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    Picture book breakdown with David Hohn on May 27!

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    • Jeremy Ross
      Jeremy Ross @davidhohn last edited by

      This is awesome @davidhohn! I’m definitely looking forward to geeking out on Beekle, especially since it’s one of my favorite picturebooks by Mr. Santat.

      I’ll be doing the page turn with my copy 😊

      56B5D7EC-F038-4C0D-ADFE-030018AFEF58.jpeg

      https://www.instagram.com/jeremyrayross
      https://www.jeremyrayross.com/
      https://twitter.com/jeremyrayross
      https://jeremyrayross.substack.com/

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • KevinTreaccar
        KevinTreaccar @davidhohn last edited by

        @davidhohn I just discovered this book earlier this month at an SVS concert (it was published right before I jumped back into picture books with my niece and now children). Immediately, it became the shining example of the picture book I want to write. Great choice!

        kevintreaccar.com
        instagram.com/kevintreaccar

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Melissa_Bailey
          Melissa_Bailey last edited by

          I'm SO looking forward to geeking out over Beekle with y'all!
          😃

          illustrator - author - smiley person
          mbaileyart.com
          instagram.com/mbaileyart/

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • LauraA
            LauraA SVS OG last edited by

            This was one of the best sessions yet! I took five pages of notes and feel turbocharged, if a bit sleep-deprived! 😆 And it fits in so well with the Children's Book Pro class. Thanks, @davidhohn!

            Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraintorino/
            http://lauraaldersonart.com/

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • TaniaGomesArt
              TaniaGomesArt last edited by

              This was absolutely amazing. I was so wowwed the entire time!!

              I have to say that when I started the classes at svs 2 months ago, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do children's books. Although I like it, what I knew was that I wanted a good school where I could learn the basics of illustration with a steady pace and without needing to be lost trying to find what I needed to know, and after seeing all the classes I realised that one way or another, I had that here. I do write stories and novels so the link between illustration and story was interesting to me either way.

              Seeing this book breakdown though... I'm still a bit without words, but I can only say that it was one of those changing points inside of me, and I'm now feeling that yes, I want to do children's books!!

              Thank you so much.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Jeremy Ross
                Jeremy Ross @davidhohn last edited by

                Hi @davidhohn, I did a page turn of Beekle with my wife and daughter to share all the insights and Easter eggs throughout the book and noticed one more!

                Check out the little girl with the snake friend and jump rope on the end sheets. Striking resemblance to the unnamed girl in his book Oh No! (Or how my science project destroyed the world) written by Mac Barnett.

                Interestingly, the #4 on her shirt in Beekle may reflect the 4 years between publishing Oh No! (2010) and Beekle (2014).

                Things that make you go hmmmm. Next time you talk to Dan, you should ask him if it’s the same girl (smile).

                Looking forward to the next Picturebook Geek out session.
                4D28DBD0-B75E-4BCC-9A40-536EF779057B.jpeg

                https://www.instagram.com/jeremyrayross
                https://www.jeremyrayross.com/
                https://twitter.com/jeremyrayross
                https://jeremyrayross.substack.com/

                davidhohn 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • xin li
                  xin li last edited by

                  @LisaF is the session recorded and will be made available for svs subscribers under Jump Into The Studio course? I missed the live session.

                  Web: www.lixin.no
                  IG: www.instagram.com/lixin.illustration/

                  LisaF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • davidhohn
                    davidhohn SVS Instructor Pro @Jeremy Ross last edited by

                    @Jeremy-Ross Pretty cool man! I always think stuff like this is really fun!

                    www.davidhohn.com
                    www.instagram.com/davidhohnillo
                    twitter.com/david_hohn

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • joosterwijk
                      joosterwijk last edited by

                      @LisaF Sorry to keep bothering you about this, but will the lecture be added to SVSlearn? I’m keep checking Jump into the Studio but can not find it…

                      https://joosterwijk.nl/
                      https://www.instagram.com/joosterwijk.illustration/

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • LisaF
                        LisaF SVS Team SVS OG @xin li last edited by

                        @xin-li and @joosterwijk sorry for the delay! We actually had some technical issues with recording the livestream, but @davidhohn was gracious enough to re-record it! (Thanks David!!) You can find it now in the Jump into the Studio class in the subscription🙌

                        And just fyi, he may be doing another one of these soon, stay tuned for details!

                        Director of Sunshine and Rainbows
                        lisa@svslearn.com

                        xin li 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 6
                        • joosterwijk
                          joosterwijk last edited by

                          Thank you! @davidhohn Really awesome that you re-recorded it for us and the lecture is amazing. I have some thoughts after listening to your analysis, if someone disagrees let me know!
                          Beekle is Alice and Beekles journey is Alice’s journey. First of all, it is Alice who creates Beekle and draws out his story as you can see on page 34-37, she uses elements of her surrounding to create this fantasy world. The parts of the playground are turned into the island and into the journey (and not the other way round). The crown comes from the pencil box, the rainbow on the island from the rainbow she draws on the paper, etc. The tree is tricky, is the tree with beekle in it the real tree or a reprensentation of the tree Alice did draw ( the leaves have a form of a star…). Secondly, I think that she does not only makes up the story but it is also a story about her self. It is said that she had no friends, and story is about looking for a friend. And is the boy who Beekle thinks of on page 8 not the same boy who she become friends of in the end? The search for a friend in the playground on page 20 is Alice looking for a friend?
                          Anyway.. super interesting. I’m really curious how he wrote this. Did he start with the story of beekle and than added layers and references over time? This is a fun story for kids and literature for adults all packed in a “simple” picture book! Love it!

                          https://joosterwijk.nl/
                          https://www.instagram.com/joosterwijk.illustration/

                          Oana 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                          • xin li
                            xin li @LisaF last edited by

                            @LisaF thank you so much Lisa, and thank you so much @davidhohn

                            Web: www.lixin.no
                            IG: www.instagram.com/lixin.illustration/

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • Oana
                              Oana @joosterwijk last edited by

                              @joosterwijk I just got to watching the picture book breakdown and I loved it, can’t wait for another one. I have a kid and for the last 12 years I have used this as a pretext to read children storybooks in the bookstore 🙂 I had similar thoughts on the book interpretation, I think it is about the fact that imagination can fill one’s life and can bring people together. Beekle is obviously an imaginary friend, and the title “unimaginary” I think means that products of the imagination can be powerful and real to the ones imagining them, and this is why the story presents the things kind of the other way around, turning the reality of Alice drawing and playing in her mind with Beekle to Beekle looking and finding Alice. And of course the details like the crown and the way the other imaginary friends are depicted are here to discreetly explain to the reader the more tangible part of what is happening - kids imagining stuff inspired by the thing they love and by their life, as you also said. And the end shows that creativity finally helps people connect.

                              Really beautiful!

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • Oana
                                Oana @joosterwijk last edited by Oana

                                @joosterwijk You got me thinking about the tree… that part was indeed interesting, my interpretation is, beacause of the stars, like in the sky at the beggining over the island where the friends are born… the tree I feel is a stilised representation of abstract space in the mind, where the imagination grows it’s magic, and the place where Beekle is born. He can meet Alice only if she creates him in her imagination when she draws him on the piece of paper. That should explain why the tree pages are so flat, as they depict a more abstract place, not the real town, not the imaginary island. Maybe that is the place where the story actually starts, and the pages until then are the story Alice will in continuation imagine for Beekle 🙂

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • Mariana B.
                                  Mariana B. last edited by

                                  I just saw the recorded version of the book breakdown.
                                  It is amazing how much thought Dan puts into every page and your comments were very insightful!
                                  Another thing I liked about this book is how it bends the idea of time. Did Beekle exist before Alice saw him at the playground, or did she created him from the beginning and drew his journey?

                                  Another little easter egg that I noticed is that the color pencil case has beekle’s crown, but not only that, when beekle is born, there is a rainbow right behind him. The rainbow could be a representation of the pencils from Alice pencil case , meaning that in the moment she opened her pencil case to draw, that’s when beekle was created.
                                  Also in that same page with Alice drawing, she is drawing a rainbow on the left side of the page and beekle is on the right side of the page, mirroring the positioning from the first page.
                                  I also love that he made the dogs notice him.

                                  Thank you for doing this book review/explanation!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                  • KevinTreaccar
                                    KevinTreaccar last edited by

                                    Found a great interview with Dan Santat about his process making Beekle: https://penandoink.com/2014/08/25/a-pen-oink-interview-with-dan-santat-the-making-of-beekle/

                                    kevintreaccar.com
                                    instagram.com/kevintreaccar

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
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