A Royal Day

Seeing all the images of the Royal Wedding on television this morning reminded me of a children's book I bought over 20 years ago. There was something about Prince William's red jacket, which

signified his new appointment as Royal Colonel of the Irish Guards, that triggered my memory about "The Favershams," written by the late Roy Gerrard.

Born in England, Roy Gerrard left school at the age of 13 to train at Salford School of Art, intending to make a living as an abstract oil painter. Instead, he became an art teacher and department head. He never exhibited his oil paintings and in 1970 he decided he was finished with painting and destroyed all his existing work!!

In 1972 he was immobilized for several weeks after a climbing accident, and he started tinkering around with small watercolors. He became obsessed and gradually it took up all his spare time. It took him about three years, but he finally arrived at his true style of painting: "small, highly detailed watercolors, remorselessly whimsical and often Victorian/Edwardian in subject."

"The Favershams," a story of upper-class Victorians, was also a mini-biography, with stages from babyhood onward placed against elaborate landscapes and architectural settings. The backgrounds are full of wild exaggerations in scale and surface detail, but the watercolors keep them playful.

Unfortunately, Roy Gerrard passed away at the age of 62, while bike riding in the English countryside. "The Favershams" was chosen by The New York Times Book Review as best illustrated book of the year in 1983. Two more of his titles were also given the same award, "Sir Cedric" and "Sir Francis Drake." His books are still available on Amazon where you can see more of his art on the "look inside" feature.

Who's Awake in Springtime?

I finally got to the library today, and BOY did it feel good. I picked up some fabulous new books - the one above being my favorite of the bunch.
Who's Awake in Springtime, written by Phillis Gershator and Mim Green. Illustrated by Emilie Chollat.
The cover caught my eye immediately - reminiscent of one of my favorite illustrators, Delphine Durand, but less pattern-heavy and with bolder compositions. The interplay between the animals and human character works really well. It's a nicely designed cover too, with all the elements fitting in just so. The text is lyrical and fun to read, a little tour through animals leading to a nice sleepy ending (not a bad choice for bedtime reading!).

The Sketchables

I was recently invited to post as a guest on a wonderful new blog,

The Sketchables.

Do visit and have a look around.

You'll find the work of a group of very talented ladies. :o)

More Mo

I love Mo Willems' books and the characters he creates! I also like listening to him talk about writing and creating the characters and stories. Ok, so I love New Orleans as well, which is his home town... all around, I am "Pro Mo". If you search his name on You Tube, there is quite a bit of content. Here are just a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure!

Labracadabra Release!

I just received my copies of a chapter book I illustrated last year for Viking. It is so fun to finally see the printed copies and what a fabulous job they did. It is hard bound with a jacket! Pretty special for a chapter book don't you think?

This funny and sweet story about a dog with magical powers was written by Jessie Nelson and Karen Leigh Hopkins who have spent most of their careers writing and producing movies for Hollywood. It's now available at bookstores and on Amazon and is also on Kindle!

Have a lovely Easter weekend from the Picture Book Junkies!

What We're Reading

I thought I'd share a selection of books that my 2yo son and I were reading lately. I hit a rough patch for the end of this pregnancy so I've been on 'couch-potato' rest for the last month. I actually haven't been to the library in that same amount of time, yikes! This has worked out OK as Miles was less interested in reading - thankfully he's getting back into them again just this past week.

Pete's A Pizza: William Steig
A classic, of course. Perfect for a boy who loves to make pretend pizzas - and go out to our local Flatbread Pizza and watch the pizza go in and out of the oven.

Curious George Plays Mini Golf
These readers correspond to episodes of Curious George. We do a little putt-putt around the house so he enjoys learning more about 'golf'. Books really are a wonderful way to support play learning and new experiences.

Sugar Would Not Eat It: Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Giselle Potter
I found Giselle Potters people a little softer and sweeter in this book - plus her cat, Sugar, is just statically charming. Rather than hammer my boy with endless big brother books, this one gets a message across about compassion for 'smaller beings' and caregiving without being preachy.

The Potty Book for Girls (and Boys): Alyssa Satin Capucilli, illustrated by Dorothy Stott
We're nowhere near ready for potty training in our house, but since we inherited these books, why not? As an illustrator I sympathize that both books are NEARLY identical except for the boy/girl and pink/blue swapouts. Two books to paint at once, oy!

How to be a great children's illustrator

How to Be a Great Children's Illustrator

with David Small

Benny's Chocolate Bunny

Easter Bunny, if you are looking for a special gift to give the kiddos this year, I would suggest you stock up on author/illustrator, Janee Trasler's, Benny's Chocolate Bunny.

Janee's books are full of charming characters, whimsical scenarios and always with a twist of funny. Benny's Chocolate Bunny is no exception.

All I know is I wish I had a chocolate bunny as a best friend too!

Congrats on a great book, Janee.

Be sure to check out Benny's website for some fun stuff!

Bookworm Birdie

I'm currently working on a project about a rabbit who loves books. So when I found Calvin Can't Fly, The Story of a Bookworm Birdie in the bookstore, it peaked my interest. Don't you just love animals who can read?

"Calvin is a starling. He was born under the eaves of an older barn with his three brothers, four sisters, and sixty-seven thousand four hundred and thirty-two cousins. Starlings have BIG families." When Calvin tumbled out of the nest to discover the world with his siblings, instead of discovering worms or grass or dirt, Calvin discovered books!

The thing about starlings is that they really are very smart birds. In the 90's I volunteered for the local Wildlife Rescue organization and I raised infant and orphaned songbirds. Raising starlings was easy. They got the routine quickly, learned how to self-feed without much hassle, and were out the door and back into the wild lickity-split. A small nest of starlings was an easy "starter" nest for a beginning volunteer. They are quite gregarious and in the winter they come together into enormous flocks that fill the air like black clouds.

Written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Keith Bendis, this adorable tale is funny, endearing and celebrates a child's individuality. The illustrations are loose and whimsical. The book has a graphic feel with the black birds against a white background. There are hundreds of little black starlings illustrated on some of the pages. I can only imagine the fun Keith Bendis had with this project.

Bendis is probably a familiar name to you. His work has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Fortune, and Time. This is his first children's book. You can see more of his work here.

Keith Bendis' studio in Ancram with Author Jennifer Berne, right.

(David Lee/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers)

Berne and Bendis both live in Ancram, New York, and although they have been friends for years, this is their first collaboration. Bendis came up with the original idea for "Calvin" but wasn't quite sure what to do with him. Berne immediately saw the possibilities and wrote the story.

The book is painted in gouache and has a soft feeling to it. It is a departure from most of his work that is done in pen and ink. It took four years to make the book, from original idea to the first print run. The book was released in September of 2010. Bendis and Berne plan to collaorate on another book in the future. "Their collaboration is fairly unique, said Bendis, with a lot of back and forth between artist and writer."

"It's not the usual way they come about," he said.

London Book Fair 2011

Today is the last day of the London Book Fair 2011. It would be wonderful to be there. If you are like me and are miles away from it, you can follow it through these links:

The London Book Fair's website

The London Book Fair on Twitter

Booktrust on Twitter

The London Book Fair's live blog

Got to love the web! :o)

E-Books with Will Terry Video

Happy Tuesday all. Ever think about making an e-book? Will Terry shares his thoughts, experience and suggestions. Will, as always, thanks for your generosity!

http://www.willterry.com/

By the way, this is part 1 of 2. Will also shares, formatting the ebook. =o)

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday I decided to clean up my office where I do most of my artwork. I'm gearing up for some picture book projects that are going to finished artwork and I'm feeling a bit disorganized with paintings, sketches and papers floating all over the place. Whenever I walk into an Apple store I get longings for clean, sleek, uncluttered surfaces. But, unfortunately, I just can't seem to maintain it. Maybe its the creativity that just makes everything messy?

Anyway, I've got my desktop all cleaned off and I thought I'd show you my favorite pieces of equipment that I use as an illustrator.

Last year I purchased a new iMac. I was badly in need of an upgrade and it was so satisfying to get current. Even though the computer itself is a breeze to set up, I hired a tech guy to transfer all my files to my new computer and to make sure everything was updated properly. Along with that we made sure I had lots of backup. My backup drive just perks along on it's own and automatically backs up my files all day long. Sweet! I use my Wacom tablet for my digital projects, sketching, working in photoshop, etc.

Couldn't live without it!

I purchased these Alex flat files from Ikea a couple of years ago. They come in black and white.

I LOVE them and think I will get another set. They are large enough to hold all my artwork, sketches, oversized paper, etc. but are not too obtrusive. Also they make a great stand for printers, scanners, etc. Which, you can see I use for my Epson printer.....

My printer is an Epson Stylus 1280....so old! I'm shocked I can still find ink for it :)

But such a workhorse! It got me through 3 years at Surtex and I've not really had any issues with it. Great for proofing my artwork, but definitely time for a new one!

One of the biggest reasons I had to get organized was to find room for my latest piece of equipment which is the large Epson graphic arts scanner. I have debated this purchase for many years now.....not sure if I was really going to need it or maybe I could continuing piecing my artwork together in Photoshop. But I'm to the point where some of my projects are really

requiring larger hand-painted art and not having to scan a painting in four pieces makes me very happy!

Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake answers some interesting questions. There's no audio on the first few seconds of the video for some reason but the rest is fine.

Enjoy!

p.s the "by me" on the top of the video is not really me. That's just how the video is featured on YouTube. Wouldn't that be something though? A dream come true to be able to be sitting in a room talking to him. :o)

Multi-tasking Friday

©2010 Deborah Melmon

Since I am on big deadline for work, I thought I would multi-task and post my Illustration Friday post here on the PBJunkies blog. The IF topic is "duet" and I couldn't help think about Sarah and Carly from Picnic at Camp Shalom. Ok, ok, I'm sure you're all hung over from our celebration last week of this book, but like I said, I'm on a deadline and saw the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and took it :)

In the story, Sarah and Carly have a misunderstanding and are not getting along. But, unfortunately, they are thrown together during music practice to sing a duet together. I had a lot of fun creating the tension between these two with their body language and expression.

Although I can't really show you what I'm working on right now for my deadline next week, it is a very fun project. I'm illustrating a picture book for Parragon UK. The book is actually coming out in two versions - one for broad distribution, and an exclusive version for Marks & Spencer, which is a large department store in the UK.

The covers of the book are different, but the interiors will be similar, if not the same. It is a combination of my art on photographic backgrounds. I am putting the backgrounds together with high-resoluation images from a stock photo company and super-imposing my ink and watercolor illustrations of the characters on the backgrounds using photoshop. It's actually quite fun working this way.

Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for stopping by this week!