Meeting Audrey

While working on the book for Audrey, I've been lucky enough to get to research her dreamy era for cues on dresses, buildings, streetcars, hats and important places like the old Fulton Theater in New York where she first performed as "Gigi" and made her American debut. (Can you hear me squealing in delight?)

Really though, what I've most enjoyed were the surprise little things I've found along with the nuts-and-bolts research...really beautiful and quiet moments in movies and interviews that let me peek into her heart and not just her life's timeline. As an added bonus in making biographical art, I feel I have made a dear new friend. Audrey did not have an easy life by any means, but seemed to glean joy from most any circumstance (which is not always easy!) making her luminous. I especially love one biographer's (Pamela Clarke Keogh) take on Audrey's lifestyle, "This decision to live in joy takes moral courage, and is, ultimately, one of the truest expressions of style." ♥

If you have 5 minutes to spend with Audrey, watch this video from behind-the-scenes of one of her last efforts, an Emmy-winning PBS series, "Gardens of the World". Make sure you watch it through until the very very end! Enjoy.

Gertie

Here's one of the imaginary friends from the cast of DOTTY. She is an especially elusive and bashful one...you'll have to read the book next year to meet (and find!) her.

Are you enjoying fall? I am hoping for a chance between life to somehow go apple picking.

For me, colder weather is jazz-flavored, and for some reason, so is this particular book. So I suppose it is perfectly perfect to be working on it while the leaves turn. I usually break out the Django, but tonight it's Marian McPartland. Ask me what song feels most like picture books and city lights in the fall and I will tell you this particular version of A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square.

Corny & Cornelia In the Wild!

My art school roommate, Minty, found this today in her classroom out in California and took a picture. I wasn't even sure of the pub. date exactly, so it was a surprise! Thanks Minty! So here is book 1 in the series in its intended habitat: SCHOOL. This is a book club series by Pam Munoz Ryan. Final art for book 2 in this series, "Cornelia and the Show-and-Tell Showdown" is due tomorrow, and since early readers are usually double the amount of spreads that picture books are, I've been in the company of pet snakes, bullies, and the cheeky Cornelia for quite some time. Art to come (or TK in pub. lingo!)

"No," answered the lady. "I have no information about a crocodile wearing a red scarf."

Yikes! Has it almost been a month since we last? Time is marching on, so are projects and unpacking and assembling and painting. Everything is still in brilliant boxy shambles over here (at least the art desks are set up) but nothing nice enough to post yet. The book projects are chugging along too. Since everything is either secret or messy, I will post my current picture book inspirations (and a picture of Seri honestly sleeping on some of them!)


I was stuck on a few spreads, so I was compelled to make a run to Curious George for a badly needed picture book fix with Jess last week. I was especially looking for ones I hadn't read since I was small, like Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. When you crack open a book you haven't looked at since age 7, it's like time travel. Remember how it felt to literally be a part of the story as the pages turned? Renewing this feeling and keeping it with me as I work helps me along on my own books. So here are some of my recent jump-starters:


Bernard Waber, and his Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (*blog title quote, picture)
Tomi Ungerer, especially in Crictor
Marc Simont à la The Philharmonic Gets Dressed
Ludwig Bemelmans the great and his lovely Madeline
M. Sasek in his This Is (Ireland, New York, London...) books

...back to the classics. Oh and I have just found this new little dress. It also seems to time travel a bit.

Giant Things...Part I: Farewell, Davis Square

Old, rusty mailbox...to a new shiny loft!
So, in a previous post I mentioned how life is "giant" right now, and have been slow to blog accordingly. I'm moving (tomorrow!!) into our new home, a magical converted gear factory loft outside of Boston. We will be building an art studio on the left against some of those huge windows...so excited! Hopefully, I'll be up and running soon (and painting). I think crazy Seri will have fun Slip-and-Sliding down that hallway. Back to packing up and moving on, and farewell to my beloved Davis Square, Somerville ♥

DOTTY!

Mr. Chad Beckerman, my designer/art director at Abrams (also responsible for designing the sensational "Wimpy Kid" books, among many others) has just posted on his blog about the makings of DOTTY, picture book in progress. Go here to check out some of my preliminary sketches, behind the scenes with the author, Erica Perl, and of course some very official webchat sketch meeting snapshots...oh dear. As you can see from the post it took months of painstaking research and careful study on the merits of imaginary friends. Final art is in progress, stop back soon to sneak a peek! (Above is the final character color study)

"It's not smart to be mean to a reptile"-Cornelia

Here is Cornelia, very angered by an off-screen bully, Jason, who happens to be taunting her pet snake, Corny, during Show-and-Tell. She's pretty miffed. I wished there were boots like that in real world, so I just painted them onto her. Actually, my designer at Scholastic remarked that she owns a pair just like that and was wearing them the day she brought the first cover to the meeting! So I carried them over from book 1. This is the cover art for book 2 concerning the Corny and Cornelia capers, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan, published by Scholastic, 2010.

Happy Friday ♥

Up Close and Purrrrrrrsonal

Life is giant and and busy and happening all at once over here.. and there is all the book work in between too. Wish I could post what I've been painting! In the meantime look at this kitty...

Capucine the Great!

Here is a sample I recently finished for a book that never made it off the ground (click to enlarge). The authorless tale would have starred the brilliant Capucine. Capucine is a real girl, living in France. Her adventures have been caught on tape by her mother (who has also lovingly subtitled them into English!) The movie "Fooling the Toothfairy" (the subject of my sample) concerns "La Petite Souris (the French toothfairy, or "The Little Mouse!) and Capu's schemes to score an under-the-pillow "cadeau". Sadly, the project was cut short, but I believe Capucine has only just begun! Already an overseas Vimeo phenomenon, she is only 4 and has started her own little Edurelief fund for education in Mongolia. Be sure to check out her awesome fund boutique ♥



Most importantly, I am indebted to Miss Capucine for her charm. When I was sent the assignment, and "met" Capucine, I fell in love! She is a real kid, with honest-to-goodness bedhead and a snaggly smile and grand plans, the kind that good stories write themselves around. In what can at times be a market populated by contrived children's characters, Capucine was a little ray of sun for me. Maybe someday she'll have a book. So merci to Capu for your sunshine, and merci beaucoup to her mother, Anne, for capturing it! Make sure you watch all of her videos. I highly recommend, "Once Upon a Time"...but beware the "crocodeeeeeel" and the "hippopotame" (which, by the way, you can buy on a t-shirt at her boutique!)

Maud Monday

It's a Monday night, and I haven't posted in quite some time. Well, I'm in a bit of a tussle with a headcold (I thought I had properly won last week, but it's back for round 2, so I'm back to the Airborne!) but nonetheless life has been productive somehow, even with frequent escapes into all this unbelievable sunshine in Boston.

In the middle of what is now my final lap on my Candlewick book (due out in 2010!) I had a spare moment to doodle, and here is Maud. Isn't Maud such a funny old name? I love it, it looks like the color mauve in my mind, and it tastes like raspberry ice-cream (the cold medicine is definitely getting to me!)


Maud's meandering soundtrack:

Philip Glass on Pandora (what a station!)
Claude Debussy: "Claire de Lune"
Ennio Morricone +Yo-Yo Ma: "Main Theme From Marco Polo"
The Most Serene Republic: "The Men Who Live Upstairs"
Rachel's: "Rhine & Courtesan"

♥