Exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library

From now until August 24th, I have an exhibition at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. There are original illustrations and sketches including work from The Crows of Pearblossom, Edwin Speaks Up, Spinster Goose, Wombat Walkabout and the Ivy Bean series. Additional artwork
from Ruby’s Wish, Big Red Lollipop, Pecan Pie Baby, Are You Awake? and many others will also be on display, along with bits and pieces of ephemera collected in the process of making books. There are also some secret messages, some personal revelations and an arrangement of things universally accepted as "exciting". This all takes place in the Youth Wing.
Over in the lobby gallery to the right of the library near the language section, I have original paintings from the project, Drawn From My Father's Adventures, and materials from the making of the MTA subway poster.
There will be an opening on June 7th from 6-8pm and I'll be talking about ink and gruel and Kathmandu (amongst other things) at 7:30pm. Please come!

National Doodle Day

As part of Neurofibromatosis Awareness month, I have drawn a doodle which is being auctioned on eBay, along with doodles by famous types like Meryl Streep and Henry Winkler and either Starsky or Hutch and that guy from the X-Files. The Doodles are available for auction on eBay from May 10th - 20th. and you can bid on mine by clicking on the image above. Please. Right now it's going for five bucks which is just embarrassing. I mean Meryl Streep's is hovering around $300, Rowan Atkinson's is at a respectable $100, The Fonz is inching up at $11.37, but Joan Rivers and I are rock bottom.
From the NF website: "These doodles have a very important aim: the funds they raise will benefit NF, Inc. Network, an organization dedicated to providing support to individuals and families affected by neurofibromatosis (NF).
Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder that affects one in every 2,500 births. NF is more common than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy and Huntington's Disease combined. Funds raised from the Doodle Day auction will go to support education, advocacy, coalitions, and research for treatments and a cure."
To learn more about NF, please visit www.nfnetwork.org.

For more information about National Doodle Day, email doodleday@nfnetwork.org

Anatomical Drawing at the Observatory

This past weekend my daughter and I took a class at Observatory, one of my favorite places in Brooklyn. It wasn't the Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class, because I had already taken that one, and it wasn't Organization and Productivity for Creative/Artsy Types, with Oliver Burkeman of the Guardian, because I was too disorganized to put that in my calendar, it was Comparative Anatomy: Animals and the Fundamentals of Drawing with my good friend and excellent teacher, Chris Muller.
I am one those apologetic self-taught artists, constantly surprised when something I draw actually vaguely looks like the thing it's meant to resemble. This class was brilliant. I'm not going to start drawing accurately, (I can hear your collective two or three sighs of either relief or disappointment), but it's useful to know that most people are eight times the height of their head. And that all mammals have seven neck bones. (Or was it eight?)
We also went to draw at the Museum of Natural History, and I sat on a little, floral, (borrowed) folding stool. So...much...fun.

I know there are way too many teeth. But isn't he adorably eager to please?

This may look like a lumpy suit, but is, in fact, a skeleton.

Ivy and Bean Make the Rules!

I have just sent off the last of the illustrations, about seventy in all, for Ivy and Bean book 9. Hooray! It should be out this Fall, for those of you waiting with bated breath. I've said it before, but Annie Barrows is a genius.

SCBWI Bulletin

I had fun doing this cover for the March/April issue of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Bulletin. Every one of their cover illustrations involves a kite in some way. It's the Chinese Year of the Dragon, so this was the first kite to spring to mind.

Etsy Video

I'm conscious I'm running two identical blogs at the moment. Sorry about that. I'll veer off again soon!

Poster on the New York Subway

 

I was thrilled recently to be invited to create a poster for the New York MTA Arts for Transit program. Thrilled is something of an understatement. Every year, two different artists create subway related posters which hang in all the new trains in the city. My friend, the wonderful R. Gregory Christie has designed the other one, so I am in excellent company. Thousands of our posters will be in circulation, so if you are traveling under or over Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx any time in 2012, you can't miss them. The first one has been spotted on the M train just this morning, other trains to follow.

Needless to say I love the subway. I glean all my characters from my fellow passengers. The same sorts of things which attracted me to Missed Connections, I find on the train: subtle interactions, eccentricity, beauty, sorrow, secrets, kindness, generosity, excellent hairdos. Every sort of person imaginable and unimaginable. For this poster, I measured my allotted space very carefully and figured out I had enough space to draw 34 people. I had to whittle and whittle my list of favorite characters. The surfer standing with his board in a puddle of water didn't make it. Neither did the gorgeous elderly drag queen, the man with the enormous orange velour armchair or the disheveled mermaids. I'm sorry. I still love you.

I believe the poster will soon be puchase-able online at the MTA store for about $25. Proceeds from the sales go to support the not-for-profit New York Transit Museum’s exhibitions and education programs.

Missed Connections Party in Boston

From the Brookline Booksmith:
"Australian artist and kids' book illustrator Sophie Blackall breathes new and wondrous life into the Missed Connections section of Craigslist.com with whimsical, funny, and achingly beautiful paintings based on the short descriptions of strangers who would be more. This book is the perfect gift for the one you love (whether they know it or not).
Judy Rosenberg, owner of classic Cambridge-cakery Rosie's Bakery and author of The Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book will be joining us as well. There will be cake, beautiful illustrations, and so much fun.
Also, please join us for refreshments at the after-reading party at Finale here in Coolidge Corner sponsored by Meredith Goldstein of the Boston Globe's Love Letters. To attend the afterparty, please RSVP by emailing events@globe.com. Who knows what connections you'll make? Have your own missed connection story you'd be willing to share at the event? Send it to events@brooklinebooksmith.com."

New York Times Best Illustrated

It was a thrill and a huge honor recently, to be one of the judges for the New York Times 10 Best illustrated Books of 2011. My wise and thoughtful companions, Jeanne Lamb and Lucy Calkins, and I spent the day poring over a room full of books, a treat in itself, and wished several times we could choose 20 Best, or 15 best, or even 11 Best.
Congratulations Frank Viva, Chris Raschka, Pamela Dalton, Lane Smith, Arthur Geisert, Jon Klassen, Patrick McDonnell, Isabelle Arsenault, Kadir Nelson and Zhu Cheng-Liang for illustrating ten beautiful, inventive, funny, endearing, clever, moving, memorable books.

From the NY Times:
The New York Times Book Review has announced its list of the 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2011. Artwork from this year’s winners will appear in the special Children’s Book section of the Book Review’s Nov. 13 issue.
The judges this year were Jeanne Lamb, the coordinator of youth collections at The New York Public Library; Lucy Calkins, the Richard Robinson Professor of Children’s Literature at Teachers College of Columbia University; and Sophie Blackall, an author and artist who has illustrated 24 books for children, including one of last year’s Best Illustrated winners, “Big Red Lollipop,” as well as “The Crows of Pearblossom,” “Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children” and “Are You Awake?” — all published this year. They chose from among hundreds of children’s picture books published in 2011.
The Book Review’s 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books for 2011, in alphabetical order, are: “Along a Long Road,” written and illustrated by Frank Viva (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); “A Ball for Daisy,” written and illustrated by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade); “Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures,” written by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Pamela Dalton (Chronicle Books); “Grandpa Green,” written and illustrated by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press); “Ice,” written and illustrated by Arthur Geisert (Enchanted Lion Books); “I Want My Hat Back,” written and illustrated by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press); “Me … Jane,” written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers); “Migrant,” written by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood Books); “A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis,” written by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Dial); and “A New Year’s Reunion,” written by Yu Li-Qiong, illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang (Candlewick Press). Next year, The New York Times Best Illustrated awards will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Missed Connections, Love, Lost & Found

New Ivy and Bean website

There is a new Ivy and Bean website over at Chronicle Books with downloads and all sorts of fun stuff. Book 8 is coming soon! And paper dolls too!

Book Launch Party This Thursday

I hope some of you can join me on Thursday evening at Word bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn!
xx

Princeton Children's Book Festival

I will be at the Princeton Children's Book Festival this Saturday from 11am-4pm. Would love to see you if you happen to be in Princeton. xx

What Are You Doing Tuesday Nights This Fall?

I will be teaching (the great) Sergio Ruzzier's class at SVA. Registration is open, no experience necessary. There will be cake.

Atlantis! The movie!

Atlantis!

This week I am up at a Summer camp in New Hampshire, called Beam. It's a camp which invites artists, architects, engineers, craftspeople, teachers, designers, chefs and musicians to collaborate with kids on projects which require invention and adaptation and creativity and resourcefulness and humor. Right now the kids are working on a project with U.K. art/architecture team, Wignall and Moore, on a project called “The Story of Machines That Never Flew,” an aerial installation of fantastic aircraft dreamed up by thinkers and dreamers, ancient and modern. Beam campers and staff are constructing and documenting their building of a collection of distinct mechanical and sculptural inventions to tell the stories of the designers whose imaginations soared but whose creations never left the ground. I've seen parts of a boat-shaped airship and feathered wings and a giant squid and all sorts of other intriguing things taking shape around camp.

So what am I doing here? I am doing a project called Atlantis! I have always been interested in displaced things; a subway train at the bottom of the ocean, a lion in Harrods, a rusting ship in the desert and a city at the bottom of a lake. We are going to make that city. Smallish in size, with fantastical, futuristic, Gaudi inspired buildings. We are going to design the buildings and make molds and pour concrete and embed them with seashells and mosaic from smashed plates (who doesn't like smashing plates?). And then we are going to sink the city in the lake. And film it underwater. It's deeply exciting.
Of course this is way out of my field of experience. I am reading everything I can read about hydrocal cement, and feeling only a slight wave of panic. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Reading, Signing, Drawing This Sunday in Dumbo...

Click on the image for more information

This Sunday afternoon, June 26, from 4-5pm, I will be reading and drawing and signing books at powerHouse Arena in Dumbo.
I have four books out this season, so it's a bonanza. There's something for everyone: Aldous Huxley's The Crows of Pearblossom, ("The story is just this side of disturbing" - San Francisco Book Review"), April Stevens's Edwin Speaks Up ("Blackall’s softly colored illustrations manage to make even stretched-out rats look adorable") Lisa Wheeler's Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children, ("Blackall applies her typically sweet-natured style in surprising and occasionally disturbing ways" - Booklist)  and my own Are You Awake? ("This is the AWESOMEST...BOOK...EVER!!!!! "- Edward)
I have coerced Eggy to come and read duet style, so that will be worth the price of admission. Which is FREE!
It's a ridiculously busy time of year, I know, but stop by if you're in the neighborhood. I'd love to see you.
x Sophie

Poster Giveaway over at Missed Connections!

Click here to take you there!http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com

Crows on NPR

Abrams gave me a heads up that there was a possibility Daniel Pinkwater might review Crows of Pearblossom on Weekend Edition this Saturday. We were heading up to our little farmhouse for the long weekend and on Saturday morning I turned on the transistor, extended the antenna, twiddled the dial and got static. And more static. It was 8am and there were dragonflies on the pond and the lilacs were heady and frogs were peeping and the swing was beckoning and I confess we abandoned the radio in favor of Spring frolicking. Returning to the house in search of coffee, my friend, the artist Edwina White, picked up the forsaken transistor and doggedly pursued a signal. Shortly before 10am she called us to the mudroom, where she stood on one leg, the other elegantly extended behind her, with an outstretched arm transmitting Mr. Pinkwater's elusive voice. She held the position valiantly for the duration. And apparently Crows of Pearblossom hit #62 on Amazon. The power of radio!
Here is the review. And here is a frog.

Are You Awake?

I wrote Are You Awake? nine years ago, when my son was about three. We had only been living in New York for a short time but had taken a trip to see family in Europe. Eggy’s toddler internal clock was turned upside down and we had several sleepless nights and surreal conversations. I wrote this email to my father at the time:

“Brooklyn, August 2002. We are back from France and still fighting the jet-lag, mostly because Eggy is at his liveliest between 1am and 5am. He can climb out of anything now, even his slippery travel cot, so it is pointless trying to put him to bed as he simply gets straight out again. So yesterday we bought bunk beds at a stoop sale and Nick carted them, in pieces, the four blocks (and five flights of stairs)!  We don't have mattresses yet, but the kids are sleeping on them anyway on their cot size mattresses, which leaves plenty of room around each for Olive to arrange her books and for Eggy to cram toys and cars and leftover toast. Eggy hasn't actually spent much time on his, preferring to roam the apartment in the wee hours before finally collapsing somewhere exhausted. I found him at 7am actually sitting in his highchair fast asleep...”

All of my previous books had been written by other people. I was overly excited to begin illustrating my own and then was completely unprepared for what happened. Or rather what didn’t happen. I couldn’t begin. I had so many different ideas, I just couldn’t pin one down. I thought perhaps it should be a very large book, and the conversations would be incorporated into the pictures, but the speech bubbles had me cornered. Then I wanted it to be a tiny, tiny, cloth bound book after Edward Gorey or Beatrix Potter, but it was feared such a size would get lost on library shelves.
One thing I was sure of, that the pictures would start off dark and inky and gradually lighten to an explosion of sunshine when the sun finally, finally comes up.
Here are some early variations:

 ...and this is how it ended up:

 Some books have a slow incubation and this was certainly one of them. But it’s probably just as well; when Eggy was about six he found the idea of a book (even vaguely) about him utterly mortifying and made me promise it wouldn’t be published. (I had my fingers crossed behind my back.) Luckily he changed his mind more recently, just in time for Are You Awake? to go into production. I have illustrated around 20 books for children in the meantime, so it’s quite a thrill to finally see this story, of a sleepless night long ago, out in the world.

Eggy, aged 3

Eggy was always a bit nocturnal

 Are You Awake? is in stores next week or you can order it from an independent bookstore here!