July 2009 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on July 20, 2009
 Some charming dolls handmade to sell to tourists that visit Namibia. |
This is the month that we celebrate our country’s independence. It’s a great time to have a cook out with your family and think that summer is really here. Every summer morning, I raise our U.S. flag, then our Marine Corps flag. The Marine Corps flag is in honor of my daughter and her husband who serve in the Marines and for all the Marines they have served with and work with today. I’d like to thank all the people who have a mom or dad that is far away right now. Thank you! I am very grateful to live in a free country and to be able to do the work I love. In my life as an artist I am at a very exciting point. I’ve finished the story and book dummy of my new book, THE THREE LITTLE DASSIES, an African version of THE THREE LITTLE PIGS. I finished a double page spread, and gave it to my editor Margaret and art director, Cecilia to look over. I always wait with great anticipation for their reaction. Many, many children’s books have been published with their guidance and they put their experience and talent to work helping me see my work with new eyes. Because I’m the author and illustrator, I have the last say, but it’s rare for me to disagree completely with them. The borders are a big part of my book. There’s a story that runs along as the main story unfolds. I like choosing elements that make up the borders, for example pussy willow branches in THE EASTER EGG and beads for HONEY…HONEY…LION! which is set in Africa. I chose thin strips of the printed fabric I saw on the dresses of Namibian woman for this book. I was relieved when the editors liked the choice. When I was in Namibia, I bought lots and lots of fabric that I could be inspired by when I got home. |
 Green grass house in finished artwork for THREE LITTLE DASSIES |
Most of the art direction is about making the visual story more readable. If a brownish animal is sitting on a brownish page, it’s hard to find. Because I like to put a lot of detail in my work, I have to pay attention to colors and to texture. I use the sky – which seems very large and clear in Namiba to contrast with the Rock Dassies and their houses. Cecilia came up with a good thought. I pictured the grass house with a yellow gold dried grass roof, like the ones I saw in Namibia, but the grass would have been freshly cut according to the time line of the story. That would make the grass green. I wonder if I would have figured that out on my own in time. I hope so! |
 Quiver tree – lives in Namibia. This one was outside our hotel in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. |
It’s very hard for me to pull myself away from my African mind set, but I had to spend two weeks illustrating the All About letter for my Spring 2010 book, THE EASTER EGG. It tells the different breeds of rabbits I used for my book and about the fancy chickens that pull the Easter Bunny’s wagon. It will have a team coloring page that can be used for spring decorations. I have filled in the background, but I left the rabbits white so children can color them. I admire children’s drawing very much for their individuality, but I remember being a young artist and experimenting with techniques like drawing fur, or shading. It was fun to use an existing line drawing to start with. I hope children like working on my team coloring those rabbits! Lastly, I have to make travel plans for my next book, HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, which will be for the Fall of 2011 and is about a troll. I will go to Sweden to draw the countryside. I’ve been to Norway two times and to Denmark once, so I think it’s time to go to Sweden, especially since one of my most admired illustrators, Carl Larson, lived there. His house is a museum now, which he painted and decorated in a charming way. I would also like to go to Finland to the Oulanka National park on the border of Russia, just below the Arctic Circle. I read an article about it in National Geographic. It looks like trolls could live there. I have to work on my troll story so I know what parts of Sweden I should visit. |
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What does an artist do when not working on a book? I’m making punch needle embroideries of snakes for my two grandsons, to be sewn on their jackets. One boy requested a Black Mamba, a poisonous snake from Africa, which I’ve seen in real life, and the other would like a Spitting Cobra, which I have never seen. When I sew the finished pieces on their jackets the final touch will be a few meticulously placed silver beads to represent the venom. After I finish the snakes, I will get to work on two poultry portraits for the New England Poultry Congress in January, held in Springfield, Massachusetts. The winner for 2008, a Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock bantam cockerel, and for 2009, an African Goose will be a challenge to paint, since they are so exquisite in reality. But I only work on these projects when I have accomplished a good bit on my book. |
Hedgie’s Treasure Trove for June 29, 2009
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on July 2, 2009
New Video!
I’m just back from a trip across the Atlantic Ocean from
Southhampton, England to New York City on a very large ship. On the way,
I worked on a new How To video on How to Make an Awesome Viper Fish
Puppet. You can find the directions on how to create your own viper fish
puppet at:
~ Jan Brett Videos
http://www.janbrettvideos.com/video/video_main_page.htm
Other fun Vidoes from ocean creatures
~ How to draw a dolphin
High Bandwidth
http://www.janbrettvideos.com/how_to_draw_a_dolphin_high_bandwidth.htm
Low Bandwidth
http://www.janbrettvideos.com/how_to_draw_a_dolphin_low_bandwidth.htm
Fourth of July
~ Hooray for the Red, White and Blue Coloring Pages
http://janbrett.com/flag_hooray.htm
~ Pledge Allegiance to the Flag Coloring Pages
http://janbrett.com/pledge_allegiance_to_the_flag_coloring_page.htm
~ Hedgie Loves Okinawa Japan Coloring Pages
http://janbrett.com/hedgie_loves_okinawa.htm
~ Hedgie Wants to be a Blue Angel when he Grows Up Coloring Pages
http://janbrett.com/hedgie_wants_to_be_a_blue_angel1_.htm
~ Okinawa Diving Mural Coloring Pages
http://janbrett.com/okinawa_mural/okinawa_coloring_mural_main.htm
~ Together we Stand Stationery
http://janbrett.com/stationery/friendly_letter_together_we_stand.htm
It’s a pleasure to be in touch.
Sincerely,
Jan Brett
July 2009 Hedge a gram
Thanks for stopping by: Here’s the podcast version of this month’s Hedge a gram:
June 2009 Hedge a gram
Posted by Jan Brett in Jan Brett Posts on June 5, 2009
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Books have inspired me since I was six, bringing on a jolt of excitement of a previously unencountered world. When we want to revisit the feeling of a far away place, or just admire the nuances of the cultural mix from a favorite book, we walk from room to room in our hunting style camp in the Berkshires. Our house sits on a hillside strewn with huge tumbled rocks overlooking a moon shaped lake. It is a large scale, and the landscape tempers the divergent themes inside, as does another constant – the honey colored pine walls, floor and ceiling. Every room has Persian carpet, many from a favorite antique rug store in nearby Great Barrington and they also connect the rooms. The whimsical romance of Edward Lear’s poem THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT inspired the images and colors in the master bedroom. The poem which I illustrated in my children’s book in 1991 was set in Martinique in the West Indies. After a research trip there, I framed the historical postcards of the island and used the tradition plaid of the woman’s dress on the bedspread. In my book, I used shells to decorate the borders and I assembled a mirror using shells I collected as well as miniature sailor valentines for their color and wonderful textures. The fireplace is in use in spring and fall for breakfast and on cool nights when the antique owl andiron’s red eyes glow. |
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My husband, Joe and I have traveled to Africa seven times, with three children’s books in mind, NOAH’S ARK in 2003, HONEY, HONEY, LION! in 2005 and 3 LITTLE DASSIES slated for 2010. The master bath’s shower curtain is Mali, or mud cloth – antique ivory elephants passed down in our family for three generations and a collection of hand carved and clay guinea hens, and baskets from the Okavango Delta decorate the tiny rustic room. One of my paintings of the wildlife in Botswana, a “camp” portrait of my husband Joe and photographs of the African birds we see on safari are on the walls. After a trip to China with family member Yun Li for DAISY COMES HOME we came back with a huge vessel that inspired a needlepoint cushion for a pew handed down from my great uncle, Harold Brett, a portrait artist and illustrator who worked on Cape Cod in the 1930’s. Family lore says the pew was from one of the oldest churches on the cape, that was destroyed in a storm. The expression “toys in the attic” has always intrigued me, and the loft bunk room above the living room has become a repository of children’s toys and carved wooden animals from all over the world including some of the characters from my books, like GINGERBREAD BABY. |
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Favorites are from the island of Hokkaido, Japan where my bass player husband, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra traveled on tour. Carvings and Japanese fabric are infused throughout the house from eleven BSO tours, but the Japanese temples and gardens we visited in Kyoto may be the biggest influence. The first sight to greet us in returning home is a Trompe l’Oeil island set in the circular gravel drive. Once a pancake of annuals, the garden was designed and built by Gordon Haywood. Huge lichen covered granite boulders were planted to depict a craggy mountain island, blue green sedum cascade through a rift between them and into a pool where darmera mimic water plants under a lead sculpture of a great blue hereon – the heron is a common visitor to our lakeside and is our totem animal, since my husband Joe’s last name is Hearne. |
| The house was built in 1994 by the local Carty family who have lived in the Berkshires for generations. I have acollection of antique beaver carvings that salute their craft – theyworked under the name, Beaver Builders. Our lake which is surrounded by preserved tracts is connected by a small canal to a wilder lake and the Appalachian Trail. In some years, when I kayak up the lake I pass a beaver lodge where I’ve heard the beaver kits inside mewing for their mom and dad. The small guest house is decorated with Victorian fish plates I collect, and were used to serve smoked trout when we entertained the musicians and Tanglewood fans with a quintet playing, THE TROUT, by Schubert. Two of our children had wedding festivities at the house andour guest house served for in-laws and friends, as well as for friends for Tanglewood weekend. One of my favorites pieces is a mid 1800’s painted armoire from nearby antique nirvana Cupboards and Roses. The kitchen has a trio of hen paintings from my children’s book featuring chickens – there are three, HEDGIE’S SURPRISE, DAISY COMES HOME, and GINGERBREAD FRIENDS. I didn’t have far to go for my models, I have a flock of 50 exhibition bantam chickens, Silkies and Polish. Their barn, the third building on our seventeen acre property may be the only chicken house in the neighborhood with portraits of champion poultry, painted by their owner, me. There is stunning competition in the Tyringham Valley one half mile down our dirt road where antique farms and homesteads haven’t changed much from the eighteenth century. Our house reflects themes from my books, and one character Hedgie the Hedgehog appears in all of them. One of the baths has hedgehog art – ranging from lithographs to my own artwork in Victorian rustic frames. Sometimes the tables are turned and the Berkshire hill where we live hands me a idea I can mine for my books. The beautiful birches that surround our porch gave me the idea to frame the illustrations in THE MITTEN with birch bark – which gave way to a collection of birch bark items. I’ve scrubbed cast off rolls of birch bark found in the woods to make mats for some of my paintings, wound birch bark around pillar candles and found faux bois china and pottery that looks right at home in our forest. A collection of leaf plates, some antique, and some fun pieces are playful additions to our table. When I’m asked why I illustrate children’s books, I say that children are a great audience because the line between reality and imagination is so easily crossed. When architect, Jim Kelliher, designed our hunting camp we asked that it melt into the woods with hand peeled great logs and the indigenous stone worked throughout. Like the imaginative children I write and paint for, our house skirts the border between past outside travels and memories and our working life. I paint the birches outside my window, and the birds hear my husband’s bass playing! The “hunting” part of our hunting camp refers strictly to idea hunting from troll’s caves (across our road), bears which are frequent visitors, to pond turtles – all future book material! |
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Comments, thanks from Jan Brett