Unfortunately you did not win the Tomie dePaola award

Well That's not a nice thing to say. Wait! What?  

 The email I received:

 

 

Hi Stephen,

Unfortunately you did not win the Tomie dePaola award, but you did win First Runner-up! Congratulations! Your beautiful piece will be featured on the website when we make the announcement tomorrow. 

As you may remember from past years, Tomie likes to include his thoughts about the winning pieces on the website, so that everyone can learn from his award and his choices. Here are his notes about your piece:

Stephen Macquignon

What a very nice surprise when I turned over this illustration and recognized Stephen’s name. I remembered his work from previous assignments, and we’ve met at the New York Conference.

In his piece, he’s taken his sketchy line and colored wash to a new level especially in his self-portrait. The mood, the body language and the hidden face are very moving to the viewer. Again, I “want” to know more: What’s going on, can I help? I’m interested!

Again, a small critique. I wish more care was taken with the background and the left front of the image. I read “shirts – maybe” for the background, but still, “What is that on the bottom left?”

Great job, Stephen. Keep it up. You’re on to something. 

LINK to SCBWI winner and runners up

 

Congratulations to all!

Tomie dePaola Award

 

The things on the table were telling BLIN, "The journey must start soon!"

Happily, BLIN would not be alone.

Friends of all sorts are always welcome.

But, where would it start?

Where would it end?     

 

This was the second assignment of this years

 Tomie dePaola Award

 

The email said I did not win the award but I should feel very accomplished over 300 entries and I was one out of fifteen that was chosen to move to the second round.

I am proud of my accomplishments and I am okay with not winning.

as Tomie says "Onward and Upward!!"

 

Link to: My Part one assignment

Congratulations to the winner and runners up



Semi-finalist for the Tomie dePaola Award

Hurray!!

Well I am a Semi-finalist for the

 

'Tomie dePaola Award"

 

according to the email I was one of the fifteen chosen out of the two hundred who entered.

It is a two part contest and I am waiting to see what I have to illustrate next to win it all.  

 

This is a link to the other entries SCBWI Gallery

and the Semi-Finalist

 

Congratulation to the other semi-finalist

And the winner is!

 

The Winner of the 2014 Tomie dePaola Award is...

not me

This was my entry  for the contest, pen and ink, watercolor and, digital color.  

This is how the cookie crumbles in this case it was a cake that won

by Akiko White

Click the link bellow to see all the wonderful artwork

"Unofficial Gallery of the Tomie dePaola Award"





ASIFA - East

This year I will not be able to go, because I will be eating cake with my uncle for his birthday. I am a little bummed because it is away for me to stay connected to the world of animation and also catch up with a few friends who are still working in the business. But there is nothing to be done about it there is always next year and family comes first. But if you enjoy animation I would suggest going and having a great time!

ASIFA - East

43rd ASIFA-East Animated Film Festival Awards Ceremony







   my uncle and I

Final post on the 2012 Tomie dePaola Winner!

Well I am finally coming to the end of posting about the 2012 Tomie dePaola awards. I wrote in an earlier post about the award that I would give a little more info on the winner and the runners up so; here they are and
the Winner is….

“Yvette Piette Herrera”

First Place: "My number one choice was the illustration by Yvette Piette Herrera. The characters were well personalized with a very nice nostalgic touch to them. The round composition was a clever way of telling “a round robin story.” This illustration was my favorite." -Tomie

 Second Place: "Carrie Eko-Burgess’s illustration was excellent in its graphic depiction of the story. The strong forms, color and contrast appealed to me." -Tomie

Third Place: "Rotem Omri’s three-dimensional clay work was charming although I found some of the forms confusing, such as, the purple and blue “dresses” or “stands.” All in all, it was a novel approach." -Tomie

Fourth Place: "I’d like to commend Lori McElrath-Eslick for her illustration. I was delighted by the paint quality of the character. I’d like to see the drawing taken further." -Tomie

And finally my version:

I have no idea if Mr. dePaola looked at my entry once, twice or even a hundred times and in truth it does not matter the contest was fun, it pushed me to try harder, and it forced me to step out of my safety zone and let others judge me.
 

Stephen Macquignon

All remarks from Tombie and artwork for this post are from SCBWI website

2012 Tomie dePaola Award part 3

"I want to be surprised, excited and - Very jealous..."

Those words are hard to ignore, the first thing I did was look up all the different versions of the title “Chicken Licken”, “Henny Penny”, and “Chicken Little” including the specific title/text that the Mr. dePaola used was from “Chicken Licken,” by P.C. Asbjörnsen.

1) How do I make this different?
 2) How do I stand out in a crowed of hundreds?
 3) How do I make an established illustrator jealous?

1) So how I make this different? As an illustrator you add your own voice I have said it from time to time plus others have said it as well “I tell the story behind the story” This does not mean that you ignore what was written it is just you read between the lines add a background story to the characters. So my little story floating in my head will be different then the next illustrator.

  2) How do I stand out in a crowed of hundreds? My style is different from others. However, is that enough?

The hardest one:
3) How do I make an established and respected illustrator jealous?

  In October, the contest was announced, I am doodling, and coming up with the same old thing as everyone else a bunch of farm animals, and I am going over in my head the text for the contest,

“they met Turkey Lurkey” “Good morning Goosey Loosey, Duckey Daddles…”

  My first good idea was to make Turkey Lurkey into a Thanksgiving Day Turkey (Tom Turkey) with a Pilgrims hat or maybe a bonnet, and then I thought maybe a parade with all the characters as balloons. As I was sketching, I came up with this.

  A Halloween Party! I love Halloween!!!

 That is when it all clicked the little story in my head not a party a play with the popular boy playing Turkey Lurkey, and the blushing shy girl playing Goosey Loosey.

finished sketch

link: part 1 & part 2 

2012 Tomie dePaola Award part 2

So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey “Good morning, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Henny Penny, and Chicken Licken,” said Turkey Lurkey, “where are you going?” “Oh, Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the King!” “How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Turkey Lurkey. “Ducky Daddles told me,” said Goosey Loosey. “Cocky Locky told me,” said Ducky Daddles. “Henny Penny told me,” said Cocky Locky. “Chicken Licken told me,” said Henny Penny “I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears, and a piece of it fell on my tail!” said Chicken Licken. “Then I will go with you,” said Turkey Lurkey, “and we will tell the King!”

"You have the challenge, so now, and I’m repeating myself…

I want to be surprised, excited and – VERY jealous that I didn’t think of that way to illustrate it.

I want to see an image, a style, a vision that I’ve never seen before!

Good Luck.

I’m on your side!"

It was not the text that inspired me it was the note Mr. dePaolo wrote :

"I want to be surprised, excited and - Very jealous..."

Those simple words that took my image from this simple sketch to what it became.

This is a link regarding other entry's to the contest I just sent them an email to add mine to the mix of wonderful entries

"Unofficial Gallery of the Tomie dePaola Award"

2012 Tomie dePaola Award

(Click on image to enlarge)

This is my entry to the 2012 Tomie dePaola Award.

I will do a breakdown from sketch to finish artwork in future post.

  The subject of the contest was from this text:

"So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey Good morning, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky ,Henny Penny and Chicken Licken," said Turkey Lurkey, "where are you going?" "Oh Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the king!" "How do you know the sky is falling?" asked Turkey Lurkey. "Ducky Daddles told me," said Goosey Loosey. "Cocky Locky told me," said Ducky Daddles "Henny Penny told me," said Cocky Locky "Chicken Licken told me," said Henny Penny "I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears, and a piece fell on my tail!" said Chicken Licken. "Then I will go with you," said Turkey Lurkey, and will tell the King!"

It is from the story of

 “Chicken Licken”

 also known as

 “Chicken Little” or “Henny Penny”.