Creating Magic with Juxtaposition

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Halloween, illustrating, Illustration, illustration prompt, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, inspiration, Jessica Chrysler, tips

by Jessica Chrysler

Fall brings fond memories for me. Even though I grew up in sunny Southern California, there were a few special trees in the neighborhood that would change color and drop their leaves. I’d dreamt about how endless forests of these trees would look and had read fairytales about how spirits would change the colors of the leaves. I’d wonder how they’d lived with all the other creatures in the wood, and if they would all gather into little caves, sleeping together through the long, cold winters. For a kid that never experienced the seasons, this magic seemed so real, even if just beyond my reach. But I was able to capture some of that magic when it came time for Halloween.

What Cassandra Federman Wants You to Know About Writing and Illustrating Your First Book

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Albert Whitman, author, Cassandra Federman, illustrator, picture books, publishing, This is a Sea Cow

Author/illustrator Cassandra Federman was born and raised in Massachusetts, where she spent her childhood reading comic books, playing action figures, drawing superheroes, and participating in all things nerdy (before that became cool). She is also the SCBWI Los Angeles 2017 Mentorship Contest winner. Her book This is a Sea Cow hits shelves on September 1, 2019. Today she’s here to share some of her recent experiences and takeaways on her path to becoming published.

SARAH PARKER-LEE: What things do you wish you’d known/learned before you started this new chapter of illustrating?

2019 Mentor Bethany Barton Has Selected Her Mentee!

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Bethany Barton, illustrator, mentor, mentoring, mentorship, picture books, SCBWI community, SCBWI members

By Bethany Barton, author/illustrator

Have you ever gotten a restaurant menu where everything looks so delicious, it’s nearly impossible to decide? That’s what it felt like going through the applications for SCBWI’s 2019 Mentorship contest! Too much good stuff!

First of all, I want to thank everyone who applied. It’s not always easy to share our artwork with the world, and so many of you were willing. I feel privileged to have gotten my eyes on what you create. I was blown away by the talent on display in every one of this year’s mentorship applicants. The passion for the craft of visual storytelling for children could be seen (and often felt!) in every image that popped into my inbox and I was oh-so-inspired to see the gifts you have to offer young readers. Please keep drawing, please keep painting, please keep telling stories with your images. You must. We didn’t work together this time, but I look forward to seeing your books on shelves, hearing about your successes, and high-fiving you at SCBWI events.

And now, without further ado, I’d love to introduce the world to my mentee:

Interview with Aaron Reynolds and Dan Santat

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Aaron Reynolds, After the Fall, Beekle, Bloomsbury, Brown Books, Caldecott Medal, Creepy Carrots, Dan Santat, Dude, illustrator, interview, Little, macmillan, Neal Porter Book, picture book, Roaring Brook Press, Scholastic, writer

In April, I had the pleasure of watching funny men AARON REYNOLDS and DAN SANTAT dazzle elementary school kids by acting out their new one-word picture book, Dude! Afterward, they graciously shared their wisdom and expertise.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: What advice do you have for prepublished writers and illustrators?

Emma Chichester Clark’s TOTO Illustration Process and Her Muse—Her Dog, Plum

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chapter book, Dogs, Emma Chichester Clark, HarperCollins, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, interview, Michael Morpurgo, middle grade, Plum, The Wizard of Oz, Toto

Emma Chichester Clark is the illustrator of the beautiful middle-grade chapter book, Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of the Wizard of Oz. Its 250+ full-color images showcase Chichester Clark’s signature style.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome to Kite Tales! In Toto, you collaborate once again with author, Michael Morpurgo. How does illustrating well-known stories differ from working on new fiction? Does having a dog as the narrator change your focus when you work on the art?

EMMA CHICHESTER CLARK: In fact, it’s my sixth collaboration with Michael. We have also done versions of Pinocchio, Aesop’s Fables, Hansel and Gretel, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and a Christmas story called The Best of Times. Almost all of them were about well-known characters and I had to find my own ideas about that. This is a challenge because the images we all already know so well are imprinted in our heads. With each character, I have to draw and redraw them, over and over again, until I find someone that belongs to me but who is, at the same time, true to the character I’m representing. [In Toto], having a dog as the narrator was the most fun of all because I adore dogs. I have one, Plum, who is not unlike Toto in appearance and I spend a lot of my time trying to interpret what is going on in her doggy brain.

CVZ: You are also an author. Please give us some insight into your process, both as an illustrator and an author-illustrator.

Author/Illustrator Stan Yan on Quitting Your Day Job, Joining the Con Circuit, & Halloween Picture Book Scares

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author, Cons, Halloween, illustrator, monsters, picture books, San Diego Comic Con, SCBWI members, Stan Yan, zombies

I met Stan Yan, a Denver-based writer/illustrator, caricature artist, and instructor, at his booth at San Diego Comic this year. I’m a bit of a zombie-aficionado and could not resist checking out his kids’ picture book – There’s a Zombie in the Basement (Squid Works Kids). We got to talking, and, when I found out he is an SCBWI member, I knew I had to interview him. He went to school at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he got his bachelor’s degree in accounting, but gave up on financial security to become a full-time freelance cartoonist. Stan also teaches summer camps, after-school programs, workshops, and helped to develop a degree program in graphic storytelling as an adjunct faculty member at the Community College of Aurora. His other recent credits include art and colors for Show Devils (Mother Mind Studios) and writing and art for Vincent Price Presents (BlueWater Productions / Storm Comics).

Sarah Parker-Lee: You’ve written and illustrated comics and books with horror themes for adults and older readers, but There’s a Zombie in the Basement is a picture book for kids. How did that come about? Were you worried it might be too scary?

Stan Yan: Even though I spent most of my life doing more adult-oriented comic book work, some of my major inspirations growing up were picture books, including anything Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. While many of my family continued to badger me to do children’s books, I had no interest until my son was almost 4 years old. One day, he wouldn’t come downstairs to my basement studio, and when asked why, he said he was afraid. When asked what he was afraid of, he started pointing at all of my zombie artwork decorating the walls. Over the next hour, I wrote the fast draft version of my rhyming bedtime storybook.

As I worked on the artwork I wanted it to be a bit unsettling at the beginning, not unlike Sendak’s Wild Things. And, it was precisely my fascination with these unsettling Wild Things that kept me checking that book out from the library as a kid. Of course, by the end of the story, they’re no longer scary, which is what I was going for too.

SPL: As a writer and illustrator, you’ve spent a lot of time with “horror” themes, monsters, and the like. Any advice for other kid lit writers/illustrators looking to translate some of these things into spooky stories kids can enjoy? 

Illustrator’s Gallery: Annelouise Mahoney

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Annelouise Mahoney, digital illustration, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators

By Annelouise Mahoney

Picture books are like little paper theaters inviting us to take a journey. When we provide a believable sense of space, we invite our readers to step into that world.

Environments are important to me. When I develop a character for a story, I think a lot about where the character lives, what their home looks like, and more importantly, why the character lives there. How does the environment serve the story? Does it set a mood, an atmosphere, a feeling of home, or uncertainty? The answers to these questions lead me to do lots of research to determine the particular elements needed to create a specific environment that suits the story.

Brian Won: Author/Illustrator Perspective, Writers & Illustrators Day Faculty

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author, Brian Won, illustrator, illustrator tips, Illustrators Day, picture books

Author/illustrator Brian Won was one of SCBWI’s 2016 Crystal Kite Award recipients and faculty for this year’s Los Angeles Writers & Illustrators Day, where he was a judge for the illustration contests and critiqued illustrator portfolios. He wore many hats–busboy, shoe salesman, library shelver, art director, and designer before making the leap to children’s books. Brian graduated from California’s Art Center College of Design with an honorary ninth term before co-founding National Television, a design and animation company. Read on for his insights and advice to author/illustrators and thoughts on illustrating for others as well as news about his current and upcoming projects!

Illustrator’s Gallery: Lauren Gallegos

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illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, Lauren Gallegos, picture books, SCBWI members

Meet SCBWI member and illustrator Lauren Gallegos in this quarter’s “Illustrator’s Gallery.” Read on to hear Lauren’s story and see some of her amazing illustrations!

In one of my early illustration classes in college, a professor gave us a quiz to see if we were more cut out for being an in-house illustrator or a freelance illustrator. The test placed me VERY much in the camp of in-house illustrator based on my personality and working style. I was pretty discouraged by this. I was still new to the illustration world (I started out in Graphic Design), but was already on my way down the path of wanting to become a children’s book illustrator. In my mind, that could only mean that I had to do freelance. So what did I do? I set out to prove that quiz wrong! No one was going to put me in a box and tell me what I was destined to be!

Illustrator’s Gallery: Anne Berry

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awards, conferences, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, picture book, portfolio tips, portfolios, SCBWI members

SCBWI member Anne Berry is an illustrator living and working in Huntington Beach, California. She’s been doodling ever since she found paper and pencil, and could get her cats to sit long enough for a portrait. At the 2015 SCBWI Summer Conference, she won the SCBWI Mentorship Program award and the Portfolio Honor Award. Read on for her valuable tips about perfecting your own portfolio and to check out her awesome illustrations!