Picture Book Check-in: Sketching The White Pony

Practice page from my White Pony sketchbook

This year I'm once again helping to organize the Enchantment Show here in Albuquerque, a local art and writing event presented by the New Mexico chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Basically, the show turns the usual way of producing a children's picture- or story book on its head: instead of a writer submitting a story to a publishing house and then the house assigning an illustrator to produce the pictures, we invite illustrators to paint or draw to a theme (this year it's Serenity) and then assign writers to write the accompanying stories. It's an awful lot of fun for everyone involved, and my main job is to match the artists with their writing buddies and to make sure everything is ready for our show deadline of June 1.

What this has to do with today's post is that I've been inspired to take this same approach to my own work-in-progress picture book, The White Pony, a project that's been dear to my heart for, gosh, a couple of years now. My title and inspiration comes from a book of Chinese poetry I bought decades ago for the grand sum of 25 cents at a Friends of the Library sale in Carrollton, Georgia. Most of the poems are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and some of the best poetry I've ever read. When I took my first splash ink class with artist Ming Franz, the friend I traveled to Taiwan with, I immediately thought the work I created with her was perfect for illustrating fairy tales. And that lead me to think of The White Pony and how I could turn it into a children's picture book.

Ever since then I've been working hard to "play" with splash ink or splash color techniques and learning to draw horses. Some days I feel I will be learning to draw horses for the rest of my life, but that's also how I feel about all my artistic endeavors anyway. Which is how all this relates to the Enchantment Show.

For a long time I thought I had to write my story first, and it wasn't easy. I didn't know whether I wanted to just illustrate some of the poems, or write some complicated story about a princess who wanted a pony, or a boy who wanted to find a pony for a princess, or a pony that wanted to find a pony friend . . . and on and on and on until I was totally blocked. The one thing I did know is that I wanted to paint the pony and his environment, but I just didn't know what to do with him as far as a story went.

Several months ago I decided this wasn't getting me anywhere fast and that what I really needed to do was follow the example of the Enchantment Show: paint first, write later. I've never been happier with a creative decision. 

To experiment with ideas for my illustrations, I worked in a small Stillman and Birn sketchbook, plus used some larger sheets of multi-media paper to create thumbnails and to lay out color palettes for how I would like the finished book to look:
 

There will be goldfish!

 And even a pony eventually!

I do know the changing seasons are going to be part of the story too. Here we have Spring.

  And Winter . . .

Summer turning into Autumn!

My main method of starting the sketches was to simply lay down random watercolor washes throughout the sketchbook and then try to "see the pictures" in the washes. The technique is very loosely based on the Chinese splash ink tradition, and one that matches my way of writing based on random prompts, whether it's for my art journal or a full-blown novel.

My primary drawing supplies have included Akashiya Sai watercolor pens, Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor pencils, Kuretake watercolors including their "Starry Nights" set of gold-range watercolors (love, love, love), and sumi or Black Magic ink and dip pen.

Now that my sketchbook is filled though, I'm gearing up for Phase II: good paper! Final drafts! Let's paint those ponies for real! After that, well, hopefully I'll come up with an actual story. But for now, I'm letting the illustrations guide my imagination. As the saying goes, somewhere in all that manure there has to be a pony, right? Draw it and the stories will appear. Yes.

Tip of the Day: How can the concept of "pictures first, write later" help your own writing project: screenplay, poetry, memoir, or novel? Keep in mind that you certainly don't have to draw your own--just a handful of magazine cut-outs arranged into an evocative sequence are often more than enough to jump start a multitude of WIPs!

Old Books for New Art

This week I've been tearing up books. Lots of them. Not because I have anything against books (no!), or have a particular fondness for the sound of tearing paper, but because sometimes the best thing to do with a dog-eared, multi-read, falling-apart old paperback is to turn it into, you guessed it: collage! Or, better yet, an altered book of its own.

My love of using books as the basis for collage or as backgrounds for artwork started several years ago when I tried using a second-hand volume of architectural renderings as an art journal. At the time, I was so new to the process I thought you had to gesso, paint, and alter every single page of a book to have it qualify as an "altered book." I hadn't yet learned that the established technique most book-altering artists use is to glue or gesso several pages of an old book together in such a way that you end up with about a dozen or so very stiff, very solid "boards" to work on. Instead, I water colored, drew, pasted, and wrote on every single page of my altered journal, back and front. It took months (years) to complete and I still see room on the pages for more I can do. The end result was a monstrosity so thick it has to be held together with the kind of rubber band used to bind a bundle of asparagus or broccoli crowns.

Despite the enormity of my task, or maybe because of it, I learned an enormous amount from that first effort, mainly that one of the best collage materials available were the pages of other old books. Torn or cut up, the pages yielded all sorts of treasures, from weird illustrations to bizarre snippets of text just right for the type of mood or atmosphere I was trying to evoke. And I haven't stopped.

My method for  choosing which books to tear up is most often related to the age of the book, e.g.:

• The book is at least 50 years old, but is in no way a collector's edition. This especially applies to books printed on acidic paper and that (unfortunately) are disintegrating on their own with no help from me.
• If I do use a newer book, such as a mass-market paperback from the '90s, it's amazing how even a 20-year-old book can age to the point of having a broken spine, dog-eared and brittle pages, and the entire thing has yellowed to an unattractive yuck-color. No one could possibly enjoy reading the book in its current state of decay, and that's why it's on the "please take me away" free shelf at the library or similar.
• Sometimes, just sometimes, a brand new book can also be a total disaster due to an accident of some kind: the cover is missing as are several key sections or pages, the remaining pages are beverage-stained, mud-smeared, and/or water-logged,  and the whole thing is destined for the trash.
• Mass-produced nonfiction books, regardless of age, often have amazing illustrations and photographs, but contain very little informative text, especially if the research or covered topics are hopelessly out-of-date, or the quality of the writing is below par. Ho-hum cookbooks, history texts, and how-to books you find on bookstore bargain shelves are all good examples.
• Finally, magazines of all ages are always a good stand-by if you just can't bring yourself to tear up a beloved book, no matter how bad the condition.

Next step: what to do with all this paper madness. How about: 

1. Pasting the torn strips and pieces of text into a random pattern on top of another kind of support, e.g., a journal page, a Masonite board, or Bristol board, etc. 
2. Turning chapter titles, lines of text, and individual words into found poetry.
3. Covering the text with thinned gesso, acrylic paint, clear gel medium, or even watercolors. I like to vary the thickness of this coating, sometimes like it to be completely clear, or quite heavy to just leave the faintest amount of ghost text in the background.
4. Drawing on complete pages that have been torn from the binding, but not cut up in any way.
5. Cutting, folding, and gluing the pages into decorative shapes or small envelopes to paste throughout my journal.
6. Photocopying the various pages to create different sizes, distortions, or stronger backgrounds to then color or paint upon.
7. Label or title an existing collage or mixed-media piece.

The best part of tearing up books for me has been discovering the perfect piece of text through the happy accidents of randomness. For example, I might find in my pile of shreds a passage about the beauty of gardening. Matching and pasting these lines on to a scene of urban decay creates a tension that I don't think I could express any other way. It's magic!

Tip of the Day:  Book lovers, please don't despair. I realize how painful the idea of tearing up books can be for some of you, but look at it this way: when you tear up an old book, you're actually saving it (or at least the best parts). What would normally end up in the trash can now be a serious creative tool.

Stay Motivated with Art Prompts

© creativecommonsstockphotos

Happy February! It's nearly Valentine's Day--time to re-commit to those works-in-progress, art journals, sketchbooks, and unfinished "fill in the blank" projects. Last February I wrote a post about Falling in Love with Your Personal Project, but what about when the honeymoon's over? How do you keep the flame alive? 

For day-to-day inspiration I'm a great believer in prompts, especially magazine cut-out photos whether they're used for freewriting or as references for painting and drawing. But there's one big problem with magazine pics when it comes to art: the same images I use for writing are often too bizarre and/or detailed for sketching. I also sometimes resist drawing them because as fun as it is to write about a girl sitting on a throne wearing a giant moose head for a hat, I don't know how inspired I am to turn that idea into a finished painting. On top of that, there's always the big question of copyright law; reproducing photo images, no matter how loose the interpretation, can be tricky..  

This year I want to expand my art prompts and "inspiration files" into something more personal and less as just things to copy. Some of the ways I thought I could do this would be to: 

• Yes, continue clipping magazines--but with a difference: when I've got my images, I'll keep cutting and then collage them into strong images of my own design. Photographs that I would consider too dull for writing about are perfect for this, e.g., a pear from one picture, placed beside a teapot from another, with a cat from a random ad sitting close by. One advantage of this plan is I can really create the tonal values I want, combining serious darks with some brilliant lights, and all from a variety of sources.
• Purchase more used books for altering. Moving downtown has put me within walking distance to several great second-hand bookstores, including the Friends of the Library. At these shops I can buy a relatively inexpensive collection of out-of-print, oversize books to turn into altered sketchbooks. I can either draw directly onto the pages, or I can gesso, paint, and collage the book into something brand new. One advantage to this idea is I can try working more directly from my imagination rather than relying on pre-made images.
• Choose a theme and work on it for a month or longer in a variety of mediums, e.g., zoo animals. I can try drawing them in charcoal, acrylic, pastel, graphite, colored pencil, metallic marker, pen and ink . . . mud! Besides getting to explore more styles and techniques, I'll have a focused purpose and reason to draw every day. No more, "what do I draw now?"
• Illustrate a novel, or better still, one of my WIPs. This isn't a new idea for me, and I'm sure I've mentioned it before in previous posts, but it's always a good stand-by, particularly when choosing a theme like I mention above.
• Take my own photos and arrange them into a storyboard. Now we're talking! How about starting with say, three--beginning, middle, and end--but then consider expanding the "story" with as many as 28 (similar to the number of pages in a children's picture book).
• Cut out random shapes and "good parts" from failed paintings and drawings. Arrange them into a collage, and then fill out the empty spaces with new and improved drawings. No such thing as a "mistake," right?

So that should keep me busy for awhile. How about you? Do you have any favorite art prompts or methods you use to keep yourself inspired? Be sure to drop a line under "Comments" and let me know. Thanks for visiting!

Tip of the Day: Give your creativity a Valentine. Journal all the ways you love your work and how you can go deeper into that relationship  Knowing in advance why you want to stay with a creative project can often keep you motivated to complete it.

I Miss Polyvore

One of my early Polyvore creations . . .

No two ways about it: ever since Polyvore.com disappeared from the Internet a few months ago, life just hasn't been the same. Some days I miss the site so much I could cry. Why'd it have to go?  Polyvore was fun. Polyvore was creative. Polyvore was inspiring. And now it's been sold off to a company that isn't, well, into what Polyvore was all about it. Instead of being a collage/fashion/art/community-building site, it's turned into a not-very-interesting shopping outlet.
 
For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about (sorry!) Polyvore.com was a do-it-yourself, drag-and-drop Internet playground for making online collages. Membership was free, and members had access to thousands of photo images, background colors, text fonts, and tons of digital ephemera to make some of the most amazing digital artwork I have ever seen. For me it was a huge opportunity to learn and practice alongside those same artists. 

I owe a lot to Polyvore. I was a member for a full 10 years and especially enjoyed the way the site was organized into groups of people with similar interests, e.g., Writers; We Love Dresses; Travel; Antique Furniture; Book Club; Shoes Rule!; Cats; Bracelets; Working Moms . . . and so on. Joining a group was optional, but being part of one provided certain advantages such as being able to participate in various contests, e.g., "Make a set that includes at least one cat," or, "Create the perfect steam punk outfit." Contests were a great motivation to do your best and most original work and winning was a blast, even if the "prize" was simply recognition and applause from the group. 

More than anything else, however, Polyvore for me a way to:

• Design writing prompts.
• Create blog post headings (like the one at the top of this post).
• Help with my website design.
• Illustrate my WIPs (especially in the wardrobe department).
• Experiment with color combinations for drawing and painting.
• Stay in touch with pen pals from across the world. My own little circle included creative and friendly women from Saudi Arabia, Germany, New Zealand, and Brazil. Because we only communicated via Polyvore email, and most user IDs were simply first- or nicknames, I have no way to reach any of them ever again.

One of the worst things to happen to the vast majority of Polyvore fans when the site went down was they lost all of their online creations. Fortunately, I kept every single one of my own, putting them into a separate file on my computer each time I made one. Something must have told me that doing this would come in handy one day, and it certainly did. I think if I had lost my sets along with everyone else, I'd be even more devastated than I already am. Truly my heart goes out to every member who lost hours and hours, if not years, of beautiful work.

Polyvore.com definitely enriched my life. Now that it's gone, it's up to me to motivate myself and to continue making collages the old-fashioned way, on paper and in art journals. Not quite so easy to do during a quick lunch break or just before going to bed, and don't even get me started on cleaning up the aftermath of glue sticks and paper scraps, but it's all I've got left. Maybe not such a bad thing in the end, but boy, do I miss those happy days of instant gratification! See you next time.

Tip of the Day: Without Polyvore, I'm relying a lot on Pinterest.com. It's not nearly as fun nor as interactive as Polyvore was, but it's a good resource for illustrating my characters' homes, closets, and vacation destinations. I can still bring my WIPs to life visually, just in a different way.