Book Birthday: There's That Sun Again
Happy Birthday to my new book, There's That Sun Again, written by Mk Smith Despres
Hello Sketchbugs,
A most auspicious day is upon us! There’s That Sun Again goes out to the world today! Get it wherever books are sold!
Get a signed copy from Children’s Book World with some free stickers HERE, or you can get it from these other booksellers HERE. Reminder, there will be a BOOK LAUNCH PARTY today at 6:30pm at Children’s Book World in Haverford, PA to celebrate. There will be a reading, signings, stickers, food and more! If you have nothing to do tonight, think about stopping by. The store itself is a great stop to buy children’s books, many from local authors in the PA area! You can read more about all that in my previous post.
In august of 2022 my agent Rebecca informed me of a manuscript sent over by the legendary Taylor Norman at Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House. She spoke of my work with such endearance and praise that I was flabbergasted. Oh my God, why was this award winning art director so nice?! She added that this manuscript would let me “bring my own 50% to the book.” To say I was interested was an understatement. I immediately agreed to hear more and was sent the manuscript.
Taylor was right. Mk’s words hit a sweet spot of encapsulating the child’s experience without the saccharine infantilizing that many books do. The poetry had a direction but was vague enough to give room for my illustrations to share the page. I excitedly agreed to the project and thus the book process began.
Just like the Book From Far Away (2023) I had a new problem to solve with this book. How do you illustrate poetry? I read over the printed manuscript and just started sketching on it, like I do with all my books.
In those initial sketches, characters and compositions began to form. I saw flowing brown hair that fluttered through the pages and a long sleeved shirt with fish on it. Kids of all shapes and sizes running across fields and walking up a long hill to get to school.
I was living around Cheltenham ave in Philly and the neighborhood served as juicy inspiration for the town the book was based in. Along with my local views, I looked to the views on the cursed Schuylkill road whenever I’d drive to my partner’s place. The hills of Conshohocken and Manayunk, with cute buildings wrapping around gorgeous foliage under yellow light helped in piecing the voice together.
I had recently visited my cousins in the San Francisco area (mentioned in a previous post) and was heavily inspired by some of the art they made as well. There was something so freeing and playful about it and I couldn’t help but be drawn to the blueprints they gave me. These would serve as the blueprints for the creatures the kids in the book create.
By the time sketches were due, I had a solid idea of what There’s That Sun Again be. The first page in particular, came to me like a lightning rod. What if the kids were swinging on sun rays to school? It perfectly encapsulated what Mk wrote while also being a great way to entice people to read the book. The subsequent pages would be a journey of elements and dreamlike scenarios to show the children passing through the day. Thankfully, both Taylor and the page designer, Jennifer Browne, were on board.
The sketches were approved and it was time to go onto finals. I wanted to make illustrations that weren’t all digital so I looked to inspiration. Like I mentioned in my cover reveal post, I was inspired by Maxfield Parrish (his older work), Maurice Sendak, Leo and Diane Dillon, and both Arnold and Anita Lobel. I love older illustrations but they weren’t the only ones. I was also drawn to the more contemporary work of Chris Van Allsburg, Oge Mora, and Grace Zhang, whose work I felt encapsulated the dreamlike and/or community feeling I wanted to capture.
In the vein of the illustrators who inspired me, I went with pencil for the linework, specifically a Koh I Noor drafting pencil, recommended by the awesome Philly illustrator Armando Veve. The softness of the graphite made for some luscious lines and shades that danced onto the page effortlessly. The traditional media also stopped me from making the pages too complex and dense, something I’ve been trying to do more. The text needs room to breathe after all.
A few drawn spreads later and it was time to color. I decided to color the book digitally using iPad procreate. This was for time’s sake but also for my own. I went for a more traditional paint approach, staring everything off with a thick layer of yellow to get that sun vibe. I continuously looked to my concept art to get the feeling just right. Combined with the graphite base, the book came together and luckily there weren’t too many revisions.
And ta-da, we had a children’s book! After 2 years, the book is finally out and you all get to look at the child me and Mk made together!
This book has taught me so much. from how to balance type and picture on a page (The Book From Far Away (2023) was wordless so this is a first), to how to convey conceptual themes for children, as opposed to my editorial process which largely appeals to adults. I rediscovered my love for mechanical pencils when finding the voice for the book, learned to look to all directions for visual inspiration, and learned to accept that simplicity is sometimes better than complexity.
OHHH, and before I forget, please leave a review of the book on Goodreads, Amazon, or whenever you can rate books! This helps a lot with other people deciding to get the book for themselves!
Thank the author Mk Smith Despres, whose poetry created a wonderful soil for my drawings to grow, editor Taylor Norman who consistently saw the potential of my art when I had doubts, page designer Jennifer Browne who stopped me overtaking the text on the page on more than one occasion, Neal Porter books and Holiday House for publishing the book, and my agent Rebecca Sherman for organizing everything flawlessly.
this book looks sooo lovely! congratulations!
Congratulations Julie!! The book is incredible!