The Whingdingdilly, Learning to Write, and the Power of Images

5 things from the studio this week

Busy week as I wrap things up before heading out to Sophie Blackall’s Milkwood next week. Pinch me. Seriously.

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Hey! I’m an author and illustrator of books for kids. Drawing a Blank is about getting better at <waves at everything in the studio> out loud and as authentically as I can. Every Friday, I send out 5 things from my studio that week. It’s the kind of ground level “here’s what I’m thinking about and working on.” It’s free and it’s what you’re reading right now. Every other Wednesday, the paid subscribers go on a deep dive (like these). I hope it’s an encouraging and practical stop on your own creative journey. Also I use a lot of bad analogies.

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1. SOME ART MAKING

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I’ve finally finished the commission that is an ode to Bon Iver’s double album fABLE. The joy in this work was that picture books and sequential art can be very literal. Stories have threads that need to be tied together. Art inspired by music is more abstract, symbolic and dependent on feeling. There can be more mystery.

These two pieces mirror the two albums in that one is stripped down, folky and richly morose. The second album is more hopeful, colorful — and introspective. The two come from the same place, the same artist so it made sense to mirror the negative spaces.

One might say one needs the other to exist.

Which I came to believe was the whole of Iver’s vision for these two albums.

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2. WORK WISDOM

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I was always an artist at heart. I loved drawing from the beginning as a little boy. As I developed and became a published illustrator, I started to get this little tickle in the back of my mind that I wanted to be a writer too. I wanted to add “author” to my bio.

The worry I had at the time was pretty straight forward. I’ve spent a lifetime getting better at visual art making. Do I have enough time to get better at writing? Can I focus on both writing and illustrating without sacrificing growth in one or the other?

Turns out, yes. It’s not only possible — it’s likely that adding the second creative discipline will be easier. One informs the other. Austin Kleon wisely writes:

I believe that the creative process translates across disciplines, so the real challenge to a visual artist who wants to write is learning to operate with words the way you do with pictures.

In the same article he posts this short video from comic artist, James Kochalka that vibes with my experience:

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3. THING I LOVED

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Following that same article by Mr. Kleon led me to this wonderful two-part video by the magnificent and brilliant cartoonist, Lynda Barry. It’s about images and why making (and consuming) them is core to our humanity. It’s also very funny. And the quality is very 2009.

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4. A BOOK TO READ

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Of my many influences, Bill Peet holds a special place. Most of my favorite illustrators as a kid who became influential as I became a professional myself, were due to style. I absolutely love Bill Peet’s drawings. His line work is loose and not too concerned with itself. But where I’m finding his influence has infiltrated my own, is in his emotive form of storytelling. Bill’s characters are rich and can tell the whole of the emotional arc just by looking at the faces of the participants.

The Whingdingdilly was my favorite as a kid and still sits at the top of a really impressive stack of Peet books I love. It’s about a dog who is unhappy with his lot in life and would rather be Palomar the giant Percheron horse. He runs away and finds himself in the presence of the kooky Zildy the witch, deep in the woods. She turns him into the Whingdingdilly (part elephant, part zebra, part reindeer, part dog). He’s truly one of a kind. But that turns out to be not so great.

My search for some background on the making of this book, led me to this entry. The idea for the story cam from a school visit drawing game. So good:

The Whingdingdilly came out of a guessing game when I visited schools years ago to talk with the kids and draw pictures for them. I made animal drawings on an over-sized sketch pad so everyone could watch - and as soon as I started a drawing the kids all tried to guess what it might be.

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5. EPHEMERA, ETC.

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Very excited to announce that Big Bike, Little Bike has been accepted into the Society of Illustrator’s Original Art Show! I’m honored to have this work recognized. It’s been my favorite book to work on to date and one that I poured a lot of effort into. Kellie DuBay Gillis’s manuscript was perfect and the HarperCollins team a dream to work with. The tough part is picking out the spread to have printed, framed, and sent to NYC for the show. Warthog? Rhino? Eeek.

See you next week!

Best,
Jacob