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March
2003
GRITS Kidz Book Club
Chats with illustrator, Brian Selznick!
GKidz
Book Club: March is Women's
History Month for our book club and we're very
excited about our recent chat with popular
author/illustrator, Brian Selznick, via the
Internet about the illustrations he did for our
feature book this month, When
Marian Sang by
Pam Munoz Ryan. Welcome Mr. Selznick!
B. Selznick: Hi
Everyone. Thanks for inviting me to talk about
the book!
Addie: Your
drawings of Marian Anderson are beautiful, but
why do you have
her eyes closed when she sings? By the way, I
have seen a photo of her and
she is a pretty lady. I am glad that she is a
pretty lady in your book too.
B. Selznick: I
did lots and lots of research about Marian
Anderson. I studied many
photographs, saw film of her singing, and
listened again and again to recordings of her
voice. I noticed that in many of the images of
her singing, her eyes were closed, like she was
feeling the music. I decided that I would draw
her with her eyes closed so the viewer could see
her feeling the music. Plus it was a way in the
beginning of the book for us to find Marian on
the page. For instance, when she is singing in
the choir as a child, she is the only person
with her eyes closed, so it's a way for the
viewer to know that's her.
Drake: How
many drawings did you do for this book that did
not make it in the book? How do you decide which
pictures are going to be in the books that you
work on?
B. Selznick: First
I read the story, then I go back and I underline
all the parts where something important is
described, like clothing, or hair color, or the
furniture in a room. Then I do many quick
sketches that are very small (called thumbnail
sketches) to get my ideas down. Sometimes I like
some of these drawings, and I make them bigger
and add more detail. I eventually do lots of
research and add that to the drawings, and I
often photograph models to help me make the
drawings more realistic. I think about how the
pages should be divided, and what pictures
should be used to illustrate those
pages. I try many different compositions (ways
of arranging the things in the picture) and
sometimes I have to start from scratch because
the idea isn't working. So there were many
drawings that didn't make it into the book.
Usually by the time I do the finished, detailed
drawings that you see in the book, the drawings
that aren't' working have been solved, so all
the finished drawings I do end up in the book.
An example of
a sketch that didn't make it into the finished
book is the early idea I had for the scene where
Marian is singing to the crowds at the Lincoln
Memorial. In the book you will see the scene
from the crowd's point of view. That means we
are seeing the scene as if we are inside the
crowd, looking towards the Lincoln Memorial,
with Marian just a tiny spec on the steps.
Originally I was going to draw the picture from
Marian's point of view, which means we would
have seen her very large, and we'd see the crowd
the way she saw it, which was a huge sea of
unidentifiable people and lots of hats,
spreading out forever. But someone showed me a
mural that was painted in Washington DC of the
concert that Marian gave, and the mural was from
the crowd's point of view, and I realized that
that was the more important point of view here,
because people of all different races have come
together at a time when that was very difficult
to do. I wanted to celebrate the people in the
crowd who had gathered in DC that day, and show
how Marian, that tiny spec in the distance, was
so strong and so talented, that she was able to
bring all these people together.
MsGRITS:
We've heard that authors and illustrators don't
always get to collaborate
together on books. Was this the case with you
and Ms. Ryan? Did you both
enjoy working on this book together?
B. Selznick: Usually
when making a picture book, the writer thinks of
a story and writes it, sends it to an editor at
a publishing house, and the editor sends it to
an illustrator, who draws the pictures. But this
book started in an unusual way. I was
illustrating another book that Pam wrote called Amelia
and Eleanor Go for a Ride, about
Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt. I had done
a lot of research on those two women, and my
uncle happened to see a photograph I had of
Eleanor where she just happened to be talking to
Marian Anderson. My uncle said that he had met
Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson when he
was a student in Washington in the thirties. I
told this to Pam because she's a friend of mine
now, and that's what inspired her to write a
whole book about Marian Anderson. It was all
because of my uncle's recollections! When she
was finished writing it, I got to do the
pictures, and if I had any questions about
Marian or a fact in the story, I would call her
up and ask her. Usually though, we didn't talk
to each other about the book. We usually spoke
first with the editor of the book, Tracy Mack,
and Tracy would help us with our problems.
That's Tracy's job! But Pam and I love making
books together. I think she's a really great
writer.
Bebe: I
really like reading biographies. How hard was it
for you to draw
pictures for what Ms. Ryan wrote?
B. Selznick: The
main challenge was trying to capture the spirit
of Marian Anderson in the pictures. I also tried
to capture her beautiful voice. Of course you
can't really draw a sound, but you can draw how
the sound makes you feel. Addie said in the
beginning that Marian was pretty, and I agree.
It was very nice to get to draw her over and
over again because she was so lovely. And she
wasn't just beautiful to look at. She was
beautiful inside, and that's mostly what I tried
to draw.
Corey:
I visited a website about you and there was a
picture there of you
drawing while sitting under a big Iguanodon. Do
you have special places
you like to draw? Where were all your pictures
of Marian Anderson done?
B. Selznick: In
that photograph I was in England doing research
for another book I did, called The
Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. Like I
said earlier, I love to do research and travel.
But when it's time for me to do the finished
drawings in a book, I have to do them at home,
in my studio. I now have a very nice room where
I do all my drawings. I even have a whole closet
that is filled with art supplies! In front of my
desk is a wall of cork, and I pin up the
paintings as I finish them so I can see them all
together. I even have a view of the Empire State
Building out my window now. It's nice to watch
it change colors throughout the day and as
clouds pass over it.
MsGRITS:
Congratulations to you on winning the 2001
Caldecott Honor for The
Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins.
This book was also on the Texas Bluebonnet
Reading List this year and the kids loved it.
How has winning this honor
changed your life as a writer/illustrator?
B. Selznick: It
was great to win a Caldecott Honor. I was very
proud, and it made me extra happy because it
meant that lots more kids would get to learn
about Waterhouse Hawkins, who had a really
amazing life. Luckily, I work with really great
editors and art directors who give me many
amazing stories to illustrate, so the award
hasn't really changed anything about my day to
day life, although it's always nice to see that
little silver sticker on the book!
Drake: You
have written and illustrated books. Do you
prefer the writing
part, the illustrating part or both?
B. Selznick: I
prefer illustrating, just because I find it a
little easier than writing. I was trained as an
artist, and drawing comes a little more
naturally to me (although it's still really
hard!). Writing is really difficult for me. It
took me a year to write The
Houdini Box, and five years to write
The
Boy of a Thousand Faces! That's too
long! It usually takes me about six months to
illustrate a book, and even though that's still
a long time, it's not too long! I love writing
though, and I hope I can do it some more. I have
an idea for a new story, but in the mean time,
I'm really happy illustrating all the great
stories that are being offered to me. Pam Munoz
Ryan and I want to do many more books together,
and that makes me really really happy.
GKidz Book Club:
Thank you so much Mr. Selznick for allowing us
this special moment with you. We love your work
and we will continue to look for books written
and illustrated by you!
B. Selznick: Thank
you. You've all asked some really good
questions, and it's been
really fun being part of this excellent Book
Club!
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