{"id":2522,"date":"2013-02-27T20:36:53","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T02:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2013-02-27T21:04:08","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T03:04:08","slug":"more-from-sergio-ruzzier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2522","title":{"rendered":"More from Sergio Ruzzier …"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“‘Wait for me!’ says Bear.”<\/em>
(Click image to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

Last week at Kirkus<\/em>, I chatted it up with author\/illustrator Sergio Ruzzier (ooh, he’s updated his website<\/a><\/strong> all spiffy-like) about his two newest picture books, Bear and Bee<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Hyperion, March 2013) and Eve Bunting’s<\/a><\/strong> Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Clarion, March 2013). That Q&A is here<\/a><\/strong>, if you’re interested, and today I follow up with some art and early sketches and dummy images from Sergio — with some words from him about how he went about building these picture book spreads. I thank him for sharing. <\/p>\n

Let’s get to it … <\/p>\n

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Sergio<\/font><\/strong>: Bear and Bee<\/a><\/strong><\/em> was done in pen and black ink, but instead of using my usual watercolors, I colored it digitally. I was surprisingly very satisfied with the result, especially with the way the colors look on the thick, matte paper that was used.<\/p>\n

[Here’s] a page from my very first thumbnail storyboard: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The sketch of one spread from a rough dummy: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

A more elaborate sketch of the same spread: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Most elements for that same spread in pencil: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The same thing, but in ink and on my usual Arches watercolor paper:<\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The clouds!<\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The whole spread, after I scanned the different parts and arranged them on the screen: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The final spread, digitally-colored: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The dummy sketch for the opening spread: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

All the parts in ink, minus the snowflakes: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Some of the snowflakes in ink. They are all different, as they should be!<\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The whole spread in ink: <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

The final spread, digitally-colored:<\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

With Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, I went back to my beloved Schmincke watercolors. The line is done in pen, with a mix of black and sepia ink.<\/p>\n

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In this book, as I was telling you in the Kirkus<\/em> interview<\/a><\/strong>, I had a great time adding visual side stories to Eve Bunting’s original text. Here, Ox thinks he saw Duck’s blue socks. As you can see in the next picture, the socks he saw are actually purple, not blue. If you look at the painting Ox is working on, you’ll see he has a very personal idea of colors. <\/p>\n

I have always liked persimmon trees, not uncommon in the Po Valley<\/a><\/strong>, where I grew up. The orange fruits are still up after all the leaves have fallen.<\/p>\n

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“‘I have lost my new blue socks.
Have you seen them, Mr. Ox?'”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

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“These are socks, but they’re not new.
They’re more like purple, not like blue.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

In the back jacket, I show the tree again, with some of the fruits starting to rot on the ground.<\/p>\n


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(Sergio Ruzzier; photo credit: Brian Floca<\/a><\/strong>)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

BEAR AND BEE. Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Sergio Ruzzier. Published by Disney\/Hyperion Books, New York. <\/p>\n

HAVE YOU SEEN MY NEW BLUE SOCKS? Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Eve Bunting. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2013 by Sergio Ruzzier. Published by Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. <\/p>\n

All images used with permission of Sergio Ruzzier.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“‘Wait for me!’ says Bear.”(Click image to enlarge) Last week at Kirkus, I chatted it up with author\/illustrator Sergio Ruzzier (ooh, he’s updated his website all spiffy-like) about his two newest picture books, Bear and Bee (Hyperion, March 2013) and Eve Bunting’s Have You Seen My New Blue Socks? (Clarion, March 2013). That Q&A is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-interviews","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}