A Parcel from Nimbus Publishing Arrived Today!!!

Thank-you to 2 BO'B at Fairvale Elementary School for your letter!

You sent me some wonderful questions, and I've tried to answer them here so you can see them altogether on your Smartboard.

1.  "We were wondering, in the book Back to the Beach, is the beach the kids are at a beach from this area?" 
Back to the Beach was actually inspired by my nephew, Riley, who lives far away in Ontario.  He and his family often come to visit us during summer vacation.  During one stay, Riley and his sister had fun gathering all kinds of treasures from the beach near our family cottage in St. Martins.  At the end of their visit, their parents told them they could NOT take all of the beach treasures home with them.  Riley was so shocked, and as I watched him try to decide what to do, I thought to myself, "This could be a story!"

So, it REALLY happened at the beach in St. Martins, but I created an imaginary beach for the illustrations.  It's funny though - the pictures ended up looking quite a bit like the beaches I love to visit along the north shore of PEI, with big sand dunes and lots of blue ocean.

2.  "How did you draw the beautiful pictures?  What medium did you use?"

Wow, I am so impressed that you know the term 'medium'!  East to the Sea and Return to the Sea were done with watercolour.  A Nothing-To-Do Day was with a combination of graphite (a fancy word for pencil) and watercolour (for the 'imaginary' parts of the story).  And finally, Back to the Beach was created using watercolour, but not as diluted (less water) so the colours would be brighter and bolder, and I went overtop some parts with coloured pencil (at school, we call them pencil crayons).  You will notice this most for Sam's fur!  For my latest book, I wanted to experiment with a different medium, so I tried collage.

There are three steps that I usually follow for each illustration.  First, I start by planning the illustrations for the entire book using tiny, rough little drawings called 'thumbnail sketches'.  I do a lot of erasing and a lot of 'starting over' during this phase because I want to try out different ideas.  Once I have an idea I like for each page, I do a full-size 'comprehensive drawing' in pencil to work out all the details.  Then, I move on to the final artwork, where I create the illustration using the specific medium.  It takes a lot of planning and drawing before I get to the final artwork!

3.  "Are your stories based on your own experiences?"

Yes, they are!  Most of my stories have been based on things I remember doing when I was little, whether it was summer vacations at the beach (East to the Sea and Back to the Beach) or playing and imagining, like building tents by draping blankets over chairs (A Nothing-To-Do Day).  Sometimes, my stories are inspired by things I see my family doing, like collecting beach treasures (Back to the Beach), and searching for sea glass and wishing rocks (Sea Glass Summer).

It's important for you to know that there are story ideas all around each of us, every day, no matter where you are!  So if you are a writer, always be on the look-out! 

4.  "How old were you when you started writing?  How many books have you written?"
I started writing books when I was about 8 years old.  Seriously!  My Mom saved a bunch of the books I used to make.  I would staple sheets of paper together to make the book, and I used crayons to make the illustrations.  I have written lots of stories, but only four (soon it will be five!) have been published so far.  

I hope you keep reading and writing lots!!!
Sincerely,
Heidi Jardine Stoddart

The Photography!

For Sea Glass Summer, I tried a new medium...  COLLAGE!!!  I painted large sheets of paper using gouache or tempera paint, then cut shapes from the painted paper and glued them onto watercolour backgrounds.

I loved adding layers to the collage, especially with things like leaves on trees, and petals on lupins.  This made the artwork quite three-dimensional (3D), so we had to go 'old school' and the art was actually professionally photographed for the book rather than scanned.  A big thanks to Walt Malone of Time Capsule Photographic Studio for his time and talent!!!

Artwork for Sea Glass Summer

Here's a little sneak preview of some of the illustrations from my soon-to-be-released picture book,
Sea Glass Summer...