Episode #159: What thing do people ask you to draw the most? -with Tracy Subisak

Welcome back! Today we have a special guest author and illustrator,  Tracy Subisak with us. Tracy and Grace answer this wonderful kid question: “What thing do people ask you to draw the most?” This is such a great question!

TRANSCRIPT:

Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin, Children's book author and illustrator of many books including the middle grade novel, When the Sea Turned to Silver, and the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today I am here with Tracy Subisak, the author illustrator of the picture book, Jenny Mae is Sad, as well as the illustrator of books like Amah Faraway, written by Margaret Chiu Greanias, and This Book is Not for You, written by Shannon Hale.

Tracy Subisak: Hello. Hi, Grace.

Grace Lin: Hi Tracy
Thank you for joining me today.

Tracy Subisak: Thanks so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here.

Grace Lin: Are you ready for today's kid question?

Tracy Subisak: Yeah, lay it on me.

Grace Lin: Okay. Today's kid question is from a person named Henry and Henry asks...

Henry: What thing do people ask you to draw the most?

Grace Lin: What thing do people ask you to draw the most?

Tracy Subisak: That's a good question. Well, I would say that I am often found drawing people out on buses, on subways, out in the park. So a lot of people like to come up to me and ask me if I can draw them. Usually I am so shy that I say, "Probably not." But the reason why I say probably not is because whenever people know that they're being drawn, they put on really silly faces and they can't stay still. So it's really hard to draw. But if I'm not drawing out in the public, I would say unicorns.

Grace Lin: Oh, that's so funny. That's so true about drawing in public. I do sometimes draw in public, usually when I'm at a conference or at a meeting that I'm not really excited about being there, I'll draw people. But it's always freehand. I'm not really trying to make it look like them. And so when people ask me to draw them, I'm like, "Oh no, because it's not going to look like you and you're not going to like it."

Tracy Subisak: Yeah, that's exactly how I feel. Also, if people ask me for their actual portrait, I'll Photoshop them in real time, if that makes sense. I'll just make them look like a little bit more of a movie star style.

Grace Lin: That's smart. I like how you also draw unicorns though, because when I was a kid, I was such a unicorn girl. I was drawing unicorns on everything. I drew unicorns on, back then it was the three-ring binder, anything like that. I was such a unicorn girl. But now I don't really draw unicorns too much. It's very interesting.

Tracy Subisak: Oh yeah, I feel like you can't go wrong with unicorns. I was also a Lisa Frank girl, all about the rainbows.

Grace Lin: Yeah.

Tracy Subisak: But yeah, I like to mix it up too. I remember there was one time I drew a unicorn with plunger feet. It couldn't fly that unicorn in particular, so it had to use its suction cup feet to walk up walls, kind of like Spider-Man. It was really weird, but pretty awesome at the same time.

Grace Lin: It's a special power unicorn, a spider unicorn. Well, I guess it wouldn't be spider. Plunge unicorn.

Tracy Subisak: The plumber.

Grace Lin: Yeah. I think what people ask me to draw the most though is dragons, Chinese dragons. I think because my most popular book is, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, that has the Chinese dragon on it. And I have so many books with Chinese culture that, and of course the dragon is such a big deal in Chinese culture. So I'm always drawing the dragon over and over and over again. Sometimes better than others.

Tracy Subisak: No, [inaudible 00:04:26] what animals you mix up in your Chinese dragons or you think about.

Grace Lin: Well, the Chinese dragon has to have face of the camel, the horns of the deer, the claws of a rooster, the body of a snake. It's all part of the folk tale of what made the Chinese dragon. There's many different folk tales, but probably the real reason why the Chinese dragon looks the way it is because back when China was first formed, there was probably all these different clans and each clan... The clan of the goat and the clan of the snake, and when they all joined together, they all took parts of their body to make the Chinese dragon.

Tracy Subisak: Yeah, I love it. There's a dragon, or I guess it's a lion dance in the Amah Faraway book that I really had so much fun drawing. My mom taught Chinese back in the day and she always liked to teach the Chinese dragon and all the components in it. But I always feel like you can make it up a little bit because there's so many different versions out there.

Grace Lin: That's true. That's true. Especially the lions. I feel like there's more versions.

Tracy Subisak: Yeah, that's true.

Grace Lin: The lions have a lot more leeway, I think. Anyway, well thanks so much for a answering today's kid question.

Tracy Subisak: Thanks for asking.

Grace Lin: Thanks Henry for asking such a great one. Bye.

Tracy Subisak: Bye.

Today’s KID BOOK REVIEW comes from Mina! Mina is reviewing Jenny Mei Is Sad by Tracy Subisak!

The book I am reporting on is called “Jenny Mei is sad”. The author of this book is Tracy Subisak. This book is about sadness and friendship. A girl named Jenny Mei is sad. She shows it by being angry and crying, but sometimes you can’t tell because she also acts happy. Her friend is there to help and support her by talking, kicking rocks, getting popsicles, and giving her hugs. Her friend respects Jenny Mei’s feelings when Jenny Mei is still sad at the end of the day. I like this book because it is told from the perspective of Jenny Mei’s friend, which shows that her friend is kind and there for Jenny Mei through thick and thin.

Thank you Mina!

More about today’s authors:

Tracy Subisak studied industrial design in school, subsequently working in the field internationally for seven years, designing computers for the future, before turning her focus to freelance illustration and design.

Tracy’s debut author/illustrated picture book Jenny Mei Is Sad (Little Brown) was published in June 2021. She is the illustrator of several picture books including Grizzly Boy, Cy Makes a Friend, and Shawn Loves Sharks, which received a starred review from Kirkus, was a Junior Library Guild selection, and received a 2018 Washington State Book Award. Upcoming nonfiction picture book title Wood, Wire, Wings by Kirsten Larson is a bio of Emma Lilian Todd, the first woman to successfully design and engineer a working airplane.

Tracy is the proud daughter of a Taiwanese mother who was a Chinese language instructor and art teacher, and an American father, son of Polish and Slovakian immigrant parents, who is an engineer. She was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, has lived in Taiwan, South Korea, NY, and San Francisco, and now makes her home in the PNW in Portland, OR. She is always eager to go adventuring and is a true believer that experience begets the best stories.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

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