November—Picture Book Month

I decided to celebrate Picture Book Month by plucking a few of my favorite picture books from my bookcase(s) and sharing them.

A Poke In The Eye, a collection of concrete poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka, is a delight. You may know concrete poems as shape poems—poems where the words or letters of the poem are placed in a particular pattern that echoes the content. This book is a playful introduction to poetry with simple but amazing illustrations. A torn piece of patterned paper with a few brush strokes becomes a fish or a twirling child. I would definitely try writing concrete poems with children and providing paper, paint and glue to try Chris's style of illustration.

Snow Folk Invade Port Clinton, Ohio.

On Feb. 3rd David and I visited Port Clinton Ohio, which is located on Lake Erie. We read books, did body movement to books, and had drawing lessons at Bataan School, Danbury School and The Ida Rupp Library. The Ida Rupp Library was donated to the community by Mr Rupp in honor of his wife. Originally the library was painted blue to match Mrs. Rupp's eyes—very romantic.

Before my visit, the library hosted a snow folk craft day (instructions on denisefleming.com) to celebrate my book, The First Day Of Winter. The snow folk were on display at the library. What a cast of characters! There were snow folk of every shape and size with a host of different decorations from feathers to sequins. There was even a bridal party. 

In my instructions I suggest using beans to weight the snow folk. The library crafters found that rice works just as well and is cheaper. Thanks for the tip, Jennifer.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our visit so enjoyable. We appreciated your enthusiasm. Port Clinton rocks! 

We also want to thank the people who made our visit possible.

Creating New Styles - Experiment, Experiment, Experiment!

Pastel - you can see a bit of background breaking through the figure which I like.

Opaque watercolor on pulp painting background

Pulp painting is the technique I have used to illustrate my picture books. I make paper and a picture at the same time. I can get wonderful color and texture with this technique but some things I cannot do in paper. Small details are difficult as the fibers are not fine enough, so I have started to use pastel pencils for whiskers or tiny bug feet. One of the books I am working on is about two brothers and a dinosaur. I love the contrast in scale, but the boys are difficult as they have skinny little arms and tiny features. So I am trying out different techniques. Right now I am trying pastel pencils to draw the boys on a pulp painting background. I also tried opaque watercolor on a pulp painting background. Coverage was great, but not too charming. I am also going to try collage, photography and a combination of techniques. Will keep you posted.

My book Shout! which will be out in march combines pulp paintings with ink, collage, and colored pencil.

One photo is of the pulp painting process. Cotton rag fiber floating in water is poured through a stencil onto a screen.The water drains through the screen and the cotton stays on top of the screen in the stencil shape. The character is Buster from Buster Goes To Cowboy Camp You can see how small details would be a problem.

Out of focus, but you can seeing the pulp painting background and light sketch of dinosaur head.

Creating a pulp painting.

Of course, all this experimenting is in breaks between pouring art for the new book.