Ed Heck – Illustrator Interview

Posted on September 11, 2018 by Joanna

On Friday I will be reviewing the most recent picture book released last week by author-poet Donna Marie Merritt. You know me, where possible with new releases if I have the chance to interview the illustrator, I’ll take it. I am thrilled Ed Heck found time to sit and chat with me about his work and life.

[JM] Illustrator or author/illustrator?  If the latter, do you begin with words or pictures?

[EH] As an author /illustrator I most often will write about things I want to draw. When I begin a book, I start with an idea and I have pictures in mind as I write. I will make rough page layouts with both words and pictures at the same time, each one feeds the other.    

[JM] Where are you from/have you lived and how has that influenced your work?

[EH] I grew up and still live and have my studio in Brooklyn, New York. Living in New York city provides an endless source of inspiration. You cannot help but be influenced by all the things a great city provides. I love to walk around the city and when I do I find inspiration in so many things I see and hear. I carry a sketch pad with me at all times for when these moments of inspiration strike to put them down.  A lot of these ideas are seeds for stories that I will grow into books at some point.

[JM] Tell us a little of your beginnings and journey as an artist.

[EH] I have always loved to draw as far back as I can remember and art was and is what fuels me. I went to the High School of Art & Design and then onto collage at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) where I got my BFA.

I then went on to secure a position at the American Museum of Natural History as Senior Principal Artist in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology.   There I would draw detailed renderings of bones and fossils of prehistoric creatures used for scientific study and research publications.

This kind of detailed realistic work would certainly seem at odds with my current work as a pop artist. I would not have imagined when I was in school the turn my work would take in the future.

My current Pop art style, which has found its way into my children’s books, was born out of my love and fascination with children’s drawings. I love how very small children draw with such innocence and freedom.  They draw without concern for what anyone else will think about the end result, they are just in the moment.  My work is an attempt to tap back into that innocence and try to create in the moment.

[JM] What is your preferred medium to work in?

[EH] I enjoy working in many mediums. Whether I am working on a gallery painting or a children’s book all of my images begin with an ink drawing in my sketch books. I then scan these drawings into the computer and work on the color in Photoshop. I enjoy mixing the digital world with the hand drawn original sketches.

These digital images become the final art for books and the guides for the paintings I do for galleries, which are created with acrylic paint on canvas.

[JM] Can you share your favorite piece from Teensy Meensy Mice and what makes it special to you?

[EH] One of my favorite images from Teensy Meensy Mice would be the image of the mice dancing in a circle which, is from the second spread in the book.  It was influenced by a beautiful painting hanging in the MoMA “La Danse” by Henri Matisse.  I tried to have the mice dancing in the same way the woman are in the painting as kind of an Easter egg. Hopefully some people will recognize this image and perhaps it will also encourage kids to go and look at some paintings at museums.

la Danse par Henri Matisse, 1910

[JM] I loved finding out about your inspiration for that spread. I lived in walking distance of the Matisse Museum in Nice for years, and frequented it regularly. I hope it is okay, but I added an image of La Danse for readers. Which book do you remember buying with your own money as a kid?

[EH] One of the first books I remember buying on my own was a short chapter book “The Secret Hide-Out” written and illustrated by John Peterson. I think I ordered it from the Scholastic Book club in school.  I was attracted by the cover image of kids wearing masks and carrying handmade spears and shields.  I not only enjoyed the story but as an artist I was really into the craft pages at the end of the book. There were instructions on making your own mask and shields.  

[JM] What does your workspace look like?

Paint Studio

[JM] Do you have themes or characters that you keep returning to?

[EH] As I mentioned I like to create books about things I enjoy drawing.  So, images of animals like dogs, penguins, mice, fish, etc. always show up in my books and paintings.  Also, my absolute favorite thing since I was a child is drawing monsters real or imagined. I guess that is part of why I ended up at the museum drawing dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

[JM] What artwork do you have hanging in your home? 

The Pod Wall

[JM] At what part in the process do you create the end papers?

[EH] The end papers of picture books are one of my favorite parts of books.  I am always happy when end pages are able to be included in the overall theme of the book and not just there to secure the interior pages to the book cover. They allow you the opportunity to add an additional creative and playful element to the book. 

Each book its different, I usually don’t think about the end papers until the interior art is complete.  Although with some books I have in mind what I would like to do for the end pages from the start.

Five Fun Ones to Finish?
[JM] What’s your favorite park (state/urban..) in the world? 

[EH] My favorite park by far is Central Park in NYC. There are so many beautiful spots in the park from the expansive meadows, the boat lake to the Belvedere Castle.  I have visited the park so many times in my life and I still continue to find new places and spots I have not discovered before.

Boat Lake

[JM] Have to agree with you about Central Park. I lived 2.5 years very near by and it never got old. Cats or dogs?

[EH] I have had many pets throughout my life. Most recently our family pets include 2 dogs, a Corgi named “Chewie” and a Puggle named “Max”. We have just added a new member, for my son’s birthday and we welcomed a Dachshund puppy named “Franklin” who is the cutest thing ever.

Max and Chewie

Franklin

[EH] Please recommend a coffee shop or restaurant for me to visit in your city/town!

My favorite places to eat are Diners.  I like any place I can order breakfast all day. In my neighborhood there is a place I frequent named “3 Decker Restaurant “. It’s been around since I was young and they serve great bacon and eggs and let me replace the home fries with the best steak fries ever.

[EH] Great. Brunch is my favorite meal! What was your first paid job out of high school?

I had several jobs throughout my High School years including a local gas station and car wash where I got to work with many of my friends.  But my favorite job I had before I started collage would have to be working in a toy store.  I literally got to be a big kid in a toy shop.

[EH] Go to snack/drink to sustain your creative juices?

Cheese and crackers and lots of Diet Coke keeps me going .

My Social media Links: 

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Business Pig – Perfect Picture Book Friday

Posted on September 7, 2018 by Joanna

Title: Business Pig

Author & Illustrator: Andrea Zuill

Publisher: Sterling Children’s Books, 2018

Ages: 4-7

Themes: pigs, business, jobs, adoption, animal sanctuary, being different

 

 

Opening:

One Morning at the Sunshine Sanctuary for farm Animals, Jelly Bean the sow gave birth to a litter of piglets. Right away the volunteers noticed something unusual.

Synopsis:

Right from the start, everyone at the barnyard could tell Jasper wasn’t like his siblings: “I believe what we have here is a gen-u-WINE Business Pig!” No wallowing in the mud or rooting for grubs for Jasper; he’d rather help with the bookkeeping or conduct a meeting. Though everyone at the animal sanctuary loves him, Jasper longs for a forever home. But no matter how many business cards he hands out, no one wants to adopt him. Can this above-average pig find his special person to cut deals with? 

Why I like this book:

Go on, tell me another picture book about a business pig. Right?! Darn, but that title just sucks you in with originality and this story so does NOT disappoint. Yes it is an evergreen tale about being different and finding someone else different to love you. But, what a stinkly original way of doing it. I laughed my way through the flow charts, and business plan right through to the pet contract at the end. I love how supportive all try to be but in the end it is Jasper himself who has to take the plan into his own trotters, which he does with all the business acumen he can muster. 

 Jasper is totally cute in his black suit with his exec. coffee cup and morning minutes! Zuill uses expression, quirk and Business Pig’s diminutive size to render the reader instantly in love with this piglet. It scores a ten on the charm scale.

Activities/resources:

I would have the kids draw pictures of pigs in different work gear… baseball pig, florist pig, nurse pig, lumberjack pig…

Each week a group of bloggers reviews picture books we feel would make great educational reads. To help teachers, caregivers and parents, we have included resources and/or activities with each of our reviews. A complete list of the thousands of books we have reviewed can be found sorted alphabetically and by topics, here on Susanna Leonard Hill’s website.

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Deborah Cuneo – Illustrator Interview & Giveaway

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Joanna

Dear blog-followers, I am back after my annual summer blog hiatus and seven weeks traveling in California and Colorado. I visited with seventeen kid lit friends during my travels, meeting some for the first time in person. And as always, all the connections were filled with authenticity, laughter and encouragement. What a wonderful community we belong to. I am thrilled to kick of my next series of interviews with Deborah Cuneo, and will be interspersing these on Tuesdays with a new travel series I will be writing. Deborah is offering a signed copy of her book and some swag to a randomly-drawn commenter on this post (North America only.)

[JM] Illustrator or author/illustrator?  If the latter, do you begin with words or pictures?

[DC] Illustrator/Author and I am a very visual person, so the story always comes to me like a graphic novel playing out in my head.

[JM] Where are you from/have you lived and how has that influenced your work?

[DC]  I was born in Brooklyn, NY and moved out to Long Island with my parents when I was six. We lived in Queens for about a year, then Huntington and eventually landed in East Northport.  I stayed there until I graduated High School. I did move away for a couple of years, but remained on Long Island. I came back to East Northport with my husband (who is also from East Northport) after we got married, and we raised our family here.

My school district has always had a strong arts program, so I was able to try a lot of different media and techniques at school.  Additionally, both my parents and my grandfather (who lived across the street) were all creatives, so I’d have to say that most of my art influence came from my home environment. I’ve also lived my whole life,  a short train ride away from one of the biggest arts and culture centers in the US… New York City!  I used to go a lot with my grandmother and Aunt when I was young and as an adult, I try to get in there as often as possible!                                    

[JM] Tell us a little of your beginnings and journey as an artist.

[DC] As I mentioned,  a lot of my family members were creatives in some way (musicians, artists and technology) so there was always opportunity for me  to exercise my right brain from the time I was very little. My parents were super strict with free time activities, especially with television and phone, so I had extremely limited time in front of the tv (1.5 hrs a week, tops)… however, I had unlimited access to music and musical instruments, as well as traditional ( and sometimes not so traditional) art supplies, whenever I wanted them.

Aside from constantly drawing and painting, by the time I was 10, I had also dabbled in: photography, soldered together small metal sculptures, tried my hand at glass blowing, painted a huge mural on my bedroom wall and even created thousands of wooden candle sticks and other odds and ends, on my grandfathers lathe. It was those experiences that taught me to be creatively fearless.  I now see there was a method to the madness of those who inspired me, but I have to admit, I wasn’t feeling the love for all those rules at the time!

Once I moved out on my own, I still always found a way to create art, even after I had my children.  When my kids were little, I used to do custom greeting cards,  invitations and other commission work. It was a way to keep creating, make money and work around my children’s schedules. As the kids got older and went off to school, I took a teaching job, but still kept doing commission work on the side.

 I had one client that hired me to design communion cards. When she picked them up, she asked me if I was interested in doing some art for a self published book she was working on. I agreed and that was the beginning of my journey into Children’s Publishing.

[JM]  I love hearing each unique journey into children’s books. What is your preferred medium to work in?

[DC] Am I allowed to answer “ALL the art media”??!! I really do love creative play and have always experimented with different media, to create my art. In my illustration work, I’ve gone from pastels 

 to marker and colored pencil 

to acrylic and colored pencils 

to currently working in mixed media and digital 

 I honestly loved working with every one of these media and true to my nature, my sketchbook is always filled with new “experiments” waiting to find homes in future illustrations. 

[JM] Can you share a piece or two for us, maybe from Little Dragon and the New Baby, and the process of creating them?

 [DC] I always start with the rough sketch (some “rougher” than others!) Then I create a refined sketch by drawing all the different elements separately and scan them into Photoshop. At that point I use the tools in Photoshop to create my ” Franken-sketch” .

Once I have the final sketch nailed down,, I isolate each of the items and begin to “paint” the image with whatever I have prepared to use for the color. Sometimes it’s textures I’ve created, sometimes I’ll create a few brushes and use those…anything goes. The one thing I am always consistent with is;  if there are elements that are present throughout a book ( a main character, the supporting character, scenery, etc…) I will work on all of them at once, for consistency’s  sake. When everything is “painted” I put it all back together for a finished piece.

[JM] Which book do you remember buying with your own money as a kid?

[DC] I never had to buy my own books. My Aunt would bring me a new picture book every time she’d visit. She was responsible for my well stocked, home library. What I didn’t have at home, I got from the Library in town.  I think the first book I actually paid for myself, was a really nice sketch book!

[JM] What does your workspace look like? 

[DC] I actually have two studios in the house. An art studio and after I almost dumped my acrylic paints on very expensive fabric, I now have a separate quilt/fiber art studio.

[JM] Do you have themes or characters that you keep returning to?

[DC] I’ve been drawing animals since I was a little girl, so that would be a favorite character subject. I usually depict them as young children trying to navigate their way through their early life.  I’m currently working on a few new personal book projects,  two are in the same age group as Little Dragon (pre-k to 1st grade), but there is one that is a little different for me. It’s a graphic novel.  It requires a ton of art and text and I’m experimenting with the art a bit too. Truth be told, it’s all a bit intimidating, but…”creatively fearless”, right?

[JM] What artwork do you have hanging in your home? 

[DC] Well, we are in the process of having our entire house painted, so most of the artwork has been packed away for now. I can, however,  show you some of the art I have in my studio and a couple of pieces that have not yet been packed away. 

[JM] When do you start creating the end papers in a picture book?

[DC] I haven’t had a project where I’ve had to create proper end papers yet, but I imagine the timing would be similar to how and when I decide on which interiors to work on. I know a lot of artists work from beginning of book to end of book, in order.  I, however, tend to do it all very randomly, as the mood strikes me to work on a particular spread. I find that they come out better that way. 

Five Fun Ones to Finish?                                                                                                     [JM] What’s your favorite park (state/urban..) in the world? 

[DC] I’d have to say my hometown park…Northport Park- Northport, NY. The park is on the water at the end of the town’s main street. Along with a large grassy area for picnics, they have a gazebo there for summer concerts and events, as well as a playground for the kids. People bring their dogs to play, there are tables for chess and checkers under the trees and benches for just relaxing and watching the different boats go by. In the later part of Spring, the town holds an art show in the park, displaying the Northport School District’s  student art. They also have a Farmer’s Market and an art fair that local artisan’s can sell their work at later on in the year. In the summer, people from all over, will dock their boat at the town dock and walk around town, to shop and/or have a meal.  I’ve lived here most of my life and although it’s changed a little over the years, the charm and appeal of this town and park never has.

[JM] Yay for local parks! Cats or dogs?

[DC] I’ve had both as furry family members because, there are so many of each in the shelters looking for their fur-ever homes. But, if I have to choose, I’d say I was more of a dog person.

Sketch and Luna

[JM] Please recommend a coffee shop or restaurant for me to visit in your city/town!

[DC] There are so many great places to go and new ones always popping up all the time, so it’s really hard to pick any one! For breakfast, there’s Tim’s Shipwreck Diner, a staple in that town since I was young. For lunch or dinner, you can choose from the best Italian food at Maroni’s or a wonderful Japanese restaurant called Benkei and the local hangout called Skippers Pub…all  face the harbor.  For dessert, there is an awesome bakery/coffee shop called Copenhagen Bakery, which also faces the water.  They have amazing baked goods as well as light sandwiches, soups and breakfast items. You can eat indoor or at small tables outdoors. That was probably way more than you asked for, but I wanted to cover all the meals! There are tons more however, I didn’t want to completely overload you (too late, I know). Those are just a few of my favs.

[JM] Terrific. I live up in Westchester so do get to Long Island every once in a while! What was your first paid job out of high school?

[DC] There were actually two of them at once…A book keeper during the day and a waitress in a restaurant, at night.

[JM] Go to snack/drink to sustain your creative juices?

[DC] Decaf Mocha Java coffee from Porto Rico Importing Co. or a flavored tea and of course,  a sweet treat! Sometimes fruit, sometimes cakey-goodness!

Thank you so much for this opportunity to share! Answering the questions brought back a lot of fun memories and gave me some new ideas!

[JM] And in case you missed it, this march Deborah published her adorable debut picture book. Wishing you continued success in all your creative endeavors. 

 

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