Friday Studio Links

By now you all know who the big ALSC winners were this week at the ALA conference, but have you seen where they work? In honor of the Caldecott winning illustrators, this month's Friday Studio Tours take you inside the studios of the 2014 winners.

2014 Caldecott Medal Winner
Locomotive, illustrated by Brian Floca

2014 Caldecott Honor Books
Journey, written and illustrated by Aaron Becker
Flora and the Flamingo, written and illustrated by Molly Idle
Mr. Wuffles! written and illustrated by David Wiesner

Follow the links to learn more!

The titles above will take you to a review of the book, the illustrator names above will lead you to their website, and - of course - below each photo you will find a link to more cool details on their workspace, with interviews. Enjoy! And a big congratulations to all of the winners.

Brian Floca

 

  Studio and Interview
 

 Aaron Becker

Studio and Interview

 

Molly Idle

 

  Studio and Interview

 

David Wiesner

 Studio and Interview

Update: Just came across this great blog post with lots more links to videos, photos, and interviews from the Caldecott winners.Check it out. It's a must read! Watch. Connect. Read.

Friday Studio Links- Building My Studio

Starting off the New Year with an old tour. Since I claim to be a Jack-of-All-Trades I thought I'd show one of them. You probably wouldn't guess, but I secretly always wanted to be an architect. Since I didn't become one, I fulfill this need with architectural projects. Here is the biggest one so far. I drew the plans and worked with the city. My husband built it and I helped where I could. Check out some construction shots from when we built my studio.

 

 

 

 

 

Later, I will have a post of what it looks like today, but I'll need to do some cleaning first! Until then here is a sneak peek of my bookshelf.

Links? Well, follow this, which will lead you to a few other posts that show the studio.

Merry Christmas

I don't have a lot of art from when I was a kid. There's no "here is the first book I wrote and illustrated." Not too many drawings or paintings. But I do have a few "project" pieces that I treasure. One of those projects came from when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Christmas ornaments!

They still hang on my tree. (So do the ones my sister made. As I got older I always pointed out how much nicer mine were than hers. But then again, she was only 5 when we made them. And hers are still displayed along side of mine, on my tree.)

I marvel at the fact they have held up over all these years. You see, they were made out of Elmer's Glue with food coloring, and navy beans, and other embellishments. And we live in Phoenix. (We can melt candles in the summer without lighting them. Just leave them in the garage or outside.)

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is decorating the tree. Each ornament bringing along a memory or story from the past.

Merry Christmas!

Friday Studio Links Featuring...

Wendy Watson's Winter Studio

 

Magical Tree
Click here to purchase an archival Giclee print.

Early this year I featured the summer studio of award winning author/illustrator Wendy Watson. Today we get to see where she creates her wonderful books during the winter. How lucky she is to have two places to work. Wendy has written and illustrated twenty-one children’s books, and illustrated more than sixty children’s books by other authors. Just look at this list of books she's written or illustrated!

 

 

I recently had the opportunity to visit Wendy's home and see her studio. The one thing that stood out, was the artwork that covers the walls of her home. Wendy is a third-generation author and artist. Many of the pieces on display were not only hers, but those of her father, Aldren Watson and grandfather, Ernest Watson.

A few of their many accomplishments were teaching at Pratt Institute, co-opening one of the first summer art schools - the Berkshire Summer School of Art, and founding and editing American Artist magazine, which remained in publication for 75 years. These three generations have written of illustrated over 275 books combined.What a fascinating family filled with talent!

Plus, she has a pretty darn cool collection of old chairs and desks.

Be sure to follow Wendy Watson’s Blog. Also, Wendy recently opened up a new online studio shop! So head over to do some holiday shopping at her Esty store.

Thanks so much for sharing your studio Wendy!

Wednesday Links

Why Picture Books Are Important

Picture Book Month!

Calendar designed and illustrated by Elizabeth O. Dulemba  Logo by Joyce Wan

November is Picture Book Month! So head over and help celebrate. 
You'll find new posts each day from champions in the field 
reminding us of why picture books are important. Just follow this link.

Links, links, and more links!

Author and illustrator Megan Bair has put together a wonderful blog, full of monthly interviews, reviews, illustration "Greats", reading lists, tutorials, but best of all, she features an Illustrator of the Day. Every day! How's that for inspiration! Follow her passion at Children’s Illustrator’s on Fire. Megan Bair, your blog is on fire! Follow here Facebook page here.

Four very talented gals got together to host Mini-Interviews 2013 on their blogs each week for the month of November: Juana Martinez-Neal on Tuesdays, Molly Idle on Wednesdays, Mikela Prevost on Thursdays and Laura Jacobsen on Fridays. And it didn't just start this year. Head back in time and check out the interviews from 2012 and 2011.

Over at Design Mom, writer, librarian, and designer Carter Higgins takes on the Author Interview Series. Yup! Click on that link. There are tons of great interviews. You'll find plenty of illustration there too! Plus, her blog Design of the Picture Book is loaded with just that. Wonderfully designed picture books. 

Heck, follow all the links listed in this post. You're in for a real treat!

PiBoIdMo- Paticipant

Halfway Point Progress

I figure most of you have heard of this project, and many of you I'm sure are participating too. But just in case you don't know, PiBoIdMo stands for Picture Book Idea Month. It's the brain child of children's book author Tara Lazar. It's a simple idea. A challenge to create 30 picture book ideas in 30 days. Here is where I'm at on day 15.

• Five picture book titles

• Five settings

• Five characters or plot ideas 

   

  Be sure to read her blog. Tara has daily inspirational posts by picture book authors, illustrators, editors, and more. (Really great stuff!) Here's the run down for the month.
  
  
  
  
  

Ramblings About the Project and the Process

I'm not sure yet, if thinking of so many ideas at once is a distraction or a catalyst in creating picture books. It's one of those things where we'll have to wait and see. Many times if an idea isn't written down it is forgotten. From that standpoint, PiBoIdMo is a great tool. Plus, it's a lot like a brainstorming session. No idea is a bad idea. And one idea leads to another. I'm sure many of the ideas are throw-a-ways, but if just one is a light-bulb moment, then great! You've got a new project to work on. But staying focused enough to develop that "cocktail napkin idea" into a complete project is something else. It needs time to develop. That's hard when you're moving on to a new idea first. So I plan on checking back in, in 6 months time to see what's developed. Stayed tuned...