1 00:00:07,700 --> 00:00:12,067 I relate to animals. I talk to them, they talk back. 2 00:00:12,067 --> 00:00:15,400 I know their personalities very well. 3 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,100 I can draw them from memory because I observe 4 00:00:19,100 --> 00:00:24,100 them so heartily. Cows are very funny. 5 00:00:24,100 --> 00:00:27,200 They are very dignified, and it must be very difficult to 6 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:30,967 be dignified with these coat hanger hips and udders and 7 00:00:30,967 --> 00:00:32,967 all this other stuff lurking forth. 8 00:00:35,467 --> 00:00:38,367 The way I really like to draw is out of my head, 9 00:00:38,367 --> 00:00:41,400 and I like to do this very loose brush or 10 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:44,767 felt tip pen kind of drawing and then with color overlays. 11 00:00:44,767 --> 00:00:47,900 The color is less important to me than the drawing. 12 00:00:47,900 --> 00:00:52,200 Because my drawing is so quick and spontaneous, 13 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:55,167 a lot of times if I have to do that drawing over 14 00:00:55,167 --> 00:00:58,600 several times, it loses some of that spontaneity. 15 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:02,500 So I discovered that if I do the drawings on tracing paper, 16 00:01:02,500 --> 00:01:05,100 and if I don't like a particular gesture, 17 00:01:05,100 --> 00:01:07,800 I can tear that out and put another one in. 18 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:12,300 My final drawings wind up looking like a sewed-together 19 00:01:12,300 --> 00:01:16,100 Frankenstein monster. It's all taped together. 20 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,300 And I have this Xeroxed, so now I have 21 00:01:21,300 --> 00:01:23,400 a black-and-white Xeroxed drawing, 22 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,433 and then I just do my watercolor on that. 23 00:01:26,833 --> 00:01:31,567 DUMPY LA RUE. I love pigs. Pigs are hysterical. 24 00:01:31,567 --> 00:01:35,300 This is an example of the process I use when 25 00:01:35,300 --> 00:01:39,300 I make several finished drawings on a Xerox machine, 26 00:01:39,300 --> 00:01:42,600 so that I can paint them in different ways. 27 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:46,000 Originally, I did this painting for the book. 28 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,267 I had another copy of the black-and-white drawing and 29 00:01:48,267 --> 00:01:53,800 I simply repainted it with a daylight, sunny daylight scene. 30 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:56,900 I like the drawings in CLICK, CLACK, MOO. The cows have 31 00:01:56,900 --> 00:02:01,000 just left a note on the door that is infuriating the farmer. 32 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,200 I want the children to see the cow's expressions. 33 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,500 I want them to see the note. And I certainly want 34 00:02:06,500 --> 00:02:08,300 them to see Farmer Brown's reaction. 35 00:02:08,300 --> 00:02:12,367 How am I going to do that? I did many, many sketches and 36 00:02:12,367 --> 00:02:18,400 wound up using that shadow and, it was just a bonus that 37 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:21,400 the straw hat looked like Farmer Brown's hair standing on end, 38 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:25,667 which showed his rage even more. A lot of my inspiration, 39 00:02:25,667 --> 00:02:28,100 I am sure, came from the cartoons I saw as 40 00:02:28,100 --> 00:02:33,100 a child in movies. You know, the gesture of Farmer Brown 41 00:02:33,100 --> 00:02:36,000 with his leg up in the air and shaking his fists. 42 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:38,000 It is pure cartoon. 43 00:02:41,300 --> 00:02:44,400 What appealed to me about Barbara Joosse's book 44 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:47,100 Everybody together at Grandma's house for Christmas, 45 00:02:47,100 --> 00:02:48,900 with two dogs and a cat, 46 00:02:48,900 --> 00:02:51,567 and a snowstorm and then they all get to sleep there. 47 00:02:51,567 --> 00:02:55,033 I mean, I can't imagine a more appealing story for a child. 48 00:02:56,300 --> 00:02:59,300 When you illustrate a story like that where there are 49 00:02:59,300 --> 00:03:03,567 specific characters, you have to give those characters a face. 50 00:03:03,567 --> 00:03:05,300 And that is always a challenge for me, 51 00:03:05,300 --> 00:03:08,867 and I love that challenge. I read the manuscript and 52 00:03:08,867 --> 00:03:12,167 then I do rough sketches. I develop the character first. 53 00:03:12,167 --> 00:03:15,000 Do many, many drawings until I get them looking the 54 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,300 way I want and I am sure that I can draw that character in 55 00:03:18,300 --> 00:03:23,067 any pose, from any angle, with any expression on their face. 56 00:03:23,067 --> 00:03:28,800 I draw and draw before I even get to illustrating the book. 57 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:31,800 I like this page very much because 58 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,100 this is the first you see of Granny's family. 59 00:03:35,100 --> 00:03:39,067 I was so excited to start doing these characterizations. 60 00:03:39,067 --> 00:03:40,100 "At last they came-- 61 00:03:40,100 --> 00:03:42,500 Chatty Aunt Fanny and her sister, Clarisse. 62 00:03:42,500 --> 00:03:46,000 Uncle Bert, the fireman, and his brave firedog, Walter. 63 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,767 Great-aunt Ruby, who smelled like wild cherry cough drops. 64 00:03:48,767 --> 00:03:51,100 Annie, Michael, and little Otto. 65 00:03:51,100 --> 00:03:53,867 Aunt Ivy and her noisy boys--Freddie, Dennie, 66 00:03:53,867 --> 00:03:58,000 and Kennie. And Lambert, who had a soft warm lap." 67 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:01,600 So now I have the whole family here to illustrate. 68 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:04,200 Edgar the dog had to be a big floppy sort of 69 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,900 Golden Retriever kind of animal and the children had to be 70 00:04:07,900 --> 00:04:12,000 boisterous, so, I had to have one smashing a snowball 71 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:14,867 on top of the other one's head inside Granny's house 72 00:04:14,867 --> 00:04:17,867 so the mother could be very upset about it. 73 00:04:17,867 --> 00:04:21,667 And bland Uncle Lambert, who comes in last, waving. 74 00:04:24,100 --> 00:04:26,700 I love to end picture books--my own or 75 00:04:26,700 --> 00:04:30,600 other people's picture books. I like it to be just a drawing if 76 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:34,200 I can work it out that way, without text. 77 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:38,400 Because in that drawing, I like to bring something to 78 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,200 the story that wasn't told. 79 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,100 you don't know whether or not the ducks get 80 00:04:42,100 --> 00:04:45,700 their diving board in the text. I decided to show 81 00:04:45,700 --> 00:04:48,500 the reader that the duck did get the diving board simply by 82 00:04:48,500 --> 00:04:50,500 having him dive off of it into the water. 83 00:04:50,500 --> 00:04:55,167 He got his diving board. I think I say in pictures what 84 00:04:55,167 --> 00:04:57,167 I don't say as easily in words.