“Go outside and find a tree. Introduce yourself.” This is advice found in the new children’s book How to Draw a Tree, story by David LaRochelle and illustrations by Colleen Muske.
David LaRochelle and Colleen Muske are both Minnesota writers and illustrators who've teamed up for this lovely new picture book from the Minnesota Historical Society Press.
In a recent What We’re Reading interview, David explained how his love of trees was just one inspiration for this book—the other, was advice from an art teacher in college who said, “You should spend at least as much time looking at your subject as you do looking at your paper when you're drawing.”
David has found that this advice still holds true.
“I know when I'm drawing, I have an image in my head or I think, ‘Oh, this is how a tree looks’ and I start drawing it on my paper and I'm just focused on my paper. And when I do that, I draw the same tree over and over and over again… But when you spend time to actually look at different trees--the variety is incredible, and that's really the same thing with anything that you draw,” he said.
How to Draw a Tree encourages readers to slow down and take the time to truly consider a tree’s shape, texture, colors, leaves, roots, and even noises. The story is wonderfully enhanced by Colleen Muske’s vibrant illustrations with delightful details.
While one could be forgiven for thinking that the author and the illustrator work side by side on picture books, David pointed out that the story and illustrations are typically done independent of each other, as was the case with this book.
He explained, “I wrote the words and our editor at Minnesota Historical Society Press, Shannon Pennefeather--we did the editing on the story and when the story was all set, they turned it over to Colleen and it was all in her hands after that. I think the only comments that I made is that it was really important to me that there was a wide variety of trees and a wide variety of locations, and if you look at Colleen's drawings you can see she did that so well, and she would have done that on her own, I'm sure, too, even without that input from me.”
Of this process Colleen added, “It gave me more freedom to do some different landscapes where those trees belong, which I had a lot of fun. I find it interesting that we don't chat with each other it...But as just the illustrator, I have a freedom to do with those words with what I want, and I don't have any preconceived notion about what's tied to those words.”
For more information on David and Colleen, and to view their other books and illustrations, visit their websites:
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What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
