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Pictured above is the title page illustration from Nancy Van Laan’s Forget Me Not<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, released by Schwartz & Wade Books in August. This is the poignant and lovingly-rendered story of a young girl whose grandmother is experiencing significant memory loss. It slowly builds in the story — to the point where she is placed in an assisted living center, while her granddaughter watches with concern. The illustrations were rendered by my visitor today, Stephanie Graegin<\/a><\/strong>, pictured below.<\/p>\n As you’ll read below, this is Stephanie’s fourth picture book. (Three were released last year.) She’s also illustrated middle grade novels and is working on her own picture book. Graegin’s warm palettes capture the small moments of life, and I wanted to have her over for a cyber-breakfast to discuss her work and see even more art. Normally, she tells me, she’d have a bowl of cereal. But today we are going to splurge by taking a walk to pick up a bacon and egg dub pie from the Dub Pie Shop across the street, along with a coffee.<\/p>\n I thank her for visiting. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: Illustrator. <\/p>\n I am in the early stages of working on a picture book that I also wrote (although it has no words), but it feels too soon to call myself an author.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: What is your usual medium?<\/font><\/p>\n Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: I draw in pencil (mechanical 2B .5) on paper (Moleskine sketchbook, usually). I draw very tiny and scan the drawing in very high-res to blow it up larger, as I have found I just can\u2019t draw as well large. I make many layers on duralar (a clear paper) of texture, shading, and patterns — using colored pencil, watercolor, and ink. I scan everything into the computer, then compile and color everything digitally in Photoshop. Drawing in pure pencil is my absolute favorite, though.<\/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 Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: I have done both picture books and middle grade novels. While I love both, I\u2019ll admit that illustrating a picture book is more challenging — but also more rewarding. A picture book\u2019s text is less specific than a novel, and you are given much more room to explore and to create the world inside the book. A picture book is wide open; almost anything can happen. At times the multitude of options for a illustrating picture book can be overwhelming, but I love the challenge of it. It can be a nice balance to be working on both formats at once — to be able to go back and forth between working in color and in black & white. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Where are your stompin\u2019 grounds?<\/font> <\/p>\n Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019m in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, right outside of Prospect Park (the park the book Water in the Park<\/a><\/strong><\/em> was inspired by). I lived in various neighborhoods in Brooklyn for the last 10 years. I came to Brooklyn to go to graduate school at Pratt Institute<\/a><\/strong>. Before I lived in Brooklyn, I lived in Austin, Texas, and Baltimore, MD (where I went to undergrad at The Maryland Institute College of Art<\/a><\/strong>). As a kid I lived in Houston, TX; Fort Wayne, IN; and Chicago IL.<\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you tell me about your road to publication?<\/font> <\/p>\n Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: I studied Fine Arts, focusing on printmaking in college and graduate school. I made a lot of artist\u2019s books with etchings, which looking back, were essentially hand-printed picture books. Illustrating children\u2019s books was something I have wanted to do since I was about five, but it wasn\u2019t until I was in my late twenties that I focused all my energy on making it a reality. Everything fell into place around the same time. I changed the way I was working — I had been making Edward Gorey<\/a><\/strong>-inspired work using pen and ink, but it wasn\u2019t right for me. I started drawing only in pencil and adding the color digitally. Something clicked, and the work became so much better. <\/p>\n When the work was in a place where I felt ready to show it, I spent about a year making children\u2019s book portfolio pieces and then about three months putting together a hand-bound mini portfolio booklet, which fit into a 4×6 envelope. <\/p>\n I sent these out to around 250 editors and art directors, and the calls for book work started happening. Around this same time, I was extremely fortunate that Nate Williams posted a blog post of my work on illustrationmundo<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>, and literary agent Steven Malk<\/a><\/strong> at Writers House<\/a><\/strong> saw it. Steven reached out to me, and he\u2019s been my agent since then. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Can you please point readers to your web site and\/or blog?<\/font> <\/p>\n Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: <\/p>\n Website: www.graegin.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Instagram: instagram.com\/sgraegin<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Facebook: www.facebook.com\/pages\/Stephanie-Graegin\/154714944541337<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Twitter: twitter.com\/Steph_Graegin<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n Jules<\/font><\/strong>: Any new titles\/projects you might be working on now that you can tell me about?<\/font> <\/p>\n Stephanie<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019m very thankful that there are a lot of books on the way! <\/p>\n I illustrated a picture book for Penguin (Dial), titled Peace Is an Offering<\/em> [pictured below], coming out in March 2015. Written by Annette LeBox<\/a><\/strong>, the text is a beautiful poem about finding peace in your community. <\/p>\n I\u2019m currently working on a second picture book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about two young, adorable brothers. The first picture book in the duo is titled How to Share with a Bear<\/em> and was written by Eric Pinder<\/a><\/strong>. It comes out in Fall 2015. <\/p>\n There are three other picture books I am newly working on, including the book I am writing — but its still too early to give details on those. <\/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 Stephanie<\/strong><\/font><\/strong>: The very first thing I do when given a manuscript is break up the text into pages. When I\u2019m given a manuscript, it\u2019s a Word document with no page breaks. I make very tiny thumbnails (about an inch big) to figure out the page count (32 or 40 pages) and what goes where. <\/p>\n I keep working slightly bigger as I revise. In the early rough sketch phase, I draw the whole book around 3×3 inches a page. After revising these, I draw larger, more refined sketches. I then send these sketches to the editor or art director. They make suggestions, and then I revise again — usually, a few times before going to final art. During the initial sketch stage, I also do a lot of character studies, drawing them in my sketchbook, which I take everywhere, to get to know what these characters look like before I start the final sketches.<\/p>\n The final art stage is the most time-consuming but can be the most rewarding — with the book finally coming to life in full color. I usually spend three months on final art. Those three months are filled with very late nights working, and I pretty much become a hermit. I start with very loose color studies over the final sketches in Photoshop to get an idea of the palette for the entire book. Nailing down the perfect palette for the mood of the book, for me, is one of the more difficult steps in the finals process. Once I have a palette that I\u2019m comfortable with, I start making the layers of texture and shading with watercolors and colored pencil. Those are scanned in, and I start the assembly and digital coloring process. I pretty much keep working and reworking the art until the deadline day.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2014\/10\/StephanieGraegin2014webusefinal.jpg\")
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\nPicture Books: <\/p>\n\n
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\nMiddle Grade Novels:<\/p>\n\n
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Better get out the umbrella.’ And Grandma’s head kept getting worse.”<\/em>
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<\/em>Forget Me Not<\/a><\/strong> …<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/7pics\/2014\/10\/miniportfolioPromotionalPiecesmall.jpg\")
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<\/em>Water in the Park<\/a><\/strong> (Schwartz & Wade, 2013)].<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/EarlyWaterIntheParkSketcha.jpg\")
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Just before six o’clock, turtles settle on rocks. They warm their turtle shells in the light.
Good morning, park!”<\/em>
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Their grown-ups lift them. Up and up.”<\/em>
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Rouw! Rouw! Rouw! Time for an evening swim.”<\/em>
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Nancy Van Laan’s <\/em>Forget Me Not<\/strong><\/a>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\nOkay, we’ve got more coffee, and it’s time to get a bit more detailed with seven questions over breakfast. I thank Stephanie again for visiting 7-Imp.<\/font> <\/p>\n
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