Archive for category Jan Brett Posts
July 2010 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on July 6, 2010
| Happy July! This is Jan Brett and this is my July hedge a gram, my monthly communication about my work as an illustrator and writer of children’s books. I like to offer a progress report on the book I’m working on, and hopefully give you some insights about creating a storybook, with pictures of course. I separate the process into three parts. First, there is the idea for the story that involves a complete plot – the hardest part. I see the story told with a border idea that involves some kind of subplot, so that plot should be envisioned too, before I travel to a foreign country to get ideas. Sometimes the story will take 10 years before all the pieces fall into place. The second part is writing the manuscript, which may go through two or three versions that I talk about with my editor, Margaret Frith. At this point I sewed together typing paper into signatures of four pages that will add up to a 32 page book, the usual number for a picture book. This is called the dummy. Then, after meeting with Margaret, I’ll begin the finishes. We will look for technical pitfalls — like putting a character too close to the center of the spread where it could be obscured, or we may talk about the color palette, or the age of the characters. Most importantly we will talk about the pacing and where I may choose to take out parts of the manuscript I can best describe by illustrating or places where I may want to explain in words when the action doesn’t seem clear in the dummy. For me, I like the book to be loose and flexible so the illustrations can dictate the shape of the story as it progresses. |
 In Sweden for HOME FOR CHRISTMAS |
| I’ve been tramping through the woods looking for pieces of birchbark, especially ones with interesting patterns of lichen. Several years ago, I found a huge, very heavy, scientific book about lichens. I have some sort of fascination with them. On a previous trip to Scandinavia, I met Norwegian’s who collected flat stones with interesting map lichen on them. In arctic Sweden my friend Elof took a lot of photos of characterful lichen patterns for me to use in my book. The decorative borders in HOME FOR CHRISTMAS I painted to look like birchbark. In the open air national cultural museum in Sweden, called Skansen, I was able to see objects made of birchbark, or carved from birch. I’ve always been fascinated by the paperlike quality of pieces of birchbark found on the forest floor. When I was little, I really wanted a birch bark canoe, but had to settle for writing letters on birchbark. The other intriguing plant I became obsessed with is the Lingonberry. I just had six Lingonberry plants put in around our turtle pond. Every time I go to the store I buy a jar of Lingonberry preserves. I love them on my homemade bread (toasted) or in yogurt. I will include my homemade bread recipe at the end of my hedge a gram. Be prepared, if you make it, that it is quite thick. I think it’s pretty healthy. |
Lichen covered rocks in Arctic Sweden |
| The bread we sampled in Sweden was scrumptious – perfect for someone like me who likes things crunchy. In the olden days flat bread would be cooked in a circular form, flat as a pancake with a hole in the middle. The rounds would be strung on a pole up in the ceiling, and they would last the winter. Some of the fancy rounds would be covered with different kinds of seeds and coarse salt which I found delicious with a small amount of homemade butter. I will definitely put flat bread in the trolls house in my book! One of the decorative elements I’ll put in my story is the Rod Flugsvamp in Swedish and Fly Agaric in English, mushroom. You often see it pictured in fairytale illustrations. It is bright red, with white spots on that look like breadcrumbs. A bit down the stalk is a white ruffle or collar. This mushroom when fully mature is wide like a hat, but when it is first emerging it is called a button, and looks like a little red globe. This mushroom is highly toxic, and can cause visions and hallucinations if eaten, and worse. I don’t know all the details, but I do know it is one of the mushrooms people should never ever eat. It makes me wonder if this mushroom was put in a fairytale to signal that something magical and weird might follow, like perhaps a troll. I plan to follow this tradition, and illustrate lots of red polkadotted mushrooms in the forest scenery. Rollo the troll, who goes for a walkabout in the forest, will eat only the edible mushrooms. I will be able to picture them accurately because I brought back a Swedish mushroom book. Even though the book is in Swedish, all the poisonous mushrooms have a skull and cross bones besides them, the universal symbol for mortal danger! Someday I would like to write and illustrate a book featuring dots. My favorite combination is white dots on a bright red background, and I collect red things with white dots. My favorite comic book when I was little was Dottie Dot, even though I wasn’t allowed to buy comic books, I could read them. I hope you find a way to be creative in the month of July, by writing your own comic book, by going on a nature walk and drawing and writing about what you see, or writing in the free association style, whatever comes to mind as one thought leads to another, like I have just done! Happy reading, your friend, Jan Brett |
 Lingonberries or cowberries  Rod Flugsvamp or Fly Agaric mushroom |
Recipe ~ Crunchy Whole Grain Bread
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on July 6, 2010
Mix 1 1/2 packets of yeast with 1/2 c warm water and let fluff up and bubble
add
1/2 cup molasses
1 t sea salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup buttermilk powder if you can find it, or powdered milk, if not — this ingredient is not essential
2 cups warm water
1/2 cup softened butter, some stores carry homemade which I prefer
Blend this mixture and add 8 cups of flour– the kind of flours for this recipe will follow. After adding one half the total amount of flour, blend in 1 cup walnuts chopped very fine and 1 cup dried cranberries and 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds (optional) — it’s easier to blend the nuts and fruit this way.
The 8 cups of flour include
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup King Arthur Harvest Crunchy Grains Blend
3 cups King Arthur 12 grain flour – I ordered from their website, but if you can’t be bothered use whole wheat flour.
4 cups of King Arthur bread flour, found in most grocery stores. It has more gluten in it and makes a chewy texture to your bread. Sometimes I will use King Arthur white whole wheat flour which I order from the website.
I knead the dough for 10 minutes, timed. Place the bread in a greased bowl in a warm place with a damp towel on top. It should rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down and shape into two loaves to fit standard pans, that have greased with butter, let rise and place in a cold oven. Turn temperature to 400° for 10 minutes and turn down to 375° for a remaining 20 to 25 minutes until done. A loaf of bread that is fully cooked will sound drum like when tapped on the top. Do not peek!Whoops, I think the last instructions is for my gingerbread recipe! It is best to bake bread on a sunshiney day with low humidity. I think my fresh hen’s eggs also contribute to a nicely risen loaf! Thank you Bonnie, Foo-lion, Pang, Cindy, Cricket, and Fleur, my best laying hens!
June 2010 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on June 6, 2010
| Happy June! I’m Jan Brett, and this is my June Hedge-a- gram, the time I stopped everything to give you a time capsule of this month in my life as a children’s book writer and illustrator. In the last two weeks, I’ve seen my new book for the fall, THE THREE LITTLE DASSIE for the first time, and I’ve completed the dummy for my 2011 book, HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. My husband and I traveled to the Book Expo the US’s premier book festival held every year in May. This year it was in New York City. Although THE THREE LITTLE DASSIES won’t be sold in bookstores until next fall, the early copies were flown in to give away at the book signings at BOOK EXPO. It is the first time I’ve seen the book put together. I spent two weeks painting end papers, the usually solid colored paper that glues the body of the book onto the covers. In this book the end papers are decorative. We changed the jacket art just as the book was going to press which involve a lot of fast readjustments in Penguins professional and dedicated art department. The jacket has embossed or raised type face and I saw that for the first time. The goal is for the book to become greater than a semblance of its parts. We all want it to become a future classic with characters, setting, and plot all in balance, with an intriguing but warm and friendly jacket to welcome and entice readers. It was difficult to scratch weeks and weeks of work off by canceling the first jacket, but our goal is a jacket with the right tones, and a design by one of Penguin’s designers, Ed Scully, leapt up off the page and compelled the change. Marikka Tamura , the Penguin designer who chooses the typeface and colors that grace the jacket hit all the perfect notes as well. It is a privilege to work with such a talented team. |  |
| The dummy is all in my court, and after discussions about the basic plot of the story of HOME FOR CHRISTMAS and then an okay of the basic draft, I presented my dummy to Margaret Frith my editor of 20 years. I’ve just come back from a week and a half in Sweden, shepherded by our Swedish friends, Elof and Gudrun Eriksson. We were able to spend time on a farm abundant with wildlife in southwest Sweden and go on a guided trip above the Arctic circle. My book dummy reflected much of the impressions I got from the austere and elegant landscapes and encounters with wildlife in Sweden. |  |
| The major achievement of our trip was encounters with habituated Moose in Kiruna, the jumping off place to Sweden’s Arctic North. We met an attractive and knowledgeable Swedish moose aficionado. He had five adult Moose and one calf that lived on a huge tract of land. When we called him to arrange our Moose experience he promised to wait and feed them when we arrived. To his word, the moose ambled toward the feeding station at the sound of his whistle. They have ample grazing, so they were quite relaxed about joining us. The bulls are not approachable during breeding season in the fall, but this was spring, and they were as affectionate as horses. The antlers, which were velvety knobs, because they had just started growing, were kind of itchy and they have learned that tourists will rub them. One of the moose gave our guide a trained kiss on the cheek and I managed to get a big kiss onto their velvety cushiony noses. It made me miss having a horse. Their eyes were very intelligent and once one adjusted to their bodies not being horselike, a person can appreciate the majestic presence of this animal, with its long brindled northern fur coat, its black cloven hooves and elegant palmated antlers. On the day we left Sweden, traveling over a vast stretch of land with melting snow drifts revealing lichen, mosses and endless shining lingonberry bushes, we found a huge moose antler shed last winter. Hefting its heavy weight, it really felt like a fitting crown for the majestic King of the North! In my book, the troll boy encounters an antlered animal, and I had to decide between a moose and reindeer. After my visit to Arctic Sweden the answer was obvious. This month I’ll work on the first finished spread, I’ll design the borders and nail down the characters – father troll, mother troll, sister troll, and my main character Rollo Troll. It’s always a wild ride in my imagination, and the best part of creating a children’s book – is all so hopeful. If you’re going on a trip this summer, close or far, familiar or unfamiliar, think of it as an expedition for getting ideas for your own book. Your experience may take you to an unexpected place! Happy reading, your friend, Jan Brett |
 |
May 2010 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on May 26, 2010
Happy May! This is Jan Brett and this is my May hedge a gram, the time I take every month to go over what I’m doing in my work as a children’s book author and illustrator.
A curious thing happened with my just finished book, THE THREE LITTLE DASSIES as it was on its way to the printer. Every year my publisher prints a poster of the new book to promote it, and one of the designers at Penguin works with me. This year Ed Scully took my artwork from the title page to feature on the poster. When the poster came in the mail we love its sunny, buoyant feel of the three Dassie sisters in close-up. We liked it so much that we decided to use it for the jacket of the book, and not to use the other piece of art I created. It’s always hard to not use artwork that I’ve spent weeks working on, like the first jacket, but in book publishing the jacket is extremely important. It is an invitation to open the book and read it. It helps if it awakens a lively curiosity in the viewer, and it needs to reflect the feeling of the book inside. I can’t give away the ending either. I’m counting on the adorableness of the Dassie, and their unusual outfits to make kids think, “I want to read about their adventures!” That’s the way I felt when I first saw the Dassies in the wild. I wanted to imagine what their lives were like as they sunbathed on rocks around our camp in Namibia, Africa, and then disappeared down their little caves in the rock crevices when an eagle flew overhead. My first jacket pictured one of the Dassie sisters being carried away by an enormous eagle. Even though I wanted adventure and drama in my book, the jacket looked a little sinister, and the little Dassie looked pretty helpless. All in all, I’m glad that designer Ed Scully’s poster idea initiated a big change for the look of my book. Joe and I have a motto, “There is no arguing with a great idea”.
I just finished the news notes for THE THREE LITTLE DASSIES. There are four African animals are illustrated in the book so in my news notes I tell little about each one, the Dassie, the Agama lizard, the Verreaux’s Eagle, and the Tent Tortoise. There are so many startling things to discover in Namibia that I couldn’t put in my book, but I wanted kids to know about, so I described them in my news notes. Twyfelfontain, the Rocky Mountain where my story takes place, is the site of ancient petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are carvings in the rock. There is also a very rare plant, found nowhere else in the world that looks like a rosette of raggedy leaves about the size of a truck tire. It is low to the ground, and when you look closely you can see small orange red cones in its center. The plants are 1000 years old, that is the amazing thing. It is the Welwichita plant.
Now that I’ve finished the news notes, I will give them away at my book signings next fall in output them up on my website starting this May 20.
I’m on my way to Sweden to get ideas for HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, my book about a runaway troll. I started the book dummy — a simple roadmap of the future book. It is done with quick sketches and it will help me find the materials I need in Sweden to make their books authentic.
I’m planning to ask everyone about any troll stories they might have heard as children. I would also like to visit an open-air museum where a farm from the olden days has been reconstructed, so I can envision the trolls homestead. I’ll have to rough it up a bit because the characters are trolls after all!
I have to find out how Christmas is celebrated in Sweden, and what special foods are enjoyed. At the beginning of a book there is a lot of excitement about spending a year with my new subject, but I’m a little nervous too, just like at the start of any adventure.
Happy reading,
Your friend,
Jan Brett
May 21st 2010 Treasure Trove
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on May 25, 2010
Coloring Murals,
Choose and download from over 200 coloring pages from 8 book titles,
~ The Umbrella
http://janbrett.com/mural_umbrella/umbrella_mural.htm
~ Honey…Honey…Lion!
http://janbrett.com/mural_hhl/honey_honey_lion_mural.htm
~ On Noah’s Ark
http://janbrett.com/mural/on_noahs_ark_coloring_mural.htm
~ Hedgie Blasts Off!
http://janbrett.com/mural_hbo/hbo_mural_main.htm
~ The Easter Egg
http://janbrett.com/mural_easter_egg/easter_egg_mural_main_page.htm
~ The Mitten
http://janbrett.com/mural_the_mitten/the_mitten_main_page.htm
~ Gingerbread Friends
http://janbrett.com/mural_gf/gf_main_page.htm
~ The Three Snow Bears
http://janbrett.com/mural_tsb/mural_three_snow_bears_main.htm
It’s a pleasure to be in touch.
Sincerely,
Jan Brett
April 23rd 2010 Treasure Trove
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on April 29, 2010
Here’s a list of the top 10 pages on janbrett.com for this month.
~ Projects for teachers
April 2010 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on April 20, 2010
Happy April!
This is Jan Brett, and this is my monthly hedge a gram, the time I take each month to tell you what’s happening in my life as an illustrator.
I just finished a 2 1/2 week book tour. It was great to speak to children, teachers and librarians at my 22 books stops. I do a drawing lesson at each book store, and the best part of the tour is seeing the drawings the children create as they follow along. I know I’m repeating myself as I say this, I find children’s drawings full of imagination and pizzazz. I’m admiring of the child’s state of mind, which is energetic and bold. I met some very talented children. I also admire all the mom’s, dad’s, and grandparent’s enthusiasm for children’s literature. I can tell that their conviction that reading is an outstanding life skill will give their children profound rewards as they explore the world of books. The teachers and librarians I met have my deep appreciation. I met people who bought their books out of their own pocket for their classes and libraries.
My last stop on the book tour was New York City where I was asked to be a guest on the Martha Stewart show. Since my friends and relatives were curious I will tell you what I told them.
It was an unusual day because I was expecting a high tech, performance orientated experience, but from the minute we arrived we were surrounded by positive energy and lots of creative, encouraging and supportive people. There was a wardrobe check in the green room, where each guest was able to relax until it was his or her turn – warm chocolate chip cookies made this very pleasant! We all got to go to hair and makeup which is glamorous, since the stylists were so expert. They were so friendly and interesting, that I forgot to be nervous. The producers had us rehearse our segments and the camera and sound crew, instead of being impatient with non-actors, were fun loving and supportive. I felt euphoric and I think all the other guests did too. I haven’t mentioned the other reason I might have felt euphoric; besides being surrounded by so much talent, the show was about chickens my most favorite creature!
My part of the program was to show the beautiful cochin chicken that pulls the Easter Bunny’s wagon in THE EASTER EGG. Then I was asked to bring in my white crested Polish chicken that had a role in THE GINGERBREAD FRIENDS. The producer, sensing my enthusiasm for showing chickens, asked me to find the most perfect specimens of different breeds that I knew of. The staff knew that my hobby was breeding and showing exhibition bantams. I asked my friend Janet Winnett, one of the country’s foremost breeders of silky chickens, if I could borrow two silky hens, a white, and a splash, which is white with blue grey splotches. The silky has a puff on its head, feathered feet, and its feathers are fur like. Next, I got up my nerve and asked two revered poultry judges if I could borrow their birds. Warren Carlow of Rhode Island is a master breeder of Barred Plymouth Rocks, one of the first American breeds. Each feather is horizontally striped with black-and-white, and they are incredibly beautiful. They are one of America’s proudest achievements in poultry.
Jerry Yeaw, also a judge, and master breeder, let me borrow his stunning Belgian d’uccle hen. She is the millie fleur variety, which means her feathers have three colors. They are rich golden with a black V-shaped tip, and the very end of the feather is brilliant white. If you squint your eyes, it is like looking into a field of flowers. His d’uccles also have extra feathers on their faces, called beards and muffs, and they too have feathered feet. I thought Martha would marvel at the beauty of the millie fleur feather pattern. Very few chickens have it.
I also asked Bruce and Avril Clapp of Massachusetts to let me present their black modern game hens. They look like teeny ballerinas and have lots of personality. The modern games have been bred to have enormously delicate long legs, small compact heart shaped bodies and sleek heads with bright eyes and a slender neck. Even though they are gentle and tame, they have a way of bossing you around that is humorous.
I was most excited about showing my Polish which are a black bird with a beetle green sheen. Their little faces are dominated by a huge pom-pom shaped crest that almost covers their eyes. If you ever see a bird that looks like a normal chicken with a softball sized crown of white feathers on its head, that would be the white crested Polish.
I put some eggs in my incubator 24 days before the show, so I could bring three-day-old Polish chicks to the show. They now live in Martha’s beautiful chicken coop. They are out of some of my champion birds, so I hope they’ll grow up to be magnificent specimens of their breed.
My last hen to show was the buff cochin, the one I used for the model for THE EASTER EGG. She was bred from a well-known master exhibitor, Tom Roebuck of Virginia. The Cochin is profusely feathered and very large and commanding. Even their cluck sounds deep and imposing, like it’s coming from down in a well! The cochin created a huge sensation in England in the 1850’s when they were first imported from Asia. Instead of a tail that extends from their back line, the Cochin is round. The feathers mound up in a “cushion” that creates a globular silhouette. Cochin owners really should sport bumper stickers that say “Go Globular.”
My impression of Martha Stewart was that she loves animals. Her face lit up when she talked about her beautifully tame and elegant Americanas that lay the blue and green tinted eggs. She’s kept chickens for 30 years, and I could tell she hasn’t lost her enthusiasm for nature’s perfect package, and delicious protein, the egg. A fresh egg is such a treat whether it is eaten simply for breakfast or in baking. A farm egg really does taste better than a store egg. It may be from the diet. I give my chickens squash, blueberries, yogurt, kale, oatmeal and mealy worms! I don’t want to think about what the mealy worms add, but chickens do eat insects!
The set for Martha’s TV show is a showcase of exquisite taste. It is modern and elegant but still warm and friendly like someone’s house. There are framed pictures and photographs everywhere, as well as plants and flowers in a greenhouse. The kitchen is filled with Martha’s collectibles. How she manages to create all she does, even with her talented colleagues is mystifying. Besides creating the show I was on, they had also done a live show in the morning. The crew had built a little chicken house with nest boxes and a ramp that led into a peaked run for our chickens to walk around in. While we rehearsed our segments, Martha did yoga in her office. Having just experimented with my first yoga session on my book tour, I can see how relaxing and revitalizing it must be. Lastly, the audience is very respected, and everyone was conscious of how they were reacting. They were given lots of presents, including THE EASTER EGG and EXTRAORDINARY CHICKENS, a wonderful portfolio of chicken portraits from the poultry exhibition halls by Stephen Green-Armytage.
Lastly, I was able to meet one of my favorite authors, Susan Orleans. Her book THE ORCHID THIEF I have given to countless friends, and I reread it every year and listen to it on tape. It’s about obsession and I definitely have a streak of that in my interests. She has chickens.
I wish I could relive the whole day. Joe came with me and we are continually talking about how everything worked.
While I come down to earth, I will be adding to my Easter and rabbit mural. Then it will be onto my dummy for HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, my troll book.
On April 19, I’m running the Boston Marathon. I get lots of book ideas while I’m running. For a big race like Boston, I’ve got lots of time to think, it takes me over four hours to run it. I have to admit though, after about 14 miles, I will be focusing on keeping my pace and no daydreaming.
Happy drawing and writing,
Jan Brett
March 18th, 2010 Treasure Trove
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on March 23, 2010
New for Easter,
~ Download and Personalize printed cards for Easter
http://www.janbrett.com/pdfcards/pdfcardgenerator_easter.htm
~ Send your friends an email Easter Card from THE EASTER EGG
http://www.janbrett.com/vcards/gbrowse.php?cat_id=63
More Easter projects ~
~ Make an Easter T-shirt transfer
http://www.janbrett.com/transfers/happy_easter_transfer.htm
~ The EASTER EGG all about letter. Make a flower pot cover for Spring.
http://janbrett.com/newsnotes/the_easter_egg_newsnotes_index.htm
~ The original live animal charaters in my new video,
http://www.janbrettvideos.com/the_easter_egg_high_bandwidth.htm
http://www.janbrettvideos.com/the_easter_egg_low_bandwidth.htm
~ Easter Egg Coloring Page
http://janbrett.com/easter_eggs_coloring_page.htm
~ Easter Parade Coloring Page
http://janbrett.com/easter_parade_coloring_page.htm
~ Hoppi Coloring Page
http://janbrett.com/hoppi_coloring_page.htm
It’s a pleasure to be in touch.
Sincerely,
Jan Brett
March 4, 2010 Treasure Trove
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on March 23, 2010
Subject: Hedgie’s Treasure Trove for March 4th
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Congratulations to Lunch on the Bus Grand Prize Winner Susan Layrock from the Judsonia Elementary School in Judsonia Arkansas. I’m looking forward to meeting Susan and to joining her and three of her friends for lunch on the tour bus when I’m in Little Rock, Arkansas.
http://janbrett.com/contest_2010/lunch_on_the_bus_contest_spring_winners.htm
Special fun projects for Saint Patrick’s Day:
~ Saint Patrick’s Day Rainbow Coloring Page
http://www.janbrett.com/saint_patricks_coloring_rainbow.htm
~ Happy St. Patrick’s Day Coloring Placemat
http://www.janbrett.com/place_mats/happy_st_patricks_coloring_place_mat.htm
~ St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning Lesson Plan
http://www.janbrett.com/piggybacks/alicia_thomas_saint_patricks_day.htm
~ St. Patrick’s Day Cursive Bookmarks
http://www.janbrett.com/bookmarks/bookmarks_saint_patricks_day.htm
~ St. Patrick’s Day Printed Bookmarks
http://www.janbrett.com/bookmarks/bookmarks_saint_patricks_day_printed.htm
~ St. Patrick’s Day E-Mail Postcards
http://www.janbrett.com/vcards/gbrowse.php?cat_id=9
~ A Leprechaun Takes a Hedgie Ride Coloring Page
http://www.janbrett.com/leprechaun_takes_a_hedgie_ride.htm
~ Hedgehog Leprechaun Coloring Page
http://www.janbrett.com/saint_patricks_coloring.htm
It’s a pleasure to be in touch.
Sincerely,
Jan Brett
March 2010 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on March 23, 2010
Happy March!
This is Jan Brett, and this is my March hedge a gram…the time I take every month to let you know what I’m doing as an author — illustrator.
When I finished THE 3 LITTLE DASSIES last month, I felt like I had a huge open landscape to begin creating my new book. Realistically though, there are a lot of aspects to my work that aren’t actually working on my book. I am being interviewed by newspapers from the towns I will go to on my book tour in March. I’ll be gone three weeks on our big bus. When I’m not signing at book stores, I’ll be working on a mural for THE EASTER EGG, that we will put up on the web. I’m looking forward to traveling to towns I’ve never been to before and speaking to children about being creative. Although it will be hard to stop working on my new book, a little space may be helpful. I can work on some of the ideas I have. My book, HOME FOR CHRISTMAS is about a troll family. At home, I’m working on the dummy or cartoon version of the story. I can do sketches of funny troll clothes, and the kind of house they will live in. In April, I will be traveling to Sweden to do more research, and it’s good if I have a checklist of things to look for, so my images will be authentic. I am leaving room in my mind for lots of changes, additions, and edits, because it’s wonderful when the story one is working on takes on a life of its own. It’s like having a roadmap, but not sticking to the exact route. At the end of my story, Rollo the troll escapes the deep snow drifts at the top of the mountain. He falls into the snow when the animal he is riding loses its antlers. Then, he toboggans down the mountain on an antler, which becomes a giant sled.
I like to draw reindeer, and it would work better plot wise if there was a herd, but reindeer have somewhat thin and spindly antlers, perhaps too thin to make a sled. Now moose, which also live in Sweden, have a perfect antler Rollo could sled on, but they’re somewhat solitary creatures and the female does not have antlers. You can be sure I’ll be finding out a lot about moose and reindeer on my trip in order to decide which animal Rollo will be were riding.
In the meantime I’m getting excited about Easter and I’m decorating eggs. I have a giant ostrich egg I brought back from Africa that I’ve been coloring with gel pens. I will have to put a clear coat of protective shine on top. Also, my pullets (young chickens, females under one year old) are just beginning to lay eggs. Their first eggs are very small, and they are Bantam chickens which lay small eggs in the first place. That makes a very dainty egg to color. The gel pens are great because I do not like to work in acrylic paint. I can’t seem to get the results I want. If I have time I’d like to try drawing on my eggs with a wax drawing tool. Melted wax is put on the egg with a stylus that lets you apply a very thin line. Then you dip the eggs in a dye bath. No dye will adhere to where the wax is. When you melt the wax a beautiful design appears like magic. You can see one of these eggs, call Pysinki in THE EASTER EGG. Until now I’ve just bought eggs that expert artists have created.
I may also try making some eggs and chick cookies. I think eggs are fascinating. They have been a symbol of springtime for thousands of years. Of all the eggs in the world, my favorites are wild bird and shorebird eggs that have squiggles, dots, and swirls over beautiful background color like light brown, reddish bay or green.
March is a transitional month and I certainly feel like I’m between many different worlds artistically and in my life. The thing I like about being an artist, is that it’s always the common thread that goes through my life, and that is very comforting.
Happy creating and have fun getting ready for Easter.
Your friend,
Jan Brett
Comments, thanks from Jan Brett