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Picture Book

Maybe Easiest is Best

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Occam’s Razor says simplest is best.

Occam’s razor (or Ockham’s razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the one that requires the smallest number of assumptions is usually correct. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation.

-Wikipedia

Are Simplest and Easiest the same thing? (And do rules for science translate to art?)

As I step into being an illustrator (because it’s fun, and because, as Dessa says, I’m the cheapest person I can hire), I’m trying out styles.

I’ve had the freeing realization that I’m a cartoonist, not a fine artist. But there’s still a wide range within that definition.

After a great (free!) workshop at the library with Trisha Speed Shaskan and Stephen Shaskan, I spent time drawing profile and 3/4 views of some of the 12 Little Trolls. Then I wondered how simple, how cartoony they could be.

Whether or not I stick with this look, it’s helpful to feel fluent in the most essential shapes and lines. (After all, I’d like to do 12 books– that’s a lot of trolls).

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Images are Symbols

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How to draw my cat, Per.

I just realized that for me, drawings are symbols / touchstones / hieroglyphs– they don’t tell all of the story, that’s what the words do.

Not only that, but they don’t have to show all of the story / information, either!

Here’s some insightful mirroring from my dear friend, Kelsi:

Don’t do realistic! Your gift is making the fantastical seem more real/relevant/truthful than Reality.

And a great example from Tom Gauld’s Instagram:

(He cartoons for the New Yorker, so clearly he’s not the only person who believes illustration doesn’t need to be photo-realistic to have value).

What I have always loved about oral storytelling is that I get to give suggestions of the characters, setting, lighting. The listener fills in the rest– which produces an experience better than any movie because it is collaborative, because the listener is making their own Magic.

This is my job. This expression is a touchstone and a doorway to someone else.

Why on earth would a picture book be any different? Leave space for the reader’s Magic. (And don’t sweat the details).

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Learning (or Unlearning) to Draw

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I’m so excited to have finally, finally (but surely not for the last time) convinced myself that simpler is better.

That I do not need to be able to draw realistic hands/feet/whatever. And that tracing paper is a totally valid illustration medium!

This fall is going to have a lot of picture book/middle grade experimentation…

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Digital Drawing: Coraline’s House

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A group of picture book illustrators stayed at the B&B over Memorial weekend. I had met one of them at a SCBWI conference in Chicago last year, and she pulled a group together and headed north.

First of all, I LOVED that each of them led a workshop. It was so much more fun than being at a big conference where everyone is feeling shy and hurrying from one session to the next.

Emily led book deconstruction and reconstruction (or corruption, as my son referred to it).

Emmeline led us through chapter book illustration. We read the first chapter of Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” and made notes of what we could draw for the full page and for the “spot,” a smaller image. (I discovered that though I like having a picture of the setting, I otherwise choose small tokens that aren’t necessarily important to the plot; others drew the characters right away, but I like to leave that up to the reader).

Alicia showed us her iPad Pro and Apple Pencil… and so began my conversion.

I’m pretty crotchety about technology; I dig my heels in and don’t like new things– i.e., I was totally anti iPod for years– and then I do a total 180.

I should have seen it coming given that I kept asking them, “But don’t people think it’s cheating to go back and forth doing your art on paper and on the computer?”

Nope, not cheating. Not cheating to use the computer, to make multiple photocopies of the “good” sketch, or to use tracing paper.

So, I tried the magic Apple Pencil (which responds to pressure, in addition to having a ton of cool options). And I was in LOVE.

It was so EASY! There was a BACK BUTTON!

I took a picture of my sketch of Coraline’s house…

 

And started messing around, just using the basic photo editing app on my (android) phone. I loved that I could take pictures along the way. And I discovered that in the digital medium it felt much easier to do background layers– something I seem to forget about on paper.

And here it is: Coraline’s house! Drawn on a phone with my finger!

 

I’m so grateful to join these lovely ladies, and to discover a very accessible way to illustrate. I’m inspired to illustrate some of my own picture books, and I’m starting to research digital drawing pad options.

My son has really enjoyed drawing on photos. Here’s “Miss Glurkel-Glurk:”

 

For some reason, he didn’t think it was quite as funny when I drew on a photo of him… Doesn’t this look like a fun character for a story?

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