Exciting Summer Project Updates!

So this morning I finished my full-size pencil drawings for Floyd and the Sparkling Seashell, my third Floyd book due out next spring. Yay!!

Since this is a 40-page book, I have to make 18 2-page spreads and a cover, so a total of 19 art works! Finished size is 17.5 by 11.5 inches, so this is a big order to say the least.

After doing all the thumbnails in my sketchbook and prepping my paper, I was able to get going on the final pencil drawing. They are pretty close to the thumbnails, but I did change a bit for the better in the final versions. Here's what that much art work looks like:

Monroe and Farley: Art Guardians

There is still some refining to do; I will go back and probably tweak a few things, such as poses or details, and get it cleaned up better with my erasers before starting the color work. I will also scan all of the drawings first in pencil. This way, if I have a major disaster, I still have a full size digital version to refer to if I have to do a complete revision. You never know, I feel better having this done even if I'll never use them.

Here's a bit of a close-up of the drawings, a little hard to see the pencil but visit this blog again and you might be able to get a sneak preview on some of the scans!

Don't forget I'll be at the Fairhaven Farmers Market this Sunday, August 4. I'll be there from 1-4 and the Story Hour will be at 2:00! Hope to see you there!

And check out a new project my friends and I are fundraising for, all to benefit arts education:
http://www.gofundme.com/winter peace

A New Project: Winter Peace

As I got ready this summer to work on my newest Floyd book, another project came my way introduced by my husband, Matt Richard, and my good friend Patrice Tiedemann. They are both musicians, and they developed an idea to create a holiday season recording, and maybe this recording could benefit music education in some way. And so, "Winter Peace" was born!

My original concept drawing...more about the art in a later post!

This CD recording will benefit the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra's educational outreach program, which brings music education to students in southeastern Massachusetts. As an art educator, I know first-hand how arts education needs support. The NBSO does an amazing job with their numerous student outreach programs and I know these funds will go to good use.

In addition to Matt on piano and Patrice singing original arrangements that you will absolutely love, a student ensemble (Southcoast Vocal Ensemble) joins Patrice on one piece, and 3 instrumental arrangements will be performed by The Southcoast Brass Ensemble featuring Dr. Mike Rocha, Bob Williamson, Ben Paille, Bill Kingsland, and Travis Blischke. Neil Sylvia will be featured on percussion, and cellist Peter Zay is leading a string quartet on a number of pieces as well. All of the arrangements were written by Matt specifically for this recording.

Here's the working list of songs so far...

I am very excited to be included in this project. Not only am I doing the art work for the CD packaging and marketing, I am singing a beautiful duet with Patrice: an Italian folk song called "Gesu Bambino". Some of you may not know this, but I have been singing for many years as a hobby, and Patrice has been my most patient and supportive voice teacher for about the past 7 years. She is basically magic. By the way, like many of the people involved with this project, I am donating 100% of my time on "Winter Peace".

We are crowd-funding this project so we need your help! Any donation amount is appreciated and donors will receive gifts, like free downloads or copies of the CD mailed conveniently to your home, depending on the donation category. Most importantly, if we do not make our goal online, this project will not happen. And I really hope it does because not only will it be amazing, it will help support music in our schools! The deadline to donate is August 7, 2013!

Here is the link to read more about it and please share with friends: www.gofundme.com/WinterPeaceCD

Thanks in advance for your support!!
Please message me if you have any questions at artgirlkris@comcast.net
(Hopefully, I'll be blogging about my work on this project in the near future, so check back in!)

And the Winner Is...

Tiny says, "Stay tuned for my next Give-Away!"

And the winner is...... Christine Matyi Duggan!! Congratulations on winning my first-ever Book Give-Away! 

Christine has won a beautiful autographed hardcover copy of “The Hibernating House” by Sandy Leahy and Kathy Tarentino, illustrated by me in my first-ever Book Give-Away!

If you didn't win and are very sad, there my be more surprise Give-Away chances in the future, so check my blog and my Facebook page to stay in the know.

And of course you can purchase a copies of any of my books on Amazon and I will have copies for sale at my upcoming events. My web site has all the info about purchasing links and brick-and-mortar stores. I will be happy to sign any books for your no matter where you've purchased them, just come on by to any of my events and I'll be happy to do so!

I'm doing three events this summer, so pop on by and say hello!!

Kristine's 2013 Summer Book Tour:

Partner's Village Store in Westport, MA

Date: Thursday, July 25, 2013 
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Event: Children's Reading Circle at Partner's Village Store and Kitchen in Westport, MA

I'll be reading The Hibernating House written by Sandy Leahy and Kathy Tarentino and illustrated by yours truly. There will be a fun related craft for the kids and copies of the book will be available for purchase.


Date: Sunday, August 4, 2013 
Time: 2:00 & 3:00 p.m.

Fairhaven Farmer's Market

Event: Children's Story Hour at the Fairhaven Farmers Market in Fairhaven, MA

I'll be reading The Hibernating House and my Floyd books at the times listed above. Shop the market from 1 to 4 pm and stop by my table to purchase or get your books signed, too! I'll have some free activities for my young fans, including new coloring pages and fun stuff like that.




Date: Thursday, August 15, 2013 

Children's Museum in Easton

Time: 12 p.m.
Event: Floyd Book Reading, part of the Dog Days Summer Drop-in at The Children's Museum in Easton, MA

I'll be reading Floyd and the Mysterious Night Time Noise, then you'll get a sneak peek at how I make the art work for my books. The whole day at the museum is all about my favorite topic: dogs!

 

BOOK GIVE-AWAY! Enter to Win by July 21!!

My first-ever Book Give-Away starts TODAY!

One random lucky person will win a beautiful hardcover copy of “The Hibernating House” by Sandy Leahy and Kathy Tarentino, illustrated by me! I will autograph it for you, too.

How to enter:

You’ll get one entry for each action below.

1. LIKE my Facebook page (if you haven’t already) AND leave a COMMENT on this post. You can write anything, like “I love books” or “Hi Kris” or “Sasquatch”.

2. SHARE this post on your own page. You must share this original post directly from my Facebook page to be counted.

Must be posted/shared by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, JULY 21, 2013!

The winner will be announced next week! Good luck!

Sketching the Sparkling Seashell

My sketchbooks: storyboard and thumbnails.

A really hot summer day is a good time to stay cool and sketch. Today I'm working on my new Floyd book, Floyd and the Sparkling Seashell.

In this story, Floyd, Tiny, and Larue visit one of my favorite places, the beach. They discover some seashells, but of course the shell that Floyd wants is in the water, and he's afraid to go in...

Here's a little peek into how I get from words to illustrations:

There is a lot of imagery in the story I really wanted to expand on in this book, so my first question when getting started was "how many pages"? My last two Floyd books were 32 pages, which is a typical picture book length. Children's books are usually designed in multiples of 8 due to the printing and binding process (odd numbers of pages can leave blank ends and extra costs for pages you're not even using). I really wanted to do more, and so ideally I'd need to go to 40 pages. But would that work?

Usually I just start the illustrations by drawing thumbnail sketches, about half the size of my finished artwork (full-size 2-page spread sizes for these books are 11 x 17 inches), but first I needed to set up a storyboard just to see if the pages would work out to the number I needed before I spent more time on the thumbnails. So what I did was use Post-it notes for the storyboard. I used one for each 2-page spread, and wrote page numbers above. I could remove them or shuffle them to make the story work for the number of pages.

Post-it storyboard

Once I figured that out --and yes, a 40-page format it is!!-- I started my thumbnails in pencil. I print out my story in small text and glue it below the thumbnail so I can see what I'm supposed to be drawing while working. Horizontal lines represent where the text will be set.

A thumbnail sketch for Floyd and the Sparkling Seashell

I'm almost done with the thumbnails as of the moment, so it's back to work for me!

Don't forget: this week, my first-ever GIVEAWAY! Stay tuned...

2013 Summer Book Tour!

It's summer and that means you'll find me reading my books at a fun event near you!

I'll be at not one, not two, but THREE big events in July and August.
Here are the details-- hope to see you there!

Kristine's 2013 Summer Book Tour:

Partner's Village Store in Westport, MA

Date: Thursday, July 25, 2013 
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Event: Children's Reading Circle at Partner's Village Store and Kitchen in Westport, MA

I'll be reading The Hibernating House written by Sandy Leahy and Kathy Tarentino and illustrated by yours truly. There will be a fun related craft for the kids and copies of the book will be available for purchase.


Date: Sunday, August 4, 2013 
Time: 2:00 & 3:00 p.m.

Fairhaven Farmer's Market

Event: Children's Story Hour at the Fairhaven Farmers Market in Fairhaven, MA

I'll be reading The Hibernating House and my Floyd books at the times listed above. Shop the market from 1 to 4 pm and stop by my table to purchase or get your books signed, too! I'll have some free activities for my young fans, including new coloring pages and fun stuff like that.




Date: Thursday, August 15, 2013 

Children's Museum in Easton

Time: 12 p.m.
Event: Floyd Book Reading, part of the Dog Days Summer Drop-in at The Children's Museum in Easton, MA

I'll be reading Floyd and the Mysterious Night Time Noise, then you'll get a sneak peek at how I make the art work for my books. The whole day at the museum is all about my favorite topic: dogs!






Psst-- Check my blog next week for a very exciting first-time-ever KD STUDIO BLOG GIVE-AWAY!!!