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by Courtney Pippin-Mathur
Hello Storystormers!
When Tara approached me about doing art for STORYSTORM, I was thrilled. I have been a participant and an occasional guest author, but this was different. I was excited. I was determined. I was nervous.
I started with a few sketches. I love drawing gnomes, fairies and elves, so thought I would try that. I added some carrying or thinking of lightbulbs.
But it didn’t feel quite right.
When I wasn’t sketching ideas, I thought on it. Thinking on it is one of a writer’s greatest tools. You can do it anywhere. Doing dishes—Think On It. Drawing an elf for a monthly challenge—Think On It. Take a shower—Think On It.
During my Think on It sessions, I came to two conclusions:
- I wanted the character to be an animal.
- I wanted the “storm” part of STORYSTORM to be a blizzard.
So I started sketching animals. I filled up a page of various animals with lightbulb ideas.
Two stuck out to me: the lion and the bear.
When an idea or sketch is appealing to me, I draw it again.
The little lion was really appealing to me; I loved his wee raincoat. But as I sketched him more, I realized I liked him BUT he wasn’t right for the STORYSTORM blizzard idea. So, I put him aside to use sometime in the future. Maybe as a picture book idea?
I went back and sketched the bear in different positions and ideas. (For the participation badges, winner badges, banner, etc.)
Then I sent it to Tara to see if she liked the idea. She did, so I started on the color. Actually it was a week or so later. My art creation process is usually a series of scribbly twists and turns instead of a simple line. It used to frustrate me, but now I accept it as part of the process and look for any extraneous sketches or ideas that I can use in the future.
When I came back to start the final art, I decided I wanted the bear to be a full sized bear instead of a little guy. So I did drew it again.
I played around with compositions and finally came to the ½ view you see in the “Participant” badge.
Added color…
Tara and I hopped on a Zoom to find the perfect font. (Which Tara is better at than me.)
And ta-da…
I was very happy with him. So much so, that I added color to the earlier sketch-version and have it on my website for my winter welcome page. (And as stickers!)
I love projects that inspire other art or illustrations and since STORYSTORM is all about inspiration, it seems perfect.
P.S. While all of these revisions were happening, I WAS THINKING ON IT. In the banner, there are several ideas (lightbulbs). Some are easy to find—like on the trees, some are closer to home, some are half-buried in the snow—you just half to go look for them. See how many you lightbulbs you can find in the banner. And good luck on finding your 30 ideas!
Courtney Pippin-Mathur is giving away one 30-minute “Ask Me Anything” Zoom plus a pack of stickers from her Etsy shop to one lucky Storystorm winner.
You’re eligible to win if you’re a registered Storystorm 2024 participant and you have commented only once on today’s blog post.
Prizes will be distributed at the conclusion of Storystorm.
Courtney Pippin-Mathur is an author/illustrator of picture books. IT’S HOLI, written by her sister-in-law, Sanyukta Mathur, will be released February 2024 from Holt BFYR. When she’s not teaching at Highlights Foundation, writing, or making art, she’s playing with clay or working her local bookstore. Visit her at PippinMathur.com.
by Courtney Pippin-Mathur
First off, thank you to Tara for hosting my cover reveal on her blog!
HAPPY DIWALI is my most personal book, yet it has been a first for me in a lot of ways.
It will be my third picture book, but it is the first one that I wrote with someone else. The story is about a small girl celebrating Diwali with her family and how she overcomes her initial shyness. It was inspired by my daughter Kiran, and her love of family celebrations but her nervousness of large groups of people.
Diwali is the Hindu celebration of good over evil, light over darkness. This book follows how my sister-in-law Sanyukta brings the joys of Diwali to our culturally- and racially-mixed family in the US. Sanyukta has been involved every step, from writing the first draft (on the phone) to revisions, cultural notes, tips on how to draw a sari, or what should be on the endpapers. When we couldn’t meet in person, we would meet on Zoom. It has been an amazing experience to create a book with her! The photo below is our author photo in the book. It is from long ago but is our favorite picture together.
It is the first book in which every character except one (the main character) is an actual member of our family. I emailed or messaged each parent and asked for photos and tried to include every child in the family. Some might resemble the actual child more than others, and I did age down most of them, but it was a lot of fun!
Here you can see my daughter in her favorite lehenga, and how I drew it in the book.
Below is one of my favorite images from the book. In in, the kids are painting diyas. Every year Sanyukta creates a craft, my favorite is painting clay diyas because I can re-use them every year.
It is the first book where the (amazing) editor who acquired the book moved to a new publishing house during the illustration process. Thankfully, the book was left to another wonderful editor. The publisher and art director also moved to new publishing houses, but we were very lucky in that our new editor kept everything chugging along.
It is also the first book I worked on during the pandemic. It took me a few months after Covid first hit the US and everything shut down before I could draw again. Thankfully I had been allocated plenty of time.
Because it had been so long since I have seen many members of the family in the book, I keenly felt the loss of family gatherings as I worked and really look forward to them again soon.
I hope this book can be a thank you from me to my husband’s family for making me feel so welcome in their homes and for always including me in and teaching me about their traditions and culture.
The designer pulled an image from the interior of the book to make the cover.
Here is the color sketch:
And here’s the final cover!
On the front is my sister-in-law Sanyukta and her daughter Priya drawing rangoli. They do that every year to welcome the guests. On the back cover is a group image of the kids eating, which is one of my favorite things to do at Diwali!
Courtney, thank you for sharing this beautiful book and your family traditions.
HAPPY DIWALI will be released September 28, 2021 and is available for pre-order now.
Blog readers, you can win an original sketch of a character (Rajini) from Courtney’s book!
Just leave one comment below to enter and a random winner will be selected soon!
Good luck!
Sanyukta Mathur is a social scientist and studies how to improve the health and well-being of young people around the world. She is the author of various research publications; HAPPY DIWALI! is her first children’s book. She lives in Maryland with her family.
Courtney Pippin-Mathur is the author-illustrator of MAYA WAS GRUMPY and DRAGONS RULE, PRINCESSES DROOL!. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband, three kids and one very energetic dog. She is hugely grateful to be part of a diverse and welcoming family who work hard to bring their traditions to the United States and to pass them to new generations. You can find more of her work at pippinmathur.com or on Instagram @pippinmathur.
For years I’ve dreamed of hosting a Storystorm Workshop. Back when the event was still PiBoIdMo, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and I researched what we needed to make it happen—venue, faculty, meals…and found we couldn’t make it work unless we had a hundred attendees or more.
No. I wanted an intimate group in a cozy setting, where everyone could have access to the faculty and truly feel supported in every way. It would be special, small, and elevate every attendee’s career.
Then I discovered the Highlights Foundation! The location! The private cabins! The Barn! The FOOD!!! (I’m a huge fan of Chef Amanda!)
With the help of the Foundation staff—Alison Green Myers, George Brown, Jo Lloyd—we pulled it all together for March 5-8. I reached out to the best picture book author-teachers I know and we had our faculty:
- Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
- Heidi E.Y. Stemple
- Courtney Pippin-Mathur
- Josh Funk
Now all that’s missing IS YOU!
We have just a few spots left!
Here’s a sneak peek at our schedule:
Storystorm 2020 Picture Book Retreat & Workshop
Thursday, March 5, 2020
3:00pm Arrival
4:00pm Orientation—learn about the Highlights campus
5:30pm Appetizers (Barn)
6:00pm Dinner (Barn)
7:00pm Tara Lazar Welcome and “Stuff No One Tells You!” Presentation
Friday, March 6, 2020
6:30am Yoga in the Loft (Optional)
7:45 – 8:45am Breakfast (Barn)
9:00 – 11:00 Tara Lazar “Elevate Your Picture Book Game” + Q&A
12:00 – 1:00pm Lunch (Barn)
1:30 – 2:30pm Josh Funk “What Rhymes with Storystorm?”
2:45 – 3:45pm Optional Walk with Heidi Stemple: Gathering Ideas for Texture in Stories
4:00 – 5:30pm Story Ideas Roundtable Discussion: Four Groups w/Faculty Leader
5:30 Appetizers (Barn)
6:00 Dinner (Barn)
7:30 Evening Creative Activity with Tara & Courtney (Optional)
Saturday, March 7, 2020
7:45 – 8:45am Breakfast (Barn)
9:00 – 10:30am Courtney Pippin-Mathur “How to Write by Drawing First”
12:00 – 1:00pm Lunch (Barn)
1:30 – 3:00pm Sudipta Bardan-Quallen “7 Revision Tips to Take Your PB from WAH to WOW”
3:30 – 5:00pm Heidi Stemple “Finding Your Non-Fiction Voice”
5:30 Appetizers (Barn)
6:00 Dinner (Barn)
7:30 Open Mic with Josh, Sudipta & S’Mores (Optionally Mandatory)
Sunday, March 8, 2020
7:45 – 8:45am Breakfast (Barn)
9:00 – 10:00am Tara Lazar “Humor Trends in Picture Books”
10:30 – 12:00pm Q&A with Faculty (Barn)
12:00 – 1:00pm Lunch (Barn)
1:00 Closing Remarks
1:30 Check-out
You can sign up at Highlights Foundation and room with a friend for a discount.
We hope to see you there soon!
Thank you to Melissa Sheperd for the photos of the Highlights Foundation Campus.
You must play if you want to create.
HI, I’m an illustrator.
An illustrator that loves to draw.
An illustrator that loves to draw and paint with watercolors.
An illustrator that loves to draw and paint with watercolors and create stories.
An illustrator that loves to draw and paint with watercolors and create stories who doesn’t like to sketch.
Oops.
It’s the truth.
The doodles I do create are abstract pattern designs taken during PTA meetings, where I dream of being home in my PJs. (No offense to PTA meetings, I just have a love affair with sweatpants and PJs and it starts at 6pm sharp every night.)
But I was running low on ideas. I had written and illustrated two picture books and I needed more. More ideas, more stories, more art.
But when I sat down to write, nothing happened. When I tried to sketch ideas, nothing happened. The graphite ran dry. I hated everything I made and grew frustrated with each attempt. The burden of creation had stifled my brain. Because I felt as though I HAD to come up with more ideas, I could not come up with ANY ideas.
So, I decided to just play.
Instead of making myself sketch in order to get a story, I sketched because I love to draw. And I drew what I loved.
My niece who loves to act like a dinosaur.
My daughter who was so shy in big family gatherings with her father’s family.
Witches
Mermaids
And I played with my first love, watercolor.
I started to combine my abstract watercolors with my drawings and felt the magic come back. The magic of inspiration and story.
Sometimes the story comes to me right away.
And sometimes I let it sit and the story comes to me through stages.
If I just play and put no pressure on myself that every drawing or painting has to become a story, the stories come. Some shamble in like half dead zombies, some strike like lightening but if I move my pencil or my brush and just PLAY, the ideas arrive.
Even if you’re not a visual artist, you can play. Play with watercolor, play with oil pastels, play with colored pencils, crayons or markers. Just play. Allow yourself to do something creative that isn’t tied into words and see what happens.
Courtney Pippin-Mathur grew up in East Texas and passed the hot summer days reading, drawing, watching She-Ra and exploring her grandma’s farm. She doodled constantly through elementary, middle and high school but didn’t think about art as a career until a fateful art history class at The University of Texas at Austin. After transferring from Government to Studio Art, she moved to the east coast, and started pursing a career in children’s books where she could combine all my favorite things.
She now lives in Northern VA now with her husband and three kids. Her picture books include MAYA WAS GRUMPY, DRAGONS RULE PRINCESSES DROOL and the upcoming HAPPY DIWALI with her sister-in-law, Sanyukta Mathur. Visit her online at pippinmathur.com, Twitter @pippinmathur and Instagram @pippinmathur.
Special announcement! Courtney will be teaching at our premiere Storystorm Retreat at Highlights Foundation, March 5-8, 2020. We’ll be playing with watercolor!
You do not have to be a Storystorm 2020 participant to attend the retreat! It’s open to anyone serious about developing a picture book and a writing career.
Learn more about our fun and intensive picture book retreat here!
This event will fill up quickly! Sign up today!
Hope to see you there!
Today is the day that my second written and illustrated picture book DRAGONS RULE, PRINCESSES DROOL! will be released into the world!
It’s the story of a dragon whose land had been invaded by two adorably horrible princesses who change everything. As you have read on other posts on Tara’s awesome blog and during Storystorm, you know that characters are very important in picture books. A strong character can inspire strong emotions and getting his/her/their look is extremely important to the book.
DRAGONS RULE, PRINCESSES DROOL is comprised of three main characters; a grumpy dragon and the two princesses who have invaded his land.
Below, I’m going to share a quick, edited run through the many, many, many different versions of the Dragon and the Princesses. Just like revisions in the text, there are revisions in the art.
The story originally started out with the dragons invading the princess’ land, but in a Eureka moment (brought on by delirium from the stomach flu) I flipped it.
After I settled on this new plot, I wanted to create the cutest dragon I could. These were my first attempts; I was going for a combination of a dinosaur and a chicken.
Here it is with various emotions.
Reasonably happy with this version, I did a few color character studies to try and learn exactly who the dragon was. (You’ll see that I call him Fred.)
I wasn’t totally happy with this version, so after several sketches, I decided to try to combine two of the coolest things ever—Elvis and an alligator.
I had it! The perfect image of a snotty little dragon. Here he is on a sketch of the first page of the book. I loved him.
A color sketch:
I completed the first draft of the dummy, sent it to my art director and waited. A few weeks later, I got an email from her. It was wise. It was great advice. It was tragic. (Not really, but it might have felt so at the time)
She noted (with great wisdom) that the dragon looked a bit too snotty. Perhaps we needed to make him cuter.
So, I created 4 new sketches, cleaned them up and sent them to her.
As you can see, I really wanted to keep the Elvis hair.
Can you guess which one she picked? Yup. The only one without the pompadour. (cue tiny violin music).
I did a version in full color. And once again, I was in love.
After a few more tweaks, he started to look like this.
And then, at the very last stage of illustrating the book, he got a snout job.
The princesses did not take quite as many attempts. This is how they looked in one of the first color pieces I created for the first dummy.
They were not quite right, so I did a few more sketches.
and a few more…
and this tiny one.
She was a winner! But none of the other princesses seemed right, so back to the drawing table I went.
I knew how I wanted her face to look. We (me and the wise AD) just weren’t sold on her hair.
And then I sent this.
Finally, we had our main characters. While all of this was happening there were also settings, other dragons, creatures and princesses ball gowns considerations as well as a general color pallet.
But that is for another post.
For some more dragon-y fun, you can take a personality quiz based on DRAGONS RULE, PRINCESSES DROOL! Are you a dragon, a princess, both or something else entirely?
You can also follow me on Twitter at @pippinmathur.
Courtney Pippin-Mathur moved from Texas to a suburb outside of Washington, DC. She shares her home with a knight, a princess, and two unruly dragons, which leads to many exciting and loud adventures.
Thanks, Courtney, for showing us how art edits evolve. (And as an author-only, I will never complain about edits again! Well…we’ll see…)
Courtney is giving away a copy of DRAGONS RULE, PRINCESSES DROOL!, which releases today! Leave a comment below to enter. A winner will be randomly selected in about two weeks.
Good luck!
by For PiBoIdMo, I’m giving you a very special gift.
Your very own Inspiration Fairy!
This Fairy will grant new ideas and make your kidlit dreams come true!
All you have to do is the following:
- click on her for the full size image
- cut
- color
- attach her somewhere close to your work space.
Next, (and this is the only way to make fairy magic happen:) You have to believe.
And in order to believe, you have to work. You have to write or draw something as often as you can. And never give up! (for more than a few minutes or days at least)
The things you create can be things that are wonderful, horrible, short, long, happy, funny, sad and even things that will probably be better off in the recycling bin.
But, you have to do it.
You have to work for it.
And you have to believe.
I speak from experience. It took five years to get my first book published. It was the first book I wrote and the first publisher I sent it to. But, it took five years for the planets to align, my skills to improve and to get the yes. During these years, I hoped, despaired, submitted and almost quit a million times.
I give you this fairy to remind you that the kidlit adventure is dangerous, slow and might even bring you to tears occasionally.
But, hang in there, keep at it, work it and most of all, believe.
Courtney Pippin-Mathur is an illustrator and writer. Her first picture book as a writer and illustrator, MAYA WAS GRUMPY, is coming out Fall of 2012 with Flashlight Press. She juggles paint, paper, keyboard and three kids. She wouldn’t wouldn’t have it any other way.
Courtney is giving away an original watercolor painting of the Inspiration Fairy to a lucky commenter. A winner will be selected one week from today! Good luck!
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 