{"id":3820,"date":"2015-08-16T00:01:03","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T06:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3820"},"modified":"2015-08-16T08:17:40","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T14:17:40","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-445-featuring-matt-phelan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3820","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #445: Featuring Matt Phelan"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Matt: “[This is a] key moment from the book
that didn\u2019t change much from the sketch dummy.”<\/em>
(Click each image—dummy and final art—to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nGood morning, all. Matt Phelan<\/a><\/strong> is visiting 7-Imp today to share some sketches and art from Michelle Knudsen’s<\/a><\/strong> Marilyn’s Monster<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, which was published by Candlewick in March of this year. It’s the story of a young girl waiting patiently for her monster; some of her classmates have them, you see, but Marilyn knows that your monster is supposed to find you<\/em>. So she “tried to be the kind of girl no monster could resist.” Things don’t go as Marilyn quite expects them to, but I’ll leave that for you to discover if you read this on your own. <\/p>\n

It’s a story with a lot of heart, and as the Publishers Weekly<\/em> review puts it, “it\u2019s a warm, gently funny reminder to chase down one\u2019s dreams, rather than waiting for them to appear on the doorstep.” I love to see Matt’s sketches and to hear him talk about the progression of the artwork for the book. <\/p>\n

And bonus! He’s also giving us a sneak peek today at some sketches from his upcoming graphic novel about Snow White. I thank him for visiting today. Let’s get right to it. …<\/p>\n


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Matt: “I signed on to illustrate <\/em>Marilyn\u2019s Monster in 2012 but still had to complete <\/em>Bluffton<\/a><\/strong>, <\/em>Miss Emily<\/a><\/strong>, and <\/em>Druthers<\/a><\/strong> before officially working on the book. The lead time was spent filling this sketch book with random monsters. It served as both a warm-up exercise and casting call for possible monsters to use in the book.”<\/em><\/center>
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Matt: “These are all character studies and media tests. I also try to establish the tone for the illustrations in these early tests. When working with another author, establishing the correct tone or ‘key’ for the story is probably the most important early step.”<\/em>
(Click last image to enlarge)<\/center>
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Matt: “It was somewhere during the sketch dummy phase that it was decided to re-design <\/em>Marilyn\u2019s Monster. I had been drawing him almost like a younger sibling,
but we decided that Marilyn\u2019s friend should be closer to her age and size.”<\/em><\/center>
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Initial thumbnail sketches<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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Pages from the sketch dummy<\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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Final art: “‘Maybe I’m better off without a monster,’
she told her friend Deborah at school. ‘They seem like a lot of work.’
‘Hmm,’ said Deborah. She didn’t really seem to agree.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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Matt: “With <\/em>Marilyn, I discovered that my studio is just long enough to be able to spread out the paintings on the floor for a final check. I did sweep first.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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Matt: “I\u2019m a huge fan of Michelle\u2019s <\/em>Library Lion<\/a><\/strong> (who isn\u2019t?) and Kevin Hawkes\u2019<\/a><\/strong> perfect drawings for that book. When the text for <\/em>Marilyn\u2019s Monster mentioned looking behind the stone lions at the library, I couldn\u2019t resist this tip of the hat.”<\/em><\/center>
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Matt: “On tour with Michelle Knudsen! Although I\u2019ve illustrated books for many authors, <\/em>Marilyn\u2019s Monster was the first time that I was actually friends with the author before the book. During the making of it, Michelle and I stuck to the traditional ‘separation of author and illustrator’ rule, for the most part. It did allow me to think of it
as ‘the book’ and not ‘my friend\u2019s book.'”<\/em><\/center>
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Matt: “Here are some sketches and the the promo card I made for ALA
for my noir graphic novel version of ‘Snow White,’ set in 1933 Manhattan.
It pubs in Fall 2016, I think.”<\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nMARILYN’S MONSTER. Text copyright \u00a9 2015 by Michelle Knudsen. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2015 by Matt Phelan. Published by Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA. All images here reproduced by permission of Matt Phelan.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is 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. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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Sorry to skip my kicks, dear Imps, but I have an ill parent, so I’ve been at my parents’ home for a couple of days. And right now I just need to catch up on sleep. In sort of a pressing way. It might even be a tiny miracle this post is up, but I’m glad it is — because I like Michelle’s writing in the book and I like seeing Matt’s art. <\/p>\n

Please do tell me, though, what YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks are this week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt: “[This is a] key moment from the bookthat didn\u2019t change much from the sketch dummy.”(Click each image—dummy and final art—to enlarge)   Good morning, all. Matt Phelan is visiting 7-Imp today to share some sketches and art from Michelle Knudsen’s Marilyn’s Monster, which was published by Candlewick in March of this year. It’s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820","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=3820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}