HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on December 24, 2010
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Page 14 – 15
Happy December!
This is Jan Brett with my monthly report on my book progress. I write and illustrate a children’s book every year, and I chronicle the process monthly, thinking it might be interesting for people that are working on their own creative projects.
Since I started HOME FOR CHRISTMAS last January I’m coming into the home stretch. It is exhilarating to look at my bulletin board where I hang all my completed paintings, and see a world take shape. And it is a world that evolves some spread and spread. I’ve always been able to see the Arctic Swedish setting and my troll characters in my minds eye, but once I’m familiar with them, it’s amazing to me how they dictate the way they should look. I don’t feel I’m inventing them as much as I am discovering them. The trip to Sweden last spring gave me a lot of ideas about the setting. It’s that magical atmosphere of a rarefied place that I want to capture in the paintings. The mountains up there, have very recognizable shapes, and especially one called Skerfe in the Rapa Valley. It is known as the sacred mountain of the Lapps, and ancient legends tell that the Lapp people sacrificed to the gods there. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that human beings with a similar brain capacity to ours have lived on earth for 30 to 40,000 years. When I wrote and illustrated THE FIRST DOG (1989), I was inspired by an exhibit about early man at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Many artifacts were displayed that had a soulful, sacred quality – animals carved from stone or bone. It makes you wonder about little pockets of mankind that may have built on themselves and become insular and strange to other humans. Just looking at hidden cultures today that have custom so different from ours makes one ponder. In many cultures, children, traditionally boy children, complete a solitary journey before becoming a man. Rollo’s walkabout in HOME FOR CHRISTMAS seems very natural to me. Many of my favorite books when I was a young girl or about a young person being tested by a harsh world, often with an animal guide. One book was JULIE OF THE WOLVES by Jean Craighead George and another MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN also by Jean Craighead George. I also am enamored of HATCHET by Gary Paulsen.
I love to read as a child and still do, but my picture books evolve from the visual part of my expression, and my words aren’t as natural. I think everyone has different paths for their creative energy, and it’s like a psychic eruption when the story takes hold and presents itself. We’ll it to ourselves to be on the lookout for stories that want a breakthrough, they may come in the form of dance, music, painting, or who knows? We just must be on the lookout for them.
As I finish tallying up sequences of paintings that will make my book, I’m astonished at how it can be so hard and so easy at the same time. I would love to encourage or stories to take shape – it’s illuminating!
Happy reading, drawing, and creating,
Jan Brett
Finishing the artwork for HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on November 27, 2010
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS (preliminary jacket idea)
I’ve created a new Jan Brett page on Facebook. I hope that you’ll come and visit me there. I’ve uploaded artwork and photos and have a preview of my fall 2011 book. Here’s the link to Facebook. Please click on it and then on the “Like” button to receive daily Jan Brett projects and coloring pages.
http://www.janbrett.com/facebook_like.htm
Happy November!
This is Jan Brett and I’m going to give you an update on my work as a children’s illustrator and author. My book year begins in late January, when I write up a manuscript, and ends in mid-December when I finished my final illustrations.
I work on the jacket of my book in October so my publisher, Penguin Putnam, can start rolling on presenting the book to buyers. I’ve been home for one week after a 2 1/2 week book tour. I spoke to different journalists and interviewers in the weeks that preceded the tour. I’m very glad to be back at work on HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. Just before I went on the trip, I brought the nine finished spreads to New York City to show my editor, and art director and designer, as well as a sketch for the jacket. No matter how good copies are, or how long a telephone call is, there is no substitute for showing the actual artwork and discussing it face-to-face. It is an intense time. It is difficult to keep an open mind when I’ve invested so much time and effort into my book. However, the team I work with has a tremendous amount of talent and experience. I often go from feeling despondent to exhilarated and back again. Most times I leave New York in a positive state of mind, but utterly exhausted. The experience of looking at one’s characters and artistic ideas through another person’s eyes is illuminating. It is funny how an image can be jarring even if it is out of proportion a bit, or an expression is off. I spent a week or more on each double page spread, so it’s easy to accept things in a picture just because I’ve seen them over and over that is why I welcome my colleague’s opinions.
The designer, Marikka, is tremendously talented, and has a whimsical and buoyant approach to designing the typeface and display type. She will work very hard to make things work. I’ve just received a design sketch of the jacket which will tell me how much room I have for the art. The publisher asked that my name appear above the title which gives me more room for the art at the bottom of the jacket. Last year, we changed the jacket at the last minute, making lots of extra work for Marikka and for me. I’m hoping to get the jacket right the first time.
I’m looking forward to planning a great big moose face in a snowy background for the jacket. Often people ask me why I always write snowy books. It’s really not true, because only about one half of my books are snowy. I think it’s because my artwork is very detailed and busy. Snow makes a good contrast and gives the image a chance to shine. When I was little, I would fill up every last inch of paper. Now, I edit heavily, and use snow to simplify things! Sand works too!
Now that I’m home, and have started to work on the jacket, I can reflect on the people I met at my book signings. I was thrilled to see kid’s drawings. Some were done during my presentation, when I gave an art lesson, and some were masterpieces the kids did at home. I’m so wowed by the imagination and exuberance of style that seems to come so naturally to children. I always think of the fairy tales that have a scene when the fairy godmother gives a gift to the child character. I wish I could wave a magic wand and give children the gift of time. It’s in our nature to imagine, transform and create. I think of the real people I’ve known on Earth, and there are as many fictional people in my mind that seem as present. I like to think the children will have the time to go into themselves and create characters that will someday be as memorable.
My mother, who taught three-year-olds, encouraged me and my sisters to draw but she didn’t believe in art lessons for young children. I think she believed the ability to be artistic was inherent. I remember being eager for tidbits about shading, perspective, and for shadows, but I had to figure them out for myself, using my picture books and real life as guides. Maybe that is why my pictures are somewhat primitive. I do know, that the one factor that is still important is time – to feel unhurried enough to play with ideas but still feeling the import of creating a picture. So I will sign off wishing you some extra hours to create a memorable character in your drawing.
Good luck with your creative time and have fun, your friend,
Jan Brett
Running on Tour for THE 3 LITTLE DASSIES
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on October 22, 2010
 Getting ready for a run on my day off on tour for THE 3 LITTLE DASSIES |
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October 12 – my first day of training for training for the Laugavetur ultra marathon. It’s going to be held July16th of next year and I’ve made my flight and hotel reservations so there is no turning back. I may be overreaching, as the course is difficult, and 34 miles is a long way, but I love to have a goal. Running across Iceland’s glaciers and thermal fields sounds exhilarating. Today I ran my first distance run since last summer. In July and August I trained on the Appalachian Trail that runs by our house. It’s a perfect place to train because it has steep hills and lots of rock and rock stairs. My longest stretch was 15 miles. The time goes fast compared to road work because you have to think of each foot placement. The stakes are high on the downhill stretches because tripping could mean landing 20 feet down a gorge on sharp rocks. This is why I have promised my husband I would bring a cell. I also got picky about shoelaces – I tape them down, and use one of the locking devices on them so they can’t untie. I’ve been practicing with a camel backpack which has been essential. My first long run was in the mid-90s and muggy so I was glad to have the water. I started with my Harney and Sons chocolate mint tea, it is a favorite of mine. But it is black tea based, so it’s a diuretic which isn’t ideal. I switch to pure water from my 700 feet deep well and bring one gel with caffeine. When I do longer runs, for breakfast I have a piece of homemade bread that is made of dark flours, currents and walnuts and one of my hen’s eggs, poached and a small glass of orange juice or Pom juice for breakfast. Most of my chickens are Bantam’s, so I smiled to think “Fluer” my large fowl Cochin has fueled all my summer runs with her big brown eggs. I’ve been wearing my Nike frees for about three years now and really like them, although I may experiment with the vibrams. The AT section I run on has some sharp rocks, which I don’t think would allow the vibrams. I like feeling the earth and using all the muscles in my toes, feet, and ankles, because balance is important. I find I need both arms free for balance – holding a water bottle could stop me from catching my balance. I read an article in Trail Runner magazine about a woman who ran the whole AT in about 73 days. She said she tried to “run like a deer” when questioned about her style. The image resonated with me and I’ve come up with a few of my own “run like you’ve just seen mother bear and her three grown up babies!” Actually, after being in Africa, I probably wouldn’t run away from a predator animal, but would try to melt away into the woods. I’ve seen a lot of deer and fox on my runs, but that mom bear and her cubs were strategically placed about 50 feet from our house after coming home from a long hike. I was with my two sisters and I think we all thought “Hhmmm, three big baby bears and three of us!” I think will give them lots of room. I remember when Stephen King had a terrible accident and he was quoted as saying he was run over by one of his own book characters. The driver was reaching into the backseat throwing hamburger out of his cooler to his guard dogs when he hit King. I was thinking, children’s book illustrator gets in a tussle with mother bear who didn’t like her portrayal in Brett’s latest picture book, THE MITTEN! Running is definitely a good way to clear the mind and rev it up.I’m looking forward to my training in the floor work at my gym that has really helped me in the past. I’ll be running the Boston Marathon in mid-April and will give updates on the training. I’m a serious runner, and in that it’s an important part of my life, but I’m not super fast. My last Boston was 4:11and I would like to see a great big 3 in my time next spring, by shaving off the 11 minutes. This first run in Newark Delaware was 10 miles. I have floor work with a trainer scheduled twice a week while I’m on the Jan
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September 2010 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on September 12, 2010
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Happy September! This is Jan Brett, and this is my September hedge a gram. This month I want to talk about my hobby, breeding and showing chickens. When I illustrate my children’s books, I like to use real models. In 1999, I had a book idea with a hen and a hedgehog as characters. Remembering back to my childhood with a big old barn filled with animals, I knew that if you handled young chickens they became very tame. I bought feed store chicks, Silver-laced Wandottes, who became excellent models while I became entranced by their beauty and by their lovable antics. It wasn’t long before I went to my first poultry show and met some of the intriguing and welcoming fanciers that would become admired friends. I fell headlong into the exhibition poultry world. |
Loading the Prius for the way home to Boston |
| I chose the Polish breed for their beauty, ancient roots, and head turning looks. I’m often asked, “is that a chicken?” I marvel at the chicks that appear from the pairs I put together as I try to reproduce the images in the Standard of Perfection. Although I only keep 2 or 3 out of 50 chicks that I hatch, one of the favorite parts of my hobby is placing the birds, in their prime, with 4H’ers and young people that are seriously showing. To me a happy day begins with an e-mail from one of my buyers who has just won a big prize at a fair or show. All of my chickens have names, and they’re coded by a yearly theme that coincides with the theme of the book that I write and illustrate each year. “Neptune” was hatched in 2005 the year I wrote an outer space book, HEDGIE BLASTS OFF!, “Sugar Pie” is a 2007 bird from the year I wrote GINGERBREAD FRIENDS, “Singita” in 2009 for an African book THE 3 LITTLE DASSIES, and on and on. Polish are a non-setting breed, but all my babies are brought up by Silky mothers, another astonishing exhibition breed. |
 At home, with Anna one of my Polish pullets |
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Every time I visit my birds in their cozy coops, I’m struck by how I’m entering an alternative world with personalities out of a novel or maybe a wacky musical. There is the young pullet who seems to know how pretty and beguiling she is, the feisty cockerels who come out of the cast of WEST SIDE STORY, the wise old grannies, and the regal but grizzled John Wayne types. Jan Brett |
 Standard Cochins, one white and one buff for THE EASTER EGG |
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