Baby Put to Bed

It felt like a long time ago that I started work on a new project. Written by Richard Jackson and edited by Neal Porter, I loved the project. And the baby was finally sent off right before Christmas. 

Bon Voyage!

New Art/ New Technique

I have always considered myself a traditional illustrator. I love watercolor, pastel and pencil and love what traditional materials do. In fact, I can completely nerd out and spend hours obsessing over paint properties, paper surfaces, and line weight. I love the unpredictability of traditional materials and have never rendered e a book digitally because frankly, I am lame when it comes to technology.  However, I am part of a wonderful critique group: Lisa Brown, Katherine Tillotson, Christy Hale, Ashley Wolff and Susan Gal, and each uses digital tools differently. So, I became interested in the flexibility that working with digital tools affords me and I explored those options with my latest book, Lotus and Feather.

proofs

My biggest goal, when I started the project, was to retain what I love about working traditionally, but add the flexibility that digital allows. I also wanted to experiment  using different paper surfaces to achieve looser and tighter images, so I began to experiment with creating art traditionally and combining it digitally.

I started rendering loose backgrounds with watercolor on 140 pound cold press watercolor paper. I did the paintings onsite and each one took about 5 minutes.

I scanned the backgrounds at 600 dpi and they became the basis for the landscapes in Lotus and Feather.

background watercolor

 

I experimented with hot press illustration paper, and rendered the bird and the characters on this surface.  Hot press paper allows you to render incredible detail with pencil and paint and not have any of the paper texture show. I scanned all of these drawings into the computer too.

watercolors on hot press paper

 I also painted a number of simple textures on different types of paper. Sunsets, reeds, weird textures like ink and soap bubbles ( a texture from critique group member Susan Gal) and scanned them all into the computer.

sumi ink, watercolor, salt

this texture was great as water.

Because I have worked traditionally and I paint my watercolors in layers, I replicated the same thing digitally. Often the files consisted of 70 layers, all transparent (the multiply layer... my favorite). I inverted layers, duplicated layers and after a while it felt like painting.  The process wasn't faster, but in many ways I had more control over color and composition.The process was also wonderful when it came to changes. In the past, minor changes meant redoing a painting that took a week to paint. Now it meant, finding and redoing one layer. A much faster and simpler process!

 

Final Art

Color Studies

I have been working on color studies for my latest book, Lotus and Feather, to be published by Disney Hyperion. I don't always do a full range of studies for each book, but this particular book needed an overall color story.  I painted directly on small thumbnails, then scanned them and played more with the colors. The story covers several seasons, but also moves emotionally and color is part of the story telling.

Notes from SCBWI

Saturday was the annual San Francisco/South Bay SCBWI Annual conference and I was fortunate to have a chance to critique and comment on participants' portfolios.  It was a super day and included talks by the wonderfully talented Melissa Sweet, melissasweet.net, Isabel Warren-Lynch from Random House, Melissa Manlove and Kristine Brogno from Chronicle Books. All were full of great information about publishing, writing and illustration. I wrote lots of notes, looked at some amazing portfolios and enjoyed a picture perfect San Francisco Day.

This is what I took away from the day:
Storytelling is everything. Your illustrations should intrigue the reader and make them want to know more about the characters and the action.
Think about the emotions of your characters. A happy character is less interesting. illustrate a character that is between emotions... happy to sad, confused to angry.
Show a range of emotions.
Details are great if they enhance the story, don't let them obscure what is happening.

I have illustrated a fair number of books, but it is always a good thing to be reminded of what makes a great book.
I think the above tips are going to appear on my studio walls!

 

 

Just got a wonderful starred review from Kirkus Magazine for Scarlet and Igor. I love being compared to Frog and Toad, one of my favorite series when I was young.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jane-feder/spooky-friends/

KIRKUS REVIEW

Vampire Scarlet and mummy Igor are very good friends. “The trouble was, they could never agree on anything.”
In the first chapter, the two friends’ interests rarely mesh. “If Igor wanted to read, Scarlet wanted to sing. If Scarlet wanted to nap, Igor wanted to dance. / When Igor made a tall tower, Scarlet made it short.” It comes as no surprise that they want different kinds of sandwiches when it’s time for a snack. Alternating shouts for “gooseberry jelly” and “chestnut butter” grow increasingly louder until the friends hit upon the obvious solution. The second chapter finds them heatedly debating what name would be perfect for their pet cat’s new kitten. When they discover a litter of eight, all the names they have come up with are put to good use. The final chapter is one of artistic differences. After an art duel that produces colorful shapes and a “tree with branches,” they arrange their separate pieces to form a lovely display that has one last blank spot. Readers will cheer when they see how the two buddies have filled it. Feder masterfully employs repetition of the more challenging words throughout the perfectly paced text, while Downing charmingly captures every mercurial emotion in the detailed ballpoint pen, watercolor and digital illustrations.
Move over, Frog and Toad, to make room for this delightful new title. (Early reader. 5-8)

Creston Books

Here is a sneak peek at the art I am doing for Creston Books. The book is scheduled for Spring 2014.

Scarlet and Igor

Just came in the mail today!
Pub date is July 31, 2013, just in case you want a jump on Halloween!