Studio Views

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

Eight picture book artists talk shop in these pieces about tools and techniques “Ticonderoga #2″ by Donald Crews “Pulp Painting” by Denise Fleming “The Sculptural Quality” by Arthur Geisert “Family Albums” by Margaret Miller “My Next Medium” by Chris Raschka “Sharpie Markers to the Rescue” by Lynn Reiser “Tiny Pieces of Paint” by Peter Sís [...]

Studio Views: Family Albums

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

Photographing children is both exhilarating and exhausting. When I’m faced with a toddler’s classic meltdown, I wonder why I base my livelihood and sense of personal success on the whims of two- and three-year-olds. I wonder how I can capture natural, appealing photos in spite of runny noses, low blood sugar, and Barney. Hey, who [...]

Studio Views: My Next Medium

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

My favorite medium, my ideal medium, is the one I haven’t used yet. Or, maybe, it’s the one that I’m contemplating using, toying with using, in my next book, Lordy! I think to myself, Lordy!, in my next book, I’m going to CUT LOOSE! In my next book. With my next medium. See, the thing [...]

Studio Views: The Sculptural Quality

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

Etching in a nutshell: a polished copper plate is coated with a thin layer of wax (a ground). A sharp metal stylus (an etching needle) is used to scratch lines through the ground exposing the copper. Acid eats (etches) the lines down into the plate. The etched lines are filled with ink, and, under tremendous [...]

Studio Views: Tiny Pieces of Paint

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

I grew up behind the Iron Curtain. There was a shortage of everything (freedom most of all) — and only one kind of paper, one kind of ink, one kind of paint. I was one happy artist when I became an illustrator in the U.S.A. So many materials! I settled on oil pastels, which I [...]

Studio Views: Ticonderoga #2

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

My hands-down favorite medium would have to be graphite or lead, the core of a pencil, the material that makes the marks on paper. Lead makes the words, images, idle thoughts (doodles), specific information — crucial and otherwise — visible. With the lead from a pencil I can make thin delicate words and lines, bold [...]

Studio Views: Pulp Painting

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

Pulp painting is easy to demonstrate, but difficult to explain. But I’ll give it a go. Cotton rag fiber suspended in water (a wet, messy, colorful slurry) is poured through hand-cut stencils (made from foam meat trays) onto a screen (a window screen will do). The result—an image in handmade paper. The paper is the [...]

Studio Views: Sharpie Markers to the Rescue

Picture Book Month at the Horn Book

Markers for art were a happy surprise. I was a pre-marker child and learned to draw and color with crayons. Markers were for addressing packages. Until Best Friends Think Alike, I illustrated my picture books with watercolor and black ink in a technical pen. In designing each of my books, I try to match method [...]

Studio Views: Why I Use Oil Paints So Much

I like to think that the story I’m illustrating tells me what medium to use on it. And I have used quite a few materials over the years. But there does seem to be a preponderance of oil paints on the roster. Could this represent an actual preference on my part? I’ve had to sit [...]