 |
| © Jane Smith • Special Easter Delivery—Oops! |
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Super Star Interview: Martin Bruckner
Welcome to my
monthly interview feature! I’m so excited to be interviewing all the fabulous
artists, illustrators and designers I’ve meet over the years (both personally
and virtually!) and sharing their artwork and experiences here on Bird Meets
Worm. Look for a new interview on the first Tuesday of every month.
This
month I’m happy to be chatting it up with Artist Marty Bruckner! I simply can’t
enough of his super fun illustrations of children’s sayings! Marty
first started creating these for his Spaghetti Toes Facebook page in 2014 after a funny
dinner conversation with his wife and daughter. He has been drawing custom
prints for his family and for parents all over the world ever since. His first
book I Love You with All my Butt
comes out on April 4th, 2017 (That’s today!! Hooray! Congrats, Marty! Buy it here now!) Marty
lives in Omaha with his wife Michelle, his five-year-old daughter Harper, and
their three dogs. You can view more of his artwork here!
 |
| Spidey-love!!! |
Q: You have a fabulous new book out, I Love You with All my Butt, that is a hilarious
collection of illustrated children’s sayings that you have been creating and
sharing for many years. Dish with us about how it came to be from inspiration
thru creation, all the way to discovery & publication.
A: A few years ago, when my daughter was
two, we were having a spaghetti dinner. My daughter, Harper, was goofing around
and had begun to play with her noodles. Eventually those noodles had made their
way down to her toes and my wife was not having any of that. She playfully, but
sternly, said, “Please don't put spaghetti between your toes!” and an idea that
would change our lives was catapulted into my brain. I decided to take all of
the silly, gross, funny, adorable things that were being said in my home and
bring them to life through my artwork. After a few months of me putting all of
these illustrated musings onto a Facebook page, people started to take notice.
I was soon being contacted by the Huffington Post, CNN, the Today Show,
Buzzfeed and many, many more. It was around that time that I started talking to
a literary agent and he put my book out there for potential publishers to see.
The amazing people at Workman Publishing would soon change our lives once
again. We teamed up to create the book and it has been a true joyful experience
from beginning to end.
 |
| So sweet! I love the little tools!! |
Q: The artwork in your book represents a range of
different art styles and looks. Give us the scoop on how your day job as a
creative director/freelance designer influences your diverse approach to
illustration and typography.
A: I've
been a creative director for about 15 years now and started out mainly as an
illustrator. I was mainly a pencil artist for the first half of my career but
slowly started to acquire different styles. They are all based on the same idea—fun,
loose, whimsical almost child-like drawings but I have about five to ten
slightly different interpretations that come out to be visually distinct. As
far as the typography, I just scribble out my letters right in Photoshop with
the brush tool. Some of the "fonts" are super quick and easy and
others take me quite a bit of time depending on how I want them to look.
Q: Art, design and inspiration is a family affair in
your house. In what ways do your wife and daughter both inspire and challenge
you?
A: They
inspire every single thing I do, and more than inspiration, they do half of the
work for me either with their words or their ideas. I get stuck a lot and my
wife, Michelle, always comes to my rescue. Sometimes I fight her on it, but
she's always right. (Don't tell her that I said that!) Harper, my daughter, is
now giving her ideas as well and I love it. She'll hear me and my wife talking about
what to do and she'll say, “Why didn't anyone ask me what I thought?” It's so
sweet and innocent and then she'll go into a five minute rabbit hole of
brilliant five-year-old thoughts.
 |
| I will! And I'll play it over and over and over in my brain for forever!! |
Q: Last year the world lost a great number of
cultural icons and you began creating a series of stunning illustrations of
them. Tell us all about how/why you were moved to create them and if/how you
see the series continuing.
A: This
project really started as me doing something for my wife just like Spaghetti
Toes did. When Gene Wilder died it crushed my wife. She has loved him forever
and was so sad so I did a little drawing of all of his characters for her. She
cried when she saw it, but it moved her. After Carrie Fisher died late last
year, I did a drawing of her and put it on my Facebook page and people loved it
and thanked me for doing it. It was then that I realized how many amazing
people we had lost and I wanted to do a piece for all of them. I got a handful
done and reached out to some people I have been in connection with out in the
world of social media and Buzzfeed agreed to run all of my pieces. It was such
an amazing project to work on and it's something that I would love to do every
single year. Movie stars and athletes and musicians and all sorts of public
figures mean so much to us and help shape our childhoods and adulthoods and I
was just trying to pay tribute to them the only way I know how.
Q: There is a bit of lovely serendipity paired with
your own motivation to share and create that resulted in Spaghetti Toes
becoming an Internet sensation and now a fabulous book. Talk with us a bit
about what advice you would give fellow creatives about daily work habits,
inspiration, creating community and success.
A: Just
be yourself. If you are good at something and have passion behind it, it will
eventually turn into something that can become a huge part of your life. I
never really thought that Spaghetti Toes would turn into what it has, but in
the back of my head I knew there was something there. The best part of it for
me, is that it's 100% a family idea. It would not exist without my wife, my
daughter and then me. It has become something that I hope will last the rest of
my life and I know it can because I will always have my family with me forever.
 |
| It is, isn't it?! Vanilla with vanilla frosting for me, please! |
The community that has followed me
through all of this is nothing short of amazing and inspiring. I have gotten
daily messages for three years now of people telling me funny (and sad)
memories from their lives. A lot of people just want to tell me something gross
or silly that happened to them earlier that morning. I have parents who have
lost children and children that have lost parents come to me to help them
capture memories. I sometimes post pictures of Harper or tell a little story
about something she's done and the comments that I get are so amazing.
 |
| Ooo! I wonder if the bellybutton fairy grants wishes, too! |
A: A
few years ago I took the day off from my day job. I woke up, took Harper to
school, went and got a coffee and came home to work on Spaghetti Toes. Harper
gets out of school at 11am so I went and picked her up, and she, my
wife and I all went out to lunch. We came home, walked the dogs, went to the
park and returned home where Harper relaxed and played and I went back to work.
Now, while I still love my day job, that was a perfect day to me. The perfect
mixture of "work" and play, because in the end, Spaghetti Toes is far
from work to me. It's a visual history of my family. It's memories, both good
and bad. It's a chronological list of my daughter's first years and it's
something that we will all look at for the rest of our lives and laugh, cry and
relish.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Super Star Interview: Shirley Ng-Benitez
Welcome
to my monthly interview feature! I’m so excited to be interviewing all the
fabulous artists, illustrators and designers I’ve meet over the years (both
personally and virtually!) and sharing their artwork and experiences here on
Bird Meets Worm. Look for a new interview on the first Tuesday of every month.
This month I’m thrilled to bits to be catching up with my fellow
Tugeau2 artist, the sweet Illustrator, Shirley Ng-Benitez! I am a huge fan of
her absolutely adorable artwork! Shirley loves to draw! Since
’98, she’s owned Gabby & Co., a design/illustration/handlettering firm and
has worked with wonderful clients in the technology, greeting card, medical,
toy, design and publishing industries. She creates with watercolor, gouache,
pencil & digital techniques and is living her dream, illustrating and
writing picture books in the Bay Area, California with her family. You can view more of her artwork here!
 |
| Who doesn't love pie?! Especially when it comes with friends! |
Q: Expressive characters are at the heart of picture books that
connect with young readers. And your characters are SO adorable and convey a
lot of emotion! Take us thru how you develop and design a character for a
children’s picture book.
A: Thank you Jane, I
appreciate your kind words about my characters!
For picture books, I first
start with thinking about the main character’s personality and emotion. If the
character is scared, then I start visualizing what it would feel like to be
scared. I will do a combination of things before and during my sketching of the
character, which include googling images that represent “scared”, and “acting”
scared and looking at a mirror while doing so. Sometimes I will ask my youngest
to “pose” for me and it’s great to be able to just do a quick free-sketch while
she’s holding a pose. I sketch and sketch until a gesture or expression, or the
feeling comes through. If it’s for personal pieces, I tend to randomly sketch
and move the pencil until something pops up…it’s quite fun when there’s a face
or some kind of shape that starts developing into something or someone
recognizable! :)
 |
| A winter wonderland indeed! |
A: Thanks so much Jane! I
started my daily sketching about 6 years ago after I attended a SCBWI
Illustrator’s Day in San Francisco and heard Amy June Bates speak about her own practices. Her advice to all of us was to “draw, draw, draw, and then draw some
more.” I really took it to heart and have found that I really find such
relaxation and enjoyment from sketching each day. I use plain white copy paper
on a clipboard and use Ticonderoga #2s.
Through the years, to help
provide prompts on what to sketch, I’ve made personal challenges, such as
“sketch-a-day-for-a-year-and-post”, or “animal alphabet”; or I participate in
Inktober, “the 100 day project”, and “Illo Advent,” which all have stretched me
to sketch with different goals in mind. I’ll focus on light & shadow,
composition, and more recently, narrative-driven illustrations.
Inspiration comes from so
many sources, but I must say, my daily walks at the park with my dog, Zsofi,
help me to clear my head and think through project issues, and other concepts
for personal and agent projects. The park is also home to cattle, so it’s been
such a treat to see the newest members of the herd every season. Living in
California, especially with all of this rain, has made for some beautiful green
hills, creeks and cloudy skies and sunsets...it’s been truly wonderful.
 |
| So sweet & cozy! |
A: I have to say that my favorite project from the past was Emily Lost Someone She Loved,
by Kathleen Fucci, 2015. Kathleen Fucci, wrote a beautiful story, which became
an award-winning grief book for kids, and continues to help so many who have
lost a loved one.
My favorite latest project
is How Do You Say I Love
You?—an upcoming board book from
Little Simon by Hannah Eliot, which I thoroughly enjoyed illustrating as it
introduces very little children to different ways to say “I Love You” from all
over the world.
I must say that I have
really enjoyed illustrating all of the projects I’ve had the honor of
illustrating and have found so many in this industry (publishers, authors,
printers, marketers, editors, art directors, book designers, my agent, her
staff) who have really been wonderful working with while creating books with
purpose.
 |
| Doesn't this just give you the warmest warm fuzzies?! |
A: I’ve been very inspired by this movement and wish to praise the
incredible efforts of Lee and Low Books. From their site, their mission: “To publish contemporary diverse stories that
all children
could enjoy. We decided to steer clear of folktales since they tended to be
about people who lived a long time ago. In contrast, we wanted our books to
emphasize the richness of today’s cultures. We also avoided talking animal
stories, since there was nothing new we could bring to this genre. And we
pledged to make a special effort to work with unpublished authors and
illustrators of color.”
I am so honored to be
working on their latest imprint of early chapter books called “Dive Into
Reading,” which have cast a diverse group of children called the Confetti Kids.
Also from their site, I love the message to parents, educators, and guardians: “We also believe that books should inspire
young readers to imagine a diverse world that includes them, a world in which
they can see themselves as the heroes of their own stories.”
I’d also like to praise the
efforts of the We Need Diverse Books organization—and for the
incredible resources found there.
In my personal efforts to
share the new Dive Into Reading imprint with my local schools and libraries, I
found it very difficult to break through the established bureaucracy of book
purchasing in my public school district. The decision to include new books is
left to the purchaser, who makes purchasing decisions based on established
booklists, which may not have the very latest offerings of diverse books. I’m
unsure how much public schools know about where to find diverse books and their
interest to include them in their libraries, though I am hopeful that they do
and are. Ultimately, I would love to see these books in the hands of all public
school children, and it would be great to have an easier method to get the
books to them by furthering the need for diverse books and information on where
you can go to find them.
Q: What is your dream project?
A: My dream project is actually two dream projects: 1) to
author/illustrate a story that resonates and touches people of all ages; and 2)
illustrate a Golden Book. Wowee—that would be so amazing!
Q: Describe your most perfect Sunday.
A: Sleeping in an extra hour or two at most, then fixing my cup of
Peets coffee, I’d open up the blinds to reveal a beautiful sunshiny day in
Poipu, Kauai; or the Bay Area, California. I’d work a few hours on my story,
sketching, and painting, and then take a long walk with my girls, hubby, and
pup; eat a great late lunch or early dinner; and then settle into a painting at
night…perfection!
Friday, February 10, 2017
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)