Good day in NYC

Day in NYC yesterday. 

-Showed 3 new pieces of ZIG to Lucia, Lily and Maya.  They liked the work.  Plus I so enjoyed meeting them. 
-Discovered Forbidden Planet and enjoyed browsing.  Fascinated by the NOBROW publishing Co.  Have my eyes on one of their anthologies.
-Party at Books of Wonder.  Enjoyed meeting owner, Peter Glassman. 
-Had never seen this fabulous and enormous Picasso sculpture (off Bleeker) called Sylvette!

Fresh Website

I've been wanting to simplify my website for a while.  It is so easy to postpone this kind of things.  Finally tackled the beast, deleted, copied, pasted, adjusted and tweaked for days.  Of course there were mysterious glitches that took a fair amount of tech support to smooth out.  But it is done.  For now!
 
www.sylviekantorovitz.com

Good to Hold

 

To offset the misery of lost art for ZIG, my first copy of TINY BABY arrived.  I am so pleased with the printing job!  It will be available March 25, 2014.  Still so much waiting.  

Lost Package

Major set-back:  UPS is reporting my package missing.  I will not know any more till Monday.

Quite desolate at the thought of redoing the 6 spreads I was sending and felt so pleased with.  Worried about keeping the enthusiasm fresh.

On another hand, in the big picture, life goes on and one day, this will not matter anymore.

DEEP BREATH!

First 6 double spreads

 

Just finished the 6th double spread of ZIG.  Bits of paper everywhere, glue, music...  I am having such fun.  Planning to send them to Dial for review before going on with work.  Hope all goes well. 

Talk with Dial.

Talked on the phone with editor Lucia and art director Lily today.  Finally! 
We discussed Zig's art.  I can start on finishes.  YEAH!!!   Goal is now to create a few finishes and send them by end of October for review. 

Literacy Volunteers

Was invited to talk at the Jewish federation of Northeastern NY for the kick-off luncheon in honor of their literacy volunteers.  Lovely people.  Great cause.  Wonderful morning all around. 

Took the chance to show THE VERY TINY BABY on a screen.  It felt good.
Also talked about my love of story telling using the comics format. 

Thank you to Shelly Shapiro for inviting me again. 

Monster will be in a Bedtime Collection.

 

News from August:  GO TO BED, MONSTER will be included in a treasury published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  Sweet Dreams 5-Minute Stories.  A collection of bedtime stories.  This should come out in spring 2014.

Bichon #2

New version of Bichon is done.  Will review and send Monday to Linda for feedback. 

Merge

Troubling news.  At least for me.  Penguin and Random House are merging. 

Dial is part of Penguin.  Zig and Silly Bob are with Dial.  What will happen?  Time will tell, but dreadful feeling of déjà-vu (with Go to Bed, Monster and Go to School, Monster.  First one is barely surviving, second one was dropped altogether after dummy stage.) 

Second Proofs

a detail from The Very Tiny Baby

Second proofs arrived today!  I LOVE THEM!!!  Thank you, Susan Sherman, Art Director extraordinaire.  Sure, the background colors do not match the originals exactly but what matters to me is the harmony and what arrived today looks good. 

Zig sample art

 

Zig in the Magic Forest...

 

... and in the Monster's land.  

2 finished pieces of sample art for editors to see what I have in mind.  Hope they like it and finally give me the "go ahead" for final art.  I enjoyed myself.  Bits of paper everywhere... 

Apologies

A few months ago, I changed my e-mail address.  Realized a couple of days ago that I forgot to update my contact info on my website.  AAAAARGH!!!  Was able to retrieve the 1262 "lost" e-mails.  Mostly junk.  And a few school visit requests.  Of course I never followed up.  I apologize and will send e-mails soon to each person I involuntarily ignored. 

first proofs for TINY BABY

 

The first proofs for TINY BABY have arrived.  They are not great.  I do hope there will be improvement in the next set.  The background colors are too pale and 2 very different colors are coming out the same.  Which ruins the careful repartition of backgrounds all through the book. 

Still it is exciting!

Bichon needs work

Linda looked BICHON over and it needs work.  I agree.  Will have to juggle that with finishes on ZIG. 

workshops

Exhausted after the 2 planned workshops.  Successful day.  About 10 people in Voorheesville and 40 (with waiting list!) in Guilderland.  Love the way kids dive into their drawings.  The 3 "games" worked very well.

Thinking of reducing amount I draw/demo and have instead drawn lists of items to consider.
-hair, barrettes, whiskers, facial hair, glasses, earrings, etc
-clothes, hats, shoes, stripes, dots, etc 
To explore. 

Wish I could post some of the kids drawings.  I hint and hint but they hold on to their work.  Maybe a good sign that they are proud of their efforts? 

preparing for workshops

Spent all day preparing for tomorrow's library workshops.  One in Voorheesville, the other in Guilderland. 

Made some samples of various "games" for cartooning.  

Game #1: Potato heads:

Game # 2: Character in motion:

Game # 3: Story in 3 or 4 panels:

catching up

Obviously, I am not a very reliable blogger.  Last post was April 26, 2011.  Over 2 years ago.  Embarrassing. 

Since then, finished book THE VERY TINY BABY.  Release date Spring 2014.  Such a long wait.  

Waited for months for Dial to be ready to start work on ZIG.  Added text to the wordless dummy.  A happy addition suggested by astute editor, Lucia.  Reviewed dummy and pagination, following list of suggestions that came early March.  Waiting for response on that.  Good feeling about editor-art director team.

Submitted a dummy TELL ME HOW I WAS MADE to dear agent Linda P.  She didn't think it marketable.  I reluctantly agreed.  Months of work but better to move on.

Submitted new idea BICHON or the ADVENTURES of a LITTLE FRENCH DOG last week.  Anxious about Linda's reaction to it.  No news yet.

Need to prepare for 2 library workshops on Wednesday.