-This post comes from Parker of BookPeople’s Teen Press Corps.
Everyone had a great time at the Drawing Between the Lines panel, which included the authors Stephen Emond, Gareth Hinds, Andrew Smith, and Nicola and David Yoon. Here are some of the things they talked about.
Stephen Emond—Bright Lights, Dark Nights
–At first he was thinking of doing a book with the chapters each like their own comic book—with super heroes and villains, but instead he wrote Bright Lights, Dark Nights, a book about an interracial relationship.
–He drew the pictures in the book with powdered charcoal. He said the cityscape’s are the mood ring of the book.
— He talked about a new book that is coming out soon—about an artist whose troubles are affecting the looks of his professional work vs. his personal work.
Gareth Hinds—Macbeth
–His work consists of graphic novel adaptations of classics. Sometimes he doesn’t consider himself an author because he does adaptations of someone else’s work.
— Work process: Starts with sketches, then draws directly on the computer, so he’s able to scale and tweak it.
–Always looking for ways to use illustrations as symbolism in a story.
— Just finished Edgar Allen Poe short stories, coming out soon!
–Favorite comic growing up is Tintin.
Andrew Smith—Stand-Off, sequel to Winger
–Always loved to draw. For Winger, he had an artist named Sam Bosma redraw his
drawings and had the same artist help him with Stand-Off.
–He said one drawing for him would take the same amount of time for him to write
thirty pages.
–“If you’re putting an illustration in a story, it’s to replace words. It has its own
purpose to the story.”
–Smith said he was a 14-year-old 11th grader, similar to Ryan Dean West. (The main character in the series.)
Nicola and David Yoon—Everything, Everything
–Nicola wrote the book and David illustrated it. They are a husband and wife duo
–“Pictures are to illustrate the emotions of the character. Sometimes words aren’t enough.”
–They wrote a lot starting at 4:00 in the morning!
–David made the drawings simple because he wanted to make it seem like it was coming from Maddy’s world (the main character in Everything, Everything).
–Only half of the drawings made it into the book.
–They told the story of Nicola wanting a drawing of a fish for the book, and of David making it perfectly.
–Nicola wanted to be a writer since she was very young. Her favorite comic was Wonder Woman.
The panel was filled with creativity and advice which made this panel special! Be sure to check out these authors’ interviews here on this website! Also, don’t forget to read their books!