A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about receiving Violeta Dabija’s pencil sketches for Water Can Be…, our 2014 follow-up to A Leaf Can Be…
I’m so excited that I got permission from both the publisher (Millbrook Press) and Violeta to share a couple of sketches here. So…
and
Aren’t they beautiful? I love the utter stillness of one and the wild abandon of the other. The way Violeta does water in all its forms, but especially in flowing waves, is just amazing. I can’t wait to see where she takes the sketches from here.
I’m just not sure I can wait until 2014 to find out!
Reblogged this on Tam's Garden and commented:
What a beautiful illustration. Love the delicate black lines on the white background
Thanks! Violeta does such lovely work. I can’t wait to see the final art for this book!
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They are so spectacular. Thanks for sharing the process. I love A Leaf Can Be… It’s perfect!
I studied water all one year with my class and we would have loved to have had your book then, Laura. Like A Leaf Can Be, it will be a beautiful and poetic addition to picture books. It’s such a long wait… I admire your patience!
Thanks, Linda, for the kind words. I love water in all forms and am so excited about this book. As far as patience, well, I have no patience, actually. But I have no choice!
They are wonderful, Laura. What a great theme to keep running through all your books, you have an endless supply of subjects you could go at. I’d love to see how fun A child can be lol.
Thanks, Cathy–it’s funny you say that. One of the activities I encourage teachers to do with their kids is to do a classroom book of A Kid Can Be…, letting kids work in pairs to come up with couplets.
Oh that’s great, Laura. How funny I said that then.
Great minds think alike:>)
Thank you for sharing! I was so eager to see a glimpse from the book. Water so dynamic and in so many forms, different from leaves and yet…think of the similarities and the inter-relatedness! Renee is right – 2014 does seem like a long wait – but now I feel content!
Thanks, Cathy! And there’s more manmade stuff in this book, since water is so entwined with human activity. So ships and cities and sprinklers and drinks…I was a little nervous because Violeta’s nature scenes are my absolute favorites, but I actually really love what she’s done with the people and manmade objects in this book, too.
That is such a long wait! But these sketches are lovely — and based on what I’ve seen with A LEAF CAN BE, they will be GORGEOUS when finished. Seriously, I’d hang the whole book in my house.
That’s how I feel, Renee. I had asked her agent shortly after LEAF whether she sold prints, or giclee prints, or originals of her book art, but no go. So glad you like the sketches! Fun to see an illustrator’s process. These are so bare-bones, but it’s good to see them. When I look at her art, I’m so mesmerized by the colors and textures that I don’t really notice composition at all (since I know little about art). But seeing it at this stage, the structural stuff is a little more obvious to even me:>)
What a shame she doesn’t sell prints! I know what you mean about the bare-bones art. My brother is also a graphic artist/illustrator (I was lucky to have him do a few of the stories and poems I’ve written for the educational market!), and I had to train myself to look beyond the lines to imagine the finished project with all the layers of detail. Alas, the world of the artist is a great mystery to me, too.