NEW SHARON – “Raise your hand if you like to draw.” Nearly every hand in the group of kindergarteners and first graders went up. “Awesome, so we have a whole room of illustrators here. Raise your hand if you like to write, or make up stories.” Again, nearly every hand in the small library at Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon went up. “So we have a whole room of authors too! So you don’t have to be a grown-up to do this.”
That was how author/illustrator Matt Tavares began his second of three sessions teaching students at Cape Cod Hill School about what it’s like having a job as an author and illustrator, a visit made possible by a grant the school received from the Maine Literacy Fund.
Cape Cod Hill School literary interventionist Jessica Edmondson applied for and received the Maine School Author Visit Grant from the Maine Literacy Fund on behalf of the school, receiving $1,000 to have an author come visit with the students. The grant came with the caveat that the visit must be during the school day, not after hours, so that every student could be involved regardless of ability to return to the school outside typical operating hours, Edmondson said.
The day was divided into 3 sessions, with the 2nd and 3rd graders, and the 4th and 5th graders, each having an hour-long session, and the kindergarten and first graders, being younger, had a 45 minute session. In each session, he covered a different book, both to tailor to the age group and to keep things interesting for himself so he was not just repeating himself throughout the day, Tavares said.
In the first session with the 2nd and 3rd grade classes, he read Red & Lulu, and also talked about Growing Up Pedro. He read the K-1st children a book called Mudball, based on an ostensibly (although unverifiable) true story about the shortest distance a homerun ball ever went. Set in 1903, the story of Andy Oyler winning a game for the Minneapolis Millers when the ball he hit got lost in a mud puddle is illustrated in a style reminiscent of Norman Rockwell’s work. Others of Tavares’s books are illustrated with other styles, as well, he informed the children, as with various media including watercolors like Mudball used, as well as pencil or digital art.
After reading the story, he showed the children images of the drafting process, both of the book, with a picture of his first draft marked in red pen, and then of his illustration drafting process.
After explaining how many times he and his editor go back and forth on the writing and the sketches of the illustrations before he ever makes a final illustration, and that one painting can take him a full week, Tavares told the children, “Some people think I just have a cool idea and I just sit down and draw and paint it, but now you guys know that a lot more goes into it before I ever pick up my paintbrush.”
Finally, he did a drawing demonstration, asking the children’s input on which shapes to include for drawing a cardinal, like in his book Red & Lulu. He explained that he starts every drawing with the most simple shapes first. “You guys think you can draw an oval and a circle and a bunch of triangles?” “YEAH!” the children shouted back in chorus.
“Then I start carving into it,” said Tavares as he demonstrated pressing a little harder to make darker lines as he used the basic shapes as guidelines for the details he was adding.
“Drawing’s kind of like a magic trick where you’re trying to make something flat look big and real,” Tavares explained to the children.
He wound the session up with a question and answer time, in which children asked such insightful questions as, “Where does your [last] name come from?” (Portugal) or, “How long does this take you?” (most books, about a year, but his first graphic novel, Hoops, took 2 years) as well as more precious questions such as, “How do you make the pages?” which led to an explanation of printing presses, or, “Did you make all of these books in this library?” to which he explained that he did not write or illustrate every book in the school library, though the library does have a wide selection of his books!
Tavares has, in fact, illustrated a total of 24 books, 12 of which he wrote himself, though he said he is working on the 13th right now.
Through a combination of remaining money from the grant and fundraising efforts, every student in the school was able to receive one of Tavares’s books as part of the author visit.
As the students filed out of the room, with the projector image changing to Hoops as his book to discuss with the fourth- and fifth-graders, the last thing Tavares did with the youngest group was kneel down to sign the drawing he had demonstrated, as a gift to the school.
