Each week this May and June (and possibly longer if I can catch these super busy artists), I will feature Author/Illustrators. In the genre of children's literature, there are authors, illustrators, and author/illustrators. This last group does it all and I want to know more about them and their creative process.
My name
is Brenda A. Harris and I’m a writer/illustrator/artist.
How long have you been creating art for children?
Well,
I’ve always been an artist . When I was
just a baby, my grandfather (an artist) used sit me on his lap, and teach me
how to draw people.
How long have you been writing for children?
I’ve always been a storyteller. Being the oldest of four children, I liked
making up stories for my siblings. Whenever my littlest sister was ill, I liked
to help her feel better by telling her stories.
Later, when I had children of my own, I wrote and illustrated stories
for them. I’ve always believed children
can fall in love writing, if they discover the magic and power writing gives
it’s creator. With that thought in mind,
I helped my four children fall in love
with reading, writing and art.
Has your art or writing been published yet?
Hardly. In 2006 I published my first book. It was
mandatory. I was in school getting my
teaching degree and the prof gave us a project - produce a children’s
book. I enjoyed producing and
self-publishing it. I wish I’d had more time to work on it.
That was when the writing/illustrating bug bit me.
In
2007, I started teaching in an elementary school. I began to write and read out
loud my stories to my students. I desperately
wanted them to see, that library books begin by writing down stories we create. Another one of my goals was to have students
co-write and produce children’s books. They did. They wrote, illustrated, and even
made the book covers for their stories. The
school staff stapled and laminated them.
Then, the books were placed in the school library for students and
teachers to read. Even now, I am so happy to have been given the chance to work
with my students in this way.
After
four years of teaching, I decided to devote myself fulltime to writing and
illustrating stories. My husband agreed, and we set a tight budget. I joined
SCBWI ( Houston
chapter) and learned to self-publish. I
now have an eBook on Amazon. It’s an
illustrated children’s chapter book. The
characters are animals whose habitats can be found in Texas.
I so enjoyed doing research on the animals. Wildlife rocks!
Where do you like to do your artwork?
I work
wherever I feel most comfortable at that moment: sitting on the floor/table,
standing, kneeling, etc. For example,
when I’m tracing my sketches onto my final drawing surface, I tape the
sketch to a window. The sunlight helps me trace the images onto
my art paper, as I stand.
Do you prefer digital or traditional media to create your
artwork?
There
is something so beautiful and organic about traditional media. It just sings. It’s like poetry to me. Then, when I work with digital, it’s so e- a-
s- y! I just love it. What can I do, but bounce back and force from
traditional to digital. Sometimes, I even
combine them.
Can you describe your creative process for us?
First,
I come up with an idea for an illustration. I research the plant, animal, location,
etc. If the illustration involves
people, I go into DAZ Studio 4 and use a Poser like program to position and shape
a digital mannequin. I paint it and add
lighting. Once I’ve finished the digital
figure, I trace it onto art paper. Now,
it’s no longer digital. I sketch the
background and any other characters. I
retrace in ink.
Second ,
if I choose, I can scan my sketch into the computer and bring up my scanned
image using GIMP. I play with the color
palette in GIMP. This helps
establish my color scheme.
Last, I decide whether to use traditional (oil/pencil/ink)
or digital media to complete the illustration.
Which comes first, the story or the illustrations?
I’m a
visual person, so I think it’s the illustrations.
To learn more about Brenda go to:
My art
portfolio is on the www.scbwi.org website. Make sure you search for Brenda A. Harris. (There’s another illustrator
named Brenda Harris!)
I’m also on Twitter at @abrendita .
