Art Break Wednesday: Uri Shulevitz’s WRITING WITH PICTURES

images WRITING WITH PICTURES cover

If I had to clear out my shelves and give up all but one book about illustrating children’s books, I’d keep Uri Shulevitz’s classic, WRITING WITH PICTURES – How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books (Watson-Guptill Publications).  I have the bona fide 1985 version, which includes chapters on color separation – a process unknown to young illustrators today, I’m sure!

I revisited this wonderful volume this past week because I had to list a favorite quote for a blog interview appearing today at Check It Out.  I snuck in two quotes – one on haiku writing and one for art, the Uri Shulevitz quote I have literally written on my wall above my drawing table:

Give up the idea of the perfect flawless picture, and aim for one that is alive instead.

The book contains hundreds of examples of illustration that is alive, mostly Shulevitz’s own work but also work by other artists, including many classics.  Shulevitz won the Caldecott medal in 1969 for Arthur Ransome’s retelling of THE FOOL AND HIS FLYING SHIP and a Caldecott honor in 1980 for THE TREASURE.  Born in 1935 in Warsaw, the young Shulevitz and his family fled from Poland during World War II.  He lived in France and Israel before settling in New York to work and teach.

WRITING WITH PICTURES delves into what makes a story with a complete action as well as the finer points of drawing technique, style, and composition.  It includes the best examples I know about creating a storyboard and dummy.  For a taste, here is an excerpt from the book as tutorial on the site, Mighty Art Demos, which says the tutorial is reproduced with permission from the publisher.   While this is a pretty thorough excerpt, I’d still encourage anyone to purchase the book, chock-full of clear explanations and insights about the process from beginning to end.  Here are a few more quotes, to give you an idea:

A picture book is closer to theater and film, silent films in particular, than to other kinds of books.  It is a unique type of book.  (p. 16)

For a story to succeed, the reader must be engrossed in each successive moment of the story and must care about what happens next, or at least be curious enough to want to know. (p. 41)

Outstanding illustrations are effective on at least two levels.  First, they tell us the story, portraying the subject matter accurately; and second, the abstract pattern of the picture is alive in its own right, with an underlying geometric structure that gives character and strength to the forms. (p. 129)

Great stuff, no?  I have other books on illustration that I treasure, but this one captured me early on and still rings true.  Do you have any favorites?

Art Break Wednesday: Enjoy Meandering through these Great Links!

 

Yay Images

Yay Images

That good old Road Less Traveled can lead to some wonderful surprises and delights!  I’m always coming across art-related links I’d like to share, so today I have a meandering kind of assortment for your enjoyment.  (Some I’ve mentioned before and others are new here.) Click on whatever tickles your fancy:

Like reading about artists and discovering new original work?  Check out Jama Rattigan’s  Alphabet Soup blog for her brand new series this year spotlighting indie artists.

First you’ll meet Kari Van Gelder, Mandy Troxel, and Amy Lum of Bossy’s Feltworks.  (You’ll have to click on the feature to learn how that business name came about!)  You’ll also meet some adorable fuzzy characters you just might not be able to live without.

Then, enjoy the miniature sculpted delicacies of Stéphanie Kilgast  of PetitPlat.  You won’t believe your eyes!

If you love printmaking as much as I do, check out the website for printmaker and illustrator Holly Meade and her Reach Road Gallery.

Her bold and lively work can be found in a trio of books by David Elliott – On the Farm, In the Sea, and one of my favorites, In the Wild.

Is photography your thing?

My author friend Sarah C. Campbell has a terrific website with lots of great info about how she and husband Richard created photographs for her award-winning nonfiction books for young readers.  Here is a great little video interview with Richard about making the pictures for Growing Patterns.

Lettering fan, you say?

Take a peek inside the wonderful print journals offered by the amazing folks at John Neal Bookseller, Letter Arts Review and Bound and Lettered (Scroll down to click on sample issues.)

Are you mad for mixed media?

Check out Pam Carriker’s inspiring blog and website.  Her second book is now available for pre-order, Creating Art at the Speed of Life.

Then be sure and enjoy all the layers at Seth Apter’s amazing blog, The Altered Page.  If you really want to get lost, start clicking through the hundreds of art blogs he’s painstakingly compiled in his Art Blog Directory!

Getting serious about launching, or growing, your art business?

 

Yay Images

Yay Images

Beth Rommel pointed me to this first one:

The Art Biz Blog by Alyson B Stanfield. All kinds of great resources for those doing this for a living!

 

The Etsy blogs are a terrific resource for art business entrepreneurs.  Here’s an article from yesterday about what kind of business structure to choose. 

 

 

Interested in illustrating for the children’s market? 

Check out the expansive website and blog of my author and illustrator friend Elizabeth Dulemba,  with this page of helpful links.

Finally, for the art history buffs and gallery geeks among us – have you seen this?

MetPublications is “a portal to the Met’s comprehensive book and online publishing program with close to 700 titles published from 1964 to the present…

MetPublications includes a description and table of contents for most titles, as well as information about the authors, reviews, awards, and links to related Met titles by author and by theme. Current titles that are in-print may be previewed and fully searched online, with a link to purchase the book. The full contents of almost all other titles may be read online, searched, or downloaded as a PDF. Many of these out-of-print books will be available for purchase, when rights permit, through print-on-demand capabilities in association with Yale University Press.”

Oh, my.  If I go missing, I have likely gotten lost in these amazing publications.  Please send a search party.

Let me know if you’d like to do this again sometime – there are plenty of wonderful trails to explore, and you might even have a favorite to share, too!