Sophie Blackall

Poster on the New York Subway

2012-01-20T16:10:00.001-05:00

I was thrilled recently to be invited to create a poster for the New York MTA Arts for Transit program. Thrilled is something of an understatement. Every year, two different artists create subway related posters which hang in all the new trains in the city. My friend, the wonderful R. Gregory Christie has designed the other one, so I am in excellent company. Thousands of our posters will be in circulation, so if you are traveling under or over Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx any time in 2012, you can't miss them. The first one has been spotted on the M train just this morning, other trains to follow.

Needless to say I love the subway. I glean all my characters from my fellow passengers. The same sorts of things which attracted me to Missed Connections, I find on the train: subtle interactions, eccentricity, beauty, sorrow, secrets, kindness, generosity, excellent hairdos. Every sort of person imaginable and unimaginable. For this poster, I measured my allotted space very carefully and figured out I had enough space to draw 34 people. I had to whittle and whittle my list of favorite characters. The surfer standing with his board in a puddle of water didn't make it. Neither did the gorgeous elderly drag queen, the man with the enormous orange velour armchair or the disheveled mermaids. I'm sorry. I still love you.

I believe the poster will soon be puchase-able online at the MTA store for about $25. Proceeds from the sales go to support the not-for-profit New York Transit Museum’s exhibitions and education programs.

Missed Connections Party in Boston

2011-12-14T14:14:00.000-05:00

From the Brookline Booksmith:
"Australian artist and kids' book illustrator Sophie Blackall breathes new and wondrous life into the Missed Connections section of Craigslist.com with whimsical, funny, and achingly beautiful paintings based on the short descriptions of strangers who would be more. This book is the perfect gift for the one you love (whether they know it or not).
Judy Rosenberg, owner of classic Cambridge-cakery Rosie's Bakery and author of The Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book will be joining us as well. There will be cake, beautiful illustrations, and so much fun.
Also, please join us for refreshments at the after-reading party at Finale here in Coolidge Corner sponsored by Meredith Goldstein of the Boston Globe's Love Letters. To attend the afterparty, please RSVP by emailing events@globe.com. Who knows what connections you'll make? Have your own missed connection story you'd be willing to share at the event? Send it to events@brooklinebooksmith.com."

New York Times Best Illustrated

2011-11-04T09:59:00.000-04:00

It was a thrill and a huge honor recently, to be one of the judges for the New York Times 10 Best illustrated Books of 2011. My wise and thoughtful companions, Jeanne Lamb and Lucy Calkins, and I spent the day poring over a room full of books, a treat in itself, and wished several times we could choose 20 Best, or 15 best, or even 11 Best.
Congratulations Frank Viva, Chris Raschka, Pamela Dalton, Lane Smith, Arthur Geisert, Jon Klassen, Patrick McDonnell, Isabelle Arsenault, Kadir Nelson and Zhu Cheng-Liang for illustrating ten beautiful, inventive, funny, endearing, clever, moving, memorable books.

From the NY Times:
The New York Times Book Review has announced its list of the 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2011. Artwork from this year’s winners will appear in the special Children’s Book section of the Book Review’s Nov. 13 issue.
The judges this year were Jeanne Lamb, the coordinator of youth collections at The New York Public Library; Lucy Calkins, the Richard Robinson Professor of Children’s Literature at Teachers College of Columbia University; and Sophie Blackall, an author and artist who has illustrated 24 books for children, including one of last year’s Best Illustrated winners, “Big Red Lollipop,” as well as “The Crows of Pearblossom,” “Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children” and “Are You Awake?” — all published this year. They chose from among hundreds of children’s picture books published in 2011.
The Book Review’s 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books for 2011, in alphabetical order, are: “Along a Long Road,” written and illustrated by Frank Viva (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); “A Ball for Daisy,” written and illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade); “Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures,” written by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Pamela Dalton (Chronicle Books); “Grandpa Green,” written and illustrated by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press); “Ice,” written and illustrated by Arthur Geisert (Enchanted Lion Books); “I Want My Hat Back,” written and illustrated by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press); “Me … Jane,” written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); “Migrant,” written by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood Books); “A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis,” written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Dial); and “A New Year’s Reunion,” written by Yu Li-Qiong, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick Press). Next year, The New York Times Best Illustrated awards will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Missed Connections, Love, Lost & Found

2011-10-06T10:47:00.004-04:00

New Ivy and Bean website

2011-10-04T14:15:00.000-04:00

There is a new Ivy and Bean website over at Chronicle Books with downloads and all sorts of fun stuff. Book 8 is coming soon! And paper dolls too!

Book Launch Party This Thursday

2011-10-03T09:55:00.000-04:00

I hope some of you can join me on Thursday evening at Word bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn!
xx

Princeton Children's Book Festival

2011-09-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

I will be at the Princeton Children's Book Festival this Saturday from 11am-4pm. Would love to see you if you happen to be in Princeton. xx

What Are You Doing Tuesday Nights This Fall?

2011-08-31T08:07:00.000-04:00

I will be teaching (the great) Sergio Ruzzier's class at SVA. Registration is open, no experience necessary. There will be cake.

Atlantis! The movie!

2011-08-15T12:43:00.000-04:00

Atlantis!

2011-07-18T12:25:00.001-04:00

This week I am up at a Summer camp in New Hampshire, called Beam. It's a camp which invites artists, architects, engineers, craftspeople, teachers, designers, chefs and musicians to collaborate with kids on projects which require invention and adaptation and creativity and resourcefulness and humor. Right now the kids are working on a project with U.K. art/architecture team, Wignall and Moore, on a project called “The Story of Machines That Never Flew,” an aerial installation of fantastic aircraft dreamed up by thinkers and dreamers, ancient and modern. Beam campers and staff are constructing and documenting their building of a collection of distinct mechanical and sculptural inventions to tell the stories of the designers whose imaginations soared but whose creations never left the ground. I've seen parts of a boat-shaped airship and feathered wings and a giant squid and all sorts of other intriguing things taking shape around camp.

So what am I doing here? I am doing a project called Atlantis! I have always been interested in displaced things; a subway train at the bottom of the ocean, a lion in Harrods, a rusting ship in the desert and a city at the bottom of a lake. We are going to make that city. Smallish in size, with fantastical, futuristic, Gaudi inspired buildings. We are going to design the buildings and make molds and pour concrete and embed them with seashells and mosaic from smashed plates (who doesn't like smashing plates?). And then we are going to sink the city in the lake. And film it underwater. It's deeply exciting.
Of course this is way out of my field of experience. I am reading everything I can read about hydrocal cement, and feeling only a slight wave of panic. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Reading, Signing, Drawing This Sunday in Dumbo...

2011-06-23T15:01:00.000-04:00

Click on the image for more information

This Sunday afternoon, June 26, from 4-5pm, I will be reading and drawing and signing books at powerHouse Arena in Dumbo.
I have four books out this season, so it's a bonanza. There's something for everyone: Aldous Huxley's The Crows of Pearblossom, ("The story is just this side of disturbing" - San Francisco Book Review"), April Stevens's Edwin Speaks Up ("Blackall’s softly colored illustrations manage to make even stretched-out rats look adorable") Lisa Wheeler's Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children, ("Blackall applies her typically sweet-natured style in surprising and occasionally disturbing ways" - Booklist) and my own Are You Awake? ("This is the AWESOMEST...BOOK...EVER!!!!! "- Edward)
I have coerced Eggy to come and read duet style, so that will be worth the price of admission. Which is FREE!
It's a ridiculously busy time of year, I know, but stop by if you're in the neighborhood. I'd love to see you.
x Sophie

Poster Giveaway over at Missed Connections!

2011-06-02T09:50:00.004-04:00


Click here to take you there!http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com

Crows on NPR

2011-05-31T13:24:00.000-04:00

Abrams gave me a heads up that there was a possibility Daniel Pinkwater might review Crows of Pearblossom on Weekend Edition this Saturday. We were heading up to our little farmhouse for the long weekend and on Saturday morning I turned on the transistor, extended the antenna, twiddled the dial and got static. And more static. It was 8am and there were dragonflies on the pond and the lilacs were heady and frogs were peeping and the swing was beckoning and I confess we abandoned the radio in favor of Spring frolicking. Returning to the house in search of coffee, my friend, the artist Edwina White, picked up the forsaken transistor and doggedly pursued a signal. Shortly before 10am she called us to the mudroom, where she stood on one leg, the other elegantly extended behind her, with an outstretched arm transmitting Mr. Pinkwater's elusive voice. She held the position valiantly for the duration. And apparently Crows of Pearblossom hit #62 on Amazon. The power of radio!
Here is the review. And here is a frog.

Are You Awake?

2011-05-17T14:50:00.003-04:00

I wrote Are You Awake? nine years ago, when my son was about three. We had only been living in New York for a short time but had taken a trip to see family in Europe. Eggy’s toddler internal clock was turned upside down and we had several sleepless nights and surreal conversations. I wrote this email to my father at the time:

“Brooklyn, August 2002. We are back from France and still fighting the jet-lag, mostly because Eggy is at his liveliest between 1am and 5am. He can climb out of anything now, even his slippery travel cot, so it is pointless trying to put him to bed as he simply gets straight out again. So yesterday we bought bunk beds at a stoop sale and Nick carted them, in pieces, the four blocks (and five flights of stairs)! We don't have mattresses yet, but the kids are sleeping on them anyway on their cot size mattresses, which leaves plenty of room around each for Olive to arrange her books and for Eggy to cram toys and cars and leftover toast. Eggy hasn't actually spent much time on his, preferring to roam the apartment in the wee hours before finally collapsing somewhere exhausted. I found him at 7am actually sitting in his highchair fast asleep...”

All of my previous books had been written by other people. I was overly excited to begin illustrating my own and then was completely unprepared for what happened. Or rather what didn’t happen. I couldn’t begin. I had so many different ideas, I just couldn’t pin one down. I thought perhaps it should be a very large book, and the conversations would be incorporated into the pictures, but the speech bubbles had me cornered. Then I wanted it to be a tiny, tiny, cloth bound book after Edward Gorey or Beatrix Potter, but it was feared such a size would get lost on library shelves.
One thing I was sure of, that the pictures would start off dark and inky and gradually lighten to an explosion of sunshine when the sun finally, finally comes up.
Here are some early variations:

...and this is how it ended up:

Some books have a slow incubation and this was certainly one of them. But it’s probably just as well; when Eggy was about six he found the idea of a book (even vaguely) about him utterly mortifying and made me promise it wouldn’t be published. (I had my fingers crossed behind my back.) Luckily he changed his mind more recently, just in time for Are You Awake? to go into production. I have illustrated around 20 books for children in the meantime, so it’s quite a thrill to finally see this story, of a sleepless night long ago, out in the world.

Eggy, aged 3

Eggy was always a bit nocturnal

Are You Awake? is in stores next week or you can order it from an independent bookstore here!

My Obsession with the Bucolic Backgrounds in Old Photographs

2011-03-31T09:53:00.000-04:00

The pictures above were swiped from cabinetcardgallery and luminouslint but I have my own large collection of 19th century studio portrait photographs (which I was too lazy to scan). Some of the sitters are identified on the back but most of them are strangers with enigmatic expressions and fantastic whiskers and enviable posture. I haven't always treated these strangers with complete respect, if you know what I mean, but I'm very fond of them and they're not around to object.
Recently though, I've become obsessed with the artificial bucolic background scenes, especially when you see a bit of skirting board or a carpet sneaking in. I have become determined to paint such a scene on my farmhouse living room wall and photograph everyone who comes to visit in front of it. It will be a fine excuse to buy props. Boxing gloves and monocles and medicine balls and a brace of pheasants.
I went searching for information about photography studio backgrounds and thought I'd paste some snippets here.
It makes sense, of course, but it was still a surprise to realize the backdrops were painted in black and white and not color.

The painting above is by Thomas Le Clear and I found it on Luminous Lint. There's a really nice story attached which doesn't have much to do with the background but is fascinating about the implications of photography on painting.
Caswell's Background Holder is good because, "It saves a sight of trouble to the busy operator" and "There is nothing about it that is liable to get out of order."

This above is one of the few examples I could find of a surviving intact backdrop. You can buy it for about $10,000 at www.installationsantiques.com.
Tempting, but I decided to paint my own. It's a work in progress, something to fit in between deadlines, but so...much...fun.

Spinster Goose review from Rat Chat

2011-03-23T15:14:00.004-04:00

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

2011-03-17T08:22:00.009-04:00

Jules Danielson over at 7-imp invited me to come and do and show-and-tell about Crows of Pearblossom, so I did. Here is the title she gave the post and clicking on it will whisk you right there.

Sophie Blackall on Crushin’ on Aldous Huxley,
Mother Goose’s Sis, and Why Some Crows
Need to Keep a Packed Suitcase Under Their Beds

Books of Wonder

2011-03-15T14:25:00.004-04:00

I will be at Books of Wonder, (the only bookstore I know of where picture books are arranged alphabetically by illustrator) in NYC this Saturday, March 19th, from 12-2pm, presenting Aldous Huxley's The Crows of Pearblossom. There was a nice review of the book in The Wall Street Journal last week, and on the New York Times art blog.

Publishers Weekly Spring Children's Announcements

2011-02-28T07:46:00.003-05:00

I had an excellent time illustrating PW's Spring Children's Announcements cover last week. You can click on the image for a larger view, and here for the article, and here for the accompanying interview...
ps It's not remotely Spring-like in Brooklyn this morning. Not one bit.

Two Book Maker's Dozen Events

2011-02-18T11:22:00.003-05:00

Two Book Maker's Dozen events coming up on Friday March 4th and Sunday March 6th. Click on the invites for closer inspection. Hope to see some of you in Dumbo or South Orange!

Gung Hey Fat Choy!

2011-02-04T12:47:00.002-05:00

Happy Year of the Rabbit! Learned scholars assure us the rabbit will bring wisdom and kindness and calm to the year ahead. (He has his work cut out in Egypt.)

There are lots of very particular Chinese New Year traditions. Here are some of my favorites (a little late):

Before New Year's Eve, clean the entire house to get rid of any of last year's dirt (I wish!), then put all brooms and brushes out of sight. Pay all your debts (again... I wish), and resolve all outstanding quibbles with family, friends and neighbors.

Buy red things. And flowers. And red flowers.

Arrange oranges and tangerines and candy on circular trays.

Put fresh dollar bills in red envelopes.

On New Year's Eve reunite with close family. Eat dumplings. Pay respects to ancestors. Open all the windows to let out the old year.

On New Year's Day don't wash your hair. Don't sweep the floor. Don't cut anything. Don't drop your chopsticks. Don't say the number four or mention death. Don't borrow or lend money.

Wear red.

Give children two red envelopes because happiness comes in pairs.

Wish everyone Gung Hey Fat Choy!

Eat rabbit-shaped dumplings!

Winter Crows

2011-02-01T22:15:00.008-05:00

It was a recent honor to be invited to the ABA Winter Institute in Washington DC with Abrams Books to present The Crows of Pearblossom, Aldous Huxley's only book written for children, (which was an even greater honor to illustrate). I met hundreds of wonderfully passionate independent booksellers and librarians and we talked ourselves hoarse about crows and snakes and books and children.
I wanted to bring along a crow themed party favor for one of the events and enlisted the help of my lovely intern Kristen Kelly.
Here are the crows in formation, from mere lumps of sculpey to passerine beauties.

Special thanks to Kristen Kelly for her crow-making and photography assistance.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-22T08:48:00.002-05:00

Wishing you joyful, festive times in the company of people you love, and all sorts of good things to look forward to in 2011: creative endeavors and unexpected adventures and surprising collaborations and old friends and new friends and feasts and gripping books and intriguing plays and songs that haven't been written yet and pictures to paint and ideas to discuss and streams to explore and maybe even a garden to plant.
xxx

Shindig

2010-11-28T18:59:00.003-05:00

From the Bookmaker's Dozen:
"Please come out and join us at our first little shindig at Powerhouse Arena

Where: Powerhouse Arena, 37 Main St. Dumbo, Brooklyn NY

When: December 2nd from 7pm-9pm

What: Art exhibition, print sale, informal panel discussion, wine drinking and mild mayhem with 13, count em, THIRTEEN children's book illustrators..."

Events in Brooklyn This Weekend

2010-11-10T08:53:00.004-05:00

Two events this weekend where I will be signing, reading, chatting, drawing, blowing up balloons...hang on, I vowed not to do that ever again...handing out limp balloons...
Saturday, November 13, from 12-4pm I will be with a whole slurry of other illustrators and authors at the Brooklyn Museum for their Children's Book Fair.
Sunday, November 14, at 11am I will be with Jacqueline Woodson at Bookcourt in Cobble Hill, talking about our Pecan Pie Baby.
Hope to see some of you there!

Book Makers Dozen

2010-11-08T08:15:00.006-05:00

Being an illustrator is a wonderful thing. You get to draw wild boars and rocket ships and petticoats and harpoons. You get to spend most of the day on the internet and call it research. You get to choose your hours (which is often most hours, but still, you're still the one choosing them...at least you try your best to put that spin on it), you can wear whatever you like (today I am wearing a peacock feather cloak), listen to songs which include a whistling coda, (which might not be to everyone's taste), and talk back to Leonard Lopate as though he's in the room. All this isolation can be good for productivity. It can also lead to an atrophied palette, compulsive blogging and beginning to think of Lenny as your friend.
Just in the nick of time the Book Makers Dozen comes to the rescue!
"Book Maker’s Dozen is a group of children’s book illustrators who also happen to be friends. We have banded together to make high quality reproductions of our art and facilitate group exhibitions.
At least that is our excuse.
The real reason we have joined at the hip is because creating art for children’s books can be a very solitary experience. Together, we provide each other moral support, general camaraderie and possibly a bit of mayhem."
Check the Book Makers Dozen blog for news and events in the tri-state area. We are a many-limbed drawing machine coming soon to a bookstore near you. Possibly in a gypsy wagon.

More Excitement.

2010-11-07T21:04:00.003-05:00

Big Red Lollipop is in the New York Times Top Ten Best illustrated Children's Books of 2010. I have been a bit heavy handed with the exclamation marks lately, so I'm exercising restraint, but I am not remotely matter-of-fact about this. It is very exciting indeed.
Please click on the link for the entire list which is eclectic and wonderful.
Lawrence Downes also wrote a very kind review alongside Busing Brewster (By Richard Michelson, illustrated by R. G. Roth), "Another fine picture book about siblings braving new surroundings".
The last paragraph is especially optimistic:
"Recent news accounts suggest that some parents have lost faith in the picture book. “Big Red Lollipop” and “Busing Brewster” could change their minds. To say these books offer timely insights on immigration and segregation is accurate, but that loads them down with off-putting significance. The stories of Rubina and Brewster, told with simplicity and subtlety, ring bright and true."

Surprise Islands on a Gloomy Day

2010-11-04T13:50:00.005-04:00

I was about half way through a gloomy day just now, when the doorbell rang and a dripping UPS man handed me a package. I thought it might have been some hoofs, or some 1940s teenage girl's scrap book I'd bought on eBay, but it was a surprise package. A little while ago I signed up for the Book Club With One Member at Crawford-Doyle. A member of their staff will carefully select a book just for you once a month and send it out. "The books will be paperback or hardcover, fiction or nonfiction, just released or classic. The goal is a book chosen with one recipient in mind that will enlighten, delight and entertain – a gift to a booklover throughout the year." I sent them a list of things I'm interested in, you know, like shadows, and indexes, faded wallpaper, Moby Dick, cabinet cards, microscope slides, turn-of-the-century comic strips and old tattoos... lost, found and mended things. Other people's letters, from famous people or ordinary people. Paris, especially old Paris. William Blake. Volcanoes. Hoofs. I don't know, that kind of thing.
This is what arrived.
Atlas of Remote Islands, Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, by Judith Schalansky. There are beautiful maps and stories and information about fifty remote islands bearing names like Possession Island and Deception Island and Lonely Island. There are stories of fainting sailors and curses on newborns and skeleton ships and forgotten prisoners.
This book has made me unbelievably happy. It is an uncommon size. The paper feels nice. There is a cloth bound spine. And it was handpicked for me. I feel like I'm back in the 19th century. I will be expecting a bespoke suit next. Show me a kindle that can do that.

Pecan Pie Baby

2010-11-03T09:16:00.004-04:00

Pecan Pie Baby, written by Jacqueline Woodson is out in the stores. There are lots of pictures and sketches from the book over at the fabulous Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.
And two starred reviews already. Hooray!

*Blackall’s apt watercolor-and-ink pictures capture the grounded serenity of a multiracial family (and community) with its priorities on straight. Beloved Gia’s got corn rows and a sweet gap between her front teeth. The fact that a dad or other mom doesn’t figure in renders her conflict more poignant. Cleverly, the story arc spans autumn’s slide into winter—a welcome alternative to all those ding-dang spring-baby plots. Fresh and wise.
Kirkus Reviews

*Gia's narrative voice is prime Woodson-lyrical, colloquial, and imbued with the authentic feelings of a child who might be as old as eight or as young as five, and Blackall's smooth-edged, Chinese ink and watercolor illustrations show the little family of two thriving in their simple, cozy home. Gently, the art clarifies and dramatizes the truth that change may feel threatening even in the most wholesome and loving environment-a familiar message, but a comforting one, delivered here with unusual warmth and grace.
Horn Book

Jackie and I will be reading, drawing, chatting and signing at Bookcourt in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn on Sunday, November 14th at 11am. Hope to see some of you there!

How to Wear a Horse as a Hat

2010-11-01T10:11:00.007-04:00

I know Halloween is meant to be for the kiddies, but this year our children preferred not to be seen with us so we were forced to make our own fun. My friends had a cardboard party on their block, so we made ourselves some enormous disguises. Nick, Ann and Flavio, (who was the gigantic and incredible, ghostly, cardboard Don Quixote) helped make the horse and we all went for a ride.

Best American Non-Required Reading 2010

2010-10-16T17:40:00.003-04:00

I am thrilled to my core to have my Missed Connections illustrations included in this year's Best American Non-Required Reading. Edited by Dave Eggers, with an introduction by David Sedaris and a cover by Maurice Sendak, I'm brushing pages with heroes. (If you know what I mean.) I have to go and lie down now.

Illustrators' Festival Saturday, October 16th

2010-10-15T23:56:00.005-04:00

See that big empty space above in front of the Brooklyn Public Library? Tomorrow it's going to be teeming with illustrators and authors and children and their guardians. There will be reading and drawing and balloon manipulation. There will be signing and singing and a suggestions box. I'm not 100% sure on the suggestions box, but I'm optimistic. I love a good suggestion.
Part of the ongoing Drawn in Brooklyn, tomorrow's event is a family festival to be held in front of the library from 10:30am until 3pm. There are events all day, and Aileen Leiften is doing a drawing demonstration, and Sergio Ruzzier is reading but I will be playing Mr. Squiggle, as promised, from 2:15pm until 3pm. You will provide me with a squiggle and I will do my best to turn it into something vaguely recognizable.
Here is an example.

Sometimes it helps to turn it upside down....

and see if it resembles anything.... there seem to be mathematical symbols in this one...

But I'm going to ignore them...

I'm just reminding you, in red, where the squiggle has gone....

TaDa!

I'm expecting some good squiggles. And I might share my pen if the children agree
not to show me up with their superior drawing skills.
Can't wait.

Subway Poster

2010-10-06T08:31:00.002-04:00

A poster for Drawn in Brooklyn with the cover image from Big Red Lollipop is on my local subway platform. For some reason I am enormously excited about this. I may not be in The New Yorker, but I'm on the subway!! I am also quite certain it is only a matter of time before the poster is defaced... I can't wait. I think fangs and a moustache would work nicely. Also, a few feet along was this companion piece. Note the recurring lollipop motif?

Ivy and Bean: What's the Big Idea?

2010-09-30T09:41:00.004-04:00

For everyone waiting with bated breath, Ivy and Bean: What's the Big Idea is in book stores now!
It's really funny, at least Annie and I think so. There's a nice review here.
The second boxed set (books 4,5 and 6) is also out and includes paper dolls with stick on (repositionable!) clothes and extra body parts and worms. I had fun with those...

Drawn in Brooklyn

2010-09-21T08:49:00.004-04:00

Drawn in Brooklyn opens this week at the Brooklyn Public Library! There is an exhibition of artwork from children's books by over 30 Brooklyn illustrators, including Paul O. Zelinsky, Brian Selznick, Sergio Ruzzier, John Rocco, Sean Qualls, Brett Helquist, Brian Floca, Pat Cummings, R. Gregory Christie, Lauren Castillo, Peter Brown and Selina Alko among others.
There are window cases in the youth wing showing artists' processes and I have two on the mezzanine which are about scrap books and are loosely tied to a Panel Discussion: My Inspiration, in which I will talk about stuffed penguins and mermaids' purses and baby teeth and lost shoes and shadows and indexes and firework labels, with John Bemelmans Marciano, John Rocco and R. Gregory Christie. The panel discussion is Sunday, September 26 at 2pm at the Central Library, Dweck Center.
There is also Family Day: Illustrators' Festival, which will be a fair with workshops and book readings and signings and I think I'm going to play Mr. Squiggle. (I'll try to keep it clean.) That takes place on Saturday, October 16, 10:30am - 3pm at the Central Library Plaza.
On Tuesday, October 12, at 10 am I'll be reading from Big Red Lollipop, also at the Dweck Center.
There's more, but that'll do you for now. Hope to see some of you at the library this Fall!
x Sophie
ps If for no other reason, come and visit Floyd. (I think it's Floyd... the name seems to have stuck.)

I Have a New Penguin

2010-09-17T08:28:00.004-04:00

He is going to take pride of place in a window case I'm installing this afternoon at the Brooklyn Public Library as part of Drawn in Brooklyn, an exhibition of art from children's books. (More on that soon.) Only problem is he needs a name. And a top hat. But I have the latter covered. As for names we have Percival, Floyd, Cuthbert, Napoleon and Wiley on the table. He will be in residence until January and I have no doubt people will come in flocks and droves and rabbles to see him (on the mezzanine, towards Science and Technology), so we have to get this right. All suggestions entertained.

Also...

2010-08-23T05:46:00.004-04:00

Being obsessed with the stork population of Valladolid (did I mention the storks?) I decided to make everyone a stork picture to take home.
While I was busy with that I was oblivious to the conspiring and whispering and secret production of the most beautiful book of paintings; each student contributing a page. I love it to bits and will treasure it always. And if that wasn't enough, it was presented with musical accompaniment; Mila sang the stork song and clacked her spoons and the acoustics in the museum were amazing and it was an unforgettable end to a very memorable week.

Last Day of Ilustratour

2010-08-23T04:55:00.006-04:00

It all feels a bit like a dream now, our week together in Valladolid. We had so much fun drawing and sharing ideas and pencil sharpeners and strange tapas. (Strange to me at least.)
Apart from our daily morning drawing games and collaborations, we also worked hard in the afternoons on individual children's book projects. I offered up my 99 cent Easy Spanish Phrase Book (published in 1958) for inspiration. We plucked about a dozen phrases:
Quiero comprar un paraguas = I want to buy an umbrella
Busco a mis amigos = I have lost my friends
Tengo hambre = I am hungry
Tengo prisa = I am in a hurry
etc
And from these incredibly simple sentences sprang 22 unbelievably imaginative stories.
I finished the week exhausted and happy and sad to leave and enormously inspired by working alongside such a wonderful group of people. Together we sprouted hundreds of beautiful images and hopefully we have all taken home the seeds of a hundred more.

Thank you Natalia for the flowers and Maria for the photo!
The sad empty room after everyone went home.
(Except when I went around the tables I saw the history of our week in doodles and color tests and Spanish/English translations and thumbnail sketches.)

Bosque

2010-08-16T11:58:00.000-04:00

Ilustratour, part 4 continued...

2010-08-13T14:35:00.000-04:00

Ilustratour, part 4

2010-08-12T14:33:00.007-04:00

On Wednesday we considered patterns and clothing (amongst other things) and each made a paper garment or two, which we cut out and attached to la cuerda with las pinzas which Ellen (from Norway) was kind enough to procure (from the Chinese shop).
I brought in cookies for the afternoon, having failed to find a cake shop (I promised cake in the course description). The problem here is that all the shops open at 10 (when we begin class), close at 1:45 (we finish at 2), reopen at 5:30 and close at 8 (we finish around 7:30, which leaves half an hour to rush to a shop). The only place I could find that sold anything close to cake was a bizarre marshmallow shop with boxes of decorative but dry looking, nut encrusted biscuits. I had a feeling it might be like presenting the crowd with an old box of Nilla wafers. Instead they were greeted with joy, and Ainara told me they were regional delicacies made in her own village, and she described the process of painting the white ones with an icing coated brush, and the game you must play when eating them, of putting an entire cookie in your mouth and then attempting to recite some Spanish tongue twister, to the delight of your audience who is sprayed with biscuit crumbs.

Ilustratour, part 3 continued...

2010-08-11T02:30:00.002-04:00

Ilustratour, part 3

2010-08-10T18:24:00.002-04:00

This morning on our side of the "claustro" in the Museo Patio Herreriano (as opposed to Satoshi Kitamura's side...we sit in the wing just behind the giant king and queen), we dissected a 193os coloring book with glee.
Then we each made a picture around our scrap, of whatever came to mind. (I am still obsessed with the storks. Have I mentioned the storks?) It was fine fun. During morning break some people went outside for a "smoke and meat picnic"... nothing like a hunk of salami and a cigarette to get you going. Apparently.

Ilustratour (one 'l') part 2

2010-08-09T18:56:00.004-04:00

Day one of our week long workshop. We played exquisite corpse straight away and the results were stupendous. Then we introduced ourselves and the students showed me some of their work, (fantastically diverse and so good, I threw my hands in the air and told them to go home), then we stopped for coffee, all crowded in a nearby bar, then because many of them had said they were afraid of color, we all painted feathers and fish scales, and we made one bird and one fish and their feathers were so varied and beautiful... There are twenty one women in the group and they naturally separated into fish and bird and arranged the feathers and scales lovingly by hue and then in an extraordinary feat of cooperative glueing, stuck them all onto the respective backgrounds. I admit I was almost teary with the results. My battery faltered so the bird dominates in the video, but you'll get the idea...

They also named their colors. Some of my favorites were: Dust of the Wings of the Dragonfly, Oxidized Maize, and He Ate Something Bad Earlier.

Class finishes at 7, and it's so hot that you can't emerge for dinner until at least 10. I am enjoying drifting along behind a group of extraordinarily kind Spaniards who know how to order tapas and who feed me revuelto de morcilla and force to me to agree to its deliciousness before telling me it's a concoction of eggs, blood and pine nuts.
Oh and when I returned to the hotel the restaurant next door was on fire! It's all go in Valladolid.

Illustratour, part 1

2010-08-07T10:36:00.005-04:00

For the next week I am in Valladolid which is a small town North of Madrid, for Illustratour, an international children's book illustration workshop. I will be teaching 20 Spanish students. I sincerely hope they speak English because my Spanish is "flojo". I am in excellent company; there are illustrators from Spain and France and Argentina and Japan, and last night over dinner, when language failed us, we resorted to pencils and paper napkins and found our common tongue.
So this is my course description:
Foxes, Handkerchiefs and Storm Clouds"
In this workshop we will explore Style and Character and Setting in Children's Books. We'll play games like "Exquisite Corpse" and "Beast, Bird, Fish" and "Foxes, Handkerchiefs and Storm Clouds" and we'll make big drawings together and then cut them up and share the pieces. We'll tell stories and draw pictures from them and share techniques and cake. We'll describe things from our lives and laugh a lot, (hopefully), and draw a lot, (definitely), and be surprised by all sorts of things in ourselves and each other (almost certainly) and at the end we will each make one beautiful, serious painting, and take home the seeds of a hundred more.
I am going to try and document the week because I think it's going to be quite...well...amazing.
Here is my first view of Spain...
and this is my first calamari with aioli and first tinto de verano which is my new favourite drink.

I'll get to drawing soon. And storks! I mustn't forget to tell you about the storks.

Long Time, No Blog

2010-08-03T13:57:00.005-04:00

I'm sorry it's been such a long time between drinks, and you might be forgiven for thinking I'd gone all lazy, but in fact I have been at my desk night and day for the last several weeks. I have a callous the size of Gibraltar on my middle finger to prove it, and two finished picture books. The first (above) is Edwin Speaks Up, written by April Stevens for Schwartz and Wade. It has the two things I'm terrified of drawing: cars and supermarkets. The story is hilarious and despite my illustraphobia where cars and aisles of groceries are concerned, I had so much fun with it. And those are ferrets. Not dogs. Or racoons.
This was my inspiration:

The second book I just handed in was a Once in a Lifetime kind of project... Aldous Huxley's only children's book, The Crows of Pearblossom, for Abrams. I still can't quite believe they let me do this. It was an honor and a joy and worth sacrificing my career prospects as a hand model.
Chad Beckerman, self-confessed mild-mannered art director, documented the art handover very nicely on his blog.

Small, embroidered children

2010-04-16T17:15:00.005-04:00

My very dear friend Nick has made these funny and beautiful (my favorite combination) embroidered silk scarves and linen pillows. You can buy them on Etsy. Quick, while stocks last! Perfect for Mother's Day. Or Cranky Pants Day. Though you couldn't be cranky for long, festooned in such a scarf.

Finally! My eBay obsession is justified.

2010-04-05T15:39:00.005-04:00

The delightful Lexi Green has written a piece for The Inside Source linking my work to my eBay purchases, thereby giving me permission to spend future hours trawling for treasures without guilt. It's work, I tell you!
Happy Spring! (My daughter took this picture of our newly emerged basil seedlings.)

Featured Seller on Etsy!

2010-01-27T14:52:00.003-05:00

I am very happy to be the featured seller on Etsy today and am using the opportunity to clean out some paintings from my studio, and turn them into something I need more. The last time I did this, it was for my daughter's braces, (and lots of you can take credit for individual straight incisors and neatly aligned molars); this time it's in the name of Summer Camp. Who'd have thought my children would want to go far, far away from me into the wild woods? And that it would be so expensive? (In case you're curious, they want to go to BEAM, which looks truly amazing, and I'm sure they will come out better human beings for going there.)
10% of proceeds will also go to our two public schools in Brooklyn, which along with many others have suffered sudden and severe budget cuts. I know it's minor compared to Haiti, but they can't actually afford paper anymore, let alone music or art or visiting authors.
A click on either of the pictures above will take you to Etsy...

Finishing Lines

2010-01-20T09:30:00.003-05:00

I have finally, finally delivered Spinster Goose, Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children (written by Lisa Wheeler to be published by Atheneum). At the first production meeting about two years ago, I looked at my feet and muttered nervously that I wanted to set these pictures in a Victorian workhouse and for the pervading atmosphere to be bleak. Ann Bobco, Namrata Tripathi and Ginee Seo were dreamy collaborators... The proposal was met with hearty guffaws and slaps on the back and free reins to go forth and draw a world of mean geese and dunces and urchiny urchins. Ahh... what fun I had.

When You Reach Me

2010-01-19T09:30:00.003-05:00

I mentioned Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me last year, but I'm thrilled she just won the Newbery Award (which is all to do with what's inside the book, you understand... the jacket could be covered in easy-wipe peel 'n' stick plaid vinyl and it would still win).

Moving House is Exhausting

2010-01-13T09:34:00.003-05:00

Moving house around Christmas time was stupid, but moving while I have six books either due, nearly due or overdue was insane. This picture is not to be relied upon as accurate or even representative. It implies that my house was not heavy, that I had time to iron clothes and that I was smiling. Even the red door is a lie. The neighbours have a red door though, and I have promised the children that one day we too will have a red door. Our door right now is painted "Refried Beans".

My Brain is an Unwieldy Mass of Dryer Lint

2009-12-01T16:55:00.002-05:00

I think I might be mad. I have three (or is it five?) picture books now officially overdue, I'm moving house in ten days time, I haven't given a thought to the impending "holidays" and yet somehow I find myself volunteering to draw five minute portraits all day this coming Saturday to raise money for my son's elementary school. So if anyone is in Brooklyn this weekend, and wants to come by PS29 in Cobble Hill, and sit for a five minute portrait for $15 (a bargain!) it's for a good cause. I'd come early in the day though. I have a feeling the quality might decline as the day wears on.

Doomed to Dance

2009-11-16T09:14:00.002-05:00

The new Ivy and Bean is out, book 6, Doomed to Dance. If anyone is in New York this Saturday, in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Museum, between 12 and 4pm, I will be signing copies. And hands. And foreheads. I will be in the rousing company of at least thirty other Brooklyn authors and illustrators. We have all promised craft activities for the wee children, and in return they have promised us coffee. It will be spectacular!

ps I know there must be a way of showing this clip without the right hand side being lopped off, but I'm stymied as to how. If you'd like to see the unclipped clip, you can here. Don't laugh. I really did try.

Oh dear, sorry.

2009-11-09T20:46:00.003-05:00

It's been rather a long time. I've been a bit consumed with the other blog, and this one has become the overlooked sibling. The homely one, just quietly getting on with its algebra homework, hoping that maybe if it perfects that little curlicue on its letter Y, that someone might one day notice. And be really impressed.
Anyway, I don't have much to offer, except photographs of my apartment on Design Sponge which most people are finding really, really creepy. But the picture of the unforgivable pile of shoes is making everyone feel a lot better about themselves. I consider it a Community Service.

The Collyer Brothers

2009-08-30T22:26:00.006-04:00

This is an illustration which accompanied a review in yesterday's Boston Globe of E. L. Doctorow's Homer and Langley. I don't remember when I first read about the Collyer brothers, whose Harlem home was a bulging receptacle for their hoarded belongings: tons of newspapers, literally, broken umbrellas and perambulators, at least nine pianos and an entire Model T Ford... Trapped by their possessions, in 1947 they met their grisly demise and their story has always captivated me.
I think of them particularly when I come home from holidays weighed down with a pincushion made from the hoof of an indeterminate animal, say, or a jar of doll limbs, or a Victorian child's orphaned shoe. I don't need these things, not really. And yet, I find it hard to walk away from that shoe which has survived over a hundred years, separated from its pair, no longer useful (for the purpose it was designed at least), with hundreds of secret journeys imprinted on its sole.
At the same time my desk, where I am trying to illustrate three picture books, is a mess of teetering piles and my work space is less than 15% of the available surface. I can't help feeling I'd be more efficient without all the hooves and boots and miniature limbs.
But you should see that pincushion...
Sigh.

Shop!

2009-07-30T14:19:00.002-04:00

In response to a truckload of requests (or a snoodful at least), I have made prints available for purchase. I have started with images from the Missed Connections project, but now that the machinery is in place, anything is possible. You have only to ask, provide an address and part with a modest sum.

When You Reach Me

2009-07-27T13:47:00.005-04:00

This is the cover for Rebecca Stead's new novel, When You Reach Me, and a couple of the alternative early stage sketches. I'm always curious about the ones that were left on the floor... Gone With the Wind, for instance, was nearly called Tote the Weary Load. The Great Gatsby was almost Incident at West Egg, and my brother narrowly escaped being named Peregrine.
All that aside, this is a really, really good book.

Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

2009-07-21T14:10:00.002-04:00

Here are two posters I illustrated recently for Piper Theatre productions of Hamlet (top) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (above). If you live in traveling distance of Brooklyn, the performances are free! and the schedule is here.

From Yesterday's Observer

2009-06-15T10:14:00.004-04:00

Many Observer-reading friends sent me a link to this article about pop star Mika last night, with the following fantastic tidbit:
"Waiting outside afterwards is a gaggle of 100 fans, including two who have dressed up as Lollipop girls, after the song. That sort of dedication is apparently typical of his hardcore followers. On his website, Mika recently started a dialogue with the illustrator Sophie Blackall, who posted a drawing of a girl in an ingeniously designed dress. Last night in Berlin, one fan - a man - turned up dressed exactly as the girl in the drawing. "I don't know if other artists get that sort of attention," he says, "because they laugh when I speak to them about it." "
I haven't felt so honoured since a Mexican fellow had a full back tattoo done of my drawing for Tim Burton's Big Fish. Sadly I never got a photo of that.

Here is Our Surreal Scroll

2009-06-07T22:28:00.007-04:00

More than twenty surreal children turned up at the library yesterday to shuffle nouns and verbs and adjectives and elbow each other (ever so politely) for their bit of the scroll to embellish. It was SUCH FUN! Some of my favorite lines were:
The noisy trumpet laughs at fire
You gave an elegant ribbon
[to] A running confident monkey
The jumping round ear
is stealing a tiny moon
in embarrassing pointed waters.

Please excuse the bumpy video...

Exquisite Corpse in the Library

2009-06-01T21:43:00.003-04:00

If you happen to be in New York this Saturday, in the vicinity of the Mulberry Street branch of the Public Library, around 2pm, I'm going to be playing a version of my favorite game with thirty feet of paper, a bunch of Surrealist children and fistfuls of nouns, verbs and adjectives. It should be fun. Click on the picture for more info. (Incidentally I found this picture in my desk along with sheaves of others, from many late nights, with many (obviously) talented friends. Unfortunately I can't remember whose work this is. Feel free to claim credit if you recognize your limbs.)

Book Expo America

2009-05-30T09:55:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, at BEA in the cavernous Javits Center in New York, Annie Barrows and I handed out hundreds of these Ivy and Bean cookies. I was rather hoping they'd be Ivy and Bean shaped cookies, and possibly Ivy and Bean flavoured, but at least they'd have mutant icing cross eyes and wayward smiles. But they were professional cookies and looked almost like... books. Mm. Tasty.

Whales and Ships and Swallows and Eyes

2009-05-13T09:30:00.004-04:00

New things in the Etsy shop! Click on any picture to take you there...

Big Red Lollipop

2009-05-07T21:38:00.005-04:00

I've just finished a picture book for Viking, called Big Red Lollipop, written by Rukhsana Khan. I guess it will be out next Spring? I never know these things. I'm waiting to hear from the people with the magnifying glasses whether everything is good to go, (incidentally today I found out that in the wombat book there's a sad little faceless fellow, without eyes or nose, just a sort of wombatty blob. I have to go and fix him with a number three pen for the second print run. If you want the special face-less wombat edition ACT NOW), and then I'll wrap it up and take it in on the subway on my lap, like a child to its first day of kindergarten.

Poor Swine

2009-04-28T16:19:00.000-04:00

Wombat Walkabout

2009-03-20T14:29:00.005-04:00

Wombat Walkabout is out today I believe.
The Common Wombat was described by William T. Hornaday, Sc. D.(I promise that was his name), in the 1925 companion guide to the newly opened Bronx zoo, as "the most nearly shapeless of all mammals". He went on to say, "Having few thoughts, and seldom using one, it is content to lie around all day and is aroused only with difficulty. We are tempted to ask. "Why is a Wombat?". I mention this not because it is hilarious, but to illustrate why I didn't put many clothes on the wombats, settling for fetching accessories. (Any tailor would agree with Hornaday, the wombat's form presents a challenge.) You might wonder why wombats need either clothes or accessories. Yes, you might.
Anyway, as I was saying the book comes out today. To celebrate this with the author, (Carol Diggory Shields) and editors at Dutton, I made little bundles of accessories as you can see above. The keen observer will note the colors (colours) of the beads match the original, and that I had to hand print the fabric for the shorts. Hmm.

Missed Connections

2009-03-11T08:50:00.003-04:00

I have started a new blog here, of drawings based on Missed Connections. I'm staying local for now, and in typical, overly ambitious fashion, am going to try to post one a day.
I'm fascinated by these snippets of interaction, the way people remember and describe one another from their fleeting encounters, and the butterfly lifespan of hope. Or perhaps it's more enduring? Maybe I'll find out.

I Need New Glasses

2009-03-05T10:59:00.001-05:00

The Drawing Game Part Eight

2009-02-26T11:09:00.006-05:00

So if you are just tuning in, this drawing game has been an unfolding visual conversation with the singer-songwriter Mika. We began with his note, which read, How about we start with a drawing of a girl?, and we are now deep in a surreal land of jungle sets and dapper millipedes. (By way of a burning house of words, an irresponsible baby, a smoky elephant and a dubious contraption.)
Put into words, I think we started out with Yes!, then went through Oh? and Hmm... and Whoa! and then we got to the contraption which was me going Mumble, mumble, mumble, blah, blah, blah, and Mika snuck away, tiptoed around behind and jumped out with HA! on the other side. I think my response is !AH; a face-to-face staring match.
Then again, it's just a drawing.

Making Fun

2009-02-13T21:12:00.005-05:00

Sometimes, on a day filled with fires and plane crashes and lost jobs and suicide bombs, not to mention loathsome Valentine's motifs, the only recourse is to amuse oneself at the expense of a long dead stranger. Some might argue Forrest Gump would do the trick. To each, his own.

Inky Forests

2009-02-09T09:05:00.003-05:00

As Mika was painting his vibrant jungle, I've been fixating on inky rainforests. The initial inspiration was an early 19th century botanist's drawing of the Australian bush. These drawings above were done over the last few weeks, and evoke, for me at least, the damp smell of moss and fungi, the rustle of millipedes in leaf litter, the snuffle of a bandicoot, the call and response of a whipbird. (Some people find rainforests a bit overwhelming and need to sit with a hanky over their head.)
As wildfires rage in Australia I now can't help seeing a correlation between these damp inky drawings and the charcoal swathe of the ravaged bush.

The Drawing Game Part Seven

2009-02-05T10:40:00.004-05:00

So here is the latest addition from Mika. I'll just give you a moment to collect yourselves.

...

I'll admit that it was a surprise. I had to sit down for a while. Make a cup of tea and sit with my back to the drawing, turning now and then to see if there really was a menacing, indigenous gentleman making scary hands at our girl. And then of course I remembered that she's just made of paper, as is he. Paper which can be folded and torn, cut and stained and punctured, embellished and decorated.
I told Mika that he'd painted me into a corner, literally and metaphorically, and he very kindly offered to come up with some ideas and I very politely said, "HANDS OFF, this one's mine!" Because, after all, this is where the fun lies...

Guilty Quilts

2009-02-01T22:13:00.002-05:00

Every now and then somebody sends me a calico square and a polite request to draw something on it for a storybook quilt; a quilt of squares illustrated by children's book artists to be auctioned for charity or circulated around regional libraries or thrown over the backs of retired donkeys to keep them warm in winter. Despite my best intentions, (honestly!), the calico squares often get separated from the polite requests in the piles on my desk and before I know it, it's Summer, the donkeys have given up hope, and I'm wracked with guilt. Which is why, when I opened the envelope today with the nicely ironed square of calico, I taped it straight down on my desk and painted an owl on it. Now if I can just track down the letter, and find the envelope, there's a good chance I might even make it to the post office.

Playing Shop

2009-01-22T15:31:00.003-05:00

I have been playing shop at Etsy.com. It's been very good fun, making things and arranging them on the shelves and sweeping and dusting, and clearing my throat decisively, but I keep forgetting to actually tell people it's open for business. So here it is. I'll be putting lots more things up this month. Come back often! Tell your friends!

Creepy Christmas

2009-01-08T11:35:00.003-05:00

My friends Mary Harron and John Walsh made a short film for the online film festival, Creepy Christmas, for which I contributed a few props. I know it's well past the season and there's nothing bleaker than tinsel in January, but this was never meant to be jolly. Click on the image above to go to the site, and our film is December 24, The Night Before Christmas. Ho.

Christmas Greetings

2008-12-14T22:03:00.005-05:00

I'm in Australia, where it's already Christmas Eve. The snow is polystyrene, but the waves are rolling and the kookaburras are laughing and the mangoes are ripe. Wishing you all a happy Christmas, wherever you are in the world...
x Sophie

Drawing Game part 6

2008-12-14T21:29:00.003-05:00

Here we go... with a nod to Heath Robinson. A few discerning viewers have questioned the inclusion of sausages in this drawing. I can only refer them to chapter four of George Bracegirdle's Great Art by Great Artists (sadly no longer in print) in which he suggests any composition is improved with sausages.

Drawing Game part 5

2008-12-01T12:56:00.006-05:00

Mika has added a smoky elephant to the fray. It's a rather spooky pastiche, leaving me no other option but to... well, you'll see.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T15:48:00.003-05:00

Please click on the picture above for a comical seasonal amusement.
(Thanks to my clever friend Catherine for the fiddly bits.)

Googily Balloons

2008-11-20T15:30:00.002-05:00

Thank you to everyone who came to the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday for the Children's Book Fair. There was an insatiable crowd of balloon hungry children, and in spite of rubbery lips and wheezy lungs and blistery fingers, I made all but three of them happy. As Dan Quayle once said, "Where there are balloons, there will be tears".

Brooklyn Museum Children's Book Fair

2008-11-10T10:19:00.002-05:00

I'll be at The Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, November 15, from 1-5pm signing books, backs of hands, foreheads...
I have also planned an elaborate craft project involving balloons, which is guaranteed to make children cry.
Hope to see someone, anyone, there...

Soles of Shoes and Backs of Heads

2008-11-04T09:57:00.003-05:00

There's something poetic about the soles of shoes, and something oddly expressive, and vulnerable, about the backs of heads. Incidentally, in China you can buy slips of paper printed with a generic drawing of a man or woman, upon which you write the name of your nemesis, stick it with spit to the sole of your shoe and spend the day happily stomping on them. I may have made up the bit about the spit.

Halloween

2008-11-01T13:50:00.001-04:00

The Card Store

2008-10-29T10:12:00.003-04:00

I have started building a collection of greeting cards at www.cardstore.com.
If you click on the pictures above they'll take you there...

Drawing Game part 4

2008-10-28T09:09:00.003-04:00

Round four. There's certain pleasure to be had in setting fire to things in a controlled two-dimensional environment. Click on the images to enlarge...

Catalogue of Toupées

2008-10-27T08:55:00.001-04:00

Still playing with mushrooms...

It Could Be Me...

2008-10-23T20:55:00.002-04:00

An enigmatic fellow named Paul Paper has an online project called It Could Be Me But It's Actually Paul Paper. Paper describes it as "a project exploring the possibility of one artist occupying another's space. It is a visual adventure and an interpretation of the same sentence by different artists worldwide ." So far there are 82 contributing artists. It makes me happy that there are people out there doing things like this. Here is the website.

Drawing Game part 3

2008-10-21T08:36:00.003-04:00

Here is Mika's response to the girl with the box. He's built her an alphabet house, and the whole thing has taken on a narrative quality. We are being very polite with each other so far; leaving lots of white space. That might all be about to change... cue maniacal cackle.

Long Shadows

2008-10-20T08:59:00.002-04:00

I am no Autumn lover. Oh, yes, I know all the arguments for clear days and crisp evenings and jewel-like leaves and tendrils of woodsmoke, but it's just too, altogether melancholy. Summer is your orgy of pleasure, and Spring is all delightful anticipation, and even Winter can be endured with advice from my 1950s Top Girl encyclopedia of poise, "Smile into a bitter wind; it will set you apart from the other girls!"... but Autumn is all about endings. Beautiful endings that you don't want to end.
On that cheery note, I just found my Summer sketchbook. A few drawings from glorious August.

Mushroom Girls and Boys

2008-10-14T13:02:00.002-04:00

I found an atlas of exotic mushrooms in an antique book shop on the weekend and am turning Lactarius turpis and the like into skirts and ruffs and hairdos.

Ladies' Drawing Circle

2008-10-11T10:40:00.007-04:00

A few years ago a group of artist friends living roughly in the same zip code expressed a common interest in gathering on a semi-regular basis to drink wine and draw each other. Initially I imagined we would be a bit like Virginia Woolf or Edna St Vincent Millay; sitting about in manly pants, smoking elongated cigarettes and talking disparagingly about our beaux. As you can see, we've lost the pants.

Drawing Game part 2

2008-10-10T16:57:00.005-04:00

This is what I did with Mika's note. Our girl is now in LA wondering what is to become of her. (Well no, she's just a drawing, so incapable of wondering at all.) I gave her an empty box, thinking something might spring out of it, moths maybe, or bulging vapors... but I suspect Mika's too clever to do anything so obvious. We'll have to wait and see...

Winsome donkeys and endearing axolotls

2008-10-10T11:12:00.006-04:00

I am determined to keep this blog specific; to rein in my natural desire to meander, to avoid politics, economics, my ongoing obsession with Mark Bittman's no knead bread, my growing collection of vintage porcelain false teeth or my current inability to finish a book. It's about drawing. Which is why I'm posting this picture of the most winsome crocheted donkey I've ever encountered. Have a look at his cohorts too, there's a very endearing baby Mexican axolotl.

Pathetic Dogs (in the most adorable way)

2008-10-08T23:15:00.000-04:00

Today I was working on a drawing of a dog and a custodian for a funny and bleak children's book – just right for Our Times – and needed a reference for a dog, because despite my best intentions the drawing was looking an awful lot like a cat. Without question the most adorable and pathetic dog to pop up was this one, which I'm sure by now has been made a National Treasure in Japan. That's my small, scruffy, cat-like version below it.

A Wedding Picture

2008-10-06T21:08:00.000-04:00

A friend recently told me to say "yes" to everything, and being easily influenced, I agreed to do a painting for someone — let's call her Phoebe—'s sister's wedding present. All I knew about the betrothed couple was that they liked the country, horse riding and each other. I sent a sketch for Phoebe to approve, but she's in Australia and it's in a different time zone and there's always a public holiday and in any case she hasn't replied. So because I'm impatient (and actually have lots of other work I should be doing), I started tentatively painting, waiting for an email at each stage to say, "Oh, no! She HATES black horses", or "Didn't I tell you, the groom is philosophically opposed to hats". The result is a picture in stages.

Drawing Game part 1

2008-10-06T11:21:00.000-04:00

Mika has made the first move.
This is going to be fun.

New Ivy and Bean books

2008-10-03T11:34:00.000-04:00

See? It's only been about five minutes since my last post and here I am again.
There is a new Ivy and Bean book out, book five, Bound to be Bad, and also a boxed set of books one to three. I do like a boxed set. This one has a secret compartment in it like the one my brother carved out of his school hymnal to hide cigarettes in at boarding school. In this case it holds a secret diary, because children don't smoke as much as they used to. Years ago I stole his idea for a column I used to write of handy household hints; a hollowed out coffee table tome could be used to store an aesthetically offensive remote control. See my website bio if you don't believe me.

Turning the first sod

2008-10-03T11:12:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog!
As someone who writes mostly with a pencil on the back of an envelope this is exciting and faintly terrifying. (Just choosing a font had me paralyzed for half an hour.)
Yesterday I embarked on a project with the irrepressibly energetic and creative singer/songwriter phenomenon MIKA. We are going to communicate via a drawing, a kind of Surrealist 'Exquisite Corpse' collaboration, which we will send back and forth at the mercy of the US postal system.
Have a look at MIKA's website: http://www.mikasounds.com/
This blog will be a place to record what happens, and also to mention new books and things like that which I have been fundamentally hopeless at doing. Until now.
You'll see. I'll be blogging blindfolded soon.

Sophie Blackall

Poster on the New York Subway

Missed Connections Party in Boston

New York Times Best Illustrated

Missed Connections, Love, Lost & Found

New Ivy and Bean website

Book Launch Party This Thursday

Princeton Children's Book Festival

I will be at the Princeton Children's Book Festival this Saturday from 11am-4pm. Would love to see you if you happen to be in Princeton. xx

What Are You Doing Tuesday Nights This Fall?

Atlantis! The movie!

Atlantis!

Reading, Signing, Drawing This Sunday in Dumbo...

Poster Giveaway over at Missed Connections!

Crows on NPR

Are You Awake?

My Obsession with the Bucolic Backgrounds in Old Photographs

Spinster Goose review from Rat Chat

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Sophie Blackall on Crushin’ on Aldous Huxley,Mother Goose’s Sis, and Why Some CrowsNeed to Keep a Packed Suitcase Under Their Beds

Books of Wonder

Publishers Weekly Spring Children's Announcements

Two Book Maker's Dozen Events

Gung Hey Fat Choy!

Winter Crows

Happy Holidays!

Shindig

Events in Brooklyn This Weekend

Book Makers Dozen

More Excitement.

Surprise Islands on a Gloomy Day

Pecan Pie Baby

How to Wear a Horse as a Hat

Best American Non-Required Reading 2010

Illustrators' Festival Saturday, October 16th

Subway Poster

Ivy and Bean: What's the Big Idea?

Drawn in Brooklyn

I Have a New Penguin

Also...

Last Day of Ilustratour

Bosque

Ilustratour, part 4 continued...

Ilustratour, part 4

Ilustratour, part 3 continued...

Ilustratour, part 3

Ilustratour (one 'l') part 2

Illustratour, part 1

Long Time, No Blog

Small, embroidered children

Finally! My eBay obsession is justified.

Featured Seller on Etsy!

Finishing Lines

When You Reach Me

Moving House is Exhausting

My Brain is an Unwieldy Mass of Dryer Lint

Doomed to Dance

Oh dear, sorry.

The Collyer Brothers

Shop!

When You Reach Me

Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

From Yesterday's Observer

Here is Our Surreal Scroll

Exquisite Corpse in the Library

Book Expo America

Whales and Ships and Swallows and Eyes

Big Red Lollipop

Poor Swine

Wombat Walkabout

Missed Connections

I Need New Glasses

The Drawing Game Part Eight

Making Fun

Inky Forests

The Drawing Game Part Seven

Guilty Quilts

Playing Shop

Creepy Christmas

Christmas Greetings

Sophie Blackall on Crushin’ on Aldous Huxley,
Mother Goose’s Sis, and Why Some Crows
Need to Keep a Packed Suitcase Under Their Beds