My 2012 offerings (and more) at 7-Imp!

Please take a moment and head over to one of THE best kidlit blogs in the biz, 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Today, Julie (Jules!) Danielson has posted an extensive interview that talks up and shows off the books I have coming out in 2012. As well as my road to publication, my process, my filthy cluttered studio, and a weird bit about turkey butts. Jules does an amazing job, and it always shows. Please have a look here and leave a comment if just to say, "what up, bruh?"!

And the TOOT goes to...

Thanks very much to all who participated in the TOOT TOOT ZOOM! giveaway contest. I wish I had enough to go all around, but like the Highlander, there can be only one.

The winner is...

Liz Briesemeister!

Please email me, Liz, with your address, and I will get your signed copy of TOOT TOOT ZOOM! in the mail right away.

matthew@matthewcordell.com

Thank you, again, to all who played. Keep checking in often for more games, more prizes, and more fun.

Win a copy of Toot Toot Zoom!

Now that my latest illustrated picture book, TOOT TOOT ZOOM! is out (written by the great Phyllis Root), I would like to open up a contest to you, dear reader. Simply make a quick comment on this blog post with your name (or a pseudonym, if you so wish) and I will add you to a drawing for a complimentary copy of TOOT. In one week, I will pull a name from a hat and post the winner's name in a new blog post (and in the comments section of this post). Easy enough?

Shipping and handling, it's all on me. So this is at no cost--absolutely no cost--to you.

Drawing will be on Wednesday, June 3. Good luck and Toot Toot!

TOOT TOOT ZOOM! out now!

Out now, is my second of the two books I have newly released this spring--TOOT TOOT ZOOM!, published by Candlewick, written by Phyllis Root, and illustrated by yours truly. It's a good, fun romp. Four animals, a little red car, a long drive up a tall mountain, a car crash off the side of said mountain... it's crazy. Good stuff! Please check it out online, here, or find it/order it at your local independent bookseller.

And this just in! A nice early review for TTZ! by way of School Library Journal:

ROOT, Phyllis. Toot Toot Zoom! illus. by Matthew Cordell. unpaged.
Candlewick. 2009. Tr $15.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-3452-0. LC 2008934781.

PreS-K­Pierre, a red fox, lives alone at the foot of a mountain. One day he drives off in his little red sports convertible, hoping to make a friend on the other side. Children must turn the book sideways to fully appreciate the spreads showing a "sky-high mountain" with a spiral road. They will love vocalizing "toot! toot! screech!" at each of the cumulative encounters Pierre has as Goat, Sheep, and Bear join in the quest. Although no one lives on the other side of the mountain, a satisfying conclusion marks several successful friendships. The quartet settle down together in a house that incorporates pieces of the car. A large font with generous spacing between the lines adds much to the book's pleasing design. The spirited cartoonlike illustrations are done in ink and watercolor. Front endpapers show Pierre driving alone; final endpapers picture him riding with his three new pals. Expect requests for repeated readings.­Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA



TOOT! TOOT!!

Cordell for Breakfast

Head on over to hip children's lit blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast today to see an illustrator profile Jules, of Seven, did on lil' ol' me. (Turns out she's a big Phyllis Root fan and got an advance copy of TOOT TOOT ZOOM!) She talks about my new titles, MIGHTY CASEY and TOOT TOOT ZOOM! and there's some ramblings I did when she asked me to write something about my work. They do a real nice job with the site and blog, so click on this and give it a look?

Coming Attractions

Soon, I'll have a couple of new books coming out--at long last! Seems like I finished these forever ago. That's how the world of print/book production works. But it wasn't so long ago really. It's been a full few months, these past.


First up, is MIGHTY CASEY. This is my pal James Preller's retelling of the old Thayer poem. But I'm here to tell you, the results ain't nearly so glum. It's good, funny fun. I even got to draw a kid peeing against a fence in the outfield (no lie). But in a classy way.



Second up, is TOOT TOOT ZOOM!. This is the great Phyllis Root's pic book about a lonely little fox who has no friends. He jumps in his car and shoots up the mountainside to find some. There are good results. And there are disastrous results. I got to draw the car plummeting off the edge of the mountain (no lie). But it's classy.

I hope you'll save some room in your memory banks for when these come out. MIGHTY CASEY is set to "drop" March 3 from Feiwel and Friends. And you can find/buy/pre-order at amazon.com right here. Though, if I may be so bold, I strongly recommend/ask you buy/order through your local, independent bookstore!

TOOT TOOT ZOOM! is out April 28 from Candlewick Press. Amazon here. Local, independent bookshop, please!

More on these in the coming weeks...

Jam On It

Last week, Julie and me and family were in Orlando, FL's Walt Disney World. It's crazy. Huge. Blown up. It was fun.

This week, I'm officially in finals for my much talked about (by me) first author/illo pic book. It's exciting. Intimidating, as well, but all quite, quite good. I'm jazzed.

Before we left for Dis. World, I got a full set of color proofs on a pic book I recently finished drawings for, called TOOT TOOT ZOOM. My first work with Candlewick on a great story written by Phyllis Root! As the book's designer, Pam Consolazio, said, there's gonna be some tweaks to the overall color for another set of proofs, but it's looking pretty sharp. Here's the cover (a bad crop, a little wonky on the color--apologies...):



And now I must jam. Gotta deadline, September 15.

Jacky Backy

Here's an image I’ve been trying to post for the last 7 days.

A recently finished jacket illustration for my forthcoming picture book, TOOT TOOT ZOOM! (written by Ms. Phyllis Root). This pic will go on the back of the book’s jacket.

(Click image to zoom.)

Marks The Spot

In my humble opinion, I believe that, as an artist, the quality or the character of the marks you make is what makes your something more or less interesting. Study of mark-making has longtime been something of real interest to me. So it's no surprise that these test sheets (that are left over from each finished book I illustrate) are so compelling. I don't know if anyone else who may/may not be reading this gets anything out of this or no, but it gets me going.

First up, is a collage of color studies I did for the 4 main characters of this book. I printed up laser prints of each character (that had 4-6 of each character repeated on a sheet) and tested out a ton of different color combinations in watercolor. It was a real fight. Once I got to a happy place for each, I'd cut him/her out and tape down to a blank sheet. I went chipping away at color for each, until I had this little collage, here, of everyone taped to one page (to see how all the colors would work together). Also note the color wheel scribbled in upper-middle area here. I must've scribbled 5 or 6 of these throughout the job. Helps in developing color palettes. Anways, this was my master sheet for color matching from then on. Whew! (As usual, click on image(s) to view larger--in more detail.)



Next, maybe my favorite of the bunch. I love punchy black/white art. During inking, I keep a blank watercolor sheet to my side to test stroke my pen on before I brave drawing on my final sheet. Sometimes, too, I dip a bit too much and get way too much ink on the nib. In which case, I have to shake off some excess ink on the test sheet (see spots). Also did some test drawing here at times, and a few color tests when I ran out of room on other color test sheets.



I hit a snag when I was inking this drawing below (incidentally, the one I laid out my production process for, in a previous blog post). I ended up attempting to ink this thing 4 different times, if I remember right. Anyway, this is one outtake, but I never waste a good sheet of paper. Even if the ink job is a bust. I always keep a good sheet of same watercolor paper to my side to test the color and color density of the watercolor on the brush before I hit the brush to the final page. Color test sheets. I used this bum drawing to test color with here on out.



Color test sheet, to the max.



One of those other ink outtakes, with some scattered color test all around. There's actually some acrylic paint here, where I had to make some edits over the top of a finished watercolor illo. This was a first for me, but my color match skills as a printer came in real handy. Thanks to my old pal, top printer Sam Wilder!



And... One more color test sheet. Again, to the max.



Fun to look back on. Or is it really just me?

Hand-Lettering for the English Speaking

Some may know that my original career path was to be a rocked-out graphic designer. I loved it. I still love it. I love type and image and layout and all that in between. But, it turns out, I didn't want to make a career out of it. Straight truth, I just LOVE to draw. So here I am. But, I like to think, I still work in my own design influence in my illo and in various bits of hand-lettering. This book I'm doing now, has a good bit of the hand-lettering throughout. Turns out, in the publishing world, if you are putting hand-lettered language in your art, it must be created separately. So that it may be scanned separately, and layered into the final layout file (then printed). Reason being, when this book goes across the pond (fingers crossed!) the non-English speaking world ain't gonna get my English language hand-lettering. Another edition(s) will be printed and in the place of my original letering will be, more than likely, a comparable font. Not my preference, substituting one-of-a-kind lettering with a cookie-cut font, but it's just out of my hands. Here's what I'm talking about:

First I create the artwork (click any/all images to zoom...'scuse the pun).



Then, I create the lettering that accompanies said artwork.



Both pieces are sent to the pub and they scan them both and have them layered, type on top of image and it'll look like this on the printed page.



And there's page 28.

Hey! Final Art from Approved Sketch

I'm about halfway into the finishing of final art for a picture book I'm working on with Candlewick. I've been photo-documenting this process, specifically on one piece (chosen at random), for the purpose of this blog. This ain't rocket science, but I thought it could be interesting to play it out here.

Step One: Sketch is approved. Right on!



Step Two: I print out a laser print of said sketch at 100%. (Note: paper should be your typical, run-of-the-mill copy paper. Nothing fancy. To be sure, nothing thick. Thin is good.)



Step Three: With a graphite stick, the softer the better (I use 6B), I rub the back of the laser print, applying a nice heavy coat of graphite to the reverse side of the drawing.



Step Four: Flipping the laser-printed sketch over and with a medium-tack tape, I attach the drawing to the final surface the art will be created on. (In other words, don't use box tape or something that's made to stick well, cause when you pull off this tape you don't want any damage to your final surface.) In my case, final surface, it's hot-pressed watercolor paper.



Step Five: With a sharp pencil, I then draw over (exactly) the sketch that was approved. By drawing over this line I'm now transferring the graphite that was previously applied to the back of this paper. In other words, once finishing this step, I'll have an exact duplicate of the approved sketch, but on my final surface. Thus guaranteeing no discrepancy between sketch and final artwork.



Step Six: Next, I pull back the top sheet and remove tape carefully, revealing an exact transfer of my approved sketch on the final surface. A bit light, but dark enough to see and that's actually pretty perfect.



Step Seven: With my choice of pen, Speedball nibs B-6 and B-5 1/2 (and must be waterproof ink) I draw over the light, transferred graphite line on the watercolor paper, "inking" (as the cartoonists say) this drawing.



Step Eight: After inking, I carefully erase all graphite marks from the paper. (Not too soon. Don't wanna move an eraser over wet ink. And not too hard. Don't wanna damage the paper or the sweet, sweet lines!) Then I get on with the watercolor painting.



Step Nine: This one's finished! Have a sip of coffee. Check email. Hurry up and get to the next one.



Editor's Note: For the record, I do each of these steps in complete batches. Meaning, I print out ALL 32+ appoved sketches. Then I transfer ALL 32+ graphite-backed printouts onto watercolor paper. Then I ink ALL 32+ drawings, etc. I don't make one piece, start to finish, at a time. That would drive me nuts--and for another reason or two, of which I won't bore you with at this particular post.

On Down the Road

The last couple of weeks, I've been getting into final art for a forthcoming picture book with Candlewick, written by Phyllis Root. All sketches have been OK'd for finishing except for the cover. Sketches are submitted. It's a crazy fun book to work on. Above's a sketch for one of the spreads (click on it to view it larger). Once approved for finals, my process goes a little like this: print out approved sketches on the laser printer; transfer all approved sketches with graphite onto watercolor paper; ink all drawings (then erase pencil marks underneath); and lastly watercolor. I've been photo-documenting the steps I take using one particular drawing from this particular book. Once's it's all done (2-3 weeks from now), I'll post the whole step-by-step story with pictures here on the blog. Stay tuned!