Furqan's First Flat Top UPDATE 20 (where you can buy the book AZ-DC)

Ashay By The Bay now has a shop in Oakland. Go to 1411 Webster Street, Oakland, California 94589

Ok, here are some awesome bookstores run by independent families and creatives where you can purchase "Furqan's First Flat Top". Also, for those who would like to get the book into your library locally, you can tell your library that the book is available through "Brodart Company" which sells books directly to libraries nationwide! So, go to your local library or bookstore and request it please. Also, go to these independent bookstores and patronize them, so that we continue to have bookstores run by people.

In New Orleans, you can purchase the book at "Community Book Center" 2523 Bayou Rd, New Orleans, LA 70119 or on facebook.

St.Louis-Missouri Please go to https://www.eyeseeme.com/ 7827 Olive Blvd, University City, MO 63130

Berkeley, CA-Go to http://mrmopps.net/books/ 1405 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Berkeley, CA 94709

Also in Berkeley, CA- www.mrsdalloways.com 2904 College Ave, Berkeley, CA 94705

Phoenix, Arizona- www.palabrasbookstore.com 1023 Grand Ave b, Phoenix, AZ 85007

Baltimore, Maryland- https://redemmas.org 30 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201

Washington D.C. - www.sankofa.com/ 2714 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001

Online/International- www.Booklandiabox.com A bilingual subscription service for spanish 

readers/learners

If you're in the town (Oakland) you can also get the book at E14 gallery run by the East Side fam. Go to https://www.e14gallery.com 472 Ninth St Oakland, CA 94607

National distributor-www.brodart.com/ Based in Williamsport Pennsylvania they have been doing books for over 

75 years. Hereyou can get your local library to purchase books from through them. Some folks like to 

purchase through a distributor, so there you go.

If any one has questions about getting the book or getting it into your local spot please email me at 

info@robdontstop.com

And please share the book trailer with your folks.

Book Zone-Life is Living Oct 8th

This Saturday at the Life is Living festival I will be selling books alongside authors and artists Avy Jetter Breena NuñezPeralta Simon Abramowitsch Tiffany Golden Hafrocentric Comic Kriyani Comics and several Youth Speaks alumni. I hope to grow this zone as an integral part of the fest w/ more kids books, zines, comics, novels, and more books. ALSO-We will have a small table for zine making so come through. For the parents, there is a book reading in the “kids zone” happening throughout the day. Check the schedule at www.youthspeaks.org/lifeisliving/

Zetta Elliott-Furqan's First Coverage + Interview

Photo taken by Scott La Rockwell

Please go to Zetta's blog and check out this interview. Zetta was nice enough to feature me on her blog among many great pieces about her journey as a self published author, critiques of the industry, and more. 

LINK

Listen to Zetta speak on it

School Library Journal Feature

This is pretty awesome. I am Sausal Creek one of the books I illustrated was featured in School Library Journal by Amy Martin. I'm excited and very blessed to be included among some great artists and writers such as Janine Macbeth (Blood Orange Press), Zetta Elliott (Rosetta Press), Innosanto Nagara (A is For Activist), and Melissa Reyes( I am Sausal Creek). I hope this means SLJ and other industry veterans will take notice of the quality work independent author/illustrators are putting out focusing on diversity.
LINK to article by Amy Martin (Town librarian)

School Visit- Woodland Elementary Oakland

This week I had he pleasure to visit Woodland Elementary in East Oakland off of 81st ave for African American literature week. I got a chance to read from "A Bean and Cheese Taco Birthday" and "I am Sausal Creek".

 I read to a group of Kindergarten and 1st-5th grade students. I also was asked to bring some artwork to show the students which they really liked. They all had really cool questions and its always fun to read to and reach the youth. Plus, we were at one of my favorite libraries in Oakland-the 81st branch.

BIG thanks to Janine Macbeth, Oakland Education Fund, and the staff/parents of Woodland Elementary!

Dig this? Check out this school visit in Columbus Ohio

Some great children's book lists (Sausal Creek featured)

Im so honored to be included on this LIST of awesome children's and teens books on BuzzFeed!! It was created by Innosanto Nagara , author of A is For Activist!

Check out this awesome list of Latina Heroines inspired children's books by REmezcla.
Catsuka, a French website is always putting up inspiring animation from all over the world that we just dont see in US TV or advertising markets. Check out this list of child friendly short films.

Sausal Creek 5- Process of illustration

Peace, if this is your first time hearing or seeing "I Am Sausal Creek" let me present you the cover and some process shots from the creation of the book. Here is a link to purchase.

So me and author Melissa Reyes began work together on this book last year , but she has been working on the words for much longer which are beautiful, to the point, and poetic. And I would say they are equally matched by Cinthya Muñoz who translated the book. 

Basically I start off every project (whether is on a book, for an organization, game company, whatever) with thumbnails. 1. Thumbnails: these are like quick jotted down ideas of what I see when I read text from the project or look at my notes. 2. Rough Sketches: Basically I ask my client or art director on the project to choose half or less of the thumbnails they liked, then I do a slightly larger sketch of those thumbnails. 3. Refined Sketches: Here, we decide on one image to express the idea/ story. This one image may need elements from the other sketches or revisions to refine it. Illustration tells a huge amount of the story with image. 

Whether it is used in storytelling or character design, you see images that communicate the story/idea beyond the words, or you see that there are things missing that the project is trying to say. Sometimes, both. This is truly collaboration because the art must serve the story. And sometimes the story must change to fit the art. In this case, the text evolved very slightly, while the images went through changes until they were just right. 4. Color: Depending on the project, i include very rough color sketches to show where i will place color. The watercolor comes out quite different that my digital color though.

5. Final painting: This is what it looks like once its all done. All elements have been painted or drawn in. Take a look at some more sketches with the final paintings.

The final has a few edits as you can see.

If you are a student or first time working on a picture book, feel free to email me questions. I'll try to answer them best I can. To get a copy of the book, please go to 

http://www.nomadicpress.org/store/iamsausalcreek

A Bean and Cheese Taco Birthday-Illustrated by Robert Trujillo

Wow, it was more than ten years ago that I started on the path of becoming an illustrator of picture books for children and adults. I was reading a story to my son and thought, I could do a story that he would like. I had been sending postcards, emails, and artwork to publishers like Arte Publico for years before I got a message returned. I would say that it is important not to wait for publishers now because I am also self publishing Furqan's First Flat Top, but it was nice to know that persistence with Arte Publico paid off.

I want to give a huge thank you and shout out to Adelaida over at Arte Publico/ Piñata Books for trusting me with this task of illustrating such a beautiful story by writer Diane Gonzalez Bertrand. Please look out for the book in your local store or library and request it if they do not have it. This is my second children's book in print! So blessed. Check out some of the photos of me opening the box and some original sketches/paintings from the book. This is the first children's book I ever illustrated , before Furqan's First and I am Sausal Creek, so it is very special to me. It symbolizes my entry into the field as an official children's book illustrator.

About the story: The story is about two brothers Dario (big brother) and Ariel (little brother). It's Ariel's birthday and he wants a simple birthday party. But his big brother wants to convince Ariel to ask for more, but all Ariel really wants is to play, hang out, and eat bean and cheese tacos at the park. The birthday gets better as the day progresses and Dario finds out that a taco and bean cheese birthday is not so bad after all.

Purchase the book through Arte Publico or Amazon

Please fill out this form to purchase the book

I am Sausal Creek 3-Photos from Bk release

 

final book cover with translation

Josh from Nomadic Press

Me talking

Janine Macbeth of Blood Orange Press

Maya Gonzalez of Reflection Press

Cinthya Muñoz (translator for the book) and Melissa Reyes (author of I am Sausal Creek)

The book release of "I am Sausal Creek" was a great success. Hella people from all over the bay came through to support. We had lots of stars and up and coming stars of the independent Bay Area children's book movement. If you are interested in getting the book these folks were here to represent or support you ca cop it here. Please tell your local book store or library to hit up Josh at Nomadic Press!!

LINK to PURCHASE

I Am Sausal Creek 2- Book Release!

 
This Sunday! EVENT link: Come Through

Yo! This amazing book is DONE! We wrapped illustration on this a few months ago, the cover is done as you can see. And the book has been printed! Wow, this is my second published children's book to come into the world. If you are a supporter of the "We Need Diverse Books" campaign you need to come through to this event and meet the team. We are:

Melissa Reyes-author/teacher/activist . Melissa has been the driving spear for this project and she embodies the heart of the story. As a former school teacher she saw the need for this type of story and researched her butt off to make it happen. When she approached me last year with the project I knew I wanted to be down as soon as I read it. I cannot wait for more people to fully understand the impact that a book like this has and will have.

Cinthya Muñoz Ramos-activist, momma, and amazing translator who gave this book and mine the royal treatment by offering translation that is a doorway to spanish speakers whether they're from DR or Mexico. If you need your book translated into spanish, you need to holler a this fierce mujer!

And then there's me. Robert Trujillo -author, illustrator, dad, I am honored to be a part of an "Bay Area Independent Children's Book" creating family that includes folks like Janine Macbeth, Innosanto Nagarra, and more. My first children's book "A Taco & Cheese Taco Birthday" will be out on Arte Publico Press this fall. I am Sausal Creek is now available and my first self published children's book "Furqan's First Flat Top" will be out later this year.

Nomadic Press- A Brooklyn and Oakland based publisher who have been supporting us through the design, layout, and printing of Sausal. They are an amazing publisher who are pursig new direction in children's book publishing here in the Bay. 

So, if you're in the town, come through! If you want to see some finished spreads from the book, go to my website!