for writing technique geeks; all the spoilers, no responsibility
The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash (1980) is a carnivalesque, cumulative picture book written by Trinka Hakes Noble and illustrated by Steven Kellogg. This picture book is a great mentor text for the way it handles dialogue visually, and also for the way the ironic distance between text and image expands at the end, leading to a satisfying climax.
Continue reading “The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash by Hakes Noble and Kellogg”Extra Yarn (2012) is a picture book written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen. Although this is a contemporary story, it utilises fairytale tropes, in a mostly fairytale setting.
Continue reading “Extra Yarn by Barnett and Klassen”If you’ve ever heard advice to avoid black out of the tube when painting, this article is a good explainer for what that actually means in practice.
Below is a collection of art in which I think the black looks really great.
Arthur’s Eyes (1979) by Marc Brown is an early story of the popular Arthur series, about an ambiguously animal creature (only after looking it up do I understand he’s a brown aardvark) who lives with his nuclear family in an American suburb. This is a well-crafted story and really speaks to its young audience. The book is now over 40 years old. Reading Arthur’s Eyes in 2020, I notice some ideological issues with the plot and characterisation that date the story badly.
Continue reading “Arthur’s Eyes by Marc Brown”