Tag: illustrator

Create a Picture Book Fast with Pastiche!

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Picture book pastiche

I spent the entire summer working on my newest book Apples for Cider. Apples… is a pastiche of one of my favorite picture books, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey and a fast way to create a picture book. A pastiche is a type of intertextuality in literature. Intertextuality is either deliberate or latent. Deliberate intertextuality purposely borrows from the text. Some are exact lines while others are vaguely referenced. Latent intertextuality is incidental – “when references occur incidentally—the connection or influence isn’t deliberate” (masterclass.com). Forms of intertextuality include parody, pastiche, retellings and allegory. Some examples include the main plotline of Disney’s The Lion King as a take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the structure of James Joyce’s Ulysses modeled after Homer’s Odyssey.

Parody vs pastiche

I was familiar with parody – a humorous take on a classic piece of literature such as in the picture books Goodnight iPad (a parody of Goodnight Moon) and The Taking Tree (a parody of The Giving Tree). And I wondered if there was a way to take a classic and not make fun of it, as in a parody, but use the classic text as a foundation to pay tribute to it. That’s when I came across pastiche. The following is a description from literarydevices.net:

Shows how the illustration is a pastiche of the original picture book
Illustration pastiche, a fast way to create a picture book!

Pastiche is a literary piece that imitates a famous literary work by another writer. Unlike parody, its purpose is not to mock, but to honor the literary piece it imitates. In pastiche, the writers imitate the style and content of a literary piece to highlight their work, as the original piece is accepted by the vast majority of readers as landmarks of their age. So, imitation in such works celebrates the works of the great writers of the past.

Fia finds Papa Deer

A pastiche of Blueberries for Sal, a fast way to create a book

I was thrilled to find this was “a thing.” I wanted to do a book about how my granddaughter helps her grandfather (my husband) make cider from the apples in our neighbor’s farm. I think the title Apples for Cider came to me first which immediately made me think of Blueberries for Sal. Blueberries… was the perfect foundation to tell the story of gathering apples to make cider. As an early-career illustrator, creating the pastiche gave me the opportunity to make a picture book fast, getting an entire book done in five months – over the summer and into the fall (by November so I can give it to my granddaughter for her birthday). It allowed me to get right to my book making – I didn’t have to wait to have a new manuscript written, edited and ready to go.

Self-publishing opportunity

Unless a publisher desires the rights to Apples…, my plan is to learn about self-publishing and use this book as my first attempt into that realm. I’ll keep you posted on my foray into self-publishing and when it’s ready for sale, I’ll let you know. Then you can tell me if you think my book Apples for Cider honors McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal! Wish me luck! And let me know in the Comments if you have ever written or read a pastiche!

Illustrator bucks current!  Sort of…

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Like my old friend and colleague, illustrator, Jerry Russell, who chooses to work in different illustration styles  dismissing the adage that illustrators should settle into one or two styles, I too have worked in a variety of media and, overtime, have shown different styles.  (Though, I admit that, currently, I have settled comfortably into collage as my style du jour.) 

My Sewing Machine

“My Sewing Machine” is an example of my foray into computer generated art and design.  For a while, I liked using the computer to make art.  At the time, I was just beginning my venture into fabric and paper collage, and making pictures using  the  computer was, to me, a lot like making collages (or maybe that’s just how I approached the media).  But, alas, it didn’t last and back to the tactile I went, liking the  handling, cutting and gluing of fabric and paper over the point and click of a computer mouse (styluses and tablets were just coming on the market).  As one of only  a few of my computer illustrated works,  “My Sewing Machine” was a representation of another important media I worked in – sewing.  I did all sorts of sewing including costume construction (for the Syracuse Stage Costume Department), dressmaking, appliqué and machine embroidery.  (For a  while, I had a dressmaking business designing and making one-of-a-kind gowns ultimately providing a niche fashion market designing and constructing wedding gowns for the “Pregnant Bride”!  [More on that maybe in another post!])

The applique and machine embroidery lend well to illustration, though, they are much more time consuming.  Instead of quickly (somewhat) gluing paper or fabric down on a surface,  applique and machine embroidery rely on sewing, either thick “lines” of thread to secure pieces of fabric to another base fabric “canvas”  for applique,  and “lines” of thread to “draw,” “sketch” or “paint” pictures on a fabric “canvas” for machine embroidery.  These sewing methods require more time than the typical collage method.  (Knowing the work and time required for these illustration techniques provides me with ample respect and appreciation for fabric artists like Bisa Butler and her detailed and colorful applique portraits.  Amazing and beautiful!)

Boot Shot applique
Friends machine embroidery

Both of my sewing machine-made art pictured here were “squares” for a “Bon Voyage” quilt I coordinated and made for friends who  were leaving to sail their sailboat around the world.  I coordinated the making of the quilt by asking other friends of the sailors to each pitch in a square.  The “Friends” square is a machine embroidery portrait collage of the friends who “spared a square” for the BV quilt.  “Boot Shot” is an applique I created representing a favorite shared activity between many of the quilt making friends – our love of hiking in the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York.  (Later, I made a print of this square and entered it into a t-shirt contest sponsored by The Adirondack Mountain Club.  Like my entry in the Dali Museum contest, again, my design wasn’t selected! But as usual, it didn’t stop me from more creating and entering!)

I don’t think I will go back to these media and methods.  Though, you never know!  What do you think?  Should I do more of the computer-generated art, the applique or the machine embroidery?  Illustrators, do you have just one or two styles or, like Jerry and me, do you, too, buck the norm?  I’d love to hear about it in the Comments section below.