PRE-SEPARATED ART: Illustrating My Book THE BIGGEST LIVING THING

 

Black plate illustration for pages 6-7 The Biggest Living Thing (Carolrhoda, 1983) Pencil drawing by Caroline Arnold

Today's children’s books are printed with beautiful full color illustrations created with a vast array of artistic techniques—painting, drawing, collage, photography, mixed-media--basically anything that can be digitally color scanned. Those scans are then used to make the printing plates for the book. Typically there are four plates: black, cyan, magenta, yellow. (These are the same colors in the ink cartridges of your home printer.) On the printed page the colors merge to create a full range of hues.

Pages 20-21 of my book Five Nests (E.P. Dutton, 1980). Illustration by Ruth Sanderson.

But in 1980, when I first started publishing books for children, many were illustrated with black-and-white art, especially if they were nonfiction books, like mine. Digital scanning had not yet been invented and the cost of separating colors photographically to make each of the colored printing plates was so high that only the most established artists worked in full color. Many books were printed with black plus in some cases one or two colors. Five Nests, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson, was my first published book.The art was black, plus one color--green.

For most children’s books in those days, the artist was required to make a separate drawing for each printed color. Thus the art was “pre-separated” not needing expensive photographic separation. It was a technical process, converting the intensity of each color to shades of grey and then calculating how the colors would appear when overlapped on the printed page.

Cover of Sun Fun, an activity book.

My first opportunity to illustrate one of my books was Sun Fun (Franklin Watts, 1982) a book of simple projects about the sun and solar energy. It was a two color book. Obviously, I chose yellow for one of the colors. The other color I chose was red. As they overlapped in the printing I could achieve a range of colors from pink and orange to brown and grey.

Proof sheet for page 39. Squirrels help spread Sequoia seeds.

The second book I illustrated was my book about giant sequoia trees, The Biggest Living Thing (Carolrhoda, 1983.) This also was a two color book. I chose brown and green.

Black pencil drawing for pages 23-24. Space at top is left open for text. This Sequoia stump was so big it could be used as a dance floor.

The primary illustrations for the book were done in black pencil. Then working on a light table I created the pages for the two colors being careful to line up the registration marks to make sure that they would be in the correct places when the pages were printed.

Page 22. Two color art. Black plus green and brown.

The Biggest Living Thing was a 48 page book. I began by doing the black-and-white drawings—24 double-page spreads. With the additional drawings for the two colors I did a total of 72 drawings plus a full color painting for the jacket. It was a lot of work--for not a lot of money. After finishing the project I decided to focus my energy on writing books rather than illustrating them.

Jacket of The Biggest Living Thing. Watercolor painting.

Twenty years later the world had changed. Digital separation made it possible to illustrate without pre-separating. I began to illustrate again, this time using a cut-paper collage technique. But that is another story.

Note: The original art for The Biggest Living Thing is archived in the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota.

DRAW AND WRITE: Fun Family Activities at SFMOMA

Family Activity Guide at SFMOMA 

On my recent visit to SFMOMA in San Francisco to see the Diego Rivera exhibit, I picked up a free brochure at the entrance— DRAW AND WRITE--a family activity guide with suggestions for looking at the art. Each page has room to draw or write in response to the question.  What a great way to engage children visiting the museum and encourage them to think about and interact with the art! The same activities would work well when doing a virtual visit to a museum on the internet.

Here are some examples of the activities in the brochure.

Find something you have never seen before—a color, shape, object, or message. Write what you see here.

A surprise for me was to see Diego Rivera’s studies of hands—which reminded me of the assignment I had in my first life drawing class. The difference was that Diego’s hands were giant—perfect for the large figures of his murals.

Look for an artwork that was made with unexpected or everyday materials. What unexpected materials did you find?

An unexpected material that I found at the museum was a stack of plastic frying pans made into an abstract vertical sculpture, showing that ordinary objects can become extraordinary.

And the most intriguing suggestion was the last:

Write a letter to a piece of art you discovered today. Tell it what you liked the most.

My letter is to a painting by Joan Brown, The Golden Age: The Jaguar and the Tapir (1985).

Dear Painting,

I love your bright colors and the way the tapir and jaguar contrast with the red and green background. You remind me of one of my own pieces of art, an illustration for my book A Day and Night in the Rain Forest. I cut my animals from colored paper and glued them onto the background. That included every one of the jaguar’s spots! I think it would be much easier to paint them as your artist did. And, of course, you are much bigger than the pages of my book. I’m so glad I met you at the museum.

Sincerely, Caroline Arnold

BOOKS TO LITERALLY HEALING at Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Earlier this week I brought some of my books to Children's Hospital Los Angeles as a donation to their Literally Healing program. With books like mine, the program provides more than 65,000 books to patients and families every year. 

I am happy that my books will go to good use. I thank Heather Crowley for coordinating this program.

AUTHOR VISIT AT THE WPC PRESCHOOL, Los Angeles, CA

Earlier this week I had a wonderful visit with the children and teachers of the WPC Preschool in Los Angeles, my first since the pandemic. (Before that I had been making a visit every year--an annual event suspended during Covid.) It was great to be back and to have the opportunity to share both my new books and favorites from the past. 

I met first with the younger children, sharing Planting a Garden in Room 6, Wiggle and Waggle, Noisy Time for Zoo Animals and my folding book, Who Has More? Who Has Fewer?. They enjoyed my Wiggle and Waggle puppets, helping to make the sounds of the zoo animals, and counting the eggs and chicks in the folding book.

I then met with the older children sharing Wiggle and Waggle again, A Zebra's World, several of my bird books, Keeper of the Light, and finally reading The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, a tall tale. We sang the Wiggle and Waggle song, went on a lion hunt, rang my small bell as I showed them the illustrations of the giant fog bell at the lighthouse. We also measured wingspans and learned about the Hodag, a giant creature with the "head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur, and tail of an alligator."

Many of my books are in the preschool library and I was glad to see them being used in the classrooms. It was a fun morning. Many thanks to the teachers, to the preschool director Bri, and to Heidi in the office for making it another successful visit.

STORY WALK: Reading is Fun Along the Trail, Marin County, California

 

Story Walk, Tennessee Valley, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, CA

Reading a book about taking a hike is one way for children to learn about nature.

Taking a hike on an outdoor trail is another.

At Tennessee Valley near Mill Valley. California, families with children can do both at the same time.

Tennessee Valley is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. An offshoot of the Golden Gate Headlands, Tennessee Valley is a large undeveloped area of coastal hills and a variety of hiking trails, formerly used for ranching. The main trail leads from the parking lot to the beach, a distance of about 1.75 miles. I have taken this hike numerous times through the years, often spotting deer, soaring hawks, and once even a bobcat!

"We are going on a hike."

On a recent visit to the Bay Area, I went again to Tennessee Valley. I was intrigued to see something new-- a series of signs at the side of the trail (reminiscent of the old Burma Shave signs on the side of the road but closer together.) On closer look I discovered that these signs were the pages of a picture book mounted on boards, just the right height for a child to read. The book was The Hike by Alison Farrell (Chronicle Books, 2019.) Each panel showed a page spread as well as a guide to what to look for in the surrounding area.

"It's our favorite thing to do."

Altogether there are 19 panels stretched over a half mile near the beginning of the trail. It is a perfect activity for families as they start out on their hike. Here are a few sample panels:

"Wren's sketchbook."

"In no time, we get back on track."

"A deer walks past. Bean sneezes."

"A light rain comes and goes. The birds are happy. We listen to them cheep and chatter in the trees."

Story Walk is a cooperative project of the National Parks, Marin County Library, Mill Valley Public Library, Sausalito Library.

End of the story. Continuing on the trail to the beach.

THE BROKEN PITCHER by William Adolphe Bouguereau, at the LEGION OF HONOR ART MUSEUM, San Francisco

The Broken Pitcher by William Adolphe Bouguereau, 1891

When I was growing up, the walls of our house were decorated with prints of paintings by famous artists--The Flower Seller by Diego Rivera, Bridge at Arles by Vincent Van Gogh, Snowy Egret by John James Audubon. My father loved art and after he retired from his career as a social worker, he became a docent at the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco. One day he brought home a poster of one of the paintings in the museum's permanent collection, The Broken Pitcher by William Adolphe Bouguereau. We had no more room in the house for art, so we hung it in the garage over the washing machine, where it stayed for many years. With every load of laundry, I gazed into the young girl's sad eyes, wondering what her life might have been. On a recent visit to the museum I had the chance to see the original painting, hung in a room with other 19th century art and it brought back memories of my father's years as a docent. One of his roles was to lead tours, pointing out interesting facts about the artists and paintings. Here are his notes for what he had to say about The Broken Pitcher.

Gallery talk by Lester Scheaffer

If this gallery were a salon of the late 19^th century, you would see many more paintings like the one before us, “The Broken Pitcher,” than  the ones that hang in this gallery. There were two reasons—it conformed with the standards of The French Academy, and it was pleasing to a great many buyers of art.

This painting by Adolphe Bouguereau was done in 1891. While the hand of The Academy was not quite as firm in the 1890s as it was in the third quarter of the century, the basic criteria for acceptable painting was still present—restraint, simplicity, and balance. Experimental paintings were flatly rejected, the artist reviled. This is what happened to the Impressionists. Patrons from the middle class, the bourgeoisie, were attracted to paintings that were 1, ostentatious; 2. That told a story; 3. That did not violate their sense of morality; and 4. That these characteristics show on the surface—that is, nothing too subtle.

This painting is certainly balanced and it is centered. It ha a bit of the classical feeling, reminders of the old days, with the architectural design of the stone well, a suggestion of classical ruins in the background, and above all, the orderliness of the composition. The composition is truly linear, no problem whatever in following the lines of the drawing. The subject matter is sentimental and moralistic. The broken pitcher symbolizes this young girl’s loss of virginity, about which she is perplexed and anxious—“What do I do now?” Her big puppy dog eyes look out at us appealing for an answer. How could a viewer or a buyer not react favorably to a painting like this, at least the buyers of the 19^th century.

One person who reacted in the opposite way to Bouguereau, according to a story, was Auguste Renoir, the Impressionist. On being fitted for a new pair of glasses to correct his myopia, he threw them on the floor crying, “My God, I see like Bouguereau!”

If one had asked Bouguereau how he felt about Renoir and his friends, he probably would have said, “The feeling is mutual.”

Notes: Bouguereau  (1825-1905)–studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Prix de Rome 1850, great technical skill, slick painting but soft style, technically his paintings hold together, could paint any subject desired by the buying public, commercially successful in both Europe and the US.