Ashley Wolff Visits Country Day

Children’s book author and illustrator Ashley Wolff visited with our Middle School art class when she was on campus to visit our Lower School students. She taught the artists about forward momentum (making sure the action in the pictures faces the right, so that it is set up in the same way we read, left to right). She showed them how to prepare two-page spreads keeping in mind the gutter (the fold in the center of a book). Because heads, hands, feet, and small illustrations can get lost, any great detail should be kept clear of the gutter. She also had them draw pictures that touched on all four sides of the page. Then she showed examples from her own books where she did one in block prints with watercolors and another in collage (she used pages from the Farmer’s Almanac for an apron and a flyer from Lucky’s for the clothing). It was interesting to learn about all the things a book illustrator has to keep in mind when creating artwork.