trial and error

I thought for my next post I'd talk about artwork trials. However the trial always leads on to the final artwork so this post is about that whole stage, working on the image until you have 'the one'.

I've always thought 'trial' was an accurate word for it. It's often not only challenging, but you've now stepped from the land of roughs into the choppy seas of doing real artwork... and undoubtedly your final deadline is now a lot closer than you'd first planned. This is what you've been working towards, and as the artwork begins I tend to feel a panic rising.The artwork of my dreams isn't what is appearing on the page, I convince myself my new batch of paper is more absorbent than the last, my inks are all the wrong colours, and that drinking four cups of coffee is essential. At this stage I'm like a hermit, locked away, either busily drawing or gazing out the window searching the horizon for ideas.

I've looked out some examples from Otto of the artwork stage. These three pieces all have a different story, and I suppose I wanted to do this blog-post to show that I didn't draw Otto in half an hour whilst having my lunch. 

The window scene as I've mentioned before, was important as it's a sad moment in the story. The image on the left below is the first proper trial I did, and I wanted it to be muted, wintery and a little desolate. However as the text is already making you feel sad, it was felt the image could be a bit brighter. So I turned the snow into rain, I put leaves on the trees, and took away a lot of the blue and the image on the right is the final from the book.

These two images are of a city scene from the story, this was a spread I was excited to draw as I had lots of ideas of how it could be. It started off with not many characters, but quickly became a large bustling scene. It's one of my favourites from the book, because it was a challenge to do.

The image above is an early colour piece, which even though we didn't use it, the palette I chose was just what I was aiming for, so it proved useful. (The image on the right is a section of the final image we used instead.) 

I hope this gives you a little taste of how the images develop, and that some just flow together easily, whilst others are trial and error. 

Dummy Books

So after you've invented your story, and drawn out a storyboard for the 32 pages, you make it into mock-up book, a dummy book.

Everybody loves to see a dummy book. Friends, editors, designers, grandmas, neighbours... It's the first time you can show the book to someone and they start to understand what the story is, and you can judge their reactions on the turning of each page. It's also the first time you've put it all together, and it's a stage I really love. If I'm really excited about the book (which I always have been) I make a few dummy books along the way. I love to keep them and look back on them, and it's not usually until it's in this format that you see the holes/gaps/ errors in the flow of the story. 

Other illustrators have told me they make a dummy book to convince their editor to commission the book. I make them to convince myself firstly, and then hopefully to make my editor fall in love with the story. Above are two of the dummy books I made for Otto, the red one was the very first, and for the second I had found the title font for my cover, which gave Otto a strong identity from the start. At this stage I'll also be thinking about the media I will use, colour palette, maybe looking at other books for reference, and drawing some rough covers.

When I make a dummy book I will just draw straight into the pages, Then using my old typewriter I type then cut out the text, and stick it all together. I use my computer later on, but at this early stage the simpler the better.  

 Ps. A beautiful dummy book can be a piece of art in itself, Mini Grey is a real master, she makes perfect little mock-up books. 

Beginning a book

For me, the early stages I go through of writing a story differ with each book. The only thing that's constant is I like to write a lot when I'm working out a book. I will fill a notebook with just descriptions, ideas, thoughts, and redrafts. I've always  written out a 'plan' for my illustrations. Mainly so I can write down all the variants of what is in the picture, where it's set, what I want the mood to be... Once it's set in my mind I then draw a rough. Then I keep working it until the publisher are happy too, and then I complete the final artwork. No matter how much you plan though, it always turns into a different beast. That's why I think after you have created something you feel as though it wasn't you that did it. I'll often stand at an event in front a flipchart to draw one of my characters, and feel as though I've never drawn them before... It's a strange feeling. 

I've chosen these images above to show you, as they each remind me of a stage of the book. So the storyboard for Otto took a long time, the story has a classical structure and I found that difficult to get right. The beginning was always strong, but we had to extend the final pages and that was tricky, as endings are so crucial. The little sketches are early ones I did of Otto (after studying reference)  to get to know the character, I'm at this stage with my new book, and it's quite fun. Making picture books is about making many,many tiny decisions, and this is just one element. Knowing your character is very important, because with only 32 pages to show him off, the ilustrations have to amplify his character, and make the reader care about him. Picture books are often compared to theatre, and this is accurate. Props, cast, costume, set design, clear narrative, audience, even lighting, are all elements that you have to have thought about before you begin.  

The last two drawings are very early, the window scene was one I loved at the start and it made it into the final book. There is a rainbow of emotions in Otto's story, and it was important we saw him looking lost in this way, at this point. The colour drawing was the first ink drawing of Otto I did, my lovely editor Helen really liked this drawing, and it reminds me of the long, and challenging battle our team later had with the cover!

I have always had very specific ideas about colour, and my editor had to ask me to put some green in Otto, because aside from three trees, it didn't have ANY. So any green you see on coats or buildings, was added in afterwards! I may do a post on dummy books, as that is the next stage after you have found your story idea.  

Otto comes out a month tomorrow, and I'm excited/apprehensive to see what you all think...

Ps. The rough storyboard was only drawn for me, and it doesn't show you the final story, just an early idea. Honestly my roughs aren't that rough! 

Girl Hero

Elspeth Beard completed a solo ride around the world on her BMW 600. Read the inspiring story here

What an amazing thought to just get on a motorcycle and travel around the world! (Especially as I'm holed up in bed with a nasty virus)

Great article found via Tomboy Style 

Ps. My mother really wanted to name me Elspeth Cleminson... As a child I used to screw up my face with disgust whenever she told me that. It is a bit of a mouthful though, right? 

3D Bear masks!

On Saturday, I did a workshop event at Blackwells Bookshop in Oxford. I had been working for a while on my bear mask design, and after five different attempts I managed to work out a 3D nose that really brings the mask to life... The children really loved them, and I thought it'd be nice to share my design with you, so you can all make one! 

Here is the link to the downloadable Bear Mask Template

And here is a video tutorial showing you how to put it together!

3D Bear Mask from Katie Cleminson on Vimeo.

A Book Bear is born.

Yesterday I got my hands on the first copies of my new book 'Otto'! The Japanese version has a flyer with my picture on the front- quite a surprise when I saw that!

I'm very excited that 'Otto' is going to be out here in the UK (Random House) and in America (with lovely Disney-Hyperion), but will also be available in French, German, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, Korean, Japanese and Hebrew! Otto is going to see far more of the world than I have.

I will be doing a blog-post on how Otto grew from one little drawing to a finished book. 

I like you

I like these...

TOP Marije Tolman illustrated this impossibly beautiful book 'De Boomhut' which won the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2010 (naturally). I saw this book in Foyles yesterday, and her illustrations made my heart ache.

MIDDLE I saw this nice print here and I like this sweet tumblr. 

I am reading these...

BOTTOM 'Freedom' by J. Franzen, THE book of 2010 (I'm a bit slow on that one). I'm slightly embaressed to confess my love for 'World of Interiors'. Don't knock it until you've tried it, packed full of beautiful, crazy, elegant, and bizarre interiors, and tons of amazing stuff that costs £100000000. (So just like Vogue, same publisher). And, yes judge me for liking Sylvia Plath, I do, 'The Bed Book' story is my favourite in this children's collection. This book would have been one of my dream commisions to illustrate!

I read about this project a few years ago, but hearing Dave Eggers talk about it it's even more inspiring. I would so love to work on a project like this with schoolchildren. Plus I really do need a cape. 

Writing sets

I look out for pretty writing sets as they make great gifts, but you rarely find them on the high street. Here are a few I like -

1. Card by Rifle Design, sold at Papermash  2. Christian Lacroix boxed postcards.  3. This luxury Smythson set would make an indulgent gift.  4. Andy Warhol Stationery set.  5. Pretty Please mix and match set at PaperNation.  6. Vintage Index set from Present & Correct

Illustrators

Two illustrators whose work I love. Ping Zhu and Yann Le Bec.

Long Weekend

Did you have a good Bank Holiday (no.2)? I took a little trip to sunny Oxford on Thursday night. Watched the Royal Wedding and fell in love with the page-boy outfits, the carriage, how perfect C+W looked, and the masses of union jacks on display. Saturday I went out to celebrate my two friends birthdays in London, with cupcakes, Pimm's and fish and chips.

Last night I saw 'The Children's Hour' at The Comedy Theatre, had something to eat first at The National Gallery Cafe, strolled across Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and then packed into the tiny theatre. FUN. Feeling like everyone else today, happy to have had a break, but now feeling a bit behind! I would like to post some of the artwork I've been doing but not sure how much I can show at this stage. I shall endeavour to find out. In the meantime I'll post some more things that have caught my eye. 

Ps. I've recently contributed to two blog posts on 'Playing by the Book' you can see them here and here. Well worth a look!

OTTO

One of my favourite drawings from my new book 'Otto the Book Bear', out July 2011...

Like the look of him? Why not pre-order a copy?

bicycle style

Pretty girl + bicycle + summer in the city = GREAT LOOK. 

And of course The Sartorialist knows this... 

conversations with an art director

'Buddy' is the new picture book I'm working on, it's about a dog. During my last meeting with my art director Ness she asked me "Who would play Buddy if they made it into a film?" (She chose Natalie Portman to play Cat straight away, a good choice) and then she said ... "Bill Murray?" And now I can't stop picturing Buddy as being a dog version of Bill Murray... which is no bad thing. 

I'm not sure if this sort of conversation is normal but even when we were discussing 'Otto' last year (new book out in July) Ness said "Otto's just like Tom Hanks isn't he, everybody loves him"... which is probably the best thing anyone has, or will, ever say about him. 

Lagerfeld's library

Karl's sure got some books.  Found here 

Escape.

After a long weekend outside in the sun, my mind has wandered to outside spaces. Imagine if you walked to the bottom of your garden and found... a beautiful treehouse? Or a little boat to row lazily down a river? or even a pretty summer house to sit and write in... I've been daydreaming about boats and treehouses for years. In fact the first thing i'd do if I had a big boat is put up strings of fairy lights, hire a blues band and have a party at sunset... Sigh. 

fun furniture

I really want that T.V, and the suitcase chair. The little odd table with drawers looks like it could just walk off on it's own somewhere... T.V set by Mike Chen, table by Valentin Loellmann, suitcase armchair by Katie Thompson, knitted stools by Claire-Anne O'Brien, All found here

Cover love

Have you ever looked on The Book Cover Archive? It's eye candy for book lovers, I've picked a few that leapt out at me. The 'Black Beauty' cover is part of the new series embroidered by Jillian Tamaki for Penguin, and the last cover I also found here. 

bank holiday with BILLIE HOLIDAY

I always work to music, and my long-standing love is for Billie Holiday. I also listen to her in the car, and yesterday I drove through the sun-drenched countryside, windows down, wearing sundress and sunglasses, with Billie singing... it was joyful.

Today it's a bank holiday but I'm back to working on my book, I'm starting to draw out the characters in ink, to get a feel for how they move around. I'm also designing new bear masks for an event I'm doing in Oxford next month, I will probably make these outside as it's such a beautiful day. Hope you are all having a sunshine-filled, Pimms-fuelled, happy holiday. 

"The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through" -Jackson Pollock

Pollock, Picasso, Miro & Moore.