At the beginning of the New Year, I began my search for a word. Something to focus on for my life and purpose. I was drawing a blank. This was unusual for me. Then it came to me. My focus would be on my line of chickens! This year I was going to draw 500 of them. Why 500? Why not. By the time I finish, I am sure I will find a place for them. I’m already up to 109 and having a jolly good time of it.
I’m still honing my book, The 12 Days of Christmas.
Stay tuned!
It’s been a fun week playing with bluebirds in my studio. It may be zero degrees outside but my studio is singing of SPRING!
“It’s time for a story Briley” said Burl as he opened his favorite book...
Whimsey Books Studio – Home to Leslie Ann Clark
(joined SCBWI in 1999)
In this day and age of violence, anger and all the seriousness of chaotic grown up STUFF, I felt the deep desire to create simple stories for children and parents to enjoy. I imagine parents cuddled up with their little ones and taking precious time out of their busy days to share stories filled with love, humor, warmth and a wee bit of adventure tossed in.
I remember only two times my parents read to me and the way it made me feel. I felt all was right with my little world. I felt loved and cared about. My own children always begged for “…one more story mommy”. When they were tiny they simply brought me an arm full of books and plopped on my lap. My grand kids did the same thing. Those are the things that make for a loving home and they show our children the value of time spent together.
If you are a publisher, I have many books ready to submit in the form of text and dummies and some color two page spreads.
Whimsey Books Studio is where I live on most days. It’s a fine little studio filled with love and light.
If you see something on my website (leslieannclark.com) that tugs at your heart , contact me at imleslie@zohomail.com
It’s fun to watch a child read a book. Their eyes are captivated with story and pictures. Their imaginations take off. Many times they ask you to read the book again and again. My book, Peepsqueak goes a step further. After reading it a couple of times, the child can read it to you. Boy oh boy, do they love that! They feel they can read all by themselves.
Here we have two Peepsqueak fans doing just that! Thanks to my friend Karen S. For sharing this picture. I love it!
After months of working on my new book, I finally finished up my dummy and sent it off to my editor. I am pretty jazzed about it. It’s my baby. If you have ever had a baby, you are convinced that yours is the best looking baby around… while others are thinking… “What a funny looking kid”. Haha!
I am hoping that others will love my baby too. I made it for others to enjoy! Parents reading to little ones, those are my target audience. I can picture them reading this to their little one on a cold winters night before bedtime. I love the idea of wide-eyed little kids being swept into a story… walking into the very pages and settling in. I hope my editor likes it!
(If you don’t know what a dummy is, it is a prototype or mock-up of a book).
Organizing an artist is not always easy. I KNOW, I AM ONE! HA!
A few weeks ago I was challenged to look at all my characters and take inventory. It was the best thing I have done in a long time. I think I came up with about 19 different cartoon character lines. I am not kidding when I say my studio is full of life and noise!
This is my attempt at organizing. I am better to keep it all in front of me. Putting art in file folders and then in a filing cabinet assures me that my ideas will fade away. Instead I gathered all the ideas for each line and clipped them together. You can see in the picture above.
Now I can work on one line at a time. I can also look and see what needs to be done to make each line complete.
Each day is a work in progress, but at least I can see what the next step is without looking in a folder in my computer.
Here is a funny quote I found.
Being an illustrator is great fun. Why? Because you can use your imagination to go places you’ve never been and do things you’ve never done. For instance, I have always wanted a log cabin up in the mountains. As a teen, I used to imagine having a studio up a flight of wooden steps to a big room. It would have rafter ceilings and a window seat for me to look out of. It would be warm and cozy and I could sit and do my art all day long near a roaring fire in the wood stove.
When I began thinking of places for my character Burl the bear to live in, I made it just like “I” wanted it! Warm and inviting! When you walk through the doorway of my story, you will find a home that lives in my imagination. It will be a place that I love and I will revisit it many times as the story progresses. I must be passionate about what I draw or it becomes listless and boring. This process is what makes a story believable.
My experience tells me that children notice the tiniest of details. I did a school visit after Peepsqueak was published by Harper Collins Publisher. I read the book to the children and then we talked. Through out the story there was another story going on in the book. It was a little tiny mouse who appeared on many of the pages. The children did not miss it. They even commented on the mouse as I read to them. I let them in on a little secret. I named the mouse Elliot. When I told them his name they all squealed with delight and pointed to the cutest little boy in their classroom who was named Elliot! He was beaming. Suddenly he became part of the story. He was so happy!
These are the things that make a story magical in the eyes of children and adults alike. Its also why I continue creating images. I love seeing characters develop. I love finding their voices. .. what they are like… what they like to do. It does not stop when I leave the studio. I think about them all the time, until I finally know how they would react in any given situation. That way they become very believable creations and loved by all.
Stay posted, Burl and Briley are growing on my heart daily. I can hardly wait to illustrate the books that are in my mind!
Do you ever have those days when nothing goes right? When everything you try does not work? That was my day today, accompanied by a doozer of a headache. Photoshop just quit on me. I could not open CS5 or CS6. Finally at the end of the day the Adobe Twitter Support came through! Hooray! It works!!
While I was waiting for support to write me back I was able to begin writing my stories for Burt ad Briley, my new characters. Their conversations made me smile. All’s well that ends well. I will post another picture soon.
It was a very busy few weeks getting ready for the two trade shows. Licensing expo begins on Tuesday. Bailee Blue is going for the first time in my agents iPad. He is really excited to meet new people and hoping to find some interest. Me, I’m going to take just a few days to clean up the aftermath in my studio. I have not cleaned the studio in a while. There are many papers to toss. It will be good to lighten my load.
I’ve also been reading an ebook on creativity. It’s been inspiring. I love to be inspired! Summer is a good time to revamp life!!! All things new! I love that thought! What are YOU working on?
There is nothing like a nice cup of steamy hot coffee with cream and conversation with friends. Since all my friends are working or busy, I am having coffee with my other friends. Today it is Toola. … and no, she is not sharing that second cup with me. She likes two cups of coffee at one time. It’s kind of hard to get her to sit down (obviously), but we must love our friends no matter what!! It takes a lot of interesting people to make a world. Enjoy your day!
~ Leslie Ann
Place your order online or by calling retail and/or wholesale orders at 888-989-0454 or via email at merrymakers@merrymakersinc.com.
Oh little Peepsqueak. This picture of you reminds me of something that happened to me when I was little. We were visiting an aunt in Washington. She had a rope that dangled from a tree in her backyard. She also had a big DOG that came running into the yard barking at ME! I jumped on that rope and UP, UP, UP I went! I did not even know I could climb a rope! I just did it! ha ha!
Most of my art comes from my imagination, but it is also from my memories and from my life experiences. All that being said, I think I can still climb a rope!
For as long as I can remember, I have LOVED toys! To have a toy made from one of my cartoons is my dream come true! It will help the world see my character the way I see him. REAL!! ha ha! This series of plush Peepsqueaks in the pictures above, were the first proto-types that came to my home. Merry Makers is the toy company we worked with. It was so fun to see my little Peepsqueak transform from page to puff! He is such a cute little plush!! Merry Makers did such a good job! You can buy Peepsqueak now if you go to their website. They welcome retail orders online at http://www.merrymakersinc.com and retail and/or wholesale orders at 888-989-0454 or via email at merrymakers@merrymakersinc.com.
Below is the final Peepsqueak. I just love him! Isn’t he cute!!! I brought him to a preschool yesterday and the children loved him and all wanted to pet him…. so they did!!!!
So order your Peepsqueak now! He is waiting to live in your home!!! Don’t forget, the books, “Peepsqueak”, and “Peepsqueak Wants A Friend” are at your bookstore waiting for you too. They would all make great gifts for the kiddies on Easter.
“Welcome to the studio, Dahlia! I am so glad to meet you! Your entrance made me smile! Now let’s get down to business! Tell me about yourself? “.
When I create a new character I have to find out who they really are and what makes them tick! Will they be loud and boisterous? Will they be shy and hold back? Will they run to meet the world or hide behind trees and bushes? It’s great fun to imagine!
Since Dahlia is new, let’s walk this process together. Let’s get a good look at her and ask ourselves some questions.
Here she is, in her great BIGness. As you can see, Dahlia is running! That gives us our first clue. She is ready to meet the world!
(Another little tidbit you can use when creating a character. It is a link to writing a character profile. It can get your wheels turning!)
http://www.squidoo.com/CharacterProfiles
In order to decide WHO Dahlia is, I look into her face. Her eyes are not like our eyes, but expression and body language are quite helpful.
Dahlia is running. Dahlia is laughing. Dalia is carrying a flower. Dahlia is practically leaping off the ground! I can almost hear the ground shaking! So, she is a “ground shaking” happy elephant.
But wait! She has no tusks! That tells me she is a baby elephant. My imagination is taking off now! Dahlia tromps! … but no… I found out that tromp is not a word… (hmmm…it seemed so fitting). So, Dahlia thumps, stomps, tramples and plows through! Thank you dictionary.com! Love all those words!
Looking again at this picture, I see that Dahlia is also clumsy. She trips, stumbles, tumbles, plunges, sprawls and topples. Even so, she is not bothered by falls. She simply rolls over and gets back up to her feet laughing! “What great fun!” she gigglies, “Let’s do it again!”
This tells me that Dahlia does not take herself too seriously. She is playful, but is she smart?
More of her qualities may surface once the other characters in her story emerge. Bring on the monkeys!
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