In stores June 5th.The sequel to Oh No!
Each book also comes with a movie poster on the reverse side of the book jacket...
and if you need to traverse time it also comes with a time travel map. I have to add that author, Mac Barnett, was very meticulous in his research on all things. I learned a ton just reading it...
It has also received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly.
There's a saying that you should never meet your heroes.
I met Maurice Sendak once.
Well, actually, that's not true.
The truth is, back in 2005, when I was just starting out in the business, I was at an event and Maurice Sendak was being honored with an award.
While I was walking around I could hear people say things like...
"He's not a very nice man."
"He's very grouchy. He doesn't like people."
While talking to some other illustrators they said to me, "Don't do it. Just keep your pure image of the man in your mind."
I saw Maurice from across the room while I was pacing around the entire night thinking about what I would do. I didn't want my only memory of him to be an awful one, after all, It was probably the only chance I would ever get to meet him. What if he said something hurtful, or told me that my work was crap?
He gave his speech and after the crowd thinned out a few people were congratulating him as he came down from the stage. He walked by me and we looked at each other.
I said nothing.
We just stared at each other. He was expecting me to say something and I froze. Then someone else spoke to him and his attention shifted and he went on his way.
That was it.
I should have said something.
Anything.
That was the one time I met Maurice Sendak.
That is my one regret.
Last night I read Dog In Charge and Bawk and Roll to an audience of 200. Afterwards many cookies were consumed. Special thanks to Little Junebugs for hosting the event!
The art for this book was special experience for me. I had always wanted to do a fireman book and I've also been dying to experiment with something new in my artwork, so when I got the call for this project I jumped at the chance.
The main idea I wanted to handle with this book was to make the artwork interact with the fire and water in the story with the idea being that the pages in the book were so close to the fire that it burned the pages and when the firemen came in with their hoses the water would make the ink in the artwork bleed off the paper. First off, I tried out this simple sample of drawing two firemen.......
Then I followed it up by adjusting the art by altering it digitally and incorporating it with burned pieces of paper like so....
I wanted to keep in mind that the burns and watermarks are supposed to supplement the artwork and not overwhelm the page and take center stage. In the book the burn marks gradually dissipate as the fire goes out until you are left with only water stains and smoke.
I don't normally go out for photo reference shoots, but in this case accuracy was pretty important and so I went out with my son on a field trip to the nearby fire station and I also gathered parent hours for the school. DOUBLE SCORE!
I usually work entirely in Photoshop but a good part of this project would require me going back to using traditional mediums to create textures
I applied watercolor onto paper to create the grainy haze you see in an ember filled sky. I also used it to handle smoke effects. I created many texture samples to get the right effect...
For the burn marks I actually burned pieces of paper in my basement and scanned in the edges....
The water marks were a little more difficult. I completed the artwork unaltered on my computer. I then printed out a copy of that artwork and then using an eyedropper and a cup of water I created puddles of water to make the color in the art print bleed and appear as if it had been damaged by water from the water hose. After that I scanned in the waterlogged image and incorporated it into the work and then added the burn treatments on top of that using Photoshop.
These were the end results....
I was especially happy with the endpapers. This is the firefighters going to the fire.....
This is the back endpapers. An image of them after putting the fire out ...
Here is the cover of the book....
Go find the book in stores now!
Howdy folks,
I'm in a great mood. I have several deadlines coming up in the next few weeks then after that it will be smooth sailing until the end of the year. I'll finally get to start writing my next graphic novel for Scholastic, I'll get started on my next picture book with Little, Brown, while illustrating a few other projects in the year. Meanwhile, this weekend will be the start of what will be many appearances in the upcoming Spring/Summer for the many books coming out this calendar year.
LA TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
This weekend is the LA Times Festival of Books. This will be the second year it is held at the USC Campus (previously held on the much nicer UCLA Campus) and I will be signing some of my new book releases at several places....
SATURDAY APRIL 21st
11:00 AM DIESEL BOOKSTORE (Booth 975) - Sidekicks and others
1:00 PM ONCE UPON A TIME (Booth 774) - Sidekicks and others
3:00 PM LITTLE JUNEBUGS (Booth 559) - Bawk and Roll and others
4:00 PM MRS NELSONS TOY AND BOOK SHOP (Booth 747) - Dog In Charge and others
See you there!
BOOK NEWS
Good news all around for the book titles I've worked on. OH NO! NOT AGAIN! Just received a starred review from Kirkus and DOG IN CHARGE also received a starred review in Publisher's Weekly. Abrams Books has really made a push to promote KEL GILLIGAN'S DAREDEVIL STUNT SHOW that they made it the cover of their Fall Catalog as seen here. FIRE! FUEGO! BRAVE BOMBEROS comes out next week and has also been getting great reviews. I'll be posting a video next week on my process on how I did the art for that book. BAWK AND ROLL has been getting great reviews all around and author, Tammi Sauer is on a mad tear throughout the country doing speaking engagements. Speaking of which....
Sterling just sent me a crazy stack of copies and I may possibly have to think up a contest or something to give these suckers away. Stay tuned. It might be something simple like, "Hey, tweet about it" or some junk. We'll see.
On a semi related note the NHL Playoffs are here and my beloved (8th seeded) Los Angeles Kings are one win away from eliminating the top seeded Vancouver Canucks from the playoffs. The captain of the LA Kings, Dustin Brown has been on a scoring rampage putting in four goals in the first three games of the series and also layed out a out a nice highlight reel body check on Henrik Sedin. ANYWAY, Mr. Dustin Brown is also a contributor to the Guy's Read anthology edited by Jon Sciezcquiza .... Scieszka?... Is there supposed to be a 7 in there somewhere? Anyway, this is a little detail from the illustration for his story contribution. (For all you hockey fans out there, yes, I will be changing the other players number to 33) Go Kings Go!....
Speaking of playoffs and such, my graphic novel, SIDEKICKS, contiinues to get good news. As you know it has been nominated for a Children's Choice Book Award but I have just recently discovered that it has also made the Bank Street Children's Book List, the Kansas Reading Circle and is a nominee for the James Patterson Kiddo Award. These accolades all however pale in comparison to it winning the March Madness tourny at a little Ohio school....
As a treat for the wonderful honor I'll be giving that class (led by teacher, Tony Keefer) A free Skype school visit in the next few weeks.
OK, that's it. See you all next week, and hopfully this weekend!