Cinema Sign

Even though movies are one of our least popular events with teens at the library (for some reason we haven't quite fathomed), we usually show a few for summer reading club, just because they're easy--stick in the DVD, put out some snacks, and you have a program. This year, however, we have decided to show only one (and are having the dickens of a time deciding WHICH one), but that still means I need a "cinema" sign for the event publicity.

I had the same problem this year that I had last--the inherent drama of a movie theater sign is that the neon and white lights appear to best advantage in the DARK, but I don't want to do a big dark cloud behind the sign, because it overwhelms everything else on the page. I tried painting one without the drama of the dark, but still tried to convey neon. It's a bit overworked, and I also don't know how successful it is--I suspect not very. It's a little bland, to my eye. I'll show it to a few people and see what they think. Maybe I will give up on the fancy sign and just use type.

Micron pen, watercolor.

Here is last year's, when I did everything in primary colors plus green. I have to confess that that one felt awkward to me as well.

Book Café Reborn

Book Café was such a huge success last summer that Anarda and I have decided to make it a regular feature of the Teen Summer Reading Program. So once again we will hold four sessions of Book Café, and everyone who comes to three of the four gets to choose a free book from our stash.

They also get to book-talk to each other, and they get to meet some authors. So far I have lined up Mary McCoy, a Los Angeles Public Library librarian who wrote a wonderful noir teen mystery set in the 1940s called Dead to Me. We have high hopes for a couple of local authors whose books some of our teens have read in book club, but I won't mention names until they're booked.

And, not the least, they get Book Café refreshments! Coffee didn't go over real well--American teens don't seem to start drinking it as early as they do in some other countries--but cocoa and cappuccino are immensely popular to go with their cookies.

Even though we are doing the same program again this year, I didn't want to use the same illustration from last year to advertise it, so I worked up a new look and feel for the Book Café "logo" for this year. A little more sophisticated, with more muted colors, but fun, I think, mostly because of the name done in "syrup" on the surface of the café latte!

Micron pen (but in sepia tone instead of black), and watercolor. This is the second time I have used this cup and saucer for an illustration--I was initially terrified by the level of detail, but if you just suggest what's there without being slavish, it works.

Here's last year's:

I can see a few places I need to touch up and re-scan on this year's, but as usual, I couldn't resist putting it up the minute the paint dried!