{"id":4131,"date":"2016-08-28T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T06:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4131"},"modified":"2016-08-28T07:55:59","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T13:55:59","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-498-featuring-erin-e-stead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4131","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #498: Featuring Erin E. Stead"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“The Uncorker’s heart was a glass vessel filled to the brim.”<\/em>
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\nPictured above is a preliminary image from Erin E. Stead’s<\/a><\/strong> illustrations for Michelle Cuevas’<\/a><\/strong> The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles<\/em> (Dial, August 2016), as well as a spread from the book. I have a review of this picture book over at BookPage<\/em> (here<\/a><\/strong>), and Erin visits today to talk a bit about the art and to share some images. <\/p>\n

I thank her for sharing. Let’s get right to it. <\/p>\n


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\nErin<\/font><\/strong>: Philip and I recently moved the studio and the majority of our life into this red barn on the Leelanau peninsula in northern Michigan.
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\nThis is my new desk, which I am pretty excited about. We’ve had a lot of crappy drawing tables between the two of us (and when we first started making books we only had one small desk in one small apartment), but this one is actually sturdy and level.
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\nThis is one of my first dummies for The Uncorker<\/em>. You\u2019ll see I originally thought the book was going to be tall, but this was a bad idea. Still, a lot of the early images stayed. You\u2019ll notice I left myself a helpful note that just says \u201cwrong\u201d on one of them.
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\nI re-started this book after finishing a bit of it. I am worried this is becoming a habit. I re-started the book before this one about five times (no exaggeration). I started this one with a lot of watercolor thumbnails, since it seemed the most obvious medium for a book about the ocean.
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\nI was worried that there wasn\u2019t enough atmosphere, though, so I tried cardboard printing. I inked a piece of chipboard and made a print off that. This is a thumbnail, and the ochre and red are added with oil pastels.
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\nI liked that method, so I began the book. Here are a couple of survivors.
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\nAs I got into the story more and more, I was worried the printing here was too aggressive and disconnected to the drawing style for the book. The Uncorker himself is a gentle fellow. I experimented with mono printing on a woodblock.
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\nAnd there it was. Seaspray and color modulation. I felt a little better, so I remade the opening spread.
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“The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles lived alone on a high spot with only one tree for shade. He always kept his eyes on he waves, watchful for a glint of glass.”<\/em>
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\nAfter that, the method was set and I was on my way. Here are all the tools I use to make the book — except for pencils, which are pretty important.
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\nI was obviously very influenced by my surroundings when making this book. We don\u2019t live near an ocean, but we do live near giant sand dunes and a giant lake.
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Title page illustration<\/em>
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Cover art<\/em>
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“The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles arrived early, carrying a handful of his favorite seashells. He thought it might be rude to show up uninvited and empty-handed.”<\/em>
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“While the Uncorker of Ocean Bottles loved his job, he couldn’t help but wonder
if he would ever receive a letter. …”<\/em>
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\nWe also live by an area called \u201cFishtown,\u201d which I based the village nearest to The Uncorker on.
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“First he visited the maker of cakes. …”<\/em>
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“‘Sorry,’ each one sighed. ‘Though I do wish I’d received an invitation to such a party.”<\/em>
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\nHere are just a few more!
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“One day, the waves tipped their white postman hats to the Uncorker
and delivered a bottle with a very peculiar letter inside. …”<\/em>
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“The Uncorker asked a seagull, a sailor, and a one-man band. …”<\/em>
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\nThanks for looking! I\u2019ll leave you with the view from the dog\u2019s desk area. She works harder than her two human co-workers.
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\nTHE UNCORKER OF OCEAN BOTTLES. Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Michelle Cuevas. Illustrations \u00a9 2016 by Erin E. Stead. Some final art used by permission of the publisher, Dial Books, New York. All other images used by permission of Erin E. Stead.<\/em><\/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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1)<\/strong><\/font> Time with my friend. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> A kicker pointed out that it’s only two more weeks till we’ve all kicked 500 WEEKS IN A ROW. That’s 500 weeks of trying to find the good in this whacked-out world. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> I fell hard for this poem<\/a><\/strong>, though the contrarian in me should not admit it. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Though I was somewhat disappointed by the first episode I listened to (I like my podcasters to stay on point as well as Terry Gross does), I think Laura Marling’s new podcast<\/a><\/strong> seems promising. Good topic, and you all know I love her music. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> A big group at story time at Parnassus Books yesterday. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> I had a donut flavored like Vanilla Wafers. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Oh, I figured out this week that 7-Imp is ten years old. In Blogging World, that makes it a DINOSAUR. I’m so glad artists, during all those years, have come here to share art. Like Erin did today. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Uncorker’s heart was a glass vessel filled to the brim.”(Click each to enlarge)   Pictured above is a preliminary image from Erin E. Stead’s illustrations for Michelle Cuevas’ The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles (Dial, August 2016), as well as a spread from the book. I have a review of this picture book over at […]<\/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-4131","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\/4131","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=4131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}