Fun Field Trips: the Hospital Edition

The world premiere exhibit of my Cakeasaurus Picture Book Project happened this week, in my happy hometown of Ann Arbor, MI. Sound the trumpets, unroll the red carpets, get ready to sip wine and munch sweet, flaky niblets! Alas, no opening reception, since it's at a hospital, but Rick delayed his cross-country travel by a day to see it, and we had an unlikely restaurant + hospital date. Not the first such date, I recall now -- in general, I do not recommend it.

This, however, was quite satisfying. The photos I took don't really capture the scope of "Cakeasaurus: Scenes from a Picture Book." It's one thing to have half-done sketches taped up on the dining room wall to spur one on; to have prints and sketches occupying a basement wall in order to work through a narrative -- but how different to see the story laid out, in public, across ten display panels, all properly framed, along with extra frippery and signage nonsense! 

Five display panels in back, cleverly paired with Janet Kelman's glass art

The cruelty of non-edible confections

Digital prints and original block prints share the wall

At the penultimate panel, but is it this story's end?

"One Fateful Night" print (L) vs. double page picture book layout

Possibly dingy at night, but wonderfully bright during the day

The gallery, one of several throughout the University of Michigan Hospital, was deserted in the evening. Metal gates were locked to clinic floors. Janitors wheeled carts of cleaning supplies around the perimeter. Medical staff coming off shift bade each other goodbye; an older couple wandered past from the nearest parking structure. The quiet suited our visit.

Special three panel version of "Cakeasaurus Left Happy for Another Day"...

...Which led to failed attempts at recreating Cakeasaurus' triumphal strut. I may have been on a heavy prescription at the time. Still, a fairly accurate depiction of how it felt to see the exhibit up!

Here's hoping that adults and children who must frequent the hospital for any extended time will chance upon the exhibit, dive into the story, and be distracted from the heavier side of life.

We are fortunate to have top-notch hospitals in our community -- and that more hospitals have programs like "Gifts of Art," which connect art with healing and vitality. Check out their Facebook page and  current gallery schedule here.    

Monsters and Sloths and Cumming, Oh My!

Just came from the kind of appointment where the specialist smoothly establishes his credentials: treats over 1,200 women, is on board of committee that sets the national standards. He knows I will give things serious thought, that is obvious. An appointment that refrains from uncovering anything new, but which somehow leaves one with renewed foreboding. I think of things I had buried in the background for the past few years. Dig your holes: Still there? Yup, Still there. Eh. As always: could be better, could be worse. Enough. Stop at a cafe, order yourself a precious brown sugar ginger latte, get on with it. And onto the better: Javier's text says the Baby has been asleep for over 70 minutes! Especially good, as she has lately unrolled an early morning wailing session, starting between 2-4 AM.

Also good:

1.) The basement picture book wall*  is bearing fruit in February! I stared at sketch for the design below within the context of its page neighbors, frustrated by how different our young hero looks in this one from his depiction in other pages. Visited this page, among others: sat on the bed by the layout wall, happy to see all my designs and aggravated by them. Drank tea, drank beer, and frowned up at them. I have drawn these characters numerous times, from different angles, but am I a cartoonist? Am I, actually, an illustrator? No. But somehow this recent ruminative period yielded another sketch which brought Quimby's face closer in spirit to himself. Close enough to give the okay to transfer the design on Feb. 8th. Now here we are at the test print stage!

Initial inking showed several letters needed tweaking. Paring down or shoring up with some ennsy wood scraps. Wood glue and tweezers are your friends.

Next up, I reworked an early page. For both, it's the moment in which our monster has found his next cake to snatch. Originally, I decided to show him roaring three times, his silhouette larger as the eyes scanned up the page; the repetition was meant to underscore that his dessert thieving ways have happened and are happening.

...But then I began to wonder whether young readers would be confused -- if there is one monster, why does he appear many times? And his outline looks like an older version of how I feel my monster looks. This page became a thorn in my side. So this week I tried out the sketch at right. I'm liking it -- I think it's cleaner, more effective. But when I mentioned it on Facebook, my (admittedly tiny number of) commenters opted for more monsters! rather than less. Hmm. Either way, it's taped in place on the wall.

And thirdly, next, next up for the carving block.Kind of classic-cartoony-villain-easily-gaining-access-to-the-homes-of-trusting-rubes. I feel happier with something to carve.

*all pages laid out in order, in their various states of completion, on a single wall, to sigh and grimace at.

2. Alan Cumming!

This Scottish jewel should appear on any what-is-good list, right, but by golly, this time he's on mine! Javier won allll the Valentine's Day couple points by capping off the classic chocolates-roses-dinner trio with a shocking text of tickets to Cumming's sold out cabaret evening in Detroit. WHAT. WHAT. WHAAAAAT. I didn't jump on our two-top. I didn't knock over water glasses or wine flights. But neighboring diners shot glances in our general direction; Javier was rightfully pleased with himself.
I ceased to track conversational threads for ohhh, a few minutes, but beamed at Javier to make up for this; the grinning may have looked a bit toothy, wolfish. Mildly unbalanced. New York Times review of the show. Saucy man.




3.Current escapism (sketching, carving): Dexter (season five), Sarah Water's Fingersmith, as narrated by Juanita McMahon <-- never heard of her, but she's great!

Life enhancement: Sloth Slept On, written & illus. by Francine Preston-Gannon -- a good, simple story of an unlikely escapee. I'm entirely taken by the illustrations: clean, bold, sharply defined, but each shape with wonderful texture. The type also a nice choice, as well as the paper -- matte, with a good weight. Altogether satisfying! Recommended for the younger set. Baby also drawn to it, from the first reading. But sadly not as much as the super simple board books from our doctor's office: Park. I am at the park. Flower. I smell a flower. Clouds. I see clouds from my swing. Rain. I feel rain, time to go!

The house is quiet, I am sleepy. Time to go!

Freeze Now, inside or out! Shiny Appliances in Mid-January

Helllllllllo, 2016!

My theory of starting a post in stray 15 minute spurts hasn't panned out, nor has the "buck up and get a second wind after baby goes to bed," for lo that does not take into account my usual ughitswinterhidingisbetter exacerbated by the brain-mushifying aspect of babying throughout the day. And so many mundane large and small householdy things pulling at one's sleeve. But really, who hasn't been there? So I haven't settled on a successful plan of attack for bringing creativity reliably back into the picture. Ohhhh, the former wealth of idle musing time~! But, somewhere, there is hope.

And in the kitchen, there is also a hulking, new refrigerator, shinier beneath its protective cling-film than it will ever be again. The 12 degree weather, so unappreciated otherwise, is perfect for storing the entire contents of the prior fridge in my car, though it does make me more likely to type in my study than to retrieve it all again. But! The shiny new fridge is certainly exciting! Bigger! Consistently cold! Makes its own ice!* Shows your food in a better light**! Makes you a more inspired cook***! Desperate for fields of tiny fingerprints!

*once we get a water line hooked up, eh.
**i.e. last light stopped working years ago. silly, what you get used to. lights, so conveeeeeeenient!
***Just agree.

The deliveryman approves: "This is a nice fridge. People pay more for Samsung, they think is better, but no: LG is better. In delivering for many years, I hear a few complaints about LG. But very few." He is removing the fridge doors, which are hinged on the wrong side. The baby has finished her Greek yogurt and apple-pumpkin puree and is alternately peering up at me, eyeing him, and jumping from the automatic drill. I switch to bread and peanut butter. She smacks the high chair tray whenever I pause in bread delivery. I maintain a certain speed, as she currently devolves into chipmunk mode if too much food is immediately available.

"How old is it?"

"She's 10 months old today." SMACK. The baby eyes me. I tear a tiny piece of bread. She frowns at it, stuffs it in her mouth with her entire hand. Gums peanut butter around.

"Oh, 10 months, that's good time. This is a good size fridge, maybe have a little brother or sister. A brother: a boy would be better." LG better, boy, better. I happily buy the first, and don't inquire after the second.

*****

Otherwise, starting to read around for next steps as I progress tortoise-like toward my picture book finish. With all the carving, I have another solid year of work, but at this point, I only have a few pages which completely lack drawings. That said, I'm sad to say I need to revisit storyboarding.  

Interloper detail

But that's ridiculous, you say, that's why you storyboard in the first place, to plot it all out. True. true. And then one gets all focused on individual designs and fully know that some designs make a two page spread, and that others must be facing each other, but somehow a couple individual pages sneak in and throw everything off. The interlopers have pizzazz, they have energy, they can't be eliminated now. How did this happen, who was manning my ship?? WHO IS THE PROJECT MANAGER HERE I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE PROJECT MANAGER. I don't know. May I distract you with a half-gone carton of coconut "ice cream," or a solid brick of orange mystery? No? Well, it's literally back to the drawing board. Last night I scrawled out a large newsprint sheet of picture book thumbnails, to once again confirm that yes, I had indeed
screwed myself up a bit. It's possible that if I divorce myself from the completed woodblock prints, I'll be able to imagine how a particular image could be sliced and diced into a different-but-better Cakeasaurus tale...

Initial googling connected me with templates, but not so much help with the problem solving. Naturally I ran across a handful of promising sites about high caliber picture books:

• Design of the Picture Book made me want to own Whatever Happened to my Sister?
• Self-described "entertainment channel" around literacy All the Wonders could help me lose track of time (see the entry for last year's big bang "Leo: A Ghost Story," which has a related craft component, video, behind-the-scenes making-of, and podcast with the illustrator) 
• Picture Book Makers boosts a great stable, including Vivian Schwarz {check out the
  
  videos of her reading her books, they're great! More sneak peeks and process shots from the author and illustrator at her blog} and Emily Hughes, author and illustrator of Wild