School Visit

This week I'm doing my first school visit for A Penguin Named Patience at my old elementary school. I've been prepping a presentation for the kids with loads of pictures and drawings of the book as well as  work I did when I was at Lakeville elementary.

This week, my folks unearthed a few choice pieces for the presentation, including my 1st or 2nd grade (alas not dated) school photo:

And a cat that I drew c. 1989/1990

That cat...

::shakes head::

I may as well throw in the towel. That is the best cat I have ever drawn and will ever draw.

A Penguin Named Patience - Final Sketches and Final Art

Moving on to more finished work...

After all of the rough thumbnail sketches have been approved, I tighten and revise and do final sketches of the entire book.

 And finally, after the Art Director has approved this round of sketches, I begin painting.

 

 

 And just for fun... 

And because you've been so patient, here's another...

Thanks for following along! Stay tuned for more regular updates and art.

A Penguin Named Patience - Thumbnails and Scribbly Penguins

Continuing where we left off...

Once I had my penguin drawings down, I began doodling in the margins of the manuscript of spots and images I thought I might want to feature in the story. Those doodles turned into pages and pages of really rough, scribbly sketches.

Scribbly dancing penguins...

Scribbly marching penguins...

All kinds of scribbly penguins...

I took all of those scribbly penguins and began laying them out until I had a sketchy idea for every page in the book.

Throughout this process, there's a lot of back-and-forth with the Art Director, determining what scenes best illustrate the text and tell the story. The rough sketches shift and change until we have a full set of  sketches for the entire book.

Stay tuned... next up on the blog: final sketches and final art.

For more info about the book, check out some of these reviews. We've been really lucky to have the book featured on a number of different blogs and websites, including Kirkus, Miss Marple's Musings, The Simple Moms, The Bookworm's local paper reviews, the National Book Examiner. My personal favorite is this synopsis by a 5 yr old in the San Francisco Book Review.

And don't forget! I'll be speaking about A Penguin Named Patience on Saturday, May 16th at Books of Wonder.

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

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.