Welcome, Adam! Readers, enjoy this interview with Adam Gustavson, illustrator of the award-winning children’s book Hannah’s Way; the interview is part of the Sydney Book Awards Blog Tour.
Description of the book: After Papa loses his job during the Depression, Hannah’s family moves to rural Minnesota, where she is the only Jewish child in her class. When her teacher tries to arrange carpools for a Saturday class picnic, Hannah is upset. Her Jewish family is observant, and she knows she cannot ride on the Sabbath. What will she do? A lovely story of friendship and community.
How did you decide how Hannah should appear? her family? the scenery? Did you do research on the period’s clothing and style?
That a good question. Before I even picked up a pencil, I immersed myself in images of people from the 1930s. I looked at as many ancestry web sites as I could and thumbed through books of costumes and period photography. I also dug as far into Orthodox Judaism as I could, just trying to make sure the family in the book didn’t fly in the face of some hidden clause from Leviticus that I didn’t know about.
I looked at lots of sale items on ebay, trying to keep in mind that the era a story takes place in isn’t really the era of the stuff in it, it’s the cut-off date for said stuff. The couches, the lamps, the architecture, all of that has to predate the story. And if someone in the story is dressed in hand-me-downs, well, now we’re looking at fashion from the late ’20s…
As far as the characters themselves, I rely as much as I can on instinct. Granted, I research hairdos and ethnic bone structure and think about people I know or have known that fit a temperament or demographic, but one of the really important aspects of being able to draw the same person, active and emoting for 32 pages, is to really believe that they’re the right person for the job.
How did you team up with the author, Linda Glaser?
Illustrating books is a sort of funny thing; the whole affair is orchestrated by the publisher, so as it was Joni Sussman at Kar-Ben who contacted me about illustrating the Hannah’s Way.
What inspired you to become an artist?
I’ve always drawn; my mother was an artist when I was growing up, and my brothers and I drew like most other kids would play ball. It was a big part of how we played together. My father, an engineer, used to come home with art supplies he’d picked up for us on his way home from work. I grew up in the only household for miles and miles where a crisis consisted of my mother trying to find out just who took her kneaded eraser.
When I went to college, the toss up for me was between becoming an artist or becoming a musician. So again, I was pretty much the only person I knew who went into art because it was the more practical choice.
There are two things I’d say; the first and foremost is to draw everything all the time. The way I put it to a student recently was that if what you really want to draw is Spiderman, at some point you’ll have to figure out what kind of furniture Aunt May has in her living room. A big part of making art is experiential, which is to say you don’t really know what something looks like until you try to draw it, and really explore it in your drawing.
Another important aspect is to be influenced by things that aren’t specifically what you want to do. This goes for technique, subject matter, and high falutin’ compositional stuff. A high profile example of this idea at work is in Van Gogh’s love of Japanese woodcuts, and the way that it translated into how he used paint, but it exists to some degree almost everywhere.
What projects are you working on now?
I’ve just finished a really sizable project for Holt’s Christy Ottaviano Books imprint, called “Rock and Roll Highway: The Robbie Robertson Story,” written about the co-founder of the Band by his son, Sebastian Robertson. It involved over thirty oil paintings and real life protagonist that had to age about 30 years in the course of the narrative, which was a bit of a challenge. You seem like you have worked on many books and illustration projects – which were your favorites?
My two all time favorites have been Leslie Kimmelman’s “Mind Your Manners, Alice Roosevelt!” and Bill Harley’s “Lost and Found,” the latter of which just came out this past fall. From a concept, design and storytelling perspective (the Alice Roosevelt book was very research heavy, to boot), both projects had a lot of freedom involved and called for a really dynamic range of images. Any project that calls specifically for a 1904 Studebaker or leaves room for a stuffed flying badger can’t be all that bad. Can you tell us a little about the zombie project? How did you get involved in that one?
(see http://adamgustavson.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-do-pete-mitchell-bryan-ballinger.html)
I was invited by illustrator Bryan Ballinger, a friend of Pete Mitchell, a cartoonist and the singer for the band No More Kings, to participate in an anthology of zombie comics, which was an impossible thing to say no to. The idea as I understood it was to have the book available for release at the same time as the band’s latest album.
I batted around several ideas over the course several months before writing up a conversation between two undead companions, one of whom was having an existential crisis.
What is the hardest part of illustrating a book? What part is the most rewarding?
The hardest part is not the “getting started” part, having 32-40 blank pages staring back from a computer layout, though sometimes it seems like it could be.
The hardest part for me is the part I call Page 28 Syndrome: being in the home stretch of something that has been lived with for six to nine months, and putting finishing touches on that scene that every book has that happens right after the conflict is resolved but the story hasn’t ended yet. It feels like 101st mile of a 100 mile run, where instead of running you’re just consciously lifting your knees to get to the end, and trying not to trip. That right there, that’s the hardest part.
The most rewarding part for me was always the moment before a project was shipped off the the publisher, looking at everything spread out on the floor in order.
But truthfully, grade school appearances are really the thing that does it now. The whole process of making books can be so isolating, so much about high minded professional practices done in a cave, that it’s not hard to lose sight of who these things are really for. Wandering around among actual humans ‹ preferably short ones ‹ with a book is really my favorite part.
And I think it’s a reminder of why that page 28 syndrome thing is important to get through. There are plenty of examples out in the world where adults cut corners or cheap out on things for children because they think their target audience won’t notice. And often they’re right. But that doesn’t really matter, does it? Children deserve better things than that, whether they’ll recognize it or not.
The worst thing we can do as people in the creative class is willfully accustom our audiences to mediocrity.
In my efforts to increase my posting of rough sketches (and to continue to inspire my own drawing on and off the computer), I am presenting three sketches. The one above is done in pen on paper – it is a copy of a John Neill drawing from Tik Tok of Oz, a book by L. Frank Baum. The character is a talking mule called Hank (he is the mule of Betsy Bobbin).
This one is of my daughter, although she looks at least five years older than she is in real life in this quick colored pencil sketch. The challenge (from the book A Drawing a Day) was to choose five colors not necessarily in the image and draw.
This is my favorite of this post: a drawing done with iDraw on an iPad mini of my daughter’s boots. I am quite pleased with the result. Using iDraw is like a cross between finger painting and Photoshop.
Someone wanted recommendations for books that teach drawing. I will mention two that I own:
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards
The Natural Way to Draw, Kimon Nicolaides
Both emphasize learning to see. We may think we are seeing, but usually, we are creating a symbol for how our left brain thinks an object should be.
Thanks to everyone who has made suggestions for renaming this blog! The blog renaming process may not happen for a bit, as I’ve been busy with paid gigs, I need to redo the header for this blog (which takes time), and no one is paying me to redo my own blog header.
This recipe for zucchini dill soup is adapted from a recipe in Susie Fishbein’s Kosher by Design cookbook. When my friend made us the soup, my kids actually loved it (a first for a creamy, pareve vegetable soup). My friend said the secret is use lots of dill. So I renamed this recipe zucchini dill soup (as opposed to zucchini soup alone). My version has a vegetable broth base and less zucchini (but feel free to double the recipe for a crowd or to freeze some of the soup).
Make the Vegetable Broth
In a large pot boil these vegetables in water for over an hour:
1 or 2 turnips
2 or 3 onions
1 large carrot, cut into pieces
1 leek
2 cloves of peeled garlic
1 stalk of celery
1 bay leaf
If you are missing any of the above, don’t worry. As long as you have some vegetables, it will taste good! Feel free to find your own substitutes (you could use parsnips, for example, but I find those too sweet). Onions, though, are a pretty good idea for a vegetable broth.
Make the Zucchini Dill Soup
5-6 cups of vegetable broth
2-4 zucchini, trimmed and cut in chunks
2-3 onions
1 bunch of chopped dill (fresh)
1 bunch of chopped parsley (fresh, optional)
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled
olive or coconut oil, to saute the onions
salt and pepper to taste
optional: add fresh lemon juice
In a large pot, saute the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the zucchini for about 3-5 minutes. Add dill and parsley. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, for 25 minutes.
Either transfer the soup to a blender or food processor to blend until smooth, or use an immersion blender. My food processor worked better than my immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper.
The lemon juice was not in Susie Fishbein’s recipe, but the last time I made the zucchini dill soup recipe, I squeezed in half of a fresh lemon. I liked it with lemon.
Update: when you add the broth, you have a choice of just adding the liquid broth or including some of the vegetables, such as the root vegetables (turnips and carrots), garlic and/or onions. I would remove the celery and leek, because they are stringy. Definitely take out the bay leaf.
Friday afternoon right before candlelighting and who comes to visit but three deer? One quickly hopped the fence when he saw us, but the one in the front had a staring contest with my husband and then with me. The deer finally jumped over the fence to depart when I danced back and forth with my camera. My husband said it looked the deer might pounce on us.
Elsewhere in the Blogosphere
I am pleased to announce that I will be part of a tour of Sydney Taylor Book Awards. See the schedule:
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2013
Ann Redisch Stampler, author of The Wooden Sword
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
At Shelf-Employed
Carol Liddiment, illustrator of The Wooden Sword
Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner in the Older Readers Category
At Ann Koffsky’s Blog
Doreen Rappaport, author of Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust
Sydney Taylor Honor Award in the Teen Readers Category
At Bildungsroman
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013
Linda Glaser, author of Hannah’s Way
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
At This Messy Life
Adam Gustavson, illustrator of Hannah’s Way
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
At Here in HP
Louise Borden, author of His Name was Raoul Wallenberg
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers Category
At Randomly Reading
Deborah Heiligman, author of Intentions
Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Teen Readers Category
At The Fourth Musketeer
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2013
Sheri Sinykin, author of Zayde Comes to Live
Sydney Taylor Honor Award in the Younger Readers Category
At Read, Write, Repeat
Kristina Swarner, illustrator of Zayde Comes to Live
Sydney Taylor Honor Award in the Younger Readers Category
At Writing & Illustrating
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013
Linda Leopold Strauss, author of The Elijah Door
Sydney Taylor Honor Award in the Younger Readers Category
At Pen and Prose
Alexi Natchev, illustrator of The Elijah Door
Sydney Taylor Honor Award in the Younger Readers Category
At Madelyn Rosenberg’s Virtual Living Room
About the Tour: The Sydney Taylor Book Award will be celebrating and showcasing its 2013 gold and silver medalists and a few selected Notables with a Blog Tour, February 11-15, 2013! Interviews with winning authors and illustrators will appear on a wide variety of Jewish and kidlit blogs. For those of you who have not yet experienced a Blog Tour, it’s basically a virtual book tour. Instead of going to a library or bookstore to see an author or illustrator speak, you go to a website on or after the advertised date to read an author’s or illustrator’s interview.
I have been working on this blog since 2007. When I started, I thought I would write about the Borough of Highland Park, New Jersey. In turns out, I rarely write about Highland Park, and the name Here in HP confuses some people who think of Hewlett-Packard. In any case, few of my readers live in Highland Park. I prefer to post my art, my art sketches, my Photoshop and Illustrator attempts, my photos of nature, food and whatever else looks appealing, a few book reviews, a recipe here and there. I’ve decided the blog needs a new name.
So, how to go about making a decision? Fortunately, the urls will not have to change. The blog is merely positioned as a subdirectory of my main domain:
https://www.leoraw.com/blog/
It’s just that annoying Here in HP that I do not like. I want something related to art. Here are a few ideas:
– Sketching Out
– Sketched Out
– Sketch and Photo
The idea of Sketched Out is that I put up sketches when I can, but most of the time I am sketched out, so you get a photo or a book review or a recipe.
Obviously, I’ve got sketch on the brain. I would love to get your help. I was thinking of making this an official contest; however, I read over contest rules, and one must have a definite end to a contest. I’m afraid the unofficial contest does not end until I finally like the new name. Also, one is encouraged by U.S. law to limit the contest to only U.S. entrants, as one would have to follow the contest rules of every single country in order to make it internationally legal. Well, I’m not doing that, either. So this is an extremely unofficial contest. Unofficially, I may give a prize to the winner (an Amazon gift certificate). And equally unofficially, I may post the names (with links to their blogs or to a recent blog post of theirs) of the honorable mentions.
So, do you have any good ideas on what I should rename this blog?
Instead of skipping Nature Notes yet one more time because I have no new photos or observations to add (I did see a hawk on Sunday flying over our home, to add one new comment), I decided to post a photo from last summer in three different ways.
It can seem like a different photo if you crop it differently.
Crayon drawing inspired by the exercise A Child Could Do This
Book Review: One Drawing a Day
I took a wonderful book out of the library called One Drawing a Day. The book, written by artist Veronica Lawlor with the help of other artists, has over 42 drawing exercises, some color, some not, some outside, some for at home. I soon discovered that there was no way I was going to keep up with a drawing every day, so I am trying to content myself with one drawing per week, as the title of my post suggests.
There is an accompanying blog to go with the book, also called One Drawing a Day. However, it seems to be examples of drawings as opposed to more exercises, so if you want the exercises, get the book. I may just need to purchase the book, because there is only so many times I can take it out of the library.
The exercise on the top was done with children’s crayons. It is called a Child Could Do This – you are actually supposed to ask a child for suggestions. I just sorted out some of my daughter’s crayons and used those. Scribble and make shapes a kid would make was part of the suggestion.
Below is a sketch of a family member on the computer:
You are supposed to concentrate on the person you are observing and not spend all your time staring at your paper. I did the sketch with a drawing marker.
This was the very first exercise in the book, observing objects in one’s home:
The flower was actually a design on our sofa cover. What objects do you see?
The Jewish Book Carnival for January is up on the Association of Jewish Libraries blog. Thank you for including my review of Jews in Gotham – it turns out that the series (a three volume set on the history of the Jews of New York) won Jewish Book of the Year.
Lorri reviewed a book by Aharon Appelfeld called Until the Dawn’s Light. Appelfeld is a prolific writer, and his words are always well-chosen. Years ago, I heard him speak in person. His topics are not easy ones.
Swirly Gigs created in Illustrator – for the sole purpose of putting some swirls on a post
I’m not sure what the above represents – does it need to represent anything? I’ve been practicing swirls in the software program Illustrator. You can also create patterns with Illustrator. Maybe what this design needs is some nice patterned wallpaper behind it. Stay tuned to see if I play around with it more.
Thinking and praying for Michelle as she writes about her breast cancer. Her surgeon said mastectomy, but “the good news is that there probably isn’t any invasive cancer and that this is treatable by removal.”
Ilana-Davita has been reading some scholarly posts – check out this one on Hapax Legomenon (and don’t let the title scare you – it’s not hard to understand).
This sculpted fish with tehina recipe is adapted from a recipe for fish with sesame spread (Samak bi’Tehineh) in Aromas of Aleppo by Poopa Dweck. It is both healthy and easy (and I can’t say that about many of the recipes in the book – the more complicated ones are fun to read, but I doubt I will try them). Poopa uses oil to bake her fish, which is traditional in the Syrian Jewish community. I used water to bake mine. Guess what – use a good piece of fish and it will still taste delicious baked or cooked with water (and truthfully, I like it better than heating oil for cooking, anyway). Her recipe also called for larger amounts, and since I was 1) just trying out the recipe and 2) aiming to please mostly my husband and myself, I used a smaller amount of fish and other ingredients.
Ingredients
3 or 4 pieces of flounder fillet
pan for baking the fish (and for displaying the fish – or transfer to a pretty oblong platter)
water to cover the bottom of the pan
lemon juice (optional)
1 Tbsp. tehina
1 black olive – cut to one slice for the eye of the fish
1 strip of red pepper for the mouth
several slices of cucumber for the fish scales
Place fish in baking pan. Cover with water (not a lot – maybe half an inch?). Cover the pan. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until tender. You can also add lemon juice to the water for flavor before baking. When the fish is tender, take it out and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Mash the fish with a fork and add the tablespoon of tehina. Sculpt the fish into the shape of the fish: add olive for eye, red pepper for mouth and cucumbers for scales. Serve and gobble it up. Multiply amounts for larger crowds.
