The "story behind the story" of WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO? by Patricia Sloan
Super-Duper MONDAY by Patricia Sloan
Hello and welcome! Creating this educational story and characters for children has been an incredible journey for me. I thought fellow authors/illustrators might be interested in some of the history on WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO? and the creative process I went through to develop this story my Greenwich Super-Duper Days® characters.
When I thought about doing a story for children on the days of the week, I knew I had to do some homework first. I researched the market on what was out there and read every book I could find on the days of the week. I found there were numerous books that had been published on the subject. I wanted my story on the days of the week to bring a strong fresh approach.
As mentioned in my bio, my inspiration on how I could approach this subject differently came after thinking about how my own child had struggled with a reading/learning disability and needed a visual association to retain information. This led me to think of the days as individual characters.
I thought about the days of the week and how I personally felt about them and realized they already had a certain identity. Nobody likes Mondays. Tuesdays are ignored. Wednesday is the over the mountain day. On Thursday everyone seems to be dragging. On Friday everyone has a sing-song in their voice and says "It's Friday!" Saturday is a fun day. Sunday is a day of rest/relaxation. This also helped me weave the personal rhymes I developed for each day in the story.
When I thought about doing a story for children on the days of the week, I knew I had to do some homework first. I researched the market on what was out there and read every book I could find on the days of the week. I found there were numerous books that had been published on the subject. I wanted my story on the days of the week to bring a strong fresh approach.
As mentioned in my bio, my inspiration on how I could approach this subject differently came after thinking about how my own child had struggled with a reading/learning disability and needed a visual association to retain information. This led me to think of the days as individual characters.
I thought about the days of the week and how I personally felt about them and realized they already had a certain identity. Nobody likes Mondays. Tuesdays are ignored. Wednesday is the over the mountain day. On Thursday everyone seems to be dragging. On Friday everyone has a sing-song in their voice and says "It's Friday!" Saturday is a fun day. Sunday is a day of rest/relaxation. This also helped me weave the personal rhymes I developed for each day in the story.
TRAVIS - Name Art by Trish Sloan
I thought about what colors my MONDAY character would be and immediately thought of the color BLUE and how I could blend the letters for his day into the character artwork. I have always had a special interest in doing "Name Art". To the left is an example of some "Name Art" that I did for my youngest son, Travis.
For the characters in the story, I started on MONDAY first, using an M shape for his hair...O for his nose...N for his mouth...and then worked the other letters into the body of his character. Suddenly, there he was staring back at me on a piece of notebook paper.
From there, I grabbed some sketch paper and drew him out again and colored him blue. I then worked on the other characters which seem to just jump on to the paper, except for Friday. Friday was a struggle.
I originally had the FRIDAY character as a bird, however, I decided there should be only one animal character so I reworked FRIDAY and made him a WANNA-B-BIRD. He has extra shoes attached to his "true shoes" so it looks like he has bird feet. There are several other things he has attached to himself like the plume of feathers on his head and the peacock feathers he straps to his arms.
Another struggle for me was trying to complete the other scenes I envisioned for the book on my own. Although I have always been able to draw very well, I did not have the knowledge and skills to use the computer programs to enhance and save my artwork properly. I have a special picture for you to view below I originally drew then enhanced the colors on the computer for the WEDNESDAY scene - climbing the cliffs at Cupid's Bow. I failed to save this picture at the right resolution. This was very disappointing after I had worked on this piece of art for a considerable amount of time. In order for it to be in the book, I was going to have to completely do it over.
It was shortly after this event that I met my co-illustrator, Daniel Alexander, and discovered he was a professional artist. I asked him if he might be interested taking a look at my project. After reviewing it, he agreed to take my Super-Duper Day characters and put them into the scenes I envisioned for the book. While he worked diligently on the scenes, I continued to work on the layout/design of the book. In early February of 2011, WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO? was published.
For the characters in the story, I started on MONDAY first, using an M shape for his hair...O for his nose...N for his mouth...and then worked the other letters into the body of his character. Suddenly, there he was staring back at me on a piece of notebook paper.
From there, I grabbed some sketch paper and drew him out again and colored him blue. I then worked on the other characters which seem to just jump on to the paper, except for Friday. Friday was a struggle.
I originally had the FRIDAY character as a bird, however, I decided there should be only one animal character so I reworked FRIDAY and made him a WANNA-B-BIRD. He has extra shoes attached to his "true shoes" so it looks like he has bird feet. There are several other things he has attached to himself like the plume of feathers on his head and the peacock feathers he straps to his arms.
Another struggle for me was trying to complete the other scenes I envisioned for the book on my own. Although I have always been able to draw very well, I did not have the knowledge and skills to use the computer programs to enhance and save my artwork properly. I have a special picture for you to view below I originally drew then enhanced the colors on the computer for the WEDNESDAY scene - climbing the cliffs at Cupid's Bow. I failed to save this picture at the right resolution. This was very disappointing after I had worked on this piece of art for a considerable amount of time. In order for it to be in the book, I was going to have to completely do it over.
It was shortly after this event that I met my co-illustrator, Daniel Alexander, and discovered he was a professional artist. I asked him if he might be interested taking a look at my project. After reviewing it, he agreed to take my Super-Duper Day characters and put them into the scenes I envisioned for the book. While he worked diligently on the scenes, I continued to work on the layout/design of the book. In early February of 2011, WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO? was published.
Climbing the Golden Cliffs - by Trish Sloan
GREENWICH SUPER-DUPER DAYS®
is a registered trademark owned by Patricia Sloan
For character licensing - please contact:
Andrew W. Chu and L. Jeremy Craft
CRAFT CHU PLLC
1445 NORTH LOOP W STE 840
HOUSTON, TX 77008-1673
is a registered trademark owned by Patricia Sloan
For character licensing - please contact:
Andrew W. Chu and L. Jeremy Craft
CRAFT CHU PLLC
1445 NORTH LOOP W STE 840
HOUSTON, TX 77008-1673
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
by Patricia Sloan AKA Trish Sloan
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
Patricia Ann Sloan
REGISTERED COPYRIGHT - TEXT AND SOME ARTWORK - 2011-07-17
Registration Number TX 7-448-829
Date of 1st Publication: February 4, 2011
Nation of 1st Publication: United States
International Standard Number: ISBN 978-1-60-746807-3
All rights reserved
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
ILLUSTRATIONS by Patricia Sloan - Greenwich Super-Duper Days by Patricia Sloan AKA Trish Sloan
COPYRIGHT 2011
All rights reserved
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
ILLUSTRATIONS by Daniel Alexander
COPYRIGHT 2011
All rights reserved
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
by Patricia Sloan AKA Trish Sloan
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
Patricia Ann Sloan
REGISTERED COPYRIGHT - TEXT AND SOME ARTWORK - 2011-07-17
Registration Number TX 7-448-829
Date of 1st Publication: February 4, 2011
Nation of 1st Publication: United States
International Standard Number: ISBN 978-1-60-746807-3
All rights reserved
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
ILLUSTRATIONS by Patricia Sloan - Greenwich Super-Duper Days by Patricia Sloan AKA Trish Sloan
COPYRIGHT 2011
All rights reserved
WHERE DO THE MONDAYS GO?
ILLUSTRATIONS by Daniel Alexander
COPYRIGHT 2011
All rights reserved
