I got to meet Eric Rohmann Monday night. Cailin emailed me (subject: “You HAVE to go to this”) about a talk he was giving regarding the process of making a children’s picture book. If you don’t know Rohmann’s work, there is a lot of super-quality stuff to look at:
- Time Flies was his first book, which won a Caldecott Honor medal
- My Friend Rabbit won the 2003 Caldecott Medal
- Pumpkinhead is his latest book, and it is a beautiful, dark, intimate little book that appeals to my printmaking leanings
- See a more complete list on Amazon
He was a great speaker, very funny and engaging, and he made himself very accessible, especially for a man who recently won the Caldecott. After his talk he laid out a bunch of originals and some of the plates from his block-printed books. I stared for a while, drinking in the simplicity of the process. He just makes stuff the same way I make stuff: you paint something or carve a block, you fix it or tweak it or start over until you have something you are satisfied with. Then you do it again. Okay that is oversimplification, but the point is this: it is not magic.
After he was done signing books and chatting enthusiastically with each person as he did so, he took some extra time to look at some books that a man has brought for him to look at. They were his students’ books, but he thought Eric Rohmann might have advice as to what to do with them. Rohmann took a good 15 minutes to discuss things with the gentleman, and then I bent his ear for at least another 15 minutes while he packed up his originals and got ready to leave.
I wasn’t quite out of questions, so I screwed up my courage and offered to buy this 2003 Caldecott Medal winner a beer. He said sure! So he and a very cool woman named Anna (who was his contact with the sponsors of the event) and I went over to the Great Dane for some brewpub beer and more shop talk. It was awesome!
I took a few important points away from the evening. One thing that Mr. Rohmann kept saying is that there are two major barriers to getting a children’s book published: 1) not writing it down, and 2) not sending it in. I’m making headway on (1), and as soon as I have it written down in a mock-up (a.k.a. “dummy”), I’ll start in on (2).
Another important point I took away is that everyone has a slightly different process, and you have to let whatever works for you be your process. I think he was saying it was Eric Carle (it may have been Maurice Sendak) who has to write the whole story first, then work on the images. Otherwise, if he does a good painting, it may mask the some not-so-good writing. That is most likely the way I would approach a more traditional book, and it is the process I am working through right now with my latest idea. Though for my Dickies book, I think the medium (my old pants) dictated a lot about how the story would be told. The pictures and the story were tied to each other. That is the way the Rohmann said he has to work– the story and the pictures in his books are intertwined. His visuals often drive the story.
Anyway, this is a way of publicly thanking you, Eric Rohmann, for being a real person. It was fantastic to meet you, and inspiring and encouraging, and I am sure I will never forget it.
