BLUFFTON: The BEA Schedule!

Folks outside of my immediate family will finally get a chance to see BLUFFTON (well, at least a b/w advance reading copy of it) this week at BookExpo America. I couldn't be more excited about this book getting out there, so I'm going to be spending the week in New York talking to anyone who will listen about Buster Keaton. Here's my official schedule of events:

Wednesday, 5/29

School Library Journal Day of Dialog

I'll be on the Visual Storytelling panel along with Lizzie Boyd, Oliver Jeffers, Chris Raschka, and David Wiesner. Not too shabby, huh?

ABFFE Silent Auction

I'll be mingling, bidding, and casting sideways glances to see how my donation is faring.

Friday, 5/31

9:30 am   Signing arcs of BLUFFTON at the Candlewick Booth (#1575)!!!

12:15 pm   ABC/CBC Speed Dating!

In addition to those events, I'll be wandering the floor and socializing and stuff. Say howdy if you see me!

Happy Children's Book Week!

Have a great week of reading, writing, and drawing, everyone! Go HERE for info on Children's Book Week and to see the great art created by Brian Selznick and Grace Lin for the occasion.

It's just a tad early to share some artwork from my upcoming two books, but here's a sketch of a fierce grizzly from Linda Sue Park's XANDER'S PANDA PARTY (coming this September from Clarion Books).

Buster at BEA

This rather bookish portrait of the young Buster Keaton will be auctioned off on May 29th as part of the annual ABC/ABFFE Silent Auction at BEA (the gargantuan book expo). I'll also be at the auction bidding on other works of art which you can see HERE.

Earlier that day, I will be speaking on the Visual Storytelling panel at School Library Journal's Day of Dialog symposium.

And then I'll be doing a bunch of other things at BEA, including signing advance reading copies of BLUFFTON and Speed Dating!

Whew! And speaking of BLUFFTON (which, honestly, I'll be doing A LOT in the coming months), here's a swell Q&A PDF created by my friends at Candlewick.

More Sketch/Experiments

BLUFFTON Teaser Trailer!

(Full trailer coming closer to the July pub date.)

Elephants at Night

Draw Small, Print Big #2

Ready for Her Close-up

Happy New Year!

Here's to more laughter in 2013.

This is a tune called the Laughing Rag by Roy Smeck from the 1920s. Buster Keaton would have certainly known this one and probably could have played it better than I can. Anyway, here's a version recorded during the packing and moving from my old studio. I'm using my 1930 Reed/Regal ukulele purchased from Antebellum Instruments.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Bluffton is Finished!

Today I delivered the cover painting for my third graphic novel, Bluffton. It's historical fiction and deals with friendship, stardom, vaudeville, summertime, and the young Buster Keaton. Of all my books, this one is probably closest to me.

Graphic novels are a long haul. I successfully pitched the idea for Bluffton to the good folks at Candlewick Press in fall of 2009. I spent 2010 researching and thinking about the story (including a very fun trip to Muskegon, Michigan and the neighborhood of Bluffton). I wrote the manuscript in early 2011, did all the sketches for the book in the springtime, and began drawing the final artwork in August. In August of this year, I "finished" the artwork and the past few months have been focused on revisions, speech balloons, and the cover. With a great deal of thanks to my talented, tireless art director/designer Heather McGee, it looks like we're about to wrap it all up.

Bluffton will be out in summer of 2013. I plan to do a bunch of posts leading up to the release with lots of behind-the-scenes goodies and whatnot.

ARRRRGHH!!!!!

A beastie from me...

and one from my 4-year old daughter...

(I had to piece hers together a bit in Photoshop. She works large.)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Experimenting

All of this Random Penguin House news inspired me to try my own merger.

This started as a pencil sketch in my sketchbook:

I placed the sketch on my lightbox, and very loosely marked the landmarks of the sketch (eyes, pose, etc). Then I turned off the lightbox and drew a new drawing with ink on Arches watercolor paper:

I then put a new piece of Arches paper over the original sketch on the lightbox, marked the same general details, and did a fast watercolor wash:

The last step was to merge the ink and watercolor in Photoshop. I didn't worry about it lining up exactly to keep some energy for the final.

This process opens up the possibility of trying various color schemes without losing the original pen drawing. The idea is based on the color separation technique that used to be standard for picture books. 

It's always difficult to keep the energy of your sketch through to final, and I'm thinking this might be a possible answer to that problem. What do you think?

Don't Forget to Draw

It's been awhile, post-wise. Here are some things I drew the other day. They were mostly for fun/loosening up, but might also be sneak peeks into upcoming projects. Or upcoming coffee mugs and t-shirts.

Bamboo Doodle (Bamdoodle?)

This post from illustrator Matthew Cordell's excellent blog inspired me to dig out my bamboo pens today. Here's one of the results (with burnt umber ink and a bit of watercolor). I haven't had a day of mindless (read: Not Connected to a Contracted Book) doodling for awhile. It's good for the soul.

However, I think I might need a new/better scanner...

EDIT: On second thought I think the term should be Bamboodle. There, my work today is done.

Festival of Children's Books on Saturday

I'll be part of the Festival of Children's Books at the Chester County Book Company on Saturday, August 18. The event runs from 2-5 and I'll be presenting at 3. This great group of authors and illustrators has been assembled by the Eastern PA chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. Nine years ago, I got my big break into publishing via a portfolio review at their annual conference.

Stop by to meet a gaggle of authors, support a fantastic indie bookstore, and learn more about SCBWI!

Finis

Today I finished the final art for my 10th (!) picture book, Xander's Panda Party by the wonderful Linda Sue Park (out next year from Clarion). I worked on Xander during the final months of completing my graphic novel (not recommended). Now that both are out of the studio, I do believe I will collapse rest a bit for the remainder of the summer.

Happy August!

Finished... for now

Today I completed painting my third graphic novel. The title of this story is Bluffton although keen followers of my exploits might also know it as "the one with Buster Keaton in it".  If all goes well (and by that I mean the tremendous amount of work still needed to be done, mostly by the team at Candlewick), Bluffton will be out in the fall of 2013.

So for now, a bit of rest and relaxation. Tomorrow, back to work.

Carolyn W. Field Award!

I am greatly pleased to announce that the Pennsylvania Library Association has chosen Around the World for the 2012 Carolyn W. Field Award! This is a tremendous honor and I plan to thank each and every librarian this October in Gettysburg. See you then!

Dead Lion for Breakfast*

It's Deadline Time here in the studio. I'm in the  final stretch for my graphic novel and my days (and nights) are filled with paints and layouts and sharpened pencils. I'd call it Crunch Time, but that seems to apply to most of this past year... Anyway, the end is nigh and I am that usual mix of exhilaration and exhaustion.

I will however take a day off this Wednesday to attend the Annual Silent Auction for independent bookstores at BEA. I promise to work extra hard on Thursday to make up for it. Here's my donation, one of the many preliminary drawings that I've made for my other current project, Xander's Panda Party, a picture book by the great Linda Sue Park.

And here's a Flickr of all of the amazing donations.

And now, back to work.


Dead Lion for Breakfast was Ernie Kovacs' nickname for his early Philadelphia TV show Deadline for Dinner. If you don't know who Kovacs is, set aside a good portion of your day and head to google and youtube. A unique comic genius.

Happy Mother's Day

Some preliminary drawings for I'll Be There by Ann Stott. It's a book that would make a pretty good Mother's Day Gift, you know.

Just in case you need a gift idea...