Every Story is a Journey

Nature and Insight in the Making of NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY

A story is often inspired by a fleeting moment. An insight emerges like a bit of blue sky on an otherwise overcast day.

Sometimes this moment springs from memory. I have a vivid image of riding my bicycle in circles in the driveway on an overcast morning, waiting for something to happen. This memory from childhood felt like the start of a story.

Memory is a powerful source of inspiration. Though I can’t relive my childhood, I can still revisit the quiet streets and wild spaces that I traveled decades ago.

In writing NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY, I explored the parks of my hometown of Derby, Kansas, carrying a sketchbook to take notes and make drawings of all the details I noticed.

Color is a constant source of fascination in my work. My last picture book, ONE BOY WATCHING, was a technicolor bus ride across the Kansas countryside. I wanted this book to be more restrained in palette, but just as striking. I settled on a limited palette of red, yellow, blue, and gray, rendered in colored pencils and markers on tracing paper.

I went through handfuls of markers and dozens of pencils. Pro tip: open the windows when you use Chartpak markers, or the fumes will make you lightheaded.

Working from rough sketches to detailed final art, I tried to incorporate as many small touches from real life as possible, while still pushing the magical quality of experiencing nature as a child.

The initial sketch:

The final spread:

I studied traditional and modern Japanese woodblock prints to get ideas for page composition. Artists like Ray Morimura, Clifton Karhu, and Okiie Hashimoto were sources of visual inspiration. Making thumbnail sketches was one of my favorite parts of the process.

The story unfolds much like a day in my home art studio. I begin in a place of boredom and mild frustration…

I start wandering aimlessly, not expecting much…

But if I spend long enough in open-minded exploration, I fall into wonder and discovery. And if I’m lucky, I stumble into a moment of insight.

Nature is full of small wonders. And you don’t have to travel to a remote place to find them. All of this book takes place in the city limits, in a creek and surrounding forest beyond a neighborhood playground and ball field.

Among suburban neighborhoods and in the midst of the city are wild spaces: parks, creeks, nature preserves. They may not be quite as scenic as a postcard of a national park. But interesting plants and wildlife live there, right in your backyard.

While sketching this book I spotted deer, an owl, and some large rodent that scurried away before I could draw it (probably a groundhog or a porcupine). And I also saw the great blue heron that became part of the story’s climax.

Herons, I found, are challenging to draw.

I hope this book inspires you and the young people in your life to venture outdoors on an ordinary overcast day. To seek out the green spaces in your city. To bring a notebook and some pencils to record your journey. To step off the sidewalk onto an overgrown path into the woods.

Where will it lead? What story will you discover?

NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY is published by Chronicle Kids Books and is available worldwide wherever books are sold. Thanks to my amazing editor Ariel Richardson, my fantastic art director Ryan Hayes, and the rest of the team at Chronicle for their expertise and encouragement in the making of this book. I’m looking forward to the next gray day.