dear lovelies,
the first set of finals for a curious collection of cats are up on my flickr page. this is my first picture book, and i’m thrilled about it. this book will be published by tricycle press. concrete poems by betsy franco. i’ve been experimenting with combining the more hard-line-flat-color-in-photoshop style with the block printing ink texture of the monoprints, and the results are really nice.
stay tuned.
xm
Hello Michael, Meow!
I love this one that you have up on your site. I have the book in front of me right now as I review for SLJ (not a church).
Michael, it seems to me that as I read this poem I am moving the book around and turning my neck, stretching as if fusing empathically with the cat that can lick its long neck. (Yes, I have a pretty good imagine.)
I love that but I have a question….the poem itself looks a little like a tongue but did you create the “concrete” aspect of any of the poems? The poems are very embedded in your art — seamless. Beautiful work
Hi Tess,
thanks so much for writing. It’s funny you should mention the shape of the tongue – that’s one of the things that changed slightly for the final version of this particular illustration.
Much of the ‘concrete’ nature of the illustration was (first) suggested by Betsey, the author, and then finalized by me in the preliminary sketch and finished illustration, with help from Abigail, my editor at Tricycle.
I’m glad you like the book – it was a lot of fun to work on. The official launch is April. I’m planning on a book launch at a fe bookstores here in the SF Bay Area – stay tuned!
Happy 2009, Michael