I work from the background to the fore-
ground. All the colors I'll use for the whole
book are on those 35 cheap plastic plates
in the plastic bags over there [he points to
a side counter]. The colors need to be
consistent. It takes about two weeks for
each illustration, and a kids' book is 32,
sometimes 40, pages. So it takes a while.
aware of?
that you may not know is that the action
in the book must lead from left to right, so
the illustrations are constantly moving the
story forward. If you look at If I Built a Car,
in every illustration, the car is pointing to
the right.
plan each illustration?
approach the illustration like a movie
director. What's the best perspective, the
best way to show this scene? Would it be
best to see it from up in the air looking
downward? Or maybe ground level?
storyline?
really fast. Or, like The Circus Ship, I could
have read something 20 years ago, long
before I was doing this. The first book--
Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee--began
with an illustration idea. I thought it
would be really fun to illustrate a boat
stuck up high in a tree--I wasn't planning
a book at all. Plus a line got stuck in my
head, "Mr. Magee and his little dog Dee
hopped in the car and drove down to the
sea," but it took me nine years to get to a
finished book. Now I have one coming out
rhyme is hard to sell