My Weekend in New York at the SCBWI Conference

On Sunday night I returned from my first big New York City conference.  It was put on by the SCBWI, which stands for Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.  Over a decade ago, in my previous life as a Washingtonian living north of Seattle, I had attended a few of their west coast regional conferences, but this conference was bigger, better and lots more fun than any of those had been.  First of all there were some really top-notch speakers, superstars of the Children's Book world - Paul Zelinsky, Jacqueline Woodson (who gave a wonderful talk), Kevin Hawkes (who led a fun workshop), Jim Benton who gave a very funny and entertaining presentation, and last but not least, the legendary Jane Yolen who ended the conference with an enlivening talk that had every writer and illustrator in the room excited about getting back to work. 

During her speech, Ms. Yolen gave the audience her own personal 20 rules for writing, many of which can also be applied to illustrators.  The first two were fairly elementary - get rid of the exclamation point and go easy on the adverbs.  Some of her other rules included: have fun writing, have fun illustrating; some magic formulas - BIC (Butt in Chair), HOP (Heart on Page) and PNF (Passion Not Fashion);  in writing, it's not the opening line itself that is so important but what the opening line portends for the rest of the story, the DNA for the book is carried in the opening line; exercise the writing muscle, exercise the illustration muscle by working EVERY day at your craft; be open to revisions: if you are asked to revise something and you go into those revisions with anger, you won't learn much from the process; don't ignore the landscape/setting of your work, be precise with your details, make your reader feel as if you've been there; read what you've written aloud (this is especially helpful if you're writing a picture book);  if you feel blocked, get up and do something else for a while - go for a walk, eat a cookie, read a magazine, watch TV, if none of those things work, then go on to another project for a while; and finally, a rule that I found most helpful - realize that there are projects you will never complete.  A few projects will turn bad, go septic along the way.  When this happens, put them away, don't look at them for awhile, but keep them, in the future you might be able to transform them into something else.

While at the conference, I bought a lot of books, way too many, but who could resist when there was no sales tax charged, plus one received a discount for paying with cash?   With the authors there to give me inspiration each day, it made me feel like I should show my gratitude by purchasing the results of their hard work.  Maybe this was a resurfacing of Catholic guilt ("how can you not buy something from these people who have worked so hard for you?"), but, on the other hand, I didn't buy anything that I didn't really like.  Here are a few of the things that I bought: "Show Way" a beautiful picture book by Jacqueline Woodson which is a generational story dealing with slavery and freedom quilts and the belief that there is always a road to a better place.  This book deservedly won a Caldecott Honor award.  "Library Lion," a sweet, funny and old-fashioned (in a good, nostalgic kind of way) picture book by Michele Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes, a book that pays tribute to the joy of reading and in particular the importance of libraries.  Of all of the books I've seen by Kevin Hawkes, I think this one contains my favorite of his illustrations.  I also bought Paul Zelinsky's beautiful version of "Rumplestiltskin," which won him a Caldecott honor award.  Mr. Zelinsky gave a wonderful opening talk that was not only laced with humor but gave us a glimpse at some of his working methods.  I also bought an amazing book by Peter Sis titled "The Wall," about his early life in Czechoslovakia, growing up behind the iron curtain.  This was another book that won a Caldecott honor award.  Last but not least, I bought two books on writing - "You Can Write Children's Books," by Tracey E. Dils and "Illustrating Children's Picture Books," by Steven Withrow and Lesley Breen Withrow.   From these last two titles, I'm hoping I'll gain some valuable insight and tips.

The conference was a great experience.  And even though my portfolio didn't win a prize, I was proud of the work I brought along with me and for the first time in a long while, I felt like a grown-up and a professional who, with some hard work, might actually end up having a career yet. 

Favorites in Pen and Ink

I've always had a fondness for drawings created with pen and ink or scratchboard.  Maybe that's because I've always found drawing with pen and ink somewhat intimidating and I admire those who can do it well.  When working with pen and ink, you not only have to be careful about not spilling or dripping your ink, but you have to have a good plan of where you're going with your drawing.  If your not careful with your crosshatching and shading, you can overdo it and end up with areas that are too dark.  This becomes even more of a problem if your drawing is to be scaled down for publication.

But when a pen and ink or a scratchboard drawing is done well, it can create a feeling of drama, delicacy or even energy. Three of my favorite children's book illustrators who have worked in these mediums are Maurice Sendak, Erik Blegvad and John Schoenherr.

The first Sendak illustrated book that I was ever aware of was one someone gave to my mother when I was very young. It was a little book written by Ruth Krauss called "A Hole is to Dig."  It has since been reissued in combination with another Krauss/Sendak collaboration, "Open House for Butterflies."  Both books are very charming and consist of Krauss's funny definitions like "A hole is to dig," "Dogs are to kiss people," "Snow is to roll in," "Buttons are to keep people warm," all accompanied by Maurice Sendak's wonderful pen and ink illustrations.  As children, my sister and I use to look at this book over and over again.  Many of the two page spreads are filled with details that keep the reader lingering on the page long after the minimal text has been read.

Erik Blegvad is a Danish artist, who even though he has illustrated over a hundred books is relatively unknown in this country.  Maybe I should say he's not a household word like Sendak, but then few illustrators are.  Blegvad also works in pen and ink, sometimes in black and white, but often his drawings are delicately colored with watercolor.  I believe many of his books are out of print but two that I know of are still available: "Around My Room," a book of poems by William Jay Smith, and "Mud Pies and Other Recipes, a Cookbook for Dolls." "Mud Pies..." is a sweet and funny little book with actual recipes on how to combine various elements like mud, leaves, dirt, sand etc. to create meals and desserts for your dolls.  Like Sendak's work in "A Hole is to Dig," Blegvad fills his illustrations with lots of interesting details.  Often there will be little dogs or cats somewhere in his pictures which always include lots of children involved in various activities.

I think my first exposure to Blegvad was from a calendar he created for Woman's Day magazine (which my mom subscribed to) in 1964.  I turned ten years old that year, and Blegvad's calendar captivated me enough that I cut it out of the magazine, strung it together by punching holes in the top margins and tied the pages together with string through the holes.  I still have it and I still love looking at the sweet illustrations.  One thing that I find striking about his illustration of a classroom for the month of May, is that he depicted an integrated classroom, which I think must have been a rather daring thing to do in 1964.

One book that is worth hunting down is his illustrated sketchbook called "Self Portrait: Erik Blegvad," which was published in 1979.  It is out of print but I easily found a used copy online.

An interesting fact is that Erik Blegvad's son, Peter is also an artist whose work "The Book of Leviathan" is a collection of his Levi and Cat's adventures, a comic strip that ran in The Independent on Sunday, a British newspaper.

One of my all time favorite books as a child was "Rascal" by Sterling North, based on North's youthful experiences in raising a wild raccoon.  The illustrations in it by John Schoenherr, which I believe are done in scratchboard, wonderfully evoke the WWI era in which the story takes place.  I love this portrait of the young Sterling with Rascal on his shoulder, framed in an oval that reminds the viewer of a turn of the century photograph.  And the picture of Sterling reading a book while sitting in a tree with Rascal conked out on a higher limb is one of my favorites.

Schoenherr also works in other mediums including watercolor.  He won the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations created for Jane Yolen's "Owl Moon," and also wrote and illustrated "Rebel," a story of a gosling who gets separated from his mother.  Interestingly, Schoenherr, like Blegvad, also has a son who is an illustrator.  John's son, Ian Schoenherr illustrated "Newf," by Marie Killilea and many others including "Read It, Don't Eat It," one of several that he also wrote.

By the way, Rascal was reissued a few years ago and the reproductions in it were terrible, many of the fine detail lines were missing, choked out by the black ink.  They looked like copies made from poor copies.  If you're interested in seeing these illustrations, look for an older copy of this book.  Sadly, the same thing seems to have happened with another book illustrated by Schoenherr, "Incident at Hawk's Hill," by Allan W. Eckert.  My copy of this book was purchased in 1996.  I have not seen earlier editions so I don't have anything to compare them to, but the illustrations in my copy are very dark and muddy looking, I doubt that this is the way that they were meant to look.