Watercolor Archives

Cyndi Marko puts the POW in Kung Pow Chicken — The book series, not the food (maybe also the food). She is a writer and illustrator. She started off her career hoping to sell picture books. Things don’t always happen the way we plan, but Cyndi did end up selling books. Just not the picture books she had planned.

Cyndi has now created a wonderful collection of superhero chicken books called Kung Pow Chicken. This was my son’s first chapter book. I read them to him when he was in kindergarten. It’s still on the top of my list for fun chapter book series! Cyndi’s new book Kung Pow Chicken: Jurassic Peck comes out in September. The Kung Pow Chicken Collection can be now bought as a 4 in 1 book!

Check out Cyndi’s Website here: https://www.cyndimarko.com/

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Dani: Besides writing and illustration, What is your superpower?

Cyndi: Well, I’m actually pretty put out that I can’t fly or shoot lasers from my eyeballs, but I am a fairly decent cook. I love to put on loud music and just lose myself in the kitchen, and I always sing while I cook.

Cooking is a creative outlet for me separate from book work stuff. I’m particularly good at creating dishes from whatever’s on hand when there’s almost no food left in the house because I haven’t gone grocery shopping (which I hate doing), and I’m also good at recreating dishes I’ve had at restaurants. I hardly ever use recipes (except for when baking because science) and prefer to just go by instinct as I’m cooking. (Pro tip: there’s no such thing as too much garlic!)

I love to bake as well, and have been making sourdough from my own starter for about a year now. I think I most enjoy making soups (I save bones and make my own stock) and baking fancy cookies at Christmas time. I think this love of cooking comes through in my books because I almost always find a way to incorporate food into my stories. There are candy corn cupcakes in KUNG POW CHICKEN and stale jelly donuts in THIS LITTLE PIGGY.

Dani: How has your process changed since you first started creating books?

Cyndi: I’m much faster now, for one thing. It used to take me months to make a sketch dummy for a picture book, and writing was like pulling teeth. But now I can sketch a dummy for a picture book in about a week, and a book like KUNG POW CHICKEN in about two weeks.

The biggest difference is scale, I think. I used to sketch at full size and it led me to be a perfectionist. Over the years my sketches got progressively smaller. Now I sketch at thumbnail size and then enlarge when I scan. I can then edit the composition in PhotoShop, and print off and trace using my lightbox when I go to final art.

As for writing, I’m much more likely to start with a loose outline before jumping into a first draft, which has totally helped my productivity. Also, I found a writing partner who writes and illustrates the same types of books as I do and getting feedback from a peer has been invaluable. (Hi, Troy!)

Dani What’s it like writing your 5th book in a series? Is it hard keeping a series fresh so far into the series?

Cyndi: It had been about five years since KUNG POW CHICKEN 4, so it was interesting to jump back in with book 5 (JURASSIC PECK). I had to reread the previous books to make sure I got all the details right. It surprised me how little I remembered writing the words or painting the art!

But I had SO much fun working on book 5. We had more time in the schedule for each step of the book, and I found I was faster and more experienced. KPC 5 also has dinosaurs, and I have always wanted to do a book with dinosaurs so I was pretty much geeking out the entire time. I really love the end result and I hope we get to do many more KPC books. I don’t think I’ll ever run out of adventures for those plucky little chickens!

Dani: What is your favorite way to relax?

Cyndi: Reading a book while having a glass of wine and eating Sour Patch Kids (pairs nicely with merlot) or spending time with friends. During social distancing I’ve found ways to spend time with friends online: playing tabletop games on Roll20 or watching a series or movie at the same time and chatting about it over messenger.

Dani What are you working on now?

Cyndi: So many things!

First there’s SLOTH SLEUTH, a graphic novel series about a sloth named Paz who solves mysteries on the fantastical island of Winklefuss. The first two books will come out in 2021 and 2022, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I’ve also got BOO! HISS! (Aladdin, 2021), about a ghost and a snake who are roommates in a haunted (by them) house.

I also have a couple dozen (I’m not kidding) WIPs—works in progress for the layperson—on the go. I’m working on picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, middle grade novels, and maybe a humorous coffee table book for grown-ups. I am sometimes overwhelmed by so many ideas that I am dying to work on that I end up working on none of them and just drink too much coffee and share too many memes. But I am determined to prioritize!

Follow Cyndi:

Website: https://www.cyndimarko.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CynMarko

Buy the Kung Pow Chicken Collection: https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/books/kung-pow-chicken-collection-books-1-4-9781338599213.html

Preorder Kung Pow Chicken 5: https://www.amazon.com/Jurassic-Peck-Branches-Book-Chicken/dp/1338596640/

Indiebound links to all of Cyndi’s Books: https://www.cyndimarko.com/my-books

For those who are following my drama today I was unable to get onto my website to make a post about editing. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I’ll be saving that post for tomorrow. Today I have EXCITING NEWS about Mark Mitchell’s course. I just heard about it a few hours ago, so I just had to post!

Mark Mitchell’s “Make Your Marks and Splashes” course is starting up soon! I was signed up for the Children’s Book Academy “The Craft and Business of Illustrating Picture Books” when this class started last year, and was unable to attend. This year will be different! I will be taking Mark’s class this year. I’m so excited. Here’s the link: https://illustratechildrensbooks.com/childrens-book-illustration-school-fall-2019/?affiliate=daniduck

I’m a bit embarrassed that I forgot about taking (or talking about) Mark’s class. Apparently Mark forgot to get the word out about the class, so he’s giving us all kinds of bonus material if we sign up by Saturday August 24th! (Now I’m kind of glad I forgot because there are so many bonuses now!)

Bonuses

Four complimentary months of Marks & Splashes Guest Group Critiques, led by top illustrators and other professionals in children’s book publishing.
A vintage interview series I did with 16 children’s book illustrators who work(ed) in traditional water media, several of them well known, like Patricia Polacco, Ted andBetsy Lewin, Ashley Wolff, E.B. Lewis, the late Leonard Everett Fisher, and Caldecott Medal winners Jerry Pinkney, Emily Arnold McCully and the late Barbara Cooney. The lavishly visual articles, which I completed in my years as a contributing editor of American Artist Watercolor Magazine feature the artists’ drawing steps, research methods, painting processes, thumbnail and dummy page examples and much more.
An complimentary semester (Winter 2020) of live group homework huddles with Mark

On top of these bonuses

Going Pro with the Girillustrators video workshop series
Cindy Wilder’s Drawing Basics Intensive Video Series
Julie’s Story Town – An Epic Look at Storycraft
Live Monthly Sessions to get Feedback on Your Work

This is all on TOP of the Make Your Marks and Splashes course. It is packed FULL of things to help us get our Picture Books done beautifully and quickly. Here are some of my favorite things I want to learn.

Creating a Thumbnail in 30 Seconds (it takes me a couple minutes right now)

Keeping Characters Consistent in Every Page

How to Navigate My Art Business

Finding New Strategies for Creating Dummies

Join Me!

Do you want to join me? Maybe we could create our own critique group for the class. I would love to get to know more of you better. I will be there so I can give you personal help at any time during the course. You can sign up for the course here: https://illustratechildrensbooks.com/childrens-book-illustration-school-fall-2019/?affiliate=daniduck

But What About Smart Dummies?

What we learn in this course is going to directly translate into what we are doing for Smart Dummies, so this course is great if you want a bit of extra help creating your dummy this year. This will not take away from what we are doing in Smart Dummies, but it will inform what I talk about for the Smart Dummies event!

Didn’t see this soon enough? Join anyway! I was going to join before I knew about any of the bonuses!

Please let me know if you are joining me for this course! I’ll contact you so we can get the most out of this course.

Superhero on the Side: Cyndi Marko

Who’s in for Marks and Splashes?

Bonuses

Join Me!

But What About Smart Dummies?