The King's Ears Beta complete!

Finally completed and sent in the beta of my thesis story app, "The King's Ears", to the Canada Media Fund Experimental Stream. Fingers crossed that it passes inspection and qualifies for the 2nd phase of funding. The app is the creative portion of my hybrid creative/theoretical thesis for the MA program in children's literature at the University of British Columbia, Canada. I'm applying ideas formulated by picturebook scholars (especially Maria Nikolajeva, Perry Nodelman, Lawrence Sipe, and Schwarz) to the creation of the additional modes afforded by the iPad. It is incredibly inspiring to be working with Katarina Jovanovic's story, Philippe Béhà's art and the amazing voice of Terry Jones. And I'm so fortunate to be working with such a creative and diligent team: designer, illustrator, and animator Elisa Gutiérrez, and programmers Judy Choi and Trevor Robinson.

A new book trailer!

I've animated a trailer for a funny chapter book called The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake by Robin Newman and artist Deborah Zemke (Creston Books, 2015). It's about two very serious mouse detectives.  

The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake from Cynthia Nugent on Vimeo.

Sylvia Hotel Centenary

The Sylvia is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. There is a lovely article in today's Vancouver Sun that tells the history of the this heritage site and mentions the Mister Got to Go books and the cat who inspired them. Here's an illustration from the new book. Working hard to get the art done.

Mr Got to Go Where Are You? progresses - slowly

I rotate from picture to picture while painting illustrations. I'm very behind schedule because it is excruciatingly slow-going trying to create accurate representations of the Vancouver locations while remaining true to the style of the first two books. Here my cat inspects the state of the pieces. That was a week ago. I've completed six of the spreads since then.

"I Want to Go to the Moon" shortlisted!

The Chocolate Lily Awards has shortlisted "I Want to Go to the Moon".  I'm so excited! Be sure to click on the "I Want to Go to the Moon"tab near the top of the screen for activities including colouring pages, a crossword puzzle, audio for the song, a spot-the-difference game,  song sheets with ukulele chords, and more.

Vancouver Book Launch

Here's the video invitation for the Vancouver launch of I Want to Go to the Moon by Tom Saunders and illustrated by yours truly. There will be children's activities, refreshments, book sales and a moon stage for performances featuring the word "moon".
All stage hams are requested to contact me to get your name on the lineup.

Great lift-off at White Rock Moon Launch!

The launch of I Want to Go to the Moon in White Rock was very well attended with great book sales thanks to Tom's loyal and loving fan base. Tom's long musical career may be taking a turn into the world of children's music and books. I certainly hope so - he's a natural!

Vancouver launch January 13, 2012

I am delighted to have found a lovely venue for the Vancouver launch of I Want to Go to the Moon. It will be held at the Scottish Cultural Centre at 6 - 9 pm on January 13, 2012. There will be a reading of the story especially geared to children at 6pm, followed by an open stage, book sales and signing. The books are $17 (regrettably, we'll only be able to handle cash sales).

If you're interested in playing a song or reciting a poem that has the word moon in it, please email me: jump8999 [at] yahoo.ca

First of two book launches

My new picturebook (with CD of the song!), I want to Go to the Moon, with my uke pal author/singer/songwriter Tom Saunders will be launched this Saturday in White Rock.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

2:00 - 4:00 pm

Coast Capital Playhouse

1532 Johnston Road

White Rock, BC

Come hear Tom perform the song!

Refreshments, book sale and signing

($17 - cash only pls)

We'll also be selling books at the Vancouver Ukulele Circle on Dec 20 and there be a Vancouver launch at Our Town in the new year (date and time tba) which will include an open stage for songs containing the word "moon".

Books should be in all fine bookstores including Kidsbooks this week. Now available on online.

How exciting!

Books cancelled

It's been a tough year: one of financial and health struggles, sobering realizations and transitions.

My Bully by Laura Langston has been cancelled by Fitzhenry and Whiteside. Last year the company fired its publisher and editor and hired new people who decided My Bully wasn't the right book for them. It had been a massive project for me and the final line drawings and text and layout design completed when the book was put on hold and finally dropped.

I did manage to finish Fred and Pete at the Beach, I want to Go to the Moon, and Somebody cared for a Flower in the last year and a half. I spent the last 6 months on the latter two, as well as working hard on developing the 3rd Mister Got to Go. I had to borrow

money to keep going because the advances were so low or delayed in coming. At the end of six months, I ended up in emergency with an inflamed neck disk from hunching over art and the computer, plus the stress of the deadlines, no money and Emma's kidney failure. My doctor and my physiotherapist said there was no way I could go back to working like I had been in order to complete Mister Got to Go Where Are You? by Sept 15, 2010. When I phoned Orca to tell them I couldn't finish by the deadline and wouldn't know for a month when my back would allow me to resume working, they cancelled the book. It's too bad - the roughs had just been approved. I think it was Lois Simmie's best Got to Go story. What's also hard is that Orca wants their advance back.

I started to realize last fall that I couldn't go on trying to complete illustrations to deadlines that were too demanding for me while not earning nearly enough to live on. So after some exploration, I've decided to go back to school and do a Masters of Children's Literature at UBC with the hope that I will be able to find a faculty position at a college. MACL at UBC has been very welcoming to me which has been such a pleasant surprise. I start this September.

So, fingers crossed.

Turning pencil drawings to "ink" in photoshop

Ink line with watercolour wash is a common medium in illustration. In the case of a picture book it can be a little daunting to ink 30 pages of illustrations, especially if you're intimidated by India ink's permanence and potential for accidents. One way to overcome this is to scan your final pencil drawing, open it in photoshop and use the levels function to darken your line. You can print the darkened and cleaned-up drawing directly onto 90 lb watercolour paper. Some printers, particularly HP, allow you to choose the paper you're printing onto. 140 lb paper is too heavy, but for 90 lb watercolour paper, choose control/command P > print > layout > paper type/quality > plain paper > greeting card > HP textured greeting card paper. If your paper has a fine deckle edge, position the paper to feed deckle first. You can then paint directly onto this "ink" illustration. You will get some bleed of the black line, but I've found it isn't too bad and a small price to pay when I have 30 pages to ink. the following is a pictorial demo of how to clean up and darken a pencil line so that it looks like an inked line. The demo concludes with the final watercolour for the cover of I Want to Go to the Moon by Tom Saunders (Simply Read, 2010) . The black line was printed on 90 lb cold press Winsor Newton paper using my HP 1220 injet printer. (And don't forget, if you're looking for a classic sepia ink look, it is easy to adjust the colour of the line using Command/control B for colour balance and Control/command U for saturation and light/dark adjustment before printing.) The drawing used for the final art is a more developed version than the one I used for the first part of the demo. I used the blueline technique to arrive at the final drawing. Click on the link for the blueline tutorial.

Fred and Pete on the North Shore

The Children's Writers and Illustrators of BC are having a party to showcase its members' new books and you're invited! It's called the Fall Book Harvest. I'll be there with Fred and Pete at the Beach. Click on the image for details.

Word on the Street

I'll be reading Fred and Pete at the Word on the Street - hey! that rhymes - at 12:20pm, Sunday September 27, in the children's tent at the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library.