Category Archives: Childrens Books

Chicken on the beach

Summer Crush

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I fell in love this summer – with chickens.

Chickens

It started with chickens appearing all over my sketchbooks. Sometimes they lived in a chicken coop or met in the park to play chess. They looked like pirates, sea captains and school bus drivers. One, intensely interested in exoplanets, clucked his way onto a rocket ship.

Sketchbook illustration

I had a vision of large paintings of plucky chickens exploring the universe. The vision blossomed into a fantasy – a whole gallery of paintings, and maybe a children’s picture book! This was getting serious.

Studio mess

Half-completed projects tumble out of a box in my studio like the souvenirs of failed love affairs. Contour drawings, value studies, reference photos, receipts for supplies I’ve never used. What if the chickens ended up here, too – sandwiched between faded photographs of bantams and red jungle fowl? But love blossomed – and demanded a trip to the art supply store.

I bought Golden Open acrylics and experimented on canvas, watercolor paper treated with clear gesso, and Strathmore 500 illustration board.

Sketch

Here’s a watercolor sketch treated with gesso.

Acrylic sketch

Over-painted with acrylic. It’s definitely time for painting lessons.

Illustration board was better – easy to use and forgiving. But when a friend introduced me to watercolor canvas panels, I fell in love again.

Painting

This surface seems perfect for transparent layers of acrylic washes, which will produce beautiful botanical–

–wait–what happened to the chickens?

My summer crush is turning into a smoldering affair with acrylic paint.

And if it all goes wrong? If acrylic paint breaks my heart?

Pencils

The cat is keeping my colored pencils warm.

Noodles with sock

Finishing Noodles

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Today is “two-for-one” day in the studio. I’m doing two posts – one to celebrate finishing a dummy book for Noodles and the Magic Sock, and one that I intended to post back in July. July became the “month of Noodles,” and many tasks went unfinished.

Before I started the the SCBWI Carolinas Picture Book Dummy Challenge, I had a decent idea of what goes into developing a picture book. I had taken a wonderful workshop at the Denver Botanic Gardens from visiting artist and children’s book author/illustrator Dorothea Rohner. Through Dorothea’s patient teaching I learned how to direct the action in the story and how to pace the illustrations across the book. I also learned how creating the images can shape and tighten the manuscript.

The Dummy Challenge, brilliantly led by children’s book author and illustrator Bonnie Adamson, spanned 25 weeks, which seemed like an age at the outset. Bonnie’s resources and posts kept us going, as well as the perfectly timed webinars. Somewhere in the middle of things, I had that “aha” moment that comes from struggling with a project. I realized that I needed to kick it up a notch in terms of the drawings and as a result, almost didn’t finish. But there’s the final art on my desk – and a dummy filled with pictures of Noodles in various stages of adventure. I managed to work in three of my favorite Rocky Mountain animals – a raven, a bighorn sheep and a mountain lion. No more Noodles for a while – but it was fun!

June in the Studio

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Hubbell029

Welcome to the inaugural post of chubbellart.com. This month I hope to finish the latest in my series of bird portraits. These blue jays are done in mixed media, but primarily water color. I’m building up layers of grainy colored pencil and water color in the background. I’ve used water color pencils as well. I’m working on Arches 140# hot press, and it seems to be holding up to all the scrubbing and lifting I’ve been torturing it with.

Hubbell028

My long journey to learn the craft of children’s book writing and illustrating continues. I’m participating in the SCBWI Carolinas Picture Book Dummy Challenge. It is truly challenging. After working on character development, setting, and composition, we’re finalizing dummy sketches and creating finished artwork. My story is about a cat named Noodles who must tame the magic sock in order to get his heart’s desire. I’ve got Noodles taped to the back of my studio door. I’m using the cats as models when they can be bothered to pose. I’ve got a week to finish the dummy sketches, a month to get the final art ready, and my primary goal is to not embarrass myself when I submit everything at the end. Assuming, of course, that I’ve checked in at all stages of the challenge and finish on time. We’ll see how it goes!