This old drawing of a kid pulling a wagon is, in part, what lead to my first picture book Nikolai The Only Bear - and my latest picture book Red Wagon.
A few years ago I sent a colored version of this drawing along with a bunch of others like it, to publishers of books I liked. Semadar Megged and Patti Gauch (who are both wonderful I might add) of Philomel Books contacted me and said they loved this drawing (and the others too!) They asked if I would like to do Nikolai - which of course I did.
A few years after that another (wonderful) editor at Philomel, Courtenay Lewis Palmer, asked if I had any stories I would like to illustrate. She actually remembered the drawing of the wagon and wondered if there was a story behind it!
I didn’t have one then, but I soon would!
RED WAGON is an Amazon Best Books of the Month for February 2011
2 comments:
your drawings are amazing and soft...it looks like you are using pencil but don't seem to have smudge issues like I do. Even in your sketchbook, nice and clean. Would you mind telling me your secret! My sketchbook is a mess!
I don't think I really have a secret. I usually try to keep my hand from resting on the drawing and I use mechanical pencils(0.5,0.35) with harder pencil leads HB, H, 2H. Oh and I use a kneaded eraser - no crumbs.
Post a Comment