The first chapter of my children’s book Ginger, the Ship Captain’s Cat
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Tag: Ginger
Birthing a Cover
Back in April I worked with illustrator Davina Kinney on the first drawing for my children’s book Ginger, the Ship Captain’s Cat and wrote about it at Someday Box.
The project sat idle for a while but over the past two months Davina has worked her head to the bone creating 29 more drawings, one perfect image for each short story in the book.
Then, we started on the cover.
For some reason, the black and white line drawings were fun, exciting.
Getting the cover right has been an emotional challenge for me. Not because Davina isn’t doing her best, but because I had a very hard time conveying the emotions I wanted the cover to evoke.
Imagine that: struggling emotionally with art. What a surprise.
We got there, eventually. Once I found the words to explain the feelings to Davina, she nailed it on the first try. She’d done 4 or 5 versions, all very similar, all completely wrong (my fault; my fault, I tell you.)
She’s doing a final tidy on the perfect-feeling image, and then I’ll get those stories edited, formatted, and printed so y’all can buy a dozen copies each of Ginger, the Ship Captain’s Cat and give them to all the little ones in your life.
This is How it Works in Real Life: Working with an Illustrator
Here’s the fun post for the week: developing the art for chapter 1 of Ginger, the Ship Captain’s Cat, which is what Davina and I were doing earlier this week.
From the top, my original email to Davina with her responses and work. We’d had a series of informal intermittent conversations about Ginger; this is where we did the work.
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Joel: Here’s a composite I slapped together.
What I’m hoping for is a simple line drawing: window, cat outline, Japanese buildings hinted through the window. Simple simple simple, not complicated. I’d love to see a 5-minute sketch to give you feedback before you spend much time on this. Is that possible?
Note regarding the ‘5 minutes’ request: I know how artists are ’cause I are one. Part of my madness is to nudge my collaborators out of their comfort zone, especially when I know the results will suit my needs better.
Continue reading “This is How it Works in Real Life: Working with an Illustrator”
Ginger and the Mouse
This is an excerpt from an unpublished work.
It was summer and they were crossing the sea. It was pleasant sailing. There was nothing exciting going on. Which meant that after napping 18 hours a day, Ginger was bored. When he got bored he looked around to see if anything exciting was happening. And if nothing exciting was happening, he looked around to see if he could make something exciting happen.
Ginger and the Captain Part 2 – from an Unpublished Work
Ginger had been sitting very still, looking through the kitchen door, hoping he could dash through the kitchen door when it was open and out through the dining room. But he could never tell when the door was going to open. Boom! It would open and someone would come through. Then it would just slam shut again.
He started to get worried and without realizing it he stood up. When he moved, the chef saw him out of the corner of his eye. He looked up and there was a cat in his kitchen! The chef screamed in Japanese and he threw a great big meat cleaver at Ginger. Continue reading “Ginger and the Captain Part 2 – from an Unpublished Work”