{"id":5260,"date":"2021-01-12T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T06:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5260"},"modified":"2021-01-12T10:29:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T16:29:18","slug":"shawn-harris-on-a-polar-bear-in-the-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5260","title":{"rendered":"Shawn Harris on A Polar Bear in the Snow<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nIt’s a pleasure to have a visit today from illustrator Shawn Harris<\/a><\/strong>, who discusses not only the genesis of A Polar Bear in the Snow<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Candlewick), written by Mac Barnett<\/a><\/strong> and released at the end of 2020, but also how he created the illustrations for the book. <\/p>\n

“There’s a polar bear in the snow. … Where is he going?” With engaging, appealing sentences and striking cut-paper artwork, the story brings readers a polar bear’s adventure, one of play and movement and joy. <\/p>\n

I thank Shawn for sharing images and videos (all videos are captioned) about his artistic process. Let’s get right to it. …<\/p>\n

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Shawn<\/font><\/strong>: Hello again, Imps! Back in 2017, Jules welcomed me to make my debut 7-Imp appearance<\/a><\/strong> with some process images from my first picture book, Her Right Foot<\/em>. As a footnote (ha?), I included a couple test images from a book that my oldest friend, Mac Barnett, and I were just beginning to work on, a book about a polar bear. Well, that book is now finished. Here\u2019s the cover:
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nA Polar Bear in the Snow<\/em> published by Candlewick in October of 2020. <\/p>\n

And here\u2019s proof of our old friendship:
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Mac and me, circa 1989<\/em><\/center>
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\nSo, I have returned to share with you how these collages that premiered here three years ago turned out!<\/p>\n

Our idea for Polar Bear<\/em> began in Mac\u2019s breakfast nook (before breakfast, fittingly). I was poring over proofs of Her Right Foot<\/em> and was particularly excited about a page upon which the Statue of Liberty\u2019s plain-white-paper crown overlapped her plain-white-paper arm.
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(Click image to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nThere was such a tactile look to the print that I kept running my fingers over the paper, expecting to feel real dimension on the page. (This is a move I\u2019ve since witnessed kids do with my books, and it delights me every time.)<\/p>\n

I turned to Mac, who was slicing a peach, and said: <\/p>\n

\u201cHey, wouldn\u2019t it be great to do an entire book in monochrome, with the edges of objects defined only by the shadows they cast?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh cool.\u201d He said. (He was more interested in the peach.) <\/p>\n

\u201cLike, imagine a book about a polar bear in the snow.\u201d <\/p>\n

He put down the knife. \u201cThat\u2019s a good title. You should write it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay.\u201d I said. \u201cLike, how would I start?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou say, \u2018There is a polar bear in the snow. Still asleep, he lifts his nose to sniff the air \u2014 and he awakens.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh cool,\u201d I said. (And I meant it.) \u201cThen what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c’There is a polar bear in the snow.’\u201d He repeated. \u201c’Where is he going? Is he going to visit the seals?’\u201d<\/p>\n

I imagined the smiling arctic characters, passing one another.<\/p>\n

Mac picked up the paring knife. \u201c’No. He is not hungry.’\u201d<\/p>\n

I burst out laughing in shock. Unwittingly, I\u2019d been lulled by the comforting picture book cadence into anthropomorphizing the bear in my mind. With a deft flit of a sentence, Mac had done that thing he\u2019s so good at doing, reminding us that picture books don\u2019t have to avoid complexities of the real world to speak to kids. This bear was suddenly a real living creature, who may \u2014 on another day \u2014 have torn the blubber from a doe-eyed seal right before our eyes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d I said. \u201cIt feels like you just wrote a third of this book. Do you want to just finish it?\u201d <\/p>\n

He took a shower; we ate some sliced peaches and yogurt and drank espressos; and, after breakfast, I began sketching. Since the book\u2019s energy comes from the relationships between Mac\u2019s spare words and my pictures \u2014 relationships that may not have been clear in manuscript form \u2014 we thought it was important to pitch a full dummy.
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Sketches from my pocket Moleskine<\/em>
(Click image to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nThis is what those sketches ended up looking like finished in the book:
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“There is a polar bear in the snow.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Where is he going?”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Is he going to meet a man?”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“NO!”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nYes, the whole book is illustrated in torn and cut white paper collage. Yes, even this very blue page:
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(Click spread to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nBut let\u2019s come back to that.<\/p>\n

I found that the more dimension I could achieve with my collage, the more I could provoke the shadows to extend and define my scenes. Unlike the flat collages in Her Right Foot<\/em>, I needed big shadows in lieu of contrasting colors \u2014 to make the pages pop. So, I built up layers of folded paper and used foam tape to raise layers of paper above my canvas. Sometimes it looked like an artless mess (until you saw the work from the right angle).
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