About Me

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Currently seeking representation. Stephen Macquignon is an illustrator and was the first-runner-up for the prestigious Tomie dePaola award in 2017. He has had the privilege of working for Michael Sporn Animation Inc. on many different titles including, “The Little Match Girl”, “Ira Sleeps Over”, “Abel’s Island” and many more. An illustrator of children's books including Tea with the Queen, he has a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and is a proud member of SCBWI. To date, he has never missed a deadline. A fresh energy that is not part of the trends out there.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Finished Artwork for Snow White

The illustrations are based on the text from "The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales"
"Little Snow -White"
 
 
The huntsman had pity on her and said: “Run Away, then you poor child.” “The wild beasts will soon have devoured you”,
“Are you afraid of poison?”  Said the old woman
 
The dwarfs found Snow White dead
Past post on Snow White: Link1, Link2 
9X24
Pen and ink watercolor, and Photoshop

Monday, June 16, 2014

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Snow White in the making


I am coming to the end of reworking my
Snow White illustrations.
I wanted to share some of the artwork,
it's not complete and the photos are poor but that will make the finish artwork even more exciting! :D
 
 
I decided on a rabbit for the Huntsman,   
"Run away, then, you poor child." Said the Huntsman to Snow White
 
 
"The wild beasts will soon have devoured you,"
I made a conscious decision not to make the wild beast anthropomorphize
like I did with Snow White and the Huntsman.   
 
I was not %100 sure if I was going to redo the original artwork I thought about it during the SCBWI winter conference. But it was not until MOLES! popped into my head while I was at work
 "Moles could be Dwarfs"; this could work.
  

Don't eat that apple!
 

 
 well the rest has been a labor of love,
I'm working on six pages that will be joined together to create three spreads 
9x24
 
 
 I'll scan them into my computer and do the finishing touchups in Photoshop.  
I'm waiting on a new Epson scanner/printer that should improve the quality of the watercolor reproductions.
 
 
I also have been enjoying inking with a brush and a jar of ink.
This was another new thing for me Brush Pens are not cheep a jar of ink and a good brush cost about the same as three of the pens and the pens don't last too long while using them on watercolor paper. the brush seems to hold up just fine and I have a little more play in my line.
 


Monday, June 2, 2014

Thinking Visually in Novels by Anna Staniszewski

 
 welcome Anna to my blog 
Thinking Visually in Novels by Anna Staniszewski

I must admit that I’m not a very visual person. When I picture a scene as I’m writing it, the details tend to be vague and blobby in my mind. Only after several revisions does the scene feel more concrete. Luckily, I’ve come up with a few strategies that help the process along.

1. Imagine with the senses Instead of only thinking about how something looks, I think about how it feels, smells, etc. If a character is holding a blue mug, does she keep running her finger over a chip on the side? Does the mug smell like coffee no matter how many times she washes it? Forcing myself to think beyond the visual helps me imagine the scene more completely, so that the visual details become stronger in the process.

2. Keep the character in mind It’s great to paint a picture for the reader, but I view passages of pure description as missed opportunities. Instead of simply stating that a character wears purple all the time, what if that detail tells us something more about her? Maybe purple is her favorite color because it reminds her of the grape lollipop her dad gave her the last time she saw him. Giving your details more dimension can give your characters added dimension too.

3. Repeat for emphasis We don’t want to hit readers over the head, but a strong repeated image, especially one whose meaning deepens over the course of the story, can work well for emphasis. This type of repetition can also work with the other senses, to help us show how the meaning of those experiences changes for the character over time. And that’s it! Of course, there are lots of other techniques I use to make my scenes more concrete, but these are the main ones that keep me on track and ensure that my characters aren’t just vague blobs floating around in empty space.



Bio: Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. Currently, she lives outside Boston with her husband and their crazy dog. When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time reading, daydreaming, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. She is the author of the My Very UnFairy Tale Life series and the Dirt Diary series. Her newest book, The Prank List, releases on July 1st from Sourcebooks.
 You can visit Anna at
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