First Leaves of October

It is the first day of October and the second last day of term. These two leaves were painted for two of the Year 4 girls, both named Mekaela. They were desperate to get their leaves before the end of term.
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"Otherwise we have to wait a whole 'nother two weeks!"
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I didn't want to disappoint so I set up this afternoon to finish off both paintings.
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The first Mekaela wanted a white kitten with a pink bow. Since I had already painted one kitten for Sophie, I decided to do something a little different this time. I painted the kitten sitting up among the toys on the toy shelf.
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The other Mekaela asked for a koala. That seemed quite appropriate, painting a koala and some gum leaves on a gum leaf.
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It also seemed appropriate because my family and I are off on holidays in November to Port Macquarie and we are planning visits to the native animal sanctuary and the koala hospital during the trip.

2nd Leaf - Fairies

I have just finished the second of the five leaves for the Year 5 students. I won’t repeat the full brief for this painting here; it is listed in the last blog post. Basically, Alanna wanted three fairies in a garden on her leaf.

The only part of the brief I couldn’t manage was the baskets full of picked flowers they were supposed to be carrying. The baskets would have ended up about 1mm tall. She did however approve the preliminary sketches.

Preliminary fairy sketches

Design sketch on leaf shape.

So, this is the final product and I'm fairly certain she is going to like the result.

Time now to start on the Mermaid and the Cat. Actually, for a project that started as an accident - me not paying attention to the kids speaking to me - this is turning out to be quite a lot of fun. Plus it has opened an oportunity for me to design an art for kids workshop and may even turn into a book proposal if I can find the right spin on the idea. There is not quite enough there yet but my brain is working overtime looking for that unique bit of magic.

Leaf Art

Turning fallen leaves into works of art.

Some of the Year 5 children at my local primary school were looking through my artwork portfolio and become incredibly excited about three paintings I did while on holidays a few years ago. I had run out of watercolour paper so the paintings were done in acrylic directly onto dead leaves picked out of the resort's garden. There were two simple little seascapes and a silhouette of a Whistling Kite on a sunset background.

One of the girls asked, "If I find a leaf, can you paint a pictur for me?"

I was a little distracted at that moment and without really thinking about it said, "Yeah, I probably could."

A few minutes later five of the kids had returned with leaves for me to paint.

Now, I have orders for a butterfly, a mermaid, a cat, a surfboard with a tikki on it, and a fairy - actually three pretty fairies in a garden, one with blond hair and a purple dress, one with brown hair and a pink dress and one with black hair and a blue dress, all holding wands in one hand and a basket of cut picked flowers in the other. (It's nice to know exactly what you want) Mind you this is all to be painted onto a gum leaf less than 20cm long so the fairies will end up being about 15mm tall.

I had to call a halt to it there or half the school would have turned up with leaves for me to paint. As it was, there were quite a few disappointed kids. One commented that she wished she could do leaf paintings herself.

Not a bad idea.

The technique is simple enough for children to pick up and you don't need a wealth of artistic tallent to do them. Some very simple designs can be very effective. I started to put together a step-by-step tutorial on leaf art, gearing up to run a workshop for the children interested in learning how to do the paintings themselves.

I soon discovered, it wouldn't take too much more effort to expand the tutorial into a fully fledged how-to ebook. Along with the basic techniques, I'm going to document the process of painting the leaves for my Year 5 kids - from brief, to design, to finished painting - as part of the book.

I have completed the first commissioned leaf, the butterfly and its new owner was ecstatic with the result. Her mum is getting it framed for her so it won't get damaged.

I will post a link to the tutorial, one it is complete.






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Education Week

Buy a book for your school library:

There are always things schools want that require funds. New computers, interactive whiteboards, teacher resources, sporting equipment, the list goes on. Often, the place that misses out is the library and the students are left with outdated and worn books to read.

In today's digital world, it is hard enough to entice children into reading for pleasure and it is harder still if the books you want them to read have been at the school longer than they have.

I don't know if all schools do this but my local Primary school, Eglinton Public has a tradition during Education Week where students can purchase a book to donate back to the school library.

I think this is a wonderful idea. Not only does the library have a regular supply of new books, they get topical books that the students actually want to read.

During open day on Thursday, the local book store set up a display in front of the library of new release books made up of the librarian's wish list of fiction and non-fiction titles. During the day, student would browse with their parents and select the books they want to read.

What's in it for the students? Their library ends up being one of the best school libraries in the area. Plus the student donating the book get to be the first to borrow it.
Some people would say that's not a lot of incentive BUT it seems to be enough to make the idea work. Books were flying off the display. I even got into the action and donated a couple of books myself.

I donated a copy of Sandy Fussell's 'Polar Boy' because I couldn't believe the library didn't already have a copy of this wonderful book. And I donated a copy of Sue Whiting's 'Freaky' because it is such a boy book, full of gross and creepy things.

Making Marina

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The Life Cycle of ‘Marina Mack and the Magic Paper’

I came home from work one day to find my son Josua skidding around the floor on his elbows, dragging his legs behind him. Odd, I thought to myself but all three of my boys have a bit of me in them so odd wasn’t unexpected. I didn’t even ask.

Some time later while I was visiting Josua’s school, I met the most amazing young girl. I won’t name her here but my first encounter with her went like this. She scooted across the classroom floor and pulled herself up into a wheelchair with incredible dexterity and shot off out of the room and down the steep path toward the canteen at break-neck speed. At the very last moment, she gripped the left wheel of the chair and skidded around the corner, leaning into the turn like Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha, and then off again.

At the school sports carnival, held at the local football oval, this young dynamo entered every event she possible could. Negotiating a wheelchair across a scruffy country town football oval is not an easy thing but it didn’t matter to her.

I needed to write a story capturing the indomitable spirit of this young girl with Spina Bifida and to so many other children who live with similar challenges in their lives.

There is another young girl named Abigail Branson – who I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting because she lives on the other side of the globe. But Abigail has posted a video of her accomplishments on youtube. I implore you to take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqUDdxm-qSA

I made several attempts to write a story worthy of my muse but couldn’t even come close. A long time later, I was watching an episode of Play School (A long running Australian children’s television show) Don’t tell anyone but at the time I was watching it, all my children were at school. During story time, the host told a story using origami as a storytelling aid. He folded a paper captain’s hat and told of a ship captain going out to sea. He turned the hat over and it had become a sailing boat. In the tale, a storm brewed up and the boat struck a reef breaking off the prow and stern. He tore the front and back of the paper boat away then continued the story. The boat was sinking when a big gust of wind snapped the sail. He tore away the sail and opened the paper out. It had changed shape into a vest. “But it was alright,” he said. “They were all wearing their lifejackets.”

That origami story stayed in my head and one day I had a epiphany. I could combine the two stories. I started writing a picture book version of “Marina Mack and the Magic Paper” that very day. When I was finished, I had a magical picture book text that was only 1200 words too long. I tried cutting it back, paring it down to its essence but the result had lost its magic. I put it away until I had another brainstorm.

Recently I worked on the original version, planning to render it into a chapter book format. At the moment it is hovering somewhere in the middle but I have been given some wonderful advice (Thanks Sandy and Graham) and it is slowly taking shape as a bona fide chapter book with loads of potential. Even in its limbo format, the judges at the Charlotte Duncan Award saw something in it to add it to the shortlist.

So I hope through this story, I can do justice to amazing people like my young muse and Abigail.

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Write-A-Book-In-A-Day

What an intriguing idea.

Write-a-Book-in-a-Day is a fundraising initiative of the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre and Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. Write-a-Book-in-a-Day is a one-day writing marathon where sponsored teams will write a children's book in a day, raising funds 40% for KSPWC and 60% for Children's Hospitals in each Australian State. Additionally a copy of each finished book will be donated to the hospital library.

That is the gist of the contest.

Actually it is only half a day. Entrants in the three categories; Primary Schools, Under 18's and Open teams are emailed the details of the story they are to write at 8.00am. They are given a random setting, two human characters, one non human character, an issue and five random words and using these parameters, must plan, write, illustrate, print and bind the book by 8.00pm.

Teams consist of five to ten participants who must work together to complete the challenge. Teams nominate which children’s hospital receives the funds raised by them during the competition. Funds consist of the entry fee ($300 per team – 60% to the hospital) and 100% of any sponsorship money raised by the team members goes to their nominated children’s hospital.

The Write-a-Book-in-a-Day contest has been running since 2003. I think this would be an interesting challenge to undertake so I’m going on the hunt to find a team.

Further details can be found at :- http://kspf.iinet.net.au/bookinaday/index.html

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Welcome to Words and Pictures

Words and Pictures will delve into the mind of artist and children's writer Jeffery E Doherty. When the need arises, I can act grown-up, I can fool the best of them but deep down the child is still there.

Terminally juvenile is a wonderful state to exist in. So many things are possible, things that proper grown-ups couldn't imagine.

In this blog, I will highlight some of my own writing and art, plus the works of other writers and artists I admire. I will catalogue my endeavours on the road to becoming a published children's writer - mistakes as well as the things I learn on the journey.

Jeff Doherty

Write tight and power to your keyboard!