My characters, Beep and Bob, go to school in space. Up in space school, you can always look out the windows at the infinite wonders of the universe. But that can get pretty boring after a few minutes. So what to do?Beep’s answer is: ART! Beep loves to draw and always carries a sketchbook. But he also likes the lessons from his art class. Sadly, they don’t paint or use glue much in zero gravity, but even with simple materials like white paper, pencils, crayons and/or markers, there are a universe of possibilities for fun and creativity!
For those times you’re home and looking for some fun art ideas, I’m going to share some of my successful lessons from my 21 Earth years so far as an art teacher. Hope you have a blast!
Art with Words #1
Words are used for writing and speaking. But did you know that words can also an element of visual art?
Beep really, really likes to write his name. But he really, really, really likes to make it fancy and colorful. You can, too. Here’s how:
1. Write your name with a pencil in the center of the page. The letters can be uppercase or lower, block or bubble, straight or squiggly; it’s your art and personality, have fun! 2. Trace around your name, to make the word into a shape. 3. Now trace around the shape of your name; and do it again, and again, and again, until you hit the edges of the page.
4. Now it’s time for color and patterns. Markers are fun to use for this, but you can also use crayons or colored pencils. First, trace your name and fill with a regular (a/b, a/b/c, etc.) or random pattern. 5. Trace the concentric shapes. 6. Fill those with colorful patterns, too!
7. Keep going until you fill the page. Looks pretty awesome, right?!
Note that the patterns do not have to be “perfect”, pencil lines can show, and so on. Art is very flexible that way! Also, if you only have a pencil, black and white art can be pretty cool too (I’ll do a post on pencil art later).
Once you’ve done your name, try other styles with other words or phrases: your favorite teams, characters, or – hint, hint – even subjects you like (such as this example by a 4th grader):
Always be creative and have a blast!!
Beep says Yay to you!
Next up: How to make art with hundreds and hundreds of words!
In the last lesson, Beep turned his name into ART! (Beep thinks his name is very artful.) But are there other ways to use words visually? Of course!
Micrography (micro=small, graphy=writing) is an artform that has been around for more than a thousand years! It began with religious artists who wanted to express sacred texts in interesting new ways; they used Hebrew letters and the Arabic alphabet in their work, but you can use any language in this cool art form. Here’s how:
First, use a pencil to lightly sketch anything you like! That’s right, as you’ll see from the student examples below, you can draw animals, flowers, flags, characters, logos, mythical creatures, your name or even entire planets! I did a quick sketch of Beep, of course:
Now, for the MICROGRAPHY part. You’re going to need thin colored markers (such as ultra fine point Sharpies), pens, or colored pencils. You can also do in black and white with your regular pencil, too; but with pencils, you’re going to have to keep them sharp!
Here’s your task: instead of filling areas and details with color, like you usually do, you’re going to color each area with only words! So wherever Beep is supposed to be blue, for example, you’ll take a blue (pen/marker/pencil) and write BEEPBEEPBEEP… until you fill that area. OR you can write BLUEBLUEBLUE… OR you can write a poem: ROSESAREREDBEEPISBLUE… OR you can fill with words you associate with your drawing like BEEPBOBSPACEARTPARTYYAY!…
Got it? Good! Ready to try? For your inspiration, here are some examples (some still in progress) done by some awesome current 5th grade art students. Some of them can write really small! Enjoy.
I can’t imagine I’ll ever have a publishing year to top 2018 (four books of my debut series released). With that in mind, I wanted to collect and share a few of my favorite shots:
Books 1 and 2 launch event at Barnes & Noble, Rockville, MD.
With my indispensable writing partners Lauren Francis-Sharma and Fataima Ahmed-Warner.
A gift I’ll always treasure: Beep as crocheted by these fans’ talented and generous mother.
Niece Gwen and nephew Arthur with book 4, which was dedicated to them. Gwen, is a very talented young artist, and I hired her to draw kids and aliens, which I then melded and included in at least one final illustration in each of the books.
Quite a feeling to finally see my own books in libraries and stores (with some not-too-shabby shelf proximity).
I love receiving photos of kids enjoying Beep and Bob.
Strangely, whenever I try to catch a shot myself, it always seems to be right between all the bouts of raucous laughter (at Baltimore Comic Con).
With my fellow local Electric 18s Jean Diehl, Lauren Abbey Greenberg, Deborah Schaumberg (and a photobombing Renaissance woman). We were all asked to sign books at the National Press Club’s Annual Author Night in downtown DC.
B&B in the hands of superstars Rachel Renee and Nikki Russell!
I was honored to speak on a panel at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Annual Conference with fellow authors Mary Rand Hess, L.M. Elliott and some guy named Kwame.
With the legendary Tomie de Paola and his latest. Though I’ve only talked to him a few times in the past dozen years, he has always been super generous and supportive.
Each year about this time, I make these 3-D star/snowflake thingies with my 4th and 5th grade art students as a (kind of) simple one-period project. They love it, it looks festive, and they can make more over break. Folks have asked for the steps; I was taught by a fellow art teacher and it was passed down to her by…? In any case, I’m sure I’m repeating something that’s already online, but here it is again. (NOTE: I can make one of these in under 8 minutes by now; feel free to try to beat.)
Materials: 8 squares of paper (I cut from copy paper), tape, scissors, pencil and yarn and hole punch if you want to make a hanger.
Step One: Take a square, fold it into one triangle, then fold again.
Step Two: Draw three lines parallel to the long side, or opening on “top”. Lines should go almost to the other side.
Step Three: Cut on lines.
Step Four: Open the sheet.
Steps Five through Eight: Start with the two flaps in the center. Roll them into what I call a “burrito” fold and tape. It should fit around your finger. Next: FLIP THE SHEET OVER, and then burrito fold and tape the next closest flaps to the center. FLIP AGAIN and burrito fold and tape the next two flaps. Finally, FLIP OVER and fold and tape the outside flap things. You will now have one “icicle” and note that it will not be symmetrical.
Step Nine: Make another icicle and nestle the tips together, pinch and tape. Then find the part where the two icicles meet in the center and tape together.
Step Ten: Make eight total and keep attaching to center and then at the points where they meet. NOTE: the most important step of all is to attach a partial star to BEEP!
Step Eleven: Now finish the dang thing by punching a hole in the top and attaching a piece of yarn as a hanger (as seen at top).
After a summer hiatus (due mainly to laziness) I’m back with my author interview series. And while I didn’t literally go to the beach this summer, I did have the pleasure of experiencing an armchair shipwreck adventure unlike any other in this stunning middle grade debut by Samantha M. Clark. I caught up with Samantha to learn more:
Me: Can you sum up THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST for the uninitiated?
Samantha: Absolutely! Here’s the pitch from my publisher, Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster:
“The Graveyard Book meets Hatchet in this eerie novel about a boy who is stranded on a mysterious beach, from debut author Samantha M. Clark. A boy washes up on a mysterious, seemingly uninhabited beach. Who is he? How did he get there? The boy can’t remember. When he sees a light shining over the foreboding wall of trees that surrounds the shore, he decides to follow it, in the hopes that it will lead him to answers. The boy’s journey is a struggle for survival and a search for the truth—a terrifying truth that once uncovered, will force him to face his greatest fear of all if he is to go home.”
I’ll add that the book is a contemporary fantasy middle-grade novel about fear, insecurity and making your own courage while facing the monsters without and within.
Me: What sparked the creation of your book?
Samantha: This book started as a very small what-if and grew from there. The idea for THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST came to me when we were living in Houston. I was walking our dog on the shore of Clear Lake and began to wonder what would happen if a boy woke up alone on a beach and had no memory of who he was or how he got there. The Boy was so clear in my head, and I thought about him all the way back to our house. I told my husband what I was thinking, and we sat brainstorming ideas for over an hour. Then I got to work.
But the real story—why the Boy was there and what his true journey was—wasn’t clear to me until I wrote the final scene of the first draft. I had this huge ah ha moment, when I thought, “That’s what this book is about.” That story came through in multiple revisions.
Me: What can you share about your creative process?
Samantha: I love discovering how different writers approach their stories, and over the years I’ve tried lots of the tips and tricks I’ve heard about. Some have worked for me, some haven’t, and some have evolved into my current process, but I’m sure they will evolve even more.
One thing that has always been true is that I can’t start writing until I have three things:
The situation that is precipitating the story, like a boy waking up on a beach with no memory of who he is or how he got there.
The ending. The ending might change, but I need to have a destination in mind. Like, with THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST, I knew roughly what the ending was going to be, but not exactly, so there were surprises.
The voice. This might change too, but I find that I can’t get into a story until the voice is talking to me. For example, the manuscript I wrote after my first draft of THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST was one I had been thinking about for years, but it wasn’t until then that the voice came to me and I was able to write it.
Once I have those three things, I plot out a very rough, bare bones outline and start writing, but that outline will usually change a lot as I discover more about the story and characters. After the first draft is down, it’s revision, revision, revision as many times as needed until I feel like the story is where it needs to be.
Me: What’s the most surprising thing about your publishing journey?
Samantha: To be honest, that I’ve come this far and now have a book published by Simon & Schuster!! As a kid, I thought authors of books were magical people in some mysterious land. We didn’t have author visits at my schools, and I never dreamed that Judy Blume and Enid Blyton were real people, much less that I could be like them…or try to be. 😉 Even when I got older and realized that being a novelist was a thing that people achieved, I never dreamed it would be something I could do. But I hoped, and hope is the most miraculous thing. Hope kept me working, kept me learning, kept me submitting. Hope helped me write in the middle of the night, revise over and over and over. And hope allowed me to never give up, even if I didn’t think a book of mine would ever be in a bookstore or a library. But now it is, in countries all over the world, and that’s surprising, but also amazingly wonderful.
And hope is keeping me writing more stories, learning more about craft, and creating new characters and worlds. Hopefully readers around the world will be reading those one day too.
Me: What do you do when you’re not writing?
Samantha: We have two dogs and I love taking them on long walks when I can. Too often my schedule is so busy that the walks are shorter, but we do get out in the sun. I also love to cook, and I make everything from scratch. And I love gardening and growing things, although I haven’t had as much time for that lately as I would like. In the future…
Me: Any advice to kids who like to write? And to adults who want to write for kids?
Samantha: The best advice I can give any writer of any age is to read. Read everything. Read the genres you love the most, and read books in genres you think you won’t like. Read books with covers that draw you in and covers that don’t appeal to you. Read stories about characters who are like you and stories about characters who are completely different. Reading will help you become a better writer. You’ll get a feel for story, voice, pacing, etc. Just like artists study the work of other artists, writers do the same by reading.
But also, and this important, know that it’s okay if you don’t finish a book. If you’re really struggling to get through a story, it’s okay to put it down. Everyone won’t like every story. Some people love the Harry Potter books, and others don’t. That’s okay. But you won’t know until you try, and a book just might surprise you. Either way, you’ll learn from books you love, like and dislike. So read… a LOT.
Me: As an illustrator who works on my own covers, I’m always interested in learning an author’s involvement in and reaction to their own cover?
Samantha: I didn’t have much involvement in the artwork for THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST, but I LOVE the cover, and I’m so very grateful for the work of art director Laurent Linn (http://www.laurentlinn.com/index/Welcome_to_LaurentLinn.com.html) and illustrator Justin Hernandez (http://www.shannonassociates.com/justinhernandez). Both of them had a lot of passion for this book, and I think it fully shows in the final product, from the cover to the interior chapter frames to the soft-feel jacket and spot gloss. The chapter frames have little icons that change throughout the book, which I love. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better art director in Laurent Linn. Justin Hernandez was the only artist Laurent sent me, but as soon as I saw his work, I was in awe of his illustrations. I couldn’t be happier with what they came up with for the book.
Me: What’s next for you?
Samantha: I’m working on another middle-grade that’s lyrical in voice, has an unusual point of view and has fantastical elements in a realistic setting, like THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST. Nature is also a big part of the story, but the rest is different. I’m thoroughly enjoying getting to know the characters and world.
And in breaks, I’m getting ready to talk to kids about THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST and writing during author visits. As I said, I didn’t have those as a child and never thought publishing could be in my future. Now, as an author, I want every child to know that if they have a story they want to tell, publishing is definitely in their future, but also that whatever they want to do, they can accomplish it.
Me: Thanks so much, Samantha! Wishing your amazing book much success!
Samantha M Clark is the author of middle-grade novel THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST (2018, Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster). She has always loved stories about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. After all, if four ordinary brothers and sisters can find a magical world at the back of a wardrobe, why can’t she? While she looks for her real-life Narnia, she writes about other ordinary children and teens who’ve stumbled into a wardrobe of their own. In a past life, Samantha was a photojournalist and managing editor for newspapers and magazines. She lives with her husband and two kooky dogs in Austin, Texas. Samantha is the Regional Advisor for the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and explores wardrobes every chance she gets. Sign up for news and giveaways at http://www.samanthamclark.com/enewsletter/ .
Beep’s answer is: ART! Beep loves to draw and always carries a sketchbook. But he also likes the lessons from his art class. Sadly, they don’t paint or use glue much in zero gravity, but even with simple materials like white paper, pencils, crayons and/or markers, there are a universe of possibilities for fun and creativity!
