Interview with Author/Illustrator Sandra Salsbury Part 2

Happy Thursday Critters! Isn’t it awesome when things come full circle? I love it. It just feels right. Like all is right with the world— which let’s be honest, is a rare feeling these days. Needless to say, today our interview is very full circle.

Back in 2018, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to mentor Sandra Salsbury, an up-and-coming author/illustrator, through Writing With the Stars. If you don’t know about this fantastic mentorship, click here. It is very cool and an amazing opportunity for unpublished authors, illustrators, and author/illustrators. Hopefully, it will be up and running again in the near future.

When I first interviewed Sandra, she hadn’t found an agent yet and was unpublished— which I knew was only a matter of time. She is supremely talented (see stunning art below). So, I’m thrilled that today, I get to interview Sandra as an author/illustrator with a debut picture book, BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD, which just came out with Peachtree Publishing. This is the manuscript and book dummy that led me to select her to mentor. Like I said— full circle. So cool.

So without further ado, please welcome Sandra Salsbury!

Where do you live?

I live in Berkeley, California in a house full of ferns.

When did you know you wanted to write/illustrate picture books?

Drawing was always one of my favorite hobbies growing up, but I didn’t seriously consider art as a career until after I had already started college. One semester as a biology major and I realized that I should probably study art instead. I spent 4 years getting a BFA in illustration and it wasn’t until my last semester, when I enrolled in children’s illustration because it fit my schedule, that I realized picture book illustration might be something that interested me. 

Tell us about your road to publication, what did that involve for you?

The funny thing about the road to publication is that it’s hard to pinpoint when it really starts. I took that first children’s illustration class in 2006, the semester I graduated with my BFA. I didn’t feel ready to go out there in the world, so I continued to get an MFA as well. In 2011, I started getting published as an illustrator, mostly with educational companies and small presses. Finally, in 2014, I realized that to get the kind of agent I wanted and the sorts of work I was interested in, I would need to try writing as well. In 2016, I came up with the idea for Best Friend in the Whole World and started developing it. In 2018, I won a mentorship with you and then went on to win the Don Freeman Grant from SCBWI. I also signed with my agent at the very end of the year and we went on submission in 2019. After 7 months of being on submission, we had offers from 2 publishers and selected to publish with Peachtree. From there, everything came together fairly quickly (at least, compared to the rest) and now the book is out! So, it only ended up taking about 15 years. 

Thumbnails, sketches, and final art from BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD by Sandra Salsbury

Can you share a bit about your process?

When I begin working on a story, it spends a long time in my head at first. I like to figure out the major plot points, my middle, and my end, all before I even look at a piece of paper. I will sometimes begin by writing out the opening lines of my story in my head. Once I feel like I have a good understanding of where I am going, I will do character sketches and start working on the manuscript. After I have the words written out, I will do thumbnails of my pages and then go back and forth between the words and the pictures until I find the right balance. At this point, I usually realize there’s something impossibly broken with the story and I will agonize over how I didn’t see it sooner and how the story is terrible, but after a couple weeks of hand-wringing, the answer will smack me in the face and end up with something that works.  

 The process for my art involves many incremental steps from thumbnails (each stage getting more detailed), to value studies, to color roughs, then line art, and finally the final paintings. The paintings are done on Arches 140lb cold press watercolor paper with Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils in brown and Winsor & Newton paints in Cadmium Yellow, Scarlet Lake, French Ultramarine, and Burnt Umber.

What do you do to shake the rust off or get new ideas?

Read more books! I find that if I don’t read enough picture books, all my ideas slowly dry up. I start to worry that I will never get another good idea in my life. I tell all my friends that it’s over and I have to quit. And then finally, I go to the library and pick up a pile of new books and magically, inside those books are also new ideas.

Anything you can’t live without while you write/draw?

When I am writing or drawing, I actually need total silence and zero distractions. So much of the writing and drawing process is about thinking for me that I can’t work with music or tv in the background. However, once I get to the painting stage, I don’t need to think anymore and I love listening to audiobooks. When painting Best Friend in the Whole World, I finished fourteen audiobooks in six weeks. 

Any authors and/or illustrators who inspire you?

My current picture book obsession is Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe. I also am in love with In A Jar by Deborah Marcero. Some illustrators I routinely look at are Julia Sarda, Rebecca Green, Jon Klassen, and Jessixa Bagley. 

Dream project to work on?

The wonderful thing about being an author-illustrator is that if I can dream it up, I can work on it! I would love to someday do a middle grade graphic novel and right now the only thing really stopping me is my own fears (in my defense, graphic novels seem really scary).

Tell us about your debut book.

Roland lives a quiet life all by himself. One day, he stumbles across someone to be his new best friend. It’s fine it’s just a pine cone! But soon signs start popping up in the woods that make Roland realize someone else might be missing their best pine cone friend and Roland must make the choice between having a good friend and being a good friend.

Interior Art from BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD by Sandra Salsbury

The funny origin story of this book is that once when I was a child I found a perfect stick and then tragically lost it later that day. The inexplicable and irrational bond I felt with that stick has stayed with me into adulthood and I wanted to write a story that captured the bond children can have with their friends—real or imagined. 

Interior Art from BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD by Sandra Salsbury

Interior Art from BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD by Sandra Salsbury

What’s up next for you?

Hopefully more books! I have a couple more ideas that feel could actually turn into something, so I’m currently coxing them to life. Some of them are being more stubborn than others.

And last, but not least, favorite 80s movie?

If I had to pick just ONE, it would definitely be The Princess Bride. I know a million people probably pick The Princess Bride, but that’s only because it’s SUCH AN AMAZING MOVIE!

---

Huge thank you to Sandra for stopping by Critter Lit again! We are so so proud of you over here at Critter Lit and can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

---

Sandra Salsbury grew up in the Santa Cruz mountains, where she made friends with many pine cones and sticks. She received a BFA and MFA in illustration from the Academy of Art University. She currently lives in Berkeley with her husband, a large collection of staghorn ferns, and countless spiders who provide moral support, as the great spiders in literature are known to do. For more information about Sandra or her book, visit her online or follow her on social media:

Website: www.sandrasalsbury.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/sandrasalsbury

instagram: www.instagram.com/sandrasalsbury

ORDER THIS BOOK To order a copy of BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD, click here.

WIN A COPY! Want to win a copy of BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD?! Leave a COMMENT below or RETWEET this post on Twitter. One lucky winner will be announced on Thursday, March 18th! US addresses only please.

Interview with Author/Illustrator Sandra Salsbury

This past spring, I had a wonderful experience participating in Writing with the Stars, a contest for aspiring authors and illustrators to win a free three-month mentorship with a published author or author/illustrator. The contest is run by Tara Leubbe and Becky Cattie, two sisters, who not only write together, but take the time to run this contest, offering wonderful opportunities to unpublished authors and illustrators. Which as you know, is what we are all about here at Critter Lit.

Make sure to check out Tara and Becky's website if you haven't already done so: www.beckytarabooks.com. The contest will start up again this December.

Contest applicants get to submit their work (either a manuscript or dummy) to a mentor of their choice. I was stunned with all the amazing work I was sent as a mentor. It was such a difficult decision to pick one mentee to work with, but ultimately Sandra Salsbury's work stood out to me immediately. The first thing I noticed was how well she handled her medium, watercolor. But the second, and what really struck me, especially with regards to picture books, is how great she is at composing different perspectives of storytelling.

I've had the opportunity to get to know Sandra and her work these past few months while mentoring her on her book dummy, MR. FLUFF IS MISSING. I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do!

So without further ado, I'm thrilled to introduce Sandra Salsbury!

Where do you live?

I live in Berkeley, CA, just below hills full of hiking trails and down the street from one of the best bakeries.

When did you know you wanted to make picture books?

I originally enrolled in art school because I loved to draw, but I spent most of my time floundering around with my art, not really knowing what I would do with it after graduation. It had never even occurred to me that there were people out there making picture books. In my last semester I ended up, on whim, enrolling in a children's illustration class with a local illustrator, LeUyen Pham. This was back in 2006, so there was no way for me, nor any of my classmates, to know what a gift it was to be taught by someone like LeUyen. It felt like there was suddenly a place where my art made sense and it was almost absurd that it hadn't occurred to me before. I ended up enrolling in an MFA program after to focus my portfolio on children's illustration and creating picture books has been my goal since then.

Can you share a bit about your process?

My process sort of looks like thinking, then writing, then drawing, then rewriting, then redrawing, and then more thinking and drawing and writing. My stories go through many iterations, first in my head, then in a word document, then on sheets of paper with squares printed out. I usually work in three different sizes of sketches. The smallest is to figure out the overall flow of the story and the pages are small enough that they all fit on one sheet of paper (I will do 3-6 of these, typically). The next size is to figure out the composition of each page. I try to draw 4-8 versions of the page to find the best one. Sometimes the first one is the one that works, but sometimes it's the 8th. The largest size is the most refined version and it's the pages I use for my dummy. Some pages will only have one version, but some will have to be drawing again and again, as I made small changes in the story. And even at the end, you don't know how well a story works until you have put it together into a little book with pages that turn, so I end up with 5-8 final dummies. While working on the dummies I will also do character sketches and art samples to figure out my style and by the time I get to the final paintings, all the hard work is done so I put on an audiobook and get some "reading" done while I paint.

What do you do to shake the rust off or get new ideas?

I am lucky to live right next to a number of beautiful trails and it seems like my brain does its best thinking while my legs are moving. If I am stuck on a project or I can't think of an idea, the solution is always to take a long walk. Sometimes I have to take a lot of walks, but eventually when I let my mind drift away from the problem at hand or I stop trying to come up with a good idea, something will pop into my head. The best answers are the ones that feel obvious because then you know they are simple enough to work.

Art supplies you can't live without?

Arches 140lb cold press watercolor paper. I have tried switching papers, but I am so familiar with the way the paper absorbs paint and water, that using anything else feels like learning how to paint all over again. People always ask about paint brands and brushes, but paper is the true hero of watercolor paintings.

Favorite illustrators?

What an impossible question! I love Holly Hobbie's watercolors, Judy Schachner's expressions, Dan Santat's design, Jon Klassen's simplicity, LeUyen Pham's body language, Lorena Alvarez's colors, Chris Appelhan's characters...

Dream project or book to work on?

My dream project is just to write and illustrate (and get published!) my own story. I want to take something from an idea in my mind to a book on a shelf.

And last, but not least, favorite 80s movie?

The Princess Bride. Any other choice would be inconceivable.

Want to know more about Sandra or her work? Visit her online at www.sandrasalsbury.com or you can follow her on Twitter @SandraSalsbury