In recent years, Nivola has also worked with publishers in Boston, illustrating The Friday Nights of Nana
Nivola says, “Having spent many years reading, often more than once, the books I loved as a child to my own children, and discovering new ones, my appreciation for the best of children’s literature has only grown. Writing for children is a serious business. Even if the result is to delight one’s small readers, the words and images are destined to become a vivid and lasting part of a child’s live experience.”
I'm excited that the Sydney Taylor Book Award blog tour brings Claire Nivola to Lori Calabrese Writes! So without further ado, let's dive into some questions...
You've said you drew and sculpted from earliest childhood and took art for granted, like breathing and walking. Why do you think you took art for granted?
Soon after graduating Radcliffe College in 1970, you illustrated your first children’s book. How did that come about and what were you feeling--nervous, excited?
My father was Italian and in the circle of Italian émigrés in New York City of the time he had met Fabio Coen, the head of children's books at Pantheon. Fabio had a manuscript of Italian tales that he wanted to publish and he asked my father to illustrate it. My father answered that he did not do illustration work, but that he had a daughter who drew…. I had just graduated from college - it was beginner's luck - I illustrated the book with no sense of how lucky I was to have such an opportunity! I don't remember feeling nervous, and the drawings I did for that first book were very free and confident in style (much less detailed than the work I do now). I was certainly excited to have a commission. I think the process of illustrating came naturally to me and I simply enjoyed it. I went and met with Fabio Coen in the Random House building - that felt important. He was very kind to me; he reminded me of many of my parents' European friends. It was in an office a few doors down from his that I first met Frances Foster with whom I have worked on many books over the years. I was very young and I think I took much of all this for granted.
Emma Lazarus's famous lines inspired the way we envision America's exceptional freedom and the way we hold it dear today. How were you inspired to create the amazing illustrations in Emma's Poem?
Most inspiring for me was the photographic record of the time - pictures of newly arrived immigrants, photographs of the statue itself partially uncrated, of the statue once erected seen from the decks of ships arriving in the N.Y. harbor. Photography was still in its infancy then, but often those early black and white pictures documenting the arrival of a refugee or a family carrying all its modest belongings provided a powerful, deeply telling, and poignant record. There were few photographs to help me at the early end - for instance, I had to imagine Emma as a child - but I was able to research etchings and prints of clothing fashions and home interiors of the period to give me a feeling of how a wealthy family like hers might have lived. Of course for the story I needed to emphasize the contrast between Emma's comfortable life and the hardships of the immigrants she wanted to help - so I had to attempt to capture two worlds at the same time.
I always do a good deal of visual research in preparing to illustrate a book. In this case, by looking at many pictures and drawings of the historical setting, I began to get a feel for it, and began to imagine how it might have been to be there.
What are your tools of the trade and could you please describe for us your typical 'start to finish' workflow when working on an illustration?
There are two stages to my way of illustrating, but first comes the visual research mentioned above. I compile for myself a visual dictionary made up of Xeroxes of the researched images.
Now I can begin sketching out my illustrations in pencil. The sketches are to size and are fully worked out in detail. They will comprise the dummy that will go to the editor for approval before I begin the final painted versions.
The process of sketching in pencil is closer to writing and calls for the same kind of concentration. But when I paint the final images, I feel I am on holiday! I can listen to music or NPR and the decision about which color to use is almost instinctual. The recapturing with paint of the figure in the pencil version seems to result from a different sort of concentration, one that really does hearken back to when I spent hours as a child with my markers and scrolls of paper.
I love all stages of the process and I love how different they all are from one another.
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A big thanks to Claire Nivola for answering my questions and a big congratulations on her Sydney Taylor Award. To see all the winners, please visit the Association of Jewish Libraries blog and the official Sydney Taylor site. Also, make sure you check out the entire schedule for the Sydney Taylor Book Award blog tour. There are so many wonderful books, authors and illustrators highlighted. You don't want to miss it!
Lovely interview! I love how Claire describes her tools. Thanks Lori and Claire.
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Thanks for visiting, Barbara. It was fascinating to learn more about Claire. I always love being a part of the Sydney Taylor Book Blog Tour.
ReplyDeleteLike Barbara Bietz, I, too, am intrigued with the discussion of approach and tools. Thanks for sharing. Congratulations, Claire, on your accomplishment and thanks, Lori, for participating in the Sydney Taylor Book Award blog tour!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved this book when I first read it. Tomorrow I'll have to look at it again and imagine the work that went into each illustration. Congratulations to Claire Nivola and thanks to you, Lori for a great interview.
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