My Story Board Wall

My storyboard wall is made of two sheets of  4' x 8' white homasote fiber board.  Its the best thing I ever put in my studio, besides the antique bubble gum machine, which I keep filled with M and M peanuts.  I like to pin all my sketches up so I can refer to them easily as I work. Of course it helps to have a big wall. My last studio was so small I had to wrap it around the room. 

This story board is from Boris and Stella and the Perfect Gift, and I'll be taking it down soon.  I always feel a little sad doing this, a little excited thinking about what will be next, and a little terrified because...

well, look … isn't this scary?

Stella's Bakery

No one has ever had as much fun drawing an illustration as I had drawing this one.  I wanted it to be simply scrumptious!  My research brought me to bakeries throughout the city of Boston and many of its surrounding towns.  I started in December, even though I was still drawing thumbnails then, because the stores and shops were full of holiday themed treats.   One of my favorite bakeries is Party Favors in Brookline.  Entering their store is a feast for your eyes. Their glass doored refrigerators are always stocked full of their standard fair which can be bought every day, and is not only stunning but delicious.  Friends and family got involved too. They sent me pictures, and sometimes even surprised me in my studio with something beautiful and tasty.  I gained five pounds while I was working on this picture.  So did my dog Monty.  He ate 17 cupcakes from a platter when my back was turned. The platter had 19 cupcakes on it - which means now I know his limit!  

To see my reference photos of cakes and pastries, visit me at: http://www.pinterest.com/daragoldman/cakes/

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                          

Pssst …
Most of the cakes and pastries in this picture are favorites of my friends and family.

Print and Color!

Pssst … 
Try printing this on white resume paper, or something with a little texture!

The Dreidel Shop

Pssst … One of the reasons Boris and Stella is so special to me is because of the personal details I included in the illustrations. The pretty colored lamps hanging in the dreidel shop are from one of my favorite restaurants, a tapas bar in Waltham, MA called Solea. The tapestry on the wall was woven by my mother, who is reknown for a kind of weaving called, Bound Weave.  I chose it from among her other designs because the row of red brick townhouses reminds me of the town house where I grew up in Brookline, MA.  I also like the way it repeats the city theme. The little wood box in the shape of an upside down ice-cream cone comes from Africa and sits on my nightstand.

Tapestry by Eileen Goldman

The Research

At the RISD Nature Lab in Providence

Once I've finished all my thumbnail sketches and picked out my favorites, I'm ready to draw the full size sketches. This part requires LOTS of research.  When I first started making children's books, I used to have to go to the library to search for reference material.  The internet has changed everything! However, there is nothing like drawing from the real thing!

Newbury Street,  Boston

The Storyboard

When I'm satisfied with the pagination, I'm ready to begin drawing the storyboard. To do this I must decide the size of my book. Will it be a horizontal book, a square book, or a vertical one? (If the story is about a giraffe, it will probably be a vertical book.)  Looking at other books and holding them in my hands sometimes helps me imagine what my book will look like in each of these formats.

The questions I must ask myself are endless. What should the first page look like? Should the text go on the top or the bottom? Should it be a two page spread long shot to establish location? A single establishing shot at the start can set the scene, and  give the reader a sense of time, atmosphere, and environment. It not only establishes a location but defines the position of the characters to their surroundings and to each other. Or maybe I should begin with a single page close up view to establish my character? 

Pacing and Rhythm:

Think like a movie director! The way I plan my storyboard will control the speed with which the reader moves through the book. A large 2 page spread invites the reader in causing him to pause, while many small pictures will cause him to move quickly. 

Composition:

 The composition of each page dictates the reader’s viewpoint, forcing him to look at a scene the way I intend. I can also direct the readers eye to a focal point within each illustration by using various compositional devices. 

With these things in mind, I draw hundreds of little boxes that are proportionate to the size of my book and fill them with rough sketches. These 'thumbnail' drawings allow me to quickly try different possibilities. My intent is to transfer all ideas from my mind onto paper. The process of actually creating the thumbnails often leads me to something I didn’t think of at first. This method produces unplanned thinking, and it is often the product of unplanned thinking that becomes the fruit of our efforts.  

Thumbnails can take me 2 - 4 weeks to complete, and I don't choose my favorites until I have finished thumbnails for the entire book. 

How do I choose my favorites? 

Sometimes this can be tricky and I find myself caught between several favorites. But in the end, my favorites are chosen not only for their composition as a single image, but because of the way they work within the book design as a whole.

  

Pagination

When I begin a new book,  I always find myself a little overwhelmed. It doesn't matter that I have illustrated 18 books now … it is a daunting feeling to be faced with 32 blank pages… and a deadline! Choosing which words will fall on each page or,  'paginating' the manuscript is where it all begins. There is no wrong or right way to do this because it is personal to each artist.  The main question I ask myself as I go is, "Does my reader feel compelled to turn the page?" A suspenseful moment can be made or broken here.

To do this I sit quietly with my manuscript and imagine pictures as I read. The first 3 pages I leave blank for front matter: subtitle page, copyright page, and title page.  The story almost always begins on pages 4 and 5, and ends on page 32.  I make backward L's with a pencil after each chunk of text, and I break it up into 2 page spreads. This is not as hard as it sounds!

Pssst … Music with words distracts me when I do this so I listen to instrumental music, or to music with words I don't understand, which is practically anything besides english!