five questions with marc martin

 

The ever thoughtful Marc Martin stops by to chat with us about his work and influences in this week’s Five Questions.  His stunning books include Silent Observer, A River, Max, The Curious Explorer’s Illustrated Guide to Exotic Animals A to Z, A Forest and the forthcoming Lots.

 

What was your childhood like and did you have any creative endeavors as a kid?

I had a really happy childhood, but I’m an only child, which meant I had to find creative ways of playing and using my imagination without other kids around. I played with Lego a lot, and it enabled me to create worlds in which to exist and dream. I also rode my bicycle quite a bit - I spent many afternoons after school riding around the neighbourhood and exploring my surroundings.

 

Who―or what―have been the major influences on your work?

This is always changing for me. I used to be influenced by a lot of illustrators and designers, but now I’m probably more interested in fine art than anything else. If I had to name some early inspiration, I’d say all of Miroslav Sasek’s This is series were very influential, as was Jennie Baker’s Where the forest meets the sea. Studying graphic design also gave me an appreciation for modernist art and design, so Ray and Charles Eames, Bruno Munari, Saul Bass and Charley Harper are some of my favourites.

 

What inspired A River and A Silent Observer?

Silent Observer came about at a time when I was still doing a lot of graphic design work and I needed a creative outlet for other ideas I’d been playing around with. Silent Observer still feels like more of an outline for a story rather than a finished book, but at the time I just needed to make something and get it out in the world.

A River was very different in terms of planning and execution. It was an idea I’d had for a long time, but I think the initial inspiration came from a desire to tell a story about connectedness to landscape and the power of imagination. I also wanted to develop my illustration away from the computer, so A River was a good vehicle challenge myself technically.

 

 

Can you tell us how you became an illustrator?

Essentially I became an illustrator because I was growing frustrated as a graphic designer. Being a designer can be challenging if you’re trying to do creative work and constantly being reigned in by a client. With my illustration, I feel like I’ve got more creative control, especially with my books. My ultimate goal is to make work that I like, and let the people who understand that work come to me – if they understand what I do, then they’re more likely to trust my creative decisions.

 

How do you think your work has changed over the years?

My style and confidence as an illustrator has definitely evolved. I used to do a lot more ‘vector’ work (that’s illustrating with a computer and programs like Adobe Illustrator), but now I’m a lot more comfortable working with paints and pencil.

I think I used to hide behind the computer a bit. I was afraid to make mistakes, and a computer easily gets rid of imperfections, so it was a tempting medium to use. But I also think it limited the kind of illustration I was making – it’s difficult for people to really connect with computer based work, because they can’t see the process behind it, and it often has a cold, clean-edged look to it all. Ultimately I wanted the kind of illustrations I made (and the stories I told with them) to feel more human, so I consciously started stepping away from the computer and doing things by hand. I still use the computer for some things, but it’s a tool amongst many, and not a driver of my illustrative style anymore.

 

Thanks for stopping by, Marc.  We are very much looking forward to your next book, Lots (due out on October 3rd).  You can find Marc sharing his gorgeous work on his site, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr.

Image courtesy of Marc Martin.

bear's winter party

Lonely Bear wants to meet his forest neighbors so he decides to throw a winter party.  The other animals are scared to meet him (somehow bears possess the unfortunate reputation as frightening creatures). ;) Their fears are allayed when they see the warm lantern in his window and notice the aroma of honey-ginger cookies and huckleberry tarts wafting out of his cozy cottage.  I love the soft watercolors that bring to life this sweet story about friendship and taking chances.  P.S. There’s a recipe for honey-ginger cookies at the end of the book.

Bear’s Winter Party is by Deborah Hodge and Lisa Cinar.  Published by Groundwood Books.

7 Activities That Support Emerging Reading Skills

 

Today I’m talking about ways you can work your child who is just starting to learn to read—things you can do at home to provide a solid foundation for becoming an independent reader.  Knowledge of letter names and sounds, phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are among the many skills needed to begin reading independently and these tasks support those skills.

1. The game Boggle Junior is a great one for learning to spell and sound out simple words. 

2. Mo Willems' Cat the Cat and Elephant and Piggie are both excellent series for beginning readers.  Some of the words in the series will be difficult for a first-time reader to decode, but there are still a lot opportunities to practice reading simple first words in both series.  For sight words, try a series like Bob Books.  You can do repeated readings with you reading the book out loud with your finger pointing to each word as you read, then have your child follow along with her finger as you read.  For a list of books for beginning readers, head over to this post.

3. Later you can try simultaneous reading (you and your child reading the sentences together in unison) as they become more familiar with the texts of the books you're reading on a regular basis.  

4. Later you can have your child point out individual words that you say (e.g., "Find the word 'dog' and put your finger on it."  "Can you find a word that starts with "b?"). 

5. You can work on some phonemic awareness like blending and segmenting (which are some of the more important ones) with the words from the books.  An example of blending would be "What word am I saying? C - a - t."  Later they become more familiar with the words, you can do segmenting, e.g., "Tell me all the sounds in the word 'cat.'"  You can use manipulatives (like blocks) to represent each sound to provide support.  

6. Joint writing (writing words, phrases and sentences together) also hugely supports pre-literacy skills.  Draw pictures along with what you write to support reading comprehension.  

7. And one last thing, making sure that you're reading rich children's picture books with good writing in them and having conversations about them every day goes a long way in supporting budding reading skills.

Check out other my other posts about how to work on phonemic awareness and early reading skills here.