So, here’s something I don’t normally do at 7-Imp: I’m posting about a book I haven’t read yet. Nope, haven’t seen a copy yet of Anna’s newest picture book, A Photo for Greta<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Knopf, May 2011), pictured below. But I couldn’t pass up this post. For one, I very much enjoy following Anna’s career and her latest picture book releases. But I think this is also, as you will see, a fitting and straight-up lovely post for Father’s Day, thanks to Anna’s contributions here. In fact, the New York Times<\/em> called this book a “paean to paternal love.” <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The book is evidently about a young girl who adores her father—and vice versa—yet her father’s job as photographer takes him far from home on a consistent basis. That’s all I can tell you about a book I haven’t read yet, except that it’s also clearly about the bond between father and daughter and how they make up for his long-distance work. Publishers Weekly<\/em> has written about the book, “Alter displays notable sensitivity to children’s insecurities and doubts, while providing reassurance of their worth. Her acrylics have a comforting sturdiness, and readers who similarly take pride in their parents’ professions, even as they miss them in their absence, will relate both to Greta’s role-playing when her father is away and their tender time together when he comes home.”<\/em><\/p>\n Anna’s here this morning to talk a bit more about this title. I’ll let her get right to it, and I thank her for sharing so generously today. <\/p>\n Anna:<\/font><\/strong> “<\/strong><\/font>My books have always had elements of my family relationships in them. Like a lot of authors, I tend to draw on my memories and experiences growing up for inspiration. But this book is perhaps the most autobiographical. Like Greta, I grew up with a dad who was a photographer. He began as a fine artist, but also did a lot of commercial work: taking pictures of basketball players at the local university, portraits of musicians for their albums, and editorial photos for magazines and newspapers. I loved to watch him work and loved posing for his photographs even more. What daughter doesn’t want to be the focus of her dad’s undivided attention, even if it is from behind a camera lens? <\/p>\n {Ed. Note: Below are a couple of Anna’s childhood photos, followed by recent musician portraits by Gary Alter.}<\/em><\/p>\n I always knew I wanted to use this piece of my childhood in a book, but the idea for the story didn’t come until I was teaching preschool about eight years ago now. So many of the kids I worked with had limited time with their dads. I was particularly charmed by a little boy whose dad worked long hours, and to make up for it every Friday at the end of the work week he would go for a ‘drink’ with his dad. (He was four years old.) They would walk to a caf\u00e9 and order juice and chat. I thought it was so sweet. It got me wanting to make a book about how you can stay connected to a parent who you don’t get to see a lot, which is so often the case, especially with dads. It certainly was true when I was growing up and my family was struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n That’s when the spark of an idea came. I laid out a loose, rough, simple first draft. Greta spent her day mimicking the people her dad was taking pictures of while he was at work, finishing the day by ending up in front of his camera when he got home. <\/p>\n After a while, I started to feel the story was too simple. So, I started adding layers to the writing and design, including panels in the form of film strips on the sides of the pages that fleshed out details of the story. I thought they would be a fun way to add depth to what was going on in the spreads. <\/p>\n But after a number of editorial revisions, the panels lost their relevance, and I worried they would distract from the main story. I’ve always been drawn to spare storytelling, letting the readers fill in the gaps with their imaginations. I see my job as a director whose task it is to orchestrate storytelling elements, inviting the readers to play out a lot in their heads, as they listen and look at the pictures. So, I got rid of the film strips, which seemed distracting, and instead added framed pictures around Greta’s house to offer a little subtext to what’s going on in each illustration. You get to see other things that Greta’s dad has photographed, places he’s been, things that are important to him. This design element made it into the final version of the book dummy and the finished art. <\/p>\n The artwork in this book is executed a little differently than some of my other recent books, which are painted in thick, dense, acrylic paint. I decided to make the images mixed media, incorporating some watercolor washes into the acrylic paintings. My first books were painted using watercolor, and I wanted to bring back some of that softness to this book. After I transferred the sketch to the paper, I would saturate the page with watercolor to set the mood. (For the ballet scene below, I used a warm yellow, then layered it with violet to create the shadows; for the night-time scene, I used several shades of blue with a little yellow to warm up the sky.) Once the background was dry, I started layering on the acrylic in the areas where I wanted the color to pop (Greta dancing and the curtain behind her, Greta sitting in the tree). I thought the opaque dense color over the airy, soft watercolor made for a nice contrast. <\/p>\n I made a little stop motion movie of this process here. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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