Lessons From a Mouse (a famous one!)

Hello hello!

As you've probably noticed...I've been away for a couple of weeks. Hubs and I were stocking up on rest and relaxation, good food, good company, and good fun in sunny California. We visited family in San Francisco, friends in Santa Barbara, drove through horrid traffic in LA, and hung out with a mouse in Anaheim! It was a fantastic trip, but I didn't leave without getting a lesson about making my dreams come true. (Good 'ol Walt pulls it off every time!)

You know it... we went to Disneyland!

We not only got to visit THE Disneyland, the place where Walt Disney actually walked and took a chance on his dreams, be we also visited the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, where we learned all about Walt's many successes, and many failures.

Failures?!? Yep. Failures. And LOTS of hard work.

You see, Walt Disney started working when he was about 7 years old (or maybe 8? I'm bad at remembering numbers...) where he trudged through the snow on his father's paper route. He sold his drawings to friends and neighbors. He worked for a cannery, boxing up jams and things. He worked on a train selling food and the news to passengers. He worked for the Red Cross, because he wasn't able to get into the military. And he worked hard enough to earn himself a scholarship at the Kansas City Art institute. This all happened before he turned twenty! (And there is plenty more I'm forgetting to tell you about!)

After graduation, Walt and his college buddy Ub Iwerks then started a small animation company (yay!) that ended up going bankrupt (boo!). So they moved to Hollywood and worked on the "Alice Comedies" instead, (yay!) which eventually died off (boo). Then he invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who was successful (yay!) but the rights were stolen from Walt (boo!).

And you know what he had to say about that?

Walt decided that they could KEEP Oswald...he was going to make something BETTER. He was going to show them who was boss!

And then came along Mickey Mouse! (You tell 'em, Walt!)

Fast forward to many successful years later when Walt sat down on a park bench with his children, and decided he wanted his own theme park. A CLEAN one, mind you, where people could go for some serious fun. And thus began his quest to build Disneyland.

After the completion of the park, though, Walt soon realized it wasn't enough. Maybe it had been for the guests, but not for Walt. He wanted to block out the sounds of traffic, the city skyline, and create a bigger separation from the World and Reality. He wanted a place where guests could truly get away from work and lost in another world. So he moved on, kept improving, and he started building Disney World.

Unfortunately, he didn't get to see that dream to completion. Walt passed away before Disney World opened. But he sure did change the world, didn't he? Take these quotes, for example:

There are far more up and downs in Walt's crazy, amazing life history. I'm not going to get into them all. But the biggest lesson here is to always be striving for the best, for the next big step, for moving forward and not looking back. No matter how many trips or falls we have, just dust off your pants and keep moving along.

Just like Mickey Mouse does!

I wanna be like Mickey... can't you tell?

Brian Lies Visits!

So last week, our Children's Book Illustration III class got quite a treat: a visit from Brian Lies! He is the author and illustrator of the NY Times' best selling books Bats at the Beach, and Bats at the Ballgame and my favorite, Bats at the Library! (To see more of his books, click here!)

Brian Lies! And there's Dede to the left! :)

Stunning work not put to justice by my dirty cell phone camera lens!

Brain was kind enough to share with us his working process, including the corresponding original art, starting with his sketchbook, his mini dummies and book dummies, how he re-works his pieces, and all the way through the steps he takes in painting with acrylics. He shared with us the book dummy for his newest book, More to be available next year. He does his finished acrylics on heavy weight vellum paper, using teeny tiny brushes and ink for his foundation line work. And his finished pieces... Absolutely gorgeous!

Brian shared some useful tips, such as writing paint color recipes for future reference, and to be sure to really layer the darks because they brighten in the scanning process. He said some things that rang true in my own creative process. It was heartening to see that like I do, he also draws in blue pencil to break in a piece of fresh white paper "because it doesn't feel like permanent final art." And he hates to erase (just like I do), so naturally he ends up with piles of paper (like I do), though he actually has storage for his piles, unlike myself! He also shared that he prefers painting animals with smaller eyes to avoid the "mass market" look in his work.

I've been so inspired, I think I might try my hand at working on paper instead of canvas with my acrylics. Just to see what happens. :)

It was a spectacular visit! So much so that my friends have blogged about it too!
Cheryl Kirk Noll (She had a real camera and got nicer photos than my cell phone did!)
Marcela Staudenmaier

Here are some links to interviews with Brian Lies, as well as Bat Conservation:
http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings
http://www.scbwi.org/Pages.aspx/Brian-Lies
http://www.batcon.org/

Thank You, Brian, for visiting us! :D
And Thank You, Emilie Boon, for inviting him!

Library Run: Melissa Sweet

*For some weird reason this blog post got UN posted. So I am RE posting it here today. Strange.*

I've got a confession to make.

I'm a little sweet on children's book illustrator Melissa Sweet. (She probably gets that all the time- sorry, but it's true!)

My awe-crush started last fall, when someone brought to class "A River of Words: the Story of William Carlos Williams." The cover grabbed me immediately- a rainbow of ripped paper!!! Be still, my heart!

I seriously could not get enough looking time with the book, and had to get my own copy to get lost into. Which then also led me to purchasing "Carmine, A Little More Red," and then "Tupelo Rides the Rails." With each new book that arrived, I was captivated by her simple childlike renderings loaded with color, texture, typography and recycled book covers. I can practically smell the old faded library cards, graphite and lined paper- and when art makes me want to eat it (don't ask why I start wanting to chew art and touch the texture of butter cream... I have no logical answer to give to you), then I know it's good.

My three favoritist books right now. Yes I know favoritist isn't a word-
this is a blog for goodness sake! Let me have my cake!!

And on top of it all, I realized she and I must have one very important thing in common (and this is based on my very scientific deductive reasoning method- this has yet to be confirmed in real life): we are both pack rats! How else would she be able to use all these wonderful fabrics, textures, and re-used materials? She must have a pile of goodies collected from various treasure-hunting escapades, just waiting for their turn to be featured in her latest book! And I'm willing to bet she's got them organized by color, too. Ummm, hero!

So in my own personal quest to find my absolute favorite books, I ran to the library and found some more yummy things indeed:

Want to hear something cool? She's also my Facebook friend! She doesn't post very often though- I am thinking she is spending her time wisely doing things like painting and drawing, (yes, yes, unlike myself lately... shush!). But I hope to meet her one day, perhaps at a conference or a book signing! Wouldn't that be just dandy?