Workshop: Stealing ideas - learning from the experts

Venue: Johannesburg (address to be sent to respondents)

Date: 7 June 2016

Time: 10:00 - 15:00

Cost: R100 SCBWI members, R200 non-members

RSVP: To Jenny at SCBWI.SA.Gauteng@mweb.co.za

About the workshop

Joan Rankin will share ideas on learning from artists and then Jenny Hatton will discuss techniques used by well-known writers of picture books. This will be followed by a practical exercise.

All welcome - members and non-members. This event is for illustrators and writers.

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Characterisation through puppetry

Joan Rankin, 

well-known and award-winning illustrator and writer of children's books 
presented a workshop on using puppets to develop characters.

Participants were given a set of questions to ask of their characters. 
The answers were discussed.

Great fun was had by all. 

Photos by Teresa Truda

Exclusive Books IBBY SA Award for the best picture book of 2013 and 2014

Fiona Moodie’s Noko and the Kool Kats (Tafelberg) has been announced as the winner of the 5^th Exclusive Books IBBY SA award -  for the best picture book of the past two years (2013 and 2014).   In the words of the jury, “It’s a witty and engaging tale, seamlessly accompanied by illustrations that are deceptively simple, their spontaneity underpinned by a keen eye and fine sensibility. The likeable and down-to earth character of Noko the porcupine is hilariously offset by the spoilt and egotistical Kool Kats. The generous scale of the book contributes a great deal to its appeal.  This is a notable contribution to picture books that celebrate our home in Africa.”

 The two runners-up are also wonderful examples of high quality South African children’s literature:

• Wendy Hartmann and Joan Rankin’s   Sisi goes to school and other stories (H&R 2013) is described by the jury as “ a delightful compilation of story and rhyme, filled with warmth, love and friendship.  Joan Rankin’s watercolour illustrations are astonishingly beautiful and create the right atmosphere of gentleness and charm.”
• According to the jury, in Dianne Hofmeyr and Piet Grobler’s  The name of the tree is Bojabi (H&R, 2013), “Piet Grobler creates in his illustrations a humorous but real world inhabited by the animals of Africa. The story has a repetitive element which makes it wonderfully suitable for storytelling, and children will enjoy the playful names and rhymes.”

Warm congratulations and thanks to the books' publishing teams.  They are books to be proud of.  

IBBY South Africa is grateful to Exclusive Books for generously partnering us in this award - and for hosting yesterday's celebratory brunch.    

Genevieve Hart - IBBY SA Chairperson 

Katrine Harries Award for Children's Book Illustrations: 2008-2014 (from IBBY SA's Spring Newsletter 2015)

  The Katrine Harries Award for Children’s Book Illustrations: 2008-2014

                                           

The award winners are: Joan Rankin for Just Sisi (Human & Rousseau) for the period 2008 – 2009; Maja Sereda for Haasmoles (LAPA) for the period 2010 – 2011; and Johan Strauss for In die Land van Pamperlang (Human & Rousseau) for the period 2012 – 2013.

The Katrine Harries award is the oldest award in South Africa for illustrations in children’s picture books and the only one that awards the illustrations in children’s books as an art form. Only illustrators based in South Africa are considered for the award.

The illustrations in Just Sisi by Joan Rankin, the grande dame of South African children’s book illustrations, were described by the judges as well balanced, creating enough space to draw attention to the subject matter, and giving the reader some breathing space. “Light and airy and absolutely delightful!” She managed to tell a visual story with a high cultural content without mentioning race or colour.

                                
                              Just Sisi - illustrations by Joan Rankin

Maja Sereda’s illustrations were commended for being refreshingly entertaining. Although there is a lot of activity and movement in each illustration, it never becomes forced and overbearing. With little detail an array of emotions is evoked and young readers will identify effortlessly with the characters. “Great fun!”

Johann Strauss’s illustrations are meticulously thought through and splendidly executed – each a masterpiece in its own right. His style is unique and fresh. His interpretation of elements of nature ensures a dreamlike quality. He has mastered his medium, making In die Land van Pamperlang “a fairytale brought to life”.

                                       
                      Johan Strauss for In die Land van Pamperlang

The Katrine Harries award, a nine carat gold medal, was created in the early 1960s by the SA Library Association and later taken over by the South African Institute for Library and Information Science (SAILIS). When SAILIS was disbanded, the new organisation, LIASA, was not interested in continuing with awards. Nicol Stassen, the owner of Protea Boekhuis, has sponsored the award from 1997. It was awarded the last time at the centenary of the University of Pretoria in 2008. A lack of resources and interest caused another six years to go by, but collaboration between the Department of Information Science at Unisa and IBBY SA North, has now again made it possible to continue with the award.

The judges were:

Prof. Molly Brown is the Head of the English Department at the University of Pretoria. Children's Literature is one of her key research interests and her PhD was on young adult fantasy. She has published in Journals such as The Lion and the Unicorn, Mousaion and Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature. Prof. Brown also runs an Honours course in Children's Literature and has established The Child and the Story as a Faculty Research Theme at the University of Pretoria.

       
                                         Maja Sereda for Haasmoles

Katinka Joubert is a graphic designer and illustrator at Onesanesoul and mother of a two year old boy. She helps out at various orphanages in Hammanskraal from where her passion for upliftment grew. Her dream is to cultivate art awareness amongst underprivileged children.

Thea Bester-Swanepoel also a graphic designer, specializes in book- and publishing design. She is currently employed by Unisa Press. As mother of two small boys, she is passionate about children’s books and dreams about establishing her own project on children’s book illustrations.

For more information contact
Prof Thomas van der Walt

 Thomas van Der Walt and Maritha Snyman must be congratulated on their work in reviving the Katrine Harries award – Genevieve Hart

Workshop: School visits and entertaining children/adults

Joan Rankin will facilitate the workshop.

Venue: Johannesburg (address to be sent to respondents)

Date: Wednesday 5 March 2014

Time: 10:00 - 15:00

Cost: R80 SCBWI members, R150 non-members

RSVP: By 28 February to Jenny at SCBWI.SA.Gauteng@mweb.co.za

Have you been invited to do a school visit, run a workshop? Joan will talk about some of the school visits she’s done and some of the antics involved. She’ll demonstrate some of the things she does to entertain the children/adults.

A light lunch will be provided.

This is a wonderful opportunity to think about how to promote your own work.

For information about Joan Rankin, see http://scbwigauteng.blogspot.com/2010/11/joan-rankin-writer-and-illustrator-of.html

Drawing: The body language of children, people and animals - Joan Rankin

On 9-10 May 2013, we had a fantastic workshop facilitated by Joan Rankin.

Although many of the illustrators present are experienced and widely published, it's so refreshing to get together in this kind of workshop and work on creativity.


We each received a file containing a number of exercises.

On day 1 we drew with pencil and brought in colour on day 2.

We explored facial expression and body language.


We shared and discussed the work.

And worked some more!








Joan inspired us with her "Hat story".

Teresa Truda

Adelle van Zyl

Paddy (Marlene) Visser
 

We looked at many different techniques on both days and tried them out.








We examined positioning on the page.


Many memorable illustrations were produced.






Although I'm not an illustrator, I was so inspired by this workshop and by being with friends and colleagues.





And in Joan's words ...

MER Award

Joan Rankin and Wendy Hartmann win MER award

Media24 Books Literary and Jan Rabie Rapport Awards (formerly known as the Via Afrika Literary Awards) were announced at an award ceremony on Friday 10 June 2011.

Open Studios of 2010

Illustrators and writers visited one another's studios during 2010 and learnt about how different people worked. Each illustrator / writer generously shared individual experiences, knowledge and techniques. This SCBWI project provided an incredible opportunity to learn from one another and helped to weld together a supportive group in Gauteng.

March

Paddy (Marleen Visser) showed how she works by hand as well as on computer. She talked about some of the paintings in her house and where they've been exhibited.

April

Julia du Plessis showed how she uses kokis and works by hand. She talked about her work in graphic art and cartooning.

May

Yvette  de  Beer talked about how she had been influence by a wide range of books, showed her ceramic work and talked about her paintings.

July

 

Adelle van Zyl shared some of her technical expertise in using computer programs for illustrations.

August

Rob Owen talked about some of his experiences as an illustrator and described how he works.

September

Hazel Cuthbertson described her journey towards working in children's books. She used Molly Bang's book, Colour This, to talk about how size, shape and colour are used in

 illustrating.

October

Joan Rankin showed some of her early as well as later work as an artist and illustrator. She inspired writers and illustrators to continue to be creative and challenge themselves.

Thank you to all these wonderful people for being so welcoming and generous in opening their houses and studios to others.

Joan Rankin - writer and illustrator of children's books

Joan Rankin was born on 24 June. Her Zodiac sign is thus Cancer, a water sign. This is important to her as feelings predominate in her life.

When Joan was three years old, her grandmother told her mother that she was going to be a famous artist. This prediction was based on a drawing which Joan had done and interpreted for her grandmother. Joan doesn’t think much of the drawing but recognises the importance of the prediction which was repeated throughout her childhood and influenced the direction of her life.

Katrine Harries Award for Children's Book Illustrations

The Katrine Harries Award, originally the only and most prestigious award in South Africa for children's book illustrations, but which had been dormant for the past nine years, will soon be awarded again. Protea Boekhuis has kindly agreed to sponsor the Award on a continuous basis.The award that was made for the first time in the early 1960's by the SA Library Association and later the South African Institute for Library and Information Science (SAILIS) has been awarded to South Africa' s most well-known illustrators: Katrine Harries personally received the award twice before it was named after her. Thereafter illustrators such as Niki Daly, Joan Rankin, Alida Bothma, Cora Coetzee, Jeremy Grimsdell, amongst others, have received it, with Jude Daly finally receiving it in 1997 for Gift of the Sun. With the disbandment of SAILIS, the Children's Literature Research Unit at Unisa was tasked to find new homes for the awards. The English Academy agreed to take over the Percy Fitzpatrick Award and Protea Boekhuis agreed to sponsor the CP Hoogenhout Award. It has, however, been a struggle to get a sponsor for the Katrine Harries Award. With the exception of two years when the magazine, Baba en Kleuter, sponsored the award (Jude Daly won again for The Stone) the award has not been made since Daly won it for books published during 1997-1998. CLRU is however, now delighted to announce that after a laborious search for possible sponsors the Katrine Harries Award will again be awarded from this year. As was traditionally the case, the Award will be a 9-carat gold medal.The Award will be made biennially for children's book illustrations by a South African illustrator. It will include books by South African illustrators resident in South Africa or abroad, irrespective of the place of publication. The first new Katrine Harries Award will be made early in 2008 and will cover books published during 2006-2007. Because the Award was not made for so many years and outstanding books were published during those years, the CLRU is currently trying to find sponsors so that awards can also be made for the books published during those years. It is hoped that five medals will be awarded at a gala-function in the beginning of 2008.

Cape Town Book Fair

SCBWI had a stand at the Cape Town Book Fair where members of SCBWI displayed examples of their work. LeAnne Hardy from Jo'burg was one writer who took advantage of the opportunity to display her books. Other authors included Wendy Hartman and Reviva Schermbrucker. Illustrators also displayed their books as well as examples of their work. Gauteng illustrators whose work was on display included Joan Rankin and Yvette de Beer. Other illustrators who displayed their work included Marjorie van Heerden and Paddy Bouma. The stand was very busy throughout the fair. Many people went through portfolios and looked at the books published by SCBWI members. They took down names of writers and illustrators whose work they could commission. A popular attraction were the beautiful posters for sale. These were done by renowned artists such as Piet Grobler and were snapped up by eager teachers and librarians. The SCBWI stand was next to the IBBY stand which displayed some wonderful examples of South African books. A large number of exciting children's events were also organised. All in all, children's books were prominent at the Cape Town Book Fair.

SCBWI Posters for Sale

FIVE different A2-size posters with illustrations by Joan Rankin, Marjorie van Heerden, Samantha van Riet, Piet Grobler and Paddy Bouma will be for sale at the SCBWI Stand at the Cape Town Book Fair 2007 @ R30.00 each. Avoid disappointment and pre-order one or more posters by e-mailing Marjorie@grafikon.co.za.

Click on the picture below to view the posters.

The joy of illustration

The Gauteng branch of SCBWI South Africa had its first meeting on 3 March 2007. This very special occasion was hosted by Joan Rankin at her beautiful old house overlooking the leafy northern suburbs of Johannesburg.

The presentation was attended by a total of 22 people, three of whom are SCBWI members. Illustrators, writers, teachers and lovers of children’s books came from Middleburg, Witbank, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
The morning began with a brief welcome and introductions. Joan then told her story and mindmapped some of the important events in her life that lead to illustrating children’s books. After tea she showed slides of illustrations from a wide range of international and local books. Then she passed around a fascinating array of children’s books. Finally, Joan spoke about visiting schools and demonstrated how a story could be shown on the Overhead Projector.

Joan’s experience comes from illustrating over forty children's books as well as writing some of them. In 1991 she won South Africa's most prestigious award for children's book illustrations, the Katrine Harries Award, for her illustrations in The Dancing Elephant; Ask for Patricia and The Twelve Days of Christmas.

A key message that Joan delivered was the importance of learning from one another. The Gauteng branch intends to do just that. It plans a number of initiatives to meet, share ideas, support one another and promote the publication of more South African children’s books.