The Drawing Book

Air Show! With Treat Williams- Release date 6/15/10

2010-05-18T06:36:00.001-07:00

Air Show!
It started with a book party for 'Wow City”. Treat Williams and I live in the same town and our kids go to school together. Treat has been flying airplanes of every description since he was in High School- he flew his first solo flight at seventeen. I'd been drawing airplanes of every description since I was a little kid. I filled many sketchbooks with the exploits of Johnny Johnson, Spitfire ace…
When Treat saw my drawing of “Wow Airplane” The idea for the book was born. It was simple. Treat had an airplane, actually two, and my Dad lived in Oshkosh; Oshkosh Wisconsin hosts the biggest air show in the country every summer, the Experimental Aircraft Association Air Venture. Ten thousand airplanes fly in from all over the world- every kind of airplane: the latest big military and commercial jets, lovingly restored historic planes, experimental and cutting edge aircraft designs, and every imaginable private plane, large and tiny. We figured we'd fly out there, write a book, and stay at my dad's- hotels in Oshkosh are booked years out during the air show.
Treat has a two engine private plane, Navajo 95 Charlie Lima, and we took some friends along, also pilots. There was Carl Penner, who has been a commercial airline pilot with Delta (heavy metal) but is also an accomplished stunt flyer and aircraft mechanic. He has a hanger full of banged up old planes that he is restoring at our little country airfield. Carl restored and owns a Chinese Mig15 from the Korean War. Our other pilot was Harry Bibb, also a commercial pilot with Delta, who once flew elephants in Viet Nam for the Air Force. We took along the pilot's three teenage sons, and then me with a sketchbook and camera.
We had a full plane and a full house, so we rented a ramshackle old farmhouse near the Oshkosh airport from one of my high school friends. I stayed at my dad's with the air conditioning. I still hear about that farmhouse….
The Air show was spectacular. Always is, as you can see by the pictures and the book. The flight there and back was terrific fun, being with all the pilots and hearing their chatter and stories. It's an entire, fascinating world, aviation, with it's own language, history and legends.
When we were home, Treat took me flying in his T-6 Texan, a World War II combat trainer and we did loops, rolls and other aerobatics. You sit on your parachute as a cushion and get the drill on how to pop the canopy and bail out if things go south. Throwing up is considered bad form. We buzzed the Wasatch Mountains so close you felt like you could reach out and touch the peaks.
We worked on the book with Donna Bray as our editor and Anne Diebel as our art director. Namrata Tripathi, Tamson Weston & Joann Hill also contributed to the final editing and design. We were just so stoked from start to finish that everything about doing this book was nothing but pure fun. Once, while I was drawing the Boeing B-17 and jabbering on and on about the design characteristics, may assistant called out “Bob! don't geek out on me!” We hope that you and your children enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.

2010-01-23T06:10:00.000-08:00

Wow Ocean is finished and off to the publisher: Here are some of the pages! All of the fish will be labeled in type- so it will be a learning book.

2009-12-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth has gotten three starred reviews so far!

THE FOLLOWING BOOK RECEIVED ITS FIRST STARRED REVIEW IN THE OCTOBER 1, 2009 ISSUE OF KIRKUS REVIEWS. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE REVIEW:

SOPHIE PETERMAN TELLS THE TRUTH!

Written by Sarah Weeks

Illustrated by Robert Neubecker

(Beach Lane Books; ISBN 9781416986867; November 2009; Fall catalog pg. 271)

Straight shooter Sophie Peterman gives readers the lowdown on babies: They are your “worst nightmare.” With a cocked eyebrow and a clear, authoritative voice she lists reasons why you can’t trust a baby. They leak, they smell, they swallow (and eventually return!) your favorite marble, they rummage in your drawers and they devour your hidden Halloween candy. While not the first book about a disgruntled older child and the arrival of a cooing, burping bundle, this effort finds success through Sophie’s fresh voice. Never whiny or petulant, she deftly delivers deadpan observations that evoke smiles. Neubecker’s vivid artwork pops as he uses his bright palette and unique perspectives to create facial expressions that perfectly capture Sophie’s annoyance, her mother’s frustration and the baby’s clear-eyed joy. Oversize, all-caps, hand-lettered portions of narration add emphasis and allow Sophie’s voice and the artwork to seamlessly merge. When Sophie finally warns that you can go from hating baby to liking baby, she offers truly touching anecdotes that make her transition believable: Upon hearing a tiny voice call out, “Soapy!” to her, she just melted. Readers will too.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Publisher's Weekly, starred review;

Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth! Sarah Weeks, illus. by Robert Neubecker. S&S/Beach Lane, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8686-7

In a rant worthy of talk radio, young Sophie warns readers of the horrors of siblinghood: “Babies are not sweet. Babies are not precious. Babies are not cute. Babies are... your worst nightmare!” If readers need further proof of Sophie's claims, Neubecker (Wow! School!), wonderfully in his element, offers a portrait of infant-as-alien worthy of the Weekly World News (in addition to aliens, Sophie also compares babies to pirates and monsters). Truth (actually) be told, all of Sophie's complaints are familiar to the genre: babies are smelly crybabies, attention hoggers and violators of personal space and property. But Weeks (Catfish Kate and the Sweet Swamp Band) makes the material fresh: her heroine has an indelible personality and a voice that spills off the page, aided by comic typography (“If you have to sit next to a monster all the way to your aunt and uncle's house in Syracuse, New York, do not breathe in through your nose”). Fully owning her wounded rage, Sophie seethes with precocious certitude as she marshals evidence (she's big on lists) and wields rhetorical flourishes—the text is a gift to anyone reading aloud. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

From School Library Journal, starred review;

PreS-Gr 2–In no uncertain terms, a girl warns readers about the perils of a new sibling. Looking like an alien at first, and the object of unwarranted praise and attention, a baby is prone to all manner of gross behaviors. Sophie reveals that the situation doesn’t get better as the infant grows into a toddler (known as a “monster”): stealing Halloween candy, swallowing lucky marbles, and exhibiting general uninhibited behavior. She softens, though, when the monster begins to focus affection on her but leaves readers with a warning not to reveal this softness to parents lest they repeat the experience. Weeks has created a feisty, forthright protagonist who lays out the pros and cons of a new brother with delightful tongue-in-cheek detail. The ink and digitally colored illustrations and boldface words in the text perfectly catch the narrative nuances and enhance it with cheeky perspectives and funny touches. Older siblings will laugh at the younger child’s antics and parents will chortle at Sophie’s reactions and perspective in all her righteous truth telling.–Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI

Well, my goodness....

2009-11-11T05:47:00.001-08:00

Good morning! Here's Wow! School! This book is based on our lovely Colby School here in Park City. I sat in on classes and drew as the year progressed. Donna Bray, my editor, sent me lots of info on her pre-school in Brooklyn too. It's a bit of a mix between Pre and K.... I wanted to get the three R's in; my daughter, Joey, was in pre school at the time and was booming out the ABC song all day long. I'm changing the way I'm using the Blog to focus more on books. Sophie Peterman's just out and has already gotten two starred reviews! So, I'm playing catch up and posting some of my earlier books now and will bring things up to Sophie as soon as I can.

2009-10-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

Seeing that this Blog is directly linked to Amazon, and soon to my publisher's websites, I'm going to concentrate on books and leave most of my general illustration stuff at Neubecker.com. So, without further ado, here is my first book "Wow! City!"

"Wow! City!" was written by my daughter, Isabel, when she was eighteen months old. I'd lived in New York City for twenty two years and I'd moved to Utah to be in the mountains and to start a family. As all New Yorkers would, I felt quite like a fish out of water once the novelty of a "long vacation" wore off. Taking Isabel back to New York enabled me to see the city anew through her eyes. Her two words were "wow!" and "mom!" I took her everywhere on the subways in a backpack because, as new parents, we didn't trust the taxis- they have no car seats. By the time we had our second child, we'd just hold them on our laps. Many of the scenes in the book are Izzy's reactions to actual events; many, like Chinese New Year, the fire truck, and the long, warm cab ride home at night are my own fond memories.

"Wow! City!" was quite a hit when it was published in the fall of 2004. It won an ALA notable book award, the short list for the Caldicott Medal- about twenty books long, out of the tens of thousands of children's books published each year. This was my start as a children's book illustrator and author.

"Wow! City!" garnered many glowing and starred reviews, and here is my favorite:

From Booklist: Starred Review: If Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie had been painted with a two-year-old in mind, the result might have been something like this. Bold colors and undulating forms jitterbug across the big, 20-by-10 inch spreads of Neubecker's first book for children, an ode to urbanity that chronicles his Utah-born daughter's first experience of the Big Apple. Though Neubecker is a seasoned contributor to the New York Times and other journals for adults, his artwork here couldn't be more attuned to toddlers. Each double-page scene, hand-drawn in thick, toothsome black line and tinted digitally in riotous carnival colors, showcases a city sight writ large, accompanied by a two-word exclamatory phrase: "Wow! Taxi!" "Wow! Skyscrapers!" "Wow! Fire Engine!" Neubecker then crams every square inch of the surrounding area with things to point, identify, or wonder about, including a yellow dog somewhere on every page (a stray ultimately goes home with guess who?). Sharp eyes will eventually notice that this seek-and-find subplot extends to the stunning endpapers. A dazzling picture-book debut that beautifully transmits the wonder of the view from a bay-carrier backpack-so different from the more jaded perceptions of adults who, like the father illustrated here, stand agog before the unintelligible squiggles of a subway map.

2009-09-18T11:39:00.001-07:00

2009-09-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

While I'm at it, here's the New York Times Travel cover that will be published this Sunday, 9/20/09, together with the sketches. It's having to do with devotees of Wagner's Ring series... much like trekkies or Star Wars fans....

2009-09-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

The first review of Sophie has come out; here it is;

THE FOLLOWING BOOK RECEIVED ITS FIRST STARRED REVIEW IN THE OCTOBER 1, 2009 ISSUE OF KIRKUS REVIEWS. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE REVIEW:

SOPHIE PETERMAN TELLS THE TRUTH!
Written by Sarah Weeks
Illustrated by Robert Neubecker
(Beach Lane Books; ISBN 9781416986867; November 2009; Fall catalog pg. 271)

Straight shooter Sophie Peterman gives readers the lowdown on babies: They are your “worst nightmare.” With a cocked eyebrow and a clear, authoritative voice she lists reasons why you can’t trust a baby. They leak, they smell, they swallow (and eventually return!) your favorite marble, they rummage in your drawers and they devour your hidden Halloween candy. While not the first book about a disgruntled older child and the arrival of a cooing, burping bundle, this effort finds success through Sophie’s fresh voice. Never whiny or petulant, she deftly delivers deadpan observations that evoke smiles. Neubecker’s vivid artwork pops as he uses his bright palette and unique perspectives to create facial expressions that perfectly capture Sophie’s annoyance, her mother’s frustration and the baby’s clear-eyed joy. Oversize, all-caps, hand-lettered portions of narration add emphasis and allow Sophie’s voice and the artwork to seamlessly merge. When Sophie finally warns that you can go from hating baby to liking baby, she offers truly touching anecdotes that make her transition believable: Upon hearing a tiny voice call out, “Soapy!” to her, she just melted. Readers will too.
(Picture book. 4-8)

Wow. How great is that. Never would have happened, of course, without Sarah's wonderful manuscript- having spent the last few years cleaning up baby poop and getting barfed on, I jumped on this as soon as my wonderful editor, Andrea Welch, offered it. Also much thanks has to go to Lauren Rille, my art director, who put me through five sets of sketches. I would do it again tomorrow. Her type and design is as good as it gets! Go buy this book!

Summer stuff

2009-09-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Too many Monsters; A Halloween Counting Book is nearly done- here's a sneak preview. It's been a busy month. I did an entire issue of In Character magazine- a small journal put out by the Templeton Foundation (Sir John invented international mutual funds) that devotes an entire issue to a single virtue- in this case, wisdom. It's a collection of terrific essays by notable scholars. We liked it so much, we subscribed. I'm showing a wise doctor looking "inside" a patient. I usually draw my wife, Dr. Ruth, in these situations, although I gave her a haircut here. The piece was written by one Dr. Groopman .
The last drawing was for Slate- about Twitter and how an influential (irate) Twitterer can slam a product or service...

While I was looking up Dr. Groopman, it occurred to me how lucky I am to be able to work with such extraordinary people. Back when Slate was owned by Microsoft, we'd have these semi- lavish weekend retreats at resorts in Washington State. I volunteered to drive from the Seattle airport deep into the interior mountains of Washington (mountain driving is one of my acquired skills)- anyway, I had Emily Yoffe, her husband John, their young daughter , and Robert Wright in my car. The conversation was so interesting that I missed the turn and drove us all the way to Canada, where the Canadians politely turned us around. We drove through mountain passes and an avalanche that crossed the road. Arriving hours late, Mike Kinsley asked me what kept us. Always nervous in the great scholar's presence, I told him that my main goal was to keep the car between the white line and the yellow line, and not to miss a word. He was horrified.

2009-07-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

These are spreads from "Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth" by Sarah Weeks from Simon & Shuster due out in November. I love how the drawings came out and I especially love how Lauren Rille, my art director, did the type.

2009-07-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

No agenda today. I've been out planting with my wife. We carved a small lawn out of the woods just off our patio. Didn't cut any trees, just underbrush. Continuing work on Wow! Ocean! and a special project that I'm not talking about yet. Got my editor's and art directors comments back on "Too Many Monsters". Very helpful, but it's always a bit of a shock, since I don't always agree with them and have to process it for awhile- then decide what to incorporate and how to improve upon the suggestions that I don't think work. That's kind of the secret with working with all ad's and editors whether it's a book, an editorial assignment, an ad, a movie poster, whatever. Supply your own thinking first, always. Then take their ideas and make them better. I'm just going to post what's on the hard drive today, starting with a moose. We've been getting lots lately. Yesterday we had this female in the morning, a juvenile male in the evening (my wife, Ruth, said his little downy antlers were really "cute") and this morning we found tracks from a big mom and a baby that passed through last night. They're quite dangerous if you get close, by the way, especially a mother with young, so don't try petting one. We stay in the house when they come by. For the rest of today's post, here's a financial piece for Forbes about the states trying "Stupid Budget Tricks", a Slate piece on shock therapy for computer addiction in China, (homage to R. Crumb), and a sketch... R.

2009-07-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

I got this beautiful link from a little fan, Vivian, so I had to update the blog and include it. It's been really busy since we got back from Costa Rica. It's my everyday illustration and editorial work for Slate that finances the books. Making a living just doing books is hard, and takes years to establish. I was a presenter at a recent writer's conference with Shannon Hale, and someone asked her what her life was like now after "Princess Academy" won the Newbery. She instantly said, "You mean before the helicopter? And the butler?" The joke is that life is pretty much as always....
Here's a drawing for Consumer reports and a president's dog from the L.A. Times. I'm including a few spreads from "Too Many Monsters", a board book from Little Simon. I took a short break from "Wow Ocean" to do the sketches for this and it's a good thing- tackling " Wow Whales" and "Wow Tidepools" is going to take energy and inspiration. With fans like Vivian, it'll be easy.

2009-06-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

The girls and I have just returned from Costa Rica. We stayed at the Lapa Rios eco lodge on the Osa Peninsula. I must say, it was fabulous. The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Cana Blanca Wildlife Sanctuary where we met Sweetie, a juvenile spider monkey. I got some ideas for Wow! Ocean! - we need a Wow! Tidepools! spread- and it also got me thinking about a rain forest book down the road. We shot over 800 pictures (don't you love digital?) and here are just the first few that I got downloaded, resized, and etc... My wife, Dr. Ruth, always travels with a full medical kit, sutures, local anesthetic, every pill imaginable- and she treated three patients while in the jungle. A little boy who got rolled over rocks by surf (no stitches, just derma bond), a man with a high fever, and a girl with an infection... she entertained the idea of just moving there, being the village doctor, working for free, or being paid with a few eggs or a chicken...
I'm working away on sketches for "Too Many Monsters - a Halloween Counting Book", a new board book for Little Simon and winding up the sketches for "Ocean". In the meantime, "The Great Dog Wash " should be released any minute now! (Simon & Shuster) Nothing new to post on the books now, so I'll make d0 with some recent images from Slate.com.

2009-05-31T19:06:00.001-07:00

Here's the Cherios box with "Great Dog Wash" inside...

2009-05-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

I've been working away on Wow! Ocean! these last few weeks. The family and I are going to Costa Rica for a much needed vacation/surf trip/jungle adventure in June, so I'll get a little research in. I'm getting lots of great feedback from "The Great Dog Wash" Cheerios project- seems like with a million and a half out there everyone who eats breakfast got one! Thanks. Here are some of the pencil sketches for Wow! Ocean! And, because the vertical format goes so well on the web, a drawing I did this morning for New Jersey Monthly as well... R.

The Great Dog Wash Cherios campaign!

2009-05-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

'The Great Dog Wash: by Shelly Breaner, and me, is out in one and a half million cheerios boxes. See this link... and this one, and here's the google...

This was fun to do, but what really drew me to the project was the wonderful Cheerios reading program and the "gasp" press run. The full size version will be in bookstores this summer. Eat your Cheerios! R.

2009-05-07T05:26:00.000-07:00

I'm posting three editorial drawings this morning! The first is about buying houses... the second is a magazine illustration (Business Week) about corporations real stand on healthcare (nationalize it, yesterday...) and the third is how ordinary people will torture if authority asks them to. Fun.

Just returned from N.Y.C. We placed "Too Many Monsters" with Little Simon, of Simon & Shuster. It's a board book, about a little kid who has too many monsters in his room. They keep popping up, and he tries to stuff them in closets, etc....
In the meantime, my author on "Two Dogs," John Lithgow, has been up to nice things here.

New York was grey and a bit sad with the recession. I've seen it before. I graduated from Parsons in'75, the year Jerry Ford (bless his heart anyway) told NYC to drop dead. The food was spectacular.

Heading up to Hill

2009-04-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

A light, wet snow fell last night. Izzy and I are doing a book signing at Hill Air Force Base's kid's book festival. They have a great child development center there and I go up and read from time to time. I can't wait for Air Show to come out next summer- Treat and I will go up and read- taking turns being the tower and the plane- Navajo nine five Charlie Lima... Air Show is full of aviation speak, and the idea is that all you need is a cardboard box and the book for many happy hours of flying. The endpapers are the instrument panel from N95CL, Treat's airplane, faithfully drawn... I'll do a comprehensive post on Air Show soon with pictures of our journey from tiny Heber, Utah airport to the great Oshkosh air show with Treat Williams, two other pilots and their three teenage boys. It was a blast. There were ten thousand airplanes there from every era and of every type imaginable. It was aviation geek heaven. So that's a tease. I'll put something together soon. Here's some pics as an appitizer; Treat and I with an enormous Canadian Air Force Lancaster bomber (1942), the last one still flying, and Carl's Chinese MIG. (Carl is our co-pilot in the book.)

Wow! Ocean!

2009-04-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

Good morning. I'm just having coffee and waking up...I've started in on the long awaited (by me anyway) Wow! Ocean! This first involved a trip to the public library and a giant stack of reference books. That and countless hours spent on the beach and in the water surfing... The plan is to cram every possible detail into each picture and then to label the major fish- by their common name- not scientific, which would be a major incursion into Latin.
The set up is very simple and goes something like this; "Izzy was a mountain girl, she lived up on top of the world. Izzy and her sister Jo, were really hot one summer, so...
They went to the ocean! and then we proceed with the wows...I'll have the girls in every spread doing a different aquatic activity. I wasn't sure how that would work, but, as often happens, once it's out of one's head and drawn on paper, it takes shape and makes sense...
A note on format; these drawings are simple thumbnail sketches to establish the general composition of each spread and to set the pacing of the book. These are then blown up and used as a general guideline for the pencil roughs, much more detail is added, and then the pencils are traced onto watercolor paper and the final ink drawings are done. Color is done on the Mac.

That's it for today...there's a lot of Wow drawing to do...and some magazine work too... and the kids come home early! (Friday).

2009-04-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

This was done today for Slate.com about a young lady who has had Earth Day up to her ears!

2009-04-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

Today is a beautiful day and I'm waiting for my editors to talk to me. In the meantime, I got an armload of ocean reference from the library and am just breaking ground on Wow! Ocean! For today's eye candy, I just finished a poster for the Arizona Theater Company's production of "Roger's Dead" about a wealthy Wall Street guy who dies in a skiing accident and leaves dependents so clueless and addle brained that they can't even have him buried... a commentary on the times, as it were....

Time to get started

2009-04-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

Good morning! One of my former students (Guy Francis, who's all grown up now) showed me how to do this . This is just a start, and a shaky one at that, but I am gathering a growing list of readers, and it's nice to have a place to post the daily goings on of the studio... For an intro, let's link to my interview on Seven Imppossible Things Before Breakfast, a fabulous blog on books and people who make them...
As I get familiar with this, I promise I'll get more sophisticated with the site's operation...