Oh, Brenda! Don't leave me!

We had our final picture book illustration class last night and I wish it would never end. There were so many different kinds of baked chocolate goodness I swooned. And even Pina Colada licorice!

Everyone made great strides in their work. I laughed out loud at the hilarious and quirky dummy of Jaime Patneaude, daughter of super writer Dave Patneaude.

I am still working on my bunnies. Laboring over the first double page spread and working out how to paint and finish the art. I made a ghastly version with pink and purple bunnies that looked sort of like Seuss Vomit. And the drawing kept getting farther and farther away. I can't even show you because my scanner thinks it is too ugly to scan.

So now, the bunnies are natural bunny colors according to my loose color sketch and I've cropped in on them for this double page spread (at top of post -- yes, that is a straw up the baby bunny's nose, I promise it all makes sense in the book dummy.)

Finding the last version of the manuscript I made is on my list of things to do (maybe it didn't save in stupid Word?) in addition to redoing the dummy and a piece of finished art. All by next Wednesday (!) in order to have something exciting and new to take to LA. I have one more trick up my portfolio sleeve, but who knows if it will be ready in time. Wish me luck.

Today's post is only for mature readers or people like Lisa Lutz or Kalama Jon.

Read on if you don't mind stuff like this.

Continue reading "Not for bunny lovers" »

I'm taking my favorite class again, at the UW Extension with superhero Brenda Z Guiberson. The class is called Illustrating Children's Picture Books and our big focus is dummy building. Brenda does amazing edits of manuscripts besides kick butt art and dummy critiques. This is the THIRD time I've taken the class -- it is really a super boot camp for projects that need a bit of toning. I can't recommend it highly enough.

And it is my third time because...I love it! The other two times I've taken it I had stories that didn't quite sing to me and no amount of Brenda-izing could save them. But THIS time around I'm digging the story and art I'm working on and feel like singing that song from West Side Story "Something's Coming" (before all the fighting and death happens when Tony is about to meet Maria and not his impending doom.)

Here Brenda shows us examples of picture book art styles...Raul Colon's scratching and some scratchboard samples.

I turned in my manuscript again after receiving some great edits/comments at the last class. I also turned in a redo of some character designs I've been working on for my bunny brothers story.

Here they are as they've been since, hmm, November or something? And Brenda wanted me to get the bunny on the left, he's a 3rd grader, looking different from the middle guy who is a kindergartner. And the baby of the family, who is in the 2 to 3 year old range, needed to look less beefy compared to the kindergartner. Brenda also suggested sticking the eyes of the younger two bunnies below the half way points on their noggins. Below is my redesign:

The one in the middle is named Cheeky. I like that his ears mimic the arcs of his eyebrows (I'm not sure if that will work for every pose, though.) He, the budding thespian, is delivering an impassioned monologue. I think he looks angry in the redesign so that needs some tweaking -- he's not angry, just acting. I feel like the three characters are three parts of my own personality, though Aaron will tell you I most resemble the middle guy who is predominantly a whiny pain in the patoot. Just wait till I write Aaron, The Naughty Farting Dog Who Dies In A Horrible Way and we'll see who's so funny then.

I think I am in Blogadoon -- where you only make a blog post every one hundred years to chronicle briefly seeing Gene Kelly before going back to sleep for a century.

I'm not sure why blogging is a habit I can't start. Maybe I should do it in conjunction with starting smoking? That would make blogging seem exciting and dangerous. Or maybe I should pretend that Martha has hired me to blog everyday. She's a brutal task master and one should be frightened of ever disappointing her so I'd be motivated by fear. Or maybe I should just be an adult about this and find some inner motivation?

Here's my public declaration to start a 21 day challenge to blog everyday for the next 3 weeks and see how that goes. I would like every post to have a point or relate to illustration, but many of the blogs I like don't always stick to a narrow theme or have a point... Those blogs are simply chronicling a slice of the blogger's life with pretty pictures -- often of cake. That's what I like. And they post regularly which is key.

How is everybody's summer going? Mine is fine, thanks.

June I spent just eating broccoli and rice and rice flavored rice milk to determine some food allergies. I think I am allergic to bread and cupcakes and pasta. My three favorite food groups.

July I've been working on my art studio/office and taking the best class ever (my third time!) We also went to the most magical place on earth outside of the Disney properties -- Shangri-lar.

The inspirational beauty and wondertude of Shangri-lar
+
The need to decorate someone's baby shower
+
A new craft (linoleum/rubber block carving) to explore
=
Veggie Baby Alphabets!

I hand-printed these on banner flags, some onesies, some present packaging, and some dishtowels. Block carving and printing is soooo much fun! I can't stop! I like it more than knitting or sewing. I especially like it in conjunction with PBS Masterpiece/Mystery watching and baking (now gluten-free :{ )

I'm researching what sort of items parents of the 0 to 3 crowd might enjoy seeing these designs on:
Framed art prints for a nursery?
Onesies?
An alphabet poster?
Pillows?
Bowls?
Bibs?

If you e-mail me in the next few weeks with some thoughtful suggestions I'd be happy to send you a print of one in thanks (in lieu of cupcakes which don't mail well in manila envelopes (Oh! There are two other veggie baby print choices, too, which I'll post in one of my next 21 daily posts and you can pick your favorite.))

I do wish the t is for tomato was scratch and sniff -- just pruned my tomato plants and I smell like one hot tomato now!

Moving! We've spent every waking weekend minute getting ready for the big move to our new house. Which means boxes and boxes and cleaning and yard work. And constant companionship from animals that I thought loved me, but are, in fact, trying to kill me. Always underfoot when carrying a fifty pound box of exposed knives or my terrarium of highly poisonous angry geckos.

I took care of our rental yard which had sort of become a jungle, too. And the weed whacker wasn't plugged in correctly and started to smoke from its outlet. I thought I was just doing a really good job. Really whacking those weeds. But the smoke wasn't a sign of skill, just an early electrical fire.

And I'm limping. I talked Aaron into a final Redmill burger fest last night since we won't be living near one anymore. Afterward, as we were walking to the car he complained that he felt awful after eating food like that, like bricks were in his stomach. I felt fantastic and to show him so I leapt to the car like a gazelle. A beautiful, graceful gazelle UNTIL my last leap which landed in a pothole and crunched my ankle and slammed me to the pavement. So now I'm a limpy troll with two scraped and bruised knees limping around with my boxes of knives and a half open bag of frozen corn kernels tied to my left knee. Maybe gazelles watch where they're leaping to.

Roast chicken? Logan, a dog who should be more mature at the ripe old age of 4 can't resist a roast chicken left on the kitchen counter. We had dinner last night and were in the dining room. JUST finished our last bites when we heard a funny dead-chicken-flopping sound. This makes it the fourth roast chicken since February that Logan has tried to "free."

I was gone the first time it happened -- in New York. And Aaron called to tell me Logan had gotten his paws on a roast chicken and eaten every square inch of it. Like the chicken never existed. It sounds like Logan had a moment similar to that scene in Requiem For A Dream. It is now his high of choice.

You'd think we'd know better by now, too. We keep thinking he wouldn't be so bold as to try it again in broad daylight with us only a wall away. We put the bird waaaay far back on the counter to let it cool, but somehow Logan turns into a ninja and surprises us with his tenacity, stealth, and unbelievable reach.

For me, I can't resist signing up for conferences and retreats. I just signed up for the SCBWI Int'l LA conference in August, I'm going to BEA in May (as a media escort,) and I plan on signing up for our 2nd Annual Fall retreat whenever we open registration. Conferences are expensive, but the Seattle one convinced me of how important making personal connections in the industry is and how much more opportunity you have to do that at a conference. And wonderful critical feedback on work. And showing your work in public -- not crying into your roast chicken alone on the kitchen floor (I don't do that, but illustrating IS lonely.) And it is a high. I heard so many helpful things at this last conference. This new knowledge has informed and changed all of the projects I'm working on.

For starters, from Jim's workshop, I'll try out Vista Print to make some new postcards for a summer mailing. I'm not sure about the type at the bottom, but I really like this image and heard nice things about it at the conference.

Thanks to Betsy for her great conference session on blogging. Now I'm looking at other blogs she mentioned. One blog that came up is BIG A LITTLE A and her link to some other blog on how to come up with your children's book pen name. Or maybe JUST pen name – I'm making it from children's books only:

My name would be James Cabbage Quimby.

James Marshall, Cabbage our dog, and Ramona Quimby.

What is your name?

Here's a little sculpture of Cabbage my mom made when I was a baby.

And here is my attempt at sharing. My hungry bunnies. I've been working on them recently and a story to go with that is currently *all* dialogue (I do think this book could be written by someone with the middle name of Cabbage):

March has been pretty exciting. I think we bought a house and are moving even farther west than we are now. On our first outing with our lovely real estate agent I slammed my finger in her car door. It turns out I broke the tip of my finger and who knows if before or after they drilled a hole in the nail is when it got infected. So my left hand isn't my friend and I'm taking pills. All should be well in a few days. I do wish it was the middle finger and not the index.

AND thank heavens it isn't my right hand. Typing has been a chore, but sketching and having things to sketch has been awesome. Like sketching bits of our rental house and surrounding area that I'll be leaving soon.

And research sketching! I'm working on a personal dummy something set in a certain time period. Luckily there are loads of books and some movies set then, too, to look at and adapt for my own idears.

And researching how to draw hot teens! Sara has no idea how hard it is to draw someone hot and teenage. I might have her redo all the hot characters. Are teen boys ever hot? I can't have every hot guy looking like the only hot guy I know, Aaron (below is not Aaron) -- and besides, Aaron's WAY too old. It is difficult to look properly teenage AND handsome and the media isn't helping. Especially when most actors playing teens are ancient. Isn't the cast of High School Musical -- aren't they all over 40?

Kirby is back. I'm so glad. And not just because she brought me the best book!

We move to our new house the weekend of the Conference! I don't think I'll post much until May. There are lots of paints and slide whistles and pie plates to pack up. Plus critique sessions to prep for at the Conference which is almost sold out. If you haven't signed up yet what are you waiting for???

Happy Slapsgiving!

I've been studying my favorite illustrators. Here's a practice piece in the style of Alice and Martin Provensen. I read they use oil on vellum, but I don't know if that's what they've always done. This is based on the art style/palette they used for their fairy tale book from the sixties. I used what I had on hand: fake water-soluble oils and fake canvas and did the line with a black sharpie.

My mom and Nana and their dog, Calvin, joined us for turkey day and it was super delicious. We watched Ratatouille and it was trés bon, bien sur. I gave thanks for not being a cook in the middle ages. Or a middle aged cook. Yet.

I was thrilled to drive to Kirkland yesterday and see for myself -- Parkplace Books and the Lake Washington IRA put up a banner with my art on it for their kid storytimes and events! I designed a banner, but then Aaron made it 800 times lovelier. Thanks to Marion and Mary and Aaron -- it looks great.

I recently illustrated a wedding poem and it was a difficult job. It was for a former client, not someone I know personally, so I had to approach it more like a picture book manuscript and hope that the photos they sent and the tenor of the poem would result in images that resonated for the couple. The poem was written by the bride's father and the photos they sent were great, so it went really well. I hand-lettered the 60+ lines and did seven spots.

Here are some of them:

Our super awesome SCBWI WWA regional meetings started up again on Wednesday ending a summer of bonbon eating and horse race watching for me. Back to work! And meeting an acquiring editor is a great kick in the pants to start getting dummies and portfolio pieces in top shape and ready for submission.

Sarah Cloots, Editorial Assistant at Greenwillow Books, spent two days with our group doing smart First Page readings, manuscript critiques, and a wonderful main session talk. I'm so sad she left! Well-spoken, well-read, bright and funny. Too bad she can't stay in Seattle. But all the better for Manhattan. It is thrilling to see young new editors that really know their stuff and can quote Ursula Nordstrom. Boo-ya!

And I came away with a great new exercise thanks to Sarah:

We all know about the importance of fleshing out characters in our manuscripts by knowing their extensive back stories. And I do character sketches--front, back, profile, three-quarter view--when I'm drawing my characters. But I've always contained my other practice sketches to what is happening in the manuscript.

Sarah gave us two 3 minute exercises during the meeting and one of them was to think of scenarios in which your character wouldn't be comfortable and envision their reactions. She asked us to write or draw this for three minutes. DRAW! Am I a thick thickie? Why didn't I ever think of that? We sort of did that in cartoon school, but it never occured to me to reach outside of my picture book story confines and draw my characters in a different situation.

So I thought of my character Tess, a Rosie-the-Riveter-esque big sister. She's very comfortable battling giants and rebuilding houses and wearing overalls. But stick her in a frilly frock and send her to a formal high tea and I'm sure she'd be completely out of her element. Add a snooty Chanel clad socialite requesting a tea refill and Tess would surely grab the entire samovar and lug it over instead of finding a demure tea pot or taking the tea cup TO the samovar as is (I assume) custom.

What fun! It is just a sketch, but this opens up lots of future plot possibilities to me and let's me know more about Tess. I owe Sarah a cupcake.

Where did the summer go? A busy spring and summer of contract jobs, kid book conferences, book reading, cat and dog scratching, and dummy assembling left me little time for blogging.

New art is up at my portfolio. I'll try to get back into the swing of things on chompoblog -- still have sweet interviews to post!

Got the lyrics wrong below: There's a song Donald Duck sings in one of the Disney shorts. But Donald's elocution leaves much to be desired. "Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main" is the way the shanty really goes. I'm going to go have a shandy.

The new issue of the International SCBWI Bulletin should be arriving in mailboxes soon. But there is a curious development on page 16...

I distinctly remember working on this with the author, but I don't think her name was Sana. There will be a correction in the next Bulletin -- but for now -- WHO IS SANA SORBET?

She's our main character, yes, but besides interviewing editors on what makes for a good graphic novel Sana and her best friend, Mischa, are about to be embroiled in a whole lot of middle grade mystery and intrigue. Stay tuned for a full dossier on our new dynamic duo. Razzle dazzle!

Jaime

Finally my cold has passed and I'm busy at work on many projects. One that I can tell you about right now is Janet Lee Carey's mini-site for her fantasy books! I've just added Janet's new sections devoted to her wonderful new book, Dragon's Keep.

There will be additional exciting pages added just as soon as I can muster them, but the new content up there now is phenomenal. Look for a great "out take" from Dragon's Keep by Janet -- a passage from Queen Evaine Pendragon's diary -- and a jaw-droppingly stellar craft by Holly Cupala to make your own dragon talon!

Janet is having her book launch party this Saturday at Parkplace Books in Kirkland. I hope to bring all the originals of the illuminated letters I've done for her to have on display at the party.

Party particulars (be there or be roasted and eaten whole by a dragon):

Who: Come SCBWI friends, Fellows, Fantasy Fans & Families!
What: A fantastic book launch party!
Where: Parkplace Books
348 Parkplace Center,
Kirkland, WA
(425) 828-6546
When: Saturday March 24th at 7pm

Let's Party! RSVP jlcarey@hotmail.com

Hope to see you there (my wench attire is at the cleaners so I'll see you in jeans.)

Jaime

I am in so much trouble with myself. There's a dummy I need to be working on, but I have cupcakes on the brain or something. This IS a sketch for another story idea, but not the one I should be working on right now.

I've already mentioned what I would do if I won the lottery--open the Bebop Bakery. And because I don't actually play the lottery I've decided to build my bakery on paper in 32 page picture book form.

There's an empty storefront on my block that used to be a lawnmower store or something. And I know it would make the perfect bakery. Everytime I walk by it I think of how I'd decorate it and what comestibles we'd bake. I'd buy a big European oven the size of a car. BUT instead of one big chimney I'd get someone to rig me organ pipes as the chimney outlet instead (does this happen in a Disney movie or am I dreaming?) And they'd be able to toot songs like the one below when I'm baking or every hour on the hour, whichever is less annoying.

I don't know why bakeries don't have singing ovens, but in my world they do. Wouldn't you pay attention to an oven if it rhymed at you? Or at least tooted tunes? I would. Bebop would. He's the hero of this story after all.

Jaime

These are only the extra-curricular highlights of the NY trip. Pictures taken by Aaron:

Met a dog named Odie with awesome space snow shoes. Odie is blind, but is attracted to the sound of a camera clicking pictures and likes to have his wooly ears rubbed. I (does my hat really look like that?) watched him while his owner (someone who looked really nice and smart) got coffee at the Once Upon A Tart bakery. We oogled the tarts, but didn't get any because we had a mission. A mission to seek out RICE PUDDING. I don't even like rice pudding.

Now, thanks to Betsy and Rice to Riches, I am addicted to most any of the flavors--especially the Mascarpone with sour cherries. Damn you rice. Damn you pudding.

Speaking of Betsy, a big group of children's book groupies walked all the way across the street from our hotel to the Donnell library to say hi to Betsy. Betsy was gone. But the original Pooh, Eeyore and Kanga were all there, more mystical to me than the Shroud of Turin. There is the talented Holly's homemade coat cuff, Greg and Sarah of Class of 2K7, Jim (blurry because he is maybe messing with the time space continuum), the lovely Laini, chilled Sara, Tim with his new pants, and Pooh peeking Jolie.

The next day I did some portfolio drop offs, ate Jacque Torres chocolates and was glad I had long underwear. After a COMPLETELY AWESOME meeting with the uber talented cover designer Vikki Sheatsley (she's responsible for the Hattie Big Sky cover) and her compatriots at Random House I ran down the street 10 blocks to the Daily Show Studios and met Aaron who'd been in line for hours. I got there with a minute to spare and we were let in for the show's taping. It was very quick. The guest was a wacko, but we saw some Coney Island Polar Bears and the hilarious Samantha Bee.

Because Aaron has super powers, he managed to get us half price tickets to see Spamalot that night, too. Prince Herbert was the best.
Famished because we hadn't eaten dinner between Jon and Spam we took the subway back to our Inn in search of nearby foodstuffs.

Right in front of the subway exit was THIS GUY in a hot dog shop.

The shop has a floor to ceiling window and he was inside chomping on his hot dog with all the trimmings. But either something he read or heard tickled his fancy and when WE saw him he was laughing with his mouth of sauerkraut wide open. The most pure expression of joy on his face we'd ever seen. For a full minute his mouth was open, ha-ha-ing, shoulders bouncing, sausage fingers dripping with mustard. We were blown away by his happiness. Then and there we knew THIS was where we'd have dinner. And let me tell you: A one dollar hot dog with all the trimmings is my idea of a delectable dinner. It was completely scrumptious. Thank you, happy hot dog man. You made my trip.

That and the uplifting empowering talks of Susan Cooper, Katherine Paterson, Robie Harris, Ann Brashares, and Brian Selznick at the conference! I'm not sure I can do them justice. If I find some good posts from other attendees I'll let you know.

Jaime

Hooray hooray! Look to your right for a link to my online portfolio. Trying to add some descriptors to each picture, but for now it is up and working! I'm completely thrilled.

Thanks Aaron!

I signed up for the art display/silent auction at the conference and am debating what to bring for it. There's a size limit and I thought about entering something small and maybe adding a hand lettered quote to it.

There's a Russian proverb: Love and eggs are best when they are fresh. Same could be said of stories and books and art. Are you allowed to tweak proverbs? This reminds me of old children's book week posters, but maybe I'm the only one. I'm a little too frazzled right now to be making intelligent quote choices:

Logan ate something stupid and has been active at both of his ends...

There is wet concrete in our basement and I think it cemented shut the closet with my suitcase in it. I'm leaving for NY tomorrow and am lucky just to have clean underwear. Maybe it will all fit in my coat pocket--who needs luggage?

Jaime

In all the hurry to prepare for New York this week I almost forgot the due date for the Don Freeman Memorial grant. This is just one of the great grants that SCBWI provides to its members. I know some states have lots of grants for artists, but Washington's artist grant process is a little confusing and daunting. The children's book specific grants available through SCBWI are totallly cool. You can only apply for one per calendar year. There are lots left for THIS calendar year, so go check them out!

And above is the final outlined version of the illustration I was working on earlier. Hopefully more spreads will be up on the blog this week.

Jaime

This is going to my watercolor class today for help, but I am in a quandary over how to do the finished line. I've tried pencil, charcoal, colored pencil, and black ink. Now I'm narrowed down to blue and/or brown ink and have been mixing my own color combos. But I wonder if the REAL issue is that the illustration still isn't reading well on a paint only level. This is still without any finished outline. The thing at the tippy top is a bird looking into the telescope contraption. The focus is the little girl, her dog, cat, and telescope-y thing. Any critique appreciated.

There is so much to do before going to New York. I'm trying to get up earlier and earlier each day, but when it is so dark outside still and there is a dog AND a cat curled up on you, like snuggle-prison bars...

I'm working on illustrations for other people this week and next, but at the back of my mind is a little project I am very excited about.

Sometimes when you get a new idea you REALLY want to share you REALLY shouldn't until you've given it a solid backbone. In the mean time I thought I'd get out some of my secret fueled excitement and use up a nice piece of paper that Bebop spent ALL morning walking on with his wet muddy paws. Can you see the paw prints? To the right of the box is a nice clear one of his little paw pad and toes. No respect for Hot Pressed Arches Watercolor Block.

The weather here is Ark-inspiring.

Jaime

There's a very smart group of kids and teacher in Pennsylvania that have been reading 100 books every year for the past five years!

Continue reading "Dear Mrs. Major's Class" »

Glad I entered this, but I'm not quite happy with my drawing entry yet. I will keep fiddling with it on my own time.

It is so rainy and dark here that Logan won't even go outside for his morning pee. Big baby. Maybe he'll do my pilates DVD with me.

If you haven't read The Beast of Noor yet you should be ashamed of yourselves. It is an EXCELLENT fall pick to get you in the mood for Halloween.

The book's minisite is up and running and so is the quiz! And it is a HARD quiz so, lucky for you, I'm posting the prize you win if you get all the answers right. This is part one of a two part prize.

A little self mailing piece of stationery.

Simply print out the pdf, cut along the outline, write on the blank backside, fold where the diamond pattern meets the other patterns, glue the backside of the vine patterned tabs and VIOLA! A letter/envelope to send to someone special.

To get the second part of the prize, a secret fairy language alphabet decoder, you WILL have to complete the quiz. Go! Get in the library queue or order it up from your favorite bookstore.

Jaime

August 2005--around the 20th this time last year--I was in the hospital so:

Appendixes in humans are vestigial (my favorite word) organs. Much like other vestigial body parts--hips in snakes or brains in politicians--we don't use our appendixes anymore but most people still have one.

In these animals and others (but not us) the appendix helps break down plant material/cellulose.
In HUMANS you have a 7% chance of developing acute appendicitis. Before 20th century medicine a case of it was usually fatal.

According to some medical texts the appendix, like the tonsils, is in a constant state of very very very mild inflammation. Because of its goofy location it is easily blocked and THAT's when your tummy starts to hurt in a strange spot, you can't pass gas, you may start to get a fever, chills, nausea and be stuck in the ER for five hours while they determine you've got some appendix troubles...

Appendectomal Timeline and Fun:

1763: French surgeon Claudius Aymand performs first successful appendectomy.
1886: First U.S. appendectomy performed by Dr Robert Hall...who died of a ruptured appendix in 1897. Ouch.
1939: "Something is not right!" Madeline gets her appendix out in Paris.
2003: World's longest appendix of 9.2 inches removed from a 55 year old Pakistani man. Yikes.
2005: A friend at work and I BOTH come down with appendicitis a few hours apart. We both undergo laparoscopic appendectomies (different hospitals and surgeons.) Our office thinks it might be contagious. Geniuses.

...I think that is enough for now. Surgery of any kind is pretty gruesome* to describe. The biggest thing about this whole experience for me was POST surgery. A few days after coming home from the hospital I discovered my right arm was so weak* I couldn't draw or write. That freaked me out. The thought of losing my life/the anesthesia bill was one thing but losing my ability to draw was heart breaking. I was already in a lot of pain and super depressed. And I've got a very inventive imagination. So I imagined not being able to draw for the rest of my life and being stuck in a dead end job. Eventually my arm came back to me. But August of last year I did some deep soul searching while looking at my three new scars.

So! Here I am in 2006--appendix free and happy to have use of my drawing arm so I can draw ALL DAMN DAY.

Jaime

*Okay so I found out from Bebeth, fellow appendectomer, that during surgery they inflate your abdomen so the surgeons have room to manuever. When you are sewn back up they DON'T uninflate you! The air then needs to dissipate/be absorbed by your body somehow (Docs feel free to correct me) and it often travels up. So you might have a bit of air by your shoulder or back muscles or something. This pressure was freaking out my right arm making it too weak to draw or write for about a week. I am praying that kids who get appendectomies these days are better informed than I was by my nurses and doctors (really iffy bedside manners.) My surgeon was wonderful, Dr. Wan-Lin Horng, but I really didn't get to talk to her since I was knocked out for most of our time together.

It has been 1 and 1/2 weeks since my official move to freelance illustration. I'm missing human contact. Logan and Bebop, as much as I've always talked to them, have never replied back except for the occasional yawn or bottom toot.

So coffee shops are my office away from office. I'm not there to chat people up or anything, but I like being around entities with opposable thumbs and the possibility of dialogue. Preferable to a library BECAUSE there is coffee and more noise AND they are open much earlier. I love their warmth, the cozy places to sit with a good chair and table and neverending coffee. Also most coffee shops don't require me to vacuum or do the dishes--some big distractions at home.

But the other morning while at Besalu I felt like this career move was proving to be an exceptionally sedentary and posterior heavy one. That there's more sitting now than with my office job! It reminded me of the long hours I spent drawing at VFS and my favorite teacher noticing that everyone's bottom was getting larger. Chair Ass, he called it. The mark of a good animator. And now everyone is following Jane Yolen's advice of Butt In Chair. SCBWI is breeding a nation of good books and wide bottoms.

Jaime

My cold is in full swing.

On top of that I spent two hours at an allergist this morning getting my arms poked and prodded with essences of things like dust mite poo and birch tree (my only allergy is to the former, however, which is completely disgusting and common.)

The only saving grace about this experience--alone in an exam room for hours and being itchy and not allowed to itch--was reading the current issue of the Horn Book I'd brought along (wouldn't it be nice if there was a special medical office/doctor for children's book authors and illustrators where, instead of germ infested issues of Parents and People, there was Horn Book and Children's Writer and some nice pens and paper to draw or write with? And chocolate?)

I love the Horn Book. There is always at least one startling or brilliant nugget in each issue that makes you glad to be alive and care about children's books. This issue I was very taken with reading Lynne Rae Perkins's Newbery acceptance speech. I haven't read Criss Cross yet but this speech has me thinking I'd enjoy it very much. The speech isn't available online through Horn Book so you might have to shell out the ELEVEN dollars to buy a copy. Good lord. Another article by her editor, Virginia Duncan, is available online...and there's an archive of past Lynne Rae Perkins's Horn Book bits.

Here's sneezing at you,
Jaime

Of the rest of my life sans office day job and I have a severe head cold.

Logan is very bored. And that isn't a box of cookies I'm holding but the remote.
Actually I've been getting some things done but mentally I'm on a couch with Days of Our Lives.
Thank you, Kelly, for the pencils to make this drawing and thank you, Aaron, for making this day possible.

Jaime

Just two weeks ago I was down in Portland for the week attending the 7th Annual PNW Children's Book Conference, part of the PSU Haystack Summer Program.

Marla Frazee was the entire reason I attended and she was amazing! And not only was Marla amazing but the REST of the faculty were fantastic and inspiring. I highly recommend this conference to anyone interested in learning more about writing or illustrating for children.

The conference was Monday through Friday and I've never been to one that long. There was so much to learn and time to learn it, although I was never bored. Time to get to know the faculty and your fellow attendees. I learned so much about the art of picture making for books from Marla and Elsa and so much about writing from Kirby, Steve, Linda, Susan, Susan, Nancy, Ann and David that it has impacted all of the illustrations and stories I'm currently working on for the better.

I'd like to bake them ALL a chocolate chip zucchini cake. I recommend searching these great people out and studying their books or the books they've edited. I recommend Haystack wholeheartedly and wish I could go back tomorrow!

One of the assignments of Haystack (for illustrators) was to take a paragraph long writing prompt supplied by the writing track attendees and illustrate it. MY prompt was written by the amazing Emily Whitman who has graciously permitted me to reprint her text below. All text below by Emily Whitman, copyright 2006.

Marla had us start out with doing a character study of the main character, front and back.

Then, if your paragraph mentioned any other characters we'd work on a secondary character study.

And then, if time permitted, we'd try to work out a sequence of illustrations from the paragraph.

This was so much fun. I'd move to Pasadena just to take Marla's class.

All this enthusiasm and gushing might be due to: Haystack rocked; I love to draw; it was great to lose track of time and get creative at this week away from home and all responsibilities (other than to be receptive);
AND
I gave notice at my day job before leaving for the conference!

Giving notice was exhilarating--I know that just a few weeks from now everything I've learned at Haystack I'll finally have the time to spend days and days on implementing in my stories and art.

Jaime

Bebop came home no wiser but much more valuable on Friday. He's on two different kinds of human sized antibiotics and is up to his old tricks again. No one knows what he had except our bank account. I'd done this as a sketch originally for Illustration Friday: portrait and never got around to painting it--partly because the dingus was getting himself into emergency vet worthy scrapes and I was too scared to try painting him clouded as I was in worry that he was not going to get better.

But he's better! And if I wake up and Bebop is sleeping next to me and I say good morning and pet him a large black shadow with a wet nose passes between Bebop and me and tries to sit on Bebop so all I can see is said large black shadow. This from an animal that receives 98% of my attention.

Stinker

While most of my heart is taken over by children's book illustration there remains one ventricle devoted to animation. And reading Amid Amidi's blog this morning I came across a startling excerpt that has me scowling at my coffee.

Read it yourself or let me paraphrase: a letter sent in 1939 is circulating in blogs from Walt Disney Co. to a hopeful female applicant with five years of experience at another animation house.

She is told that "Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men..."

(Side note: the comments on this do reflect that this was a bit of a lie--there was um, ONE woman or so working in the creative department at that time with more showing up later like the indomitable Mary Blair.)

This all gets back to Geena Davis, no less, whose SeeJane group has come out with a study on kid movies and the lack of female leads or even supporting characters.

Which gets back to children's books!

Geena brings up the stinky adage for movies I've heard murmured at SCBWI events and in children's book speakeasies: Girls will watch stories about boys but boys won't watch stories about girls (just sub "read" for "watch" and you've got the entire children's entertainment industry covered.)

Normally I hit my head and say, yes! That's just the way it is! What can we do?

Besides blaming fairy tale archetypes and the bird-brained male dominated animation industry (I don't want to lambast the animation industry, too much...is it really Pixar's fault if Disney and his impeccable training courses discriminated against women and the effects of that are still bubbling up through the industry? But where is there a female lead