Episode 2: How do you get your drawings or paintings into a book? with Shadra Strickland

*Please note that these episodes were all all recorded pre-pandemic!

Welcome to Episode 2! How do you get your drawings or paintings into a book? Join us with author Shadra Strickland!

Grace Lin:                     Hello. I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle-grade novel, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star.

Grace Lin:                     Today, I am here with Shadra Strickland, the illustrator of the picture books, Bird and Sunday Shopping.

Grace Lin:                     Hi, Shadra.

Shadra Strickland:        Hi, Grace.

Grace Lin:                     So are you ready for today's question?

Shadra Strickland:        I am.

Grace Lin:                     Okay. Today's question is from a young girl named Henrietta. Her question is, how do you get your drawings or paintings in a book?

Shadra Strickland:        That's a good question, because most people think that an artist draws all the pictures every time the book is on the shelf. So we have to draw it over and over and over again. But that's not actually true.

Shadra Strickland:        So when I make artwork, if it's a painting or a drawing, I usually use a computer and I scan that work and it's then digital. And once it's digital, I send all of those scans to the publisher and they then have them in their computer and they're able to make multiple copies of the artwork.

Shadra Strickland:        So I only make the artwork one time. And then the publisher sends those files to the printer and they make multiple copies of that one painting, which then ends up being about 16 paintings in one book. And that's how you see them all on the shelves.

Grace Lin:                     Yes. This is really a question about the publishing process, you know, the difference between a published book and a not-published book. And a published book is a book that you can see in the bookstores, a book that you can get in the library, a book that you can get your own copy of. So there's hundreds and thousands of copies of this book and the people who put those books out are publishers. So we are the artists that that give our work to the publisher and they're the ones that make them into books. So we actually don't make the books.

Shadra Strickland:        But I'll say if you're an artist and you get into a printmaking process, if you're doing something like, I think in school you can probably do rubber stamps for example, or like linoleum cuts. If you make one image on that kind of block and then you ink it, you can make multiple copies on your own. So if you're wanting to make your own books, I would recommend looking into a printmaking process so that you can make multiple copies and make them for your friends and your family.

Grace Lin:                     Yes. Or you could use a Xerox machine or something like that. But what it comes down to is that it's always a machine that does some kind of copying of your original art. It's not you yourself drawing it over and over and over again to make-

Shadra Strickland:        You would never sleep.

Grace Lin:                     Yes, to make a published book. And for me, I actually send my original paintings right to the publisher and they are the ones that scan it in and change all of my art into computer data. And that computer data is what they printout to make the books. So it's a very magical process that the artists don't really have much to with.

Shadra Strickland:        Nope. We draw the picture one time and our job is done.

Grace Lin:                     So thank you, Henrietta, for your question. It was a great question. Thank you, Shadra, for helping us answer today.

We have a special joke today from Maisey!

What is a duck’s favorite part of a book?

The intro-DUCK-tion!

More about today’s guest:

Shadra Strickland studied design, writing, and illustration at Syracuse University, and completed her M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her work in her first picture book, Bird, written by Zetta Elliott. Shadra is passionate about promoting positivity through her work, and her ultimate goal as a picture book author and illustrator is to teach children how to live their dreams. Her style is a whimsical blend of reality and imagination, and she loves to create stories that children can see themselves in. Shadra travels the country conducting workshops and sharing her work with children, teachers, and librarians. She currently teaches illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.

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.

Thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore and Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews. Also, special thanks to the Eric Carle Museum of Picturebook Art for helping to facilitate today's interview.