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Message from Joe Cepeda
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 13:35:49 -0600
Here is Joe Cepeda's response to my initial question.
Megan,
You're right about the oils. It is my preferred medium, although I execute the art by doing the under-painting in acrylic and finishing with oils. I've never made peace with acrylics (too plastic). For me, good oils are like like butter and much richer in color. My application was essentially the same as in other books. However, like yourself, I also noticed a more enhanced reproduction of the texture. Depending how it is shot/scanned, provides different results. Generally, I consider all that part of the life of the book after its left my studio. I let go of books pretty easily.
Through my editor Rosemary Brosnan, Marisa Montes provided me with some materials that depicted Puerto Rican rural areas which helped with things like the homes and trees (those trees are a specific type whose name escapes me) and since I'm not familiar with Puerto Rico personally, I appreciated having those items for reference (especially since I'm not a big fan of research). For me, this type of story is character driven and, as I look back at it (I painted this about three years ago), it's apparent to me that my interest was largely focused on Juan Bobo and his antics. That probably does have something to do with my distance from the environment. Plus, who can resist illustrating a story about a fool. Since Juan Bobo's world was a humble one, his dress was going to be modest and his hair a little long. Although I have to sketch out dummies so I have something to use to talk over with an editor, I try and get away with as little planning as possible. I try and leave as much as I can for the painting experince so that I'm not just working as if I were painting a color-book. Character's deeper personalities as well as many other aspects to the story are revealed to me somewhere in the middle to end of the project.
In general, I see illustrating picture books as the celebration of three things; color, shape and people (animals just being fuzzy people). With kid's books (as opposed to the magazine work, advertising work I continue to do) I surrender to what I like to think of as the 'integrity of simplicity'.
Joe
Received on Wed 27 Feb 2002 01:35:49 PM CST
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 13:35:49 -0600
Here is Joe Cepeda's response to my initial question.
Megan,
You're right about the oils. It is my preferred medium, although I execute the art by doing the under-painting in acrylic and finishing with oils. I've never made peace with acrylics (too plastic). For me, good oils are like like butter and much richer in color. My application was essentially the same as in other books. However, like yourself, I also noticed a more enhanced reproduction of the texture. Depending how it is shot/scanned, provides different results. Generally, I consider all that part of the life of the book after its left my studio. I let go of books pretty easily.
Through my editor Rosemary Brosnan, Marisa Montes provided me with some materials that depicted Puerto Rican rural areas which helped with things like the homes and trees (those trees are a specific type whose name escapes me) and since I'm not familiar with Puerto Rico personally, I appreciated having those items for reference (especially since I'm not a big fan of research). For me, this type of story is character driven and, as I look back at it (I painted this about three years ago), it's apparent to me that my interest was largely focused on Juan Bobo and his antics. That probably does have something to do with my distance from the environment. Plus, who can resist illustrating a story about a fool. Since Juan Bobo's world was a humble one, his dress was going to be modest and his hair a little long. Although I have to sketch out dummies so I have something to use to talk over with an editor, I try and get away with as little planning as possible. I try and leave as much as I can for the painting experince so that I'm not just working as if I were painting a color-book. Character's deeper personalities as well as many other aspects to the story are revealed to me somewhere in the middle to end of the project.
In general, I see illustrating picture books as the celebration of three things; color, shape and people (animals just being fuzzy people). With kid's books (as opposed to the magazine work, advertising work I continue to do) I surrender to what I like to think of as the 'integrity of simplicity'.
Joe
Received on Wed 27 Feb 2002 01:35:49 PM CST
