Author Visit by Jack Stockman

Jack Stockman has been a freelance illustrator of children’s books, magazines, and advertising art for over twenty years. (However, in our family he is best known as my brother-in-law.) You and your children might enjoy visiting his website at http://www.artbyjack.com/ to read his bio and see some of his work.

Today Mr. Stockman showed the children many original paintings from his published children’s books, as well as ones he has done for his own stories that he wrote for his children. He talked about how to plan stories and illustrations to go with them and how to make simple sketches using a technique called “gesture drawing”. The students also learned about creating anthropomorphic animals. (Anthropomorphic: ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human—Such as animals wearing clothing, driving cars, etc.) Mr. Stockman emphasized using things the children enjoy to inspire their writing and illustration and showed examples of how he has done that himself with paper airplanes, polar bears, and snowmen.

Below are pictures of some of Mr. Stockman’s books.

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