

I am working on a chapter book and need to do 18 interiors in black and white. Since my main focus is normally full color paintings, this will be a change of pace, a new challenge and also something to which I am looking forward. This illustration isn't going to be part of the new book, but it is an example of one of the styles I like to use in Black and White.

Pretty Neat!

I just received this little sneak preview from Teresa Anne Power, author of "The ABC's of Yoga for Kids"! It is so exciting to see the cover of the book now. It makes it seem all the more real to me....even though I still have so many of the illustrations yet to finish before the book can be published! Watch for more details on how you can pre-order the book in upcoming weeks.

Another place to create an online portfolio

I just found Carbonmade.com
It's another place to create an online portfolio at no cost. It's well designed. I'm in the process of uploading images now.

Finished

What a great feeling it is to finish a project! After a year and a half I've finished one with the USDA. Here is a smaller spot illo from it.

the BugCatchers

Something I have been working on this week.... my efforts this month are concentrated on ethnic studies.

My Interview with Stephanie Ruble

Happy Monday Everyone!

Today I am honored to be featured and interviewed on both the blogs of Stephanie Ruble. I had a great time answering her thoughtful and very fun questions. Why not stop on over to one of her blogs and check the interview out?

Here are the links.

http://sruble.blogspot.com

http://sruble.livejournal.com

Thanks for the interviews Stephanie!

 I have been working on this one illustration for several days, and wanted it to 'fit' the current subject for Illustration Friday (vacant).  It is the fifth version of a much earlier work. Sometimes when you think you have a good image and look at it a year later you can see a new way to create the mood. That is what happened with my old "duckpond" illustration. I think I may have it where I want it, but who knows it may resurface again at some point.

Somehow I don't find it a waste of time or energy to revisit older paintings and sketches.  Occasionally I will find something in my portfolio and take it right out. Then I say to myself, 

"What was I thinking!"  At that point I either trash it altogether or find a new way to make it work. That is growth for me.  What about the rest of you..... do you do that?

I find so much out about myself and my painting when I redo or revise something that 'almost' works.  I always want it to be the best it can be.  Whether it is traditional painting or digital I do keep a stack of possible 're-dos' just to remind me to work harder.