"Made in China" on the shelves of Barnes and Noble!

We found Made in China on the shelves of Barnes and Noble.  Vi was proud to pose with the book.

Art direction for spread three in Farfalla.

This is the cover sketched onto the linoleum
block.  My next step is to cut it out!!

This part way through the cut.

This is the inked block.

 This is the art direction for spread three in Farfalla.

 This is the start of the 3rd spread

 

 I have drawn the image on by block and am starting to cut.

 This is the final cut for spread three.

 This is a print off of spread 3.  I use this to transfer with pencil to the watercolor paper for painting.

 Color work on spread three.

The Process of Making a Linoleum Block Print.

Here is a beetle linoleum block print.  I am starting to try and develop some ideas for our little guy.

I am inking the linoleum block.

I thought I would print on some different surfaces than I usually would.  This is on canvas.

This is a print of the beetle on paper.

Here is a beetle linoleum block print.  I am starting to try and develop some ideas for our little guy.

Print on wood veneer.

This print is on acetate.  I am trying to make up faux transparencies to practice coloring.

This is a color study on the wood print. I used acrylic, watercolor and pastel to color it in.  I am noticing too much bleed from this water based printing ink.  I also don't like it when I cover too much of the block printed line with the paint.  It looks a bit messy. I love the colors though!!!

The Art Technique for the New Book Farfalla.

I am working on the art technique for the new book.  I am planning on using a combination of linoleum block printing printed on transparency and watercolor on textured paper for Farfalla. 

I borrowed this transparency from our art director Mike Blanc.  I wanted to practice transferring images from the transparency to see how accurate I could be.   I painted this transferred image with watercolor.  I wasn't sure I could match up the paint underneath with the lines on the overlying transparency.  I think that my linoleum block printing lines are usually thicker than those in this sample, so I shouldn't have a problem with this technique. 

I may try some samples using acrylic paint instead of watercolor.

"Brainstorm to Bookshelf - How a picture book is made." November 11, 2011

Vanita (writer) and Mike Blanc (artist) will appear as the lunch speakers

for a teacher's conference at The University of Akron. There will be 400

teachers in attendance. Their title is "Brainstorm to Bookshelf - How a

picture book is made." They will share the making of several books

including "Bonyo Bonyo, the true story of a brave boy from Kenya." After

their presentation a person from Google will show how to use this book and

show a map of how Dr. Bonyo made his life's journey. This is on November

11, 2011.

Illustration Technique for Bonyo Bonyo

By Kristin Blackwood and Mike Blanc

Kristin’s and Mike's illustrations are a blending of techniques, beginning with traditional block prints, cut in linoleum, and printed in black on white stock. The images were converted to digital format through flatbed scanning. Watercolor layers were added using Corel® Painter™, and Adobe® Photoshop® computer software for digital illustration.

Illustration Technique for Ivy in Bloom

Kristin’s illustration is a blending of techniques, beginning with traditional block prints, cut in linoleum, and printed in black on white stock. The images were converted to digital format through flatbed scanning. Watercolor layers were added using Corel® Painter™, and Adobe® Photoshop®, computer software for digital illustration. The result, presented here, is a playful visual note for Ivy in Bloom. Below: an outline is created on tissue paper and used as a guide for carving the illustration on to the linoleum block.