I was lucky to get a chance to talk with Stacey Dressen McQueen about her new illustrated picture book An Etrog from Across the Sea, written by Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky. Take an in-depth look at her process with me!
About the book:
Papa has promised to bring home a perfect etrog for Sukkot from his journey across the sea. Rachel and Abe go to the docks every day to wait for his ship. But Rosh Hashanah passes, then Yom Kippur, and still Papa's ship doesn't arrive. Grandpapa Luis comforts Rachel with a beautiful silver etrog cup, but will her papa return in time for Sukkot, bringing the promised etrog?
Let's talk Stacey Dressen McQueen!
LTPB: How did you become the illustrator of An Etrog from Across the Sea? What were the first images that popped into your mind when you saw Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky's text?
SDM: Joanna Sussman from Kar-Ben Publishing contacted me about illustrating An Etrog from Across the Sea. Along with the story, I immediately loved the characters - especially the realistic sibling dynamic of Leah and Aaron and the tenderness between Grandpa Luis and Leah. The first images that came to me were of them and the delight of going into the details of bringing them to life.
LTPB: Can you talk about your research process for this book? What efforts did you take to visually represent the book's time period accurately?
SDM: When first starting to develop a plan for illustrating a manuscript, I start really broad to get the tone and palette of the story. Here, I started with early American folk portraits and embroidery samplers. I've admired them forever, so it was wonderful to look and look and dream and dream of them - but at some point I have to pull myself away and move on to the next layer of research. Next is narrowing in on specific and as realistic as I can get, details of dress, interiors, stage coaches and ships (so very many many ropes!) I do quite a bit online. With this era, locating visual representation of what an everyday person would wear and have in their house kind of took a little more digging to find paintings or museum archives of the early 18th century. One heartbreaking one was a collection of material swatches from when mother's left babies at London's Foundling museum in the 18th century. Names were not recorded of mother or child, so in the hope that in time the mother could reunite with her child again, small tokens like pieces of fabric were left as a means of identification. It is a collection of over 5,000 everyday textiles. I also really love to go to the library and find books - children's books on the colonial era were great resources for everyday life details. With An Etrog from Across the Sea being based on a real family, the Gomez family, it was wonderful to have the Gomez Mill House in Marlboro, NY as a basis of an actual home. The beautiful silver mustard cup that belonged to the family and used as an etrog holder, is in the collection of the American Jewish Historical Society.
LTPB: What did you find most difficult in creating this book? What did you find most rewarding?
SDM: The trickiest thing for me was that I felt rusty at first - I paint all the time and have done smaller illustration projects, but it had been a bit since I have done a full-length book. With all the elements to research and bring to life altogether, I definitely felt a little tight at first. A feeling I don't like. It didn't last too long and all in all a lovely workout to get back in the groove. It really is delicious fun to bring a beautiful story like this to be pictures.
The most rewarding once I was back in the saddle was hopefully bringing through the love, faith and family connection in this story. It seems many of my books have a common theme of family. It's devoted love, celebration and deep understanding of each other and the faith that the strength in being together will make it all be ok in the end.
LTPB: What did you use to create the illustrations in this book? Is this your preferred medium? How does your process change from book to book?
SDM: To create the illustrations in An Etrog from Across the Sea, I used acrylic paint. I still do everything by hand. Acrylics are always in the mix for me but in past books I've also included and at times relied more on oil pastel and colored pencil. In this book, the single medium seemed to work best for the softer and at times washed look I wanted in this story. Depending on the setting and story decides which medium gets heaviest use.
SDM: Joanna Sussman from Kar-Ben Publishing contacted me about illustrating An Etrog from Across the Sea. Along with the story, I immediately loved the characters - especially the realistic sibling dynamic of Leah and Aaron and the tenderness between Grandpa Luis and Leah. The first images that came to me were of them and the delight of going into the details of bringing them to life.
SDM: When first starting to develop a plan for illustrating a manuscript, I start really broad to get the tone and palette of the story. Here, I started with early American folk portraits and embroidery samplers. I've admired them forever, so it was wonderful to look and look and dream and dream of them - but at some point I have to pull myself away and move on to the next layer of research. Next is narrowing in on specific and as realistic as I can get, details of dress, interiors, stage coaches and ships (so very many many ropes!) I do quite a bit online. With this era, locating visual representation of what an everyday person would wear and have in their house kind of took a little more digging to find paintings or museum archives of the early 18th century. One heartbreaking one was a collection of material swatches from when mother's left babies at London's Foundling museum in the 18th century. Names were not recorded of mother or child, so in the hope that in time the mother could reunite with her child again, small tokens like pieces of fabric were left as a means of identification. It is a collection of over 5,000 everyday textiles. I also really love to go to the library and find books - children's books on the colonial era were great resources for everyday life details. With An Etrog from Across the Sea being based on a real family, the Gomez family, it was wonderful to have the Gomez Mill House in Marlboro, NY as a basis of an actual home. The beautiful silver mustard cup that belonged to the family and used as an etrog holder, is in the collection of the American Jewish Historical Society.
SDM: The trickiest thing for me was that I felt rusty at first - I paint all the time and have done smaller illustration projects, but it had been a bit since I have done a full-length book. With all the elements to research and bring to life altogether, I definitely felt a little tight at first. A feeling I don't like. It didn't last too long and all in all a lovely workout to get back in the groove. It really is delicious fun to bring a beautiful story like this to be pictures.
LTPB: What did you use to create the illustrations in this book? Is this your preferred medium? How does your process change from book to book?
SDM: To create the illustrations in An Etrog from Across the Sea, I used acrylic paint. I still do everything by hand. Acrylics are always in the mix for me but in past books I've also included and at times relied more on oil pastel and colored pencil. In this book, the single medium seemed to work best for the softer and at times washed look I wanted in this story. Depending on the setting and story decides which medium gets heaviest use.
The Gauguin inspired The Biggest Soap featured much more oil pastel to get the dense color and textures. Behind the Museum Door, a poetry book, gave me a chance to really explore all of them together in different ways due to all the variety in subjects and settings.
LTPB: What are you working on now?
SDM: My time lately has been full of painting in preparation for a gallery show at Guardino Gallery in Portland, Oregon this summer.
LTPB: If you got the chance to write your own picture book autobiography, who (dead or alive!) would you want to illustrate it, and why?
SDM: Fay Jones! She is a Seattle based artist whose work I love and then love some more. I adore how she uses space and color and her way of having a personal symbology of recurring motifs throughout her work. My life story is really pretty quiet and internally focused, so Fay would also really punch it up for us.
from Behind the Museum Door
SDM: My time lately has been full of painting in preparation for a gallery show at Guardino Gallery in Portland, Oregon this summer.
SDM: Fay Jones! She is a Seattle based artist whose work I love and then love some more. I adore how she uses space and color and her way of having a personal symbology of recurring motifs throughout her work. My life story is really pretty quiet and internally focused, so Fay would also really punch it up for us.
A big, big thank you to Stacey for chatting with me! An Etrog from Across the Sea publishes one week from today on August 6, 2024 from Kar-Ben Publishing!
Special thanks to Stacey and Kar-Ben for use of these images!
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