Snow White (in color)

Here is the Snow White piece with color added, and some fixes made to the sketch.

Snow White (In Progress)

In-progress assignment for an upcoming conference: Illustrate a scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, focusing on character and setting. Illustration Friday on hold for a bit, while I finish this image and get my portfolio ready to show.

Illustration Friday: SEARCH

This week's Illustration Friday theme: SEARCH! Winter, the time when squirrels are perhaps scratching their big heads wondering -- WHERE did I put those early fall acorns? And chipmunk, with cheeks bulging, tries to beg off  -- What acorns?

Illustration Friday: TIME

This week's Illustration Friday topic was TIME. I feel like I was kinda short on it this week to come up with and finish a piece, but here it is! I'm imagining a story where these kids are trying to help out/save the world and their first task was to find the giant TIME clock and stop it for a while.

When I was a kid, I remember wanting time to go by more slowly; I was afraid it was going by too fast and I was going to wake up one day and be an adult too soon!

Illustration Friday: REFLECT

Crispin had never seen a mirror like this one before. Look at those paws! Who was that squirrel? Suddenly, tryouts for the basketball team seemed much less scary.

I missed the deadline for Illustraiton Friday this week, but finished the sketch today and decided to post it. The word for the week was REFLECT, and while working on it, I was thinking about how we can look into mirrors and see outsized flaws that oftentimes others never notice.

But mirrors can also provide a slightly different take on things, let you see a self with different strengths. Weird huge Hulk paws! Dainty mouse feet! Slim swan-like neck! Sometimes that mirror is a person, a friend, who reminds you of what your strengths really are, or shows you how they see you.

The inspiration to sketch an animal came from a book on the NYPL list of 2013 best children's books: Herman and Rosie, about an animal duo that finds each other in the jazz scene in NYC. Sometimes, animal characters can be more like us than we are!

HoHoDooDa Sketch #2

Here's sketch #2 of Linda Silvestri's HoHoDooDa sketch challenge (running out of days in Dec.!!) Inspired by memories of having to do seemingly tons of dishes at holiday meals, and wishing we could have just thrown all the plates away. Who would've noticed??!!??

HoHoDooDa Sketch #1

I signed up for Linda Silvestri's HoHoDooDa sketch challenge mid-December (a sketch a day!) and this is the first one I've eeked out. Inspired by my youngest niece's new stuffed purple giraffe and the insistence at Christmas that people put all kinds of things on their heads.
Happy (phew!) Holidays!

2013 Tomie dePaola Award Submission

This is my submission for the 2013 Tomie dePaola Award, illustrating Jane Yolen's poem, Sneeze! The image/text is aimed at toddlers, and I tried something new for me: incorporating a flap into the image. Paper engineering fun!

Illustration Friday: REFRAIN

This week's Illustration Friday topic is REFRAIN!!

This image is inspired by my niece, whom I've seen do this with her big brother holding her back, feet scraping against the floor as she reaches and strains for something just out of reach (the last cookie!)

Also, it's inspired by the holiday season, where it's hard not to feel the tug of wanting more of everything. The floodgates are open!! The race is on!! And sometimes, we have to be the long gray arm that holds us back from what could turn into a major belly ache.

SkADaMo 2013 Day 27

Happy Thanksgiving/Hanukkah!!!!!! (No turkey feathers were harmed in making this illustration)

SkADaMo 2013 Day 26

It's been a few days since my last "daily" sketch. This one had a bunch of stumbles and starts, some seem to come easy, some hard! This one was inspired by an online word generator: SKIP; and by recently finally getting the hang of skipping stones! (secret: use your whole body like a baseball pitcher does!)

SkADaMo 2013 Day 19

Today's post was inspired by this week's Illustration Friday theme "Tail"! On a trip to the zoo this summer, I watched the lemurs wrapping and clinging to everything with their super long tails. And an image I remember seeing of a mouse, bent waaaay over on a stem, trying to grab some food at the very tip. Tails are useful!!

SkADaMo 2013 Day 17

Still working at the every other day sketch -- find my ideas are getting more complicated and feeling less well executed, so will work on this! This image was inspired by watching 2 carriages of kids at the grocery store. One carriage kid was sobbing, the other looking at his mom like, "Whoa, at least I'm not doing THAT!" I decided to simplify it to 2 ships passing -- hello!

SkADaMo 2013 Day 15

Still trying to keep up with the sketch a day! Whew! This one was inspired by... I started out at scarecrows, but ended up at stuffing socks in your sleeves to pretend you are a muscle amazon! Maybe trying to do all these image and idea challenges and going to groups, keeping up with conferences, internet critiques has me feeling like I am in a fake it till you make it/I'm goin' for it! mode. :) Check out other sketchers here.

SkADaMo 2013 Day 13

Trying to get into the sketch-a -DAY rhythm, but starting out every other day! Today's sketch is inspired by fellow SkADaMo-ers, who you can see here, as well as by watching robins and starlings flock to the last food around -- fall berries -- as they delicately pluck red fruit from cold branches.

SkADaMo 2013 Day 11

This year, I am participating in the PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) where you are challenged to come up with 30 picture book ideas in 30 days. In conjunction, the amazing Linda Silvestri is running SkADaMo (Sketch a Day a Month) and I'm late in starting, but giving it a go!!

Here's Linda's blog with links to other participants to check out other sketchers!

And here's my first sketch -- working with the Illustration Friday theme of Energy. I wanted to try to look at dark energy -- how you can feel, even across a room, when someone is in a baaaaad mood. Dark squiggle homage to illustrator Ben Clanton!

Illustration Friday: ENTANGLED

This week's Illustration Friday is ENTANGLED. It's inspired by many fall trips to farms with mischievous goats. Last week, we visited a farm and the goats were eating the falling oak leaves!

Book Dummy!

I've been working on a book dummy for critique at the NESCBWI Illustrator's Symposium on Nov. 2. Getting it ready was like doing 15 Illustration Friday images all in 3 or 4 sittings. It's not perfect, the story needs MUCH revising, but I am happy that I finally have a dummy ready to show! Perhaps the first of 2 dozen or so before I really get it right, but it feels great to be starting. Here's a spread from later in the story, when Shelby and Morgan are headed home.
I'll be meeting with Candlewick Press editor Liz Bicknell, who worked with Jon Klassen on his NYX bestselling book "I Want My Hat Back", so it's exciting to be getting criticism and advice from someone with lots of experience and success.

Lowell Open Studios 2013

This weekend is Lowell Open Studios, and I've been getting some prints ready to sell at the city-wide art extravaganza. I'm trying out my Square for the first time, too, and hope to make some sales. Really, though, it's been nice going back over a year's worth of images and seeing where I was last year with my work and where I'm at now. Nice time to reflect as well as chat with visitors. 

Picture Book Month, coming up!!

This is the first year I've been aware that November is Picture Book Month!!! Every day during November, on the Picture Book Month site, a different picture book creator will share their insights on picture books! The calendar of authors is above, illustrated by the amazingly prolific Elizabeth Dulemba.
In conjunction with this, children's book author Tara Lazar has started Picture Book Idea Month, where you are challenged to come up with 30 book ideas in 30 days! Registration begins in late October, I am going to do it this year :)