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| Do you love apple picking in Autumn?! Me, too! • © Jane Smith |
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Super Star Interviews: Hilary Leung
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 so excited—with pumpkin spice on top!—to be chatting it up with the rock star Illustrator, Hilary Leung, who has a brand new picture book that released in September! Hilary is a Toronto-based designer & illustrator. He self-published his first picture book, The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear, and recently has worked with Story Planet, a non-profit that encourages young people to create and tell their stories. When he's not creating, Hilary can be found at home, playing with his two awesome kids. You can see more of his artwork here!
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| Love these bright primary colors!! |
Q: Your rip-roaring, action-packed NEW picture book, Two Tough Trucks, just released! Congratulations!! (Psst! You can purchase it here!) Give us the full scoop on your new book—what’s it all about & how did it come to be?
A: Thank you very much—I am super excited to finally be able to share Two Tough Trucks with the world! My wonderful editor, Celia Lee, slid this manuscript across my desk two years ago. My family and I are big fans of Corey and Rebecca's books and after reading their fantastic manuscript, I couldn't wait to get started.
Two Tough Trucks is about the first day of school and two new classmates have to learn how to work together. It's a perfectly paced story about teamwork and friendship. This project has a special place in my heart, because my daughter was preparing for her first day of school as I was preparing the final art for this book.
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| A Mack and a Rig—coming together! |
Q: I absolutely love your energetic, graphic style! Dish with us a bit about your creative process for the artwork for Two Tough Trucks—from ideas to thumbnails to sketches to finished artwork (you know, all the good stuff!).
A: My process starts with reading the manuscript, followed by messy doodles with pencil crayons or markers. Figuring out the main characters is my favourite part—anything is possible! When I'm happy with the designs, I'll snap a photo with my phone and trace the drawing in a vector program on my computer. I'll invest hours nudging the details in an attempt to recapture the freshness from my original analog sketch. After all the pieces are properly composed, I'll add a wood texture on top, and email the files to my talented designer, Doan Buu, and art director, Patti Ann Harris.
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| These two buddies aren't just tough, they're adorable!! |
Q: Your initial breakthrough into the world of children’s book publishing came when you and your friend, David Bruins, self-published The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear. How would you compare your experiences self-publishing with your experiences with traditional publishing? What have been the rewards & challenges of each?
A: David and I learned a lot through self-publishing our first book and it was really rewarding. We were eager, nimble, and happy to troubleshoot problems on the fly. Self-publishing offered us total creative control, but we had to take care of the paperwork and sales. Also, the payment came much later.
Things move slower with traditional publishing, but the huge advantages include the wide distribution and receiving advance payment upfront. I'm also grateful to have the support of an amazing team.
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| Capturing all the feels for the first day of school!! |
Q: Your characters are always emotionally expressive and easily relatable with their friendly shapes and stylings, especially in your board book series, Will Giraffe Laugh? What advice would you give fellow illustrators about: 1) designing characters, 2) conveying emotion visually and 3) creating artwork for the youngest of readers.
A: My best advice:
1) Stay loose, always experiment, and have fun. Designing characters is best part!
2) Use the full body to express emotion. Also, eyes can say a lot—take advantage!
3) Play-test everything. Kids are honest and will let you know what's working.
Q: Dish with us about who, what, where inspires you the MOST in your storytelling, both visual & verbal.
A: My kids are my biggest inspiration. The greatest gift of being a parent is revisiting life's joys through their eyes. I regularly ponder how to communicate complex ideas in fun and accessible ways. Plus kids say and do the darndest things, so there's an endless supply of inspiration!
Fun Fact: You'll find my kids' artwork in most of my books.
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| Hilary & friends! |
Q: Describe your most perfect Sunday.
A: My perfect Sunday would start with a calm and relaxing family breakfast after a restful night's sleep. Then we'd go for a hike in the woods with friends, sketch some wildlife, skip some stones, enjoy a picnic lunch, visit my parents, fly our dragon kite, work in a friendly game of soccer, and eat something delicious (like chicken with waffles). We'd naturally end our perfect day with bedtime stories from our ridiculously large pile of books at home.
Thank you so much, Hilary, for chatting it up with us here at Bird Meets Worm! Congratulations on Two Tough Trucks!
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Sub Stop
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| Under-the-sea schools send a sub, not a bus to fetch the students! Obviously! ;D • © Jane Smith |
Super Star Children's Book Reviews: Front Desk
Welcome to the monthly children’s book review feature with a focus on diverse books here at Bird Meets Worm! My team of reviewers—Joan Charles, Laurie Young, Sarah Orgill—and I are so excited to be championing books celebrating everything from gender diversity, people of color, the LGBTQ community to ethnic, cultural and religious minorities, people with disabilities and developmental challenges to controversial topics, unique family situations and anything and everything I did not include. It is to say we take a rightfully broad view of diversity! We aim to shine a light on books that bring both familiar experiences to those who do not often see themselves represented in books and new experiences to those looking to expand their worldview. Here at Bird Meets Worm we believe in the power of story to build empathy and thus a better world for you and me and everyone. Look for a new review on the second Wednesday of every month.
Written by Kelly Yang
Middle Grade Chapter Book (ages 8-12) • 286 pages
Published by Arthur A. Levine Books • 2018
ISBN 978-1-338-15779-6
Fifth grader Mia Tang is like an imaginary superhero—by day, she’s an American school kid—by night, she steps behind the front desk to help her parents run the motel where they work and live. Although the motel is only five miles from Disneyland, the park might as well be on the moon for all the relevance it has in Mia’s life.
For one thing, she’s picked on and teased at school because she’s different. A) She’s Chinese, and B) her hand-me-down clothes are seriously uncool. And most importantly, C) she wants to be a writer, something that’s not so easy for a girl who’s still wrestling with the intricacies of the English language.
Mia must contend with problems and face crises that are far beyond her years. She and her family encounter prejudice and racism—aimed not only at themselves, but at other immigrants and the poor weekly residents who live at the motel.
She has a beyond-her-years ability to see the other side and the determination to stand up for what’s right. Mia learns to use her resourcefulness and her skills as a writer to give a voice to the powerless, and along the way, she finds her own voice as well.
Front Desk is an honest, sometimes funny, sometimes stark look at the immigrant experience in United States. Mia embodies love, understanding and tolerance—qualities we should all embrace when dealing with those we perceive as “different”. Front Desk reminds us that in the end we are all looking for the same things—love, understanding and a sense of belonging—and our “same-nesses” are far greater than our superficial differences.
Buy this book:
Barnes and Noble
Independent Book Stores
Reviewed by: Joan Charles
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Super Star Interviews: Sujean Rim
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.
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| How totally fabulous is this book cover?! |
Q: Your gorgeous, stylish & sweet NEW picture book, I Love My GlamMA, just released! Congratulations!! (Psst! You can buy it here!) Give us the full scoop on your new book! And is there a GlamMa in your life that inspired you?!
A: Thank you so much! I’m so thrilled. I Love My GlamMA is the
first picture book I illustrated for another author. I’ve been a long-time giant
Samantha Berger fan, so I was excited about the idea of working with her, and
then just fell in love with her manuscript celebrating grandmothers and
couldn’t wait to get started. As a daughter, a mother and woman who is inspired
by and loves to support other women, I immediately started doodling and covered
my ‘mood wall’ in my studio with tear sheets and photos of glamMAs that inspire
me—everyone from Diana Ross to Queen Elizabeth, and of course, the biggest mama
in my life, my son’s grandma—my mom.
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| Stylish daughters come from stylish GlamMOMs and GlamMAs! |
Q: I absolutely adore your lovely artwork and
its’ unique blend of watercolor, collage and pattern. Dish with us a bit about
your creative process—inspiration to sketches to color artwork—and how you
balance these mediums.
A: Thank you (xoxox)! I like working from doodles to directly painting. For me, if I
stop and go too much with a watercolor, I get tight and lose my flow, so I
usually work out a few layouts in a sketch book and once I feel I know what I
want to do, I just dive in and paint. Sometimes it comes quickly, other times
it doesn’t and I might go thru piles of watercolor paper, but I have fun with
it and sometimes happy accidents happen, where a splash of water takes on
unexpected shapes and patterns that make the piece better.
If I’m incorporating
collage, I dig into my boxes of printed papers for patterns and textures that I
think would work well and use them as if it were another color of paint in my
palette. I’m pretty old school and should probably learn how to do Photoshop
already, but I don’t do anything digitally. When it comes to collage, I just
use my x-acto knife to cut out my shapes and glue them on with rubber
cement…just like I did back in high school.
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| Ooo!! Love your hat, GlamMA! |
A: I always loved fashion and wanted to be a fashion designer since
I was in elementary school. I’m sure having a glamMOM with all sorts of
colorful, furry, fuzzy, shiny and sparkly things in her closet sparked my
interest. Then it was old classic movies, I had a huge girl crush on Audrey
Hepburn. I went to Parsons School of Design for Fashion and did a year in Paris
where I was fueled by going to fashion shows and seeing gorgeous things I’ve
never seen before and eating loads of baguettes. After graduating school, I
went on to work in the fashion industry, designing shoes and accessories for
many years. I met some stylish friends along the way who continue to inspire
me today.
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| Napping should be part of everyone's beauty routine! |
A: It was harder than I thought once I took the leap from working
in the corporate world to becoming a full-time freelancer. It was fun for maybe
two weeks to stay in my pj’s and hopefully, brush teeth by noon, but I’m the
type that needs a little structure in my life. My studio is in my home, which takes a lot of discipline. I’m not
naturally wired to set a schedule to just work and not get sidetracked
with the dishes in the sink or the UPS delivery that just rang at the door. I
don’t have a set routine, but a general day starts with me being the first one
up in the kitchen. I write down 3 must-do’s for the day over coffee, after my
husband heads to work, and my son hops on the school bus. Then I head down the
hallway to my studio. We recently moved, so things aren’t quite set up as I’d
like, but I have a good size room to work in with shelves of art supplies and
books and 2 work tables (one to sit and paint & the other to stand and collage or
make a mess on). I usually have a few projects going on at the same time, so I
like to have things pinned up where I can see them grouped together, so I made
a full cork board wall and a white board wall to write notes, ideas and
reminders. I also have a plant that I somehow managed to keep alive for 15
years in there to keep me company along with music that’s always playing in the
background.
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| Looking good, ladies!!! |
A: Whether you write and/or illustrate, stick only with stories you
truly love and feel personally connected with, something you would want to work
on even if you weren’t getting paid. And
stick with your own art style—its easy to get influenced by looking at other
books you like or worrying about catering to a specific audience, where you might
second guess how you might approach an illustration, so try to remember you
were hired because of your work/style. I feel so lucky to have been able to
write and illustrate my first book, Birdie’s Big Girl Shoes ten (yikes!) years
ago. I never thought I’d find myself in the children’s book industry back then,
being a shoe designer at the time, I just wrote about what I knew and really
loved and painted the only way I knew how.
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| Don't you get all the warm fuzzies here?! XO |
Q: Describe your most perfect Sunday.
Thank you so much, Sujean, for chatting it up with us here at Bird Meets Worm!! Congrats on I Love My GlamMa! It's gorgeous!
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