A couple of weeks ago, I introduced you to my children's favorite new Halloween book, On A Windy Night, written by Nancy Raines Day and illustrated by George Bates. You may have met George Bates when he came to visit Clinton Book Shop in October. For those of you who did not have the opportunity to meet him, he is an extremely talented artist! I had the pleasure of interviewing him for Macaroni Kid and was able to ask some questions on behalf of our own budding artists at home.
Macaroni Kid: What is the process behind making the book?
George Bates: I’ve been an illustrator for 20 years now and this is the second children’s book I’ve illustrated. Several years ago I was showing my editor at Abrams some new illustration work including some recent pieces for the New York Times OP-Ed page. She liked how these images directly conveyed complicated, sometimes scary, sensitive, political issues without really offending anyone. These images have a micro/macro nature that reads on several levels. There is an immediate impact of the image the idea but the more time you spent with the pieces the more things are revealed in the details and a variety of ideas emerge. She thought that an approach like this might be perfect for a Halloween-themed story they had from Nancy Raines Day. After I read Nancy’s story I had a flood of ideas as the story really lends itself to a very wide visual interpretation. It’s an illustrator’s paradise really. I wanted to capture the boy in the story’s experience of the dark woods and thought an approach that kept the viewer a little off balance as to the nature of reality, much like the boy’s own experience of a dark evening in the woods, would work best and set to experiment with the ideas, technique and compositions in my sketchbook. I thought that a sort of hatched line along with the technique of adding color and texture in the computer, that I had been experimenting with recently, would help to realize this idea and enhance the mood of the story. Also, working small for the original art and printing the final images larger than the original drawings would serve to bring a bit more energy to the images. For the image of the boy I knew that I would base him on a picture I have of my younger brother dressed up for Halloween. You see, I was a kid who did not like Halloween or being frightened at all but it was my younger brother who showed me that there was some real fun in a good fright. He really loved all things Halloween and scary and helped me see the fun in it all. Also, he was just that darn cute. The whole process took about 2 years. There is always quite a bit of back and forth with the editor and art director about getting the rhythm of the story, pacing and images just right. Each series of sketches brought up new possibilities and problems but also brought us closer to a better marriage of text and image. One of the main concerns was with finding the right balance of scary and cute. We went through about three different storyboarded versions of the book before getting to what you read now. I love that my editor and art director made the decision to have each image as a spread across two pages as this really enhances the cinematic experience of Nancy’s story and especially that fun, spooky, refrain.
I love to do these books because of the way I see them directly impact young lives. I see this at the readings I give and the continual comments of parents and children who have read and loved these books. I have a friend who’s daughter kissed every page of the first book I illustrated every night before bed. I don’t think anyone has ever kissed a NY Times OP-Ed page...MK: What advice would you give children that are interested in becoming artists?:
GB: Here are some thoughts that have both been passed on to me and have come out of personal experience. I use these thoughts in my own creative process and with my students.
1.Consider everything an experiment 2.Don’t be afraid to fail and make mistakes. It’s the only way to learn.3.If what you are doing feels good and makes you happy , trust it, it’s probably right despite what anyone says.4.Don’t be afraid to let your influences show. No one is without influence.5.I have no idea what "Great" is. I only know what interesting is. Strive for interesting and "Great" may follow. Striving for Greatness will only stifle you and make you unhappy. Happy is better.MK: Have you always known that you wanted to be an artist?:
GB: Yes. Since I was very young I’ve been drawing and painting pictures. As I kid I would look at my father’s art books which ranged from fine art, commercial art and comics. He was a high school art teacher in New Jersey and he helped nurture my interests in art.
George Bates has generously offered a signed 23" x 10" print from On A Windy Night to one of our own Macaroni Kid readers! I absolutely love his illustrations and the print is spectacular! Such beautiful colors, this is a fantastic print for your child's room. You can see this and many other incredible art from George at www.georgebatesstudio.com. To enter, email me at maryannj@macaronikid.com with George Bates in the subject line. Tell me why you would like to win this amazing print. MUST be a NW Jersey Macaroni Kid subscriber to be eligible to enter. Winner will be picked at random on or about November 6, 2010 and notified by email.
