Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted
~ Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
You can say anything you want, yessir, but it's the words that sing, they soar and descend...I bow to them...I love them, I cling to them, I run them down, I bite into them, I melt them down...I love words so much...The unexpected ones...The ones I wait for greedily or stalk until, suddenly they drop...
~Pablo Neruda
I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in my brain, because later you might think you're having a good idea but it's just eggs hatching
Saturday, November 16, 12-2pm at Barnes & Noble, Ala Moana
Looking for personalized gifts that inspire and educate? Join Tammy Yee and Leslie Hayashi as they sign their new books with Mutual Publishing: "Saving the Fairies," by Leslie Ann Hayashi, illustrated by Holly Braffet, and "Shark Patrol," written by Ron Hirschi and illustrated by Tammy Yee.
SAVING THE FAIRIES, based on a true story, features a newlywed pair of Fairy Terns lovingly guarding their newly hatched egg.
SHARK PATROL joins two children, Kai and Lehua, as they hop aboard the SS Scoutabout for an adventure of a lifetime, studying sharks.
Both books are beautifully illustrated and teach children about Hawaii's unique wildlife. Stop by and talk story! Get your signed copy in time for Christmas!
I just uploaded two new videos showing my illustration process for the book Shark Patrol, written by Ron Hirschi and released this year from Mutual Publishing.
And stay tuned for information about my upcoming book signings in November, just in time for Christmas!
Written by Ron Hirschi, illustrated by Tammy Yee Mutual Publishing, 2019
Illustrating Shark Patrol, A Discovery Adventure in Hawai'i presented a unique and fun challenge: how to incorporate author Ron Hirschi's fact-filled lively text and rich illustrations into an 8" x 9" 32-page format. Working with Ron and Mutual Publishing editor Jane Gillespie, we gave this story of young explorers Kai and Lehua, as told through mail correspondence, a fresh update by having the characters post their adventures on social media via Shark Grams. Shark facts were personalized by presenting them as journal entries made by the budding scientists...something that I did as a child pretending to be a researcher aboard Jacques Cousteau's famous vessel, the Calypso. Other devices included photos taken by the crew and Post-it notes from the desk of the ship's biologist, Auntie Jan. Here's a sketch of the layout. Each character has an avatar for their Shark Gram. And social media is no fun without emojis!
Another idea derived from my nerdy childhood was to use the endpapers to illustrate the relative size of sharks as compared to Kai and Lehua.
Growing up in Hawaii, you'd think I'd know a little about sharks--but there was much to learn! Threshers and great whites, blacktips versus whitetip oceanics (not to be confused with whitetip reef sharks)--so many sharks! This meant a lot of research and a lot of sketching.
My favorites were the deep-sea sharks. Did you know that Hawaii has two bioluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) lanternsharks? One was recently discovered in 2017.
The final illustrations were done in Procreate on an iPad Pro, which allowed me to record the illustration process.
And the best fun is receiving a box in the mail and seeing the book for the first time!
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