Rafael López's Blog, page 5

Just add color!

 

Day 2 of discovering and coloring for kids at home. Join us! This sketch was created for The Day You Begin written by the remarkable Jacqueline Woodson. This image didn’t make the final cut so it’s up to kids to bring on the colors. Angelina and Rigoberto share the fun of their new friendship and daydreaming. Have fun and make it your own. Remember to post it if you like what you came up with. #yomequedoencasa Wishing you all another fun creative day at home. #maybesomethingbeautiful

Let’s Color our Way to Calm

 Hoping everyone is coping well with this new way of life as we face Coronavirus together and finding time to be productive at home. Creating these posts to help young readers inside during these trying times.

I will be posting black and white drawings from my books that didn’t make the final cut. Hope children and their families will discover drawings never seen before and have the opportunity to color them in their own way. If you would like to share your drawing please post it on social media with a hashtag like #yomequedoencasa, or #maybesomethingbeautiful. Encourage you to post photos of kid’s art and coloring in action- let’s showcase their work. Perhaps there are some budding young writers out there who want to create their own stories to go with their creations.

This first drawing comes from our book Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You,a collaboration with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. It depicts Madison and Arturo who are blind enjoying the outdoors. Picture yourself there as you create, go ahead, have fun and fill it with the colors you see in your imagination. It’s a good way to pass some time.

As we all stay home, enjoy time with your family and get creative! Wishing everyone good health and colorful moments of calm during these challenging times.

UPDATE: Thanks to Maria Magdalena Jara for sharing her beautiful watercolor!

Maria Magdalena Jara watercolor

 

 

Let’s Color our way to Calm

Hoping everyone is coping well with this new way of life as we face Coronavirus together and finding time to be productive at home. Creating these posts to help young readers inside during these trying times.

I will be posting black and white drawings from my books that didn’t make the final cut. Hope children and their families will discover drawings never seen before and have the opportunity to color them in their own way. If you would like to share your drawing please post it on social media with a hashtag like #yomequedoencasa, or #maybesomethingbeautiful. Encourage you to post photos of kid’s art and coloring in action- let’s showcase their work. Perhaps there are some budding young writers out there who want to create their own stories to go with their creations.

This first drawing comes from our book Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You,a collaboration with Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor. It depicts Madison and Arturo who are blind enjoying the outdoors. Picture yourself there as you create, go ahead, have fun and fill it with the colors you see in your imagination. It’s a good way to pass some time.

As we all stay home, enjoy time with your family and get creative! Wishing everyone good health and colorful moments of calm during these challenging times.

 

Just Ask! Be Brave, Be Different, Be You.

This Tuesday is the book birthday of Just Ask! NPR did this interview last Sunday as part of their author/illustrator series. Twelve differently abled kids are featured in my latest book with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Please visit the link below and hit the blue play button to listen to more on the process of our collaboration. This interview aired 9/1/2019.

NPR Radio Interview with Sonia Sotomayor & Rafael López

“You can learn so much by getting to know someone that perhaps does things a little bit different than you,” López adds. “Be patient and be curious … and don’t be afraid to ask.”

Julia/Tourettes Syndrome

Celebremos Nuestra Herencia

Here’s a new poster I created for ALA celebrating Latino Heritage this coming September. Viva la diversidad!

Posters are available at ALA Graphics. Recognize the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens with ancestors from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America during National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15) and throughout the year. 

Special thanks to Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Discover Dancing Hands.

Perhaps the most challenging and compelling part of making a book begins with the search for direction. There’s a powerful script, packed with possibility in your hands. Crafted by none other than Margarita Engle, the remarkable Cuban, American poet and writer. We worked together previously on Drum Dream Girl and Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics and I jumped at the chance to work with her again. With every page turned, how could we blend text and images to engage young reader’s in the spirit of “the Piano Girl” Teresa’s story?

The path to this new book Dancing Hands began with historical research into Teresa, her life and times. History connects us through time and people are living history. At six, she was able to compose music, performing at age 7. By age 8, she left her native Venezuela for a new life in New York City.

Teresa Carreño at age 8 beside the piano.

Equipped with my library card, sketchbook and manuscript I sat in the library and began making thumbnail versions of ideas. I experimented with the personality of characters letting my research and pencil guide me.

Searching for Teresa’s character

Understanding how people think and move through the world at a particular time and place is essential to telling a historical story. I researched and built a timeline of her early life to guide the visual storytelling.

Images for DANCING HANDS focused on Teresa’s young life and intersect the American Civil War.

This story covers Teresa’s youth with Margarita providing a historical note at the end to let readers know the full arc of her fascinating life (1853-1917) from piano performance to singing and composing.

María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García, better known as Teresa Carreño was a gifted Venezuelan pianist, composer and conductor.

Early sketches of Teresa

As the story unfolds, we meet our protagonist, young Teresa, a child piano prodigy who composed short piano pieces by age six.

In Venezuela Teresa’s father Manuel Antonio, a politician and amateur pianist teaches her to play the piano.

She travels with her family to New York City in 1862 to escape war in her home country.

At age 9 Teresa leaves war torn Venezuela for New York

Teresa’s immigrant story and musical journey to an unfamiliar land, coincides with the American Civil War (1861-1865), an event fundamental to her story. At the library, I viewed and checked out relevant books and films, searching the Internet for photos, videos and information.

Developing scenes and characters

Back at the studio, it was time to sketch and build a mood board to channel my research and inspiration. I believe making a book, is a bit like making a film and use a wall in my studio to sequence sketches and imagery to check for consistency and flow of the story.

Research includes colors, key words that deliver the essence of the text, textures, typography, inspirational works by artists, historical research including photos of President Abraham Lincoln and his family, Teresa, patterns, shapes and styles. In this part of the process it’s an all out search for potential direction.

Lincoln at desk in 1862-Mathew Brady



Lincoln Family-Wikimedia Commons



Illustration for DANCING HANDS, Teresa plays piano for the Lincoln family.

Searching for ideas, I watched documentaries on Teresa, Lincoln and revisited familiar favorites like Ken Burn’s epic, “The Civil War.” Teresa’s music fueled this story and was essential to telling it.

Music will always be a huge influence on my work. Making and listening to music helps shift the mind from verbal to spatial thinking where you find meaning in shapes, sizes, direction, and layout. In my studios, I’ve got 6 guitars, conga drums, a charango, two cuatros and playing or listening to music while making art keeps things moving forward. The cuatro is a four stringed cousin of the guitar that comes from Venezuela, just like Teresa.

Playing my cuatro in San Miguel.

Cuatro players use different techniques of strumming to bring percussion to their music. If you want to hear this instrument in the hands of a maestro, take a listen to this amazing duo Jorge Glem and César Orozco.

To get inspired, I played familiar Venezuelan folksongs on the cuatro that I learned as a kid. This was a great way to connect to the first part of Teresa’s story. I listened to the haunting and nostalgic Ashokan Farewell to set the musical mood while developing the Civil War scenes.

I wanted to show kids with images, how war can change things overnight.

This subject required sensitivity and the need to be age appropriate without sugar coating the timeline and events of Teresa’s story. It also required a huge leap in the color palette to set the mood and adjustments in tone to create atmosphere and reveal emotions and feelings. I was determined to get it right, to be honest by using color, value and texture to speak truth to young readers.

Color and texture set the tone for young Teresa as she leaves her war torn homeland- Venezuela.

The spark for a book can come from many places. I’ve found myself walking down a side street thinking intensely about a scene for a book. Suddenly I come across a set of colors or a texture that feels right for the story that jumps out to grab my attention.

Colors and textures on a wall in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
that found a way into this story.

I established two distinct palettes for tropical scenes in Venezuela and Cuba and a different color scheme for American scenes. You can see the hue influence from the street colors I photographed on this scene below. The warm colors in this composition convey happiness, optimism, expectation, energy and vitality. I used a variety of mediums including watercolor to add texture to the sky, sea and architecture.

While performing in Cuba, Teresa gets an invitation to play for President Lincoln.

I created a completely different palette for the United States that was based on American Civil War quilts and folk art. These quilts were skillfully designed by women from recycled men’s clothing, old uniforms, feed and fertilizer sacks, blankets, twill flannel and woven wool. Women made these quilts for fundraising and the bedding of soldiers during war time, to bring them both warmth and comfort.

In the scene below, I wanted to convey the energy of New York at the time, with a collage of Victorian letterpress posters. These historical posters used extreme variations of type, different weights and sizes of decorative wood block typography, ornamentation and ephemera.

Victorian letterpress poster announcing Teresa’s performance at Irving Hall.

As a citizen of both Mexico and the United States I have experienced how my beliefs, behaviors and identity are influenced by two different cultures. This has a profound impact on my art making. I identified with young Teresa who felt out of sorts, like she didn’t belong upon arrival in an unfamiliar place. I thought about how those thoughts might influence her life and music exploring this using imagery, shapes, colors and textures. On the right, the white and gray texture and central image of Teresa and father with all their worldly possessions, magnifies her feelings of isolation.

As a new immigrant you can feel lost, out of place and alone. You feel odd, disconnected and after a time can’t completely relate to the place you came from either. How do you cope with that as a child? This scene from our book shows the moment when Teresa and her family arrive in New York. I attempt to reveal those challenges and depth of emotions through gesture, pose and expression.

At times in our story, I chose to mingle the colors from Teresa’s native land and new home as seen on the front and back cover for the book. The spirit of her music took root in Venezuela and below you see an expression of her vibrant music contrasting the intensity of the Civil War experience. In the same way musical notes overlap and intersect, I wanted to place the power of Teresa’s music, duality of cultures and life experiences together in certain scenes.

Finished front and back reveals duality and the unique power of Teresa’s music.

In previous books, I’ve chosen two inspirational artists to tip my hat to, for example: DRUM DREAM GIRL referenced two masters Henri Rousseau and Miguel Covarrubias.

Spread from DRUM DREAM GIRL a collaboration with Margarita Engle-2016- inspired by Henri Rousseau

The American Civil War was a singular moment in the history of the United States that was fought in both urban and rural areas. At that time America was mostly a rural, agricultural country where people lived and worked on farms for their entire lives. For a scene in this book I turned to Grant Wood who was born on an Iowa farm and launched the American Regionalist movement of the 1930’s. I traveled to the Whitney Museum in New York, drawn to the reverent stillness of his landscapes. This scene below is an homage to one of Wood’s roads, his unique perspective and landscapes that continue to tell stories.

Civil War scene from DANCING HANDS with United States Capitol being built in the distance.

History can teach empathy, because what happened in the past forms our identity. It reveals what we know now and how that information fits into our world view.

The history of illustration is no different. I connect to and have long been a fan of Aurelius Battaglia, an inspiring American illustrator and muralist whose work speaks volumes. The son of Italian immigrants, Battaglia attended the Corcoran School of Art and in 1934 and as part of the Public Works of Art Project created a stunning mural in his own Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, at a Washington D.C. library. You can still find his mural work there today.

As an immigrant and muralist I’ve also had the great opportunity to work with neighborhoods and communities to create public murals under bridges, at children’s hospitals, playgrounds and at public schools around the country.

Meeting the wall for the first time working with the Arne Nixon Center in May 2019



Fresno, California mural takes shape with help from the local community

In addition to making murals, Aurelius Battaglia went on to work for Walt Disney Studios in the late 1930’s and then became a prolific children’s book illustrator who crafted whimsical farm animals, daring circus performers and colorful cowboys.

Charging soldier by Aurelius Battaglia from THE FIRESIDE BOOK OF FAVORITE AMERICAN SONGS -Simon & Schuster 1952



Detail of confederate soldier on horseback, created for a scene in DANCING HANDS



Battle and the emotional toll of the Civil War.

My work is also influenced by the visual heritage, music and surrealism that was all around me growing up in Mexico City. You can see the use of these techniques on several spreads in our book.

Placing the familiar in an unfamiliar setting for an early scene in the story.

Music has the power to heal the mind, body and spirit. In the surrealistic scene above, Teresa’s uses her piano to travel to a spectacular, vast jungle.

I like to use symbols to communicate concepts and one of my favorite visual metaphors is a bird. Dancing Hands builds to the moment when Teresa performs for President Lincoln.

How could the young pianist bring comfort to a leader with the tremendous weight of a Civil War resting on his shoulders? Add to this Lincoln’s grief over the terrible loss of his son Willie to typhoid fever just the year before. Teresa longed to wrap her music like a quilt around the grieving President. In the scene below, Lincoln escapes conflict for a brief moment through the transformative power of her music. The larger than life commander-in-chief, statesman, emancipator, husband and father humbly taps his foot. Teresa’s tune flies off the keys like a soaring bird.

Teresa’s music transforms the red room of the White House into a forest.

Gratitude to Margarita, my Atheneum Books for Young Readers family and Reka Simonsen, an amazing art director at Simon and Schuster who gave me the freedom to explore Teresa’s world.

Thanks for taking the time to read the story behind our book here. DANCING HANDS: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln hits the shelves on August 27.

We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands

It’s always a celebration at our house when a new book is born. We’ve Got the Whole Word in our Hands is officially here and I wanted to take a moment to share the process of bringing this book to life with an amazing team at Scholastic that supported me every step of the way.

I learned to play guitar when I was young and music is one of those things that still makes my day.

Playing guitar in Mexico after school

I have memories of listening to this song as a child. “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” is a traditional American spiritual that was first published way back in 1927. This popular song has been recorded by many singers and became an international hit in 1958 with a recording by the English singer Laurie London ,who was only 13 at the time. Since then, it was rearranged and sung by diverse artists like Nina Simone, Marian Anderson, Mahalia Jackson and many others. There have been many different interpretations of this song over the years, but the message of unity has remained strong.

It seems wherever we look these days, there is talk of the things that divide us.  With this book, I wanted to express a message of hope to children that we are all in this together, that each and every child is an essential part of the big, amazing planet we call home.

I wanted to share some of the different cover ideas that didn’t fly. In the process of making a book you go through a whole lot of ideas that don’t cut it.

You spend a lot of time developing spreads only to realize there is a better way to tell the story.

Ours is a big, incredible world. This book required a cast of animal characters from all over the globe. Earth’s creatures were painted individually on canvas and wooden boards.

Then they were assembled with elements of nature that were often painted with watercolor on watercolor paper,

then assembled into scenes in the computer using Adobe Photoshop. [image error]

Using scissors, I cut shapes from black construction paper that were based on my sketches, to give the book a handmade feel.

I wanted to include creatures great and small.

The diversity of nature is right in front of our eyes. It occurs in every healthy eco-system we know. From the air we breathe to the food we eat and water we drink, we are all interconnected.

I was determined to tell this familiar story in a new way, to find a unique point of view.  I searched for an idea to express the spirit of our shared humanity. By luck or fate, I discovered the remnants of a ball of colored yarn my mother had left at our house in Mexico from a knitting project. That is where the idea for this story began with the brightly colored yarn acting as a metaphor for the universal threads the tie us all together.

I’ve said this before, that for me drawing is thinking with your pencil. Here are some of the early sketches that got things rolling.

A young girl finds the brightly colored yarn and at first doesn’t know what to do with it. Then she realizes what she needs to do, pass it on.

I hoped to communicate that whatever our differences, those threads unite us as human beings.

I worked to connect children of the world so character development was a big part of the process.

To create teachable moments about the amazing place we all live. Like the fact that at the same time on our planet it could be summer in one hemisphere and winter in another. To make kids think about the responsibility we share to take care of our Earth, to respect nature and share our home with all living creatures. To practice the simple act of being kind to each other whatever our differences.

 

In the final vertical spread, the multi-colored yarn connects us on this fragile vessel -our remarkable planet. Kindness, tolerance, caring for each other, the Earth and it’s creatures will bring us together and lift us up. In the back there is sheet music so kids can sing along and a link to a downloadable free recording. This book was created for the hands and eyes of children 3-6 years old so I made sure to include lots of color, shapes, texture and imagery with simple text to speak directly to them.

We are all in this together.

Process Interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Thanks to children’s picture book blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast for giving me the opportunity to share my process in creating the book The Day You Begin written by Jacqueline Woodson. Jules is a blogger, reviewer at Kirkus and a fan of picture book illustration.

In this post readers can see and find out more about what influenced the visual storytelling and see sketches that didn’t make the final cut in this book. I also talk about personal stories that influenced my thought process along the way. Check the full article out by clicking the headline of the link below.

Illustrator Rafael López on The Day You Begin

Puerto Rico, one year later.

Today, I’ve been thinking about Puerto Rico. It’s the anniversary of Hurricane Maria that caused more than 3,000 deaths leaving people without electricity for months. The island is still working to rebuild after damage that is estimated at $90 billion, but Puerto Ricans are resilient people determined to stand strong.

Chef José Andrés rolls up his sleeves for Puerto Rico.

After the hurricane, in September 2017, Chef José Andrés and groups he founded, World Central Kitchen and Chefs for Puerto Rico rolled up their sleeves.

Initially they started serving at hospitals in San Juan because doctors and nurses doing life saving work were not getting fed. Then calls started coming in from places located hours away and it was clear the island was hungry. The Chef and his group, took action and took over kitchens in schools, restaurants and even at a basketball stadium. At one point there were 19 kitchens going strong serving over 150,000 meals a day. After suffering such devastation these acts of kindness and comfort offered hope. Making sure the people of Puerto Rico did not go hungry, to date he and his team served more than 3.6 million meals.

The chef and World Kitchen team arrived again, days before the storm in the Carolinas with volunteers serving over 150,000 meals.

I had the great opportunity to meet Chef Andrés and visit his home in 2008 as he worked to raise funds for DC Central Kitchen. He’s the real deal and I’m a big fan of this doer, his food, cookbooks, PBS show and remarkable spirit. With this portrait, I want to say thanks Chef and all your volunteers, for being there to make a difference when it is needed most.

It’s officially National Hispanic Heritage Month.

It seemed the right time to also pay tribute to a Puerto Rican who make a huge difference for children and libraries, Pura Belpré. She understood that all children have a right to see themselves in the pages of books, to hear inspiring and challenging stories they connect to. This amazing librarian, activist and storyteller traveled all around New York, zig-zagging from the Bronx to the Lower East Side. Wherever she went she brought along puppets to tell stories to children in Spanish and English and her legacy goes on.

Sketch for Bravo! Poems about Amazing Hispanics.

Friends over at Latinxs in Kid Lit have organized an auction to benefit youth impacted by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. They are buying books and supplies for three youth groups on the island. These include the Environmental Educational Program & Creative Art Therapy program, Camp Tabonuco in Jayuya, Puerto Rico,  La Torre Community Library/Cener in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico and the program, La Maleta Cuentera. Spreading the word as it’s a chance to bid on lots of great signed books and art from authors and illustrators to help the youth of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican Pura Belpré.

Many people don’t know that most of the hotels and tourist spots are now up and running even while the island continues to rebuild. One year later, one of the big things we can all do to help is to visit and vacation there as the tourism industry on the island employs 63,500 people.There are many ways to help with the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and some of the organizations that could use our support are the Red Cross, All Hands and Hearts, Direct Relief and Hope Builders.

The Day You Begin Book Trailer

 

Just in time for the first week of back to school.

Sharing this new book trailer for our book, The Day You Begin released today and written by National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jacqueline Woodson. It is inspired by a poem in her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming. “There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you”. There are lots of reasons to feel different. Maybe it’s how you look or talk, or where you’re from. Maybe it’s what you eat or something just as random. Whatever it is, it’s not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody knows you, but somehow you do it.

This book celebrates the bravery it takes to go forth even when you feel like an outsider. Sometimes, when we reach out and share our story, others will be happy to meet us halfway.