This book is aimed for elementary school libraries. The reading is fairly easy (suggested levels are grades 3-6) with the main focus being on how I came to be an illustrator, along with some career highlights.

I never thought myself worthy of having a book written about my life, which is why I’ve yet to do an “Art of Tony D” book. Besides, I am always looking forward to my next project, with that feeling that I am on the verge of the next big artistic breakthrough…though looking back, I realize I have accomplished a few things here and there. You don’t really realize it as you are experiencing it, only in hindsight does it become a bit more clear.

I like this series of books. Not because I am the subject for one, but because they focus on illustrators (both past and present) who have had an impact on children’s publishing. 10 year-old Tony would have LOVED this series.

Retailing for a mere $7, here are seven reasons why you may enjoy this story.

1. Lot’s o’ art. I created over 50 pencil drawings of Kenny and company for your viewing pleasure. From quiet, reflective moments like this:

…to awesome scenes like this:

2. Dragons rule. If you haven’t figured it out by now, there is a dragon in this book. A big blue one who loves Shakespeare and eating.

3. Hogsqueal makes a cameo. Don’t believe me? Turn to page 81.

4. Did I mention it was a New York Times Bestseller? That still thrills me.

5. Sneak a read at The Search for WondLa. We put chapter 1 in there for your additional reading pleasure.

6. Ever read Kenneth Grahame’s The Reluctant Dragon? This is a big ol’ valentine to that childhood favorite of mine.

7. What else can you get for $7? Two frappuccinos? A 12-pak of Charmin? A couple of gallons of gas?

I hope you enjoy this story of friendship and family as much as I did creating it. It still holds a warm place in my heart (next to Ted, of course).

This year’s theme is one that is near and dear to my heart: “If I could travel in time, I’d visit…”.

Come on! How cool is that!?

Kindergarten through 12th grade artists can participate. In fact, here is a nifty video that explains it all.

My Spiderwick collaborator, Holly Black and I will be part of the esteemed panel of judges, which include fellow children’s book star, Mo Willems, as well as singer, Katy Perry(!) Finalists will be flown to New York City to join the judges in announcing the winner on May 17th.

So what are you doing still reading this? Go! Get drawing! I look forward to seeing some familiar names in the final judging.

A sneak peak at the final product and now for a look at a few key points on how Brittany created her masterpiece…

Brittany begins by virtually “sculpting” Ted.  Throughout her 3-D model making process she uses a few different programs including Maya, Zbrush, Mari, & Maya Mental Ray Rendering.

Next step Brittany sheds Ted of his accessories and begins to add his illustrious texture and color.   She’s done a great job giving him that lovely pink complexion that we all know so well.  Looking good!

A wire frame is added to help give this wacky gent some structure.  You can see the virtual wire stretch over Ted’s larger body parts.  Looks like he’s gotten into those raspberry treats again…

And with a bit more work and dedication Ted is complete!  I love how Brittany relaxed his ears and rendered him to such a welcoming pose – inviting us to whatever party he’s off to next.  This young artist has much talent and I am sure she will do awesome in her future career.  Thanks for all your hard work Brittany, I wish you the best of luck!

Keep drawing, keep creating, keep dreaming!

The year started out with the announcement that The Search for WondLa was Al Roker’s Book Club pick for the Today show. Though I wouldn’t be on the air for the segment until March, I was giddy with excitement. This was a great validation for me right as I returned to Orbona to pen the second book of the WondLa trilogy.

To me, the sophomore book is the make-or-break for a series. As a reader, I now know the world that the characters inhabit when I crack open the second installment, so I don’t need everything explained to me. Instead, I want the plot to become more tangled with troubles and the stakes to become significantly higher. I want to know who the true antagonist is and sense a premonition of where the story is heading…at least, that was my thinking when I sat down at the computer in January and typed away on Hero for WondLa.

To me, nobody did a second-book-in-a-trilogy better than J. R. R. Tolkien. In March, I reported on a lesser-known story from back in 1967 when there was the possibility that Maurice Sendak would illustrate Tolkien’s classic, The Hobbit. In my sleuthing, I located the whereabouts of one of Sendak’s sample Hobbit pieces and shared the story in the LA Times (with much help from Geoff Boucher and Gregory Maguire).

My diversions remained brief throughout the year, as I had to keep Hero for WondLa my main focus. However, I did receive fantastic news that I had been named as a Global Ambassador for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. Starlight is a charity very near and dear to my heart, as Angela and I have spent our share of time in pediatric hospitals when our daughter, Sophia, was younger. No child should be denied the opportunity to read the latest book or attend an author event, so I am honored to bring both to readers staying in hospitals across the US and UK.

Speaking of the UK, I enjoyed a wondlaful tour at my home away from home this fall as I promoted the release of both The Spiderwick Chronicles and Search for WondLa in paperback. I was joined by friends like Sarah Bolger and Chris Riddell, making this particular tour very special for me.

I returned home from tour in October and switched hats from author to illustrator. I spent the fall sketching up the interior illustrations for Hero and pushing myself to render things that don’t come naturally to me (like architecture and machinery). Thankfully, I had inspiration from past masters, like Giovanni Piranesi, who had also been an inspiration for the architecture in Planescape.

Once the sketches were completed, I began inking (seen below). The detail in the inks far exceeds what I did in the first WondLa book (click for higher-res image).

With help from digital-artist-dynamo, David White, flatting in the basic color fields for me, I am now finishing the images for Hero. The book will be completed to go to press at the beginning of February for its May release.

It took me a solid year to write and illustrate this novel. It was an intense year of self-discipline and pushing myself to see what I was capable of. But it was a gratifying year to know that I was able to create something completely drawn from my own imagination. I thank you all for supporting me and allowing me the opportunity to dream big. I hope the you find this one is worth the wait.

All my best to you in the coming year. Its going to be an exciting one!

On the twelfth day of Christmas,  Eva Nine sent to me

12 ripe sweet voxfruit,

11 hovercars,

10 holo-shows,

9 sonic rifles,

8 nutriment pellets,

7 hydration tablets,

6 sheets of electro-paper,

5 utili-tunics,

4 Omnipods,

3 medi-stickers,

2 mismatched sneakboots,

and Muthr in a Sanctuary!

That is all kinds of awesome, Kai. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would love to send you A Hero for WondLa if it were complete, but I am still working away on the illustrations. However, keep your eyes peeled for a little something in your mailbox…

THE TWELVE GOONEY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
(A Mostly True Story Steeped for Thirty Years with a Dollop of Nostalgia)

In 1979, on the last day of school before the holiday break, I received one of the best Christmas presents ever. And it wasn’t a cool toy wrapped up under my tinsel-bedraggled tree.

The Hobe Sound Elementary Holiday Extravaganza (HSEHE), was scheduled that day. All grades (K-5^th) participated in this pain-filled pageant featuring humiliating skits, an awkward gift-exchange, and warbling off-key carols for the teachers and faculty.

This, we were told, would usher in the festive holiday season. Even then, I was pretty sure no amount of Jingle Bells or Frosty the Snowman was going to make a winter wonderland in hot and humid south Florida. Regardless, the HSEHE went on and preparations were made.

The day prior to the event, each fifth grade student was allowed to choose a partner with whom he would perform and select the perfect song to mumble and murmur in front of the entire school.

The logical partner for me? Greg Kotter.

To say that Greg was a “Wild and Crazy Guy” would be an understatement. He was insane. Like, Mork from Ork insane. He would come in from recess walking on his hands. He ate sand. He would shout out bizarre phrases in the classroom like “Jiggy-jiggy!” and “Have a timidly day!” Sometimes he arrived at school as a character known only as Pilma – an old hermit who lived on a mountain. He was brilliant. He was weird. He was my best friend.

Though Greg and I had been friends since second grade, we now had different teachers for fifth grade. So our meeting for the HSEHE was really just a chance for us to catch up on what loot we were hoping to score that year.

Greg had asked for some Mad Libs and a Creepy Crawlies Thingmaker while I held out hope for a Revell model of a ’78 Firebird Trans Am, just like Burt Reynold’s car in Smokey and The Bandit. We spent the entire time dreaming of our Christmas booty only to find that we had missed choosing our song selection for the HSEHE.

“Kotter, DiTraleezzi, you boys get over here,” Mrs. Tasker, who was Greg’s teacher, commanded. Mrs. Tasker was a saucy southern ferryboat with a dark puff of permed hair and a glass eye (true). Rumors abound that she was deaf in one ear, but nobody dared ask which ear it was. Her deafness was likely caused from her own yelling, which could be heard through the portable walls that contained her classroom. You did not cross Mrs. Tasker. Ever.

Greg and I shuffled over to her. Her great girth, draped in an emerald kaftan, poured over a tiny stool as she dabbed sweat off of her cheeks with a hankie. I had never been this close to Mrs. Tasker before. Her pitted skin looked like an orange rind and it seemed to be smudging off and onto her hankie from the make-up stains that covered the little damp rag.

“Y’all have been dilly-dallying all morning,” she said pointing at us in an accusatory fashion with her hankie. “So here’s your song.” She handed the paper to Greg.

I could still smell the ink from the ditto machine wafting up from the blue type as I peered down to read the title, The Twelve Days of Christmas.

“Aw, c’mon Mrs. Tasker, we –“ Greg started.

“Zip it,” she said. “You two chattybugs should have been paying attention when we announced the song choices. This is the only song left.”

“But only sing-y people in chorus class can do this song, how are we gonna do it?” Greg asked. I saw worry on his face under his thick transitions lenses.

“Too bad, so sad,” Mrs. Tasker rotated on her perch and hacked something up into her hankie.

Deflated, Greg and I flopped down in the corner of the classroom.

“What are we going to do?” I lamented. “This dumb song takes over an hour to sing, and that’s with a full chorus.”  I knew this for fact, because my mom’s beloved John Denver & the Muppets LP had been playing non-stop since we put up our tree.

Greg stared down at the paper, saying nothing. Was he already trying to memorize all of those words?

“I can’t even sing,” I whined. Across the room, two girls recited Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer while performing an intricate hand-clapping game. It was impressive. “Everybody is totally going to laugh at us and not in the good way.”

Greg looked up from the ditto, “I have a plan.”

I leaned in close. “Yes. Go on.”

“It involves breaking the rules a bit.”

“I’m with you.”

“We may get into trouble afterwards.”

I pondered this for a beat. “If it’s worth the risk I’ll take it.”

Greg replied, “Oh, it’s worth the risk. They will applaud us. They will love us.”

“I’m in! Let’s do this!”

Greg leaned in close, cupped his hand next to his mouth and sang in a hushed tone to me. It was nothing more than a line, a phrase, but it set my brain off into hyperspace:

“On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, an eyeball in a pear tree.”

I grabbed a stack of construction paper and cracked my knuckles in preparation. I pulled out my lucky Star Wars pencil and began to draw. As I did so, I sang, “On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two flaming toads…”

Greg finished, “…and an eyeball in a pear tree.”

We snickered and snorted like the masterminds we were as we laid out our plan for comedic domination of the HSEHE.

“Hey, whatcha guys doing?” Rob asked.

Rob was a six-foot tall fifth grader with a wad of curly black hair that would make a Harlem Globetrotter weep. He was holding a giant bell in one hand and The Neverending Night Before Christmas in another. He scanned the twelve drawings scattered on the floor around us.

“What is this?” he asked. His eyes then lit up like he’d just discovered a free stash of Marvel comics. “Ha ha! An eyeball! That’s funny!”

Greg shushed him. I collected the drawings as fast as possible. “We know, moron!” I said. “But we are not going to reveal our ‘improved’ rendition until we have to sing it at the show.”

“Then no one will stop us!” Greg said with a maniacal giggle.

“So keep your trap shut, Rob,” I added. “Because if Mrs. Tasker finds out, she’ll –“

“She’ll what?” a ferryboat foghorn went off from above. Mrs. Tasker was standing right behind us.

She looked up at Rob, “Run along Santy Clause. You’ve got a poem to learn.”

Greg and I tried to leave with him employing the “fleeing flock” method of retreat. As seen in many science educational filmstrips, this mass escape tactic attempts to confuse the predator from isolating one victim to attack.

“Don’t even try,” she bellowed. “You two have been awfully quiet over here. Have you been memorizing your song? You know its one of my favorites.”

Fear had zapped my ability to speak, especially now that the entire class had stopped rehearsing and was watching. Greg, ever the quick one, responded, “Yup, we’ve been practicing and memorizing every line.”

Mrs. Tasker smiled then focused her gaze on me, “Tony, you are the little artist of our school, right? Are you doing drawings for each of the twelve days?”

I nodded. Silent.

“Oh, you’re a shy one, eh?” Mrs. Tasker extended a swollen hand to me. It resembled a rubber glove filled with so much sweat that it was about to burst. On the end of each finger a blood red Tyrannosaur claw beckoned for my artwork. “Come on, shy bug, lemme see. I am sure they are woonderfuuuul.”

Reluctantly, I handed over the drawings. The words of my mom echoed through my head, “You’ve got a real talent, Tony, I know you’ll do great things with it.”

Mrs. Tasker seized the pictures and began to page through them. Her eyes narrowed as she studied my drawings and Greg’s lyrics on every page. She said nothing.

The entire fifth grade said nothing.

Greg and I shifted uncomfortably waiting for the steamboat engine to explode.

Would I be grounded for this? Could I be expelled? Can Christmas actually be taken away as a punishment?

Farewell, ’78 Firebird. I’ll miss your T-top and snowflake rims.

Mrs. Tasker tucked the drawings under one of her paddle arms. “You boys think you’re pretty funny, huh? Well we are gonna see what kind of funny bunnies you really are.”

The entire class Oohed. One kid whispered loudly, “She’s taking the drawings to the principal’s office. They’re gonna git it now.”

“Enough!” Tasker barked, then quickly composed herself. “Back to your rehearsals, students.” She shuffled out of the room and Greg and I didn’t see her for the rest of the day.

* * * *

I tried every which way to get out of going to school the next day but my mom wouldn’t have it. Every excuse of mine was rebutted with the fact that I would miss the gift exchange and the HSEHE. Finally I relented.

As I rode the bus to school, I quietly reflected on the pending holiday.

To me, Christmas itself was, in a way, a birthday party for Jesus. I wondered if Jesus got a lot of cool gifts for his birthday. I’m guessing not. So I prayed. I asked Jesus that if I got into a whole lot of trouble at school, and my parents took away Christmas, then perhaps he could let Santa know that I bequeathed my ’78 Firebird model to him. I assured Jesus it was an awesome car and that he would also enjoy Smokey & The Bandit if he hadn’t yet seen it. Seriously, that film was much better than Hooper.

Then I wished him Happy Birthday.

Since it was special half-day of school, the entire student body packed into the cafeteria the morning for HSEHE. Greg and I sat together like guilty convicts awaiting our grisly sentence. The skits and recitals went on and on and on forever. After awhile, I started to wonder if our punishment was put off until after the holiday break. I crossed my fingers.

Then our principal, Dr. Bellhammer, took the stage. He called up Mrs. Tasker.

Classmates sitting nearby starting to poke and jab Greg and me – taunting and teasing us before we were guillotined for their holiday pleasure. My body went numb. This was it.

“Alright, zip it up,” Mrs. Tasker growled into the microphone. “Yesterday, two boys – Tony DiTraleezzi and Greg Kotter – thought they were a couple of real Steve Martins when they decided to poke fun of one of my beloved Christmas carols.”

I looked over at Greg with remorseful eyes. “It’s been nice knowing you.” He nodded back solemnly.

“Well, lessee what you all think about it,” Mrs. Tasker nodded and the heavy tasseled stage curtains parted behind her. On stage stood the entire Hobe Sound Elementary Chorus with a huge projection screen hanging behind them.

Whispers of confusion lit up in the crowd. My heart raced and my eyes were wide as the lights dimmed. The choral instructor began to play the piano while the choral group sang:

“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…”

A transparency, made from my drawing, was projected onto the screen. Mrs. Tasker croaked into her mic, “…an eyeball in a pear tree.”

The entire school exploded with raucous laughter. Teachers, in hysterics, spit into their coffee. The lunch ladies cackled and wiped away tears of laughter with their sanitary gloves. Even our school janitor, Mr. Jenkins, sang along as the chorus belted out our entire song:

“The Twelve Gooney Days of Christmas”

One the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,

Twelve bones a’crunching,

From eleven dinos fighting,

Ten hobos leaping

Nine zombies dancing,

Eight brains a’squishing,

Seven snot’s a’dripping,

Six scabs a’picking,

Five golden fleas,

Four grungy black things,

Three dead heads,

Two flaming toads

And an eyeball in a pear tree!

That day, at the 1979 Hobe Sound Elementary Holiday Extravaganza my ten year-old dreams were fulfilled. I couldn’t imagine a gift bigger or better than the one Mrs. Tasker gave me – not even a Revell model Firebird with T-top and snowflake rims.

May all of your holiday schemes and wishes come true,

-Tony DiTerlizzi

As I read through the manuscript with my illustrator’s hat on, I realized that with WondLa I am often faced with the same dilemma I had with the Spiderwick books – What image do I draw? What scene or action is the right one to illustrate? How can I present the story to the best of my abilities?

My general rule when illustrating the chapter images in a novel is to render the most exciting scene from the chapter without giving away too much. I want to entice the reader to keep going, turn the page, read just one more chapter, before they put the book down. Sometimes I pull it off, sometimes I don’t. It is a tough balancing act.

I know what you’re thinking, “Why not illustrate the scenes in chronological order? Why not illustrate the opening passage of the chapter?” Because often I find those passages are not that exciting. Usually, the opening lines of a chapter are a setup leading to a turning point in the plot contained somewhere later in the chapter. If I were only to illustrate opening lines, you would not have gotten this in chapter 32 of The Search for WondLa:

…instead, you would have seen an illustration of Eva reuniting with Muthr in the Royal Museum of Solas. Sure, it would have been a nice emotional moment, but you wouldn’t see how menacing the pillar guards are. Besides, this was one of the first sketches I did for the book. I couldn’t wait to finish it. This leads me to my first rule of thumb on choosing a scene to illustrate:

If I think its cool, chances are the reader will too.

Let me elaborate: If I am excited to draw something, that enthusiasm is going to come through in the work. I’ll put in the extra effort to render it to the best of my ability and hopefully the reader will respond positively. Of course, there are other reasons for choosing a particular scene to illustrate. Here are some of my determining factors:

Reader Comprehension – An author can spend pages describing what a scene looks like, (sometimes bringing the story to screeching halt) or simply show what something looks like. This approach is used in my picture books and I have adopted it into my middle-grade novel illustration. It has helped especially in complicated, otherworldly things in WondLa, like the towers of Lacus (as seen above). I want my younger readers to enjoy the story and not have to labor too hard over the text.

Elaborate on a Point – Sometimes I want emphasis on something in the text so that the point is understood or the moment made more memorable. For instance, in chapter 10 of Search for WondLa I wanted you to see that Otto (and therefore all giant water bears) are capable of leaping quite high. For those who’ve read the book, they will tell you this comes into play later in the story.

Focus on a Passage Less Described  – Sometimes the opposite is true. I like to take a moment or passage that is passed over briefly in the text and add to it. This is absolutely the approach I use for illustrating a picture book as it can add greatly to the size and depth of a story. Above is a image of Hogsqueal boasting about capturing Jared and Mallory from Spiderwick. Holly’s text simply read,

“I caught the humans,” Hogsqueal called.

Yet it is obvious in the art that there is no way Hogsqueal could handle that sword, let alone disarm Mallory. So the art here elaborates on the text showing that Hogsqueal is bluffing.

Setting the Mood – One of the more important aspects in choosing a moment to illustrate is what emotional tone will it convey that is concurrent with the text. I did this throughout the Spiderwick series by use of a color plate tipped in the front of the book that represented the general mood of the story. For the finale, The Wrath of Mulgurath, the image (above) represents the struggle of good against evil as the sun sets (i.e. time is running out) on our heroes.

All of the above factors contribute to my choices on what passage of text should be rendered. As I said sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don’t. Below are a few examples from The Search for WondLa where I had to make tough decisions. Do you think I made the right choices?

This is a thumbnail drawing of the opening image for chapter 14 (mislabeled here). It was to be a bird’s-eye view of the gymnasium in Eva’s Sanctuary with Rovender and Eva finding Muthr at the bottom of the pool. I wanted to show more of Eva’s Sanctuary and the destruction caused by Besteel, but I felt that this zoomed out view lessened the impact of the disaster.

Here in the final art, I switched the focus to Eva and we can see how distressed she is (Setting the Mood). Can you imagine walking into your house and it looks like this?

Above was one of my favorite sketches done while developing the story. It simply depicts Rovender telling Eva to get off of his home. I liked it because it showed an entrance to a Sanctuary and gave a clear depiction of what Rovender looked like. But this action fell at the very end of chapter 7, so putting it as the opener would have diffused the surprise at the end of the chapter. In the following chapter, the interaction between the two characters is more intense, so it would have lessened the tension. Consequently, it was not used.

Another sketch not used was this one from chapter 26 showing a worried Eva locked in a cell at the Royal Museum of Solas (again, the sketch was mislabeled). Though she is a bit lanky here, I loved the body form and the fact that I could demonstrate how Eva is relying on her Omnipod to get her out of a sticky situation (instead of using her head). However, I thought it best to illustrate the two alien characters that are introduced in this chapter instead. Besides, at this point in the book we’ve seen Eva enough times to imagine her in her various states of fear.

Anybody recognize the critter in the cell second from the left? Like my other books, WondLa has little nods to characters in my other stories. I’ll have to show you sometime…but that’s another blog post.

Okay, back to illustrating.