Ten writers for children. All with something to say.

7/25/14

Busy, busy!

I have just returned from the beautiful Northwest—a road trip through Ashland enjoying productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a visit with extended family in Salem, then several days relaxing on Bainbridge Island with my in-laws. 



I flew back early to work on art for How Sophany Saved the Cambodian Dance, a true story of a Khmer Rouge survivor by Daryn Reicherter, to be published by Tuttle. Here's the tiniest sneak preview of finished title page art and an early spread in the first phase. I'm combining traditional and digital methods as I create art.

The hours are too few for all the projects I have cooking. After this due date (Sept 1), I'm on to illustrations for Ansty Ansel, a picture book biography of Ansel Adams for Holt. Meanwhile I'm doing further research and additional writing for a new Lee and Low project; Tilbury has requested a book on another topic; I have another author-illustrator project almost ready to pitch, but in the midst of this yet another idea keeps tickling and distracting me. I need horse-blinders!

Also this summer I am helping my daughter develop her first picture book. She's written a fun fictional story with nonfiction backmatter in response to a Madagascar trip she took with a Stanford genetics project to work with lemurs. Following that trip she created art to include in her college admission portfolio. Perhaps you can see why I wanted to nudge her into creating her own book. She was a guest at my writers group a couple weeks ago and received helpful feedback and soon will meet with someone from my illustrators group to get assistance with her dummy. I don't think she will necessarily pursue this path in the big picture, but she will inevitably find her own ways to combine word and image.


10 comments:

Unknown said...

This is al so exciting to hear, Christy! Kudos and best wishes.

Christy said...

Thanks, Susan. It's so nice to see you on the blog!

Edie Hemingway said...

Christy, you have such exciting new projects! And how great that your daughter has some of the same interests and talents.

Diane Adams said...

Wow, Christy!! So many wonderful projects!! You go girl!!!

Diane Adams said...

Sounds overwhelming, but wonderful!! Love your art, and your daughter 's art too. Talented family!

Stephanie said...

So exciting that you have so many projects!I'm so glad. And the lemur book looks very cool as well:)

betsy woods said...

Christy, you are rockin'! I"m struck by your process of combining traditional and digital art, and would like to learn more. Your daughter's talent is self-evident, so interesting.
Miss you.

Christy said...

Thanks, all.

Betsy, I am using traditional brush work line and traditional watercolor washes for value, then scanning, and layering flat color, textured papers or textured effects in Photoshop and Indesign. Transparencies in the layers allow the effects to mutiply. I set out thinking this could be time-saving, but guess what? It turns out to be time-consuming. Oh well, too far gone now.

john said...

Christy, it's so great to see some of these projects that you were proposing on their way to becoming beautiful books. What a year you are turning this into.

David LaRochelle said...

Being overwhelmed with so many good ideas sounds like a good problem to have, Christy, although I'm sure having an 8-day week might be helpful! Congratulations on all that is going on. I hope you are able to enjoy the journey, and not be too overwhelmed with all the deadlines.