Toward the end, the focus switches to Sallie and Jem who just got married, engaged in dance.  I knew I wanted to convey a quiet moment between these two, oblivious to the gaiety of their surroundings, so I used an old photograph as inspiration. Changing costumes and faces, I concentrated on that kiss to the cheek and the sparkle in her eye.  It's one of my favorite illustrations in the book...one I hope will resonate with viewers.

As with the illustration of the newlyweds, I hope readers see something of themselves in the book--their own family celebrations through music and dance--and how, often, we are more alike than different.

Family, after all, can be seen in a tree-or-forest kind of way.  Dance Y’all, Dance!

*****

Link: http://www.brightskypress.com/infostore/ca.cart.asp?sAction=DisplayDetails&pid=155&id=227</a>

Here’s sneak peek into the making of Dance Y’all Dance, a picture book written by Kelly Bennett that I illustrated and is being released this November (Bright Sky Press).  It was the most fun project I’ve ever worked on.  The story is set in the not too distant past when families, farm hands and cowboys & gals would get together on weekends at the local honky tonk.  I did some research into clothing styles, period furniture, Texas symbols and olde timey dance halls, then chose to keep the colors vivid and saturated to give the book a contemporary look.

Once I had the scene sketched, I redrew it on Strathmore 10-ply paper with a Berol Prismacolor pencil...then laid a wash of ultramarine & yellow ochre. With a wet q-tip or small brush, I began to pick out highlights.

Later, using the new tones as a guide, I start to lay in color with gouache, working from dark to light. What interests me now is the design of shadows, losing and finding edges and letting a little of the wash show through as line.  I make an effort to NOT have perfectly symmetrical faces as I believe it lends to more effective expressions. 

I continue building layers of paint to emphasize form, adding texture, patterns, detail and highlights.  Finally scanning into photoshop, I clean and fine tune the piece.

So there you have it.  I love playing with color.  I love visiting my works-in-progress (aka “children”) every morning.  I love this job!

Working on:  another country-themed book offering, but that’s all I’m gonna say right now!  In the meantime, here is an interview I did on the author’s website, if’n you’re interested: http://www.kellybennett.com/books/danceyall.html

The lovely thing about mystery is that unsolved ones keep wandering around in your brain.

In 2006, I received my first piece of fan mail...from a man who saw an illustration of mine at a New York Children's Book conference gallery.  He wrote me, asking about purchase of a print, saying that piece had a tremendous effect on him, for reasons he may disclose to me one day. Here is part of the painting, from a story I was writing.

I sent him the print, along with what inspired me during the painting of it.  He never received it, so I sent another.  That one arrived fine.

He went on to tell me that he owned a kayak shop in  New Jersey, and was about to embark on a 14 day trip paddling the waters around Greece.  That's the last I ever heard from him. I often picture him in paddling the crystal blue Aegean Sea, tanned and laughing, wet with golden glints of ocean spray. And I wonder what it was that he connected with so strongly in the art of a little girl looking wistfully to the sky.  I also wonder who got the lost package of art and inspiration.  And if that had a synchronicity in their life.

Ultimately, I like not knowing...wondering and wandering are just fine with me.

working on: relaxing!  Just finished illustrating Dance Y'all Dance, a picture book due out in Fall '09.  Off to Florida Keys to see the sis, play in the ocean....

      Remember the movie with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell where each day repeats the exact events from the day before? Groundhog Day. That’s how my illustrating life has been the past month or so.  Squeezed by a tight deadline, I basically painted non-stop for 30+ days to finish a 24-page picture book.  Paint, sleep, paint, sleep...at the end I was wild eyed and mumbling, my fingernails yellowed and grown to enormous lengths.  Ironically, Groundhog’s day fell somewhere in there.  The only shadows I saw were my own, slogging off to bed at 3 a.m.   
      Here’s a character from that picture book about a dog and his boy.  Visual inspiration courtesy of a friends’ pup...the puppy they got after they said they would never get another dog.  The pup had different ideas...

      Started layouts for a picture book called Dance Y’all Dance, a lighthearted story about a raucous family-friendly Texas dance hall in the 1930’s, Kelly Bennett-author, Bright Sky Press-publisher.  Goin’ through my pics and imagination for raucous, family-friendly  dancin’ cowboys and cowgirls....be careful, I might just put a stetson on you!  Here’s the cover, which had to be done prior to the innards (I’m already talkin’ cowboy!), for promo purposes...   Yeehaw!

currently drawing:  Dance Y’all Dance layouts
currently writing:  2 short stories for inclusion in a themed anthology

I still have my Christmas tree up.  Not laziness on my part...all my other decorations are put away for another year.  But this year's Christmas tree, still green and holding its needles, is one I've become very attached to.  It's the kind I remember from my childhood, a single balsam.  This spindly variety has nearly disappeared from the lots nowadays, in favor of the uniformly shaped double balsam and the "more is better" theory.
    When I was a child, on the day before Christmas Eve my father would find the bargain tree, the one picked over, the sorriest tree on the lot. Then full of Christmas spirits, he'd haul the balding, misshapen evergreen on to a Chicago city bus where it invariably became a group effort to get him and the tree on and off the bus.  Transformed in ornaments and tinsel finery, we'd pay homage to Christmas with my brothers and sisters singing "Dzisiaj w Betlejem,"  hands folded in reverence.

With my own family, we shop for the tree on my son's birthday, have candy cane silk chocolate pie at Bakers Square, then head back home to sing "o christmas tree" to the tree. Not quite an instant replay of my youth, it is our tradition...part old, part new.

The tree and me, we have an unspoken bargain.  I'll keep feeding it,  and it'll shine its best for me...even long after it's gone.

currently working  on: illustrating 2 picture books. 
One for Hooked on Phonics, and
“Dance Y’all, Dance” Bright Sky Press, Fall 2009

    Remember the time you waited until no one was around, crawled under the Christmas tree, peeled back the corner wrapping of your present and took a peek?  This is going to be something like that.

    Except that this time my agent Nicole (www.tugeau2.com) is fully aware and gives a wink and a nod.  I was asked to paint the image for this year’s agency holiday card.  Knowing I wanted to show a variety of animals and convey the hope and magic of the season, I sketched and rendered the following illustration.

    The next challenge was to produce spot art for the back of the card that played off the main illustration.  This is an entertaining part in creating narrative illustration...to give visual hints as to what may happen next. In this case, the subplot is easy to catch.  A gift is given, it is received...and the mouse soars.

    So if you receive one of these holiday cards in the mail, just act surprised. How did we know ... it’s what you’ve always wanted!

    currently painting: 6 illustrations for May/June 09 Ladybug Magazine
    currently writing: short stories and poetry for a themed anthology

Happy Holidays!

Terri Murphy
www.terrimurphyart.com

    Thought I’d give a tour of my favorite spaces and places for creating.  Starts out with my studio, a.k.a. “the cocoon,”...
...an organized chaos of inspiration, art samples, books, music, found treasures, and toys,... especially these squishy lizards toy designer Liz Dubois gave me.  When stretched, twisted and twirled, they help make my fuzzy caterpillar brain turn into butterflies.

    Studio B (for basement) is a cleared out corner with curtained walls.  Purely for play and experimentation. Currently working in oils, I’m doing a copy painting by one of my mentor artists, Claude Langevin, a Canadian painter in the tradition of The Group of Seven.  He has great color sense and simplicity of vision.

    As an artist and a writer, it’s tempting to spin another cocoon for the writing portion and just plop in front of a computer.  So I go out.  Favorite places to write are coffee shops, libraries, bookstores, and this place....I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it....
...a vintage resale and coffee shop!!  My two favorite things, housed together, brought a tear to my eye as I drove past it...squealed a u-turn, pulled over...walked in...the Stones “Sympathy for the Devil” was playing.  I said “I could live here!”  Georgia, owner and kindred spirit, said, “So could I.” A great place to write, research, eavesdrop, visit ancient resident ghosts, have a cappuccino,...complete with Georgia’s lovely mother who rocks in the sun and reads. She speaks only Greek yet somehow, everyone understands.

    Lastly, the great outdoors, kept alive in a sketchbook.  Variety abounds, always surrounds, always there, waiting to be noticed....like fuzzy caterpillars into butterflies.

currently painting: b & w children’s art, a promo Christmas card
currently writing:  a humorous short story “The Snowy Mammoth,” & poetry