Adventures at Wilder Farm

As part of my series on creative process I thought I’d share, over my next three entries, how I develop my characters for a picture book story.

The first character is a little girl named Dorothy in my book Pennies for Elephants (due out next spring). The book is set in Boston 1914. I wanted to create a sense of nostalgia with the book and with the characters. I also wanted it to be a younger story, not as realistic as One Thousand Tracings — that meant developing a new style for depicting my figure work. I find it’s actually easier when I do work that’s realistic, because I just hire a model and paint what I see, but for this book I worked to develop a style which captured the proper mood and period of the book.

I began by looking at examples of illustrators from the early 1900′s to immerse myself in the period. I also looked through clothing catalogs to see what people wore.

Then I drew lots of sketches! Hundreds of drawings of children. My style swung from too representational to overly cartoony. I experimented with putting different types of clothes on my characters, and used different gestures to create the personality I wanted. At last, I started focusing on the look of my character.

But the work wasn’t done. Translating a pencil drawing into a painting is often the most difficult step for me. There are still decisions to be made in the final paintings that the pencil drawing doesn’t cover. How could I paint my character to capture the flavor of fun and nostalgic early 1900′s. I did a series of color studies, experimenting with different colors to capture the right mood. I also experimented with different qualities of line and paint to find the right balance of emphasizing the getup of my little girl through line, but softening the look so the art felt warm and inviting. I did all these steps before the manuscript was even complete. Because I’m so visual, I often need to get my character down on paper as an illustration before I can complete the writing. After I ‘m happy with the look and personality of my character in the illustration, I can move toward finishing the story.

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I’ve been planning to share my working process on my blog by doing a series of entries that coincide with each step of creating my picture books. I thought now would be a good time to start because I’m just beginning another story.

Most of my stories are based on historical events, so the very first step usually entails a lot of research. After reading stacks of books and taking enough notes to write a novel (I fall in love with all the fun details), it’s time to start writing. Because I’m so visual and approach my picture books with a strong sense of what I want to do with the illustrations from the very beginning, the writing phase begins with both words and drawings. I make dozens of sketches of my characters, exploring their personality in drawings as much as in words. Then I start a storyboard, each page of the book laid out on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper. I fill these pages with both words and sketches, blocking in my manuscript and illustrations. The separate pages allow me to keep the manuscript fluid and helps me think about the pacing of the book. I can also see the book as a whole from the very beginning this way. It is my favorite stage in a book, Sasha’s too!

Dave has noticed I have one other critical step in beginning a picture book –which may not seem important — nonetheless, I can’t seem to move forward on a project until I’ve completed this step — rearrange my studio! This entails not only cleaning up the piles of reference and sketches from the last book, neatly stacking the hundreds of drawings that accumulated on the floor and walls, but actually moving the furniture. Maybe it’s because I moved so often in my childhood. Now that we are permanently settled I feel the need to get a fresh start by moving furniture. I think its Pavlovian. I’m really not a procrastinator, I’m always bursting to launch into another book. But first, I spend a day shuffling tables, book shelves and easels, getting my nest ready for another book. Pu loves this stage. Moving the picture book collection creates a fortress of tunnels between stacks of books. The kitties stalk each other and hide within the trails until I’m ready to load up the book shelves again. Dave has given up trying to convince me this step really isn’t critical to starting a book and now cheerfully helps me move the couch when I’m ready. Then I can settle down to work.

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