Bill Thomson Illustration

CHALK Wins The Connecticut Book Award

2011-11-29T21:14:00.000-05:00

http://cfb.hplct.org/cba.htm
I am thrilled that CHALK was selected as a winner at the 2011 Connecticut Book Awards in the Children's Illustrator category. The Connecticut Book Awards, sponsored by the Connecticut Center For The Book, recognize and honor books with specific ties to the state of Connecticut. The author, illustrator, or designer must be native-born or have been a legal resident of Connecticut for at least three years, or the book must have a Connecticut setting in order to be considered. Andrea Wisnewski's "The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane" was also selected as the winner- this was the first year that two books were selected as winners in the Children's Illustrator category. My book, Baseball Hour, previously won the Connecticut Book Award (Children's Illustrator) in 2009, and Karate Hour and Building with Dad were both selected as finalists in 2005 and 2007 respectively. The Connecticut Center For The Book does a magnificent job of celebrating and promoting books of all kinds.

CHALK DAY at Hatton School

2011-10-24T21:45:00.004-04:00

On October 10, the faculty and students of Hatton Elementary School in Southington, Connecticut had "Chalk Day", an entire day of school events that grew out of my book. Seeing the event that San Rafael Elementary School (Pasadena, CA) held earlier this year, Hatton School's wonderful principal, Roberta McAloon, formed a committee to plan their own day celebrating creativity and imagination. The committee, headed by amazing teachers Joyce Frederick and Denise Pedrotty, did an incredible job planning a day filled with an assortment of creative events.

The day began with my slide presentation to the students about my work and the creation of my books. Although the focus was on CHALK, the school depicted in one of my other books, Building With Dad, was based on a mix of photos of Hatton School and Strong School (two elementary schools in town).

Then I played a drawing game with the students and answered their questions. My youngest son and favorite model, Ethan (#4), started the game and showed the other students what they should do.

The day also included an asbsolutely incredible seven-foot-tall dinosaur sculpture created by Ms. Meda and her art students (and parent helpers)...

The "Poetry in Motion" dance group performed an energetic participatory dance event for the students (and their teachers)

And students illustrated their current topics of study on large black rolls of paper that were hung in the hallways.

The capstone event was done on the playground blacktop- divided into rectangular boxes, each student was given a bag of chalk and their own box to fill with their imagination. Students will later write about the picture they each drew. I was amazed at the great effort and wonderful drawings that the students produced. There is a lot of imagination and talent at Hatton School!

At one point in the day, a teacher saw a kindergarten student sitting and staring at her drawing for an extended period of time. The teacher asked the little girl if anything was wrong and she replied, "No, I am just waiting for my drawing to come to life... just like in the book."

The day concluded with all the children going out to the blacktop for a school photo (and a quick dance) before catching their buses home.

That morning, I was also presented with the first "Hatton Hero" award and a plaque that will go on the school's wall. I am truly honored and humbled to be recognized in such a special way. However, a walk down the hallways of Hatton School reveals the true heroes… the caring and dedicated administration, teachers and staff that make Hatton School such a special place! Each of my three sons was a student at Hatton School, so I have personal insight to what a wonderful and caring community Hatton Elementary School is!

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/southington/article_e71a29f6-efc0-11e0-ad68-001cc4c002e0.html

CHALK Named a Finalist for the 2011 Connecticut Book Award

2011-10-03T17:33:00.000-04:00

The Connecticut Center For The Book has named CHALK as one of three finalists for the 2011 Connecticut Book Award in the Children's Illustrator category. Wendell Minor's "The Last Train" and Andrea Wisnewski's "The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane" join "CHALK" as the other finalists. Winners will be announced at the Hartford Public Library on Sunday, October 30.

http://cfb.hplct.org/Book-Award-Finalists-And-Winners.htm

SBCWI Children's Book Event at the Danforth Museum

2011-09-30T18:30:00.001-04:00

I am looking forward to appearing at an event at the Danforth Museum sponsored by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators called "Overcoming Challenges" on Saturday, October 1 from 10am-3:30pm.
http://www.nescbwi.org/pdf/2011%20Danforth%20Flyer.pdf

Princeton Children's Book Festival

2011-07-23T12:04:00.000-04:00

I will be appearing at the Princeton Children's Book Festival on September 10 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Albert E. Hinds Memorial Plaza at the Princeton Public Library.
http://www.princeton.lib.nj.us/children/festival/authorsandillustrators.html

CHALK Is A Finalist For The Cardozo Award For Children's Literature

2011-07-06T15:17:00.000-04:00

I was excited to hear that CHALK was selected as one of five finalists for the Whitney and Scott Cardozo Award for Children’s Literature. Finalists are selected by a juried panel from nominated titles by authors whose works focus on literature for children ages four through eight. Readers online and at public libraries and bookstores vote for the winner. Please vote today! http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/litawards/vote.asp

Louis Toffolon Elementary School Visit

2011-05-05T23:21:00.002-04:00

One of the best parts of creating children's books is visiting wonderful schools and meeting their students. On May 2, I was invited to visit Louis Toffolon Elementary School (Plainville, CT) by Library Information Teacher, Deb Pikiell, as part of their Children's Book Celebration week. I showed slides of my creative process, read Soccer Hour and played my imagination drawing game with the students.

When I was working on CHALK, I had actually photographed the playground behind Toffolon Elementary school, but didn't realize it until I arrived at the school. This photo was taken in 2007 as reference for the tube slide interior shot (taken hanging upside down by my ankles in the slide).

Continuing their Children's Book Celebration week, Toffolon Elementary had a children's book parade the following day. Some of the faculty even dressed up in tribute to my books (Deb Pikiell is the Karate Hour representative). They replicated the books' outfits right down to the colors!

Louis Toffolon School is another fantastic example of caring teachers using children's books to create special events for their students. Books are magical... and teachers are too!

A Magical Educator, a Wonderful School and CHALK

2011-03-26T01:42:00.001-04:00

I'm sure that every children's book author or illustrator dreams that their work might inspire or impact a child in some small way. When I created my wordless book, CHALK, I hoped that it could have educational applications for writing and artistic activities. On March 18, 2011, that hope became a reality because of the incredible efforts of a caring principal in Pasadena, California.

Alyson Beecher of San Rafael Elementary School is an amazing principal... and not just because she likes my book (ha, ha). Her commitment to providing her students with special and unique experiences makes her truly special as an educator and administrator.

Alyson had contacted me by email in October and told me that she liked CHALK. She also informed me that she was a principal at a small elementary school and hoped to incorporate the book into a literacy activity at her school. What she did is truly remarkable and exceeded anything that I could have imagined.

Alyson is a master organizer and worked with her faculty to create a wonderful array of activities related to CHALK. It began with each teacher reading the book in class and developing diverse age-appropriate literacy lessons around it. This included using the book as a writing prompt to add words to the visual story, using it as a point of departure for writing new stories, writing poems, writing questions for each letter of the title, and creating amazing artwork. All of these activities were centered on engaging the students's imaginations in a variety of fun ways.

The literacy event concluded in spectacular fashion with the students, all 350 of them, decorating the sidewalks with chalk drawings outside of their school. To accomplish this, Alyson enlisted the help of numerous people to create an amazing day. The wonderful teachers at San Rafael energized the students and made the event special. Volunteers decorated bags for the children to replicate the one in CHALK. The PTO purchased chalk to fill the bags. Alyson invited local chalk artists to join the children in the event. Local law enforcement monitored traffic so the children could safely create their drawings. Vroman's, a local independent bookstore, made books available to the students. And of course, the students of San Rafael used their imagination and creativity to produce beautiful work. To see the fantastic event that Alyson and her friends made, watch this incredible video:
http://animoto.com/play/T1KsIrDPgqDt2wBPzVFSyw

My publisher, Marshall Cavendish, also contributed to the event by sending out 350 posters, one for each of the students.

I sent signed copies of my books, some pencils that I drew CHALK with, and the raincoat and hat that my model wore in the book. On my letter in the package, I had drawn a little doodle of the San Rafael mascot and a dinosaur that Alyson put on the event announcement.

When Alyson sent me the video and photos of her event, I was absolutely amazed at what she did for her students. She wanted to provide them with an experience to promote books and literacy, but I think she did much more than that. Through all of her efforts and planning, she also showed them how much she cares for them and what can be accomplished when everyone works together! I feel very fortunate to have created a book that Alyson liked and used in such a special way for her students.

I will be in Pasadena this fall on a trip with my school and plan to visit San Rafael to meet Alyson and her students. I would like to thank Alyson, her many teachers and volunteers, and especially her wonderful students for bringing CHALK to life. I think anyone who looks at the video and photos will agree that they all did a BEAUTIFUL job!!! I hope Alyson's efforts inspire other teachers and students to try conducting similar literacy events with books that they like. BOOKS ARE MAGICAL... Alyson Beecher and San Rafael Elementary School proved it!

Report Cards

2011-02-26T11:29:00.008-05:00

Midway through my first grade year, my family moved from Addison, Illinois to Roanoke, Virginia. The following is my first grade report card:

Looking inside, you'll notice that I received an "U" or UNSATISFACTORY in reading with a note:

My teacher added a corresponding note that said, "Does not misbehave, but draws when he should be practicing reading". As I recall, I got in trouble for that and you'll notice that my reading grades improved from that point on- and Mrs. Smith didn't even give me an "E" in art (ha, ha)! I loved rediscovering this many years later... proof positive that I was discouraged from becoming an artist at the earliest points in my life, but kept following my heart.

The Chicago Bears and Me

2011-01-23T15:02:00.001-05:00

When I was two years old, my family moved to a Chicago suburb, Addison, Illinois. It was during those tender formative years that I was introduced to what would be become a lifetime passion, the Chicago Bears.

I loved the Bears. My room was adorned with Bears posters. Bears linens kept my bed warm through those bitter Chicago winters. Bears t-shirts, sweatshirts and coats covered my body throughout the seasons. Finding a Chicago Bear hidden in a package of football cards was always an electric thrill. My younger brother and I regularly played football in the backyard wearing makeshift Bears uniforms.

The Bears weren't very good back then, but they had some incredible football players. A running back named Gale Sayers could run like the wind. The owner, George Halas, had invented professional football. And I was convinced that a linebacker namer Dick Butkus was the strongest man in the world.

On Christmas Eve when I was five years old, I was also introduced to Bears' greatest rival, the Green Bay Packers. Even now, I vividly remember sitting around the dinner table listening to a radio report tracking the progress of Santa Claus with my family. The radio announcer had said that his radar lost sight of Santa over Green Bay. My father, ever the teaser, proceeded to tell my brother and I that Santa was probably abducted by the villainous Green Bay Packers. Dad also warned us that we might not be getting presents that year. Fortunately, Santa escaped and our presents were delivered, but my brother and I learned to beware the evil team that wore green and gold.

We moved from Addison in 1970, but my love for the Bears was packed up and brought with me wherever I went. The remainder of my childhood was split between Roanoke (Virginia), Cheshire (Connecticut), Rock Hill (South Carolina) and Southington (Connecticut). In these other places, I stood out as the only kid wearing Chicago Bears apparel and was often ridiculed for my allegiance to a team that rarely won. During this time, the Bears seemed to be preparing me for life's many future disappointments.

After years of unrequited love, a magical thing happened in 1975. The Chicago Bears drafted a running back named Walter Payton. Although he wasn't the biggest, strongest or fastest, Payton quickly became one the best runners in professional football. The Bears rarely won early in Payton's career, but the running back stood out for his talent and heart. After years of embarrassment, I finally had something to be proud of.

I read about Payton's brutal training regime in my father's Bear Report newspaper, and saw that his success was a direct result of hard work and effort. This had a profound impact on me, and I tried to apply Payton's example in my own life. When I was running track and cross-country in high school, I often thought about Payton during my workouts- motivated to push even harder when I was completely exhausted.

In a high school art class, I had drawn a picture of Walter Payton. I had worked very hard on it, and to that point, it was the best drawing that I had ever done. Later that summer, my parents decided to take a family trip back to Chicago that would include a visit to the Chicago Bears training camp. I decided to bring the drawing and give it to Walter Payton. After the inspiration that he gave me, giving him my very best drawing was something that I was excited to do.

I went to the camp at Lake Forest College armed with my drawing and high hopes. However, at the Bear's camp it was very crowded. When Walter Payton walked off the field after the morning practice, I ran towards him but couldn't even get near him. He was at center of a moving mass of humanity, about 30 people deep on all sides of him. Disappointed, I walked over to a rookie wide receiver named Ricky Watts. Regularly reading my father's Bear Report, I knew all the players and told Watts how excited I was that he was on the team. I handed him my Walter Payton drawing and asked him to please give it to him. I wanted Payton to have the drawing, even if I couldn't give it to him myself.

My brothers and I stood near the player's entrance as the crowd dispersed. A few moments later, the door opened and Walter Payton walked out, asking who did the drawing. Then he thanked me and posed for a photo with my younger brother, Robbie, and me.

I was thrilled! Meeting your hero is great, but when he turns out to be a nice guy, it's even better. I was (and am) proud to be a Chicago Bear's fan. Go Bears!!!

SOCCER HOUR

2011-01-12T23:00:00.004-05:00

The new year brings a new book for me. The following is a description of my creative process for Soccer Hour, an upcoming book that I worked on for about a year and completed in August of 2010.

After receiving Carol Nevius's story from my publisher, Marshall Cavendish, I began by creating thumbnail sketches for the entire book. The rhyming story centers on activities that take place during a typical hour-long soccer practice. The title page, dedication page spread and end page eventually changed, but these were my original thumbnail sketches. The text was slightly tweaked later as well, but the original story that I received is dropped in below the thumbnails.

The spread from page 20/21 (later selected to also be used as the cover image) will be the focus of this process demonstration. Notice that nothing important is located in the middle of the image since that is where the book will fold (known as the "gutter"). I also left "dead space" in the upper right for the placement of the text.

I began by shooting reference photos of a variety of children. One of my models was my nephew, Matt, who happens to be a soccer star in Indiana. Rather than have Matt dive a couple of hundred times while I shot photos, laying him on a picnic table gave me enough visual information to draw a convincing dive and was easier on him. His legs also appeared on other children for all of the kicking illustrations in the book.

Since none of my children are soccer players, Matt was also a great resource for soccer information for me. Additionally, I watched numerous soccer videos and spoke with soccer coaches to have a firm understanding of the correct body positions that I would be representing. I selected different photos that contained individual elements that I really liked.

Next, I shot reference for a ball and goal, making sure that the light source and perspective was consistent on all the shots.

Looking at the best parts from all my reference photos, I created a detailed pencil drawing, playing with the scale of the various elements to create one dynamic diving figure. I also added an extra inch of art on all sides (called bleed) that will be trimmed when the art is published. Then I transferred my drawing onto a piece of Hot Press Crescent Watercolor Board and sprayed it with Krylon Workable fixative. I also decided to flop the image so the action of the image would read from left to right. Originally, I had no idea that my publisher would later want this as the cover image, but my nephew was very excited to appear on the cover.

Next, I created a mixture of gesso, yellow ochre and black acrylic paint, and mixed with water to a milky consistency. I painted the entire drawing with a wash of this base color to remove all the white areas and provide a warm gray ground to paint on. On top of this, I began laying in some of the dark values with a mixture of black, yellow ochre and burnt umber acrylic paint. Although the image will be largely monochromatic, I wanted the shades of grey to be somewhat warm and more rich than diluted black. I rarely use colors staright out of the tube and like to create my own mixtures.

Then I painted over the entire surface with a mixture of lamp black, yellow ochre and burnt sienna oil paint mixed to a watery consistency with mineral spirits. After allowing to dry to the touch, I began erasing out the areas of light with a kneaded eraser.

This adds base mid-tone values, and more importantly, a wonderful subtle texture to the entire board. One of my goals for Soccer Hour was create illustrations that had a little more texture than my previous books- to play with the balance between rough somewhat abstract textures and tightly rendered forms.

Then I painted over the entire surface again with a mixture of black, yellow ochre and burnt umber acrylic paint. I use the paint very thin and slowly build up washes to their final values. I also masked off the ground and splattered the surface with a toothbrush to add additional texture. I did this on all the grass throughout the book.

In Soccer Hour, the balls are emphasized as the focal point with color. Additionally, the practice jerseys also needed to have color accents to remain consistent with the text. I tried to keep the use of color more understated on the jerseys so the brighter ball would remain the focus. These colors were also acrylic paint.

And finally, I went over everything one last time using Prismacolor Colored pencils. This brought out the highlights and added further polish to the finish. I always do color tests, and French Grey pencils blended well with the warm grey acrylic tones that I had previously painted.

And here is the entire image as published on the cover:

Soccer Hour is scheduled for release in February of 2011 and will be available at booksellers everywhere.

The Best Art Piece of My Life

2011-01-11T19:49:00.009-05:00

I always tell my illustration students to try to make every assignment be "the best art piece of your life". I'm sure that my constant prodding sounds a bit like a broken record at times, but that is how I always approach my own work. For me, selecting my best artistic piece is an easy choice. I consider a brochure that I created with my wife, Diann, to be my very best work. Although my creativity, concept and finished technique have been better on hundreds of my other paintings, I'll never illustrate anything that means as much to me.

To understand why, I have to provide some background information first. Our eldest son, Billy, was born in 1994 with a cleft lip and palette. There was no indication of a birth defect prior to his birth, so this came as a complete shock to Diann and me. A cleft lip and palette is essentially an opening extending through the lip and roof of the mouth that failed to fuse during development of the fetus. The physical appearance of babies with this birth defect is somewhat startlingly.

Since we had no prior knowledge or family history of this condition, Diann and I were extremely concerned for our son. We learned that the lip and palette could be "corrected" through surgery and we were given a stack of medical literature. Although we had been extremely careful about every aspect of Diann's pregnancy, our initial reaction was to think that this was a result of something we did wrong and to wonder how this could have happened to us and our baby. However, we quickly realized that this was not at all about us, but rather all about Billy. To be good parents to him, we would have to accept him (and his condition) just as he was and put all of our focus on helping him.

That night, I went home from the hospital and read everything the doctors gave us several times. While the information educated me to the medical facts of my son's condition, it did little to ease my concerns about his future. In the following days and weeks, we met with doctors from the University of Connecticut Craniofacial Team that would perform Billy's surgeries. We also met parents of other children born with a cleft lip and palette. We learned that Billy would need two surgeries in the first year of his life- one at three months to close his lip and another later that year to repair his palette. At eight years of age, he would also need a bone graft to reconstruct his gum line. While understanding the surgical procedures was helpful, hearing from other parents with children that had undergone similar surgeries truly gave us hope and comfort.

From the beginning, our experience with a newborn was much different that what we had prepared for. Since babies with a cleft can't form a seal to suck on a bottle, we had to learn how to feed Billy with special bottles. He had to learn to gulp the formula as we squeezed it out, often gagging in the process. After significant practice and patience, Billy was eating well and gaining weight. When we took him out in public, people would sometimes gawk or make inconsiderate remarks about his appearance. I have always believed that God doesn't give you more than you can handle, so we just took everything one day at a time. Initially, I couldn't wait for Billy to have the surgery, but by the time it was scheduled, I loved his little face just the way it was. I really hated that he would have to go through the ordeal of surgery at such a young age. The first year of Billy's life was a whirlwind of doctors visits and surgeries.

A year later, Billy had successfully undergone both surgeries and was doing great. We had been extremely fortunate to have wonderful craniofacial doctors working in our area and they did a tremendous job. After our life had shifted to a "more typical" parental experience, Diann and I began to wonder what we could do to help other families with babies born with clefts. We remembered that first day and how scared we were. We also remembered the informative materials that the hospital had given us immediately after Billy's birth. Since Diann is a graphic designer and I am an illustrator, we decided to produce a brochure for parents.

Rather than just providing medical facts, this brochure would be written from a parent's perspective. Much like the encouragement that other parents had given us, we hoped that telling Billy's story could provide hope and reassurance to families with cleft palette babies. Diann and I wrote it together and I created illustrations to accompany the text. Then Diann did the design work and her printing friends were kind enough to donate the printing costs. We gave the brochures to the Connecticut Children's Medical Center, and for the next ten years, the brochures were distributed to families of newborn babies born with a cleft. In the years that followed, numerous families contacted us and told us that the brochure helped them through a difficult time so I consider this to be the most meaningful thing my wife and I have ever done with our talent.

If you know anyone with a baby born with a cleft palette, please feel free to share this with them.

CHALK TALK: Realizing A Dream

2010-12-18T14:14:00.001-05:00

I loved being a kid. Every day was a new adventure with endless possibilities for exploration, discovery and imagination. Whether I was catching things in a nearby pond, pretending to be my favorite Chicago Bear football player or exploring new places on my bike, every single day was fun. Playing sports and doing anything that involved being outside were my preferred activities, but I also loved reading comic books and drawing. I spent endless hours creating my own comic characters and then drawing stories chronicling their epic adventures. I had an absolutely wonderful childhood and really loved those enchanted years. Because of this, I guess I have always enjoyed depicting children in my art and celebrating the magic of childhood.

My illustration career began as a high school student when I created editorial illustrations for a local newspaper during my junior and senior years. Even then, I would often use children to communicate the message or story. I also had a pretty spiffy signature back in those early days.

During my sophomore year at Syracuse University in 1983, I first explored childhood in a more imaginative way through my art. My instructor, Murray Tinkelman, gave an assignment called "Art On Art"- to make a piece of art about art. For all of my student assignments, I tried to choose subjects that I enjoyed drawing and this was no different. I created a pen and ink drawing of a child accidentally causing an artistic miracle in a museum... my first "miracles of youth" illustration. This piece was selected for inclusion in the prestigious Society of Illustrators Student Competition later that year, and was the first significant recognition of my work.

Looking back at this now, it is amazing how many aspects of this illustration would resurface many years later in my children's book work. The monochromatic palate with color accents would be revisited in my Karate Hour and Baseball Hour books, while my fascination with the miracles of youth would repeatedly appear in my work.

I did several other child-oriented illustrations in college as well, and really enjoyed creating narrative illustrations that told a story. This illustration paid tribute to the "Creature Feature" monster movies that I loved to watch when I was a boy.

As I began my professional career, I pursued work in the advertising market because it paid enough to allow me to work as a full-time illustrator. For nearly two decades, I was primarily focused on satisfying client's illustration needs for advertisements, brochures, billboards and countless other corporate projects. However, many of my self-promotional pieces were still centered around celebrating childhood. My cousin, Amanda, had posed for his pen and ink illustration that I used on a summertime mailer.

My favorite illustration jobs, like this McCall's Magazine illustration depicting a child's anticipation of Santa's visit, centered around kids and storytelling.

While some assignments like this illustration for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars were a great deal of fun and used for unusual things like media guide covers, stadium banners and even on trucks...

... the majority of my work dealt with much less interesting and more direct images like this ad for Honeywell Bull illustrating construction equipment.

This poster illustration for the Ocean Spray's Cape Cod Summer Baseball League Championships taught me how to paint baseball laces- albeit in a funky Cape Cod-shaped way. Besides providing a steady income, all of this would be preparation for things to come later.

In 2000, I created a self-promotional piece called Watercolors that revisited my old "miracles of youth" theme and changed the direction of my work and career. At this point, I had become a father and began to re-explore childhood by seeing the world through my children's eyes. After creating countless advertising illustrations that were somewhat restricted by client needs, painting an image that told a story was an absolute joy. I realized that I was at a point in my career where I needed to pursue the kind of work that most interested me. My artistic focus shifted squarely to creating more narrative paintings with the eventual goal of illustrating children's books. This piece was also my first work accepted into the highly prestigious Society of Illustrators and Communication Arts annual illustration competitions and was later used on a calendar. Once again, following my personal artistic interests had brought national recognition to my work.

After that, I began pursuing child-oriented illustration assignments that offered more creative freedom, but little or no money. I donated this holiday card illustration for the Connecticut Children's Medical Center's annual fundraiser.

Even this somber illustration on the horrific events of September Eleventh for Quarencia Magazine portrayed a young angel as its subject.

And this 2002 brochure for the CCMC Craniofacial Team allowed me to further explore my favorite "miracles of youth" theme.

I also continued to create child-oriented promotional pieces like this image of a bully that I called, "Listen, Buster..."

In 2003, "Listen, Buster..." was seen by Marshall Cavendish art director Anahid Hamparian who was looking for an artist to illustrate a karate manuscript. Anahid offered me the opportunity to illustrate my first children's book, Karate Hour (written by Carol Nevius), and my career had completed its turn. In Karate Hour, I depicted the events of a typical a karate class, but enhanced them with dynamic comic book perspectives that I enjoyed so much as a boy. While illustrating an entire children's book was much more work than I had ever anticipated, I also found it to be the most enjoyable and satisfying experience of my professional career! I relished the creative freedom that children's books offered, but even more importantly, the opportunity to contribute in some small way to the childhood of young readers. Illustrating books for children was both an honor and a privilege, and I believed this was the best possible use of my talent and the most important work of my career.

I also enjoyed working with wonderful people like my editor, Margery Cuyler, and my art director, Anahid Hamparian. I quickly realized that producing a children's book is a true labor of love and a collaborative team effort. I was lucky to be working with talented people that believed in me, and for an outstanding publisher dedicated to producing children's books of the highest quality. My books also became a family affair. My wife and sons modeled for some of my illustrations, and even more, supported my dream by giving me the time to do my best work.

Luckily, Karate Hour received favorable reviews and I was offered a second Carol Nevius manuscript for a book called Building With Dad. This book somewhat reminded me of that old Honeywell Bull ad, but also included a wonderful father/son story. In my role as a children's book illustrator, I want to create books that make imaginary stories seem completely believable and real to young readers. I also want to present them with interesting subjects shown from perspectives that they don't typically see. With that in mind, I designed Building With Dad so it would open from the top creating tall, vertical illustrations. This would help emphasize the perspective and the monumental stature of construction equipment from a child's point of view. Since children normally see construction projects from a "kid safe distance", I wanted this book to allow them to get much closer than they safely could in the real world.

As much as I enjoyed illustrating Karate Hour and Building With Dad, I was also still interested in further exploring my "miracles of youth" theme. When preparing for an exhibition at the Society of Illustrators Member's Gallery in 2005, I remembered a rejected thumbnail sketch idea from the earlier Craniofacial Team brochure that I had always been fascinated with... a group of children drawing butterflies that were coming to life. I had loved that idea, but it wasn't quite right for the earlier brochure. However, the exhibition announcement provided the perfect opportunity to finally pursue that idea.

During the two weeks that I spent painting it, I began to imagine an entire story based on the magic chalk scene that would later become my first solo book, CHALK. I envisioned a group of children finding magical chalk and exploring its power. At first, the chalk would be used for a childhood necessity like bringing the sun out on a rainy day so they could play outside. Then they would use it to enhance their world by creating the field of beautiful butterflies. Then one of them would abuse the power and draw something that presented a real danger to them. In the end, the children's creativity would save them and solve the problem they had created.

I mentioned my CHALK idea to Margery while I was illustrating Baseball Hour, and she seemed very enthusiastic about it. However, this left me quite torn. On one hand, I was having a blast illustrating Baseball Hour, a book that I absolutely loved. On the other hand, I couldn't wait to finish it because I was so excited about my CHALK idea. Let me tell you, it is tough to meticulously paint every detail on dozens of baseballs and cleats when your dream job is on the doorstep. But my philosophy has always been to make every illustration the best work I have ever done, and I put everything I had into Baseball Hour. I felt this book set a new personal artistic standard for me, and I would really have to work hard to equal or surpass it with CHALK.

In the summer of 2007, I finally began working on CHALK. This book consumed my world for the next year and a half- I never work harder or had more fun doing anything in my entire life. In many ways, CHALK took a lifetime to develop and was the realization of a personal dream, so I was committed to making it better than anything I had ever done before. As I worked on the paintings, I often thought about the children that would read this book. I wanted CHALK to have value to them beyond entertainment, and I envisioned it as a teaching tool that could encourage reading and stimulate imaginations as a prompt for writing or artistic activities. When I was exhausted and working through the entire night (and there were many, many of them), those thoughts would inspire me to work even harder. When I finally finished the artwork in February of 2009, I felt that I had accomplished my goal and this was truly the best work of my life. I was especially proud to dedicate CHALK to my sons, Billy, Nik and Ethan, who reminded me of the magic of childhood and taught me to follow my dreams.

A Fun Website...

2010-09-03T17:54:00.000-04:00

Teaching Books is a fun website where authors and illustrators pronounce and describe their names. For me, it was one of those "is that what I actually sound like?" experiences. There are lots and lots of book creators included, so check it out and listen to your favorites:
http://www.teachingbooks.net/pronunciations.cgi

The Creative Process for CHALK

2010-08-12T16:49:00.000-04:00

Every illustration that I create starts with an idea. I explore different idea possibilities by doing a series of rough thumbnail sketches, usually dozens for each illustration. To explore ideas quickly, I keep the sketches at this stage very cartoony and fast. Rendering details would slow me down and stifle the free flow of ideas. At this stage, my focus is on establishing the content and general compositions for the story. To avoid redundancy, I want every page be a completely different visual experience. Like a movie director, I constantly experiment with diverse vantage points and perspectives to add visual interest while advancing the story. The larger thumbnail is for an illustration from my book, CHALK, showing two children trapped in a tube slide with a dinosaur looking in at them.

Once I settle on an idea, the next step is to get visual information to help me bring my idea to life. In my work, I strive to make imaginary situations look real, so readers feel like participants in the scene. However, because I work realistically, every part of my painting must look equally convincing- any mistakes will result in a lack of credibility and attract unwanted attention. To assist me, I take reference photographs to look at while I am painting. I take hundreds of reference photographs for each illustration and between 5,000-10,000 photographs per book.

I don’t rely on any single photograph, but rather look at the best parts from numerous photos and make changes freely. Photos provide visual information that help me paint believable details, but are only a means to an end. Here you see photos I shot of a boy, a girl and a slide interior that were some of my reference sources for this illustration. Because there are no dinosaurs, I made one out of clay. Images of lizards and alligators also helped me create realistic texture details for the dinosaur. I also really enjoy exploring how light defines form and creates texture- this is a very important element in my work.

Looking at the best parts of numerous photos and adjusting accordingly, I create a detailed pencil drawing on watercolor board working out everything in the composition. I try to make my drawings dynamic and use a variety of perspectives so the reader will feel like they are part of the scene. I also have to carefully plan the placement of all the elements and allow room for the book’s fold and typography (if there is any).

Next, I paint over the entire drawing with a mixture of gesso and yellow ochre acrylic paint. This eliminates all the white areas and gives my painting a warm base color. Then I paint over the entire image again with a thin wash of purple oil paint. After the oil paint dries, I erase all of the light areas with a kneaded eraser. This creates a nice underlying texture, and separates everything in sunlight (warm color) and shadow (cool color).

Then, I create a very detailed painting using acrylic paint and a group of very fine brushes. I don't mix mediums with the paint, but rather use it in very thin washes and build up layers like watercolors. This is the most important and time-consuming part of my process. In this particular illustration, I also used an airbrush on the blue sky and tube interior. I don’t really like airbrushes, and use them only to apply large, flat areas of color.

As the final step, I go over nearly everything again with colored pencils. This allows me to add further details and all the finishing touches to my illustrations. This stage is also quite time consuming, but I enjoy it the most. Each illustration takes anywhere from 60-120 hours to complete depending on its complexity.

CHALK was released in March of 2010 and is available at most book sellers.