Finally, something that resembles art.

To your left is Wednesday (the dog) walking through the woods near our house this morning. It was a very cool partly cloudy morning which usually translates into good artmaking. We'll see. I've been doing some experimental work myself. I wouldn't put anything in a book yet, but I am getting much closer to finally making some real art and that feels better. And so, today we'll peek into my messy desk situation. I've been printing the past week or so. The process is always a little surprising. Many times colors that look very different on the palette will print to appear almost identical.

So here is my desk with my inks and palette before I start getting too messy. Notice the two coffee/tea mugs.

Here is one print before being drawn on.

Below are three prints with different shades of brown.

And here is the semi-final picture.

Click on the images to make them larger. Ta ta for now!

Philip's Book is Hitting the Shelves!

Today we are sitting outside Comet Coffee (best coffee in town...sorry Zingerman's. You still have the best beans.) in honor of Phil and his book that is coming out (officially) tomorrow. Here are some images from his book, Creamed Tuna Fish and Peas on Toast, to pique your interest.




The cover.


and the last page. You'll have to buy it to see everything in between.


And as a bonus, here is an image from the book he is working on now.


Click on the images to see them up close.

On the same exciting date, my friend and very talented colleague George O'Connor's (co-penned by Adam Rapp) graphic novel, Ball Peen Hammer, hits the shelves, too. The 29th is a talent earthquake.

'Til next week! Congratulations to Philip! Congratulations to George!

Art changes and chaos ensues.

Happy almost Fall! The leaves are just beginning to turn and there are apples at the farmers market. I am still leaving the window open at night when I sleep- but some nights I need a wool blanket. My little 7-year-old dog is acting like a puppy again since the temperature has dropped, too. Our tiny family seems ready for the change.

The weather isn't the only thing changing around here. I am in the middle of trying to rethink the process I use for my picture making. If you like what you've seen on this blog before, don't worry too much. In the end, the pictures probably won't look like anything drastically different. But it is difficult for me to rethink the way I make a picture.

Since everything has been in flux, I haven't really made anything that I've felt like I can share. I've made a mess, though. I'll share that.

Above is my very sad desk as of late. I keep drawing and painting and redrawing the same picture over and over again. I feel a little like Edvard Munch (well, maybe. I mean, he made the same picture over and over again.).

So why the ugly pastels?


Why the sketch of a boy over a defunct print from my first book? (that green shape is a turtle shell from a bad print from A Sick Day for Amos McGee...if you can see it)

I'm rethinking the way I apply color in the next two books I'm working on. I'm still using wood blocks, not the ugly pastels. Somewhere in all of that mess on my desk I am solving a color problem. I think.

Look, I even tried markers! Where did my snooty traditional art schooling go?

It'll all work out into a lovely print. I think.

Artful piles of stuff.

Hello! This week the sun is out again and there is the tiniest hint of fall. I know most elementary schools opened the doors this week to their teachers and I swear I can smell it. I love fall. I hope it really comes around soon.

I'm finding that the coming fall is influencing my latest sketches. I'm thinking a lot about trees. Fortunately and unfortunately this week, I hit a small art wall. I've decided I need to reconfigure some of my process. That's good, since it might lead to something new. But it's also not so good, since this can be a hard problem to solve. So for the next few weeks, I may have trouble showing the public what I'm working on. But I'm sure I'll post something.

For now though, I'll put up a couple new sketches. I know, sketches again, but it's all I really have.




'Til next week!

Farmers Market, Chores, and Balloons.

It's another rainy Wednesday here in Ann Arbor. It's been a cool, dry summer except when I write these posts. Rain or shine, Wednesdays are nice. I go to my favorite neighborhood in town, pick up my farm share from the market, and sometimes splurge on a bagel with fresh goat cream cheese and a tomato. Who loves Ann Arbor? I love Ann Arbor. Who still misses New York City? I still miss New York City. New York can feel like a chronic illness by choice. It's so wonderful but can be so bad for you.

This week I'm still doing nothing but sketching. I've posted before explaining how I can act when I'm in the beginning stage of a project. I am a desk avoider. But I like to live with a story so I can knock it around in my brain for a while. I repeat the story over and over again. That's how I find (well, what seems to me anyway) the natural rhythm and pagination for the book. If I've just gotten my little paws on a piece of writing, I immediately put it on my wall in my studio (or the window).

If I haven't quite memorized the story and I'm really being an introverted artist that week, the text travels with me. Below is how Erin Stead, Illustrator, does the dishes.

And so, the sketches continue.


And continue.

As usual, click on the images for a better view.
'Til next week!

I was distracted by Macchu Pichu.

Okay, it's been a while. I'm sorry.

About a week ago, instead of being in Ann Arbor, I was in Peru attending a wedding/family reunion. It was a wonderful but very tiring trip. And before I left I was desperately trying to get a bunch of work done. I neglected you. I apologize.

It is an excellent but very quiet time to live in Ann Arbor. There is a lull between the townie activities when the students are gone for the summer and the students' triumphant return. That lull is called August. It's a little hotter and it smells of cut grass. The sunflowers come out (the one to your left if 2 feel taller that I am) and the farmers market starts to get pretty exciting. I love winter. But this summer has been no slouch.

And so, I'm feeling pretty good. I am in the beginnings of a couple different projects. Most of the time I find those beginnings a little to ugly to share, but here goes.


The sketch below is posting blue again. Not sure why.

Last one.

With all of this sketching and laying out new ideas, I'm getting pretty anxious to make a picture all the way to the finish. Pretty soon, though.

We'll talk more next week.

(Machu Picchu)

New ideas on familiar territory.

One of the benefits of living in a college town is that you don't often run out of things to do that are free. That's right, New Yorkers- free.

To the left is the recently expanded and renovated University of Michigan Art Museum. It has a pretty expansive collection, a nice rotation of shows, and anytime I'm out and about in town I can just walk right in if I so desire. It's a nice place for some inspiration. There are times for me when a museum feels so large and important that the inspiration feels forced. Almost as if I am in that location to learn a very important lesson. And I better learn it. But the UMMA is a nice size. It's more like an Aesop's fable instead of War and Peace.

Not that I'm putting down War and Peace.

For as sunny and warm and summery as the weather has been here, I've been knocking around ideas about early spring. Below are some sketches.

Don't bond to these images too much. It's still too early!

I have no idea why the drawing above is showing up blue. That's all for now. I apologize again for the delay in posts. Phil and I received a fancy new computer and we are slowly getting it together. Thanks for reading!

A new raincoat and an old haunt.

To your left is the Northside diner in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I currently live. It might not look like much, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the happiest places on earth. Philip and I tend to go there whenever it's raining. Like today. Today is a day for galoshes and yellow raincoats and mulling over ideas.

If I had any ideas. But I don't.

I apologize for the gap in posting. I returned from a business-y trip to New York and felt like hibernating for a while. Since I'm still feeling a little artistically lost, I thought today I would share some Amos art for a rainy day. The images below are from the book that Phil wrote that will be out next spring.

I thought the drawing above is a nice picture for a rainy day.

Ta ta for now! I'll be better about posting from here on. Thanks for reading!

Rain and the return of Edna.

My blogging thoughts are a little muddied this week. I'm trying to get a handle on a new idea. I am both painfully avoiding it while somehow simultaneously fretting over little details that don't matter yet. Luckily, it's raining outside. I'm chained to the house. I must work.

I tend to tape things to the wall and stare at them for weeks on end. Sometimes longer. I'll do this with artwork that is 99% done, little drawings by Philip, and pictures that I like. I really like using abandoned old photographs I find in junk stores or antique shops. I steal from them a few different ways (which I'm sure I'll dissect in subsequent posts).

With a modern photograph, there is only a short delay from making a fake smile and the flash going off. In these old photographs, the subjects had to stay still a little too long and most of the time you can see their face falling into an awkward stare. I like that.

And so we find ourselves back to my new ideas and Edna (see post below if you've missed her introduction). Edna has been posted to the wall for awhile as well. She's also making her way into some sketches, like the one below.

Click on the image to see it up close. Thanks for reading!

This post may not be appropriate for children.

Some years ago I was hired to work in a bookstore in New York. I learned a lot, I met friends who never cease to help me out (and I have yet to pay back), and without them I wouldn't be drawing and I don't think Phil would have been published yet. At this job I met my friend, illustrator George O'Connor, who is quite funny. I am (especially at first) a very nervous person. I'm shy, I can be really awkward, a little inept socially, and, in polite company, a little prudish. For example, I get preoccupied with regret and forget to walk while moving my arms. George pointed it out.

George would rearrange the children's toys to model age-inappropriate behavior. It was funny, but maybe not the first or second place my mind would go. Also, a lot of children's books are made without thinking of innuendo. But George was pretty good at finding them. This thing seems to happen all the time. I'm sure you can think of a statue or painting where there was an unintended consequence.

I give you this background information because while I was illustrating my first book, each spread got the George O'Connor test. I had a few worrisome characters to deal with. An elephant who had a trunk and a tortoise...who has a tortoise head, which could be surprisingly phallic.


I think I did okay. Maybe when the book comes out, George will find something. But George, dear friend, if you read this, you were in my thoughts for every picture I made.


That's it for today! Click on the images to see them up close. 'Til next time.

Ideas, coming and going.

Hello! I've said before that I avoid my desk quite often and the picture on the left is an illustration of that. That's my dog, Wednesday, at work with me in our backyard. I'm in the beginning stages of of working out a new story idea. For me, this is like walking around with a constant headache. I think my personality gets a little severe around this time. Minute to minute, I'm a genius or a complete failure. I'll take it though, if it means I get to live in the picture you're looking at on the left. No complaints here!

Everyone tends to work in their own chaos (for instance, my mother's is color coordinated push pins, my old boss made piles of stuff on the floor) and here is a little of mine. What is missing is a coffee cup. I'm assuming it was in my hand as I took this picture.


What you're looking at here are some bike references (try drawing one out of your head-it's impossible), some animal references from a nature guide Phil had when he was a kid, an old pill bottle full of eraser pieces, my fancy metal pencil box, a pad of paper and my notebook of secrets.

These are some ideas I'm knocking around. Actually, the one above sort of got scrapped.

That's Edna.

Edna has porcupine quills if it's not clear in this rough sketch. One of the tough things about this stage of the game is knowing what to include and what to get rid of. Most of what I've done in the last month has been scrapped. But Edna stays.

Ta ta for now!

Oliver Uberti, who will write gooder than me.

Bonus post for the day! My friend Ollie is a design editor for National Geographic Magazine. He's started a blog about that will "reveal secrets of our art and design." Check it out!

Two thieves, married.

Once Philip and I have a few books out, I think it might be interesting to find examples where we steal from each other. We live in the upstairs apartment in this little pink house on the left. In this little pink house there is a little tiny room when Phil and I sit at our drawing tables (unless I am avoiding that room, which happens...often). It's inevitable that some ideas get passed from one person to another. Some of the time we do it on purpose and other times we don't even realize it until the one of us points it out. Often we help one another draw something that isn't quite working. Very often I ask Phil to hold something, or raise his eyebrows and make a goofy smile. Poor Philip.

Anyway, as far as the stealing goes, here are some examples of what I mean. The first image is the cover of Phil's book Creamed Tuna Fish and Peas on Toast (coming out Oct. 1st!).


Now see if you can spot how I unknowingly stole an idea from him (you'll probably have to click on the image). This is a picture from A Sick Day for Amos McGee, which will come out eventually.



Find it? Here it is.


That's just one example of what is probably many. Thanks for reading! 'Til next time!

Here is how I make a picture, slightly edited. I'll leave out the artistic angst. People have asked me how I make my pictures and I think I do a very poor explanation in person so maybe this will help. This is my little desk in the little studio I share with Philip . When I'm first thinking about a picture, I usually avoid this area of my apartment. I'll take the dog for a walk, take myself for a walk, sit on the front porch, clean, and if I'm really stuck, I'll bake. Most of the composition process happens in my head before pencil hits paper. I'm not one of those people who has a sketchbook with them in all situations at all times (even though I am envious of those people). I tend to do a lot of mulling over.


Once I've been able to get to know a character or think out a page in a book, I do a few rough sketches. Most of the time they're not very pretty.



Once I decide on a rough sketch I draw it again a little tighter at the proper size (in this case, the size of the book cover). Sometimes I will place some type or background information digitally to make sure there is enough room for everything.



From here I start to work on the final piece of art. I start carving woodblocks at this point in order to add color. The block looks like this. It's a thin piece of wood with really nice wood grain.

The tools I use to carve the blocks look like this.

If two colors are next to each other a different block has to be cut for each color. In this picture there are yellow stripes in the background.


Then there is a blue blanket and a red balloon and the penguin is wearing tiny red socks.


Amos is the name of the old man you see in the sketch. He is wearing green striped pajamas. The penguin is a navy blue and the elephant is a grey pink.

I am a hack printmaker at best so everything you learn about printmaking from this blog post you should not carry with you as knowledge. Real printmakers would probably be horrified at my technique from here on in. But here we go. I use oil ink because its thicker and stampier and shows the wood grain nicely. I also thought I was going to be an oil painter at one point in my life so I think I like the way oil ink smells. When I am done carving I mix the ink and apply it to the block with a brayer.

The disk in the picture with the bamboo sheath on it is a barren. I place the paper on top of the ink wood block and press the barren on top of everything to make a print. At the end, the print looks like this. If you look at it up close you can see some wood grain.



So you'll notice there is some detail missing. I wait for the print to dry (it takes about a day or so) and then I draw on top of the print. There you have the finished product. More or less! Click on the images to see more detail!