Day 231: Drawing Bone with Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith (born February 27, 1960) is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series BONE. Smith solidified the 1990′s Self-Publishing Movement when he joined other self-publishers and launched a new era of independent comics publishing, a movement that captured nearly 20% of the growing comics book market. In 1993, Smith breathed new life into the Graphic Novel format with The Complete BONE Adventures Volume One: Out From Boneville, which sold an unprecedented 50,000 copies in its first year. BONE won numerous American awards including 10 Eisner Awards and 11 Harveys, as well as European awards from Italy, Germany, and the French Alph Art. In 2005, BONE was chosen to launch the first graphic novel series for children from a major publishing house, Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic Books. There have been exhibitions of his work, and in 2009 Smith was the subject of an Emmy Award winning documentary called The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, BONE, and the Changing Face of Comics. Later works include critically acclaimed SHAZAM: The Monster Society of Evil, and Little Mouse Gets Ready, a comic for emerging readers that received a Geisel Honor in 2009. In 2013, Smith guest edited The Best American Comics anthology, and released his second major work, RASL, a dark, hard-boiled sci-fi story that focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.

Visit Bone's website!

Day 227: Drawing Super Diaper Baby with Dav Pilkey

Dav Pilkey has written and illustrated numerous popular, award-winning books for children, including the Captain Underpants and Dumb Bunnies series; DOG BREATH, winner of the California Young Reader Medal; and THE PAPERBOY, a Caldecott Honor Book. He lives with his wife in the Pacific Northwest. In 1996, Dav moved to Seattle, Washington. He then took a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, WA where he has lived since 1999. He divides his time between Bainbridge Island, WA and Minami Izu, Japan.

Visit Dav's website!

Day 226: Drawing Trixie and Knuffle Bunny with Mo Willems

Mo Willems’ works in children’s books, animation, television, theater, and bubble gum card painting have garnered him 3 Caldecott Honors, 2 Geisel Medals, 6 Emmy Awards, 5 Geisel Honors, a Helen Hayes nomination, and multiple bubble gum cards. 

Remember to visit Mo's website!

Day 225: Drawing Amelia Bedelia with Herman Parish and Lynne Avril

About Herman Parish:

Herman Parish was in the fourth grade when his aunt, Peggy Parish, wrote the first book about Amelia Bedelia. The lovable, literal-minded housekeeper has been a member of his family ever since. Peggy Parish died in 1988. She would be proud and delighted to know that her nephew is carrying on—for a new generation of readers—the tradition she began years ago. Herman has added sixteen books about the grown-up Amelia Bedelia and five picture books about Amelia Bedelia as a young girl. He has also written four Level-1 I Can Read books about the young Amelia Bedelia, as well as several chapter books in the newly launched series.


About Lynne Avril:

In 2009, Greenwillow Books published Herman Parish's first Amelia Bedelia picture book, Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School, which introduced readers to Amelia Bedelia as a child. Lynne Avril, the illustrator of more than fifty books for children, was chosen to transform the familiar, beloved grown-up Amelia Bedelia into a young girl. "I've loved Amelia Bedelia for a very long time," she says, “and I read the Amelia Bedelia books to my own children. What fun it was to accompany my granddaughter to her first day of school and draw on that experience for the pictures in Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School!" Lynne Avril is the illustrator of all the books about young Amelia Bedelia, and she lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Day 224: Drawing Chu with Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex

About Neil Gaiman:

BEGINNINGS
Neil Gaiman was born in Hampshire, UK, and now lives in the United States near Minneapolis. As a child he discovered his love of books, reading, and stories, devouring the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Branch Cabell, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. LeGuin, Gene Wolfe, and G.K. Chesterton. A self-described "feral child who was raised in libraries," Gaiman credits librarians with fostering a life-long love of reading: "I wouldn't be who I am without libraries. I was the sort of kid who devoured books, and my happiest times as a boy were when I persuaded my parents to drop me off in the local library on their way to work, and I spent the day there. I discovered that librarians actually want to help you: they taught me about interlibrary loans."

EARLY WRITING CAREER
Gaiman began his writing career in England as a journalist. His first book was a Duran Duran biography that took him three months to write, and his second was a biography of Douglas Adams, Don't Panic: The Official Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion. Gaiman describes his early writing: "I was very, very good at taking a voice that already existed and parodying or pastiching it." Violent Cases was the first of many collaborations with artist Dave McKean. This early graphic novel led to their series Black Orchid, published by DC Comics.

The groundbreaking series Sandman followed, collecting a large number of US awards in its 75 issue run, including nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards and three Harvey Awards. In 1991, Sandman became the first comic ever to receive a literary award, the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.

ESTABLISHED WRITER & CREATOR
Neil Gaiman is credited with being one of the creators of modern comics, as well as an author whose work crosses genres and reaches audiences of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama.

Gaiman has achieved cult status and attracted increased media attention, with recent profiles in The New Yorker magazine and by CBS News Sunday Morning.

SCI-FI, FANTASY & SOCIAL MEDIA
Audiences for science fiction and fantasy form a substantial part of Gaiman's fan base, and he has continuously used social media to communicate with readers. In 2001, Gaiman became one of the first writers to establish a blog, which now has over a million regular readers.

In 2008, Gaiman joined Twitter as @neilhimself and now has over 1.5 million followers and counting on the micro-blogging site. He won the Twitter category in the inaugural Author Blog Awards, and his adult novel American Gods was the first selection for the One Book, One Twitter (1b1t) book club.

WRITING FOR YOUNG READERS
Neil Gaiman writes books for readers of all ages, including the following collections and picture books for young readers: M is for Magic (2007); Interworld (2007), co-authored with Michael Reaves; The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (1997); The Wolves in the Walls (2003); the Greenaway-shortlisted Crazy Hair (2009), illustrated by Dave McKean; The Dangerous Alphabet (2008), illustrated by Gris Grimly; Blueberry Girl (2009); and Instructions (2010), illustrated by Charles Vess.

Gaiman's books are genre works that refuse to remain true to their genres. Gothic horror was out of fashion in the early 1990s when Gaiman started work on Coraline (2002). Originally considered too frightening for children, Coraline went on to win the British Science Fiction Award, the Hugo, the Nebula, the Bram Stoker, and the American Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla award. Odd and the Frost Giants, originally written for 2009's World Book Day, has gone on to receive worldwide critical acclaim.

The Wolves in the Walls was made into an opera by the Scottish National Theatre in 2006, and Coraline was adapted as a musical by Stephin Merritt in 2009.

WRITING FOR ADULTS
Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Neverwhere (1995), Stardust (1999), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning American Gods (2001), Anansi Boys (2005), and Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett, 1990), as well as the short story collections Smoke and Mirrors (1998) and Fragile Things (2006).

His first collection of short fiction, Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions, was nominated for the UK's MacMillan Silver Pen Awards as the best short story collection of the year. Most recently, Gaiman was both a contributor to and co-editor with Al Sarrantonio of Stories (2010), and his own story in the volume, The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains, has been nominated for a number of awards.

American Gods has been released in an expanded tenth anniversary edition, and there is an HBO series in the works.

FILM AND TELEVISION
Gaiman wrote the screenplay for the original BBC TV series of Neverwhere (1996); Dave McKean's first feature film, Mirrormask (2005), for the Jim Henson Company; and cowrote the script to Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf. He produced Stardust, Matthew Vaughn's film based on Gaiman's book by the same name.

He has written and directed two films: A Short Film About John Bolton (2002) and Sky Television's Statuesque (2009) starring Bill Nighy and Amanda Palmer.

An animated feature film based on Gaiman's Coraline, directed by Henry Selick and released in early 2009, secured a BAFTA for Best Animated Film and was nominated for an Oscar in the same category.

Gaiman's 2011 episode of Doctor Who, "The Doctor's Wife," caused the Times to describe him as "a hero."

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
First published in the UK at the end of 2008, The Graveyard Book has won the UK's Booktrust Prize for Teenage Fiction and the Newbery Medal, the highest honor given in US children's literature, as well as the Locus Young Adult Award and the Hugo Best Novel Prize. The awarding of the 2010 UK CILIP Carnegie Medal makes Gaiman the first author ever to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal with the same book. The Graveyard Book, with its illustrations by Chris Riddell, was also shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration -- the first time a book has made both Medal shortlists in 30 years.

"Twenty-three years ago, we lived in a little Sussex town in a tall house across the lane from a graveyard. We didn't have a garden, and our 18-month-old son loved riding a tricycle. If he tried riding in the house he would have died because there were stairs everywhere, so every day I would take him down our precipitous stairs, and he would ride his little tricycle round and round the gravestones. As I watched him happily toddling I would think about how incredibly at home he looked. I thought that I could do something like The Jungle Book with that same equation of boy, orphaned, growing up somewhere else, but I could do it in a graveyard. I had that idea when I was 24 years old. I sat down and tried writing it and thought, "This is a really good idea, and this isn't very good writing. I'm not good enough for this yet, and I will put it off until I'm better."

The film adaptation of The Graveyard Book is in production.


About Adam Rex:

Adam Rex grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, the middle of three children. He was neither the smart one (older brother) or the cute one (younger sister), but he was the one who could draw. He took a lot of art classes as a kid, trying to learn to draw better, and started painting when he was 11. Later he got a BFA from the University of Arizona, and met his physicist wife Marie (who is both the smart and cute one).

Adam and Marie live in Tucson, where Adam draws, paints, writes, spends too much time on the internet, and listens to public radio. Adam is nearsighted, bad at all sports, learning to play the theremin, and usually in need of a shave. He can carry a tune, if you don't mind the tune getting dropped and stepped on occasionally. He never remembers anyone's name until he's heard it at least three times. He likes animals, spacemen, Mexican food, Ethiopian food, monsters, puppets, comic books, 19th century art, skeletons, bugs, and robots.

His first picture book, THE DIRTY COWBOY by Amy Timberlake, was published by FSG in 2003. His picture book FRANKENSTEIN MAKES A SANDWICH, a collection of stories about monsters and their problems, was a New York Times Bestseller. 2007 saw the release of his first novel, THE TRUE MEANING OF SMEKDAY, which was adapted into the DreamWorks film HOME in 2014. He has illustrated the work of many authors, including Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, Neil Gaiman, Jeff Kinney, David Lubar, Kate DiCamillo, Eoin Colfer, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Paul Fieg.

Garlic and crosses are useless against Adam. Sunlight has been shown to be at least moderately effective. A silver bullet does the trick. Pretty much any bullet, really.

Don't forget to visit Neil and Adam's websites!

Day 223: Drawing Cheetah with Bob Shea

Bob Shea has written and illustrated over a dozen picture books including the popular Dinosaur vs. Bedtime and the cult favorite Big Plans illustrated by Lane Smith.

Little Brown, Hyperion, HarperCollins, Random House, Simon and Schuster and Dial have all published his work. They are all still in business.

Bob got his start at Comedy Central where he make up stuff and they went along with it. It was great.

His characters and animations have appeared on Nick Jr, Playhouse Disney and PBS Kids.

Bob spends his days writing, drawing and having “conversations” with NPR.

He’s lucky.

Remember to visit Bob's website!

Day 222: Drawing a Lamb with Steve Smallman and Joelle Dreidemy

About Steve:

Steve Smallman lives in Staffordshire with his wife, two dogs and two cats. He has four children and a grandchild. Steve has been illustrating children’s books for almost 30 years and writing his own stories for slightly less. He also teaches illustration workshops in schools, including mural-painting. Steve is the author of Smelly Peter the Great Pea Eater (Winner of the Sheffield Children's Book Award 2009) and The Lamb Who Came for Dinner (Shortlisted for the Red House Children's Book Award and read by Meatloaf on CITV's Bookaboo). When he’s not working, Steve enjoys films, television, gardening and walking in the countryside.

Steve Smallman on Steve Smallman:

I started working as an illustrator when I was in my final year at Art College and now, over 28 years later I still haven't got a proper job! I've illustrated literally hundreds of books, predominantly in educational publishing. A few years ago I was main illustrator for Longman's 'Story Street' reading scheme, illustrating 79 titles and writing 5.

I've worked in children's television, specifically in character development and most notably in the 'Raggy Doll' series in the mid to late 1980's. I have also done a certain amount of licensed work, illustrating characters such as Postman Pat, Bill and Ben and Sesame Street.

I've been described as an 'Animal Artist', not I hasten to add because I'm wild and hairy but because I love to draw animals and especially like to give them human characteristics. 

I've been writing children's books for about 6 years and have already had several picture books published with more in development.

I've got 4 great children and although they're all adults now, my memories of them growing up inspire and inform my writing.


Joelle on Joelle:

I can't remember the first time I started drawing... maybe since I am able to take a pencil in my hand ! I spent my childhood among books from Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, Tony Ross, Ralph Steadman ....

After my baccalaureat, I studied arts in university in Strasbourg for 4 years, had my Master of Plastic Arts in 2001. 
So I went in Lyon to study illustration, animation and sculpture in the famous Emile Cohl School where I met fantastic and motivating teachers like Yves Got and Jean Claverie. 
I had my diploma in illustration in 2004. I live now in Paris doing illustration for french, english, american and korean publishers and I think it's the best job ever ! 
I also teach illustration in Emile Cohl School.

I am full of energy, so next to illustration which is my very first hobby, I practice karate four times a week, write stories for children, play piano, go to museums, cinema....

One thing is sure, I love my life and I wouldn't change it for nothing !!

Visit Joelle website!

Day 220: Drawing Flat Stanley with Jeff Brown, Lori Haskins Houran and Macky Pamintuan

Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown had worked in Hollywood and as an editor and writer in New York before creating Flat Stanley, a hero for the youngest readers whose adventures, with illustrations by Tomi Ungerer, were first published in 1964. Flat Stanley became the star of a series of perpetually popular books. The last, "Stanley, Flat Again!," was published the year he died. All together, Stanley's tales have sold nearly a million copies in the United States alone. The character's life extended further, as schoolchildren mailed cut-outs of him to their friends. In translation, he traveled to France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Israel, among other places.

Jeff Brown was born Richard Chester Brown. Originally a child actor, he became Jeff Brown because Actors Equity already had a Richard Brown as a member. A graduate of the Professional Children's School, he provided a child's voice in a radio drama and appeared onstage.

In Hollywood he worked for the producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and was a story consultant at Paramount. Preferring to write himself, he sold fiction and articles to national magazines while working at The New Yorker, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire and finally at Warner Books, where he was a senior editor until 1980. The idea for Stanley came to him one night at bedtime when his sons J. C. and Tony were young and stalling for time. One asked what would happen if the big bulletin board on the wall were to fall on J. C., and Mr. Brown said he would most likely wake up flat. That led to speculation about what such a life might be like. After writing "Flat Stanley, " Mr. Brown went on to "Stanley and the Magic Lamp," "Stanley in Space," "Stanley's Christmas Adventure," "Invisible Stanley" and finally "Stanley, Flat Again!"

The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1995 by Dale Hubert, a third grade schoolteacher in London, Ontario, Canada. It is meant to facilitate letter-writing by schoolchildren to each other as they document where Flat Stanley has gone with them. The Project provides an opportunity for students to make connections with students of other member schools who've signed up with the project. Students begin by reading the book and becoming acquainted with the story. Then they make paper "Flat Stanleys" (or pictures of the Stanley Lambchop character) and keep a journal for a few days, documenting the places and activities in which Flat Stanley is involved. The Flat Stanley and the journal are mailed to other people who are asked to treat the figure as a visiting guest and add to his journal, then return them both after a period of time. In 2005, more than 6,500 classes from 48 countries took part in the Flat Stanley Project.


Lori Haskins Houran's bio, in her own words:

I grew up in Maine, where I often could be found perched in a tree, reading.

After college, I moved to New York to work in children's publishing. Eventually I became a Senior Editor at Random House Books for Young Readers, then an Editorial Director at Golden Books, overseeing hundreds of books in the process!

I also started writing books of my own. My first book, Breakout: Escape from Alcatraz, was published in 1996. I've published about twenty more since then. 


I moved to Florida in 2009 with my two book-loving boys. We go back to Maine every summer, where we often can be found perched in a tree, reading.


Macky Pamintuan

Macky Pamintuan was born and raised in Davao, a city in the southern Philippines. As a young child, drawing was his favorite pastime and an activity that brought him delight and satisfaction. Early on, his parents discovered that giving him paper and pencil was a sure way to keep him busy, quiet, and out of trouble. He still remembers the day when he successfully drew Mickey Mouse and Superman, a huge breakthrough and a sweet triumph. He moved to San Francisco at age 21 and in 1998 enrolled in the Academy of Art College to pursue illustration. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in December 2003. When not illustrating, Macky enjoys playing basketball, his other true passion.

Below are his most recent projects, Zoo Zoom! by Candace Ryan (Bloomsbury USA Childrens), Flat Stanley Goes Camping goes into Happy Meal Book, Flat Stanley's worldwide Adventures by Jeff Brown (HarperCollins), Alien in My Pocket Book Series written by Nate Ball (HarperCollins), The Night Before Baseball at the Park by the Bay by David Schnell (Partnership with the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants), Down at the Dino Wash Deluxe by Tim J. Myers (Sterling),Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Cupcake Chaos, The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle, Cape Mermaid Mystery, Scream for Ice Cream, Ski School Sneak & Earth Day Escapade all written by Carolyn Keene (Aladdin), Alfred Zector, Book Collector by Kelly Dipucchio (HarperCollins), Twelve Haunted Rooms of Halloween (Sterling), Bedtime at the Swamp by Kristyn Crow (HarperCollins), and Baseball from A to Z by Michael P. Spradlin (HarperCollins).

Visit Flat Stanley's website!

Day 219: Drawing Penguin on Vacation with Salina Yoon

Salina Yoon is an award-winning author/illustrator of over one hundred novelty books for young children including the dazzling KALEIDOSCOPE and PINWHEEL interactive books published by Little, Brown. She is also the creator of the popular PENGUIN picture book series, and forthcoming BEAR series with Walker Books for Young Readers. She lives in San Diego, California, with her family.

Don't forget to visit Salina's website!

Day 218: Drawing a Monster with Paul Czajak and Wendy Grieb

Paul's bio, in his own words:

Reading was never my thing.

I know, this is not something an author should talk about in his biography but it’s true.  When I was a kid I was a T.V. / movie watcher.  To this day I still remember the theme songs to the majority of cartoons and sitcoms that I wasted so much time on.  Reading could never keep my attention, plus I was slow at it.  If I were a kid growing up in this day and age I probably would be diagnosed ADD possibly dyslexic and placed on medication.  I had a lot of energy as a kid and my mind was always going.  I actually failed resting in Kindergarten.  So my parents did the only thing they could do.  They threw me into the pool.

If there is one sport that will tire out a child it’s swimming.  Swimming became a huge part of my life.  I’d wake up go to practice, go to school, come home, go to practice, come home, do home work  then go to bed.  Meals were thrown in there somewhere.  The thing about swimming is that everyone only thinks about the health benefits and how great it is for the body, but no one ever thinks about what it can do for your mind.  I believe one of the things that forged my imagination was swimming.  When you swim 5000 yards there isn’t much else to do but think.  Then one day at a swim meet, I must have been twelve or thirteen, a teammate handed me a book.   The title was Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings. My friend told me it was really good. Of course I’m thinking it’s a book how good could it be?  But since the only thing to do at a swim meet is watch people swim, which is even boring to other swimmers, I figured I would give it a try.  Well that was it, I was hooked.  I read ever book in the series and in the second series.  I started reading anything and everything in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre.  I turned from never wanting to read anything to reading every day, all because of one book.  With all the time on my hands for my imagination due to swimming, I would imagine my own stories.  By the time I made it to college I was ready to write the next great science fiction story.  When I received my first writing paper back with “F get a tutor” written in bold red ink across my paper, I decided to become a chemist.

Fast forward twenty years.   Now I know what you are saying, “How is it that someone so handsome and creative could be stuck in a job that is analytical in nature for the past twenty years?” And my answer to you is thank you for the compliment but you should know that I am married with two wonderful kids, so let’s try to stay on topic.

When it comes to science people have this idea that it is all numbers and equations, but in fact science is filled with creativity.  Go look at a picture of the Hadron Collider and try to tell me that didn’t take some serious imagination.  But it wasn’t science that finally spurred my creativity it was my kids.  Watching my kids and listening to the things they say, was like reading a picture book.  I know many picture book authors who have said the same thing but I can only speak of the exceptionality of my children and only wonder about the claims of theirs. I’m kidding I’m sure their kids are wonderful.

The first picture book I wrote, Abigail the Dinosaur, which shamefully has not been published, came from an actual account of my daughter getting over her fear of bugs.  This is still my favorite story I wrote, because it took something simple, and with a slight tweak, made it into something fantastical but still believable. This is the wonder and the challenge of writing. Being able to take the humdrum everyday occurrence like, fear of bugs, picking out a costume, getting a haircut, even climbing a tree, and make it engaging.   It’s what I love about writing, and If I could pass that joy on to at least one kid then it will all be worth it.

Actually that’s not true.  If I only get one child to like my book then I’ll never get anything else published.  So realistically what we’re looking at are 100,000 to 200,000 children.

Then, all that hard work will be worth it.

Wendy's bio, in her own words:

I am storyboard artist, Illustrator, and teacher.

I have worked on a variety of productions, winning an Annie Award for storyboarding in 2004. I have also served as an animation development artist, children’s book illustrator, and character designer for companies such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Sony, Klasky-Csupo, Scarletta Press , White Wolf, etc. I was a storyboard artist for at Disney TV for 16 years and most recently I served as the song specialist storyboarding on Disney’s hit TV show “Phineas and Ferb”. Currently I teach Animation at Cal State University Fullerton.

Please check out my web page and blog at:

www.chuckandwendy.com

http://www.wendygrieb.blogspot.com/

Visit Paul and Wendy's websites!

Day 217: Drawing Little Red with Alex T. Smith

Alex was born in 1985 and has drawn and written stories since he could hold a pencil.

After considering several career options (space traveler, cake maker, professional rabbit) and working as a production assistant for an outdoor theatre events company, Alex decided to train to do the job he’d wanted to do since he was five - an illustrator specialising in the world of children’s publishing.

Alex graduated with a 1st Class Hons degree in Illustration in 2006 and having won second place in the Macmillan Prize for Children’s Picture Book Illustration in his final year, Alex begin working on his first commission as he put his degree show up!
Since then Alex has gone on to work for a wide variety of clients not just in the publishing industry, as well as writing and illustrating his own picture books, many of which have won prizes and have been read on TV during the Bedtime Hour on the CBeebies channel.

Alex is also the creator of the CLAUDE fiction series for early readers. The first title,CLAUDE in the City was selected for the Richard and Judy Children’s Book Club 2011 and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2012. The first three books in the series are now published in fourteen languages across the world and a further three books will be hitting the shelves from October 2012.

When not working Alex enjoys doodling in his sketchbook, reading, people watching and eavesdropping. He is also a big fan of cake and a nice cup of tea. He lives with and under the constant ‘supervision’ of his canine companions - two very tiny, very naughty chihuahuas (Coco and Mr. Bongo) and an ancient and very bossy Yorkshire Terrier - Lucy Locket.

He is represented in the UK and USA by Arena Illustration
www.arenaillustration.com

You can also follow Alex on Twitter
@Alex_T_Smith

Remember to visit Alex's website!

Day 216: Drawing Lady Pancake with Josh Funk and Brendan Kearney

Happy Book Birthday to Josh and Brendan! Viva! "LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST" is the yummiest book of the year!

Josh Funk grew up in New England and studied Computer Science in school. Today, he still lives in New England and when not writing Java code or Python scripts, he drinks Java coffee and writes picture book manuscripts alongside his wife, children, and assorted pets & monsters.

Josh is a board member of The Writers' Loft in Sherborn, MA and the co-coordinator of the 2016 and 2017 New England Regional SCBWI Conferences.

Josh is the author of LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST (Sterling), as well as the forthcoming picture books DEAR DRAGON (Viking/Penguin 2016), PIRASAURS! (Scholastic 2017), JACK! [and the beanstalk] (Two Lions, 2017), and more.

Josh is terrible at writing bios, so please help fill in the blanks. Josh enjoys _______ during ________ and has always loved __________. He has played ____________ since age __ and his biggest fear in life is being eaten by a __________.

Josh is represented by Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Brendan's bio, in his own words:


Whilst studying Architecture at University I realised I didn’t like rulers. I also discovered that drawing pictures for a living was a legitimate and fun career option, and so traded architecture for illustration as quickly as I could. Having now completed my degree in Illustration I specialise in Children’s books and artwork, bringing my own chaotic style and ideas to any project. If you can’t find me drawing you are likely to find me with a guitar or banjo in hand. I like mince pies. I don’t like carrots.

Don't forget to visit Josh's and Brendan's websites!

Day 215: Drawing a Rainbow Fish with Marcus Pfister

Marcus Pfister was born the 30th of July 1960 in Bern, Switzer-land. He attended the Art School of Bern and then completed an apprenticeship as a Graphic Designer. From 1981-1983 he worked as a Graphic Designer at the publicity agency Alexandre Ott in Zurich. He then took off six months and traveled across the United States, Canada and Mexico. When he re-turned to Switzerland he started working as an independent Graphic Artist. Between 1984 and 1985 he made the sketches for his first picture book “The Sleepy Owl".  It was published in 1986 by North-South Books, this was the beginning of a long collaboration. Until 1992, Marcus worked simultaneously as a Graphic Designer and as an author/illustrator of children's books. In 1992 he burst onto the international scene with his book "The Rainbow Fish", which convinced him to focus solely on writing and illustrating his own books. Up to now 49 books of Marcus Pfister have been published. They   have been translated into more than 50 languages. The total number of published copies has exceeded 30 millions.  As an illustrator, Marcus has never bound himself to a definite  style of art and surprises his audience again and again with new techniques and images. One can see this in "The Magic Book" with an elaborate folder-technique, the split pages in "Milo and the Magical Stones" which tells a story with two different endings, and in "The Rainbow Fish" series with the use of holographic foil. There is always a surprise for his readers with new and exciting effects. He is now concentrating on developing new characters and artistic concepts for his picture books. Marcus Pfister has four children and lives with his family in Bern, Switzerland. His book signing tours have taken him to Korea, Japan, the United States and many European Countries. His hobbies are photographing wildlife in the Rainforest and playing basketball.

Remember to visit Marcus's website!

Day 214: Drawing Maisy with Lucy Cousins

Lucy Cousins is the creator of many wonderful picture books for children, including Yummy: My Favourite Nursery Stories and Hooray for Fish! , as well as her bestselling books about Maisy the mouse. About I'm the Best, she says, "I had the idea for this book after winning a tennis competition. I loved telling all my friends and family about it, but then I realized that I was probably showing off, like Dog!" Lucy Cousins lives in Hampshire with her partner, four children and very fluffy dog.

Visit Maisy's website!

Day 213: Drawing the Class Pet with Barney Saltzberg

Barney Saltzberg is the author and illustrator of close to 50 books for children, including Beautiful Oops!, Arlo Needs Glasses, Andrew Drew and Drew, and the bestselling Touch and Feel Kisses series with over a million copies in print. Additionally, he’s recorded four albums of music for children.

Barney has been working with the United States State Department as a part of the Cultural Exchange Program and has traveled to China and Russia to speak about the creative process.  He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three dogs.

Don't forget to visit Barney's website!

Day 212: Drawing a Cow with Rosalind Beardshaw

Rosalind Beardshaw's bio, in her own words:

I really enjoy being a children's book illustrator and have always loved to draw. I've illustrated lots of picture books including two of my own stories and work for publishers such as Nosy Crow, Scholastic and Egmont.
My desk is very messy, but there's always space for a cup of earl grey tea and a piece of cake! I take my big shaggy lurcher, Basil, to the studio with me, he lays under my desk and keeps my feet warm.
My studio and home are in York, where I live with my young family.

Remember to visit Rosalind's website! 

Day 211: Drawing the Moon with Clement Hurd

Clement Hurd (1908–1988) is best known for illustrating Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, the classic picture books by Margaret Wise Brown. He studied painting in Paris with Fernand Léger and others in the early 1930s. After his return to the United States in 1935, he began to work in children's books. He illustrated more than one hundred books, many of them with his wife, Edith Thacher Hurd, including the Johnny Lion books, The Day the Sun Danced, and The Merry Chase. A native of New York City, he lived most of his life in Vermont and California.

Clement Hurd (1908–1988) se graduó de Yale University. Estudió pintura en París en los años 1930 con Fernand Léger, entre otros. Allí fue donde desarrolló su estilo característico, compuesto de colores de fuerte contraste. Hurd estuvo casado con la escritora Edith Thacher Hurd, con quien también creó muchos libros que se convirtieron en favoritos de los niños.

Day 209: Drawing Fancy Nancy with Robin Preiss Glasser

Robin Preiss Glasser is the #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator of the Fancy Nancy series, written by Jane O’Connor; America: A Patriotic Primer, A is for Abigail, and Our Fifty States by Lynne Cheney, and Tea for Ruby by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. She lives in Southern California with her family. 

Don't forget to visit Robin's website!

Day 210: Drawing the Very Hungry Caterpillar with Eric Carle

Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children all over the world and has been translated into 62 languages and sold over 41 million copies. Since the Caterpillar was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 132 million copies of his books have sold around the world.

Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1929, Eric Carle moved with his parents to Germany when he was six years old; he was educated there, and graduated from the prestigious art school, the Akademie der bildenden Künste, in Stuttgart. But his dream was always to return to America, the land of his happiest childhood memories. So, in 1952, with a fine portfolio in hand and forty dollars in his pocket, he arrived in New York. Soon he found a job as a graphic designer in the promotion department of The New York Times. Later, he was the art director of an advertising agency for many years.

One day, respected educator and author, Bill Martin Jr, called to ask Carle to illustrate a story he had written. Martin’s eye had been caught by a striking picture of a red lobster that Carle had created for an advertisement. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was the result of their collaboration. It is still a favorite with children everywhere. This was the beginning of Eric Carle’s true career. Soon Carle was writing his own stories, too. His first wholly original book was 1,2,3 to the Zoo, followed soon afterward by the celebrated classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Eric Carle’s art is distinctive and instantly recognizable. His art work is created in collage technique, using hand-painted papers, which he cuts and layers to form bright and cheerful images. Many of his books have an added dimension—die-cut pages, twinkling lights as in The Very Lonely Firefly, even the lifelike sound of a cricket’s song as in The Very Quiet Cricket - giving them a playful quality: a toy that can be read, a book that can be touched. Children also enjoy working in collage and many send him pictures they have made themselves, inspired by his illustrations. He receives hundreds of letters each week from his young admirers.

The secret of Eric Carle’s books’ appeal lies in his intuitive understanding of and respect for children, who sense in him instinctively someone who shares their most cherished thoughts and emotions.

The themes of his stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature—an interest shared by most small children. Besides being beautiful and entertaining, his books always offer the child the opportunity to learn something about the world around them. It is his concern for children, for their feelings and their inquisitiveness, for their creativity and their intellectual growth that, in addition to his beautiful artwork, makes the reading of his books such a stimulating and lasting experience.

Carle says: “With many of my books I attempt to bridge the gap between the home and school. To me home represents, or should represent; warmth, security, toys, holding hands, being held. School is a strange and new place for a child. Will it be a happy place? There are new people, a teacher, classmates—will they be friendly?

I believe the passage from home to school is the second biggest trauma of childhood; the first is, of course, being born. Indeed, in both cases we leave a place of warmth and protection for one that is unknown. The unknown often brings fear with it. In my books I try to counteract this fear, to replace it with a positive message. I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun.”

Eric Carle has two grown-up children, a son and a daughter. With his wife Barbara, he divides his time between the Florida Keys and the hills of North Carolina.

Remember to visit Eric's website!

Day 207: Drawing Sophie's Squash with Anne Wilsdorf

Author and illustrator Anne Wilsdorf was born to Alsatian parents in Saint-Paul de Luanda, Angola, in 1954. After a childhood and adolescence spent living in many countries (Angola, Congo, Argentina, Morocco, France, and Belgium), she settled in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1976. There, she began publishing her drawings in newspapers and children¹s publications, followed by her first books. She has continued this path ever since, working with publishers in Switzerland, France, Germany and the United States. Her books, numbering more than twenty, have been translated into numerous languages, most recently into Korean. Anne Wilsdorf was the Swiss candidate for the prestigious Andersen prize in 2000. Complementing her work as an illustrator, Anne Wilsdorf teaches illustration at l’Ecole Romande des Arts de la Communication, in Lausanne.