BBB: What is the strangest thing you ever did to research something for a story? 
LF: My strangest task since delving into the world of creating children’s books was searching for physical items to build my particular steampunk world; mainly each of the letters of the alphabet in my alphabet book. When I started sketching out the letters, I realized I needed a large amount of reference material and not just gears and pipes. That meant hours looking online at many different sites. I finally decided that pieces of old lamps worked the best, so the next few months I buying up all the neat old lamp parts I could find on Ebay. There are several bins full in my cellar! I also combed through Home Depot and other hardware stores for interesting items. For some letter illustrations, I also used props that went with the accompanying word. For F, I used faucets and joints for J. There are teapots for both K which is for kettle, also for S which has the same teapot that generates the steam for the engine in the book.
BBB: What character was the toughest for you bring to life on the page, and why? How did you finally crack it?
LF: My characters in my steampunk picture book are not that complex. The hardest thing was to figure out who they were and what they would look like. At first, I was going to have mice living in an inventor’s cellar and using his workshop. But that became too complicated for this book. When the art director and I started working with colored backgrounds, I decided that one mouse would be the inventor and the other his slightly inept assistant. Then I had to work on their appearance. I went through many character sketches before deciding upon the final two.
A large mouse as the inventor and a smaller thin mouse as the assistant. I named them Professor Whiskerton and Percy.
Then I sculpted the mice to make certain I knew them from every angle. And finally, I made costumes for them. The costumes do a lot to tell the background story of the characters; even simple mice are richer with clever outfits and accessories.
BBB: What is it like doing story books for kids versus illustrating covers for books?
LF: To illustrate book covers, I would read the book or a synopsis and come up with ideas for the cover and paint one. Sometimes the art director or editor wants something specific and I render that idea. But it is one painting to give someone an idea of what the book is about. A children’s book is usually thirty two pages long. That means many paintings. As an author has to create an interesting story and characters with words, I have to do the same thing with pictures and words. I also have to keep the characters looking the same, something I never had to do with covers. In children’s books the mantra is ‘show don’t tell’, so I end up taking out a lot of writing because the action or emotions are shown in the pictures.
BBB: Do you prefer creating kids books versus writing longer novels?
LF: I can not imagine how hard it must be to write a novel. I much prefer to paint. While writing children’s books is hard, the amount of work to write a fantasy novel seems overwhelming to me, I don’t know how authors do it!
BBB: Please tell us more about Professor Whiskerton Presents Steampunk ABC.
LF: The book was the result of showing my editor another steampunk book idea, and while she liked the first book, she said, “How about a steampunk ABC Book?”. At the time, an alphabet book seemed easier than the book I was working on, so I said yes. I had not thought far enough ahead to realize that meant at least twenty six full paintings! I did a rough dummy, that was approved and then I started to work on the book. The book seems to be a basic alphabet book, A is for Anvil, and so on. There is no written story, but one can see two mice throughout the pages, busy in their workshop. It is not until Z, that the reader sees what they have been up to. I made this book so that it can be read many times. It is a simple alphabet book, but there is a background story going that progresses with the alphabet and finally, the detail and complexity of the paintings draw the reader back again and again. I would love to do other books with Professor Whisketon and Percy. I have several ideas in the works to present to the publisher if this book does well!
BBB: What sets Professor Whiskerton Presents Steampunk ABC apart from other books in the same genre?
LF: When I started this book, I thought about how to present simple mechanics in appealing way to children. You don’t see that too often in picture books. I hope the book helps spark their interest and starts children thinking about how fun it can be to build something inventive and imaginative.
BBB: What types of creatures/characters can readers expect in your world?
LF: I have written two children’s books at this point. My other book, A Dragon Moves In, has a dragon living with a rabbit and a hedgehog. I like to mix fantasy in my books and humorous situations
BBB: Did you do any kind of research to determine the details of your characters?
LF: My research is sitting at my drawing table and sketching away. I do collect a lot of picture reference. When I started with Professor Whiskerton and Percy, I collected an immense amount of photo reference to see how mice really look and act. Then I took that and stretched it into characters that had a combination of rodent and human abilities.
BBB: What was it like illustrating covers for V.C. Andrews?
LF: That was a great deal of fun. The art director for Pocket Books was Milton Charles, and I eventually married him! He was a great designer, and he came up with the concept of the original design that launched Flowers In The Attic. I started with the book Heaven. He designed the front cover, and there was always a die cut, where one could see a bit of the painting behind it. Having two covers allowed for a clean interesting front cover and a stepback art that could show all the characters in the book. I would have to cast all the characters; go to a photography studio, search through all the model agencies’ books to find the correct model for each character. Then I would get any costumes and props that were needed, and have my photographer shoot photos of the models. After that I would draw using the poses as reference and then paint the illustration.
BBB: Do you have any plans for longer books for middlegrade, YA or even adults?
LF: I really like children’s books, so I will be staying with this for a while. However I am doing more adult steampunk and fantasy paintings
BBB: What’s coming up for you for the rest of 2014?
LF: I am working on some more children’s books ideas and am indulging myself, doing some fantasy art and some landscape paintings. I have had shown some of both in different galleries in the past year, and would like to pursue that.
BBB: What was the BEST book you read in 2013?
LF: I was so busy last year that most of my free time was spent reading reference and nonfiction books. I read a lot of books on how to make automatons and handmade dolls and several monographs on a few of my favorite artists, most recently George Inness and Albert Pinkham Ryder. As far as fiction I have finally read some novels by Raymond Chandler, something I have wanted to do for years. I have quite an ambition list of books that I will try to get to this year!
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10 Quick Things About Lisa
Favorite Food? BBQ (as an almost vegetarian, that is a terrible thing to admit!)
Favorite Color? Warm colors. Reds, purples.
Favorite Movie or TV Show of all Time? The X Files
Favorite Drink? Mojito
Favorite Book? Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Favorite Season? Fall
Favorite Online Hangout? Facebook
Favorite Animal? All animals
Favorite Band or Musician? Pink Floyd
Mode of Travel? (Trains, Planes or Automobiles) I like to drive, it gives me time to think.
Favorite Vacation Destination? I go every year to the Outer Banks in N.C. in the early fall.
About Lisa Falkenstern
Author Bio:
Lisa Falkenstern has been a professional illustrator for more than thirty years. She is a Gold Medal winner from the New York Society of Illustrators and is in their permanent collection. She won the Platinum Award in 2012 from Creativity International, Best in Show and People’s Choice Award at the 2012 NJ SCBWI conference, and is on the back cover of Spectrum 19 and has been in gallery shows in New York City. She is in the current Focus On Nature show at the New York State Museum. Her painting of Eastern Gray Squirrels won a jury award.
Connect with Lisa
CONTEST INFO: Open to readers worldwide Prize: A $25.00 Amazon Gift Card
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CONTEST INFO: Open to readers worldwide Prize: A $25.00 Amazon Gift Card
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