It’s time for a new pug to take the spotlight!
Jonathan Graziano is a Rochester native who currently resides in New York City. His eternal muse, Noodle, continues to inspire him each and every day. It is Jonathan’s hope that through this story he can continue Noodle’s legacy of spreading joy and kindness and encourage others to adopt and/or rescue a senior pet next time they’re looking to add a new member to their family. You can follow Jonathan on Instagram or TikTok.
Dan Tavis is illustrator living in New Hampshire. He has been doodling ever since his first math class in elementary school! He is the New York Times bestselling illustrator of Noodle and the No Bones Day, Common Critters,and Fluffy McWhiskers Cuteness Explosion, among other projects. You can learn more about Dan at his website or follow him on Instagram or Facebook.
MILTON MAKES A MOVE is a picture book all about Jonathan Graziano’s newest adopted pug. Told from Milton’s point of view, the story follows the pug as he flies around the globe to his new home. Will it be quite the same? It is the third collaboration between Jonathan and Dan.
Welcome Jonathan and Dan!
Me: Can you both talk a little bit about your writing or illustrating journey so far for readers who might not be familiar with your work? How has that brought you to this book?
Jonathan: I have been fortunate enough to write two books prior to this about my previous Pug, Noodle, who sunk his gums into the marrow of culture with his ‘Bones or No Bones’ social media videos during lockdown. Since his passing and my adoption of my new Pug Milton, I knew I wanted to continue to tell stories about these incredible little dogs and the joys of taking care of older dogs/rescues if the opportunity ever presented itself. Thankfully, it did!
Dan: I’ve been illustrating picturebooks since 2020 and I have about 15 books under my belt so far. My 2 favorite subjects to draw are nature and cute animals. Throughout the years I’ve done books focused on all sorts of subjects, like the life of krill, insects shooting a documentary, exploding animals, and of course relatable pugs!
Even though much of the artwork I’ve done for our Noodle and Milton books include interiors and human characters, I try my best to add nature and other animals as much as I can. May that be a little ant stealing Noodle’s precious cheese, or Milton chasing around a pizza stealing raccoon.
Me: Jonathan, what made you want to write this particular story? After two successful books about your beloved Noodle, why switch to a new character? I understand Milton was a senior dog when you first started fostering him. Why is it important to you to tell his story?
Jonathan: With Noodle’s passing in real life, it felt like a more appropriate decision to tell stories about new dogs versus keep writing about him. With my journey continuing on in adopting Milton, I thought introducing him as a character would help avoid uncomfortable conversations with kids at live events. I accidentally had to explain death to a group of children and I found that experience most unpleasant. Noodle would have loved it.
Me: Dan, I love your illustration style and all of the details you included in your illustrations. Can you talk about the medium you used to create these illustrations? Are you a traditional or digital illustrator (or a blend of both)?
Dan: Thank you! My absolute favorite medium to use is watercolor and ink, but when it comes to picture books, I’ve mainly used an iPad and an app called Procreate. I believe I’ve only used watercolor for my first 2 books and then after that it’s all been digitally drawn and painted. The reason I’ve gone the digital route is because it’s incredibly cost effective and I can create high quality artwork very quickly compared to working traditionally. All I have had to pay for is an iPad Pro and the Procreate app that cost a one time fee of $13.
Especially when first starting out in the industry, I didn’t have much money and it’s incredibly hard to be a full-time illustrator if you are not able to create artwork quickly, consistently, and inexpensively.
But there’s truly nothing like working with real paint on real paper. There’s just something so engaging and fulfilling hearing the sound of a pen scrape across the cotton paper, or the smell of rich pigments as you mix them together and create gorgeous colors and crazy textures that seem to form all on their own.
Now that I’m more established in the industry, I hope to start making books with watercolor very soon!
Me: I have to know about those hilarious airplane passengers! Whose idea were those? Were there art notes for them?
Jonathan: That one is 95% Dan, 5% me and that’s me being gracious. I think the only prompt I gave Dan was “he is in an airplane” and Dan decided to make it the most miraculous page in the book. The penguin pilot! I love the idea that a kid will get absorbed coming up with stories about where all the different passengers are coming from/traveling to.
Dan: I had done a sketch of Milton in an airplane, but it was more of a close up with just him in the frame. And I don’t know if Jon suggested it, but I heard back from the editor asking if I could draw more of the plane in view, and show a bunch of crazy characters that kids would find funny.
So I thought it’d be funny to have a flightless bird as the pilot, the owl is a character I always draw in my yearly calendars, you don’t usually see gnomes in planes, the scuba character is based off a video game called Dave the Diver, I thought an elephant who lacks self awareness, personal space and wearing headphones would be funny, there’d be nothing more annoying than someone playing a trumpet in an airplane, and monkeys are funny just doing monkey things. I think I originally had the monkeys flying the plane but that’d be ridiculous, everyone knows monkeys don’t know how to fly.
Me: Ha! Brilliant. The text and illustrations work so wonderfully together in this story. How many revisions did each of you have to make to get this story to the final product?
Jonathan: Very few! The only real note I gave was one image of Milton where he had teeth versus not having teeth. I was team no teeth! Truly I find myself almost writing these books for Dan at this point. I know his illustrations are going to do so much heavy lifting in carrying the story, I try to craft the stories in a way that I can visualize in my head with the hopes that Dan can as well. Obviously, he very much can!
Dan: I don’t know the exact number, a couple revisions were done in the rough sketch phase and then a couple small changes once I cleaned up the linework and added color. Working with everyone at Simon & Schuster and Jon is so incredibly easy and I think we’ve worked with each other long enough that I have a good idea what they’re looking for from my artwork. So by the time we got to the 3rd book the edits were less, and the revisions were minor.
Me: What is something that surprised each of you in the creation of this story? After three books together, is there still room for surprises?
Jonathan: It was a much more therapeutic experience for me than I thought it would be to write this story about Milton. I thought it would feel like a betrayal to Noodle to have a new dog/character take the spotlight of the book. But the theme of “bravery” is really what inspired me to write this one in the first place, and I felt my own sense of bravery taking this challenge on.
Dan: In Milton Makes a Move, it surprised me how many different emotions Milton was feeling throughout the story and trying my best to capture those subtle concerns and joys of moving to a new home.
Some of my favorite emotions that Milton displayed: his perplexed focus on a fluttering butterfly, his concerned face creases plastered on the airplane window, and lastly, his grin reaching from one floppy ear to the other, while chasing rabbits, squirrels, and birds around in endless circles. If Jon continues to write new stories for the series, and Milton is okay with the direction I’m taking the artwork in then I think there is still room for surprises!
Me: What advice do you have for aspiring picture book writers and/or illustrators?
Jonathan: Get as much feedback as you can on your story from every single person you trust! I can’t tell you how many sentences I tweaked because a friend came up with a better word or said “wait, would Milton really do that?” They helped get me out of my head to tell a truly authentic story to Milton. I am so fortunate to have a small army of people rooting for me.
Dan: Work hard, especially when others aren’t. If you’re going to college for art, a lot of your classmates might only be working on artwork during school hours. But in my experience, most of the learning you will do is taking what you learned from class and creating at home.
Making your own projects is also an incredibly beneficial and key aspect of making it in the illustration world. When I was at art school I started making my own calendar, and gave myself a deadline to finish it, print it, and sell it. I’ve now been doing a calendar for the last 7 years or so and that not only helps me continue to create new work every year, but many publishers have seen my calendars on my website which convinced them to want to work with me.
Patience is also key. I’d probably say it takes 5-10 years of consistent work until your portfolio is strong enough to catch the eye of agents/publishers. Keep working, stay consistent, patient, enjoy creating, and never stop learning!
That is great advice. Thank you both for stopping by my blog today.
Dear readers, this book publishes in August. Keep an eye out for it. I honestly wish I’d had a book like this to help lighten the mood (while also tackling “being brave”) about moving when my school was closing last spring. My students would’ve loved it. Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it.