Moving Right Along...

  Have you ever had one of those thoughts that sticks with you and just won't go away?  On a whim, I recently started touring the Fort Worth area looking for a possible location for an art studio.  Just to be clear, this was, and is, a totally unattainable goal at this point.  It was just fun to consider the possibilities.

  I drove around looking at old retail spaces, abandoned warehouses, and dilapidated shacks.  All the while, my mind was covering over the broken windows and bad paint with possibilities.  At one point, I came across an empty lot, but on this lot was one big tree surrounded by some smaller ones.  Out of nowhere, all of these boyhood dreams came flooding in.  What a great spot for a tree house!!  It could have a rope ladder, a tire swing, secret entrances (too much Three Investigators growing up, I guess), a skylight, and a flat screen for my PS3 (of course).  Then I started imagining how cool it would be to have a tree house studio as an adult.

  Of course, while the boy in me clung to the fun aspects of a tree house, the man would like it to be state-of-the-art! (Remember, I'm still dreaming at this point.)  So it would have to be insulated, air conditioned, bug proof, well-lit, and spacious.  Who wouldn't want to work in such a fun environment?!

  Well, before long, reality set in, so I wiped the drool from my chin and moved along.  Since then, though, the idea of a tree house studio has stayed with me.  I decided that if I can't have it in reality, I can at least have it on paper!  So Kinsy McVay Creations was discarded (pretty unimaginative name, anyway), and TreeHouse Illustration was born. Besides the change in appearance and name, though, not much else has changed.  It still just me plugging along, making some art, and writing a book or two along the way.  I hope that you have a chance to visit my new site and shoot me your comments.  I always enjoy hearing from you!

  Got any ideas stuck in your brain?  Get them out here.  I'd love to hear them!

-Kinsy

Art - How I Love the Process!

One of my all-time favorite things about art is seeing how it is created.  I am enthralled by the creative process and love to see how each artist gets from a blank paper or canvas to a finished masterpiece.  Every once in a while, I will jump on YouTube and just watch some people create, while I stare and drool.  Not only does it inspire and amaze me, but I also usually pick up some tricks of the trade!  :)

Below is a short little video of one of my more recent illustrations.  It is the cover of Amanda M. Thrasher's new book, The Ghost of Whispering Willow.  In the video, you will see how the illustration went from pencil, to charcoal, to chalk pastels. 

Have any of you made an art demo video?  I'd LOVE to see it!

-Kinsy

Wow!  It is incredibly easy to fall behind on things!  It's been nearly 9 months since I last updated this blog... Yikes!  Well, I guess it's time to get updated, then.

I am extremely pleased to announce the re-release of my children's book, Just Line Around!  Thanks to the great folks over at CreateSpace, Stew is as good as ever and now available at a huge reduction in price.  The new retail is only $7.50 compared to the original release price of $18.50!!  For right now, it is available only through the CreateSpace Store, but will be out there online very soon.

In addition, within the next month or so, Just Line Around will be available in Spanish.  Look for Entres Lineas very soon!  :)

Happy creating this summer!  I'd love to see any cool art projects you see or do...

-Kinsy

A Great Interview!

Just in case you missed it, I had the opportunity to chat with Fran Lewis and Marsha Cook on their book discussion radio show on Blogtalk Radio this past Tuesday.  Besides myself, there were four other guest children's and young adult authors on the show (Barbara Enhrentreu, Cheryl Brown Avery, Daniel Brian Ferry, and Concetta Payne).  It was really great to hear other authors talk about their own writing and the creative process that they go through.  We also talked a bit about how we market our books and try to get our work known in a business drowning in books.


To listen, please visit  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rrradio/2011/08/30/book-discussion-with-fran-lewis-and-marsha-cook.  I was the second author interviewed on the show.  I would love to hear any of your thoughts or comments!


-Kinsy

Flat Stanley Comes for a Visit!

A few weeks ago, I got a suprise visit from the one-and-only Flat Stanley. Now if you're not familiar with Stanley's story, let me fill you in. Stanley is a character from the series of children's chapter books called Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown (there is also a picture book version). In the book, Stanley gets flattened like a piece of paper and mailed all over the world by his family.

Schools have picked up on this idea as a great way for their students to connect and write to people in faraway places. So the students create their own Flat Stanley and then mail him to family, friends, celebrities, or even a little-known children's book authors and illustrators. Stanley is then to follow that person around and spend time doing the things that person normally does. When his visit is over, Stanley is shipped back home with a letter describing his visit and some photos of the places that he went.

Here is the letter I received along with Stanley:






Now who could resist a letter like that!? So Stanley and I started out on our mini-adventure. Below is the typed version of the letter that I sent back (it would be too much work for you to read my handwriting!):

Dear ______,

Thank you so much for sending Stanley to visit me! We had a great time together! Stanley and I had a pretty busy week. We were going to start our adventures by going to my sons' soccer games, but we ended up leaving Stanley at home. It was so windy we were afraid he would would end up in Oklahoma!

Since he missed out on the games, I decided to bring Stanley with me to school where I teach art. He had a great time meeting my students and being creative. A lot of my kids wanted to make their own Stanleys from clay!

After school, Stanley went with me to the main library in downtown Fort Worth. The Elementary Art Show is coming, and I needed Stanley's help getting it ready. He helped me pick the best art and made sure I got it displayed nicely.

The next day, Stanley worked with me in my studio. I am illustrating a new book called There's a Gator Under My Bed! by Amanda M. Thrasher, and I needed Stanley's help with some of the pictures. I made him his own pencil so that he could help me out. Stanley found it very interesting that I use actual photographs of my son as reference when I draw. I use photographs because it is much easier to draw realistically if you have something to look at while you draw. (That's a good tip for anyone who wants to be an artist!)

Finally, just before bed, Stanley asked if we could read my book, Just Line Around. So Stanley and my two sons sat down together on the couch and had a bed-time story. We got a little worried afterward because we couldn't find Stanley anywhere! We looked high and low until we realized that my 4-year-old had used him as a bookmark!! Stanley wasn't hurt, though, and we all had a good laugh once we knew he was safe.

Thanks again for sending Stanley to visit! I really did enjoy it. Tell your classmates and teacher "Hi!" for me and have a GREAT rest of the school year!


Sincerely,



Kinsy McVay

If you would like to see more pictures of Stanley's visit, click here. If you feel that you have a career or hobby that children might find interesting, please reach out to your local schools and let them know you would be open to a visit from Stanley!! Who knows, maybe you could inspire child with just a few minutes of your time.

-Kinsy

Dellani's Tea Time with Kinsy McVay and Russ Cox| Blog Talk Radio

I had a great time today talking with Dellani Oakes, the host of "Dellani's Tea Time" on blogtalkradio.com. Fellow illustrator, Russ Cox, and I talked about our careers as illustrators, the types of pictures we like to draw, our inspiration, and our works-in-progress. Have a listen below. I'd love to hear what you think!

-Kinsy

Listen to internet radio with Red River Radio on Blog Talk Radio

A Dose of My Own Medicine...

Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to say something than to do something? For example, I am continually telling my two boys to clean their rooms, but if you were to see my classroom, you would know immediately that I was not following my own advice!

I realized this past Friday, that I have been doing a similar thing as an art teacher and author. I am continually trying to encourage creativity in my students and in my readers, but do I really practice what I preach? Sure, I do a lot when it comes to planning lessons or marketing my book, but that is not the same as taking time for myself to be creative. I'm talking about doing something spontanious, fun, and exciting. I found out just how much I had been missing this quite by accident...

On Friday, I still hadn't decided exactly what I wanted to do for my wife for Valentine's day. I knew that I wanted to make something for her, but what should I do? Should I settle for another flower/heart painting? There's no doubt that she would love it, if for no other reason than that I had made it for her myself. But would it be something she could cherish and display proudly, or would it end up in a stack somewhere collecting dust?

I chose to take the road less traveled. For one, I didn't want to do another heart painting (where's the originality in that?), and two, I wanted my wife to be suprised by the fact that I had made something for her and by the image, itself.

Now, I will be the first to admit that the image that I chose was not terribly original, but I knew it was something that my wife would love. I decided to do a black and white charcoal drawing of praying hands. Once I had decided what to do, I started to get really excited. I would get to draw hands (which I love to do), break out my charcoal (which hadn't seen the light of day since college), and I'd get to do it all in my newly setup "studio area" in my garage (that's a story for another day). At this point, I began to question who I was really doing this for... :)

Now that I knew what I was going to do, I had to decide how I was going to do it. Just for fun, I decided to do the drawing in reverse. Typically, artists will start a painting/drawing with a basic line drawing or value sketch. Then he/she will work from the darkest areas to the lightest.

What I did, instead, was tone the entire drawing area grey with the charcoal and then use an eraser to draw the lightest areas of the drawing. (This was a drawing technique we were taught in school to help train our eyes to look for differences in light and dark.)

Do you know what I realized as I was drawing? I had completely forgotten how much I loved to draw! I let life get so busy that there was never time to be creative just for the heck of it! I didn't even realize how much I missed it until I started the drawing. I got totally engrossed in what I was doing, and I hated to have to stop when I knew my wife was coming home (it was a suprise, after all). It was great!!

So what's my point? The point is to make sure that you are giving yourself time to explore that creative side of you and to let it bloom. Take a little time once in a while at creating something, and remember that creativity is not the sole property of the artist. We all use it (or should, anyway) every day. It could be something as simple as working in your flowerbed, as complex as inventing the fuel source for the next century, or anything in between. Maybe you could make up a new board game to play with your kids. The key is that you are doing it because you want to, not because you have to. Maybe you just need a space to do what you love. I found that after I created my own little studio space in the garage to paint and draw that I am much more motivated to paint and draw (shocking!).

I posted some pictures of the drawing in its various stages above, and below are the basic steps to creating a charcoal drawing of your own. Underneath that is where I want you to post a comment on something creative that you love to do or are going to do. How did it turn out? Did you have fun? Send me some pics of what you created. I'd love to post them!!

Charcoal Drawing from Light to Dark

1. Using a medium-toned charcoal (vine charcoal or something similar), tone the entire drawing area. The color does not have to be uniform. Add some darker areas and some lighter areas. This will add interest and variety to your drawing.

2. Look closely at the item you are drawing (either an actual object or photo reference), paying particular attention to the size and shape of the brightest areas on the object.

3. Use a kneaded eraser to begin "drawing" these highlighted areas on your paper.

4. Now that you have drawn out the highlights, you can go back in with the charcoal and begin added your shadows and contour lines.

5. Don't be afraid to mess up! That's the beauty of charcoal. It can be blended, erased, drawn, erased again, blended some more... You should have some really dirty hands by the time your are done.

Tip: Anytime you do something familiar in an unusual way (like drawing with an eraser), it forces you to concentrate more and you will be more likely to learn more from the experience, even if it's something you normally do all of the time. For other great drawing ideas, check out the New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

Wow! That was a long post! I hope you made it all of the way through. :) Remember to send me some pics of your next creative adventure and be sure to leave your comments below.

'Til next time!

-Kinsy

kmcvay@kinsymcvay.com

http://www.kinsymcvay.com/

P.S. My wife loved the drawing!!