In case you missed it, this week’s results for School Library Journal’s Fuse #8 Re-Seussify Seuss challenge were in, and they were pretty spectacular! The mission, as set forth by children’s lit guru Betsy Bird, was to draw a spread from a Dr. Seuss book, but in the style of ANOTHER famous picture book artist. I was inspired by the fun mash-up idea, and pulled off the image of Yertle The Turtle in the style of Arnold Lobel, above.
The idea for the image itself came to me pretty easily. It’s no surprise that I love drawing turtles, and Yertle The Turtle is a family favorite. The reptile vs. amphibian factor – Yertle crossed with Frog and Toad – was amusing to me as well. In particular, I wanted to try my hand at Arnold Lobel’s style. I thought the limited palette with textured graphite would be fun, and his characters and watercolors lend themselves easily to my own style. Plus, he’s a fellow Pratt alum!
I learned a lot about Arnold Lobel’s creative process from this video with his daughter, Adrianne Lobel. She sought to replicate her father’s paintings when she colored Arnold Lobel’s unfinishedThe Frogs and Toads All Sang:
I am very interested in Lobel’s use of color separations to make the Frog and Toad illustrations, and I wish I could find more on the subject. While Adrianne went with full-color in her recent interpretation, I wanted to imitate the 2-color (and black) separations by sticking to a green layer, a brown layer, and dark graphite. I’m pleased with the result and think it was rather successful, if I do say so myself.
Now go check out Betsy’s post for the other mind-blowing creative Re-Seussification mash-ups!
There’s no doubt in my mind that Marcel The Shell With Shoes On is the best stop-motion animation video I’ve ever seen. If you’re not familiar with this Youtube sensation, I won’t even bother to explain – just do yourself a favor and watch the film (above)!
Now, I’ve been itching to announce for awhile now that Marcel will star in his own picture book, the first from YA imprint Razorbill. When Marcel made a video guest appearance at work, to talk about how excited he was to be part of the Penguin family, we couldn’t be more excited for him (and his creators, Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp).
How will Marcel The Shell translate to a picture book? I initially pictured it as a photographic Chronicle-style gift book, but turns out, the images will be traditional oil paintings instead. Now… who is the artist going to be, I wonder?? And if you’re worried about this style of humor losing its touch without Jenny Slate’s hilarious voice, don’t be. The press release assures us that there will be an interactive audio version to add the voice of Marcel to the reading experience.
Can’t wait for November 1 to see Marcel pulling his lint “dog” around by a hair!
“Sometimes people say that my head is too big for my body, and then I say, ‘Compared to WHAT?'”
It was the first time that I had heard of this amazing viral movement created by Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller, where thousands of people have spoken up via video messages to encourage gay teens to stick it out through bullying, believe in yourself, and find people in this world that support you.
Because it DOES get better – in the real world, it’s okay to be different, and there are SO many people out there that will love and accept you for who you are. I believe in this with all my heart! While I had it easy to be born straight and female (inside and out), I think of all the people I care about who did have to carry that kind of secret with them. And I, as with many other straight allies and creative people, remember what it’s like to grow up feeling like an outsider, picked on, or invisible. In the real world, that ceases to matter – it only makes you stronger and more confident in who you are!
I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of Pearson, in introducing this It Gets Better video (above). It features some of my amazing, beautiful colleagues who were brave enough to share their stories.
For more information about the It Gets Better movement, what you can do to help, and the newly-released book, see below!
As you may have already noticed, I’m taking a break from blogging for a couple weeks to celebrate (read: run around like crazy) during the holiday season. So while I’m too busy sledding to post, I hope you had a very merry Christmas, and see you in bright and early 2011!
When considering the perks of working in publishing, I have only two words: free books. Between galleys and take shelves, there’s always something to bring home. But the best part is when Penguin decides to give away a free, hot-off-the-presses title… delivered right to your desk!
I’d heard about the famous “Penguin 5”, a selection of new YA titles whose advance copies were packaged and sent to industry folks, setting them all abuzz with excitement (did I mention the power of free books?). I’d be surprised if the above trailer and website didn’t send every teen reader of paranormal/romance/horror/dystopia/fantasy running “breathless” to the nearest bookstore. But the book I was excited to read myself was Matched… and guess what pretty, pretty hardcover showed up on my desk in honor of its release yesterday?
I think I can accurately describe Matched as The Giver for the teen girls of 2010. Heroine Cassia Reyes is a 17-year-old member of The Society, the universal government that dictates everything from your clothes and your food, to the art you consume, your job and – of course – your mate. Cassia receives her optimum match, and in a stroke of luck, it’s her best friend and resident blond hottie, Xander. But in an unlucky “error”, another face comes up on her match-card as well: outsider Ky. Ooooh snap!
Who is her true “match”? Will knowledge lead her to buck “The Society” and realize it isn’t all that perfect? Though the answers seem obvious, I’m a third of the way through… and I’m still enthralled. Definitely a great YA read!
Check out the super-mysterious website for Matched, as well as a video of the author, below.
In celebration of the final half-day Friday of the summer, I should be doing – and posting – all sorts of sunny, outdoorsy activities/videos. But the impending hurricane vibe that’s taking over New York today has got me cancelling plans and just wanting to curl up with a good book instead.
So today, if you haven’t already heard all about Lane Smith’s newest masterpiece, watch the trailer for “It’s A Book!” (and check out an interview here). I’ve been crazy excited about this title a lot longer than is appropriate for a new picture book, and it only increases my awe that Smith remains relevant, innovative and, as always, wacky over two decades of best-selling books.
Plus, as someone who has been spending more time on social media than at the painting desk, this book resonates – but in a light-hearted way. I find it especially ironic that “It’s A Book!” is being promoted virally . . . wouldn’t it be hilarious if there was an app for that?
On a further digital note: I’ve been redesigning my web content this week . . . stay tuned for the launching of AnnieBethEricsson.com awesome-ness!
This week has been slow on the blog. It’s not that I don’t have enough to write about (I always have a Sticky on my laptop filled with post ideas!), but I’m actually, finally, percolating new ideas for children’s books.
What changed? Maybe it was the fact that Daniel Pinkwater beat me to the punch with a book about the Brooklyn parrots (now that hurts), or maybe I’ve taken all the break I needed this summer and this is as refreshed as I’m gonna get. But I’m more than ready to get back to seriously drawing/painting, and the brain is starting to storm.
Where do I get my ideas, you ask? You know… really classy/artsy/intellectual sources. Oh, and cute animals off the internet.
Just… no one come out with a brand-new picture book about kiwis until I finish percolating, okay? Thanks.
The first half of the book will be so much better if you read it to yourself like Werner Herzog. Then you can get to the good parts (hint: it picks up at p. 297).
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On a similar note, these versions of children’s books, read in “Herzog” ‘s voice, are easily the funniest kids-lit parodies I’ve ever seen. I’ve been meaning to post them forever, but it’s no big, because they just keep getting better with age.
“They smiled at the good, and frowned at the bad, but being children, their concept of good and evil was not fully formed, and it would shock a grown person how much grey area existed along their moral compass. In truth, children are next door to sociopaths.”
“George is lured out of hiding by the yellow hat, an alien trinket of unimaginable cultural significance. George quickly learns a hard lesson about desire, as his adventure with the hat leads to his immediate captivity.”
“Like gangsters in an American movie, they have dug their own grave. Mike seems doomed by his own hubris, and he is doomed to Maryanne as well. She is like a beaten dog who still loves her master, because he is all she has ever known.”
“We search for Waldo, but what is Waldo searching for? Perhaps he is not searching at all, but running from something. Does this man even want to be found? Or in searching for Waldo, did we really find ourselves? No, probably not.”
Like every other scarf-loving New York resident, the oppressive heat wave this summer has sent me fleeing for the most air-conditioned corners of the city. And what better place to spend a few hours avoiding the burning sidewalk than art galleries?
Recently, I’ve hit up three very different exhibitions that I’m more than happy to recommend! Here’s number one… it has been up for months (while I’ve apparently been living in a cave), act quickly and go before the end of the week!
This group exhibit of 120 illustrators showcases editorial and artistic commentary on the state of the environment today, using a variety of media including digital and traditional painting, video and sculpture. To make the wide range of work more cohesive, the show is divided into five categories: water, wildlife, earth, air and energy.
Overall, it was poignant for me to see more illustrators getting involved with the environment, in light of all my thinking about the recent Gulf oil spill catastrophe. Here were some of my highlights:
water
Peter de Seve, Thar She Blows (sketch)
De Seve’s character work (he’s known for the creatures of the Ice Age franchise and the Philomel book Duchess of Whimsy) is so fantastic that even a sketch stands out. His New Yorker cover idea reminds me of the Ripple sketch blog that’s raising money to save wildlife affected by the oil spill. Check out Peter’s own post on the show here.
wildlife
Betsy Lewin, Blue-Footed Boobies (watercolor)
Ted Lewin, Impenetrable Forest (watercolor)
I’m always excited to see the work of my alma mater’s favorite couple… as a watercolor artist, I’ve been looking up to them for years! Ted’s densely forested piece was right on track with his other work, but I was surprised at the realism of Betsy’s beautiful watercolor piece. The book from which it’s excerpted, Booby Hatch, shows an early side to her art, pre-Click, Clack, Moo, that I wasn’t familiar with.
Tim O’Brien, Giraffe In The Alley (oil and gouache)
Even though I never took a class with Tim O’Brien, I was already on the lookout for Pratt professors. But my mouth literally dropped open at the sight of his contribution to the show! His imagery, of a giraffe in a dark alley, was right out of the sketches of a children’s book dummy I created years ago – High Hopes. For artists, seeing someone else’s art with the same concept makes one’s skin crawl (I used to fear it before critiques). In this case, though, I just had to marvel at the hilarity of such a strange image being thought up twice. See his post on the evolution of the piece here.
Tim O’Brien vs. Annie – so weird!
air
Britt Spencer, Footprints Through Appalachia (gouache)
Like Peter de Seve, I’m a big fan of Britt Spencer’s animated characters and his true-story Philomel book (again!) about the giraffe (again!) who became famous. More importantly, though, his personification of the “giant” mining industry, tromping through the delicate green Appalachians, brought up an issue I don’t often hear about. Since Footprints Through Appalachia is a smaller piece, I loved its pairing with Justin Gerard’s Strange Friend, (mixed media) below. Understated but meaningful.
Rudy was one of my all-time favorite professors (I signed up for his class year after year!). To me, he is the master of storytelling through a unique visual language. Whenever I’m reflecting on my style and questioning whether I’m being true to myself, I always go back to the advice I’ve received from him. This large piece is no exception to his way with words! The violent energy of his painting only further brings out the poetry written throughout, and it is impossible not to really feel something on viewing it. Truly inspiring.
energy
Materials for the Arts, with Liz Lomax, 3-D illustrator, and Eric Lewis, sculptor
As I was checking out the downstairs gallery, I couldn’t help but be drawn to the short video on loop, and I’m so glad I finally sat down and paid attention! The video documents two of the exhibition’s 3-D artists, Lomax and Lewis, visiting Materials For The Arts, a warehouse that collects donated items to recycle and supply to schools and cultural arts programs and organizations. Tons of materials and found objects of every kind, otherwise trashed, are brought to their warehouse, where artists and educators can pick through for only the cost of a “thank you”.
It’s an absolutely amazing program, and I encourage everyone to take advantage and help MFTA keep being so successful! If you have extra materials lying around your studio, please consider donating here. And don’t forget to see the video and Liz’s work here, and with Eric’s work here!
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Can’t get to the show in the next few days? Get more on Earth: Fragile Planet at their Tumblr page!
Half-day Fridays (for those of you not in publishing, this is when everyone mentally shuts down, gives up and heads home by 12:30 PM) are pretty much the best idea EVER. So, in the spirit of summer publishing, I bring you a gem of hilarity to fill your lazy afternoon hours . . . in case you’re not sipping margaritas or catching a Megabus to a less-humid destination!
This video is too amazing to even bother introducing, just . . . enjoy!
Walking In Public 