BIO & FAQ

Where do you work?

I have a studio in an office building in Norwalk, Connecticut, a city on Long Island Sound. My office is about two miles from my house. In the summer I like to walk to my studio, but in bad weather I drive. My dog Caesar keeps me company at work. My studio has two drawing tables, many shelves for books, and flat files where I store my pads, papers and all artwork in progress. In my studio I also have a CD player, a fax machine, an electric pencil sharpener, special lamps, my lightbox, and a file cabinet. My art supplies are stored on the various shelves in the room. I use gouache paints, watercolors, and colored pencils. I make all my illustrations by hand without the use of a computer.

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How do you illustrate a picture book?
First I read the manuscript, which is the story with words but no pictures. Then I make small thumbnail sketches to help me figure out what I might draw on each page. This helps me to get the picture that is inside my head onto paper as quickly and directly as possible. I think of each double page spread of a book as a scene in a movie or documentary that deals with a distinct idea or event. Even if there are two single page illustrations across from each other, they must relate to each other. A thumbnail sketch is where I decide whether the illustration will be a head shot, a landscape, a still life, an interior scene, or a diagram. Sometimes I decide that one page on the spread will only have type, and be across from a picture that has no words on it. There are lots of choices to make right off the bat. The thumbnail is where I make most of these big choices. Drawing small helps me focus on that big idea, and not get too distracted by details.

This is the thumbnail sketch I drew for a 2-page spread in Hello Baby! The horizontal lines at the bottom of the sketch are where I left room for the words of the story.

I then make a 32-page dummy by folding and stapling together eight large sheets of paper. Next, I trim the paper to be the actual size of the book. In my dummy I tape the words into place and then draw the pictures. I use my thumbnail as a starting place, and add details in the dummy drawing. I don't worry about it being messy because the dummy is a good place for me to make mistakes and solve problems.

This is the same 2-page spread in the dummy I sent to my publisher.

After the dummy is reviewed by the editor and art director at the publishing company, and any changes are agreed upon, I make another drawing on tracing paper that is more precise and reflects the changes. I trace this drawing in pencil onto watercolor paper. Then I make the finished illustration in color.

The finished artwork as it appears in the published book.

When I have finished every picture in the book (this takes about 4 months) I deliver the artwork to the publisher so that they can have the book printed and bound together and sent off to book stores.

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My lightbox with a drawing on tracing paper about to be traced onto watercolor paper.

I use a lightbox to trace my pencil drawing from the tracing paper onto the watercolor paper. A lightbox is a large shallow box that has a transparent sheet of hard white plastic on the surface and has flourescent light bulbs inside. When you plug the box into an electrical outlet and turn it on, the lightbulbs inside illuminate the surface. When I put a thick piece of watercolor paper over my pencil drawing, I can see the line show through, and I am able to trace the drawing onto my watercolor paper. I use a size 5 mechanical pencil with B lead to trace my drawing with a very fine, light line. The paper I have been using for several years now is Fabriano Artistico hot press, 140 lb, bright white watercolor paper.

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How do you color your illustrations?

These are some of my paints. I make a swatch of each color and tape it onto the lid of the tub to tell me what color is inside. You can see six of my 12 numbered skin tones in the photo on the left.

I have illustrated books using watercolor, and others using just colored pencil. Now I use Winsor Newton gouache paints (opaque watercolors) with colored pencil because this technique allows me the greates range of brilliant or subtle colors and clean edges that need no outline. Gouache (pronounced "gwash") paint comes in tubes and is thick like toothpaste. I thin the paint with water and mix each color into several shades by combining different amounts of white with that color. Some of my colors are made with more than one pigment and white, but I try to keep the combination simple so I can remix it when I run out. I store the mixed colors in tubs with screw tops so they don't dry out. I have hundreds of different pre-mixed colors to choose from.

After I have traced my drawing onto the watercolor paper, then I very carefully fill in the lines with flat areas of gouache. I use big brushes for large areas, and small brushes for very small areas. When I am done painting you can no longer see the original pencil line that I traced onto the watercolor paper.

You can see the colored pencil marks in Eveline's cheek blush, the shadow under her nose and chin, in the texture in her hair, and in the folds of the paper flower. I keep my pencils organized in cutlery trays that you can buy at a housewares store.

On top of the painted area, I add details using Prismacolor colored pencils. One page in a picture book takes me anywhere from four to twelve hours to paint after it has been traced.

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Do you like writing as much as illustrating?

I love writing. It is such a great challenge to tell a story or explain something complicated using as few words as possible. It is important that I use the appropriate number of words on a page for my reader's age level. I don't want the reader to get bored or confused, and I need to use words which are familiar. If I am introducing a new word, I must make sure it can be learned on that page, either in the context of the other words, or revealed in the illustration. It's fun to write picture books, because you know that the pictures will do a lot of the work for you. Even when I am writing non-fiction, I want the words to sound as beautiful as a poem, flow from the mouth as easily as a song, and have meaning as compelling as a novel.

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Who is Anne Rockwell?

My mother read many books to me when I was a baby. Now we make books together; here we are signing copies of Halloween Day. She illustrates many of the books she writes, like The Boy Who Wouldn't Obey: A Mayan Legend, which was published in 2000.

You will notice that Anne Rockwell is the author of many of the books that I have illustrated. She is also my mother. She has been writing and illustrating children's books since before I was born in 1961. She has published books on many different subjects, ranging from Greek myths to fire engines, original stories to historical biographies, and she is working on several more at this moment. When my father, Harlow Rockwell, was alive he was an illustrator also. He and my mother collaborated on many wonderful books for children. Now I have the privilege of carrying on that family tradition.

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Where did you learn to be an illustrator?

Even as a baby I spent a lot of time in my parents' studio. The Leonard Marcus book, Pass It Down tells about my family and four others with two generations in children's books.

I probably learned most of what I know about being an illustrator from my parents. Their studio was in our house and I could always look in on them and see what they were working on. There were plenty of art materials around the house and my brother, sister, and I were always encouraged to be creative and to express our ideas. When I grew older, my mom taught me a lot about making a dummy and telling a story with pictures. My dad taught me a lot about drawing and painting. I also learned from my teachers in public school, college, and art school. I love to study pictures in children's books and comic books, the great paintings made by artists throughout history, and drawings by children. My teenage sons Nicholas and Nigel are both amazing artists and I love to look at their pictures and learn from them.

If you would like to know more about my family, read Pass It Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark, by Leonard Marcus. It tells the stories of the Rockwell, Pinkney, Myers, Hurd and Crews families. All of these families have parents and a child who create children's books.

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How long have you been an artist?

Many of my earliest memories are of making pictures. When I was about six or seven years old I filled a little notebook with sketches of birds. As an adult I have illustrated three books about birds: Our Yard is Full of Birds, A Nest Full of Eggs, and Ducklings and Pollywogs.

I have been an artist all my life. When I was a child there were always plenty of art supplies around the house. My brother and sister and I were always drawing and coming up with stories. I started my professional art career in 1984 as magazine and book jacket illustrator. I illustrated my first children's book in 1989. That book is called Apples and Pumpkins. It was written by my mother and is about visiting a farm to pick apples and pumpkins, which was an outing I took with my family every fall as a child.

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Where do you get your ideas?

My son Nicholas was great reference for my pirate in Halloween Day.

I have gotten a lot of ideas from my two children, Nicholas and Nigel, by seeing what they are interested in and how they learned as young children. I spend time with school children because I am a parent, but I also visit classrooms as an author/illustrator. I try to see the world through a child's eyes. I appreciate how fascinating the world looks to them; that everything is new and worth learning more about. I like to write about things that are interesting and hard to explain, like how the body works in Good Enough to Eat and The Busy Body Book or what a young child might wonder about when his mother is pregnant in Hello Baby!.

I notice that many of my ideas and solutions come to me when I am just falling asleep or just waking up. Driving in the car is also a good place for getting ideas. Sometimes sitting down and staring at a blank piece of paper is the worst way to get an idea. The important thing is to give an idea a chance. When a good idea comes to me, I have to find a place to write it down right away so I don't forget it.

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What do you like best about your job?

Nicholas and Nigel used to keep me company in my studio after school. I keep most of their wonderful drawings.

 

My job is one of the most creative and expressive things I can imagine doing. I love carrying on my parent's tradition in children's books. I love the challenge of coming up with solutions to problems. I love doing the research involved in making pictures and writing books. I love making things look beautiful. I love the fact that my work is worthwhile and makes a difference in the lives of children.

I am also grateful that I have a job which has allowed me so much time with my family. When my boys where young I was able to stop working when they come home from school. If they had a field trip or school event I was able to give myself the time off to spend with them. It's nice being your own boss!

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Do you ever get to travel for work?

Here are pictures of me on a slog in the Florda Everglades, one of my alligator models, and my visit to a coffee plantation in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.

Yes, sometimes. When I was working on WHO LIVES IN AN ALLIGATOR HOLE? I went to Everglades National Park to study alligators and their habitat.  It was a great trip.  My husband and I went canoeing in a pond and river filled with alligators and took lots of pictures.  We also went slogging in a swamp with a forest ranger.  During the slog we saw amazing birds and plants, but fortunately, no alligators.  Visiting the Florida Everglades made me want to see all the National Parks in this country.  Maybe someday I will get the chance.

I also travelled to Jamaica to do research on a book about that country. Unfortunately the book was cancelled before I got to illustrate it. I only got as far as creating the book jacket. But it was a wonderful trip. A story may still come of it someday...

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What else do you like to do?

I like to be with my husband and boys, walk my dog Caesar, cook dinners for lots of people, tend to my garden, go camping, read, look for seashells, make watercolor paintings, listen to music, play the piano, talk to my friends, watch movies, bake cakes, go skiing, visit family, go to museums, and see new places. It does seem as though there's never enough time in a day or a year to do all the things I like to do!

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