Cambridge Printfair

This is just a brief note to let you know that I will be selling screenprints and linocuts next weekend at The Guildhall in Cambridge, UK.

 If you are interested in seeing some of my prints in advance, I have put a few of them online at https://www.kelleydonner.com/shop. I have made sure to make some that are as small as postcards, as I know that artwork is a wonderful thing to give at Christmas.

Thank you for your support!

Author Scams and Wishful Thinking

Writers are a great bunch of people, but we receive a lot of rejection. This is why, when an email pops into my inbox promising great things, I am often very skeptical.  In June, my book Ball! Ball! Ball! A Picture Book to Inspire Sensory Awareness made it onto Amazon's bestseller list in Special Needs Children's Health. Ever since then, however, I have started receiving emails all offering to make my book that one book in a million that makes it big.

Normally, when I receive an email which lists my name and book in the mail (unlike many, which just say Dear Author) I copy the website and research on Google whether or not the company can be trusted or not.  Last week, I had an email from a company saying that my website billing information had been compromised. It wasn't. The week before, I had an email just offering my financial support if I just responded to their email. I didn't. Unfortunately, a lot of these phishing emails just want you to confirm that your email account is real. It is annoying to have to double check everything, but definitely worth it.

A few days ago, I was offered a true author scam and I thought I might share it with you. This is how the email began:

Al Cole would like to officially invite you for a Radio Interview. He is one of the broadcasting's most gifted interviewers with his nationally syndicated show People of Distinction. One of the best Radio Host Personality of CBS Radio Station.

As I have done interviews and podcasts before, I thought it might be interesting to do more research into this one to see if there was any harm in doing it. Many shows work under the pretense of- you plug my site on your social media, and I'll interview you on mine. A win/win. Not all of them are scams.

My first impression of Al Cole's website was that he definitely had his connections and liked to appear big in a way that only Trump might understand. However, what struck me as odd, was that when I typed his "bestselling book" into Amazon, it showed it as being made in Createspace and it had a horribly cheesy cover. I find it hard to believe that someone with as many connections as Al Cole could not find a publisher. However, the more I Googled the guy, the less I found (also strange). So, just for fun, I called the number on the email (not with my cell phone number, of course) and talked to a very impressive sounding man from Philadelphia who promised me Al would give me three hours of his time and an interview that millions of listeners would receive. The interview itself would cost me nothing, but airing in would cost 1,700 dollars...

At that point I politely declined and decided I had heard enough. Just as vanity publishers always offer you the world if you only pay them first, you should never have to pay for an interview on online radio. On the one hand, I had to laugh at the vanity of it all. On the other hand, it makes me angry. I'm sure there are many good people who are scammed by people like Al Cole into thinking that they are a "Person of Distinction." Such scams, as always, prey into our insecurities and our wishful thinking.

Hopefully, the next person who googles author scam will get to read my blog first. If you are an author, just remember, if it sounds too good to be true. It is.

The Great Kid-friendly Bake-off!

I love baking with my kids. We also love watching those cheesy bake shows which make amateur contestants go against each other to see who can make the best (or worst) cake. This past week, my children and I decided to create our own show.

I got out enough bowls, wooden spoons, and equipment for each of my three children, gave them each 2 eggs, and ingredients. I had to film them each coming in to the kitchen, as they love to watch Youtube and wanted to have everything look and be commentated on as if were a real show.

Activity 1: Bake your own signature cake.

Three little hands mixing batter

Then they all got to work. I led them through the basics, but let them do the heavy lifting. They had to grease and flour their own pans, measure and stir their own ingredients, and design their own cakes. It was fun and we had a blast.

My youngest, who is five, took the whole thing really seriously. When asked what kind of a cake he would make, he replied, “A waterfall cake made of chocolate with a Spinosaurus on it.” Not an easy task, if you ask me.

Waterfall cake with Spinosaurus

They all worked really hard, and in the end I was really proud of each one of them. Jonas, who is now 9, made a dinosaur cake with fossils stuck in the frosting; Lukas, who is 8, made a chocolate happy face cake; and Max made his extravagant cake with a waterfall falling down a cliff made of rice cakes into a painted river of frosting.

Here are the final cakes and a recipe for only 1 round cake made with simple ingredients. I hope you enjoy yourselves as much as we did. This was a fantastic way for the whole family to get involved in the kitchen.

Recipe 1 Bake-off cake:

The final three cakes!

Ingredients:

1/2 C Butter
3/4 C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 C milk
1/4 C cocoa (optional)

Your choice of frosting and decorations!

How to make the cake:

1. Have children grease and flour a round baking tin.
2. First have children mix together the butter and sugar. Make sure your butter is nice and soft so that the kids can handle it.
3. Show how to break an egg and then let each add 2 eggs to their butter/sugar mixture and mix again.
4. Add vanilla, milk, and all dry ingredients. Mix well.
5. If you are going to make a chocolate cake, add a 1/4 C cocoa to the mix and perhaps a little bit more milk.
6. Bake at 350* F for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cool and then decorate to your hearts content.
8. Don't forget to judge the best cake!

Please let me know how your cakes turned out!

On the Ball for Autism

I wanted to share with my blog readers an exciting article about my new book series which was published in the Cambridge News. It was exciting to receive such support from the community. Here is the entire article:

A new book series designed to empower children with special needs has become a hit with readers.

The Happy Heads series, by Trumpington based American children’s author and illustrator Kelley Donner, made its debut two weeks ago, and has already topped Amazon’s Special Needs Children’s Health bestseller list.

The first book in the series, Ball! Ball! Ball!, tells the story of a lively young boy with autism, who speaks only a few words and has a fascination for round objects and discovering new things. The second book in the series, Little Jack Thomson’s Magnificent Brain, is set to be published in the autumn, with the third and fourth books in the series currently being illustrated.

Speaking to the News, Kelley Donner explained why these books were necessary, and why stories focusing on characters with special needs should always strive to do more than just raise awareness.

She said: “I started work on these books ten years ago, but since moving to the UK, I’ve had more time to focus on creating the stories. It’s my belief that every child has the right to see themselves represented in the books they read, but the standard approach to characters with learning difficulties is very problematic, if they’re represented at all. “Most books are solely about raising awareness of autism, or children on the autistic spectrum, and are centred on a character who doesn’t have that condition learning about them. It creates the “Rain Man” effect, and in many cases furthers pre-existing stereotypes, when there are a broad range of behaviours on the spectrum.”

Kelley explained how the Happy Heads series would correct this. She continued: “I wanted to tell more complex children’s stories about children with autism, where they aren’t defined by their disability. There’s little representation like this in the picture book market - I asked various groups on Twitter if anybody had any examples, and people were struggling to name any. “I want the characters in these books to be less perfect, so children can see themselves. I’ve had a positive response from the autistic community, and I would love to start visiting schools to share this story and the ones I have coming up with children.

“My next book, Little Jack Thomson’s Magnificent Brain, will be out later this year. The aim with that book is to challenge stereotypes surrounding Asperger’s, as all representation highlights the intelligent children with Asperger’s, ignoring the more diverse spectrum of people with that condition.”

Kelley will be reading and selling copies of her book at The Big Weekend's Big Read tent on Parker's Piece at 3:20pm on Saturday, July 6.

Ball! Ball! Ball! A Picture Book to Inspire Sensory Awareness is now available to order on Amazon. More information on the Happy Heads series can be found by visiting kelleydonner.com.

Written by Alistair Ryder

The Big Read - Cambridge

Story-time at local libraries and events is a wonderful way to connect with children and to see how they relate to your material.

This past week I got to read some of my books, including ones that I haven't published, yet, at an event called The Big Read in Cambridge. It was part of a big festival called Cambridge Weekend and I found out about it from the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators.

Although the weather didn't cooperate the whole day, it was a great day. I met a lot of other local author and illustrators, had fun with the children, and met many parents. I also found out that I am going to have to find a way to publish my book, Draw Me Happy, because the children loved being able to draw the illustrations directly in the book.

I look forward to doing more reading events in the future!

Sensory Fun at Bangabandhu Primary School

This week I visited Maddi Outram’s special education class at Bangabandhu Primary School in London. 

Maddi has been using my book Ball! Ball! Ball! for topic this term in her class. As many of her students are autistic and have sensory processing issues, Ball! Ball! Ball!  offered various possibilities for tie-in activities and sensory fun. Her students are between the ages of 5 and 9.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my book: 

Ball! Ball! Ball!  is about an autistic boy named Tom who is obsessed with all things round and enthusiastically points out any object he can find that looks like a ball. From peas to balloons, Tom learns that “balls” can be smooth, squishy, pop, and even have different temperatures.

Maddi read my story to her class and then made various tie-in activities based on sensory play. She collected variations on all of the objects in the book, such as a rock, a round lamp, bubbles, etc. and placed them in a basket to be used as needed. 

Just as Tom is excited about the peas on his plate, Maddi made a table full of peas and let the children play and squish them as they wished. For science and physical education, they rolled and threw different balls. She even filled a trampoline with balloons and let the children jump in them. I think she is doing a wonderful job and it is clear that the children all really enjoy being in her class. I'm thrilled that my book is being used in such a positive way.

On the day I visited, we decided to do a sensory bag activity. I placed a round object, such as a ball, round Lego tire, marble, roll of tape, etc. into a bag and let each of the children feel the object with their hands. Many of the children wanted to see the object and take it out of the bag.

After this, I read Ball! Ball! Ball!  to the class again. One of the pupils who had been stimming with his hand in front of his face the entire time, stopped stimming for a little while. This made me happy, as this was the child that Maddi had told me loved balls more than anything. Another child sat very close to me and wanted to touch the page that I was reading. Although I received very little eye contact, I could tell that most of the students were listening and taking part in their own way. Having written a story about an autistic child, it was wonderful getting positive feedback from children who could directly relate to Tom's character.

Finally, we made a fabric collage together of a scene from outer space using a simplified version of the collage technique that I used for Ball! Ball! Ball! I brought pieces of scrap material and stencils and we glued the material onto a piece of poster board. The children needed some help with using scissors, but they all worked really hard and together we finished a nice piece of artwork. 

I really enjoyed visiting Maddi’s class and the staff at Bangabandhu Primary School were all very friendly and helpful. I love being an advocate for children with special needs and autism and I look forward to visiting more schools in the future. I am also planning on adding a lot of Maddi’s sensory activities to my webpage along with some ideas for sensory play so that other teachers can benefit from her creativity and dedication.

Ball! Ball! Ball!  is in the process of being published and will be available on Amazon in June of this year. The ISBN number is 978-1-73-395951-3. Please contact me if you would like to pre-order a copy and if you enjoy my books, please leave me a positive review on Amazon. Thank you.

Oak Tree Mural

Goodbye drab grey stairwell!

Hello sunshine!

This past week I got the opportunity to do a huge mural of an oak tree in the stairwell at Oaks International School in Cambridge, UK. Lately, I have been spending most of my time either cutting out linocuts or sitting in front of Photoshop on the computer, so I loved being able to get out and get my hands dirty.

I decided to use a technique for the oak tree that I used on a previous mural using painters tape to mark off the lines.  I think this makes the image look as if it has actually been cut out, like the linocuts that I so love to make. I also used wallpaper to make leaves in order to give the tree a bit of texture. Here are the steps that I used in order to plan, create, and finish this gigantic tree:

1.   First, I needed to plan my design. I took a lot of photos of oak trees and branches and some pictures of the stairwell on my phone and then used a basic drawing program on my Ipad to draw a few ideas over the picture. This also gave me the possibility to show my idea to the school for approval before I got started.

2.   Then, I bought all of the necessary materials and got to work. I used string and a bit of tape to layout my tree design onto the wall. This way, I had the possibility to lift a branch higher or lower with ease. As this stairway turns twice on its way up, it was important to see how the actual tree would look on the actual wall instead of just on my Ipad.

3.   Once I was happy with the design I began taping the branches and accents. I used the most expensive blue painters tape for fine edges because it makes a huge difference in comparison to cheap masking tape. Even with the best tape, there will always be some places where the paint comes off the wall, but there is nothing worse than having most of the paint come off with the tape. Blue painters tape is also easy to use.

4.   With my tree all taped, I began the first round of painting. Before I put a paintbrush on the wall, I went around with my finger on all of the edges and made sure that they were down. This is very important, because otherwise paint will leak through the little bubbles on the side and look tacky. If you are really concerned about leakage, you can always paint the sides of the image with the background color once before you add your top coat. Any leakage will then be in your background color. Nevertheless, if you are good about making sure your edges are taped well, this is not necessary. Because my brown was not very opaque, I actually had to paint the tree twice. 

5.   After painting the tree, I added some accents for fun. I put an owl in the tree, a birdhouse on a branch, and some birds in the air. I actually had to stop myself from not adding more, as I realized my project would quickly get out of hand and never finished.

6.   Finally, it was time for the leaves. I bought some inexpensive paintable textured wallpaper and rolled out a few sheets onto the floor. I then painted these green. Once it had dried, I made my own stencils and cut out oak leaves in various shapes and sizes. I used basic wallpaper paste to then glue them onto the wall.

Eventually, the school would like to add words at different places throughout the tree with the core vales of the school, such as happiness, aspiration, and community.

The best part of the entire project was listening to the children as they passed by in the halls. They loved seeing the process and they were so encouraging. Seeing so many children happy with the result made it definitely worth the effort. I was very pleased with the result, because it looks, like I had hoped, as if it was printed on the wall. I look forward to doing another mural like this in the future.

The Oaks International School tree mural is also listed under current projects on my website: kelleydonner.com.

Going to Art School

I'm very excited to announce that I was accepted to the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin and will be doing my MA in Illustration and Book Arts this fall.

Although I loved my liberal arts education, I have always dreamed of going to art school and I am really looking forward to getting started. I have already met some of the professors and other students and they were all very wonderful and helpful. Then again, here in England, I have rarely met anyone who is not polite and friendly.

I will be experimenting with illustration as well as increasing my knowledge of book design and dabbing a little in animation. I'm looking forward to what new things I will learn and how my art will develop. I'll keep you informed.

Happy Jar

I brought out the Happy and Sad jar the other day. I'm amazed they still work, even though the boys are getting older. Here is how it all started.

About the time that Lukas turned two, he decided it was time to hold his own against his older brother Jonas, who was three and a half.  Previously, if Jonas had wanted a toy that Lukas was playing with, he would bribe him with a different toy and all was well.  Now, his formerly easy-going brother Lukas would say no, hold onto the toy for dear life, and hit, bite, or scratch him if he tried to take his toy away. Unfortunately, since toddlers are good at retaliating, this often meant that Jonas would do the same thing back.

After a while I realized that things were getting out of hand and I needed to up my game.  The time-outs and conversations with Jonas were not working at curbing the fighting and I felt like I was saying no all of the time.  I didn't like all of the negativity and I didn't feel like it was working either. Nevertheless, I knew that Jonas was old enough to know better and I needed to do something to curb his behavior.  After talking to my mother, the best childhood expert I know, and looking on the Internet for ideas, I finally came up with the Happy Jar.

I took two small jars and labeled on with a happy face and one with a sad face.  Every time Jonas or Lukas showed good behavior, like being generous with their toys or snacks or playing nicely with each other for awhile, I would put an M&M into the Happy Jar (as long as there were M&M's in the Sad Jar, I would use them first).  When they fought with each other or were mean to each other, I would take one M&M out of the Happy Jar and put it into the Sad Jar.  After suppertime, we would count the M&M's in each jar, mark it on a chart, and then they were allowed to share the Happy M&M's (a small hidden mathematics lesson for Jonas at the time).

I tried really hard the first few days to find as much positive behavior as I could to try to motivate them to continue.  I was amazed how well the jars worked.  Jonas loved being able to collect the M&M's and would always report to me when he was being really good.  Even though at the end of the day, they never had more than 8-10 to share with each other, I could tell that Jonas was really proud of himself (Lukas, being only two, was of course not old enough to entirely understand the jar concept).

Although I will admit, it didn't stop the hitting and biting entirely, it did bring it down to an acceptable level that I could handle.  I only needed to use the jars for about a week. Children love getting rewarded. The best anecdote from the whole experience, however, came from Jonas one night at the very beginning when he went to look at the jars. "Look Mom," he said, "the Sad Jar is happy now, cause he has M&M's, too."

Illustration in the Making

A Linocut and watercolor illustration

From inspiration 
to cover design

This morning at  the World Book Day event in my child's school, I was lucky enough to be able to help out with some creative writing workshops led by Debbie Edwards, a local author. Superhero stories were definitely something the children could relate to and I really enjoyed watching them enthusiastically being a part of the creative process and seeing how a story is made from start to finish.


As my children were also at the school and told some of their peers that their mother is an author/illustrator, at the end of the session one of the pupils asked how I did my pictures. When I look at children's books I often ask the same question and I wished I could have given my own workshop today on the subject (maybe next year). I also find it fascinating to see how other artists do their work and how they get from start to the finished product. 

Therefore, I would like to show the creative process that was used for the cover of my latest book Little Jack Thomson and his Magnificent Brain (For more info on Jack's story, please see my website kelleydonner.com).

First edition Jack

Jack, the main character, has changed a lot since I invented him. Originally, when I made the initial cover, he was daydreaming and lost in thought about his intergalactic space train and his dreams of mining rocks on Neptune. However, after awhile I realized that the cover made him look too melancholy and almost sad. He also looked too old for the children that I was trying to reach.

Since the book is uplifting, I did not want the cover to be anything less. Therefore, I went back to the drawing board and invented Jack again. This time I made him look enthusiastic and tried to convey a sense of pride. Although I think both the original and the final cover pictures are nice, the latter definitely gives the reader more of an immediate feel-good emotion. Books are often bought by the look of their cover, so I knew it was imperative that it grabbed attention and I think this Jack pulled the reader into his world in an uplifting positive way. Nevertheless, it was a long process to get there.

Here is my creative process for making a linocut/watercolor illustration:

1.  When I have an idea for a character I first begin by looking at stock photos online. For example, if the child should be withdrawn, then I would type in "withdrawn child" and see what images come up. If he should be proud, then I would look up words like proud, ambitious, determined, etc.. This helps to give me the general feeling I would like to evoke. Then I take the photos that I like best and incorporate them in my head with my own ideas and start drawing some sketches.

2.  Once I have the sketch that I would like to use, I transfer the drawing to a piece of linoleum or easy-cut lino. Then I begin the part of the process that I enjoy the most, cutting the lino. I find this to be very meditative and I love how the drawing takes on a new personality when cut out completely.

3.  Once the lino is finished, I make a print. Then after the print has dried, I scan it into the computer. I use various photo programs, but mainly Photoshop to improve on the print. I whiten the background and take out any unnecessary lines. Then I print this onto watercolor paper using my normal printer and the flatter back side of the paper. I am delighted to say that this works very well and most printer ink is permanent and does not run later during the painting process.

4.  At this point, I begin painting using watercolors. If I am unhappy with the result, I just use another printout and begin again. Sometimes, I will go over some of the lines again with a sharpie or black magic marker if the paint has washed over the lines and left the black too dull. This can also be done in Photoshop, but I often prefer the traditional method.

5.  Although watercolors do make beautiful colors, they are often not brilliant enough. This is why I usually scan the finished watercolor back into Photoshop and rework the picture a final time. As you can see here, I decided that the background was way too busy. The viewer has too many things to look at and Jack is lost a bit in this sea of colors. Therefore, part of the process of coming up with a final print is knowing what to cut out. I also cut out the planet at the bottom and one rocket.

6.  Now that my picture is finished, I can add it to a text program and begin making the final page. Here is the current draft cover for Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain.

Unfortunately, when making a book, this is only the beginning. I have decided to try to do the entire creative process for Little Jack Thomson's Magnificent Brain from the text to illustrations to layout. I have already finished about half of the illustrations and I am currently playing around with some layout programs to see how I like the design. Even if I decide at the end, to send this book off to a publisher, I will feel better knowing that I know the process from start to finish. I am really enjoying making this book and I can't wait until it is finished and in stores near you.
To be continued...