For some reason, whenever I think of picture books from my early school days it’s always this one that pops into my mind.
This is despite the fact that to this day I haven’t read it (grimace face). That’s not intended as any kind of insult, it would have been nearly impossible for anyone to compete with Sylvester and the Magic Pebble or Herman the Helper, but the fact is FOOL OF THE WORLD is just one of “those” books. Landmark.
A Shulevitz book I have read, for years off and on, is his Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books. I used to get it from the Vancouver Public Library and flip through it, mostly enjoying it for all the illustrations (from popular artists of the time, including Steig and Aruego, as well as Shulevitz himself). These days, I like it for two main reasons: first, it’s full of really good advice on how to be a mindful creator.
Draw Boldly: Think, meditate, or debate in your mind as long as you wish on what and how you are going to draw, but once you take the plunge, draw resolutely.
I really like that line. He also has a good one about picture books being like theater. A common enough point of view, but Shulevitz says it in his simultaneously eloquent and matter-of-fact way.
Second, WRITING WITH PICTURES is a product of the era of when illustrators were ‘tradespeople’. There’s a big section on color separations and how to prepare your art for maximum fidelity. So much of this process is antiquated, but the book reminds us how much science and math used to go into art making. It’s a great historical record.
