What an enriching session we had on illustrating picture books with Ashok Rajagopalan!"I didn't know this, but I make an angry face when I’m drawing an angry face!" Ashok said. "If I want to draw a sad face, I make a sad face myself." I remember seeing something about Disney doing the same thing. Is it something all artists do?Today's focus was creating emotions in picture books. Among the most interesting things for me was the fact that the reader’s emotion can be quite different from what the character is feeling. Sometimes, a character is angry, or confused, but the reader laughs. This laughter is deliberate, and the illustrator must portray the character's emotion in such a way that the reader feels compelled to laugh.Using a series of drawing exercises, we worked on drawing emotion and then heightening these emotions, first through the face itself and then through body … [Read more...]
Gulgul in Jungalu
It's time to introduce another series to my book club - the Gulgul series! I wonder if the book is targeted at slightly younger readers than my book clubbers, but the number of things we can do with Gulgul in Jungalu prompted me to select it.Gulgul is mischievous, resourceful and friendly, the perfect protagonist of an adventure story. She must befriend not just elephant-like creatures, but also flippots, bluglugs and longfellows in order to help her mother Megha build a zingjuck that will shoot them into space where they will have phone coverage to call a spacecab!Full of wacky words and even wackier animals, Gulgul in Jungalu promises to keep my book clubbers giggling as we read. Space Travel Imagine you're travelling through space. What planet are you from? How do you travel? How old do you have to be to drive a space vehicle? What are your … [Read more...]