tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70766042024-03-12T21:28:16.752-04:00Light and ShadeThis blog is dedicated to the art of illustration. I will sometimes feature my own work, and at times, share my process for creating an illustration. This blog is also a place where I can extol the wonders of favorite children's books, sing the praises of old and new illustrators and expound on any other topic which obsesses me, such as - animation, comic books, cartoons, newspaper comic strips, architecture, animals . . .Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.comBlogger172125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-34726009416136913632019-05-16T19:01:00.002-04:002019-05-16T19:36:58.220-04:00Creating a Vintage Style Paint by Number Pattern in Painter 12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/designs/8840235-flamingo-lagoon-paint-by-number-by-vinpauld">My finished pattern</a></td></tr>
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One of <a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/welcome">Spoonflower</a>'s upcoming design challenges is to create a repeating pattern that looks like a vintage paint-by-number kit, the type that were popular in the 1950s and 60s. The design brief on the <a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/welcome">Spoonflower</a> site states, "While your repeating design may take a bit longer to design than a traditional paint-by-numbers kit, it should capture the iconic styles found in the beginner-friendly technique: full opacity, crisp solid line work, clearly defined areas of color and a simplified take on your subject matter." The brief goes on to state, "Please remember to color your design in fully and leave the black and white only designs for our coloring book challenges!"<br />
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Animals and landscapes were popular themes in paint-by-number kits. I remember having a couple of paint-by-number kits when I was a kid and as I recall, one of them was a portrait of a horse's head.<br />
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Before designing my pattern, I decided to get some inspiration by googling "paint-by-number." I saved a few that I liked, including one of a group of flamingoes. For some reason flamingoes were popular subjects of these kits, possibly because they tied in with the 1950s love for exotica that had its aural equivalent in the records put out by composers like Martin Denny and Les Baxter.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CCFtrcAwNAY/XN3NS-u-s3I/AAAAAAAADrw/3X21lp-wuoIuE5kLPZHJs2b4avmS39gKgCLcBGAs/s1600/flamingo%2Bpaintbynumber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="736" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CCFtrcAwNAY/XN3NS-u-s3I/AAAAAAAADrw/3X21lp-wuoIuE5kLPZHJs2b4avmS39gKgCLcBGAs/s320/flamingo%2Bpaintbynumber.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">vintage paint-by-number image found using Google</td></tr>
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After deciding that flamingoes would be the perfect choice for my paint-by-number pattern, I next googled images of flamingoes. After saving a few photos, it was time to get started. For this type of pattern, I knew I wanted my pattern to have a painterly look so I decided to use Corel Painter (I have an older version which is Painter 12). You could probably achieve a similar look in Photoshop, but I've been using Painter for a long time and I'm more comfortable with its brushes. I also like it's wrap around pattern feature.<br />
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In this tutorial, I will explain how I created my pattern in Painter 12, but if you don't use Painter (and I don't think too many people do, at least compared to those who use Photoshop), you can skip to the end of this tutorial to see how I built up my pattern. <b>Click on any image to see it larger.</b><br />
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To create a repeating pattern in Painter, one first needs to set up a canvas. You do this pretty much the same as you would in any program by going to File in the menu and selecting New. That will open up a dialogue window that allows you to input your size and resolution. Since Painter is a memory hog, and I knew I wanted this to be the size of a fabric fat quarter (18 x 21 inches) I made the resolution at 150 dpi, which is also the resolution that Spoonflower suggests for uploading to their site.<br />
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Once you have a canvas open, you can either begin to sketch or you can immediately set up the pattern feature. If you start to sketch before setting up the pattern feature, you won't get the wrap around effect when you reach an edge. It doesn't matter though, because you can "Capture" a pattern even if you have a blank canvas. The important thing is, when you use the "Capture" pattern command, you have to make sure you only have one layer. The base layer in Painter will show up as "Canvas" in the Layers window. If you have any other layers in addition to the "Canvas" layer, than the "Capture" pattern feature won't work. But don't worry, once you've "Captured" your image (or blank canvas) and reopened it to start work on your pattern, you can add more layers.<br />
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So, to set up the pattern feature, you need to make sure the Patterns panel/window is open. To do this, you go to "Window" in the menu and then scroll down to "Media Control Panels" and then select "Patterns." That will open up a panel that looks like what you see below.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patterns panel in Corel Painter 12</td></tr>
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You're next step is to capture your canvas. You do this by going to "Select" in the Menu and choosing "All," or you can use a keyboard shortcut (on a Mac it's Command A). Once your canvas is selected, go to the drop down menu in the upper right corner of the Patterns panel (see red circle in the below screen shot).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Go to drop down menu in Patterns Panel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Choose Capture Pattern</td></tr>
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In the menu that opens up, there are a number of choices. The one you need to set up the pattern wrap around is "Capture Pattern..." I actually don't know what "Define Pattern" is for. I never use it. I've never used "Make Fractal Pattern" either. For this tutorial, all you need to worry about is the "Capture Pattern" feature.<br />
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Once you have chosen "Capture Pattern," you will see this dialogue box.<br />
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This is where you can name your pattern and decide how you want it to repeat. For my Flamingo Paint-by-Number pattern, I wanted it to be a "half-drop" pattern so I selected Vertical Shift and moved the slider to 50%. If you want a basic repeat, then you would select "Rectangular Tile" and leave the slider at 0. If you have already sketched on your canvas, then you will see your sketch in the Preview window. In this example, I captured a blank canvas so the preview window is blank.<br />
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Once you have made your selections, you can click OK. Once you click okay, Painter will process your new pattern and send it to the Pattern library. While it's doing this, you will get the spinning beach ball for a couple of minutes. Once the spinning beach ball goes away, you can begin to work on your pattern, but there is one last step you need to do. After the spinning beach ball disappears, CLOSE your open canvas (the one you selected earlier to capture) and then go back to the drop down menu in the Patterns panel. This time select the "Check out pattern" selection.</div>
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This will open up your canvas again, but this time it will have the working pattern wrap around feature that allows you to draw off of one edge and have your line continue on the opposite edge. When you select "Check Out Pattern," Painter will always open the most recent pattern that you captured, but once you have built up a library of patterns you can select another pattern to open by selecting the small arrow in the little thumbnail image to the upper right of the Pattern panels preview window, but that's getting ahead of myself and something you don't need to worry about for this tutorial.</div>
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Now that I have a canvas that has the working pattern wrap around, I can begin to sketch. For my flamingo pattern, I added in some of the photo reference that I found so that I could easily draw my flamingoes. I put the photos on a separate layer and lowered their opacity so that I could easily see my pencil lines.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sketch with photo reference visible on a separate layer</td></tr>
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After I had my sketch completed, I checked out how the repeat worked. I did this by saving the file as a photoshop file and then, after opening it in photoshop, I created a large photoshop file (30 x 40 inches) and cut and pasted my 18 x 21 inch Painter file into that new canvas. I then duplicated it several times and lined it up so the edges matched. I could have also checked the repeat in Painter, but it would have meant flattening my image and Capturing the canvas again, waiting for the spinning beach ball to disappear, etc. I have found it's faster to just save my work periodically as a photoshop file and go to Photoshop to check the repeat. By the way, that brings me to a very IMPORTANT bit of information - when working in Painter, for the pattern feature to remain functional, before you ever close your work, you need to save the file as a native Painter file which is called a 'rif' file. If you were to save your work as a photoshop file, then close the file in painter and then try to reopen the photoshop file in Painter, the pattern function would no longer work. So make sure you save your file as a "rif" file before closing your canvas.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's how the sketch looked repeated in Photoshop</td></tr>
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Once I liked how the repeat worked, it was time to start adding color. Back in Painter, I opened up the Flamingo paint-by-number image I found on Google and used the eye dropper tool to sample some of the colors. The number of colors used in most paint-by-number kits were limited and except for the darker colors seemed to be somewhat low in saturation. I don't think I've ever seen a vintage paint-by-number kit that used neon colors. The colors always seemed to have a sort of milky look to them. By sampling the colors from a vintage image, I was able to get some of that vintage color look into my pattern.<br />
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I began by blocking in my colors very roughly, not caring whether or not I was going over the lines. After I had most of the canvas covered in colors, I checked again how the repeat was looking.</div>
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At this point I decided to move two of the baby flamingoes over closer to the nest and to add another adult flamingo that would be looking down at them.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I moved two of the babies and added another adult</td></tr>
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I continued to add color. In the early stages, I had several layers. A separate pencil sketch layer for the flamingoes, another sketch layer for the trees and plants and then three different layers for the colors - one for the flamingoes, one for the water and another for the plants.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">screen shot showing the various layers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost finished with the coloring</td></tr>
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Paint-by-number images were known for their flat areas of color. There was no blending of colors, any shading was done by adding a darker color next to a lighter color. Since these kits came with a pre-drawn image, created as an outline with each color done as a separate outlined area containing a number corresponding to a color, there was little in the way of fine details in these paintings. Keeping that in mind, I tried to make my color areas somewhat broad. I tried not to use fine lines, although I do have a few that might have stretched the limit of what you would have found in an actual paint-by-number kit. Also, these paintings tended to look somewhat "blobby." It was hard to place one color up next to another without painting over the adjacent color so often the edges were squiggly and somewhat rough. Knowing this, helped free me up to not be too precise in my coloring. The shapes were often simple, which was another important factor to remember as I colored in my image.<br />
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As I got closer to finishing, I eventually combined the layers that had my tree and plant colors with the layer containing the water and sky. Doing this helped force me to keep my shapes and coloring somewhat simple.<br />
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In conclusion, to create a faux paint-by-number, do some research of actual vintage paintings, decide on your subject, sample colors from a vintage image, keep your color areas broad and flat and don't worry about your edges being precise. All of these things will help give your image a vintage feel.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My finished pattern which works as a half-drop repeat</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/designs/8840235-flamingo-lagoon-paint-by-number-by-vinpauld">finished pattern </a>shown as a repeat</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-38926991497914538442019-04-21T18:43:00.001-04:002019-05-16T19:15:32.483-04:00Evolution of a Surface Pattern - Calculating the Moon<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8NA8cboM_UE/XLzrqD6EcXI/AAAAAAAADno/15yRLIAj9HwsBTyoSMMcJepdwuBEsmo9gCLcBGAs/s1600/MoonLandingFQWeb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="1500" height="341" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8NA8cboM_UE/XLzrqD6EcXI/AAAAAAAADno/15yRLIAj9HwsBTyoSMMcJepdwuBEsmo9gCLcBGAs/s400/MoonLandingFQWeb.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished pattern, "<a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/8327030-calculating-moon-by-vinpauld" target="_blank">Calculating the Moon</a>"</td></tr>
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Back in December I created a pattern, as I do almost weekly, for one of Spoonflower’s design challenges. In this posting, I’m not going to go into the technical how-to aspects of how I created the repeat for this surface pattern but instead I will explore how I came up with the idea for my design and how it evolved.<br />
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For those of you who might be unfamiliar with it, <a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/welcome" target="_blank">Spoonflower</a> is a company that prints designs on fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap. Their online website allows designers to upload their own designs for printing on these surfaces and then to sell the designs in their own shops. Each time a purchase is made, the designer receives a 10% royalty of the total purchase. <a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/welcome" target="_blank">Spoonflower</a> handles the printing and shipping of all the products ordered. To encourage designers to upload to the site, they host a weekly challenge where they provide a theme to inspire creativity for designers.<br />
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For the design I’m writing about in this posting, the challenge was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1st Moon landing. Normally <a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/welcome" target="_blank">Spoonflower</a> gives the winner of the weekly challenge a $200 credit in Spoondollars which can be used to make purchases on the site. Once in a while though they have a corporate sponsor who offers up additional prizes or licensing deals. For this challenge the sponsor was the company <a href="https://princess-awesome.com/" target="_blank">Princess Awesome</a> who makes a clothing line for young girls. According to the <a href="https://princess-awesome.com/" target="_blank">Princess Awesome</a> website, they believe “it is crucial that girls have access to clothes that tell them that they can be and do anything…<a href="https://princess-awesome.com/" target="_blank">Princess Awesome</a> is a company founded by women - mothers - who want girls to be able to express themselves through their clothing. We are committed to making clothes that girls want to wear, and that parents want to see on their daughters.” Their emphasis is on the sciences and topics (dinosaurs, rockets, robots) that in the past have been thought of as more geared for boys. For this challenge, <a href="https://princess-awesome.com/" target="_blank">Princess Awesome</a> was offering a licensing deal worth $500 to the first place winner.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V8AZplF6lVc/XL0JNFmN3OI/AAAAAAAADoc/gDVQI_rLcKY0ZunCY9bvgPLWvmIAaZQnACLcBGAs/s1600/NASA%2Bscientists%2Bwith%2Btheir%2Bboard%2Bof%2Bcalculations%252C%2B1961.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1227" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V8AZplF6lVc/XL0JNFmN3OI/AAAAAAAADoc/gDVQI_rLcKY0ZunCY9bvgPLWvmIAaZQnACLcBGAs/s320/NASA%2Bscientists%2Bwith%2Btheir%2Bboard%2Bof%2Bcalculations%252C%2B1961.2.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1961 Life magazine image that inspired my design</td></tr>
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I’ll tell you right off the bat, I didn’t win this contest, but I did come in second place. It was a close race, if I had received just 7 or 8 more votes I would have won the prize, but with so many wonderful entries, I was honored to be in second place.<br />
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Before I began designing, I did a Google search of the 1st moon landing. My search results came up with loads of imagery of astronauts on the moon, the moon lander, the rockets that carried the lunar module, etc. None of what I was finding really sparked my imagination, until I came upon an unusual image from Life magazine that showed a group of male NASA mathematicians standing on ladders writing calculations on a gigantic blackboard. I knew from all of the publicity around the film, “Hidden Figures,” that there were a number of unsung women who worked on the moon landing, including some who helped calculate the trajectory the lunar module would need to make the landing. Using the Life magazine photo as inspiration, I decided to replace the men with the women who were until recently, hidden from view.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SLmxqxTjWIA/XLzriiVcNPI/AAAAAAAADnY/aIqWFk_LDZ0onRRdWHucJH_Wnw5VC3RhwCLcBGAs/s1600/Moon-Landing-sketch_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1093" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SLmxqxTjWIA/XLzriiVcNPI/AAAAAAAADnY/aIqWFk_LDZ0onRRdWHucJH_Wnw5VC3RhwCLcBGAs/s320/Moon-Landing-sketch_001.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My original sketch</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LhVYHr1rzmY/XLzrmJs0b3I/AAAAAAAADng/vA3B-K_sWIoSjqN1vplB9pRITGrf9R0-ACLcBGAs/s1600/moon%2Bdreams_early%2Bstage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="576" height="274" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LhVYHr1rzmY/XLzrmJs0b3I/AAAAAAAADng/vA3B-K_sWIoSjqN1vplB9pRITGrf9R0-ACLcBGAs/s320/moon%2Bdreams_early%2Bstage.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is before I decided to have the blackboard fill the background</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bd174idHCHU/XLzrk6IwAcI/AAAAAAAADnc/Q4_xX-4LiQ0Irtc-vR3R8hMMNT4HNZd9QCLcBGAs/s1600/moon%2Bdreams_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="576" height="274" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bd174idHCHU/XLzrk6IwAcI/AAAAAAAADnc/Q4_xX-4LiQ0Irtc-vR3R8hMMNT4HNZd9QCLcBGAs/s320/moon%2Bdreams_002.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In this step I added another woman and filled the background with the green of the blackboard</td></tr>
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Since this challenge was supposed to celebrate the Moon landing, I knew I wanted to have the Moon somewhere in my design. My first idea was to have the blackboard floating against a dark blue sky, but after roughing out a sketch and trying it as a repeat, the rectangle of the blackboard seemed to interrupt the flow of the pattern so instead I decided to eliminate the sky and make the entire background be a giant blackboard (or in the case of my design, a greenboard). I decided I would make the Moon look like a chalk drawing on the board.<br />
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I created my drawing using Corel Painter 12. Painter has wonderful brushes that emulate all sorts of natural media, including chalks which were perfect for creating the elements drawn on the board. For the drawings of the women, I used some of Painter’s pen brushes, mainly the flat color pen and the scratchboard pen. Before I began drawing on the computer, I made a quick pencil sketch of my design.<br />
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Using illustrations of the rocket that carried the lunar module for reference, I drew a simplified version of the rocket that I superimposed over the blackboard. Originally, I had the rocket placed at an angle, but I didn't like how it looked in the repeat so I ended up placing it upright, giving it a ready for launch look. I used a photo of the lunar module I found on Wikipedia as a reference for my chalk drawing of the module on the blackboard. For the formulas on the blackboard, I used some of the actual formulas shown in the Life magazine photo, re-drawing them using one of Painter’s chalk pens.<br />
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Finally, I added some curved dashed lines to represent the orbit and trajectory of the lunar module and added some scuffed out marks on the blackboard to make it appear as if certain parts of the board had been erased.<br />
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I named my pattern "<a href="https://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/8327030-calculating-moon-by-vinpauld" target="_blank">Calculating the Moon</a><span id="goog_1124171740"></span><span id="goog_1124171741"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>," and I've been very happy with the wonderful response it has received. If you click on the link above, it will take you to my Spoonflower shop where you can purchase the design on fabric, wallpaper or gift wrap.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vwH9di4eH2o/XL0IdOWCILI/AAAAAAAADoY/2qYLwWjtESU5cezOEdLRzaFEEYI7Fx04QCEwYBhgL/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2019-04-21%2Bat%2B8.13.39%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="1536" height="175" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vwH9di4eH2o/XL0IdOWCILI/AAAAAAAADoY/2qYLwWjtESU5cezOEdLRzaFEEYI7Fx04QCEwYBhgL/s320/Screen%2Bshot%2B2019-04-21%2Bat%2B8.13.39%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pinterest images of the Apollo landing sites on the Moon</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t-lhrGhnDZU/XL0ITpX_5PI/AAAAAAAADoM/gLfW4oPcRIoqE2m8_FNhu_gpRVr4e_JdwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2019-04-21%2Bat%2B8.14.06%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="1032" height="162" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t-lhrGhnDZU/XL0ITpX_5PI/AAAAAAAADoM/gLfW4oPcRIoqE2m8_FNhu_gpRVr4e_JdwCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2Bshot%2B2019-04-21%2Bat%2B8.14.06%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google search results for Saturn V rocket</td></tr>
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<br />Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-74899938552854747122015-07-31T16:24:00.000-04:002016-08-02T16:21:51.530-04:00Evolution of an illustration<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1BAXrjhrc9E/VbvWBqfNkLI/AAAAAAAACBE/CkdUiUa8fuo/s1600/Introduction_skylight300dpi_004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1BAXrjhrc9E/VbvWBqfNkLI/AAAAAAAACBE/CkdUiUa8fuo/s320/Introduction_skylight300dpi_004.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final image, showing Henry<br />
Bergh jumping through the skylight.</td></tr>
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For the past three months I've been working on a non-fiction children's book that will be released next Spring. I am very excited about this project, not only because of the fascinating subject matter (more on that in a second) but because it is my first assignment with a major publisher (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). The book is titled "Mercy, The Incredible True Story of Henry Bergh, Founder of the ASPCA," by Nancy Furstinger. <br />
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April of 2016 will mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the ASPCA and being an animal lover, I'm very excited that the book I am illustrating will be released in conjunction with the ASPCA's anniversary celebrations.<br />
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For this posting I am going to let my readers in on the process of how I went about creating one of the illustrations for "Mercy." In the book's introduction, author Nancy Furstinger relates a suspenseful incident involving ASPCA founder Henry Bergh and his attempt to put a stop to a dog fight. The scene describes him waiting on the rooftop of a building where a fight was about to take place. He and another officer are watching the activities of the dog owners through a skylight. Just before the men release their dogs, Henry leaps through the skylight. I won't tell you how the scene ends, you'll have to read the book to find out, but in this post, I'll show you how I came up with the illustration that will accompany this scene in the book.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NQej7JawagA/VbvOfMj5_2I/AAAAAAAAB_8/ZXnhE8hi4ss/s1600/reference_books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NQej7JawagA/VbvOfMj5_2I/AAAAAAAAB_8/ZXnhE8hi4ss/s320/reference_books.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reference books from the library</td></tr>
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The action for this scene takes place in 1866. So, before beginning any sketching, I researched the time period. Henry Bergh was born in 1813 and died in 1888, his life spanning much of the nineteenth century. To begin my research, I checked out a number of books from the library, including books on fashions of the period and references for both human and animal anatomy. Much of my research though was done online. For this particular illustration I needed an image of a man jumping down through an open skylight. One of my favorite online sources for visual reference material is <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/?esource=SEM_GI_GO_US_Brand_Getty_Images_Exact_EN_SL&kw=US_Getty_Images_Exact_getty+images_e&kwid=s_43700005482248590_dc&pcrid=57448305642">Getty images</a>, which is actually a stock photography site for purchasing the rights to hi-res images for use in publications. But it's also a great source for reference images to aid in your drawings. The previews that come up when you do a search will be at screen resolution and have a watermark across them, but since they are to be used only for drawing reference, they are extremely useful for finding people in various poses, styles of dress, etc.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C8oKkcjHGQg/VbvPmPzXDSI/AAAAAAAACAQ/gFbYYrvMBXE/s1600/man_jumping_window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C8oKkcjHGQg/VbvPmPzXDSI/AAAAAAAACAQ/gFbYYrvMBXE/s320/man_jumping_window.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The leaping man in this image became my reference <br />
for Henry Bergh jumping through the skylight</td></tr>
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To start on this illustration I entered a number of search terms, things like 'man jumping,' 'man jumping down,' 'man leaping,' etc. I not only used Getty images, but I did "Google" searches as well, using the same search terms. Once I started finding some possibly useful images, I downloaded them in to a folder on my computer. Using Adobe Bridge, I was then able to organize and look at thumbnails of all of my downloaded images. While using Getty images, I discovered some wonderful late nineteenth century illustrations from a periodical titled 'Le Petit Journal.' These illustrations were loaded with action and great period details and provided useful reference in several of my illustrations including this one.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dRTC_XPdMRo/VbvRIxwLozI/AAAAAAAACAc/3dD4H3kQtU8/s1600/Introduction_skylight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dRTC_XPdMRo/VbvRIxwLozI/AAAAAAAACAc/3dD4H3kQtU8/s320/Introduction_skylight.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An early attempt at a layout using <br />
cut and pasted reference material</td></tr>
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Once I had enough images, I did a rough layout by cutting and pasting some of my reference figures into a sort of collage. These collages were my early attempts at getting the illustration to match how, in my imagination, I felt the scene should look. I played with several poses from various images and if things didn't look like how I imagined them, I would start over from scratch. This scene on the left is my first attempt at a layout. <br />
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If I were an expert at drawing anatomy and perspective from scratch, I might have opted to just sketch out my idea. But since I had already downloaded the reference images, I found it was quicker to do a rough cut-and-paste job of my reference materials. That way I could move the elements around, scale them, flip them, etc. until I achieved a layout I was happy with.<br />
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Below are some examples of how my collage layout changed to reflect my evolving idea of how I wanted the scene to look. Once I had the main figures positioned where I wanted them, I began to draw. I drew the dogs freehand, without much in the way of reference. I also made up whatever figures and elements were missing from my collage. The sketch shown at the bottom below displays the final layout, although I did make some changes to the dogs before I began to ink and color the illustration. I did all of my coloring and painting in Corel Painter 12, primarily using the digital watercolor brushes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B5iLVfAcDI8/VbvTYCW_jqI/AAAAAAAACAo/GF0xb2ERiy4/s1600/Introduction_skylightA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B5iLVfAcDI8/VbvTYCW_jqI/AAAAAAAACAo/GF0xb2ERiy4/s320/Introduction_skylightA.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a second attempt where I've changed<br />
some of the reference elements</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-njTK0f0UT60/VbvTaj0q1XI/AAAAAAAACAw/ZCEbboeGWp4/s1600/Introduction_skylightC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-njTK0f0UT60/VbvTaj0q1XI/AAAAAAAACAw/ZCEbboeGWp4/s320/Introduction_skylightC.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The scene is starting to come together<br />
although the foreground is too<br />
crowded, with no room to show the dogs.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ZcAsv7ALwY/VbvTw3mEtYI/AAAAAAAACA4/QeJzsOZjeWE/s1600/Introduction_skylightC_004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ZcAsv7ALwY/VbvTw3mEtYI/AAAAAAAACA4/QeJzsOZjeWE/s320/Introduction_skylightC_004.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here I have begun to sketch out the scene based<br />
on my cut and pasted collage. Some elements,<br />
like the dogs, and some of the faces in the crowd,<br />
I made up without much in the way<br />
of any reference.</td></tr>
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<br />Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-48312210640316718802015-02-02T11:35:00.002-05:002015-02-02T11:35:40.573-05:00Hey wait, I thought I hated clowns!<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18475599-the-farmer-and-the-clown" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Farmer and the Clown" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410977946m/18475599.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18475599-the-farmer-and-the-clown">The Farmer and the Clown</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/122662.Marla_Frazee">Marla Frazee</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1175369305">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
Published by Beach Lane Books (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2014) <br />
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Okay, I have to get this out front - I really dislike clowns. I’ve always found them creepy and not a bit funny. But with this sweet and touching picture book, author/illustrator Marla Frazee has just but a small dent in my opinion of clowns. The little clown in her wordless picture book, who gets separated from his family when he falls off of their circus train, is probably the cutest clown ever. His simple makeup consists of a plain white face, a relatively small red nose and a painted-on smile. When he’s found and taken home by a stern-looking farmer and washes off his make-up, we see underneath a worried and sad expression - the look of a lost child. <br />
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This book is all about finding a home, learning to feel at home, and the very essence of what home is. It could just as easily be the story of a refugee taken in by strangers, or about the adoption of a child. However you want to look at it, it’s a sweet and charming book. Considering that this is a wordless book, the author does a wonderful job of developing her characters. The farmer starts off seeming very stern and no-nonsense. Just from the expressions the author/illustrator has given him, we can see he is completely perplexed by this strange little person in a clown suit. But after the little clown washes off his make-up, we see from the farmer's facial expression that he is concerned about this lost child who he has brought into his home. Over the course of just a few pages, we see the farmer, while trying to make the sad child smile, loosen up and develop an affectionate bond with this little person. Along the way, each of the characters learns something new from the other. The farmer teaches the little clown how to milk a cow, while the little clown teaches the farmer how to juggle eggs. The farmer appears to be learning that all work and no play can make for a very dull existence. Marla Frazee conveys so much feeling and understanding in her illustrations with just changes in the body language of her characters and their facial expressions. This book is a great example of how to tell a complex story with no accompanying text. <br />
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I love how Frazee has used a limited color palette for her delightful illustrations. The farmer seems to exist in a world of soft sepia browns and charcoal grays. The little clown, dressed in reds and yellows brings color into the farmer’s drab existence. The clown’s suit really pops against the monochromatic backgrounds. More color is brought into the story when the circus train returns, bringing greens, blues, soft purples and oranges into the palette. At the end of this story, I had the feeling that the farmer had been changed forever by the little stranger who briefly became part of his life. And of course, without giving away the ending, the last illustration shows that the farmer’s adventures may not be quite over.<br />
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This book brought a smile to my face (the first time any clown has ever done that!) and I found it sweet and touching. I highly recommend this one!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-64e79Egdgys/VM-VSnrzUXI/AAAAAAAAB-E/bWcc1YkAZxY/s1600/Farmer_clown001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-64e79Egdgys/VM-VSnrzUXI/AAAAAAAAB-E/bWcc1YkAZxY/s1600/Farmer_clown001.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Marla Frazee. The farmer approaches the little clown who has fallen from the circus train.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XioUlG8ex9k/VM-VSs6lYaI/AAAAAAAAB-I/eooCdVRLfXY/s1600/Farmer_clown002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XioUlG8ex9k/VM-VSs6lYaI/AAAAAAAAB-I/eooCdVRLfXY/s1600/Farmer_clown002.jpg" height="249" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Marla Frazee. Underneath his make-up, the clown is a sad, lost child.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DmFlyiKzf5A/VM-VSay8BGI/AAAAAAAAB-A/28sCjv24s5A/s1600/Farmer_clown003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DmFlyiKzf5A/VM-VSay8BGI/AAAAAAAAB-A/28sCjv24s5A/s1600/Farmer_clown003.jpg" height="251" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Marla Frazee. The Farmer tries his hand at juggling and the clown helps the farmer in the fields.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLB68y5e1H0/VM-VTM96IhI/AAAAAAAAB-U/5J4Sy8-2404/s1600/Farmer_clown004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLB68y5e1H0/VM-VTM96IhI/AAAAAAAAB-U/5J4Sy8-2404/s1600/Farmer_clown004.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Marla Frazee. A happy reunion, but the story is not quite over yet.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3177878-vincent-desjardins">View all my reviews</a>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-84070125584023403152015-01-25T20:24:00.000-05:002015-01-26T10:18:01.844-05:00Dory Will Leave You With a Smile<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20484662-dory-fantasmagory" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Dory Fantasmagory" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1404958517m/20484662.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20484662-dory-fantasmagory">Dory Fantasmagory</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5859247.Abby_Hanlon">Abby Hanlon</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1175368572">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
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The narrator of this funny and fast-paced story is six-year-old Dory (appropriately nicknamed Rascal) who has an active imagination and fills her days attempting to get her older siblings to play with her, conspiring with her imaginary monster friends, and trying to figure out ways to vanquish the child-snatching Mrs Gobble Gracker (an imaginary being her older siblings invent to try and scare Dory into being good). This is a cute book and author/illustrator Abby Hanlon successfully gives the reader a glimpse into the mind of a 6-year-old, reminding us of what it was like when fantasy and reality were intertwined and play was an integral part of our lives. With its profuse black and white illustrations, the book at times reads like a graphic novel and in fact many of the charming drawings have integrated dialogue bubbles. The illustrations, by the way, are delightful, filled with expression, action and funny details. This is a fast read and one that I think will delight young children and anyone who wants to relive those special years of childhood when playtime was ruled by imagination.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OURPTOHpymA/VMWVr04UTUI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/RrCKfmmx2bA/s1600/dory002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OURPTOHpymA/VMWVr04UTUI/AAAAAAAAB9Q/RrCKfmmx2bA/s1600/dory002.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Abby Hanlon. Dory is the cute little character on the far right</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ppjD5J4L4mI/VMWVr5qxZrI/AAAAAAAAB9M/DJGpzUvypT8/s1600/dory001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ppjD5J4L4mI/VMWVr5qxZrI/AAAAAAAAB9M/DJGpzUvypT8/s1600/dory001.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Abby Hanlon. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1qRpPgS1ULA/VMWVrseA6xI/AAAAAAAAB9I/eW-BRJ1OByA/s1600/dory003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1qRpPgS1ULA/VMWVrseA6xI/AAAAAAAAB9I/eW-BRJ1OByA/s1600/dory003.jpg" height="320" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of how illustrator Abby Hanlon integrates comic book style word balloons into her illustrations</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O2YnCOzh4NQ/VMWVsWCceCI/AAAAAAAAB9g/wv1AFZaK24Y/s1600/dory005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O2YnCOzh4NQ/VMWVsWCceCI/AAAAAAAAB9g/wv1AFZaK24Y/s1600/dory005.jpg" height="320" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Abby Hanlon. Dory gets a shot while on visit to the doctor.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ysRCARblYU0/VMWVsddmD-I/AAAAAAAAB9c/YFkx_Y7DWlE/s1600/dory004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ysRCARblYU0/VMWVsddmD-I/AAAAAAAAB9c/YFkx_Y7DWlE/s1600/dory004.jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't worry, the intended target of the dart is the imaginary Mrs. Gobble Gracker. Illustration by Abby Hanlon.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XBT-O2PQpRQ/VMWVsit1kbI/AAAAAAAAB9k/lVtfbZkihTU/s1600/dory006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XBT-O2PQpRQ/VMWVsit1kbI/AAAAAAAAB9k/lVtfbZkihTU/s1600/dory006.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">While on a time-out, Dory imagines her family is enjoying popcorn with her nemesis, Mrs. Gobble Gracker. Illustration by Abby Hanlon</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3177878-vincent-desjardins">View all my reviews</a>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-37926433397021648712014-05-13T11:39:00.000-04:002014-05-13T15:04:36.338-04:00Mistress Masham's Repose<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11349019-mistress-masham-s-repose" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><br /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11349019-mistress-masham-s-repose" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><br /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11349019-mistress-masham-s-repose" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><br /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11349019-mistress-masham-s-repose" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"></a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11349019-mistress-masham-s-repose" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11349019-mistress-masham-s-repose" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Mistress Masham's Repose" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1399434120m/11349019.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11349019-mistress-masham-s-repose">Mistress Masham's Repose</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/426944.T_H_White">T.H. White</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/930208271">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4IGxlQl6VkA/U3I53gpvkZI/AAAAAAAAB8g/dpksSQjMS4A/s1600/Mistress_masham002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4IGxlQl6VkA/U3I53gpvkZI/AAAAAAAAB8g/dpksSQjMS4A/s1600/Mistress_masham002.jpg" height="400" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maria is shown the tiny livestock<br />
illustration by Fritz Eichenberg</td></tr>
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The premise of Mistress Masham’s Repose is a clever one - the travels of Lemuel Gulliver described in Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” actually took place and some Lilliputians, captured on a later expedition, have escaped and have been hiding out and living in exile on a rundown English estate. For over a century, they have managed to avoid detection by living inside of a garden folly. Their secret comes close to being exposed when they are discovered by Maria, a young girl living on her ancestor’s estate. For me, the best parts of the book were in White’s descriptions of how the tiny Lilliputians are forced to cope in a land of gigantic threats. The writing is often somewhat dense, but filled with humor and White shines in describing the foibles of his characters. The character of Maria is not always likable but White uses her to show how a little power can corrupt even a person with the best of intentions. As is often the case, the villains of the story are often the most interesting characters and White has created a devious pair in the characters of Maria’s governess, Miss Brown and Mr. Hater, a greedy Vicar. There is a lot of suspense created when these two conniving schemers discover the existence of the Lilliputians and plot ways to make a fortune off of them. They even discuss murdering Maria if it should become necessary to achieve their gains. White fills the book with doses of English humor (which may go over the heads of some younger readers) and frequently goes off on rather esoteric tangents, which I felt slowed down the narrative. If it weren’t for these esoteric and wordy asides, I probably would have given this book 5 stars. All in all, it’s an enjoyable read, especially if you’re in the mood for a story rooted in a classic of English literature. If you can, make sure and find an edition that contains the fantastic illustrations by Fritz Eichenberg. His amazing pen and ink work perfectly captures the humor and drama in White's story.
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All illustrations are by Fritz Eichenberg and were scanned from a 1946 copy of Mistress Masham's Repose by T.H. White, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.<br />
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The book has recently been reprinted by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Mashams-Repose-T-White/dp/1590171039/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400007252&sr=1-1&keywords=mistress+masham%27s+repose">The New York Review Children's Collection</a>.<br />
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Click on the illustrations to see them larger.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miss Brown and Mr. Hater poke a captured Lilliput</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miss Brown discovers the People in Maria's room</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O4VERC-7cpM/U3I53qEePSI/AAAAAAAAB8U/tLDtm_CZSsg/s1600/Mistress_masham004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O4VERC-7cpM/U3I53qEePSI/AAAAAAAAB8U/tLDtm_CZSsg/s1600/Mistress_masham004.jpg" height="320" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Professor and the People try to figure out <br />
a way to release Maria from the dungeon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the dangers faced by a <br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3177878-vincent-desjardins">View all my reviews</a>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-56398800440841520592014-04-02T17:06:00.000-04:002014-04-03T15:35:33.418-04:00The Color Palettes of Vincente Minnelli<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WHGLcT1mYdY/Uzx4HvJZTbI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/WOxyYSnXgro/s1600/Bells_are_ringing_palette1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WHGLcT1mYdY/Uzx4HvJZTbI/AAAAAAAAB6Q/WOxyYSnXgro/s1600/Bells_are_ringing_palette1.jpg" height="271" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bells Are Ringing (1960)</td></tr>
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I recently became aware of a Tumblr blog titled "Wes Anderson Palettes," a visual examination of the color palettes that predominate in the films of director Wes Anderson. Being a visual artist, and always on the look out for interesting color palettes, I was fascinated by the blog, but I was also reminded of another director, Vincente Minnelli, who as a visual stylist, also used color in a very stylized way. For those of you unfamiliar with Minnelli, other than as the father of Liza, Vincente Minnelli was one of the top directors at MGM from the mid 1940s through the early 1960s. Before entering the world of motion pictures, Minnelli was a set and costume designer and before that, he was a window dresser for Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. After directing several well received revues, Minnelli was offered a contract at MGM where, in 1943, he directed his first motion picture, "Cabin in the Sky." That was followed by "Meet Me in St. Louis," in 1944 and a whole slew of other musicals such as "Yolanda and the Thief" (1945), "The Pirate" (1948),"An American in Paris," (1951), "The Band Wagon" (1953), "Brigadoon" (1954), and "Gigi" (1958). Besides musicals, he also directed comedies and melodramas such as "The Clock" (1945), "Lust for Life" (1956) "Tea and Sympathy" (1956), "Home from the Hill" (1960) and "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (1963).<br />
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Growing up, my family had a black and white television. It wasn't until I was almost out of high school that my parents finally splurged and bought a color TV set. Up until that time, my experience of Minnelli's films had been on a small black and white screen. My imagination had to fill in the colors. When I first had the opportunity to see some of Hollywood's classic films in color, it was an eye-opener. The technicolor films from the forties, fifties and early sixties, didn't look a thing like the films that were currently playing in theaters. Instead of looking like "real" life, these classic films looked they had drifted on to the screen out of a carefully designed dream.</div>
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I think even a casual movie-goer watching a Minnelli film will notice the impeccable design choices that went into the art direction, set design, costumes and overall look of his films. I think the first time I became aware of this in one of Minnelli's films was when I was in college and had an opportunity to see his wide-screen drama "Tea and Sympathy," on a big screen. Right away I noticed the color harmonies in each scene. It almost seemed as if the whole movie was designed to compliment star Deborah Kerr's red hair.</div>
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Whether or not Minnelli was responsible for all of the design choices in his films, I don't know. He did have frequent collaborators in the likes of Art Director/Production Designers E. Preston Ames, Cedric Gibbons, George W. Davis, F. Keogh Gleason, Edwin B. Willis and others. Many of these people worked on the films that are pictured in the examples below. But considering the fact that Minnelli's background was in set design, and as a particular film's director he was in charge of the picture, I would venture to guess that he had a great deal of input into the look of a film. Minnelli has been criticized by some as a director who put style before substance in his films. I suppose there are those who are saying the same thing about Wes Anderson's films. </div>
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In 1968, critic Andrew Sarris said this about Vincente Minnelli:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"If he has a fatal flaw as an artist, it his his naïve belief that style can invariably transcend substance and that our way of looking at the world is more important than the world itself. Critic-film-makers like <a href="http://www.theyshootpictures.com/godardjeanluc.htm" rel="self" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #999999; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Jean-Luc Godard">Godard</a> and <a href="http://www.theyshootpictures.com/truffautfrancois.htm" rel="self" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #999999; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="François Truffaut">Truffaut</a> pay lip service to these doctrines, but they don't really believe them. Only Minnelli believes implicitly in the power of his camera to transform trash into art, and corn into caviar. Minnelli believes more in beauty than art."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; line-height: normal;">Below are a few examples of some of the beautiful color palettes from the films of Vincente Minnelli. I put these together from various still images that I found on the internet. In each case I tried to select the colors that I felt dominated a particular scene. You can click on the images to see them larger.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J4f8Gv0Dwts/Uzx3195uRFI/AAAAAAAAB5k/HEKMrZKF8xY/s1600/AnAmerican_palette1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J4f8Gv0Dwts/Uzx3195uRFI/AAAAAAAAB5k/HEKMrZKF8xY/s1600/AnAmerican_palette1.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An American in Paris (1951)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lNA9O2TQLFE/Uzx4GzPph0I/AAAAAAAAB5w/A-MCRfBoR1A/s1600/AnAmerican_palette2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lNA9O2TQLFE/Uzx4GzPph0I/AAAAAAAAB5w/A-MCRfBoR1A/s1600/AnAmerican_palette2.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An American in Paris (1951)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68bdacC-ntg/Uzx4GxyKijI/AAAAAAAAB5s/iyO6pr6YEro/s1600/AnAmerican_palette3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-68bdacC-ntg/Uzx4GxyKijI/AAAAAAAAB5s/iyO6pr6YEro/s1600/AnAmerican_palette3.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An American in Paris (1951)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JhFqVL8RLv4/Uzx4G4i6JxI/AAAAAAAAB50/u9b5WsNIT00/s1600/AnAmerican_palette4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JhFqVL8RLv4/Uzx4G4i6JxI/AAAAAAAAB50/u9b5WsNIT00/s1600/AnAmerican_palette4.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An American in Paris (1951)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zx9Na7WwX4o/Uzx4LEWPUXI/AAAAAAAAB7E/Uz53sQU2FPo/s1600/band_wagon_palette1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zx9Na7WwX4o/Uzx4LEWPUXI/AAAAAAAAB7E/Uz53sQU2FPo/s1600/band_wagon_palette1.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Band Wagon (1953)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7rYwv2eer0/Uzx4LS8nMrI/AAAAAAAAB7I/I_NtfmS0kLg/s1600/band_wagon_palette2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R7rYwv2eer0/Uzx4LS8nMrI/AAAAAAAAB7I/I_NtfmS0kLg/s1600/band_wagon_palette2.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Band Wagon (1953)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--pykuHFngso/Uzx4LoFVX7I/AAAAAAAAB7Q/_SE0Sp7mdl8/s1600/band_wagon_palette3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--pykuHFngso/Uzx4LoFVX7I/AAAAAAAAB7Q/_SE0Sp7mdl8/s1600/band_wagon_palette3.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Band Wagon (1953)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-odAAO8KZRts/Uzx4L8sdwxI/AAAAAAAAB7w/l8KOxvO3InU/s1600/band_wagon_palette4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-odAAO8KZRts/Uzx4L8sdwxI/AAAAAAAAB7w/l8KOxvO3InU/s1600/band_wagon_palette4.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Band Wagon (1953)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xFgO94Zh5Iw/Uzx4IUm2rrI/AAAAAAAAB6k/4WDsQmU6JvI/s1600/Brigadoon_palette1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xFgO94Zh5Iw/Uzx4IUm2rrI/AAAAAAAAB6k/4WDsQmU6JvI/s1600/Brigadoon_palette1.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brigadoon (1954)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-leckoyGqWrQ/Uzx4Ik909mI/AAAAAAAAB6g/BLtEcRlOxBM/s1600/Brigadoon_palette2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-leckoyGqWrQ/Uzx4Ik909mI/AAAAAAAAB6g/BLtEcRlOxBM/s1600/Brigadoon_palette2.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brigadoon (1954)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ceAkADRiz9Y/Uzx4IzNV15I/AAAAAAAAB6c/2OGNiHWxmNw/s1600/Brigadoon_palette3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ceAkADRiz9Y/Uzx4IzNV15I/AAAAAAAAB6c/2OGNiHWxmNw/s1600/Brigadoon_palette3.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brigadoon (1954)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sX_uIN-qgyo/Uzx4KBRCPaI/AAAAAAAAB7A/L6trdBJQRTk/s1600/Brigadoon_palette4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sX_uIN-qgyo/Uzx4KBRCPaI/AAAAAAAAB7A/L6trdBJQRTk/s1600/Brigadoon_palette4.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brigadoon (1954)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9u6iaHhltbI/Uzx4H4_7bKI/AAAAAAAAB6U/3JlBqqHjNRw/s1600/Bells_are_ringing_palette2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9u6iaHhltbI/Uzx4H4_7bKI/AAAAAAAAB6U/3JlBqqHjNRw/s1600/Bells_are_ringing_palette2.jpg" height="217" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">Bells Are Ringing (1960)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XE2Q2hkGvZI/Uzx4H44naOI/AAAAAAAAB6E/BJ_J7Vw0FSQ/s1600/Bells_are_ringing_palette3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XE2Q2hkGvZI/Uzx4H44naOI/AAAAAAAAB6E/BJ_J7Vw0FSQ/s1600/Bells_are_ringing_palette3.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">Bells Are Ringing (1960)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dAAp8P_fybw/Uzx4KB8tAzI/AAAAAAAAB64/uQWiYg45Wrc/s1600/Tea_sympathy_palette1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dAAp8P_fybw/Uzx4KB8tAzI/AAAAAAAAB64/uQWiYg45Wrc/s1600/Tea_sympathy_palette1.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tea and Sympathy (1956)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CcQrkizPJWs/Uzx4Kff3YPI/AAAAAAAAB60/8n8Jng2ZDXM/s1600/Tea_sympathy_palette2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CcQrkizPJWs/Uzx4Kff3YPI/AAAAAAAAB60/8n8Jng2ZDXM/s1600/Tea_sympathy_palette2.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tea and Sympathy (1956)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9IojOXinZr0/Uzx4MW1gYrI/AAAAAAAAB7g/-nxU73nOJbs/s1600/home_from_hill_palette2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9IojOXinZr0/Uzx4MW1gYrI/AAAAAAAAB7g/-nxU73nOJbs/s1600/home_from_hill_palette2.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Home from the Hill (1960)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-giPLVjjL6Eo/Uzx4MN5llII/AAAAAAAAB7o/qXiunTJsptY/s1600/home_from_hill_palette1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-giPLVjjL6Eo/Uzx4MN5llII/AAAAAAAAB7o/qXiunTJsptY/s1600/home_from_hill_palette1.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Home from the Hill (1960)</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-48154826724471305372013-12-29T10:58:00.000-05:002013-12-29T11:07:24.804-05:00My Favorite Picture Book of 2013<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333265-mr-tiger-goes-wild" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Mr. Tiger Goes Wild" border="0" src="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361746283m/17333265.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333265-mr-tiger-goes-wild">Mr. Tiger Goes Wild</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3092248.Peter_Brown">Peter Brown</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/794630160">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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I first became aware of author/illustrator Peter Brown with his lovely picture book from 2009, “The Curious Garden.” I’ve followed his output ever since and with his latest book, “Mr. Tiger Goes Wild,” he has become one of my favorite author/illustrators. Using minimal text in combination with his wonderfully mid-century style illustrations, Brown manages to tell a surprisingly complex tale of bucking the norm and being true to oneself. Mr. Tiger lives in a society of animals that dress in human clothes, walk upright and are rigidly formal in their polite behavior. But for Mr. Tiger, always being prim and proper is a boring way to live. One day, he has a wild idea - he decides to walk on all fours! Right away he feels better, but when he decides to shed his clothes and run wild, his friends lose their patience and ask him to take his wild behavior to the wilderness. Without spoiling the ending, I will say that I found the resolution of this fun tale to be a delightful surprise.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bIra1euj7Cg/UsBFfv_WTVI/AAAAAAAAB5M/OPU_t8h5q2E/s1600/Tiger_proper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="311" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bIra1euj7Cg/UsBFfv_WTVI/AAAAAAAAB5M/OPU_t8h5q2E/s1600/Tiger_proper.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">illustration by Peter Brown from "Mr. Tiger Goes Wild"</td></tr>
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The double-page spread where Mr. Tiger decides to shed his clothes is ingenious in its design and simplicity. A large public fountain forms the center of the two-page design (see last image at bottom). On the left page we see Mr. Tiger diving into one side of the fountain fully clothed. On the right page, we see Mr. Tiger emerging from the other side of the fountain but this time, without his clothes. Then we notice his clothes floating on the water. Turning the page, we see Mr. Tiger, standing on all fours, without a stitch of clothing to hide his magnificent striped coat. There is no text, words are unnecessary. His stance and the smile on his face tell us everything we need to know - Mr. Tiger has at last discovered his own true nature. <br />
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In this beautifully designed and humorous book, Brown presents the reader with a thought-provoking array of concepts - the stagnation of conformity, the joy in being different, respect for the rights of others, and making compromises. I highly recommend this book, definitely my favorite picture book of 2013!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hBbc8E45ezo/UsBFfgP0aCI/AAAAAAAAB5E/_5oAJp166EM/s1600/children_tiger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hBbc8E45ezo/UsBFfgP0aCI/AAAAAAAAB5E/_5oAJp166EM/s1600/children_tiger.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">detail from Peter Brown's "Mr. Tiger Goes Wild."</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Oz0UH-qnFdw/UsBFfobiS3I/AAAAAAAAB5I/BsYImQokLgo/s1600/Fountain_Tiger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="161" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Oz0UH-qnFdw/UsBFfobiS3I/AAAAAAAAB5I/BsYImQokLgo/s1600/Fountain_Tiger.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Double-page spread from "Mr. Tiger Goes Wild."</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3177878-vincent-desjardins">View all my reviews</a>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-26692825353140985472013-10-07T11:46:00.000-04:002013-10-07T11:46:12.731-04:00<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l-97ltwNdWw/UlLWtf2DuaI/AAAAAAAAB4g/8vjQQ46GJZs/s1600/doodlers003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l-97ltwNdWw/UlLWtf2DuaI/AAAAAAAAB4g/8vjQQ46GJZs/s200/doodlers003.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1168094.Doodler_Doodling">Doodler Doodling</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/48940.Rita_Golden_Gelman">Rita Golden Gelman</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/736096061">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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Rita Golden Gelman has taken a simple concept - a daydreaming girl doodling on her notebook paper during class, and turned it into a fun, tongue-twisting page-turner filled with great word play and escalating situations. The author is helped by Paul O. Zelinksy’s wonderfully zany illustrations. Zelinksy is one of the most versatile illustrators working today. His illustrations for this book are nothing like the Flemish style renaissance paintings he created for Rapunzel. Here he combines loose watercolor and ink drawings to create dazzling doodles that come to life as the girl’s daydreams get out of control. The story and illustrations climax with a double-page fold-out. This is a fun book that would make a wonderful read-aloud and the pictures are so much fun that kids will want to study them over and over again to see how they relate to the playful text.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3177878-vincent-desjardins">View all my reviews</a>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-24271615869867486072013-08-26T09:59:00.000-04:002013-08-26T09:59:52.641-04:00Illustration Friday - Rescue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final image</td></tr>
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This week's 'Illustration Friday' challenge is the word "Rescue," and I am submitting a piece that I actually created three years ago. It was a piece I did for fun, my attempt at creating an image that looked like it might have come from a Little Golden Book.<br />
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I always loved the Richard Scarry books and his illustrations showing towns populated entirely by animals. In my illustration, an elephant is being rescued by a squad of dalmatian firemen.<br />
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Before I began painting (the final image was created in Painter 11), I created a few thumbnail pen and ink sketches in one of my sketchbooks.<br />
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You can see in the first rough sketch that I originally had quite a different look for the dog climbing the ladder. I didn't like his snout, so I changed it to a more boxy shape.<br />
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Once I was happy with my character designs, I created a cleaned up sketch. From there, I began filling in blocks of color, using Painter 11's chalk and pastel brushes.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cleaned up sketch created in Painter 11</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting to fill in areas of color</td></tr>
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For the final stepped, I gave the elephant a warmer tone and some reflected light from the flames. This helped her to stand out more from the gray building. </div>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-83934525950734761412013-07-29T15:30:00.002-04:002013-07-29T15:40:34.689-04:00Illustration Friday - Jungle<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My illustration as a repeating pattern</td></tr>
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This week's topic for Illustration Friday's challenge is "Jungle." Once again, I have submitted an older piece that I recently reworked into a repeating pattern.<br />
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This illustration started out as a portfolio piece depicting various animals of northern South America's rain forests. From the start I challenged myself to show as many animals as possible (including a few birds and butterflies). After consulting a number of photographic reference books, I came up with a sketch that wove the animals together into a leafy background, joined together and encircled by vines. If you scroll down, you can see images showing the progression of the piece.<br />
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Some of the animals included in my design are: Brown Capuchin monkey, Two-toed Sloth, Silvery Marmoset, Brazillian Porcupine, Greater Bulldog Bat, Murine Mouse Opossum, a Jaguar and her cub and a Quetzal. I was going for a sort of vintage children's book feel so I took a little liberty with how some of the animals look. In other words, I tried to make their faces a little cuter.<br />
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After completing the rough sketch, I began to block in some color. I painted the image in Painter 11 and in order to be able to easily make changes in positioning and color, I used lots of separate layers. I continued to add layers and to block in colors and refine shapes, adding darks and lights as I went. I worked on this illustration on and off for several weeks during 2009 and 2010.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My original pencil sketch</td></tr>
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In June of this year (2013) I resurrected the image and turned it into a repeating pattern for printing on fabric that I sell through my <a href="http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/2096260">Spoonflower shop</a>. Creating a repeating pattern out of a finished illustration was a bit of a challenge and I went through a lot of trial and error. To do this, I opened the image in Painter 12 and captured the original image as a pattern. When Painter asked me to name the pattern I was also able to select an offset. Since I didn't want a straight across grid-looking pattern, I chose a 50% vertical offset which would stagger the image when it repeats. Once I had the pattern saved to the pattern library I went to the pattern menu and selected 'Check out pattern." This brought the pattern up as a native Painter rif file that had edges which would automatically tile. In other words, when I painted off of the right edge, the same line would continue to paint in the correct location over on to the left edge. The same thing would happen for the top and bottom edges. Working in this mode is very memory intensive and it helps if you have a lot of RAM installed. I have quite a bit, but I still saw my brushes slow down when they approached one of the edges.<br />
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Every once in a while I would stop and save the image in two formats - as a native rif file so that the tiling would continue to be active when I reopened it in Painter, and as a photoshop file so that I could open it in Photoshop and quickly create a sheet where I duplicated the image several times to see how various elements along the edges were lining up. When I was happy with how everything was lining up, I again saved the final version in Painter as a photoshop file. After opening it in Photoshop and making last minute adjustments on brightness and saturation levels, I saved the image as a jpeg for uploading to Spoonflower. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Initial color blocking with the sketch visible on another layer</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting to add darks, more defined edges and smaller details</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished illustration</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-10767786722214837202013-07-23T12:06:00.002-04:002013-07-23T12:11:13.691-04:00Illustration Friday - Robot<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My original, finished robot pattern</td></tr>
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It's been a while since I've submitted anything for the Illustration Friday weekly challenge, but when I saw that this week's challenge was "Robot," I couldn't resist. Coincidentally, I was working on an update of a robot pattern that I had originally designed for my <a href="http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/vinpauld">Spoonflower</a> shop. My aim was to create a fabric design with some kid-friendly, retro-looking robots.<br />
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My original pattern featured 5 different robots (plus one that was repeated within the basic repeat module). Below, is the sketch for their original design. To the right, is the finished color pattern showing how it repeats. To the finished version, I added some textures in Photoshop to help give the image the feel of vintage cloth.<br />
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If you scroll down to the bottom, you can see my updated version that uses the original robots, plus a couple of new ones.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original sketch for my robot pattern</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A test, using the sketch, to see how the pattern lined up when repeated</td></tr>
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For the updated version, I added two more robots, and lots of little gears to fill in blank spaces. I also changed the color scheme.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C13D-V0jNcw/Ue6npf8JK-I/AAAAAAAAB1k/ctJlZqbnkh0/s1600/new-robot-pattern_crp_wht.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C13D-V0jNcw/Ue6npf8JK-I/AAAAAAAAB1k/ctJlZqbnkh0/s320/new-robot-pattern_crp_wht.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My recent updated robot pattern where I added two new robots and lots of gears</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sheet showing how the new pattern repeats</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-66860503695424637602013-06-21T10:02:00.000-04:002013-06-21T10:07:19.479-04:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13792593-open-this-little-book" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Open This Little Book" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346377042m/13792593.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13792593-open-this-little-book">Open This Little Book</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5862330.Jesse_Klausmeier">Jesse Klausmeier</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/615418905">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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What Jesse Klausmeier’s “Open This Little Book,” lacks in plot, it makes up for in cleverness and creativity. This is one of those books that is so clever in its concept that I found myself thinking, “I wish I had thought of that.” Klausmeier and artist Suzy Lee have come up with a book that makes the page turn an exciting event and have so smartly integrated it into the book’s concept that this is one book (like a pop-up book) I can’t imagine ever working on a Kindle. Part of the genius of this book is the change in page/paper size as the book unfolds. The title page itself is smaller than the page that comes before it and each page after that gets physically smaller until you get to the middle of the book where the pages start getting larger again. Now this may not seem like a stroke of genius to you, but the author and artist have brilliantly combined this size-changing concept with a simple series of events that will teach kids about size relationships, colors, animals, patterns and the joys of reading. One thing that I didn’t even notice on my first read was that the color palette changes as the story goes along. Each turn of the page adds another new color until the reader gets to the final illustration where the reader is rewarded with a beautiful illustration that uses the entire rainbow spectrum of color that we’ve been slowly introduced to. Suzy Lee’s illustrations, which in a few places remind me of William Steig, are charming and the last illustration in the book is so delightful, it gets my vote for best children’s book illustration of the year! This is a really clever and fun book.
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-44035536014874192382013-06-09T17:27:00.000-04:002013-06-09T17:27:26.666-04:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15818081-brave-girl" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351893676m/15818081.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15818081-brave-girl">Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/365585.Michelle_Markel">Michelle Markel</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/634511121">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
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This non-fiction picture book by Michelle Markel is a fascinating and important look at an era of America’s history that saw the rise of the labor movement and life-saving changes in worker’s conditions. Told through the eyes of young Clara Lemlich, a recent immigrant who finds work in the garment industry, this is a story of one young girl’s struggle to make a difference in the world. With her father unable to find work, it’s up to Clara to help support the family. When she gets a job stitching blouses in a garment factory, her eyes are opened to the unsafe and unfair working conditions that women (and men) of the day were forced to endure. For example: if you pricked you’re finger and bled on the cloth, you were fired; if you were a few minutes late you lost half a day’s pay; the doors were locked and every night the workers were searched to make sure they hadn't stolen anything; three hundred girls had to share two toilets. Disgusted by these unfair practices, Clara urges the other girls to fight for their rights. This is a book about standing up for what you believe in, not backing down and showing the courage of your convictions. These are lessons that shouldn’t be forgotten and are as important today as they were one hundred years ago when this story takes place. The story is beautifully complimented by Melissa Sweet’s mixed media illustrations that combine watercolor and gouache with collaged and stitched pieces of cloth and torn paper.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of Melissa Sweet's mixed media illustrations</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-22992793245645230502013-06-07T10:02:00.000-04:002013-06-07T10:07:01.628-04:00A Little Book of Sloth<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13260645-a-little-book-of-sloth" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="A Little Book of Sloth" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345677911m/13260645.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13260645-a-little-book-of-sloth">A Little Book of Sloth</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5398583.Lucy_Cooke">Lucy Cooke</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/615370832">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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If you’re not yet a member of the Sloth Appreciation Society, you will be after reading this adorable non-fiction book by Lucy Cooke that immerses readers in the world of orphaned and injured sloths. Filled with sweet photographs that are guaranteed to make even a curmudgeon smile, you’ll learn fascinating facts about the Bradypus or three-fingered sloth with their Mona Lisa smiles and their two-fingered cousins, the Choloepus who, according to the author, look “like a cross between a Wookie and a pig.” One of the things I learned from this book about these adorable creatures is that sloths, unlike other mammals, can not regulate their body temperature. Consequently, sloths, like reptiles, need to bask in the sun in order to warm up. I also didn’t know that sloths are slow and slothful due to their diet. Cooke informs us that in the jungle, they eat slightly toxic leaves which don’t give them much energy. Because it takes them four weeks to digest a meal, they need to take it easy to stay free from painful indigestion. As fascinating as all of these facts are, I think the main attraction to this book, at least for kids, will be the adorable photographs of Buttercup, Wally, Honey, Sunshine, Sammy, Velcro and the other cute sloths that fill these pages with their cuddly personalities and sweet smiles.<br />
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Below are some of Lucy Cooke's photographs from "A Little Book of Sloth."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-59N-nUlRxwk/UbHmumw3U2I/AAAAAAAAB0I/tJ8-XHW9Qa0/s1600/Mateo_w_mr_moo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-59N-nUlRxwk/UbHmumw3U2I/AAAAAAAAB0I/tJ8-XHW9Qa0/s320/Mateo_w_mr_moo.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mateo with his plush toy, Mr. Moo</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RnOJksTbfF4/UbHmuUrUTrI/AAAAAAAAB0M/UHsS6tx6Ft8/s1600/sunshine_sammy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RnOJksTbfF4/UbHmuUrUTrI/AAAAAAAAB0M/UHsS6tx6Ft8/s320/sunshine_sammy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunshine and Sammy</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0DgXt1NO284/UbHmuQ6MO1I/AAAAAAAAB0E/lgwUIwEBEY0/s1600/book_sloths001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0DgXt1NO284/UbHmuQ6MO1I/AAAAAAAAB0E/lgwUIwEBEY0/s320/book_sloths001.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby sloth in a special onesie</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-68874587804029876802013-06-06T22:47:00.000-04:002013-06-06T22:50:03.975-04:00Dream Friends<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15812171-dream-friends" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Dream Friends" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355054401m/15812171.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15812171-dream-friends">Dream Friends</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6463841.You_Byun">You Byun</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/623723253">3 of 5 stars</a><br />
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In "Dream Friends," artist You Byun’s debut picture book, a lonely girl named Melody has a special friend. As you may have guessed from the book’s title, the catch to their friendship is that Melody and her friend can only meet in her dreams. It’s an idea filled with promise and Byun has beautifully captured a child’s surreal dream world in her muted pastel colored paintings. With their slightly over-sized, bean-shaped heads, the character design in “Dream Friends” reminded me of the children in the animated film “My Neighbor Totoro,” (Melody's large dream friend, is also not unlike Totoro). The story itself is very simple and half of the book consists of scenes of Melody romping with her Dream Friend in their dream world. I do wish there was more development of Melody's character, but seeing that this book is meant for very young children, it's understandable that story and character development are secondary to the lovely illustrations. Even though the story may seem simple, the book does deliver a heartfelt message. In the end Melody learns that by taking inspiration from her dreams, she can find happiness, magic and friendship in her waking life. I suppose it's a lesson even grown-ups can learn from.<br />
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Below are two of the dream vignettes featured in You Byun's picture book, "Dream Friends."<br />
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-49340146081588189672013-04-04T12:35:00.000-04:002013-04-05T12:15:26.721-04:00The Matchbox Diary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15798648-the-matchbox-diary">The Matchbox Diary</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/67810.Paul_Fleischman">Paul Fleischman</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/577675841">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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If you’re a collector or even if your just someone who occasionally saves a memento from a cherished event, you’ll love Paul Fleischman’s “The Matchbox Diary.” The book opens with a colorful illustration by Bagram Ibatoulline, a double page spread depicting a sunny room, filled with antiques. An old man is inviting his great-granddaughter to choose something from the room so that he can tell her a story about it. What she chooses is a cigar box filled with small matchboxes, each one containing a saved memento. The first one that the child opens contains an olive pit and with that, her great-grandfather begins his tale of his boyhood life in Italy and how his family journeyed to America. As a young boy, the old man’s collection began when he was inspired to keep a diary. But, since he didn’t know how to read or write, he began saving objects connected to a memory. As he shares the contents of each matchbox, the old man’s story unfolds. A matchbox containing a bottle-cap is linked to the first time he made a trip to Naples and had a drink from a glass bottle, a matchbox filled with sunflower seed shells is a reminder of the long voyage from Italy to New York. Each of these memories is accompanied by one of Bagram Ibatoulline’s magnificent illustrations. On one side of the page we see the matchbox with its contents that trigger the old man’s memories. On the other side of the page is a beautifully rendered scene that shows us the event connected to the memento.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uR9pwaf8pTk/UV2oT01ciVI/AAAAAAAABy4/qewaGa0XJm4/s1600/matchboxes_detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uR9pwaf8pTk/UV2oT01ciVI/AAAAAAAABy4/qewaGa0XJm4/s320/matchboxes_detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of an illustration by Bagram Ibatoulline<br />
from "The Matchbox Diary"</td></tr>
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Prior to this book, I knew Ibatoulline’s work from his splendid 2003 collaboration with Paul Fleischman, “The Animal Hedge.” Ibatoulline’s illustrations in that book were inspired by 18th and 19th century American folk art. The illustrations in “The Matchbox Diary,” are the complete opposite in style. The illustrations in this book are done using acrylic gouache in a photo-realistic style, similar in a way to some of Allen Say’s books, such as “Grandfather’s Journey.” Ibatoulline’s illustrations in this book are marvelously detailed, the kind of illustrations that will reward you with repeat viewings. The renderings of the matchboxes are so carefully done, that you can almost feel the worn edges and the crumbling cardboard. The detail in the sepia-toned flashback scenes really help bring the past alive. This is a wonderful book, not only for introducing the concept of a diary to a young child but also perfect for exploring memories and in explaining the immigrant’s experience.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8utrPg9Px8o/UV2oTrwVOXI/AAAAAAAAByw/sm3fplcC5S0/s1600/matchbox_photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8utrPg9Px8o/UV2oTrwVOXI/AAAAAAAAByw/sm3fplcC5S0/s320/matchbox_photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of an illustration by Bagram Ibatoulline<br />
from "The Matchbox Diary"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of an illustration by Bagram Ibatoulline<br />
from "The Matchbox Diary"</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-49251140137126044892013-03-10T18:20:00.000-04:002013-03-11T20:32:11.230-04:00Illustration Friday - "Yesterday"<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EHDSo8H0qhY/UT0GEdkW9-I/AAAAAAAABx0/NnOvUrfGJQs/s1600/Yesterday_room_004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EHDSo8H0qhY/UT0GEdkW9-I/AAAAAAAABx0/NnOvUrfGJQs/s320/Yesterday_room_004.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As someone who has a hard time of letting go of his past, I’ve often associated the word “yesterday” with a feeling of nostalgia. I especially get nostalgic for my childhood, a time when I was closer to my sister and lived in a home where I felt safe and secure. I didn’t come from a perfect family, we definitely had our dysfunctional problems but I won’t go into those problems here. Despite our dysfunctions, I felt cared for and loved by my parents and even when I was younger, I think I knew they were spoiling my brother, sister and me. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I was sick a lot as a child and because of this I missed a lot of school. My bedroom became my refuge and safe haven. I was a shy and inhibited child, afraid of much of the real world and my room, with all of its books and toys, became the only place where I felt safe and secure. I remember thinking that I would be perfectly happy to spend the rest of my life in my room. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">For this week’s Illustration Friday challenge, I’ve drawn an affectionate portrait of the way I remember my room. It represents ‘yesterday’ to me because I often feel as if my childhood in that room took place only yesterday. I find it hard to believe that it’s been over 40 years since I could legally be considered a child. It really does seem like yesterday that I was curled up on my childhood bed and reading the Oz and Narnia books.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I’ve tried to include a number of things that were actually in my room at one time or another. I always had a lot of stuffed animals and dolls on my bed, a few of which I’ve shown in the drawing, including a Raggedy Ann doll, a plush green snake, a large dalmatian, several bunny rabbits and a teddy bear. Above the bed, sitting on the headboard is a large papier mache cheetah that I made when I was 11 or 12. On my walls I had thumb-tacked several posters, including a reproduction of a 1920s poster for “The Thief of Bagdad,” starring Douglas Fairbanks (shown on the wall behind the cheetah). I remember I also had a poster showing a ruined castle in Ireland (you can see a portion of it on the right edge of my illustration). The floor was made up of linoleum tiles in various shades of speckled browns and tans. For awhile I had a large, oval braided rug that took up most of the floor space. At the base of my bed I remember having a decorative green cardboard box that had a flowered lid. There were often newspapers stacked on this box because for a while I used to cut out and save the ads for my favorite movies. The curtains on my window were beige and patterned with green, blue and tan representations of colonial shop labels and broadsheets. My room faced our backyard and from my window I could look out on to our backyard with its oval swimming pool and the brown mountain that rose up a block away from our property.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Even after I moved away from home in the late 1970s, my parents continued to live in this house so I often returned for visits. Some time in the mid to late 1980s disaster struck my room in the form of a busted water heater which was in a service porch behind my bed. When the water heater broke, it flooded my bedroom, damaging many of my record albums and anything else I had stored on the floor. The linoleum was also damaged and had to be replaced. After this disaster, many of my things were put in storage and moved to other parts of the house. From that time on, my room never felt the same again. It no longer looked, or felt, like the room I had grown up in. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I created the illustration using Painter 12's "Real" watercolor brushes and a customized "Pen" brush.</span></div>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-30818395765955885822012-12-17T15:42:00.002-05:002012-12-17T15:46:44.562-05:00Illustration Friday - Snow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EONZM4G9KTQ/UM-B9B_iwGI/AAAAAAAABxA/L2NYQOETVBA/s1600/cardinal_watercolor_signed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EONZM4G9KTQ/UM-B9B_iwGI/AAAAAAAABxA/L2NYQOETVBA/s400/cardinal_watercolor_signed.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
We've been having a mild fall here in Indiana, no snow so far and there's none forecast for the near future. We do have a lot of cardinals around and when I saw this week's Illustration Friday challenge, which is the word "Snow," I thought of how pretty a red cardinal looks against a snowy backdrop. I created my image as a quick watercolor sketch in Painter 12. I started off with a digital pencil sketch (see below) and added the watercolor on a separate layer.<br />
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After coloring the bird, I used one of Painter's Bleach Splatter brushes to make some spots on the bird's feathers (see detail below). After that I used Painter's Real Watercolor Scratch brush to draw some snowflakes over some of the bleach spots (detail below). I decided to leave the background white to further enhance the feeling of a bird on a snowy day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eaUyDnoJ0_A/UM-CsLWz55I/AAAAAAAABxI/yTAy07TAiTE/s1600/cardinal_pencil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eaUyDnoJ0_A/UM-CsLWz55I/AAAAAAAABxI/yTAy07TAiTE/s320/cardinal_pencil.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">digital pencil sketch</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fcSydAjKOcI/UM-C5wr27JI/AAAAAAAABxQ/m9TX4ycCn6s/s1600/cardinal_bleach_spots.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fcSydAjKOcI/UM-C5wr27JI/AAAAAAAABxQ/m9TX4ycCn6s/s320/cardinal_bleach_spots.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">detail of the bleach spots created with the Bleach Splatter Brush</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C0a3UYTQIII/UM-EZZODOmI/AAAAAAAABxY/k8W4zGMV9WE/s1600/snowflake_detail_cardinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C0a3UYTQIII/UM-EZZODOmI/AAAAAAAABxY/k8W4zGMV9WE/s320/snowflake_detail_cardinal.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snowflakes drawn with Painter's Real Watercolor Scratch Brush</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-69062555948378999222012-12-15T10:33:00.000-05:002012-12-15T10:34:13.245-05:00Evolution of an Illustration<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I was recently commissioned by FarFaria to illustrate Clement Moore's classic Christmas poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas." FarFaria is an app for the iPad and their stories are published for that device (to be honest, I'm not sure if they can be read on other tablet devices or not). This version I created for them is due to be released on December 24th. Here is a sneak preview of the evolution of one of the images I created for the story.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zdTvQr5TspE/UMyTt-aiglI/AAAAAAAABv0/hmCt0DTGgkY/s1600/3storyboard_Twas_Night_Xmas_9-11_006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zdTvQr5TspE/UMyTt-aiglI/AAAAAAAABv0/hmCt0DTGgkY/s320/3storyboard_Twas_Night_Xmas_9-11_006.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Storyboard panels for pages 9-12</span></td></tr>
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Designing for the iPad can be a bit of a challenge. Unlike a traditional picture book where you have the ability to have an illustration cross over the page gutter (the division in the middle of the book where the pages are joined) to cover two pages, an illustration for the iPad is limited to the size of one screen at a time. For FarFaria's app the main part of the illustration needs to fit within an area approximately 6 x 7 inches (the text will cover the lower portion of the illustration, so any important information needs to be in the aforementioned dimensions above the text).<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-glGISjsYunQ/UMyVgXe8ApI/AAAAAAAABwk/mbG5ee0w-Ec/s1600/page_12_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
For this job, the art director requested that I create the illustrations in a specific style. He cited an older illustration of mine from my website that he liked and asked me to create the story in that style. The first step in creating the illustrations was to draw storyboards, one sketch for each page of text. I created these as digital pencil sketches, four to a page. Once these had been approved, I enlarged the sketches to the appropriate size and refined them. For this blog I will be showing the evolution of page 12. All of the art was created in Painter version 12.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yOMwwpvkvYs/UMyUE9Er-0I/AAAAAAAABv8/zbmfLJ4Phr4/s1600/page_12_sketch1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yOMwwpvkvYs/UMyUE9Er-0I/AAAAAAAABv8/zbmfLJ4Phr4/s400/page_12_sketch1.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Above is the enlarged story board sketch that I used for my digital inking</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mPwhHvj3-CM/UMyUUK1GBxI/AAAAAAAABwE/OWmNyOH37S0/s1600/page12_sketch_with_ink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mPwhHvj3-CM/UMyUUK1GBxI/AAAAAAAABwE/OWmNyOH37S0/s400/page12_sketch_with_ink.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On a new layer above the sketch, I have begun inking the final line work.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PQX0gw45p20/UMyVGAA6d8I/AAAAAAAABwM/zTZTvRi30EA/s1600/page_12_inked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PQX0gw45p20/UMyVGAA6d8I/AAAAAAAABwM/zTZTvRi30EA/s400/page_12_inked.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Above is the final inked line art</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xgh68XYU4nE/UMyVQue6aOI/AAAAAAAABwU/a4JFjhTCR7o/s1600/page_12_color_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Xgh68XYU4nE/UMyVQue6aOI/AAAAAAAABwU/a4JFjhTCR7o/s400/page_12_color_1.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On separate layers, using digital watercolor brushes, I have begun to color the image</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dIEYLKvOPQM/UMyVeBYmnkI/AAAAAAAABwc/oV8mRbKcj3Q/s1600/page_12_shadows_added.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dIEYLKvOPQM/UMyVeBYmnkI/AAAAAAAABwc/oV8mRbKcj3Q/s400/page_12_shadows_added.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The next step is to start adding shadows</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-glGISjsYunQ/UMyVgXe8ApI/AAAAAAAABwk/mbG5ee0w-Ec/s1600/page_12_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-glGISjsYunQ/UMyVgXe8ApI/AAAAAAAABwk/mbG5ee0w-Ec/s400/page_12_final.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The final image with some darker shadows</span></td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-5356897335605161252012-11-29T16:11:00.000-05:002012-11-29T17:29:00.767-05:00House Held Up By Trees<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12833946-house-held-up-by-trees" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="House Held Up by Trees" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327948417m/12833946.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12833946-house-held-up-by-trees">House Held Up by Trees</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/139984.Ted_Kooser">Ted Kooser</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/444812594">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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Ted Kooser’s beautiful history of a house is in someways reminiscent of Virginia Lee Burton’s “The Little House,” but unlike that book, Kooser doesn’t anthropomorphize his house or try to imbue it with human feelings. <br />
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In telling his story of a house from the time when it was new to its rebirth as a house held up by trees, Kooser, a former U.S. Poet Laureate uses language that is evocative but at the same time wistful. Like in Burton’s “The Little House,” the house in this story is the main character, the humans are secondary and they come and go. In the beginning we see the house when it is new, being cared for and loved by a man and his two children. Set in a clearing between two wooded lots, the house’s owner keeps the grounds immaculate, uprooting any seedlings that pop up in his perfect lawn. But as the years pass, the children move away and eventually so does their father. Sitting unsold, the house falls into disrepair. As time passes, seedlings and saplings pop up around it, hugging the house and protecting it from the winds. One day the trees, whose roots and branches have held the house together, begin to lift the house up toward the sky, where it is reborn as a house held up by trees. Jon Klassen’s digital and gouache illustrations are the perfect compliment for this somewhat melancholic story. Many of the illustrations are double-page spreads that give us wide panoramic vistas that emphasize the house’s isolation in the landscape. In two spreads early in the story we see the house as it looks from the point of view of the woods. We glimpse it through tree branches and see it sitting in the distance. It’s a clever foreshadowing of later illustrations where we will once again see the house through tree branches, the difference being that in the later illustrations we are up close to the house, with it looming large in the frame and the trees we are looking through are the ones that “held it together as if it was a bird’s nest in the fingers of their branches.” <br />
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As I mentioned, there are human characters in the story, but we never learn their names. We get glimpses of them from a distance or from behind, but we never see their faces. There are several haunting illustrations in this story that tugged at my heartstrings. In one, the two now grown children are shown from behind looking at the woods next to the house, a place where they use to run and play. It’s also a place where they would sit in the shadows and watch their father as he worked on his lawn. On the left side of the illustration are the woods, cool and inviting and unchanged from their childhood. On the right side, we see the adult children, the man holds a baseball cap at his side, while the woman holds a leaf. For me, these two details - a baseball cap and a leaf convey the melancholy of growing older. The only thing we can hold on to from our childhood are our memories and a few small mementoes, we must let go of everything else.<br />
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In another panoramic illustration, we see the father sitting in a folding chair, watching the sunset. The text tells us he is older now and his grown children "were gone for good . . ." Next to the father, is an empty chair. On the left side of the spread we see through a window into the house's dining room where we get a glimpse of a lone place setting. Leaning against the outside of the house is the man’s lawnmower. Tall grass is starting to grow around it and even without the information in the text, we know that the man has given up on trying to keep up his lawn. It’s an illustration suffused with loneliness.<br />
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I loved this book. It was published by Candlewick, a publisher that seems to strive to put out beautiful books. This one is no exception. The language, illustrations and story are all beautiful. Having said that, I was somewhat surprised to see a publisher put out a children’s book that has no strong characters for children to identify with. It seems very much a book that will appeal more to adults looking back wistfully on their lost childhoods, then it will to most children. Maybe that's why I liked it so much. But I do hope that children will read this and love it. Those who do will be rewarded by a book that demonstrates the passage of time and what it means to grow older. Though there is a tone of loneliness in the book, there is also a comforting message of rebirth. I checked this book out from our public library, but it’s one that I fell in love with so I know I’ll be buying a copy for myself.
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The illustrations below are by Jon Klassen from Ted Kooser's "House Held Up By Trees."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oBwahUkr6A8/ULfOP-_64fI/AAAAAAAABvM/_Hp4907Pt6o/s1600/house_held1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oBwahUkr6A8/ULfOP-_64fI/AAAAAAAABvM/_Hp4907Pt6o/s320/house_held1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the panoramic two page spreads showing the house near the forest</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XNUvxzMwP4s/ULfORZFDJ-I/AAAAAAAABvc/sbaX9JUSdgI/s1600/house_held2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XNUvxzMwP4s/ULfORZFDJ-I/AAAAAAAABvc/sbaX9JUSdgI/s320/house_held2a.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail showing the house as it looks from the woods</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-06XQJpe3B4g/ULfOO3nMoMI/AAAAAAAABvE/R8NKD9usJ6E/s1600/hosue_held4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-06XQJpe3B4g/ULfOO3nMoMI/AAAAAAAABvE/R8NKD9usJ6E/s320/hosue_held4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A detail showing the father sitting alone on his perfect lawn</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ApAj0xOPqsQ/ULfOQhcACfI/AAAAAAAABvU/dpy3T9vPHZo/s1600/house_held2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ApAj0xOPqsQ/ULfOQhcACfI/AAAAAAAABvU/dpy3T9vPHZo/s320/house_held2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The now derelict house, sits alone, but the saplings are starting to surround it.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3177878-vincent-desjardins">View all my reviews</a>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-33658503322389177142012-11-08T09:18:00.000-05:002012-11-08T09:19:36.217-05:00A Bus Called Heaven<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12632235-a-bus-called-heaven" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="A Bus Called Heaven" border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327948068m/12632235.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12632235-a-bus-called-heaven">A Bus Called Heaven</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/200448.Bob_Graham">Bob Graham</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/444039098">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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Stella lives in the city. When an abandoned bus with a sign taped to it reading “Heaven” appears one morning in front of Stella’s house, people in the neighborhood seem to change. For once, they stop and talk to one another. Stella, who usually has her thumb in her mouth, changes as well. She sees potential in the old bus and before you know it, she has inspired her community to clean it up and turn it into a neighborhood club house where all are welcome. Everyone brings something to donate to their new community center - one little girl brings her goldfish, a little boy donates his comic books, Stella contributes her table soccer game, other people bring chairs, rugs and baked goods. One little girl loans her dog for people who just need to sit and pat something. This is a really sweet and delightful story of how a diverse neighborhood of people are able to work together for the betterment of their community. Author/Illustrator Bob Graham shows people of all ages, colors and creeds uniting to create a shared space where children can play (and fight), babies can crawl, people can laugh, granddads can scratch dogs, couples can meet, and families can show their vacation pictures. But this bit of heaven does face a crisis. When a junkyard man shows up with an order to remove the illegal vehicle, the community must figure out how to save it. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Stella saves the day (and the bus!). The illustrations in this book are delightful - double paged spreads and pages with multiple illustrations are crammed with details. Cars and trucks, people of all shapes and sizes, dogs, birds, cityscapes, ships, and factories, houses and junkyards fill the pages and demand repeated viewings. A wonderful book about inclusion and working together to create a community.
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3177878-vincent-desjardins">View all my reviews</a>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drYMWGW4vmk/UJu-5CY79lI/AAAAAAAABuw/GBbSOJW46fg/s1600/Bus_Heaven001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drYMWGW4vmk/UJu-5CY79lI/AAAAAAAABuw/GBbSOJW46fg/s400/Bus_Heaven001.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-6193232842519491492012-10-31T10:15:00.001-04:002012-10-31T10:16:49.605-04:00<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15848354-creepy-carrots" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Creepy Carrots!" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1345918248m/15848354.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15848354-creepy-carrots">Creepy Carrots!</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/248589.Aaron_Reynolds">Aaron Reynolds</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/443372000">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
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What’s a poor rabbit to do when the carrots he loves to munch on begin stalking him? Jasper Rabbit is faced with that question when he begins to suspect the delicious carrots from Crackenhopper Field are following him around, spying on him as he brushes his teeth and watching him while he’s in bed. Author Aaron Reynolds and illustrator Peter Brown have created a child-friendly homage to a classic ‘Twilight Zone’ scenario in this funny picture book that is perfect for any young child looking to be scared, but not too scared. Illustrator Peter Brown, using a monochromatic palette of warm grays and carroty orange, captures the shadowy look of an old horror movie. Even the edges of the frame are rounded to suggest a story unfolding on an old television screen. Jasper Rabbit’s paranoia is cleverly conveyed in Brown’s illustrations where the artist shows us what Jasper sees (creepy carrots everywhere) and what others see (everyday orange objects like flower pots or pop bottles). Because no one else can see the creepy carrots, Jasper realizes that he must turn to his own resourcefulness to outwit them. Kids may not look at a carrot in the same way after finishing this funny, slightly spooky tale. This would be the perfect read-aloud for Halloween or any night when a scary tale is called for.
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-53146518695416630612012-10-28T10:27:00.002-04:002012-10-28T10:34:33.937-04:00Oh, No!<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13330633-oh-no" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Oh, No!" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1344369676m/13330633.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13330633-oh-no">Oh, No!</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/46273.Candace_Fleming">Candace Fleming</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/443365020">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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Candace Fleming has written a charming picture book about a group of jungle animals who one by one fall into a deep hole where they are stalked by a tiger. Don’t worry, the situation might sound dire, but it’s handled with great humor and no animals get harmed in this funny tale. Fleming’s use of word repetition to describe the animals’ sounds and movements is so wonderfully rhythmic that I can almost imagine this book being put to music and sung. Even reading it silently to myself, I could almost hear the words being sung like a folk song. The beautiful relief print illustrations are by Caldecott medal winner Eric Rohmann, author and illustrator of such books as “Time Flies,” “The Cinder-Eyed Cats,” and “My Friend Rabbit.” Beginning and ending with the end papers, Rohmann fills the book with full page spreads showing us each animal as it approaches the hole and then what happens as they fall into it. The illustrations have a wonderful sense of movement and rhythm, making a perfect match for Fleming’s sing-song text. On some spreads Rohmann has split the page into panels, much like a comic strip so that we get a continuous flow of movement. As each animal falls in, we are shown the animals already in the hole, jostling to make room for the new occupant. For these ‘action shots,’ Rohmann cleverly changes the point of view so that we get a glimpse of what it’s like looking up from the bottom of the deep, deep hole. I think kids will be delighted by the ending of Fleming’s tale when they see who comes to the rescue and what happens to the tiger. And for those worried about the tiger, the last spread on the end papers should ease any worries over his fate. This would make a great read-aloud, one I’m sure kids will enjoy participating in and hearing over and over again.
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7076604.post-83148009798692069362012-10-02T12:06:00.003-04:002012-10-02T12:14:24.994-04:00Hit the Road, Jack<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13591157-hit-the-road-jack">Hit the Road, Jack</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4918.Robert_Burleigh">Robert Burleigh</a><br />
My rating: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/426279740">4 of 5 stars</a><br />
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I've been a fan of Ross MacDonald's picture books since "Another Perfect Day." His retro style, done in watercolor and pencil crayon, is filled with a warm yellow glow, that looks like sunshine hitting paper. "Hit the Road, Jack" celebrates life on the open road and the joys of traveling cross country and was loosely inspired by Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." Author Robert Burleigh gives us a jackrabbit named Jack who is itching to travel and to see America. Setting out in New York he walks, bikes, hitchhikes and rides the rails from sea to shining sea, where he finally lands in San Francisco. But for Jack, the city by the bay is just one more stop, because for guys like Jack there's only one rule: "Never, Never Stop." <br />
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"Hit the Road, Jack" cleverly exalts the world of roadside diners, tourist attractions and taking the time to appreciate our country's beautiful scenery. My only complaint about this otherwise wonderful picture book is that some of the cities that Jack passes through look a little too generic. For example, when Jack lands in Chicago, we see him on South Halsted Street, but with the exception of a few jazz club signs, the buildings lack any real detail. The skyscrapers in the background could be from any big city. The text frequently mentions places that Jack is passing through, but instead the illustrations give us depictions of Jack having a picnic or sleeping in a car. Now, as an illustrator myself, I don't believe an illustrator's job is to literally interpret every word of the text, but I do feel that some of MacDonald's choices seem a little simple and generic. The illustrations are warm, funny, colorful and wonderfully composed, but I do think on a few occasions MacDonald missed an opportunity to do something spectacular. For example when Jack passes through the salt flats the text reads, "Over the salt flats, on and on, The horizon thick with reds, And mesas looming far, far off, Like carved-out giants' heads." The illustration shows Jack running across white ground with his arms upraised to the sky. In the background are a line of reddish-orange mesas which don't appear to be looming, nor do they resemble the giants' heads described in the text. Instead, they look small and insignificant and just don't convey the grandeur of these magnificent natural wonders.<br />
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On the whole the pictures and text depict an America of the past, a nostalgic 1940s America where strangers wave to one another, walking the streets was a safe thing to do, and hopping a freight and hitchhiking were inexpensive ways to travel. In this rosy colored world, money is not important "You're broke - but well, so what? 'Cause money's only something, Jack, That gets you in a rut." If only life were so simple. <br />
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I love to travel and I love road trips so I recommend this book for it's message of throwing your cares to the wind and seeing the world, even if in real life, that's not always the easiest thing to do. But, after all this is a picture book and kids need to know there's a beautiful world out there, waiting for them to explore it. Robert Burleigh's story conveys that message in a colorful way and kids will love searching MacDonald's illustrations for the little blue bird that follows Jack on his cross country travels. For adults, I think parents will enjoy the rhythms of the delightful text which is perfect for reading aloud.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-22oOg3Zd594/UGsPReS2LbI/AAAAAAAABtY/DMl5tDrwE7o/s1600/Window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="283" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-22oOg3Zd594/UGsPReS2LbI/AAAAAAAABtY/DMl5tDrwE7o/s320/Window.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from "Hit the Road, Jack" illustration by Ross MacDonald</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from "Hit the Road, Jack" illustration by Ross MacDonald</td></tr>
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Vincent Desjardinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17620854437984156862noreply@blogger.com0