Finalist for the 2014 Governor General's Awards

This year Renata was nominated for Canada's prestigious Governor General's Award for Literature for her illustrations in Once Upon a Memory written by Nina Laden. http://ggbooks.ca

This is her third time as a finalist for the award, The Quiet Book and Red Wagon have been nominated previously, but it is no less exciting and humbling to be selected amongst all the amazing picture books made by Canadians. Such as the other wonderful finalist including Marie-Louise Gay for Any Questions? written by Marie-Louise Gay and published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, Qin Leng for Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin, written by Chieri Uegaki and published by Kids Can Press, Julie Morstad for Julia, Child, written by Kyo Maclear and published by Tundra Books, and Jillian Tamaki for This One Summer, written by Mariko Tamaki and published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.

Interestingly three of the finalists, Renata, Jillian Tamaki, and Julie Morstad are graduates of the same alma mater, The Alberta College of Art and Design. The winner will be announced in a few days!

Summer Dreams

Wow, it's been way too quiet around here! It's well past time I post about what Renata has been up to this summer. I will start at the beginning, in early May she completed perhaps her most whimsical work - Dormouse Dreams written by Karma Wilson. As the name suggests it is a very dreamy book which allowed Renata to let her imagination fly free and includes fun stuff like wing walking stunt birds, foxes cross-country skiing, and a dizzying pack of wolf pups. It will be out next year sometime.

After that we were excited to be able to attend ICON 8 - The Illustration Conference. And we were even more excited to do a short presentation. It was perhaps a little too short for Renata, she's super great at longer talks - she needs to take her time to express herself. Nonetheless it was a exciting visit as Renata got to meet many of her favourite artists (such as Calef Brown). She was particularly pleased to purchase a miniature painting by Susie Ghahremani - a cute bear with green jeans.

The rest of the summer she completed the second Boom, Snot, Twitty book - This Way, That Way written by Doreen Cronin. I think I have mentioned before that although illustrating picture books can seem a pleasant way to pass the time, it's not always that way for Renata - each book is a near insurmountable task. Until she uploads the final image, she's never sure she will be able to complete a book. But so far she always does! She just uploaded the final image last week.

With the summer winding down, Renata is winding up for her next adventure. She's been looking forward to working on her next book since the day signed up for it, more than a year and a half ago. It's written by the amazing Mac Barnett, and I have to say it's a super story and perfect for Renata. She loves to work with manuscripts that allow her to add her own story through her pictures.  We had a chance to have lunch with Mac in Berkley after the illustration conference and he mentioned that when he writes picture books he is mindful of leaving something for the illustrator's pictures to tell. I was going to post a snippet of one of the drawings, but I remembered that Renata wouldn't want to jinx it before the editor has seen the drawings!

Sandwich Break

Whew, it's been a busy last few weeks. Time to take a sandwich break!

Sketch and finished book illustration from Once Upon a Memory written by Nina Laden.

Crystal Kite, Communication Arts, Librarians, etc

I would like to share some recent good news. First off we had a wonderful time at the Alberta Librarian Association Conference in Jasper, Renata was so pleased by the feedback she received from the librarians who attended her talk - she's convinced that librarians are the most friendly people ever!  We also had some time to enjoy the beautiful mountain park and make some wildlife pictures.

Some exciting news is that Nina Laden's and Renata's book, Once Upon a Memory, has been selected as the western region Crystal Kite Award winner for 2014! Visit Nina's blog HERE to hear more. Once Upon a Memory has also been recently chosen for A Bank Street College Children's Book Committee Best Book of 2014 Selection.

Also just on the new stands is Communications Arts 2014 Illustration Annual which as you can see below includes Once Upon a Memory. Yeah!

BOOM!

Boom Snot Twitty published by Viking, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Renata Liwska is officially released this week. It's about three unlikely friends, who have three different ways of being in the world. Boom the bear is good to go, Snot the snail is happy wherever she is, and Twitty the bird feels best safe at home. Renata's reasons for choosing to illustrate Boom Snot Twitty is the same reasons as all her other books. The story made her smile and she had ideas for drawings right away.

Here is a little process for one of the pages from the book:

SCBWI Conference Yellow Stickies Recap

Renata had a fun and educational time at the SCBWI West Washington's Writing and Illustrating for Children Conference. It was her first large scale conference and she was excited and a bit nervous to meet all the attendees and fellow faculty. It started off with a master class where we introduced Renata's method of making picture books with a focus on her creative process - which involved lots of yellow sticky notes. We also had some fun with silhouettes with a game we call Swapadoodle. After that I interviewed Renata for her keynote in casual talk format, we discussed her thoughts on where ideas come from. Finally we ended with a sketchbook breakout session where attendees had a chance to look at her sketchbooks in person.

Thanks to all the organizers and attendees and good luck with your own picture book endeavors!

 

Boom, Snot, Twitty

This week Renata received an advanced copy of Boom, Snot, Twitty! It is written by Doreen Cronin and is being published in May by Viking.

And Renata is already working on the sequel...

SCBWI Western Washington's Master Class April 12-13

Don’t miss out on an opportunity to learn from one of children’s books most acclaimed illustrators. Renata will be teaching a master class at SCBWI Western Washington’s Annual Conference, April 12–13, and there a still a few spots open in this limited-seating event.

How do you do good picture book illustrations? Well for Renata it was pretty straight forward actually - she practiced really hard! Drawing every day and painting every night, or vice versa, until she got good at making picture book illustrations. Which was nice for her, but actually it wasn’t quite enough to get that first opportunity to illustrate a picture book. She needed something more, she needed to learn to do great picture books! And that is what her master class is about, how to bring your work up that extra step. The good news is it’s not a big step, but it is a subtle and tricky one. Happily the best way to learn it is by doing! 

Renata's master class will be a fun hands on exploration of her creative book making process based on some of the proven entertaining and educational stuff we do at our studio randmcollective.com

Go here for more info:
http://chinookupdate.blogspot.ca/2014/03/conference-spots-still-available-for.html

Interview with Renata

See and hear Renata talk about her illustration for Goodnight Songs. I am pretty happy about this interview, Renata did an excellent job!

 

Goodnight Songs CD

One of Renata's drawings is on the packaging for the 12 song CD that comes with the book (attached to the inside cover). We haven't listened to it yet but I believe it is original music inspired by the poems (I think).

Goodnight Songs

Illustration by Isabel Roxas

Almost exactly this time last year we were in Greenpoint Brooklyn drawing at a favorite cafe, Milk and Roses, when Renata received an email to do an illustration for a group book project. This was quite a coincident as the illustration was for a poem by Margaret Wise Brown - who was born in Greenpoint. By the end of coffee Renata had pretty much completed the illustration, and now the book is coming out. It features a whole bunch of great illustrators including Chris Silas Neal, whom is a favorite artist of Renata's, and a new favorite Isabel Roxas who drew the amazing cover and is a super, super nice person we were happy to meet in person last fall. Goodnight Songs is out March 4.

Here is a review:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/margaret-wise-brown/goodnight-songs/

And here is a trailer with short snippets from the artists in the book:


Goodnight Songs, by Margaret Wise Brown, book trailer from Sterling Publishing on Vimeo.

Getting up to date

It's been a busy time of late but I have a few moments to update what Renata has been up to. As you hopefully know Once Upon a Memory was released in December, it was an Amazon book of the month and it has gotten a great response so far. As Renata's body of work is building it is interesting to see that each book has it's own personality. I feel like Once Upon a Memory is some of her most reflective picture making and most detailed drawings. It also continues her tradition of building the narrative of a book through her pictures, a perfect method for illustrating poetic content like in Once Upon a Memory.

Of course the actual work for the book was done over a year ago, so she's been working on several exciting new projects in the last few months. I will be doing a second post in a few days about them, but the authors she's been lucky enough to illustrate include Doreen Cronin, Karma Wilson, and Margaret Wise Brown.

A big event for Renata last fall was being chosen as a judge for The Society of Illustrators 56. She had a blast being a judge and is very thankful to Jillian Tamaki and the other members of the Society who gave her for the opportunity. The show just opened last week and is on until March 1st - and Once Upon a Memory was also selected for the show!

Renata stayed in Brooklyn for 3 weeks, and while most often visitors focus on seeing the sights in NYC, Renata focused on meeting some of it's artists - which she was super successful at doing. During her time there she was able to meet several dozen illustrators, editors, designers, and other creative types.  It was an exciting and inspirational time, and she is thankful for everyone that she was lucky enough to share a few words.

Going back to Once Upon a Memory an event that bookended her visit was The Original Art, an exhibition celebrating the art of children's book illustration that she had previously won a gold medal for her work in The Quiet Book and which featured Once Upon a Memory this year. More recently Renata was notified last week that the book will also be included in this year's Communication Arts Illustration Annual.

I thought I would end this post with a list of some of the blogs that have been so kind in posting about her most recent book. Working with Nina Laden on the book has been a great joy, and Renata feels that she has made a new friend in Nina and it has brought her together with a kindred creative spirit.

http://thestylinglibrarian.com/2014/02/01/styling-librarian-review/

http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=3284

http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/once-upon-a-memory-written-by-nina-laden-illustrated-by-renata-liwska-reviewed-by-bonny-becker/

http://www.goodreadswithronna.com/2014/01/31/once-upon-a-memory-by-nina-laden/

http://mackinbooksinbloom.com/2014/01/09/book-review-once-upon-a-memory/

http://32pages.ca/2014/01/15/didnt-make-best-2013-list/

http://salsfictionaddiction.blogspot.ca/2013/12/once-upon-memory-written-by-nina-laden.html

http://www.5minutesformom.com/85690/once-upon-a-memory/

http://deeperwritingrobinholland.blogspot.ca/2013/12/once-upon-memory.html

http://www.teaandsavories.com/2014/01/once-upon-memory-by-nina-laden.html

http://readertotz.blogspot.ca/2013/12/more-more-more-once-upon-memory-by-nina.html

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2013/dec/31/prathers-pick-two-charming-picture-books/

http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=8245

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nina-laden/once-upon-a-memory/

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17269360-once-upon-a-memory?from_search=true

Mary had a Little Lamb

Renata is part of a group show opening tomorrow at Gallery Nucleus in LA. It is a tribute to Little Golden Books. She choose to do her version of the classic rhyme: Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.

We were worried it might be a bit too serious of a take on the idea but I thought Renata did a very thoughtful version that makes you think on many levels - I think.

A TRIBUTE TO LITTLE GOLDEN TALES
January 18, 2014 - February 9, 2014
Opening Reception / Jan 18, 7:00PM - 10:00PM