Learning to Read
Discovering the powerful language of a picture book.
In Drawing class this week we focused on the messaging of markmaking and media. How to make decisions in how and what you draw to express content. This made me think of my first picture book experience. I was offered an incredible opportunity to work with a great text in a beautiful series.
The Visions in Poetry series of picture books interpreted great poems with Illustration offering a new reading in beautiful slim hard cover editions. Poems included The Raven, My Letter to the World, The Highwayman, and my contribution Casey at the Bat.
We didn’t change a word from the original 1888 Ernest L. Thayer poem, but the concept for the series was to reimagine the text with contemporary images for a 10 year old 21st century audience. I had never worked on a kids book but I jumped in and created a series of spreads that I was pretty sure were awesome.
Here is a sampling of the first spreads I created for the book. I developed the idea of a narrator, a young fan that carries us through the story.
I grew up as a baseball fan and I really wanted to show the drama of the sport through dynamic viewpoints.
I then introduced the arrogant Casey as he steps up to the plate and the adulation of the crowd.
He faces the pitcher and ignores 2 pitches, each called a strike. He then gets ready to hit the next pitch... Spoiler—he strikes out. The original poem is humorous and obvious about the over-confident Casey.
I submitted these roughs to the editor at KidsCanPress. Her response changed everything for me…
Next week, my education in picture books.