Living in my Illustrations

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!

A Good Day of Drawing

It was a great day in the studio.   My characters for my story are growing.  Can you see how they almost tell their own story?  Look at this little pigs face. Does he like cooking?  What is he making? What is he thinking?

Writers develop their characters with pen in hand. I also have pen in hand, but mine is to draw the characters first… then move on to writing the story. 

There is still so much to do… I have only JUST BEGUN!

 

Re-inventing Oneself

Funny words. It suggests that there was something wrong with the first invention something that needs fixing. I suppose that is true. When something isn’t working you should look for another way. You should fix the thing.

I began working on a new set of children’s books. I was hammering away at a story, trying to get something good down in order to illustrate it. Everything was flat. Nothing was working, nothing felt right. My characters were looking at me like I was crazy. They were all yawning! Try writing when your characters are shaking their heads!

It was then that I realized I was going about it all wrong. As an artist, I need to start with the art!!!! …the story would follow.

I sat with sketchbook in hand and began drawing little cartoons. One thing led to another and star was born! I will share more later. This is a discovery for me. I will let you know how I make out in the days to follow!

For now, I’ll just keep sketching!

Another Big Give-Away!

Once again, it is time for the 2nd Big Peepsqueak Give-A-Way!   

Will you be the winner?

Will you get a box in the mail full of Peep goodies?

This time around, the prize is for both of my books, “Peepsqueak”, and “Peepsqueak Wants A Friend,”  AND a Peepsqueak plush toy!

Are you up for it?

Here are your 2 easy instructions:

1.   If you have not read Peepsqueak yet,  go to the story link below and listen to Brad Mendleson read it aloud.

2.  Go to the Amazon link below, and give me a review.  So I know you are entering the contest, start your review with the words, “I LOVE PEEPSQUEAK!”.  If you have read the second book, please feel free to review it too.  At the end of two weeks, I will take the names off the Amazon site and put them in a bowl and pick the winner!!!  You will be able to watch me draw your name!!  Here are the links! 

Peepsqueak story link:  http://www.readmeastory.tv/category/read-me-a-story/

Amazon review link:  http://www.amazon.com/Peepsqueak-Leslie-Ann-Clark/product-reviews/0062078011/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_3?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=3&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Please SHARE this with others.  Peepsqueak is waiting for you!!

love, Leslie Ann and Peepsqueak!

Bear With Me

Peepsqueak LOVES BEARS!  …. and so do I!! I LOVE toys!  I love weird toys, stuff animals, special teddy bears, and more. Having three grandsons gives me a great excuse to buy MORE toys!  I took a trip to the thrift store just this week to look for action figures!  I ran them through the dishwasher and stowed in my big toy trunk.  Three more trucks are sitting near the book-case in the “YaYa” room.  Its great fun!  On Tuesday I played “Superhero”!  My youngest grandson loves the stuffies!  Including my own little Peeksqueak plush by Merry Makers.  If you want to order one, you can go to the website, or call them.

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

They are a great toy company.  I want ALL THEIR TOYS!  ha ha!

You can also find Peepsqueak on his Facebook page.  I am going to have another book Give-A-Way as soon as the new toy gets here!  Peepsqueak and I are so excited!  I may also put it on this Word Press site so stay posted!

He’s Here!

Place your order online or by calling retail and/or wholesale orders at 888-989-0454 or via email at merrymakers@merrymakersinc.com.

Is Spring Springing?

I love flowers!

The weather is teasing me!  A warm day, a nice breeze, flowers peeking from the cold wet ground, and then WHAM! A freak snow storm!  Such is life in Colorado.  Peepsqueak is not worried.  As you can see in this picture, he is thrilled to find the first Spring flower.

Do you have any flowers up yet?  We only have a few tulips and iris peeking out of the dirt. Flowers are still a few weeks away.  I am ready!

 

Mountain Get Away

This morning I drove up the mountain to Estes Park, Colorado. It was a sad journey as I began.  The night before we found out our brother in-law was told he had two months to live due to cancer.  We love him so much. A good deal of the drive up was spent thinking about him and my sister in-law and praying for some answers. I knew I needed to pull myself together. I was meeting with a friend and then a shop keeper who is selling my books.  My day was going to move from sad to putting on a happy face…. life is that way you know. .. and sometimes those emotions are within minutes of each other.

This picture seems to say it best.  As I approached the scenic overlook leading down to the valley in Estes Park a thick cloud covered the road. I was hoping it would not get so thick that I would not be able to see.  Thankfully, the skies opened, letting in the sun before I got into town.

The rest of the day was filled with warm conversations and beautiful views.  I cannot describe it any better than peace being poured out into my heart.

My meeting in Estes Park was with a wonderful woman named Cynthia.  She is the owner of Life’s Bear Necessities.  It is a beautiful little gift shop in town that specializes in gifts made in America.  A portion of the items made are by people in Colorado.  She must be my biggest supporter of Peepsqueak books.  Her last order was for 50 books which I gladly signed today.  We had such a nice visit and found we had much in common.  The people coming into the store were just as kind.  A woman came into the shop and told a story of whispering to a freaked out elk just yesterday. Evidently, the giant buck was trapped in an area of town where he could not escape. She was only a few feet from him and began whispering to calm him down!  It worked! She was so excited to tell me her story.  Another woman that came in was a retired singer. One more couple had ties to a small town In Iowa where my grandparents lived.  The whole day was peaceful, sprinkled with friendly faces.

Leslie Ann Clark – Signing 50 copies of Peepsqueak for “Life’s Bear Necessities”

Cynthia at Life’s Bear Necessities – Estes Park, CO

Another delight in my day was the last-minute coffee date with my artist friend Teresa Maria!  We met before the shop opened at the “Be Kind Coffee Shop”. It is always good for the soul to meet someone for coffee. I don’t exactly know why, but I have had some “laugh till you cry” moments in coffee shops, serious” heart-felt” meetings in coffee shops and amazing and inspiring meetings in coffee shops.  I guess it is the laid back atmosphere. The Be Kind Coffee Shop has the most beautiful view.  What a treat.  I am sad I did not get a picture of Teresa Maria!

The Be Kind Coffee Shop

I hope all of you had a peace filled day.  Thank you for sharing mine.  And if you think about it, say a prayer for our loved ones.

New York Fun – Surtex 2012

After months of prep work, Surtex 2012 is history.  It was a great time of meetings, and visiting with other artists.  It almost feels like a dream now that it is over.  I am filled with ideas and hope for the future!

Here is a picture of Margaret Anastas, my editor at Harper Collins, me, and Annie Stone, Margaret’s assistant.  It was so fun sitting at Harper C. and visiting with everyone who worked so hard on Peepsqueak and his promotion.  I do love my HC family.  They had a nice breakfast for me and we all met in the Harper Collins library. I wish I had a picture of Jeanne Hogle.  She was my graphic designer.  She escaped the room before I could snap her picture.

After our meeting, I packed up 30 books and headed to the Javitz Center in a doozy of a rainstorm!  I LOVED that cab driver for picking me up!!

Messing around with my friends Jane Shasky and Megan Halsey during my Peepsqueak book signing at Surtex. Everyone was in such a good mood!

Here is my teeny tiny room at the Best Western.  I was surprised at how small it was, but in the end, it was cozy and I was so glad I stayed there. It was a good retreat after a busy day.

Can’t forget my sweet agent Alicia Dauber. She had everything running smoothly!

Outside my window all the horse drawn carriages were lining up.  New York is so full of LIFE!

As amazing as the big city is, it is always nice to come HOME!   I had to get my zinnias planted!!  Now it is back to work for the next show!

Whose At The Door?

Just a few minutes ago my little dog Violet started barking!  I opened the front door and found a brown box. The return address? NY, NY!

“It’s Peepsqueak!” I yelled!

I pulled at the sticky packing tape and ripped open the box! Oh my goodness!  Peepsqueak was all packaged up with his own tag. Next I had to cut him out of a plastic bag!  I will have to talk to Beth at Harper Collins about giving him breathing holes next time. He was no worse for wear and now is sitting  comfortably on a chair in my family room.

Merry Makers is the toy company that made Peepsqueak They have made other fun characters like Olivia, Splat the Cat, Lama Lama, Junie B. Jones and more.  Peepsqueak has not stopped talking about them since he came.

Merry Makers has decided to license Peepsqueak for all the world to buy! How exciting!   Keep an eye out for him come late January.http://www.merrymakersinc.com/index.html

Which Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

The P E N C I L !

Many have asked me what my process is for creating my characters.  Here is the low down with my “Peepsqueak” chick.

1. First I sketch him with a simple pencil. 2. Once Peepsqueak is sketched, I lay a piece of tracing paper over the sketch and draw him with an ink line. (I use a #3 Micron pen) This inked-in image is then scanned. 

3. There are always specks and lines in the scan that I might not like. At this point I open this inked-in image in Photoshop and clean it up. You can see in the image below how I cleaned up Peepsqueak.  4. The next step is to bring the cleaned up jpg into Illustrator. I open the image in Illustrator. I select it and then go under Object in the menu, select Live Trace, then Make and Expand.  After that process I save Peepsqueak as a pdf. Look how nice and clean and smooth the line is now!!

The last step is to color him in Photoshop!  Voila!!!

So, as you can clearly see,  the Pencil came first!!  Do you think God sketched us all out on paper before he made us?  Ha!  fun thought!

Hindsight

Noun

1.

hindsight– understanding the nature of an event after it has happened; “hindsight is always better than foresight”.Most all of us have had opportunities to look back on in our lives and see there was a path set before us to follow!  Whether or not we have pursued that path is up to us. As I look back, even my disappointments were part of my present. ********************************************************************** 1. My childhood was fertile ground for make-believe.  We had dress up clothes and plenty of games and things to keep us busy. I always LOVED dolls and I remember my imagination being so keen that I could believe my dolls were almost real. ********************************************************************** 2. In Jr. High school I met a friend name Ronnie Burton.  She made the most wonderful cartoons. I still remember how she drew the ears and the hair.  She amazed me! Soon I began drawing my own cartoons. Just a few weeks ago we met up at our high school reunion.  She is still my friend after all these years and she is still doing amazing art! ********************************************************************** 3. When my children were young I read them book after book. I loved reading them stories.  My favorite stories were the ones that made us laugh and laugh. Some of our favorites are Ruby the Copycat, Dabble Duck, But No Elephants, Patrick and Ted, Duncan and Dolores, Frog and Toad, Owl at Home and more.  Anyone ever read Julie Andrew’s book called Mandy?  I sat sobbing as I read that one. Even though I was an adult, my future was still being shaped and my desire to illustrate books for children grew. ********************************************************************** 4. When my youngest was ready for reading we ordered Ladybug magazine.  Since I was an artist and cartoonist I began entertaining the idea of illustrating for Ladybug.  I sent off some art and was quickly rejected. I attended a SCBWI conference and an editor from Ladybug was there.  She looked at my portfolio and hired me to illustrate the parent pages.  It was a dream come true! ********************************************************************** 5. Meeting my hero, Tomie dePoala was great fun!  He came all the way out West to meet ME! Ha!… Okay… so I never met him in person until this day, but he did write me a couple of times after I wrote to him. Yes, if you write an author or illustrator, they MAY just write you back!********************************************************************** 6. Another fun event in my life was when my painting of “The Princess and the Pea” was a part of the Colorado Children’s Museum’s art show on Fairy Tales. All the paintings were only about 3 feet off the ground. ********************************************************************** 7. When my agent hooked me up with Clothworks Textiles I had great fun designing quilting fabrics.  My daughter’s grandma-in law Bonnie began making me quilts with my fabrics.  We traded.  I give her a ton of fabric and she sews! ********************************************************************** 8. The Licensing Show in Las Vegas brought me to where I am today, working on my second book for Harper Collins. Book one comes out in early 2012 and book 2 in 2013. ********************************************************************** In looking back at my life, I see a series of doors I had to go through that have brought me to today!  Hindsight can be a good thing if you use it to propel yourself into your future!  We have to use the disappointing times as stepping stones!  All things are possible if you believe!!

Mooooooooo!

THAT is a very BIG COW!  Mooooooooooooo!!

I just love creating characters.  They all seem to have a life of their own. I look into their eyes and imagine what kind of personality they have.  I imagine what their voices sound like and what their days are filled with.  This is McMoo.  I designed him for a friend’s ice cream store. They may rename him, but to me, he will always be McMoo!!

Ready to Go!

Pencil in hand, papers scattered across my old green kitchen table.  Poised and ready, I begin work on another book.  Perhaps I should say two books!  I have two in the wings.  The second Peepsqueak book and Shivery Timbers!  I can already hear the farm animals in the barn and the crazy Snofolk tumbling down the hills.  Blue Skye Studio, you ROCK!!

YO! What? Contracts?

Working on contracts is like reading a foreign language.  I will be happy when my dear agent Alicia calls to translate.  I will take notes, ask questions and then when it is finished, I can finally get to finishing up two wonderful little stories for my grand babies, and many, many more little children with wonder in their eyes!