We were on a panel with a number of other local professionals - including another POBL-member Kathleen Kemly, and hero-artist Richard Jesse Watson.
Jo and I went for a somewhat silly, light-hearted approach (that actually mimicked real life more than one might think). (The text will be attached below if you are interested.)
Kathleen gave a fun presentation on her two historical picture books published this year.
A couple of other POBL members also attended - which made for a lovely, supportive evening for all.
[Ed. note, added later: Jaime Temarik, our intrepid Inside Story organizer, has written up a review of the first half of the evening on her blog here].
Inside Story Presentation:
Hello, I’m Tara Larsen Chang. And I’m Jo Gershman. And we’re sharing with you a very brief and abbreviated version of our latest collaborative adventure in illustration and chocolate -Ring.Jo: hello
Tara: Hey Jo, the publisher, Feiwel & Friends just offered me a new series to illustrate. It’s about flying Fairy Horses based on Breyer’s Wind Dancer models, and has just a handful of illustrations per book. I should be able to fit *that* into my schedule in a couple of months when we begin.
Jo: Oh, that sounds like fun….I’m working on elves and Santa Claus… I wish I could work on horses too…
3 months later-Ring.Tara: hello
Jo: Hi Tara. Guess what - I just took the most incredible drawing class on horse anatomy.
Tara: No kidding??? Do you remember that ‘easy’ fairy horse project? NOW they’re asking for between 40-50 illustrations per book, and they need the first four books completed in only 10 weeks!
Do you want to help??
Jo: Yes! Absolutely!
Some time Later. 3pmRing.Jo: hello
Tara: Hi Jo, we need to coordinate the next book’s art list and divvy up the work in the most visually unified way possible .
Jo: It’s a good thing we’ve worked on projects together before, or it would be much more difficult to harmonize the look of these books.
Tara: Well I can’t tell you how nice it is to collaborate with you on this project! With the schedule and the hours we’re keeping, it makes all the difference to have someone else intimately involved in the details and decision making.
Jo: I may need to make a major investment in Reese’s peanut butter cups.
Some time later. 6 pmRing.Jo: hello
Tara: Hey Jo, you know the horse characters in these books? Each one has its own personality and will do a number of non-horsey things – like combing their hair, making pies and flying. And since Breyer is commissioning these books they also have to be anatomically accurate –
Jo: You know, Breyer’s been known as the ‘Home to the World’s Finest Model Horses’ for over 50 years now. They’ll be checking our horse anatomy with a fine tooth currycomb.
Tara: So the trick will be conveying human expressions and actions as well as magical ones (like all the flying) while still keeping them realistic enough!
Jo: Tricky, but doable – kind of like those reindeer who fly and talk with Santa.
Some time later: 9pmRing.Jo: hello
Tara: Needing a chocolate fix to stay awake.
Jo: Do you think it’ll help the visual consistency if we eat the same kind?
Tara: It might be worth a try. :-)
Jo: Speaking of visual consistency, we need to be sure we’re painting on the same paper and using the exact same color palette.
Tara: Our choices are limited by the nine colors on these Wind Dancer models. So we’ll have to pull out our “color mixing-fu” and mix colors for everything else in these books from these —that way everything will be consistent!
Jo: We’re going to need more chocolate.
Some time later: MidnightRing.Tara: hello
Jo: Wings -
Tara: and chocolate -
Jo: and halos -
Tara: and chocolate -
Jo: and jewels -
Tara: and chocolate -
Both: Oh my…
Some time later: 2:30 am Ring.Jo: hello
Tara: Finished!
Jo: Sixteen hours of day for the final three weeks
Tara: We’re still alive.
Jo: And we’re still speaking to each other.
Tara: Did you see the East Coast email that just came from the art director? She wants to know if we’re ready to start thinking about the next four books?!!
(
Both sigh and hang up the phone: “We’re going to bed!”)
A few of us went to dinner at a very atmospheric, old and renovated firehouse-turned-restaurant. In one of the dining rooms, Jo Gershman is having a mini-solo-show of her lovely still lifes (is that the plural of still life? lives? life's?) this month.
After dinner, we walked a couple of blocks to the independent book store down the street where Kathleen Kemly was being featured in a holiday book event -reading "Shannon and the World's Tallest Leprechaun" -
- followed by Irish step dancers, gold and green treats and a shamrock hunt.
Then she got to sign books for her admirers (which include all of us. Way to go Kathleen!).
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