SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: LOST CITIES
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://gileslaroche.com/
CITY: Salem
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 284
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/giles-laroche/26/b21/76b http://wakingbraincells.com/2011/10/31/review-if-you-lived-here-by-giles-laroche/ http://www.portlandbookreview.com/if-you-lived-here/ http://www.nonfictiondetectives.com/2011/11/if-you-lived-here-houses-of-world-by.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 1, 1956, in Berlin, NH; son of Romeo and Claire Laroche.
EDUCATION:Montserrat College of Art, degree, 1981.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Artist and illustrator of children’s books. Artist in residence at numerous schools, beginning c. 1990. Exhibitions: Paintings, drawings, and illustrations exhibited nationally, including by Society of Illustrators, New York, NY.
AVOCATIONS:Travel, hiking.
AWARDS:Notable Book for a Global Society Honor Book designation, International Reading Association, 2001, for Sacred Places by Philemon Sturges.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
SUBMITTED IN SGML FORMAT.
Described by their creator as “paper relief,” Giles Laroche’s intricate cut-paper-collage illustrations are a feature of his original picture books What’s Inside? Fascinating Structures around the World and If You Lived Here: Houses of the World. His art can also be found in picture books featuring texts by authors such as Ferrington, Lois Lenski, April Jones Prince, Philemon Sturges, and Rachel Field. Reviewing Prince’s What Do Wheels Do All Day?, a story geared for young boys, Horn Book critic Lolly Robinson cited Laroche’s “impressive bas-relief cut-paper collages” as among the book’s strengths, while Ann Fearrington’s Who Sees the Lighthouse? was lauded by Booklist critic Ilene Cooper as a “celebration of lighthouses” that is also “a wonder of paper craft.”
Laroche was inspired to begin book illustration while working as an assistant at an architectural firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he developed his unique cut-paper technique in his art studios in Salem, Massachusetts, and Washington, New Hampshire, during the 1980s. His paper-relief technique involves cutting, painting, and gluing up to seven or eight layers of paper within each image, spacing each layer to create shadows that give the work a dimensional quality. “I had always enjoyed the collage process,” Laroche once told SATA, “and I began creating collages depicting scenes of medieval towns and colonial villages. In time my collages became more dimensional, and I found myself hand-coloring my own cut-out collage elements. Then I remembered children’s books, and I thought that perhaps my paper reliefs would lend themselves well as book illustrations if they could be lit and photographed in an interesting and dramatic way.” Reviewers of Laroche’s published illustrations have suggested that the artist’s cut-paper collages do indeed work well as illustrations for children’s books, especially when a three-dimensional effect is desired.
Allowing children an up-close view of over a dozen of the world’s most amazing feats of construction engineering, What’s Inside? features layered cut-paper images that reproduce buildings both inside and out. As well as depicting structures ranging from the underground tomb of Egypt’s King Tutankamun to Sydney, Australia’s famed Opera House and the Georgia Aquarium, Laroche includes specific facts about each structure, such as location, date of completion, materials, and special features. Calling What’s Inside? a “beautiful book,” Paula Willey added in School Library Journal that its sculptural images “are depicted with skill and charm” and feature an “intricacy [that] … will hold readers spellbound.” Featuring a “trademark” style that mixes “drawing, painting, and cut paper,” the artwork in What’s Inside? is enhanced by “minute detail [that] celebrates the awe-inspiring constructions,” according to Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman.
Laroche turns his attention homeward in If You Lived Here , which allows readers to experience life inside homes from around the world. In each of the book’s sixteen double-page spreads—which span time and place and range from a village pueblo to an eighteenth-century pioneer log home to a rammed-earth “tulou” from Fuji—an intricate collage image reveals “the geography, the inhabitants, and the community, as well as the house itself,” according to Booklist critic Thom Barthelmess. In Horn Book Jonathan Hunt commended the work, writing that Laroche’s fact-filled tour of dwellings allow young readers “glimpses into the lives of people who might live very differently” and “also expand and broaden their worldview.” School Library Journal contributor Kathleen Kelly MacMillan recommended If You Lived Here as an “exemplary” work that will “inspire readers as well as educate them.”
Laroche’s knowledge of architecture is also on display in his illustrations for Lee Bennett Hopkins’s Ragged Shadows: Poems of Halloween Night, an anthology of fourteen poems featuring costumed children trick-or-treating through the streets of Salem, Massachusetts. Laroche’s cut-paper collages also capture architectural elements in the pages of Sturges’s books Bridges Are to Cross and Sacred Places. In the first, the author showcases fifteen bridges, from the high-tech splendor of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to a 2,000-year-old Spanish aqueduct, in the process covering a range of styles, technologies, and materials across time and culture. A Publishers Weekly critic, reviewing Bridges Are to Cross , highlighted Laroche’s “astonishing 3-D collage illustration,” while in School Library Journal Ronald Jobe remarked that “each bridge … has a luminescent quality to it, as if the light is radiating from within. What an effect!”
In Sacred Places Sturges offers a brief tour of nearly thirty places across five continents that are considered sacred by some religion. In her review of the work for School Library Journal, Patricia Lothrop-Green remarked that Laroche’s illustrations here offer more information than a photograph of the actual sites ever could: his “rich and detailed art balances architectural impact with situation, use, and cultural context.” Down to the Sea in Ships marked another collaboration between Sturges and Laroche, and here author and illustrator teamed up to create what Booklist critic Gillian Engberg described as a “beautifully illustrated” collection of verses honoring boats, from ancient Viking drakars to tall-masted war ships to modern auto ferries. Laroche’s “stunning collages” outshine Sturges’s text, according to Engberg, while in School Library Journal Teresa Pfeifer wrote of Down to the Sea in Ships that “author and illustrator work wonders together” in crafting this innovative picture book.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 1992, Kay Weisman, review of The Color Box, pp. 1606-1607; August, 1993, Kathryn Broderick, review of Ragged Shadows: Poems of Halloween Night, p. 2067; October 1, 2000, Ilene Cooper, review of Sacred Places, p. 360; November 15, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of Who Sees the Lighthouse?, p. 609; May 15, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of Down to the Sea in Ships, p. 1655; April 15, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of What Do Wheels Do All Day?, p. 50; February 15, 2009, Hazel Rochman, review of What’s Inside? Fascinating Structures around the World, p. 78; October 15, 2011, Thom Barthelmess, review of If You Lived Here: Houses of the World, p. 42.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, May, 2009, Elizabeth Bush, review of What’s Inside?, p. 368; December, 2011, Elizabeth Bush, review of If You Lived Here, p. 212.
Horn Book, May-June, 2006, Lolly Robinson, review of What Do Wheels Do All Day?, p. 299; September-October, 2011, Jonathan Hunt, review of If You Lived Here, p. 111.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002, review of Who Sees the Lighthouse?, p. 879; April 15, 2005, review of Down to the Sea in Ships, p. 483; May 1, 2006, review of What Do Wheels Do All Day?, p. 465; September 15, 2011, review of If You Lived Here.
New York Times Book Review, May 17, 1992, Liz Rosenberg, review of The Color Box, p. 34.
Publishers Weekly, September 20, 1993, review of Ragged Shadows, p. 30; October 30, 2000, review of Bridges Are to Cross, p. 78; June 17, 2002, review of Who Sees the Lighthouse?, p. 63.
School Library Journal, June, 1992, Steven Engelfried, review of The Color Box, p. 92; December, 1998, Ronald Jobe, review of Bridges Are to Cross, p. 116; December, 2000, Patricia Lothrop-Green, review of Sacred Places, pp. 136-137; October, 2002, Laurie Von Mehren, review of Who Sees the Lighthouse?, p. 105; June, 2005, Teresa Pfeifer, review of Down to the Sea in Ships, p. 187; June, 2006, Janet S. Thompson, review of What Do Wheels Do All Day?, p. 140; May, 2009, Paula Willey, review of What’s Inside?, p. 125; September, 2011, Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, review of If You Lived Here, p. 136.
ONLINE
Giles Laroche website, http://www.gileslaroche.com (February 15, 2015).
ART FOR KIDS, AND BEYOND
Giles Laroche has been drawing for as long as he can remember. "I especially enjoyed sketching the mountains, old farmhouses, and mill buildings which surrounded Berlin, New Hampshire, the town I grew up in." Giles fell in love with books at a young age.
Little did Giles know that when he grew up, other people would gaze at his books about faraway lands and that he would also travel to many of the places he would come to illustrate and write about in such books as Bridges Are To Cross, Sacred Places, What's Inside? Fascinating Structures Around the World, and If You Lived Here: Houses of the World. Whether Giles is exploring in Europe or hiking in New England, he always has a sketchbook in hand.
Sketches are only Giles' first step in creating the elaborate collages that Kirkus Reviews called "truly awe-inspiring." Every illustration involves many stages of drawing, cutting, painting, and gluing. Often, a piece has seven or eight layers before Giles is through with it!
Giles places spacers between each layer to give the final artwork added depth and dimension. He calls his technique "paper relief" because of its three-dimensional effect when photographed for inclusion in his books.
Giles lives and works in his house in Salem, Massachusetts, and in a 230-year-old barn in southwestern New Hampshire.
"As a child I enjoyed poring over maps, and reading and gazing at books about faraway lands - these are the books I enjoy creating for children."
See a list of books written or illustrated by Giles Laroche
Giles has partnered again with author and poet David Harrison for his most recent book; A PLACE TO START A FAMILY: POEMS ABOUT CREATURES THAT BUILD. Out in mid-January 2018 the book's title says it all and it's a perfect companion to their first book together: NOW YOU SEE THEM NOW YOU DON'T: POEMS ABOUT ANIMALS THAT HIDE.
When not writing his own children's picture books Giles enjoys partnering with writers and poets
and creating cut-paper illustrations inspired by their words. He worked with Philemon Sturges on BRIDGES ARE TO CROSS, SACRED PLACES, and DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS and April Jones Prince on WHAT DO WHEELS DO ALL DAY?
Find out more about about Giles and see more of his art on his website; www.gileslaroche.com "Art for kids and beyond" or at Charlesbridge Publishing's website; www.charlesbridgepublishing.com.
Giles has just begun work on a new book which he is both author and illustrator. He is currently gathering research material, immersing himself in the subject and working on a draft. He'll tell you more about it as it develops. UPDATE! Giles has just begun working on the illustrations for this new book--more details soon.
Described by their creator as “paper relief,” Giles Laroche's intricate cut-paper-collage illustrations are a feature of his original picture books What's Inside? Fascinating Structures around the World and If You Lived Here: Houses of the World, as well as of picture books featuring texts by authors such as Lois Lenski, Dayle Ann Dodds, Philemon Sturges, and Rachel Field. Reviewing April Jones Prince's What Do Wheels Do All Day?, a story geared for young boys, Horn Book critic Lolly Robinson cited Laroche's “impressive bas-relief cut-paper collages” as among the book's strengths, while Ann Fearrington's Who Sees the Lighthouse? was lauded by Booklist critic Ilene Cooper as a “celebration of lighthouses” that is also “a wonder of paper craft.”
Laroche was inspired to begin book illustration while working as an assistant at an architectural firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he began developing his unique cut-paper technique in his art studios in Salem, Massachusetts, and Washington, New Hampshire during the 1980s. His paper-relief technique involves cutting, painting, and gluing up to seven or eight layers of paper within each image, spacing each layer to create shadows that give his work a dimensional quality. “I had always enjoyed the collage process,” Laroche once told SATA, “and I began creating collages depicting scenes of medieval towns and colonial villages. In time my collages became more dimensional, and I found myself hand-coloring my own cut-out collage elements. Then I remembered children's books, and I thought that perhaps my paper reliefs would lend themselves well as book illustrations if they could be lit and photographed in an interesting and dramatic way.” Reviewers of Laroche's published illustrations have suggested that the artist's cut-paper collages do indeed work well as illustrations for children's books, especially when a three-dimensional effect is desired.
Allowing children an up-close view of over a dozen of the world's most amazing feats of construction engineering, What's Inside? features layered cut-paper images that reproduce buildings both inside and out. As well as depicting structures from the underground tomb of Egypt's King Tutankamun to Sydney, Australia's Opera House and the Georgia Aquarium, Laroche includes specific facts about each structure, such as location, date of completion, materials, and special features. Calling What's Inside? a “beautiful book,” Paula Willey added in School Library Journal that its sculptural images “are depicted with skill and charm” and feature an “intricacy [that] ... will hold readers spellbound.” Featuring a “trademark” style that mixes “drawing, painting, and cut paper,” the artwork in What's Inside? is enhanced by “minute detail [that] celebrates the awe-inspiring constructions,” according to Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman.
Laroche turns his attention homeward in If You Lived Here, which allows readers to experience life inside homes from around the world. In each of the book's sixteen double-page spreads--which span time and place and range from a village pueblo to an eighteenth-century pioneer log home to a rammed-earth “tulou” from Fuji--an intricate collage image reveals “the geography, the inhabitants, and the community, as well as the house itself,” according to Booklist critic Thom Barthelmess. In Horn Book Jonathan Hunt commended the work, writing that Laroche's fact-filled tour of dwellings allow young readers “glimpses into the lives of people who might live very differently” and “also expand and broaden their worldview,” while School Library Journal contributor Kathleen Kelly MacMillan recommended If You Lived Here as an “exemplary” work that will “inspire readers as well as educate them.”
Laroche' knowledge of architecture is also on display in his illustrations for Lee Bennett Hopkins' Ragged Shadows: Poems of Halloween Night, an anthology of fourteen poems featuring costumed children making the rounds trick-or-treating through the streets of Salem, Massachusetts. Laroche's cut-paper collages again capture architectural elements in the pages of Sturges's Bridges Are to Cross and Sacred Places. In the first, Sturges showcases fifteen bridges, from the high-tech splendor of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to a 2,000-year-old Spanish aqueduct, in the process covering a range of styles, technologies, and materials across time and culture. A Publishers Weekly critic, reviewing Bridges Are to Cross, highlighted Laroche's “astonishing 3-D collage illustration,” while School Library Journal reviewer Ronald Jobe remarked that “each bridge ... has a luminescent quality to it, as if the light is radiating from within. What an effect!”
In Sacred Places Sturges offers a brief tour of nearly thirty places across five continents that are considered sacred by some religion. In her review of the work for School Library Journal, Patricia Lothrop-Green remarked that Laroche's illustrations here offer more information than a photograph of the actual sites ever could: his “rich and detailed art balances architectural impact with situation, use, and cultural context as a photograph could never do,” according to the critic. Down to the Sea in Ships marked another collaboration between Sturges and Laroche, and here author and illustrator team up to create what Booklist critic Gillian Engberg described as a “beautifully illustrated” collection of verses honoring boats, from ancient Viking drakars to tall-masted war ships to modern auto ferries. Laroche's “stunning collages” outshine Sturges's text, according to Engberg, while in School Library Journal Teresa Pfeifer wrote of Down to the Sea in Ships that “author and illustrator work wonders together” in crafting the innovative picture book.
Visit Giles online.
Illustrator Saturday – Giles Laroche
Giles has partnered with author and poet David Harrison for his most recent book; NOW YOU SEE THEM NOW YOU DON’T: POEMS ABOUT CREATURES THAT HIDE and is in the process of creating more cut-paper illustrations for another book with David called A PLACE TO START A FAMILY: POEMS ABOUT CREATURES THAT BUILD. He’s in the middle of a beaver dam at the moment.
When not writing his own children’s picture books Giles enjoys partnering with writers and poets
and creating cut-paper illustrations inspired by their words. He worked with Philemon Sturges on BRIDGES ARE TO CROSS, SACRED PLACES, and DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS and April Jones Prince on WHAT DO WHEELS DO ALL DAY?
Find out more about about Giles and see more of his art on his website; http://www.gileslaroche.com “Art for kids and beyond” or at Charlesbridge Publishing’s website; http://www.charlesbridgepublishing.com.
Giles has just begun work on a new book which he is both author and illustrator. He is currently gathering research material, immersing himself in the subject and working on a draft. He’ll tell you more about it as it develops.
Here is Giles discussing his process:
I will use this pencil drawing of a New England style connected barn as a guide to make my cut-paper relief illustration.
Here we can see below the drawing some of the sections under construction.
The main house section is put in place.
The large barn is connected to the small barn.
The roof shingles are added to the large barn.
Oxen, horses, cows, ducks, geese, chickens, and people are added to the finished illustration.
I had a few material questions:
What type of paper do you use? What do you use for spacing the layers? Do you paint the paper before you cut and paste?
I use printmaking papers especially: Rives BFK, Stonehenge, etc. Also, rough surfaced Bristol board, and watercolor papers are a favorite, even all cotton-stationery. Sometimes I pre-paint the papers before I draw and cut-out the various details of my illustrations. Most often though, I cut out the parts of say a house, or animal, or ship, and paint the pieces as I go along and assemble them with matte medium as my adhesive. I use layers all rag illustration board, in combination with adhesives for the spacers.
The man in the row boat has the look of fog above him – was that spray painted on at the end?
The fisherman you refer to is indeed in a fog bank, but it doesn’t seem to bother him as he admires the distant schooner. I used washes and glazes of acrylic paint for the water in that piece and created the fog with a white colored pencil over the paint.
How do you create such beautiful water? Some of it looks like you embossed the lines into the paper.
Sometimes I use a stiff brush for say river water or rapids, the brush gives the paint a finely ridged texture which I can then enhance with colored pencils.
So, it’s truly mixed media—I use virtually everything, except oil-based paints.
Above is the cover Giles illustrated for David L Harrison’s new book coming out in January.
Interview:
How long have you been illustrating?
Since 1981. I started out doing magazine illustrations; editorial, music reviews, food…
I also illustrated book jackets for foreign language text books.
What and when was the first painting or illustration that you did where someone paid you for your artwork?
In high school I was commissioned by a friend to paint a mural in his family’s family room. But my first sale professionally was of an abstract painting just before I finished art school in 1981..
Did you go to school to study art? If so, where did you go and why did you chose that school?
I went to Montserrat School of Visual Art, now College of Art and studied fine art and illustration. I went there for a variety of reasons, first because someone I knew had gone there and spoke highly of his time there. It was small, and on my initial visit to it I met some students and faculty who encouraged me to give it a try. Germany and Belgium
What did you study there?
It was 1977. Things were wonderfully simple on Mondays we had drawing from 9-12. Painting from 1-4, on Tuesdays art history from 9-12, sculpture 1-4 Wednesday…. You get the picture. It was where I wanted to be, doing what I wanted to do.
Do you think art school influenced your style?
In some ways, yes. I think we (artists) have a style that is a part of us even before any art training. In art school we enhance our style with influences and experiences.
What type of job did you do right after you graduated?
Magazine and textbook illustration. and I had a part-time position as an office assistant in an architectural firm. I also taught in Montserrat’s children’s program.
When did you decide you wanted to illustrate for children?
It was about 1983 when I first saw Graphis’ magazines children’s book illustration annual.
When did you start doing paper relief to illustrate your books?
In 1987 for my first book: SING A SONG OF PEOPLE by Lois Lenski.
Was your book Bridges Are to Cross, the first picture book you illustrated?
No. But it was the first after a break from illustrating to focus on my fine art and teaching. BRIDGES was my sixth book.
How did you get that job?
The author, architect Philemon Sturges saw my portfolio which at the time included paper-reliefs of various structures. As he and I were looking at them his wife came through the door, exasperated by a long traffic delay, stuck on a bridge. Voila! Our idea was born and he and I chose the bridges, we presented our sketches and text to a publisher and we were on our way.
Have you ever illustrated a picture not using your creative paper relief process?
No, but I do enjoy working in other media…
You say, “Every illustration involves drawing, cutting, painting, and gluing. Often, a piece has seven or eight layers. Spacers are placed between each layer to give the final artwork added depth and dimension.” Obviously your work needs to be photographed or a 32 page picture book would not close. Do you have a professional photographer take the pictures or do you send it into the publisher and let them handle this part or do you do it yourself?
The publisher hires a professional photographer who specializes in photographing art for publication. I have attended some shoots.
It must take forever to draw, cut, paint, and glue to finish a 32 page book. How long does it usually take?
I like a solid year to work on the final art.
What do you do with all these works of art? Do you sign, frame, and sell them?
Yes, I keep ones that have meaning for me, but I have sold perhaps more than half of all of my illustrations.
Do the school kids have fun working with you during your workshops and learning your process?
Kids love to make art and cut-paper is a forgiving medium. I’m often asked, “Mr Laroche, are you coming back tomorrow?”
I see that you use pastels, acrylics, oils, or gouache with your fine art. How do you work that into your schedule with your book illustrating and teaching workshops?
There’s always time between book projects, and even while I’m working on a book, I can take a day or so and work on my ‘other’ art.
A PLACE TO START A FAMILY Text Copyright © 2018 by David L Harrison. Illustrations Copyright © 2018 by Giles Laroche. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Tell us a little bit about your new book A PLACE TO START A FAMILY coming out in January. How long where you working on the illustrations? Where there any challenges to this book?
One year. Each book presents new challenges. In A PLACE the main feature of each illustration was of course, the animal structure and yet I wanted to depict and focus on the creatures as well.
A PLACE TO START A FAMILY Text Copyright © 2018 by David L Harrison. Illustrations Copyright © 2018 by Giles Laroche. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Did you have a two book contract with Charlesbridge when you did NOW YOU SEE THEM NOW YOU DON’T? Or did they just immediately think of you when David sign the contract for his new book after the great job you did with NOW YOU SEE THEM NOW YOU DON’T?
I’ve never had a two-book contract. After I finished my art for NOW YOU SEE THEM I asked David if he might be willing to work on a book about animal structures, then we asked our editor and the three of us got very excited and we got to work.
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t Text Copyright © 2016 by David L Harrison. Illustrations Copyright © 2016 by Giles Laroche. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Do you think we can expect another book where the two of you are paired up?
It would be fun. We’ll see. Right now I’m working on the text and preliminary sketches for a book.
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t Text Copyright © 2016 by David L Harrison. Illustrations Copyright © 2016 by Giles Laroche. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Are you represented by an artist rep.? If so, who is and how did you connect?
Yes, I’m represented by Studio Goodwin Sturges. Since BRIDGES ARE TO CROSS, see answer to question
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t Text Copyright © 2016 by David L Harrison. Illustrations Copyright © 2016 by Giles Laroche. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
How many book have your written and illustrated?
Fourteen
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t Text Copyright © 2016 by David L Harrison. Illustrations Copyright © 2016 by Giles Laroche. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Have you worked with educational publishers?
Yes, When I first got started in illustration.
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t Text Copyright © 2016 by David L Harrison. Illustrations Copyright © 2016 by Giles Laroche. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
What do consider to be your biggest success?
IF YOU LIVED HERE: HOUSES OF THE WORLD
What kind of things do you do to promote your work?
I enjoy giving talks at libraries and schools.
That studio set up in your barn is impressive. Since you live in New Hampshire, do you have trouble getting through the snow to work in your studio? Do you have glass doors you can close when the weather gets bad?
I have had to shovel my way into the barn. But now I use it seasonally—from April to late November. The other months I live and work in Salem, Massachusetts.
What is the one thing in your studio that you could not live without?
The view through the glass wall of Mt. Lovell, the mulberry tree laden with every type of songbird in the northeast, the turkeys, occasional bear and bobcat…..and my vine charcoal.
Do you try to spend a specific amount of time working on your craft?
I think you are asking how much time do I spend in my studio/on my work. It varies day by day, but my aim is always to get to the studio.
Do you take pictures or do any types of research before you start a project?
Absolutely! In the case of my two books with David….. the alligator, copperhead, wasp, beaver lodge, heron, and others were all drawn from photos I took. I also spend a lot of time gathering reference materials in libraries.
Do you think the Internet has opened doors for you?
Of course. Especially for double checking facts and getting quick answers.
Do you have any career dreams that you want to fulfill?
Just to be able to continue this great balance of working on my art and my books in my barn in NH and in my house in Massachusetts.
What are you working on now?
A non-fiction children’s picture book about lost civilizations.
Do you have any material type tips you can share with us? Example: Paint or paper that you love – the best place to buy – a new product that you’ve tried – A how to tip, etc.
When I taught kids to draw years ago one the favorite lessons for them and me was getting a twig from the forest floor and dipping it into india ink to draw on brown craft paper a portrait of a fellow student.
I like print-making papers for my work and an x-acto knife. I always tell kids I work with to think of a cutting tool as a drawing tool.
Any words of wisdom on how to become a successful writer or illustrator?
I suggest to illustrators and writers that they visit libraries and new or used book stores to see what’s out there and to note who’s publishing what, so that they can then submit their work to the appropriate house. And, to see what the trends are… and either follow those trends or preferably avoid them and present their own original message. Keeping journals and sketchbooks are crucial too. Work every day even if it’s only for fifteen minutes to write a paragraph or to work on sketches.
Thank you Giles for sharing your talent, process, journey, and expertise with us. Please make sure you keep in touch and share your future successes with us. To see more of Giles’ work, you can visit him at his website: http://gileslaroche.com/
If you have a minute, please leave a comment for Giles. I am sure he’d love it and I enjoy reading them, too. Thanks!
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
Giles Laroche is a children’s book illustrator and fine artist who lives and works in Salem, Massachusetts and Washington, New Hampshire.
Giles fell in love with books and drawing at a very young age. Growing up, he loved to sketch the mountains and buildings around the the New Hampshire town he lived in. He attended the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts, where he later worked for twelve years in the children’s art program. Giles combines elements from cubism and surrealism to bring depth to his art. Nicknamed “the paper architect,” he uses cut-paper to create his bas-relief illustrations. Each element is first drawn, then cut out and painted before the works are assembled. The overlapping layers create a three-dimensional effect.
Giles’ illustrations have been featured in The Art Institute of Chicago, the New York Society of Illustrators, and the DeCordova Museum.
To see more of Giles Laroche’s art, please visit his website.
Laroche, Giles LOST CITIES HMH Books (Children's Informational) $17.99 4, 7 ISBN: 978-1-328-75364-9
Profiles of ancient cities from around the world, intricately illustrated, highlight their mysteries.
In Laroche's latest work of nonfiction for kids, settlements "lost" to time or conquest or that have unknown histories are described, each profile hitting on "Location," "Who lived here," "Why was it lost," "How was it found," and "What's mysterious." Cities such as Babylon (in present-day Iraq), Angkor Wat (in Cambodia), and Rapa Nui (now called Easter Island) are represented in impressive detail thanks to Laroche's signature paper-relief art. Backmatter includes a timeline, placing each city in chronological order of its construction, as well as an overview of Laroche's artistic process. Young readers who are fascinated by historical mysteries may find this an interesting jumping-off point for deeper exploration of the featured settlements; none of the profiles are extensive enough to satisfy research-project requirements or the curiosity of true history nerds. Readers will encounter language that normalizes colonization: For example, much of the information listed under Laroche's "How was it found?" sections describe European "explorers" and archaeologists who "rediscovered" or "visited" settlements built by the Indigenous peoples of the various continents. Additionally, the profile on Angkor Wat sets a peculiarly exocitizing scene: "If you had lived in this city…you would have encountered bizarre creatures, such as monkey-like wild macaques, flying wingless snakes, as well as people perched on elephants or dressed in colored silk sarongs."
Stunning visuals paired with some disappointing content. (Nonfiction. 5-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Laroche, Giles: LOST CITIES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A612619079/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9541e048. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.
A Place to Start a Family: Poems about Creatures That Build.
By David L. Harrison. Illus. by Giles Laroche.
Jan. 2018. 32p. Charlesbridge, $17.99 (9781580897488). 591.56. K-Gr. 2.
Lively rhymes and arresting cut-paper collage illustrations are an appealing combination in this introduction to a variety of animals that build homes. The animals are grouped by where they build homes; for example, paper wasps and storks build homes "in air," while sticklebacks and puffer fish build homes underwater. The poems vary nicely in structure, and while some are more successful than others, they are, overall, approachable and gently informative. Complementing the text, Laroche's superb collage illustrations offer additional views of the homes described in the poems and are rich with detail, from the meticulous scales on the king cobra to the multicolored, individually cut branches and logs making up the beaver's den. A cutaway section of a termite's nest, revealing the vast network of tunnels within, is particularly engrossing. For readers looking for even more information, the back matter provides additional commentary about each creature and the way it builds its home. A natural for classroom use, with eye-catching art that will lure little ones in.--Annie Greengoss
YA RECOMMENDATIONS
* Young adult recommendations for adult, audio, and reference titles reviewed in this issue have been contributed by the Booklist staff and by reviewers Michael Cart, Lindsay Harmon, Erin Downey Howerton, Courtney Jones, Colleen Mondor, James Pekoll, Gilbert Taylor, and Bridget Thoreson.
* Adult titles recommended for teens are marked with the following symbols: YA, for books of general YA interest: YA/C, for books with particular curriculum value; YA/S, for books that will appeal most to teens with a special interest in a specific subject; and YA/M, for books best suited to mature teens.
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Greengoss, Annie. "A Place to Start a Family: Poems about Creatures That Build." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 7, 1 Dec. 2017, p. 51. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A519036293/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=09b9da93. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.
Harrison, David NOW YOU SEE THEM, NOW YOU DON'T Charlesbridge (Children's Picture Books) $17.95 2, 16 ISBN: 978-1-58089-610-8
Nineteen different animals, placed in five animal categories, are represented first by artwork and poetry and finally by brief paragraphs and references for further reading. The poems are graceful and often humorous, giving good introductions to the reasons behind each animal's protective coloration. The illustrations, which involve "drawing, cutting, painting, and gluing," likewise effectively convey how camouflage works, without pretense of photorealism. The categories--sea life, reptiles and amphibians, mammals, insects and spiders, and birds--reveal a wide variety of animals, from ghost crab to Bengal tiger, walking stick to hawk. An especially funny but accurate poem is the double-page spread about the copperhead, whose letter to "Mr. Vole" is full of sibilance, reinforced in a literal sense: "Find me / if you can, / my sssskin / deceivessss, / helpssss me / dissssappear." The accompanying art shows the mottled, coppery serpent under a scattering of autumn leaves. In contrast, a fawn hides, scentless, "saved by fawny / polka dots / that blend with / gentle sunny spots." The text educates young readers about useful camouflage for predators and for prey, without resorting to anything truly disturbing. Other than a "buzzy fly" becoming "fast food" for a spider and some tiny fish disappearing, predators are shown as merely threatening, and prey are shown as successfully hiding. Endnotes, cover, and layout all add to a thoughtful, well-executed book. An attractive, informative blend of science and the arts. (Informational picture book/poetry. 5-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Kirkus Media LLC
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MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Harrison, David: NOW YOU SEE THEM, NOW YOU DON'T." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2015. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A435818860/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4434f06c. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.