That Michael Phelps Book I Illustrated

The 2012 London Olympics are in full swish and so I thought I'd showcase the first picture book I illustrated for Simon & Schuster, How To Train With a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals, which came out in 2009 - a year after Michael Phelps made Olympic history by winning 8 gold medals during one Olympics. Quite an incredible feat, and one that might not be ever duplicated. The book was a challenge for me - not as challenging as what Mr. Phelps had to endure of course, but it definitely required endurance and stamina on my part - pulling all-nighters and working on re-dos and do-overs. And honestly, I enjoyed working on it. Being my first book, I wanted to prove to both myself and my publishers that I could do it. All the hard work was worth it.



I know that Michael is not doing as well in London as he did in Beijing, but that's okay. The book puts into perspective the crazy amount of training Michael went through for the six years leading up to the 2008 Olympics - maybe after achieving such a tremendous goal, his training wasn't as strong for the four years leading up to the current Olympics. Who knows? I wish him well. I've never met the guy (it's not typical for artists to actually meet the author/co-author of the picture books that they're working on), but I will definitely be rooting for the guy when he swims tonight. He may reach another record: winning the most medals ever for an Olympic athlete.
Here's a page on my site about the book:
How To Train With a T.Rex And Win 8 Gold Medals

And here's some more photos of the book in my Flickr set:
How To Train With a T.Rex And Win 8 Gold Medals Flickr set


Look! Michael went on Conan (back when he was still on NBC) to promote the book:

Henri's Walk To Paris

Henri's Walk To Paris, Illustrations © 1962, 2012 by Saul Bass and text by Leonore Klein, Universe Publishing, 2012.
A full 50 years later, Bass's only children's book that he illustrated is finally being reissued after being a sort of white whale for many a book collector and designer. I never owned an original printing of the book, but thumbed through a copy of one owned by a good friend of mine. (Is that the equivalent of having a girlfriend in Canada that your friends never seem to meet in person?)
As you might've expected, it's heavy on graphic design brilliance. Bass uses the layout of each spread to evoke a particular mood - whether it's filled with foliage from some unknown source (I can't imagine Bass doing the actual drawings of the trees and bushes in the background here), or with a single sentence.
Bass utilizes repetition a lot in the book to signify the bustling of the city: trees, churches, buses...
But one thing stuck out in my mind as I read through the book several times: there are no people. Well, there are "characters," but Bass doesn't actually depict a real human being aside from a crowd featuring circles with hats, a few well-placed arms and feet, and a couple of cropped legs.
Saul Bass does what he's good at: he simplifies elements to their basic shapes and symbols. What we know to be a little boy is simply an arm and two legs. He allows the story to fill in the blanks when it comes to the true character of Henri.
When he's given the chance to illustrate people in the little town where Henri lives, Bass resorts to depicting them with WORDS! He doesn't even draw them as shapes with features, just letters with hats. To the graphic designer, this would seem to be a brilliant move on the illustrator's part to showcase people in a children's picture book. Bass is calling the shots here. It's as if he's saying to the reader, "I know you know what these people are and what they do. You don't need to see their faces."
And for that, I applaud him. But to be quite frank, the book feels a bit stark because of this fact. Not always, mind you. But for some spreads there's a certain human element missing that I feel is needed. The layouts and text placement are amazing to look at, (and the designer part of me totally geeks out on these particular things), but I felt a certain detachment from some of the spreads. It seems to me that since Bass did not normally draw characters (not his strong suit), he saw this book as a challenge. How was he going to illustrate the story of of boy named Henri and his walk to the busy city of Paris?
Of course, this is the illustrator in me saying all this. As a Bass fan, I WANT to see Bass draw people. I want to see how he would've characterized the titular character, the townspeople, and Henri's parents. However as a Bass fan, there's a part of me that LOVED how he simplified the characters to just words and letters. A fun shortcut, if you will. You can imagine that yes, I'm on the fence with this book, but I'm probably over-thinking it. Okay, I definitely am. But oh, well. The great thing is that now anyone will be able to buy this book to see for themselves, and not just a book collector with $200 in his/her pocket. Universe has done a wonderful job of reissuing the book with rich color printed on nice quality paper stock. They did a great job in matching the colors, I must say. All in all, even with all my qualms about the lack of personality and warmth of Bass's characters, the story itself carries the book for any reader.

Plus, it'll look great on your coffee table.

Buy the book: Henri's Walk To Paris.
I shot more photos of the book. See the entire Flickr set here.

Universe also reissue M. Sasek's This Is... Series. Be sure to pick up the latest: This Is Munich. (I'll do a review of that one soon.)

Peeping Covers

Well, would you look at this! How about a peep at the covers for the two new books that I illustrated for Chronicle Books to be released next May 2012? Yes, you read that right - not one, but TWO new books:


NEW YORK, BABY!


SAN FRANCISCO, BABY!

This is the start of a fun series aimed at the traveling baby and/or toddler - a way of looking at each of these iconic cities through their eyes. I had such a fun time working on these books! Hope you can see my enthusiasm through my artwork.

Check out the first mention of the books by Elizabeth Bird of A Fuse #8 Production on the SLJ blog the other day: Librarian Preview: Chronicle Books (Spring/Summer 2012)

Yay!

New Sketches from New Books

Well, hello there. I'm finally poking my head out from the long sabbatical I've taken to share some sketches with you. Character sketches done for two books that'll be released by Chronicle Books in May 2012. I'm quite happy with the final results - the final designs have some slight changes made to the eyes. The books are the beginning of what we hope will be a continuing series focusing on young kids (toddlers or younger). It's been a long road from start to completion, but the final results I think are wonderful. Very happy with everything (and I just so happened to see the color proofs earlier this week!). So, take a gander! (Click on each to view larger.)

Chicks Caught Out in the Wild

One the greatest experiences of illustrating a book is seeing it in the bookstores. The first time I saw my first book was so exciting - and to have my family there to experience it with me made it all the more sweeter.

The first time I saw Chicks Run Wild out in the wild was at A Children's Place, an excellent independent bookstore on NE Fremont - who "offer a wide selection of children's books for readers aged newborn to young adult." I was with Ezra, who was in a mood. He did NOT want to get out of the car. Too bad, bucko. You're coming with me.

Allow me to beam a bit as I share with you some photos of my first Chicks sighting:


Such a great little bookstore.


Regarding the cover: I've never been a big fan of the bold blue with yellow & orange letters, but I do have to say it makes it hard to miss the book. That particular color combination is not evident in the book itself - I wanted to go with a more tanish/salmon-like color with bold red letters (which would better connect with the pages within), but sometimes you just have to choose your battles.


It's in my contract to make this face when I see my book anywhere.


Ezra. Notice he's got his arms crossed, brooding. Oh, what a HORRIBLE dad I am, forcing my kid to go to our local bookstore! OH! the humanity!

Be sure to visit Chicks Run Wild on Facebook: I've been posting reviews (so far, very good!), photos (like these shown here), and sketches & artwork, etc.

And YES, the chicken suit is happening. Word on the street is that it'll happen this week.

Box full o' CHICKS

A box arrived at my doorstep the other day. This is what I found when I opened it:



It's always a happy moment to open up that box and see your books all printed up and looking nice. A very happy moment indeed.



It's even better to hold the book in your hand.

It's quite an honor to have something like this printed up and see it on the bookshelves. Well, I haven't been out that much lately, so I'm assuming the books are in bookstores at this time. Seeing as the book was officially released on the 25th, I'd like to think that yes, the books are available NOW! Go now! Buy buy buy! Spend spend spend! AND, if you could, go to your local independent bookstore to buy your copy of the book there. They'd thank you for it.

Coming soon: more photos. (Of course!) And a CHICKS RUN WILD photo contest! Stay tuned.

Where The Wild Things Are: an Observation

Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. All images here © 1963, HarperCollins Publishers.


With all the talk about the film, I thought I'd share with you some observations about the iconic children's book by Maurice Sendak from 1963.


Have you ever noticed the way Sendak constructed the story for Where The Wild Things Are visually? There's a lot more going on. Notice how small the first image of Max is here. He's completely surrounded by white space - a victim of being boxed in. A reason for his mischief? Who knows. It's possible.


You turn the page and now the actual image has grown ever so slightly.


As Max is sent to his room, the image grows a bit more, allowing him now to build upon his own imagination.


Now, as we slip out of reality and into fantasy, the image grows even more, just as his forest grows. Notice how even the trees break free from the stiff borders, adding to the fantasy element.


Max is happier now that his own version of reality (or alternate reality) continues to grow.


It is here where the image completely covers the page. There is no more white surrounding Max and his world.


But wait! It's not over. Turning the page, we notice that the image continues to grow even more. If you think about it, this makes sense as Max starts out on his journey.


Several pages over and Max has come to the place where the wild things are. At this point, the overall image now stretches from left to right, with white still shown below.


While Max is now at the place where the wild things are, notice how the image still continues to grow. It's such a subtle thing, but subconsciously, I think the reader knows it's happening. Roughly at about the two/thirds mark in the book, the wild rumpus starts and as we turn the page....


...the image now completely covers the entire spread. There is no more white space, no more words. Max is deep within his world here, and we are completely engrossed by this visual cue.


After about three spreads of pure images (the wild rumpus), the story takes a turn back to reality. Max stops the rumpus and now, white space reappears on the page and the image starts to shrink for a few pages.


Max's journey back home is similar to when he left - completely filling one page and then spilling out onto the other.


And now, for the last image of the book, Max is back home, room back to normal, now filling the entire page. No more white space surrounds him (I'm not counting the other page), suggesting that maybe Max worked out his issues. Perhaps? It's possible. All is right in the world, as he can now eat his supper. Still hot.

As I child, I remember a few things about this book. I don't think we owned it, but probably checked it out of the library. Sendak's style and the way he drew the wild things definitely left a strong impression on me. They were unlike anything I'd seen before. What hits me the most is when the tone of the book changes. It's when the wild things want Max to stay. When they yell out that they'll eat him up! This evoked a strong sense of fear and danger in me when I was young. Wow - a kid's book where the bad guys want to actually eat up the kid! I thought. It was dangerous. And compelling.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I want to. I plan to see it soon.

Ramón Makes a Trade

I guess you could say that this is "Messy Week" here on The Ward-O-Matic. Spotlighting vintage children's books that offer a messier aesthetic than what we're used to seeing from that time. Something outside the norm, you could say. Today's book is:


Ramón Makes a Trade by Barbara Ritchie, illustrated by Earl Thollander. Published by Parnassus Press. 1959.

Excellent picture book that is told in both English and Spanish. Nice bold ink lines and characters by Earl Thollander, who worked as an artist-reporter for many years. He illustrated many children's books, even writing a few of his own. Earl died in 2001 at the age of 79.

Some links about Earl Thollander:
Earl's biography.
Earl Thollander on Amazon
Earl Thollander Family Archives (with a photo of the artist).

Earl's bio in the book:

Earl Thollander lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children. From his home and studio he can see the Golden Gate. He not only was born there but has lived there most of his life, except for service as a naval officer in the South Pacific during World Ward II. He has traveled in Mexico and Europe as an artist-reporter. Whereever he goes, he paints the people of the country. He has received many awards for his work, and has been exhibited in San Francisco, New York and Japan.

A look inside the book (click on each image to view larger):