Pop-up Books: November Sneak Peek

November Sneak Peek - Matthew Reinhart's "The Ark"

In Matthew's own words:

"A pop-up Noah's Ark is really a childhood dream come true for me. Noah's tale always stood out for me as a kid mainly because of all the animals. I have always loved drawing animals and as a boy I begged my parents to take me to the zoo and museum. I was fascinated with toy Noah's Arks and even made a few myself!

About a year ago I presented a proposal for "The Ark" to my editor at Simon & Schuster. They were thrilled and I have just begun work on the rough pop-ups. At left is a half-finished Ark being built by Noah and his family which (hopefully) will appear in the final version. I should be finished with all the rough pop-ups by January 2003. Since most pop-up books take about a year to complete, the artwork will be finished in Spring 2003. The finished book, "The Ark" will be published in Spring 2004 from Simon & Schuster. Anchors away!"

Be sure to check back here at RobertSabuda.com as we follow the building of Noah's Ark!

The making of The Night Before Christmas - Part One: Designing

Making a pop-up book is a long and complicated process. Robert often compares it to designing a car because that process can take longer than a year, too!

Robert decided to create a pop-up version of The Night Before Christmas because he loves the holiday season. One of the greatest challenges in retelling a classic story is presenting a fresh perspective. Since this tale is always told from the human's point of view Robert decided to see it through the eyes of the house's smallest residents: the mice.

Each pop-up is merely a hazy idea in Robert's mind before the actual work begins. He sometimes likes to think of the pop-ups as different stage sets in a play.

Father mouse and his wife are awakened by a noise from outside in Robert's white "dummy."

At near right is the first 3-dimensional design for Santa's reindeer. Robert doesn't really worry about making the reindeer look accurate, he's only concerned with making the pop-up work and fit within the page. Since the reindeer will all be tethered together with reins, Robert used a paper punch to put holes in the harnesses.

The reindeer at the far right are from the white "dummy" from The Night Before Christmas. The dummy will go to the publisher to show the basic pop-up mechanisms. There is no color yet because the publisher can visualize it (and Robert is too busy to color everything at this point!). The dummy includes text and some very rough drawings. Note that the reindeer's reins are now a thin, silver cord instead of white string.

Of course Santa plays a very prominent role in The Night Before Christmas so Robert spent a great deal of time designing the holiday icon. At near right is an early version of Santa. Robert made many versions of this pop-up because he wanted to make it look like Santa was walking. A very difficult thing to do in a pop-up book!

At far right Santa appears in the white dummy. Since the colors used in The Night Before Christmas will be very bold and simple, Robert decided to keep the backgrounds simple, too. Only a basic Christmas tree appears at the left side of the page.

How do you get all of Santa's reindeer into one pop-up? Very carefully! One of the best things about Robert's white pop-up books is how delicate things appear. And sometimes they really are! Robert designed one reindeer to create a pattern and then repeated it to create the herd. Robert had thought about putting string in this pop-up for the reindeer's reins but decided he was inviting disaster. The reindeers must move across a great amount of space as the pop-up opens and there was the possibility that the string could get caught.

More pictures>>>

Sneak Peek Archives

October 2002

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