# David Wiesner Robobaby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2BmkGoe5Ic

[00:01] All right, here we are, we are live.
[00:04] Welcome everybody, uh, to Children's Book World.
[00:07] I'm Heather, and David Wiesner is here with me today.
[00:10] We are super excited to celebrate the release of Robo Baby.
[00:17] Um, I know David needs no introduction, but I will do a very quick one.
[00:23] David published his first book in 1980.
[00:28] He has published 30, almost 30 books now.
[00:32] Three of them have been Caldecott winners.
[00:39] Three of them have been Caldecott honors.
[00:43] And I, which mathematically that means probably 20 of your books have those nice little stickers on them.
[00:49] Nice, that number.
[00:52] About 16 of those.
[00:55] I don't talk about anymore, so forget those.
[00:59] Has never happened, this happened.
[01:02] And this is amazing and exciting, and I can't wait for you all to hear about the process.
[01:08] This book had me in stitches; it is a book we need right now.
[01:11] It is fun and chaotic and lighthearted and has the best surprise twist.
[01:15] And the end will make you laugh out loud.
[01:18] You will laugh out loud.
[01:20] So I'm going to turn this over to David.
[01:22] And, um, thank you very much for being with us.
[01:28] All right, hello everybody.
[01:30] Hopefully there's people out there.
[01:32] Um, so Rebel Baby, uh, I'm going to take you through the book.
[01:38] But it grew out of, um, an app that I did, which I hope some people saw, called Spot, which had a series of different worlds.
[01:48] And there was a robot world in there.
[01:51] And, um, I didn't get to use a ton of stuff, and I liked the characters, and I liked the setting.
[01:57] And I thought, you know, I can, I can make a book out of these characters.
[02:01] And as I thought about...
[02:04] Robots and pictured them uh being put together.
[02:08] I mean they had you know they would have to be assembled and um showing up in a box.
[02:14] And who would you know be better to assemble than a brand new baby?
[02:19] And the family that I had in mind, the arrival of the new baby um was perfect.
[02:26] And compounded by the uh advancements in technology shall we say.
[02:35] I know certainly in my house whenever we need some computer work done or have questions my wife and I will go kids uh because they always know everything.
[02:45] So all of that came together to um create the world of Robo Baby.
[02:55] And right on the cover um we see uh the character of Cathode.
[02:59] All of the characters have names that are the names of machine.
[03:04] Parts or machines or electrical components.
[03:07] Um, so there's Cathode holding her new baby brother Flange.
[03:12] And as the story opens, we see, um, there's a vehicle there and it's open.
[03:20] And, uh, the new arrival is being taken out of the back of the car.
[03:23] And, um, that's mom and dad.
[03:27] And in the background, in the door of the house, we see there's Kathy, as Cathode is known, and her pet.
[03:34] Not really a dog, but I tend to call him a dog, a sprocket.
[03:39] And they're going to bring the new baby into the house.
[03:42] And here they come in, and you can see the neighborhood, all these rows of houses.
[03:51] And, um, if you look across the street, there's another dog, if you will, watching.
[03:54] Uh, there's that, the delivery car is now flying away.
[03:59] Going into the house, we see mom and dad carrying the little bundle of joy, their.
[04:04] Sprocket outside giving the evil eye to the dog across the street.
[04:08] And if you look carefully over to the right you'll see a couple of the robots moving uh between the houses.
[04:16] They're gonna show up in a little while.
[04:19] And when the story actually begins page one here's mom and dad and Kathy.
[04:23] That's dad Lugnut on the left and uh mom Diode is on the right.
[04:30] And uh Lug Nut says, "Cathode, meet your new baby brother."
[04:35] And when we turn the page we meet Flange.
[04:38] And of course because Flange is a robot he comes in a box.
[04:43] And there's Kathy; she's very excited.
[04:46] She says, "Look, Sprocket, he's a Flange."
[04:49] And there's she's got her tool box and you can see the toolbox with her name on it and red.
[04:53] There's Sprocket going clank clank, which is how I imagine a robot dog would bark.
[05:01] Um, behind them is the crib.
[05:02] I'll tell you about the designing the crib later.
[05:05] But here's Flash, he's come in this big box.
[05:09] You can see it weighs 278 pounds.
[05:12] This is a seriously big box.
[05:13] And he is a Flange; he's in the new model Flange from the Robo Baby Incorporated.
[05:20] Eagle-eyed viewers can look very closely at that shipping label, and there's some hopefully amusing little puns in the address to where it went.
[05:32] And Diode Mom says, "Such a big boy."
[05:35] And Dad says, "Nice package."
[05:39] And now it's time to put together the baby.
[05:44] And they've got the boxes open, and Dad is pretty... he's one of those guys who's really into the instructions.
[05:49] This is the Diode; you know, babies have gotten a lot more complicated since we built Cathode.
[05:56] Oh, Lug Nut, how hard can it be?
[05:59] Now Kathy is very ready; she's got a wrench, she's got her screwdriver, she's got her box of tools because she wants to help.
[06:05] Man, she knows what to do, she's.
[06:07] I've got my tools, mom.
[06:10] There's dad with his uh giant uh fold up instructions.
[06:16] And some of you shoppers may recognize what big store I copied those uh instructions from.
[06:25] Um, yes, and the boxes in the background.
[06:28] Packing peanuts are all over the floor.
[06:30] The box with Flange is right in the front there.
[06:31] That reddish green orange and uh Diode says, "Thanks, Kathy, but this is a mother's job," as she's putting the baby's head on a spindle.
[06:42] Too easy of tools.
[06:48] There goes the head.
[06:51] No problem.
[06:55] But oh, you know, crash, it is in fact harder than it looks.
[06:59] Dad's got the instructions back out.
[07:01] Kathy's trying to catch some of the uh parts, including Flange's head.
[07:06] A little weird there, but.
[07:07] Um, so yes, in fact, a little more complicated than they thought.
[07:12] And um, uh, Kathy's picking up some of the pieces with the help of Sprocket.
[07:17] Good boy, Sprocket, she says.
[07:19] Dad's up there with the tools checking him out.
[07:22] He says, "Better call your brother, Die."
[07:26] And she does, uh, call her brother.
[07:29] Manifold says, "Manifold, we need your help."
[07:32] He says, "I'll be right over on the giant TV screen there."
[07:35] And he shows up.
[07:39] Show me the patient.
[07:42] Thank goodness you're here.
[07:44] Kathy says, "Hi, Uncle Manny."
[07:44] She's helping him with her tool, his toolbox.
[07:47] You can see he has the big tool belt on and another bag of tools which Sprocket is checking out.
[07:54] And in the background, you know, the neighbors have shown up.
[07:55] What do you do when there's a new baby?
[07:57] You bring food.
[07:58] So here comes one of the neighbors.
[08:00] Hi, neighbor.
[08:01] Where's the baby?
[08:03] I've got sludge cake.
[08:05] And there's somebody, another couple in the back with um.
[08:08] Some more stuff which we'll see.
[08:12] And uh Uncle Manny's ready to come in and do his thing.
[08:16] And here he is with giant and inappropriate tools to work on this, but you know that's the way he is.
[08:23] Uncle Manny, I can help.
[08:25] Thanks, Kath, but this calls for an expert.
[08:28] And he gets to work.
[08:30] [Music]
[08:32] Click, acetylene torch, yes, and a nice whack with a giant hammer and chisel, and voila, there's flange.
[08:43] Except, um, Uncle Manny, you didn't follow the instructions.
[08:47] I made some improvements.
[08:49] Isn't he precious?
[08:51] Says Mom.
[08:52] Well, now that he's together, everybody's uh hanging out having some of that food that showed up.
[08:56] You can see uh Manny's got a piece of cake, piece of sludge cake and some greased gears.
[09:05] He's maybe even checking out the rust soup.
[09:09] Yum, but Kathy's the one who recognizes there's a problem here.
[09:15] Start him up, die.
[09:17] Mom, wait, she says, you have to install the updates.
[09:26] We'll do that later, Kathy.
[09:29] And opens up the little door and Flange's head pushes the on button.
[09:34] Oh, it's not just coming on.
[09:38] He's taking off and immediately starts to fly around the room in uh giant zigzags.
[09:46] And there go the greased gears flying through the air.
[09:50] There's the uh the jet propulsion on the Flange.
[09:54] The uh sludge cake getting uh bumped into the neighbor's head.
[09:59] The roof rust soup is now down on the floor.
[10:03] And Mom Diode has finally contacted the emergency hotline for Robo Baby Incorporated.
[10:08] Help, she says, we're on our way.
[10:12] This is the Robotex.
[10:13] You can see the three little guys down there.
[10:15] We're watching what's going on.
[10:18] And poor Kathy, all she wants, all she wants is to play with her new baby brother Flange.
[10:24] But no one is listening to her.
[10:27] Well, here come the Robotechs.
[10:30] Look out, kid.
[10:31] Move it out of the way.
[10:34] And not only the Robotechs, but hi Cathode.
[10:37] I brought Piston and Clutch to see the baby.
[10:41] Aunt Gasket, Aunt Gasket has shown up with her two kids, Clutch and Piston.
[10:46] And the kids are just absolutely enamored of a Sprocket Sparky and start chasing him all the way.
[10:56] There they go.
[10:58] Well, the Robotechs come in and they open up their like little Swiss army knife uh robots.
[11:02] Uh all the little doors open up and different tools come out.
[11:06] But then out comes their giant net which they uh they catch uh Flange with.
[11:10] Got 'em.
[11:11] Oh, he needs a.
[11:13] Complete overhaul.
[11:15] And now finally Kappa has kind of had enough and she says, "Go, Sprocket."
[11:28] And there we go, fetch the baby.
[11:32] And Spock it, Sprocket, I'm sounding like those kids.
[11:36] Sprocket grabs Flange and heads off.
[11:41] Um, they've come up with a plan and the people are now jumping out of the way again, knocking all the food all over the place.
[11:47] Oh, be careful, Spark it.
[11:51] And there's a Sprocket holding Flange and the Robotech's coming after him.
[11:56] No, come back.
[11:56] And all of them pile out the door, chasing Sprocket, trying to get Flange back.
[12:03] Sprocket, bad boy, get him, Lug.
[12:06] I'm trying.
[12:06] Oh no, there goes that cake again.
[12:12] That thing is taking a beating, uh, one of.
[12:14] The Robotex is now bouncing through the air.
[12:16] The greased gears are going flying.
[12:17] Everybody's going after Sprocket and the baby.
[12:25] And wait, catch them!
[12:29] Stop, come back, stop!
[12:33] Where did they go?
[12:34] They can't find them now, Sprocket.
[12:38] There's Sprocket hiding behind one of the houses with Flange.
[12:41] And finally he takes Flange and comes back to Kathy, which was the plan all along.
[12:47] Good boy, now let's get to work.
[12:50] Clank, clank.
[12:51] And again she's got her tools and her uh toolbox ready.
[12:55] And sits down with uh with Flange and gets to work.
[13:00] And we can see her with her little head flashlight on and tools all laid out on the floor.
[13:05] An acetylene torch herself.
[13:07] And she's doing the updates as well, which you can see on the laptop computer.
[13:11] The installation is 93%.
[13:15] Complete, if you look on the left side, you can see all the different model numbers.
[13:20] Uh, robot models to pick from, there's chisel and clutch, crankshaft, cylinder, diode, drill bit, electrode, flange, flywheel, gasket, grommet.
[13:32] And everybody finally comes in and realizes she knows what she's doing.
[13:38] And, oh, you're such a good big sister.
[13:42] Great job, Kathy and little flange.
[13:44] Finally.
[13:45] Um, this is the point at which the previous page flange's eyes actually light up and is put together correctly.
[13:52] And he says, "Well, I don't know how you say that, but..."
[13:57] Little engine noises.
[14:01] And now it's time, everybody's gonna head home, uh, now that the baby's all together.
[14:05] Uh, you can see the robotech guys of success.
[14:08] Cage closed, they're gonna take credit for everything.
[14:10] Um, in the background we see the family.
[14:12] I've blown this up really far so it's very grainy, spaggy.
[14:17] Those kids are never going to let up.
[14:20] So long, thanks Manny, bye.
[14:21] And the neighbors over on the other side, your soup is delicious.
[14:26] I toast the zinc.
[14:30] And finally Uncle Manny says to one of the other neighbors, "My niece, the kid's got talent."
[14:36] I agree.
[14:36] Well, finally everybody's left and we're all have a little uh rest and things have calmed down.
[14:46] Diet says, "You've had an exciting day, haven't you, Flange?"
[14:49] Now it's time to rest.
[14:54] Dad Lug Nut is picking up everything off the floor and says, "Ah, peace and quiet."
[14:58] And back there, there's Cathode by the box saying, "Mom, Dad, look."
[15:06] Now you can see Sprocket is pulling that orange box out from the packing peanuts.
[15:10] And if you were to go back and look earlier in the book, um, way over on the right side, you'll see amid the packing peanuts there's a.
[15:18] Little orange box, well it's still there.
[15:20] And here comes Sprocket pulling it out.
[15:22] And when we finally turn the last page, we see what it is.
[15:24] It's the Robo-Baby.
[15:27] Axel Twins, says Mom.
[15:31] Well, I hope this time they will know right off to let Kathy, uh, get in on the action and, uh, put the baby together.
[15:41] So, uh, this is the story of Robo-Baby, um.
[15:44] And Heather, anytime you're ready, I'm back.
[15:49] Round of applause, that was great.
[15:51] So I would encourage people to ask some questions; feel free to type in.
[15:56] We have a couple, I know, um.
[15:57] Oh, I'll start with some questions and then we have some of our own too.
[16:02] So how has creating the illustrations for your books changed from your first picture book to this one?
[16:12] There's that question.
[16:12] Wow, that could be a whole show.
[16:17] Well, um, so there's, there's kind of two.
[16:22] Answers to that, the first picture book I did was very early.
[16:25] It was a little reader, cute little animals.
[16:29] Pre-separated art was a whole different thing.
[16:33] There's really a vast difference between the work that I did for books for other authors and the books that I wrote myself.
[16:41] When I began writing books myself, Free Fall was the first of those.
[16:46] I only did one other book for another author after that, Eve Bunting's Night of the Gargoyles.
[16:52] So really those books, that's those are the real books.
[16:59] That's when, um, you know, I came into my own.
[17:01] I was not meant to illustrate other people's books; I was meant to write my own.
[17:05] And the difference in the art that I did, not that I wasn't trying to do those other books the best I could, but, um, the work that I did for my own stories was just so much better and interesting and executed better and everything.
[17:18] So over the years I've tried.
[17:22] Uh, things differently.
[17:24] I don't know if I could paint pictures like I did for Free Fall anymore.
[17:29] In many ways, I'm working the same way, but it's a level of painting that's just thinner, lighter washes of color.
[17:45] And I, you know, I look at those and I go, "Boy, how did I do that?"
[17:48] Things have changed in the way that I apply the paint and build up the colors, the intensity of the colors.
[17:57] And that largely comes out of the stories.
[17:58] You know, different stories demand a different approach.
[18:01] And so I've tried a lot of different things.
[18:05] The basic process is very similar, but the outcome can actually be quite different.
[18:12] That was a long answer, sorry.
[18:14] That was a good answer, and it's interesting because you said about colors, the intensity of colors, and that's sort of our next question.
[18:22] How do you decide the color palette for?
[18:24] Each of your books, um early on, Free Fall is one of those cases.
[18:31] I, um, I tended to start with an underpainting that used a certain set of colors, um, ultramarine blue, Payne's gray, raw umber.
[18:42] And really build up quite a lot of the light in the dark and, um, very, I'm almost like a whole painting done in a very limited palette.
[18:51] And then layer, because watercolors obviously they're transparent, so when you put one color over another, whatever is underneath it affects the color you put down, um.
[19:02] So there tended to be a certain look and a feel, they're much more muted set of colors, softer colors, um.
[19:10] But, um, when I began when working on Tuesday, it was like the dead of night.
[19:15] And I just kept layering more and more color, more intense colors.
[19:18] And the intensity of it was like, wow, it was actually scary to paint that way, but it really.
[19:24] Freed me up to um sort of get away from letting the underpainting dictate the look of it.
[19:32] And then ultimately each book kind of tells me the where it wants to go.
[19:38] Flotsam is one where it's a bright sunny day on the beach.
[19:42] There's plastic buckets and toys, you know, very brightly colored plastic things and sun.
[19:48] And I started the first picture, oh this is going to be the bright color book, at least for me.
[19:55] And um and that kind of dictated a lot of the look of that.
[19:58] The color the cover has more red on it than I've used in all paintings I've ever done up to that point.
[20:06] So um it I used to paint and I still do most of the time.
[20:13] I don't I use watercolor but never use black or white watercolor.
[20:17] Um when I was doing Mr. Waffles, the cat was a black cat and I was thinking, well the black I can use a lot of different.
[20:25] um purples and dark blues and different
[20:28] things to make a dark color and then i
[20:29] thought wait a minute
[20:31] why don't i use black um and it was
[20:34] great it was just so beautiful to build
[20:36] up these layers of
[20:38] uh black it's almost velvet of course
[20:40] there's actually
[20:41] some color underneath that all but so
[20:43] each book kind of has a color thing
[20:45] going on
[20:46] um that i find out
[20:50] literally when i start painting i don't
[20:52] go in with a
[20:54] really with a plan um it's the one
[20:58] spontaneous is not a word to use around
[21:01] any of the work that i do
[21:02] but i don't i plan out all the drawings
[21:05] the compositions the layout of the pages
[21:08] the pacing of the book
[21:09] everything is very carefully done the
[21:11] painting is the one thing i sort of
[21:13] start and it's like let's see where it
[21:15] takes me
[21:16] um
[21:20] that's so interesting because i have to
[21:21] say when i when i was looking through
[21:23] the book and i
[21:24] saw you know these robots and they're
[21:26] very they're gray and they're metallic
[21:28] and
[21:28] there's so much humanity and for me i
[21:30] think part of it was the
[21:32] the goldens and the orange it just lent
[21:34] this sort of
[21:35] human this humanity to them and i
[21:37] thought
[21:38] that must have been very intentional and
[21:40] now you're telling me it wasn't
[21:42] no no um the actual color color
[21:46] i knew they weren't all going to be gray
[21:49] robots
[21:50] so because there's copper brass bronze
[21:54] uh cast iron all these different metals
[21:56] have different color to them so i wanted
[21:58] to use that range
[22:00] and then i heightened them the that's
[22:02] not
[22:03] really copper that's not really brass
[22:05] and bronze
[22:06] um the yellow is pushed a little farther
[22:08] the orangey reddish is pushed a little
[22:10] farther
[22:11] um and because they just they sort of
[22:13] became their own color things
[22:14] yeah yeah i don't know how you know for
[22:18] you or the audience how far you go back
[22:20] but iron man
[22:21] in the early days you know he was yellow
[22:23] and orange right it's true yeah
[22:25] yeah so you know jack kirby kind of uh
[22:31] so that was a case of i i knew those
[22:34] color range was going to be in there but
[22:35] once i started working on them i just
[22:37] kind of
[22:37] i pushed them out of the reality of
[22:40] those colors
[22:41] so that they would really be more vivid
[22:43] and um
[22:45] you know give it as you said i love that
[22:47] you you know humanity of the characters
[22:49] yeah you know trying to bring them alive
[22:51] yeah
[22:52] well we have all also decided that
[22:54] that's the color palette we want for our
[22:55] fall wardrobe
[22:57] just so you know just like you'll the
[23:00] shirt i'm wearing in the
[23:01] wall the color of the wall you know
[23:04] so our next question is from adrian
[23:07] wright who you know
[23:08] hi david i know you make 3d models for
[23:11] some of your characters before drawing
[23:12] them did you build some of these
[23:14] characters before drawing
[23:16] thanks for feeding me that one adriana
[23:19] one would think i asked you to do that
[23:23] here's one of my models oh that's cool
[23:25] so yes i'm going to come over here and
[23:27] show you my models
[23:31] so just because i'm going to jump in
[23:33] here
[23:34] for a second um when i was working i
[23:37] mentioned
[23:37] spot here's one of the drawings of the
[23:40] family you know the robot family at the
[23:41] time
[23:42] i know that's kind of gruesome they're
[23:44] carving up a robot carcass for dinner
[23:48] okay so when i started uh
[23:51] thinking about the story and the mom and
[23:53] dad and all of this and then
[23:55] everybody coming over and again heather
[23:58] thank you because you used the word
[23:59] mayhem
[24:00] early on uh that was an intentional
[24:02] thing this just
[24:03] and it went to reminding me when i was
[24:06] started working on this
[24:07] of um the great great scene from the
[24:10] marx brothers the night at the opera
[24:12] where the marx brothers the three marx
[24:13] brothers are in a state room a tiny
[24:15] state room on a ship
[24:16] and slowly but surely endless series of
[24:19] people show up
[24:20] and go into the state room the guy with
[24:23] the wrench the manicurist lady the woman
[24:25] with the broom the mop to clean up and
[24:27] then
[24:28] like six guys with trays full of food
[24:32] until the place is literally packed with
[24:34] people on top of each other and then the
[24:36] fabulous final scene
[24:41] where miss margaret dumont opens the
[24:44] door
[24:47] so um you know this that
[24:50] i just had in my mind this this you know
[24:53] more people more people let's fill this
[24:55] place up until we
[24:56] i ended up with 13 robots in there and
[24:59] had them spilling out at the end
[25:00] um so all of these different shapes i
[25:04] loved them they were
[25:06] mostly um
[25:10] symmetrical thank you yeah i'll figure
[25:12] it out and you know things like looking
[25:14] at collapsible
[25:15] drinking cups which you know can bend
[25:17] kind of and
[25:18] you know i started doing these quick
[25:20] drawings of
[25:22] you know different uh character studies
[25:24] um
[25:25] and when i was had my sort of cast of
[25:29] characters together
[25:30] i then did these technical drawings
[25:34] again since they're symmetrical i only
[25:36] needed one view
[25:37] but they're all there with the various
[25:40] measurements and stuff
[25:41] my son who gets a shout out at the front
[25:44] of the book in the thank yous
[25:46] knows cad and created the files
[25:50] needed to send off to a place to get
[25:53] 3d printed models usually i make my
[25:56] models out of modeling compound like
[25:58] model magic
[25:59] but this time i thought well let's get
[26:02] 3d printed
[26:03] plastic robots so yeah i'm going to
[26:05] market these babies you know collect
[26:06] them all
[26:07] right but again i can pick this up and
[26:10] hold it in any
[26:13] orientation from above from below um
[26:15] change the lighting to see what that
[26:17] looks like
[26:18] um and see how you know the light falls
[26:21] across these various forms and use them
[26:23] to draw and paint from so here they are
[26:25] sitting on my light table with the light
[26:27] from below which
[26:28] i'll just throw in i have been waiting
[26:30] so many years to do a book where the
[26:32] light source is in the floor
[26:34] of a house this goes back to
[26:38] the vast impression anybody who's read
[26:39] stuff on my website will know how much
[26:41] 2001 affected me but late in this movie
[26:45] in that weird hotel room the floor
[26:48] is lit the floor is the light source and
[26:50] i had been just going
[26:52] man i got to use that someday in a book
[26:54] and i finally found the book to do it
[26:55] also throw in another cat people the
[26:57] great cat people
[26:58] with these under lit scenes with the
[27:00] drafting tables
[27:01] so the houses in these robot worlds
[27:05] have their light source in the floor um
[27:08] and
[27:09] that made me so happy to be able to do
[27:11] that so all of these things came
[27:13] together and yes
[27:14] uh here's as i said here's here's lugnut
[27:18] um you know my the little models
[27:22] awesome well you answered that was
[27:24] rebecca's question was could you talk
[27:25] about the use of
[27:27] the floor as a light source so you
[27:28] answered that perfectly um
[27:30] for feeding me another gimme
[27:34] so i'm i i do have a question that um
[27:38] the line in the book you have to install
[27:40] the updates
[27:42] i feel like as a parent i can't tell you
[27:46] how many times my every time i do
[27:48] something wrong my children are like
[27:50] you didn't install the updates you
[27:51] didn't install the updates is that
[27:53] something your kids just said to you
[27:54] over and over again
[27:56] um is that where that came from yeah
[27:59] it certainly did because you know i knew
[28:02] you had to
[28:04] install updates but occasionally i would
[28:05] still forget but often it was
[28:07] how do we install the updates and um
[28:11] you know they were just really handy to
[28:13] have around and i'm sure there are
[28:14] millions of parents in
[28:16] around the world who when it comes to oh
[28:18] no there's another update
[28:20] bobby suzy well if
[28:23] if we knew how to install them we'd
[28:25] probably do it as frequently as we're
[28:27] supposed to
[28:29] because then you you do the installation
[28:31] and you open it up and go it's all
[28:32] different they
[28:34] why did they change that right without
[28:36] changing it
[28:37] all the time which drives parents crazy
[28:39] so
[28:40] um yeah yeah that definitely was
[28:44] the uh the driving thing there that uh
[28:47] and it was you know so all of these
[28:50] things you know i'm thinking about the
[28:51] robots
[28:53] um building them it takes me to you know
[28:55] the baby coming and being
[28:57] assembled in the family going oh yes how
[28:59] do we do this
[29:00] and the first versions again i could
[29:02] show you all of this but
[29:04] um the first versions was more about the
[29:06] mayhem and the
[29:07] mom and dad and kathy were much more
[29:09] passive and
[29:11] watching this happen to them and then
[29:12] kathy would kind at the end kind of
[29:14] came in and helped out but it would you
[29:17] know of course
[29:17] i draw this out and i go oh wait a
[29:19] minute of course and
[29:21] the book is about her it's really about
[29:23] her so
[29:24] right from the get-go you know her
[29:27] desire to
[29:29] play with flange to help and tell people
[29:32] she knows what she's doing is driving
[29:33] the story
[29:34] um and that for me is the way i write
[29:38] and it
[29:39] probably to quote writers you know
[29:42] people who
[29:42] who use words for a living
[29:46] that would be you know oh of course
[29:49] right off the bat
[29:50] but i i have to draw it i have to see it
[29:52] and most times i draw it out i just
[29:54] let's put it all down and then i go
[29:56] oh that's what's going on here you know
[29:59] so
[30:00] it's the art that reveals to me what's
[30:03] happening in the story
[30:04] and stuff comes out of that that i
[30:07] probably wouldn't
[30:08] think of otherwise because when i start
[30:12] drawing i'm just i'm
[30:13] drawing anything and everything that
[30:14] comes to mind
[30:16] so uh you know it's a process that works
[30:18] for me and sticking with it
[30:22] well our next question speaking of
[30:24] process
[30:26] how long was the process for making this
[30:29] book
[30:30] um so this was similar to
[30:33] many of my books i'd say it uh
[30:37] it topped two years uh two and a quarter
[30:40] ish
[30:41] it took me oh my god
[30:45] slightly over a year to paint the thing
[30:47] just painting
[30:49] oh i haven't painted like this in a
[30:53] while
[30:54] um and i forgot how ridiculously
[30:57] time-consuming um it was my back was
[31:00] killing me
[31:01] by the end of the pulses so
[31:04] the question mark is always how long the
[31:06] story will take and that can sometimes
[31:08] come very quickly
[31:09] and sometimes it can be a very drawn out
[31:11] process watson was
[31:13] three and a half years um the story took
[31:15] a long time
[31:16] and went through huge changes there was
[31:20] a sort of a basic arc to this
[31:22] although it modified a lot and refined a
[31:25] lot
[31:26] but yeah two years is pretty
[31:30] standard occasionally uh mr waffles was
[31:33] the
[31:34] well there's a much longer story to that
[31:36] but when the story
[31:37] just popped out i drew it out i drew the
[31:41] dummy
[31:42] it was like it was all there i took it
[31:45] and showed my editors
[31:46] yes let's do it that's not what i was
[31:48] going to be doing
[31:49] um and probably
[31:52] 13 14 months later i was done so that
[31:56] was one
[31:57] for me it was kind of you know
[32:01] just knocking that baby out um so you
[32:03] never know i never know i wish i could
[32:05] plan it
[32:06] so during that time when you're working
[32:08] on the book if something comes into your
[32:10] head
[32:12] do you ever stop and get that down or do
[32:14] you just basically
[32:15] say go away i'll get you eventually are
[32:18] you there
[32:20] um yes i have uh i you know in one of my
[32:23] sketchbooks
[32:24] i'll make notes i'll make little
[32:25] drawings and but go back
[32:28] to it i don't stop and kind of i and
[32:31] work it out it's when i'm done and i'm
[32:32] ready for the next thing
[32:34] that i pull those out and start to see
[32:37] what looks viable i had over a dozen
[32:41] things that i was
[32:42] when i finished this that i was going to
[32:45] be choosing from
[32:47] and almost none of them on a story
[32:51] basis got to where i felt they needed to
[32:55] which was making me nuts for the almost
[32:58] a year now
[33:00] i i'm now i've found it and it wasn't
[33:04] one of those
[33:05] well it kind of in some ways was um
[33:09] elements but from a different
[33:12] angle from a different place and i love
[33:15] that you know it was like oh
[33:17] this is really cool um i kind of wish it
[33:20] had been one of the other ones
[33:21] but the ultimate thing is is the story
[33:24] worth me spending the next two years on
[33:26] and you know that's what
[33:30] every all the drawings all everything
[33:33] that'll make it's all about the story
[33:34] and the story's got to be good enough
[33:38] to move forward with and none of those
[33:40] things
[33:42] much to my surprise but
[33:45] it's always different you know if i
[33:47] could plan this out
[33:50] i'd be knocking the books out but it
[33:51] doesn't work that way
[33:53] um you just you the story you have
[33:56] and you know it you know i know it when
[33:58] i you know you see
[34:00] and then you know you know why didn't i
[34:02] see that you know x number of months ago
[34:03] it seems so obvious now but um
[34:06] that's the creative process for you so
[34:09] changing gears
[34:10] just a second we have had um
[34:14] a very fun time reading this in the
[34:15] store particularly because of all
[34:17] of the funny names oh the characters
[34:21] how long did it take you to come i mean
[34:24] aunt gasket is like
[34:27] the perfect name i mean how long did it
[34:29] take you to come up with those names and
[34:30] did you go with different versions first
[34:33] so um i know i'll bet well i know one
[34:36] person
[34:37] um online is aware of something i did
[34:41] very early back in the late 90s uh a
[34:44] little scene little little scene an
[34:47] interactive cd-rom
[34:48] called the day the world broke which was
[34:50] all about these mechanical half
[34:52] mechanical
[34:53] half biological creatures that live in
[34:55] the center of the earth
[34:56] and they and i copped cribbed a lot of
[34:59] the names from them
[35:00] um i'm still hoping to use that story
[35:04] and make that story a reality i feel bad
[35:06] that i
[35:07] i stole some of the names but you know
[35:10] you got to take what you got to take to
[35:12] make a story work
[35:13] so yes i had a long list of things um
[35:16] carbine was one of those characters in
[35:18] the day the world broke my editor said
[35:20] we can't use carbine it's a gun
[35:23] um so you know guns are bad guns are bad
[35:27] so i said fine no carbine but we got you
[35:29] know there's
[35:30] uh the cathode um
[35:33] diodes gaskets lug nuts
[35:38] uh what the heck was that
[35:42] pistons what were these what are these
[35:44] things
[35:45] i have no idea oh our manifold that's a
[35:48] manifold
[35:48] or a manifold
[35:52] and there's a sprocket there we go um
[35:56] yeah it was great um there were things
[35:58] that i
[36:00] there aren't actually any kids listening
[36:01] are there
[36:03] there were a couple names uh one name
[36:05] that i changed because my daughter
[36:07] uh my just college graduated daughter
[36:11] said that that name is very close to uh
[36:14] a for a term that is not
[36:18] a word that we probably should be using
[36:23] no i an aunt the former aunt became ant
[36:26] gasket
[36:27] okay one of the kids was gasket so the
[36:29] kid became clutch
[36:31] so it was a gasket now it's pitch piston
[36:33] and clutch
[36:34] um other things like the soup was
[36:37] tungsten soup forever and ever i just
[36:40] tungsten soup i loved it
[36:41] um but it uh someone pointed out that
[36:44] tungsten is actually
[36:45] a uh conflict mineral
[36:48] um you know it's it's mined and used
[36:52] to arm rebels and and the basically the
[36:55] labor used
[36:56] is is practically slave labor and stuff
[36:59] um so i had to find a new
[37:02] name for the soup and but i had all this
[37:05] was late i've
[37:06] already done the painting and the word
[37:09] balloon size was pretty much
[37:10] set because it had to fit and not crop
[37:14] onto the character's head
[37:16] and so you know magnesium wouldn't fit
[37:19] aluminum wouldn't fit all of these
[37:20] things with m's and n's are very
[37:22] long letters visually and i had to find
[37:26] a funny short
[37:28] name to use oh i can't tell you how long
[37:30] it
[37:31] took and finally my again my daughter
[37:33] says how about rust
[37:35] soup um rust is like the
[37:38] uh fungus of metal so it's really like
[37:42] mushroom soup this is great
[37:46] um so in the end um yeah tungsten suit
[37:49] became rust
[37:50] so there's little things like that that
[37:52] crop up
[37:53] that are just you know oh my gosh but i
[37:56] i was hampered by
[37:58] the need to fit the name in a certain
[38:00] space because i
[38:01] had already been designed for a specific
[38:04] word balloon size and those are the
[38:07] times you go
[38:09] [Music]
[38:10] those are the things we would not know
[38:12] had you not been here
[38:13] to tell us which we really really
[38:15] appreciate
[38:16] i know uh it's sort of getting time to
[38:19] say goodbye but before we do is there
[38:21] any other
[38:22] things you want to leave us with um any
[38:24] other little morsels you want to share
[38:27] so um since we were talking about it
[38:30] well yes
[38:30] with ikea um i couldn't do the umlaut
[38:35] um because in the text in the when
[38:38] they're talking we weren't going to use
[38:39] the home lab
[38:40] um obviously and editorially it's
[38:44] that's a bad thing you can't do it one
[38:46] way one place and something else another
[38:48] way
[38:48] um but it was still fun to sort of
[38:50] create my own ikea catalog
[38:52] um but the wallpaper you know is
[38:55] centered around
[38:56] um circuit boards uh
[38:59] which is the way the walls looked in
[39:01] when i did
[39:02] uh spa um so that's the way that
[39:05] you know that pattern is basically
[39:07] circuit board pattern of course there's
[39:08] a little bit of this there's always a
[39:10] little bit of the shining in my books
[39:12] but the um the neighborhoods is this
[39:16] it's all new jersey
[39:17] [Laughter]
[39:19] you know driving down the turnpike and
[39:20] watching these giant um
[39:22] i love these round things in rows that
[39:24] these gas
[39:25] uh and oil uh storage tanks
[39:28] so yeah of course we there they are off
[39:31] the jersey turnpike
[39:32] um the crib is uh basically your weber
[39:35] grill
[39:36] modified um so it in fact slides around
[39:40] and comes over
[39:41] the crib master 2000 and i'll do this
[39:44] super quick so the jacket this uh this
[39:47] for me this was even a record
[39:49] um these are all variations on but
[39:52] they're all
[39:53] different jackets does any i don't know
[39:55] if anybody ever remembers the old poster
[39:57] from uh
[39:58] rosemary's baby back in the 60s oh what
[40:00] a beautiful poster so there was this
[40:03] it was like rosemary's baby
[40:06] so these are all the different
[40:10] jackets that i did which are all just
[40:14] trying to find a way
[40:17] oh yeah the ones on the right side this
[40:20] is the yorick
[40:21] jacket the last port yorick whoops
[40:24] um
[40:28] and then i boy that i want to use the
[40:30] one where they were taking his head
[40:31] apart but
[40:32] anyway so ultimately when i decided on
[40:35] this
[40:36] arrangement of shapes you know various
[40:40] becomes that the painting and then the
[40:41] type so
[40:43] this i mean i do this just until
[40:48] um i find what i need uh and if anybody
[40:51] ever wonders here's page 12
[40:54] it became this and a rough drawing the
[40:56] finished drawing
[40:57] the light blue that was printed onto my
[41:00] um
[41:00] watercolor paper and then the here's the
[41:03] under painting a little more of the blue
[41:05] a little more underpainting
[41:07] starting to bring in the color whoa
[41:09] color
[41:10] lots more color and then the finished
[41:12] page um so you know that's that's
[41:14] i never take pictures as i'm working and
[41:16] those were pretty crappy but
[41:18] um so i'm going to stop screen sharing
[41:22] look at what the painting process
[41:25] kind of looks like um well that it's
[41:27] amazing and i can't thank you enough
[41:29] for sharing your process having a book
[41:31] come out and not
[41:33] have a event in children's book world it
[41:35] wouldn't be a book i'm sorry
[41:36] but we we feel like you're here and just
[41:39] for everybody watching at home these are
[41:41] all signed
[41:42] you are welcome to go on our website and
[41:44] order we will ship them to you but we
[41:46] were lucky that david did sign these for
[41:48] us i still have a president i can
[41:50] personalize
[41:52] and yes and he's so close he can
[41:54] personalize and
[41:56] since the books do take you two and a
[41:59] half
[41:59] years next time it'll be in person
[42:03] we are all hoping we will be well we are
[42:06] thrilled to have this because i can't
[42:07] even tell you it's just it's a joy to
[42:09] read i read it over and over again last
[42:11] night and i laughed every time
[42:13] heather heather's daughter is known as
[42:16] cat
[42:16] so yes she is that's very even more
[42:19] special
[42:20] to me should thank you
[42:23] thank you david all right thank you
[42:28] bye-bye everybody thanks
[48:09] you