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Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. Whew. It’s already the first Sunday of August, and the first Sunday of each month is when I like to shine the spotlight on a student illustrator or someone otherwise brand-new to the field. Let’s get right to today’s featured illustrator, Ben Clanton, who—according to his site<\/a><\/strong>—has spent most of his time in Oregon and Montana classrooms. But he tells us a bit more below, so without further ado…Welcome to Ben:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “<\/font>Ahoy! I’m Ben, a story-scribbler, picture-squiggler, book aficionado, child advocate, dragon-tamer (if only), and avid fun-socks wearer. I\u2019m also a huge fan of the 7-Imp blog and am really glad to have this opportunity to share a bit about my stories and artwork.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a self-taught author\/illustrator but have had lots of support along the way. I first became interested in writing children\u2019s books about three years ago. As my interest in picture books and other children\u2019s lit grew, I became more and more interested in the interplay between words and pictures. Soon I began to make doodles when coming up with stories. Now I draw even more than I write. I especially love drawing monsters, aliens, and robots. <\/p>\n These illustrations {below} are all from a dummy book of mine about a robot named Gizmo and his new friend, Wild. The second image is a good indicator of my process in creating a book. I hand-sketch my rough illustrations and then play around with the design on Photoshop. The interplay between words and pictures is really important to me when thinking about this early stage:<\/p>\n Cats and birds are among my favorites to draw, too. I usually use ink and watercolor, but I like to be adventurous by splashing and dipping in other media as well.<\/p>\n These are a couple illustrations from my latest dummy book, which I am not ready to reveal too much about yet. {Ed. Note: Click each of these two images to enlarge.}<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m not published yet but feel really good about the direction I am headed. I have oodles of story ideas right now and have a number of dummy books I have been working on. In a few weeks, I will be marrying the love of my life and moving to Seattle to start work at a before- and after-school program. I\u2019m really excited about working with kids on a daily basis. I think I like facilitating moments for kids to create their own stories even more than I like making my stories. And I LOVE making my stories, so that is really saying something!<\/p>\n There are a lot of illustrators and\/or authors whom I admire and whose work I enjoy but these are some of my all time faves: David Roberts<\/a><\/strong>, Chris Riddell<\/a><\/strong>, Jon J Muth<\/a><\/strong>, Peter H. Reynolds<\/a><\/strong>, Suzy Lee<\/a><\/strong>, Bill Peet<\/a><\/strong>, Mo Willems<\/a><\/strong>, Tony DiTerlizzi<\/a><\/strong>, Mark Fearing<\/a><\/strong>, Carolyn Conahan<\/a><\/strong>, Oliver Jeffers<\/a><\/strong>, Holly Hobbie<\/a><\/strong>, David Walker<\/a><\/strong>, Kei Acedera<\/a><\/strong>, LeUyen Pham<\/a><\/strong>, Peter McCarty<\/a><\/strong>, Dan Santat<\/a><\/strong>, Brandon Mull<\/a><\/strong>, David Small<\/a><\/strong>, Stephen Michael King<\/a><\/strong>, Peter Brown<\/a><\/strong>, Martin Matje<\/a><\/strong>, Olivier Tallec<\/a><\/strong>, Marc Boutavant<\/a><\/strong>, Jen Corace<\/a><\/strong>, Alexandra Boiger<\/a><\/strong>, Tricia Tusa<\/a><\/strong>. Hard to stop, once I get started!<\/p>\n Thanks for taking a look! You can find more about me at: benclanton.blogspot.com<\/a><\/strong>.“<\/font><\/p>\n All images copyright \u00a9 2010 Ben Clanton. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n 1). I thought this presentation<\/a><\/strong> at The University of Tennessee went well on Friday of this week, and I had fun. I mean, really: How often does one get asked to talk about her favorite picture books (which is pretty much what I do here at the ‘ol blawg anymore) and rave about her favorite authors and illustrators? I talked very fast—yet the sign language interpreters, former colleagues of mine, did not, indeed, kill me afterwards—and I crammed in lots of books and showed lots of art from them. Best of all, I got to hear my former librarian colleagues talk the rest of the day about novels and YA titles. <\/p>\n 2). I got to see friends while in town, including staying the evening with two friends of mine who have an obscenely cute seven-month-old baby, who SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT, a phenomenon I do not understand. I mean to tell you, too, so listen up, friends: This baby is beautiful. <\/p>\n 3). My six-year-old is really into this read-aloud<\/a><\/strong> (which Candlewick just released in the U.S. in paperback form). Who knew? I’m having fun reading it to her. And, speaking of Chris Riddell<\/a><\/strong> (which Ben did), he’s illustrated this re-telling by Martin Jenkins. (I like how this reviewer<\/a><\/strong> wrote in ’04, when the book was very first published overseas, “Observer<\/em> cartoonist Chris Riddell accompanies the text with suitably spiky illustrations.”)<\/p>\n 5). Helping people connect, especially in support of this great project<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n 6). Last, but far from least, and I’m stopping just short of seven kicks here: New music. If this song<\/a><\/strong> doesn’t make you dance around the room, you need … well, some coffee. And then try again. Also, this CD<\/a><\/strong>, which I listened to all the way through this week and which will be streaming over there till early August. LOVE LOVE LOVE.<\/p>\n What are YOUR<\/font> kicks this week? Please do tell. I’m so behind on my blog-reading. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. Whew. 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4). After reading this wonderful book<\/a><\/strong> (pictured left) to my girls (did someone here, by the way, recommend it?), I followed the “golden syrup dumplings for the soul” recipe in the back of the book. The girls turned their noses up at the final product, but I very much enjoyed them, especially with vanilla ice cream. See?<\/a><\/strong> Mmm. <\/p>\n