Gittle List Award

Check it out, folks! Frank the Gentle Viking has been chosen as 2013's Gittle List #1 award winner! I'm so excited to have the chance to spread the word about Frank on Aviva Gittle's site. Aviva is so passionate about children's books and I'm so grateful for her support, and even happiest of all that she purchased a copy for her grandson to have as his very own. 

I can't wait to check out the works of my fellow finalists. I'm especially intrigued by Ronald J. Robledo's title Sasquatch for Dinner. How could that be anything but delightfully entertaining? Congratulations to all the finalists!  

Cheap Shots

Happy Valentines Day! May you all be lucky in love.

Throwback Thursday: Battle Bunny

Ok, normally when I do a book review, I try to aim for one that is either out of print, or at least published before 2000. However, I had never heard of this book before I stumbled over it at my local library, and I think for anyone not to have heard of this book is a tremendous shame, and I am therefore bound to rectify it. 

I laughed my socks off at Jon Scieszka's Battle Bunny. The book is designed to look exactly like a generic, saccharine children's story that has been unceremoniously improved by a six year old named Alex. Instead of remaining a story about a bunny who thinks his friends have forgotten his birthday, the book becomes a tale of the terrible rampages of Battle Bunny against various hard-core woodland creatures, Alex, and the President (who actually does resemble a child's rendition of Obama, which I think is hilarious and makes it a unique period piece in my mind.) This book will be a welcome change of pace to both children and parents tired of doe-eyed disney rejects.

The only question this brings up for me is "What is this going to teach my child about writing in books?" I'm totally behind the imagination it takes to re-engineer a story like this. Especially for the team who put together this book because they clearly had to go through and write the lame, generic story first in a way that would translate to the butt-kicking story they would transform it into. It really plays with your brain to see what words were left in, which were taken out and re-written. But is my kid going to do this to every book in my house now? I think I'll have to specially invest in some dollar-store books that will be designated "project books".

As a child, I was raised not to write or color on my books because that's how good little children behave. We take care of our things and don't mess them up. Now as a writer and an artist, I feel like I'm profaning someone else's hard work by scratching through this and putting eye patches on that. To me, if it's in print, it's sacred! Especially now as I struggle in my quest to be published by an actual publishing house. Surely Messrs. Simon & Shuester know what "art" and what "good" is, who am I to question it.....right? 

Maybe not. 

Perhaps this is a lesson in the good that can come from controlled chaos. Maybe I should take a page out of Mr. Myers book, even if I have to literally rip it out in the name of creativity!

Elephant Aesthetics

I was inspired to doodle after watching videos of elephants painting on YouTube. I'm sure they've been trained to some degree to perform for tourists, but the expression Suda makes as she paints gets me every time! She's so focused and delicate with her coordination which seems so amazing and unexpected from such an ungainly, massive creature. When I worked in a frame shop, I had the opportunity to frame some elephant artwork and it was just too cool.
As an art literate audience, we are taught to ask ourselves what the artist might have been thinking or feeling when they were painting. It's amazing to me to think that animals might be feeling or thinking the same thing, or that they might have some abstract, emotional motivation for painting. It just adds another level of significance to the existence of art if it allows for some new level of inter-species communication.

There you are, Magoo!

I decided I needed a prop to help me promote my children's book, Where Are You, Magoo? so I thought I'd make a Magoo doll. I'm not sure if he'll just be part of a cute vendor display, or if I could make up a game for hypothetical classroom visits.

It's kinda hard to document my process in a way that would allow someone else to follow the steps or pattern, since I pretty much make it up as I go. I've been sewing dolls since I was 7, and used to be big into soft-sculpture before I ran out of time to devote to it. But it was nice to get back to some sewing projects with my "snow days" I had off work. I used polar fleece for this project because it comes in bright colors, is washable and durable.

 I always use my drawings as a jumping off point. It helps me break the character down into basic shapes. Fortunately, a cartoon-y style has much simpler shapes than a realistic style, and fewer planes to contend with. 

 Harvey observes.

 Magoo's head is basically a sort of swoopy diamond, so that's the basic shape I have to work with. I also inserted a gusset, which is a triangular piece of fabric that creates volume in a sewn shape, under the chin so that the head wouldn't be completely flat to the body.

 Tweak models. And by models, I mean runs away.

 You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. The same can be said for cats.....? I did one body and it didn't look right, so I scraped it and had to really analyze how the legs came together. I ended up inserting a stomach piece that ran from the neck to the tail, and added separate pieces for leg interiors and the whole thing looked much better, and stood more balanced as well.

Add some stripes and a tail, and Voila! my very own Magoo! Coming to a bookstore near you!

Baba Yaga's House

Inspired to do a wintry piece, seeing as how it's 13 degrees out. 

New Year, New Book! : Where Are You, Magoo?

DAT-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

New Year and a new book! My latest children's book Where Are You, Magoo? is now available on Amazon and CreateSpace!

I had a total blast making this book. I felt like writing and illustrating Frank the Gentle Viking was all about learning the process and pushing my skills as an artist. This one was just about having fun, playing with words and visual jokes.

Most of all this project was inspired by my family. My mom came to me years ago saying, "Lucy, you should write a story about a toddler who can't find a yellow cat and call it "Where Are You, Magoo?" This was back when I was attempting to be a fine artist of sorts, a serious artist. Like most children, I basically rolled my eyes and said "Yeah, mom, I'll get right on that." Surely the last thing this world needed was another friggin' story about a cat, right? My aunts and grandmothers, all cat lovers, agreed that I should draw way more cats because people love cats. Sure, yeah, great. But the idea of a yellow cat named Magoo never really left me.

I finally began to toy around with the idea of a story, but knew something had to set it apart. I really started to think about how we feel when we've lost something. The emotional center of the book really solidified when I left my local bookstore and couldn't find my car in the parking deck. I immediately thought "Oh, my gosh, somebody stole my car!" I always think this. I don't know why. It is never true. It's usually just not in the row or the level I thought it was. The same is usually true whether the missing item is a pair of glasses, your cat, your child, etc. Our minds always go to the worst case scenario. I remembered all the times my mother told me not to leave whatever designated space she set for me lest I be kidnapped by gypsies or something, which as a child I always found wildly entertaining. So I began to write a raucously rhyming story about a little girl with a wild imagination and a flair for the dramatic who cannot find her beloved pet.

This story is not only for cat-lovers, but anyone who has ever misplaced something. Adults and children alike will enjoy the irreverent rhymes and whimsical pictures. Check it out!