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A spiral, that is. Spirals are bold. And warm and safe. And protective. And beautiful and mysterious. And much more. All depending on the creature or object in nature in which they are residing.<\/p>\n
Beth tells me that at 6 a.m. daily, she has strong black coffee and locally-made bread, toasted with butter. She had me at strong coffee, though I might sneak some cream into my mug during her visit this morning. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This isn’t the first time Sidman and Krommes have been paired as author and illustrator. In 2006, we saw Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow<\/em><\/a><\/strong> (Houghton Mifflin), a collection of poetry centered around meadows. Krommes’ elegant scratchboard illustrations graced that title, and she’s back in Swirl by Swirl<\/em> with more of her stunning, boldly-saturated scratchboard art. <\/p>\n Let it be said that Beth Krommes knows how to compose a picture on a spread. My oh my. But then we already know this from her illustrations in Susan Marie Swanson’s <\/a><\/strong>The House in the Night<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, for which the 2009 Caldecott committee awarded her<\/a><\/strong> the big medal for her “elegant line, illuminated with touches of golden watercolor,” which they stated evoked “the warmth and comfort of home and family, as well as the joys of exploring the wider world.” <\/p>\n Indeed.<\/p>\n But back to the gorgeous Swirl by Swirl<\/em>: These illustrations are a wonder. “Krommes’ dense and richly colored scratchboard illustrations,” adds the Kirkus<\/em> review, “with their closely packed and neatly labeled creatures, plants and natural phenomena, create a feeling of abundance and profusion, with so many parts of the world nestled together in swirls and spirals\u2014effectively demonstrating its fundamental nature.” There are a few more spreads featured below in the interview, so let’s get right to it. <\/p>\n And I thank Beth for stopping by today . . . <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: Illustrator. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019ve illustrated seven children\u2019s books to date:<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What is your usual medium, or–\u2013if you use a variety—your preferred one?<\/font> <\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: For my personal art, I work as a painter (in oils or casein) and as a wood engraver. My illustration work is in scratchboard. Sometimes the work is just black and white; other times, I add color. (I explain how I do this at interview question #1.)<\/p>\n Scratchboard is a black-and-white drawing medium. The board itself is a cardboard or panel with a thin veneer of fine, white clay covered by a layer of india ink. The drawing surface starts completely black. The drawing is made by scratching white lines through the ink with a scratchboard nib held in a pen holder. The more lines that are drawn, the brighter the picture becomes. The clay coating under the ink allows the sharp point to remove the ink easily without tearing the board support. A scratchboard drawing is often very highly detailed and can resemble a wood engraving.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you have illustrated for various age ranges (such as, both picture books and early reader books OR, say, picture books and chapter books), can you briefly discuss the differences, if any, in illustrating for one age group to another? <\/font> <\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019ve mostly illustrated for early elementary ages to grade four. It\u2019s fun to design for the very young. I try to interpret each word of the text, sometimes on several levels. I\u2019m not sure if I can generalize the differences in illustrating for various age groups. Each manuscript has its own needs. <\/p>\n After I finished Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow<\/em>, I began painting a series of meadow pictures in casein for fun. It’s become an ongoing series. Here are a few:<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Where are your stompin\u2019 grounds?<\/font><\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: I live in Peterborough, New Hampshire. I grew up in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you briefly tell me about your road to publication?<\/font> <\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: I was 43 years old when my first children\u2019s book was published. I had several art-related careers previously: public school art teacher, manager of a fine handcraft shop, art director for a computer magazine, and freelance illustrator for the editorial market. My way into the children\u2019s book world was through a cover I did for Cricket Magazine<\/a><\/strong><\/em> that caught the eye of Ann Rider, senior editor at Houghton Mifflin.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you please point readers to your web site and\/or blog?<\/font> <\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: www.bethkrommes.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you do school visits, tell me what they\u2019re like.<\/font><\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: I don\u2019t do many school visits, only a handful a year and always fairly local. One of my favorite gigs is going to Great Brook Middle School in Antrim, NH, each year and doing presentations for the fifth graders, working with one class at a time. I love sitting on the floor with the students, talking about illustration, passing my working materials and Caldecott medal around, and having each child try their hand at scratchboard.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: If you teach illustration, by chance, tell me how that influences your work as an illustrator.<\/font> <\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: I will be teaching a class this spring at the New Hampshire Institute of Art<\/a><\/strong> in Manchester, NH. I\u2019m looking forward to getting out of the studio and working with college students. I gave a presentation there last year and was blown away by the staff, students, and facility. I don\u2019t know how I am going to fit this in, but I\u2019m excited about it.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Any new titles\/projects you might be working on now that you can tell me about?<\/font> <\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: I am illustrating a book about a rain storm for Allyn Johnston at Beach Lane Press. It\u2019s written by Dianne White<\/a><\/strong> and is geared for very young children. It\u2019s so poetic. I love working on it.<\/p>\n 1.<\/font> Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What exactly is your process when you are illustrating a book? You can start wherever you\u2019d like when answering: getting initial ideas, starting to illustrate, or even what it\u2019s like under deadline, etc. Do you outline a great deal of the book before you illustrate or just let your muse lead you on and see where you end up?<\/font> <\/p>\n Beth<\/font><\/strong>: My first step after reading the text of a new book is to brainstorm all kinds of ideas and to gather images having to do with the subject. For example, when working on Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, I collected many photographs and paintings of meadows, meadow flowers, and creatures living in meadows. I wrote down everything I could think of about meadows, especially how it feels to be standing in a meadow in the height of summer. There was a phrase in the text, \u201cthe lush tapestry of meadow,\u201d which inspired me, so I researched tapestries. Our family traveled to NYC to see the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters<\/a><\/strong>. I taped photocopies of my favorite inspirational pictures around my office. <\/p>\n The next step is to work on a storyboard. This is where I chart out the length of the book, figure out what text will go on what pages, and begin to compose the pictures. <\/p>\n Now, I make a series of book dummies. These give me a more concrete idea of what the \u201cpage turn\u201d feels like. The editor always has insightful input at this point. <\/p>\n Then to tight pencil roughs and, finally, the scratchboard pictures. When the black and white scratchboard pictures are done, I photocopy them onto an acid-free paper, then photo-mount the copies onto a flexible Bristol board, and apply watercolor. This is the final art that gets sent to the publisher. <\/p>\n The whole process of designing and completing the art for a book can take me well over a year.<\/p>\n Here is the progression of “In that light rests a bed” from The House in the Night<\/a><\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\nThese spirals in nature are the focus of the latest picture book from poet and author Joyce Sidman<\/a><\/strong>, Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, to be released by Houghton Mifflin next month. The illustrations for this book, which Kirkus<\/em> called no less than “[e]xquisitely simple and memorable,” were rendered by Caldcott Medalist Beth Krommes<\/a><\/strong>, pictured here, who is joining me for a cyber-breakfast this morning. <\/p>\n
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(Houghton Mifflin, 2008; click to enlarge spread slightly);
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(Houghton Mifflin, October 2011)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/bk_swirl-by-swirl_500.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nCoffee’s ready, and the table’s set now for seven questions over breakfast. Let’s get a bit more detailed, and I thank Beth again for visiting 7-Imp.<\/font> <\/p>\n
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