A Penguin Named Patience

Hi all,

It's been a busy 2015, and I took a brief hiatus from blogging. But I'm back and with process posts and art and an event coming up mid-May!

First, and most importantly, mark your calendars! A Penguin Named Patience is out in and about in the world, and on Saturday, May 16th, I'm going to be at Books of Wonder in NY doing a panel with Bob Shea and Greg Pizzoli!

I'm definitely geeking out and doing a bunch of ridiculous penguin-dancing. My first book panel is with two crazy talented illustrators! (More exclamation points needed!!!!)

In honor of the upcoming panel, I thought I'd share a little of my process work for the book over the next week in a series of posts.

After Sleeping Bear sent the manuscript, the first thing I did was grab a pencil. Those three little penguins are some of the very first sketches I ever did of Patience. They weren't the only ones, though. For a few days, all I did was draw penguins...

Paint penguins...

Look at pictures of penguins...

And watch videos of penguins.  The aquarium in New Orleans where the story takes place actually has a series of videos of the penguins featured in the book.

Stay tuned... next up on the blog: thumbnails and scribbly penguins.

For more info about me and Suzanne Lewis and of course the book, check out these two interviews that Suzanne and I did for the KidLit 411 blog. Links to the interviews can be found here (KidLit411-Lisa) and here (KidLit411-Suzanne).

And for more sketches, process work, and cat photos, you can also find me on:
Instagram: @Lisa.Anchin

Twitter: @LisaAnchin

Facebook: Lisa Anchin Illustration

Very Merry

Wishing everyone a happy and merry holiday season.

May it be warm and bright and exuberantly decorated!

Happy and Bright

Wishing everyone eight days of brightly burning candles, more latkes than a person should really eat, and dreidels that all come up gimel.

Autumn...

...is my favorite.

Three Weeks, Five Pieces

Hey there blog readers,

Thanks for all of the kind messages and good wishes sent in the last few weeks. It's been a crazy and hard month.

It's also been a little nutty because, once again, I'm gearing up for SCBWI's summer conference in Los Angeles. Over the last slightly-less-than-three-weeks, I hibernated in my little studio and finished five new pieces for my portfolio. Whew. And now it's time for all of the last minute running around, pasting, taping, printing, and packing.

Well, ready or not, here I come.

Rhinoceradical

Hey there blog readers,

Yesterday was a very productive day. Not only did I send out all of the finished artwork for the penguin book I've been working on, but I also rescued an earthworm, started making my first batch of homemade ice-cream, worked on two new portfolio pieces, and found my way into the NY Times.

I posted it to other forms of social media, but I was woken up—in perhaps one of the best ways possible—by a text message from my mother, "YOU'RE IN THE NY TIMES!!!!!!!" I made it into the Metropolitan Diaries section of the paper. (If you're not familiar with it, it's a Monday paper MUST-READ. It contains little stories of NYC and often provides a much-needed Monday morning smile.)

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Diaries... next, who knows? Maybe the Book Review? Ever upwards and onwards.

And in that same vein of ever onwards, after wrapping up the penguins, I've been prepping my portfolio for this summer's SCBWI conference.

In the past few weeks, I've been doodling, not penguins, but a rhinoceros. Herds and stampedes of rhinoceroses. Rhinoceri? Rhinoceroose?

Rhinoceradical for sure.

The Writing Process: Author/Illustrator Blog Tour

Hallo blog readers,

So I just got tagged as the next illustrator in this neat Blog Tour. Jessixa Bagley—excellent friend and uber talented author-illustrator—tagged me in this series. I met Jessixa at my first SCBWI conference in 2011, and from that day on, I've been lucky to call her friend. She is a super talented lady with an incredible sense of humor. She populates her watercolor world with all manner of adorable and trouble-making woodland critters, and her illustrations have amazing heart. When I first read her forthcoming book, Boats for Papa (due out in the Spring of 2015), I had to wipe away tears. This Spring, run, don't walk, run to your local bookstore. This is one you won't want to miss.

 

And now that you've all explored Jessixa's work and website, on to the questions...

1. What am I currently working on?

As usual, I'm currently working on more than one project. I'm just wrapping up the final illustrations for a picture book called A Penguin Named Patience (written by Suzanne Lewis and published by Sleeping Bear Press) due out in February 2015. I'm also in the process of working on new book dummies for two of my own stories. 

2. Why do I write what I write?

Life can be hard and serious and terrible at times, and I like to write stories that transport the reader somewhere else for the duration of the book. I like a story with a touch of whimsy or humor or a little bit of magic, but also with a lot of heart. My stories are usually born out of character sketches. I'm drawn to strong central characters, so when I draw a child or animal that has a lot of innate personality, I'm driven to figure out who he/she is and find his/her story. I also find that level of emotional connection is strongest when there is an important relationship between characters in the book. Many of my recent stories are about friendship, finding friends in unlikely places, and the joy of an unexpected relationship.  I want to connect to my readers through the emotional connection between my characters.

3. How does my writing/illustrating process work?

It always depends on the story. Sometimes I write a full manuscript before I start drawing. Other times, I find a compelling character/image in my sketchbook, and I write a story based on that character. I'm exploring new methods of working, though, and trying to develop stories simultaneously with the illustrations.

Really, though, everything begins here, in my sketchbooks. I draw and draw and draw, sketching scenes, characters, and compositions, sometimes adding lines of text or dialogue, until I've found my main character(s).

Once the preliminary text and character sketches are done, I move onto thumbnails using large pieces of 11x17" paper. The thumbnail stage is often a chicken-scratch stage, and most of the sketches are pretty unintelligible to most folks. It does, however, help me see all of the spreads at once and get a sense of the pacing and initial compositions.

Once I've worked through the thumbnails a few times, I make my the first dummy in InDesign and print it out. This dummy is just the thumbnails blown up with the text laid over these very rough sketches. I could leave the dummy on the computer, but I find that it helps me to hold a physical book and turn the pages. Then I can see if the breakdown of text and images actually works together. Does it flow properly? Is the pacing right?

I love making dummies. There's nothing like holding an actual book in your hands. After the first thumbnail dummy, I go back, revise my rough sketches until I'm satisfied with the pacing, and then I do it all over again with tighter, cleaner sketches.

Each "final dummy" has two or three full color pieces inside.

And if I'm presenting the dummy at a portfolio show or conference, I frequently "bind" it using the backs of old paper pads and sketchbooks to give it the feel and weight of a finished book.

The full-color, finished work inside the dummies are all painted pretty similarly. (I've done a few posts about my painting process in the past. They all start with a palette and some daubs of paint (usually Holbein's Acryla-Gouache), 

color tests,

and character tests.
Here I painted the same character, first using a combination of watercolor and Acryla-Gouache and again just using the Acryla-Gouache.

When I'm satisfied with all of the above, I move onto the larger finished piece.

And that's how I work.

Next up is the AMAAAAZING Maple Lam. Maple is a friend, fellow Mentee, and crazy talented illustrator. Her unending well of creativity and book ideas—picture books, graphic novels, and non-fiction stories—never ceases to amaze me. She is one of the hardest working illustrators I know, and she just wrapped up her first picture book, Two Girls Want a Puppy out next year with HarperCollins. Her whimsical characters and bright colors are sure to make you smile. Check out her post next week!

 

Thanks again to Jessixa Bagley and previous post-er, Brooke Boynton Hughes, for getting me involved. Make sure to check out their wonderful work.

Til next time!

Penguins All Day Long

I know I haven't been around much in the last few months, and you're probably a little upset.

I swear there's a good explanation.

I've been spending my days and nights and weekends hanging out with penguins because my deadline is fast approaching for these dapper fellows.

But do keep an eye on the blog. I'll be back soon with more paintings, doodles, and updates.

Nearly-Summer Fun

Wherever you are, dear blog-readers, I hope the weather is as delightful as it is in Brooklyn today. And I hope you're outside enjoying it.

My Little Mouse

Hey there blog-folks,

I took a brief break from penguins today to finish up a commission for a friend.

Don't get me wrong, penguins are the BEST, but it was nice to mix a different palette than the one I've gotten used to seeing. When you paint penguins for days on end, a significant portion of the palette ends up black. (I will say that I do mix my own black paint, rather than using it straight out of the tube.) But this is what I end up looking at:

But today... Pinks! Yellow! Lavender!

And a little mouse.

Far off Places

Hey there folks,

It's April! It's Spring!

Sort of...

The cold weather seems to be holding on, reluctant to make way for warmer days. I don't know about you, but I have been dreaming nonstop of warmer weather and far off places.

SVA, Pinocchio, and new work!

Hey there everyone,

Exciting things afoot. The School of Visual Arts' Illustration as Visual Essay program is turning 30 this year, and the department is celebrating with a massive exhibition this fall. Alums of the program were recently asked to send in all of the things we've been working on since graduation - tear sheets from newspaper and magazine illustrations, published or self-published books and comics, products, fine art, etc., so I popped into the department yesterday to say hi and drop off a few small things.

In addition to asking for published work, the department put out a call for anyone who wanted to play. One of our fab faculty members (and local italophile), Carl Titolo, brought 100 small wooden Pinocchios back from Italy. Using the Pinocchio as reference, we were challenged to create a drawing, painting, or story in an 8"x8" piece.

If you'd like to see for scale, here's Pinocchio hanging out in my studio.

Usually I play around for a while with compositions and scenes, but for this project, I had an idea immediately. As soon as I saw the little Pinocchio, I knew what I wanted to do. 

I started out with a few warm-up sketches of Pinocchio. 

And then moved on to a marionette character that I actually came up with years ago. I refreshed my memory of her proportions and updated her a bit.

I did a few rough thumbnails and sketches.

And came up with this sketch...

...which after a bit of tweaking and cropping to make it more dynamic, finished up like so:

In the fall, the department will post all of the submitted pieces on their blog and Facbeook page. I can't wait to see what fellow alums came up with!

The exhibit opens in November, and I'll update with dates and more info later in the year. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

Hey there, party people,

It was a big, fantastic, fun, filled-to-the-brim sort of year here. It's hard to believe that 2013 is nearing a close. But old years end, and new ones fly in, whizzing and spinning with the unknown. And I will be greeting this one with friends and fizzy drinks and fireworks. 

Wishing all of you a bright, sparkling end to the year, and may your 2014 be chockfull of stupendous, extraordinary things!

Autumn!

It feels like autumn in New York! It's sunny and bright and so very FALL!

Summertime Magic

Hey folks,

I hope all of you have had your fill of watermelon, beach visits, outdoor movies, ice-pops, picnics and chasing fireflies across the lawn. It's the 1st of September, and fall is on it's way.

Enjoy your long weekend and soak up these last days of summer!

California Bound

And I'm off... wish me luck, folks.

See you in a few weeks, NY. LA, here I come!

Yep, more chickens...

It seems that we're starting to hit critical mass. This isn't just a handful of chickens anymore, so let's recap...

Thus far, we've seen a coopful, a sketchbookful, and a yardful of chickens.

Now, what would you say to a bedful?

Even more chickens...

And the final...

Of Doodles and Sock Monkeys

Hey there blog readers,

I recently had a skype-date with an excellent writer friend (who I met at my first SCBWI conference) who read me one of her manuscripts. It was amazing. I am consistently bowled over by my talented peers. In any case, I couldn't get her story out of my head, and as I was between gigs, my itchy fingers grabbed for a pencil.

I filled up pages of my sketchbook with character doodles and thumbnails.

 And without much more prep, I transferred a couple of the sketches onto some good paper and added a wee bit of color.

After I had finished, I realized that I had never drawn a sock monkey before. I'm adding a check to the ole bucket list.