A look into the artistic side of Children's Lit!

On November 13, 2008 I was fortunate to have renowned author and illustrator Kadir Nelson come to my very own local neighborhood library. Only 4 short blocks away from my house, he visited the Eastwood branch library of the Kalamazoo public library system.

When I first arrived at the library I was able to speak with a few of the children who had spoken with Kadir previously. They were very excited about their opportunity to speak with an author and illustrator since it is not an everyday occurrence. One child attempted to entertain me by telling me some of the information he had learned about Kadir.

As Kadir started his seminar, I noticed he seemed somewhat shy. But after a while his presentation began to flow smoothly. The show was formatted to display how Kadir over time grew as an artist. Beginning with his drawings from age 3 he mentioned that he had a strong memory of his childhood. I noticed the children in the seminar were drawn in by these earlier drawings. With Kadir’s strong sense of childhood he was able to connect with the youth and captivate them and as well as the audience as a whole.

Kadir continued with his sequential array of drawings. The drawings from him at age 5 appeared to be very detailed and complete. They contained the same warm feeling you can get from reading one of his recently illustrated books. He went on to mention that he took frequent trips to the library to check out how to draw books. If pictures presented a problem for him he would trace them. Once this was said I was reminded of my elementary school years when my friends and I would check out several how to draw books on every trip. If the images were too hard to draw we would trace, but we challenged each other not to.

As he grew older he would draw everyday. His favorite people/ characters to draw were Michael Jordan and Mickey Mouse. He even showed us drawing of when he mixed the two of them together. The crowd thought that was humorous and laughed. He soon started exploring other artists like Ernie Barnes who would draw long visuals. The long visuals had a great way of communicating emotions.

He later went on to mention some very great advice that had once inspired him from Duke Ellington. This was that beauty denies negativity. Essentially this provoked the thought of feeling good from creating beauty. From this Kadir adopted this theme for his art in hopes to pass along good energy instead of bad energy in his work.

While in college Kadir became very depressed from painting the same way over and over. He then began to research other artist who helped him to regain an interest in art. Some of the artist he researched included Thomas Blackshear, Norman Rockwell, Picasso, and Michelangelo. But he never copied artwork, merely ideas to evolve his understanding as artistic style.

After his fours years at a private institution studying illustrations Kadir wanted to help with movie production. He briefly gave an explanation of why it is important to go to college for the youth in the crowd. He talked about a poster in a childhood classroom of his that had a prominent proverb which read “Wish Upon a Star, But Do Your Homework Too!” From that he was able to express how important it is to dream big, but we have to be willing to put in the effort as well as handle our daily responsibilities like being a good student.

After college he gained a position at DreamWorks working on movies. As an illustrator his job was to illustrator key scenes for movies to convince them to make the movie. He then got the opportunity to make scenes for the movie Amistad to convince Steven Spielberg to direct and produce the movie. He showed us the images he created for the movie in comparison to clips of the movie. They looked very similar. I was very pleased to see this side of movie making through illustration. Soon after, he completed more jobs making scenes for other movies. He made it clear that this is how he learned to tell stories with his artwork.

Then he talked about when he began illustrating books. He said when received a manuscript he would draw the sketches right on the manuscript. He then explained how he looks at books as if they are silent films. He feels you should not need words if the illustrations are good.

After his brief intro to illustration he talked about all the research that is necessary when illustrating a book, especially historical fiction. One story he illustrated was set in the past where the characters were working on a southern cotton plantation. In doing his research he visited an old plantation so he could draw in his illustrations. Also, he had to research small details from what tools were used at the time to facts such as what fish populated the nearby streams. I was amazed by this aspect of art that you would never know about from just looking at a picture. He explain how some critics and authors of his books and illustrations key into these details.

Overall I feel I learned a great deal of knowledge about Kadir Nelson, Illustrators, and the options of being an artist. Kadir informed us of many life lessons as well as helping us to remember how fun drawing still is. As a former novice artist and future teacher I felt that this experienced change the way I look at art and illustrations. Hearing his perspective opened a new way of viewing children’s literature. I now know that a children’s book is more than just a book. It is fundamentally a brilliant work of researched art.