My illustration in USA Today!

I received great news last night!
My illustration for The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly was featured in an article in USA Today, alongside a glowing review for the children's book publisher, ustyme! You can check out the article here.
I'm truly thrilled. Congratulations to us all!

A tattoo side project

Although I don't usually take on tattoo projects (I feel tattoos should be a collaboration between the tattoo-ee and the tattoo-er), I am helping one of my dearest friends from childhood design her new tattoo. This tattoo creation is an homage to her wonderful and jubilant mother, who sadly now has Alzheimer's Disease. We will be including a cardinal (her mom's favorite), the purple ribbon (for Alzheimer's awareness), and the forget-me-not flower (a symbol of the Alzheimer's Society).

I'm in the first stages of sketching, but here are some rough outlines thus far. I'll post more as they develop, and we decide on color.

Wishing you a weeeee-filled Christmas

A quick sketch of joy for the holidays on this Christmas Eve. May you have a wonderful evening!

Holiday card collaging has begun

I've tried a variety of both digital and traditional ideas for our holiday cards this year, and I've decided to stick with traditional cut and paste. Using all of our scraps from unused painting and drawings, my son and I will be creating little collages of wintry, holiday scenes.

Below is one of my first. I title this one, "Dream Big This Year."

Closeup of my bird cutout

Tomie's Sneeze

Last year, when I saw other illustrators posting on Facebook about their entries to the Tomie dePaola Award, I felt wistful. I love his work, and my son and I have read Strega Nona's Harvest at least 100 times. I wanted to send something in to him too.

This year, I was reminded of the contest in Kathy Temean's informative blog, Writing and Illustrating. The contest this year was to illustrate a short poem, targeting a very young viewer. Square format, 8x8, and must either include this poem or leave room for it:

Sneeze

A sneeze

Is a breeze

In

Your

Nose. 

I've been on a real bird kick these days, and I started sketching bird ideas right away. With snow days and half days at my son's school, though, I didn't really get started until a couple of days ago, and its been a pretty intense few days of drawing and re-drawing.

Before submitting my final drawing last night (the deadline was midnight PST), I thought of all the elements I could have added. All the tiny details that would have made this more curious and intriguing. I became insecure and hesitant. I wondered if I should submit it at all. After about an hour of hemming and hawing, I decided to let the doubts go and ship it. At the very least, I will be more aware of adding those details on my next (and current) projects. Try, learn, improve. Repeat.

Below is my final drawing, as well as some of the sketches that got me there...

My final drawing.

This sketch has the sneeze going up his nose, instead of out. Oops. Redo.

One of my first sketches. Again, more of a hay fever-type of inhale-sneeze. Redo.

Finishing last week's bird illustration

Although I draw using traditional methods (generally with a Sharpie marker or Pilot Rollerball), in last week's bird illustration I had decided to add color traditionally as well, using watercolor. I enjoy watercoloring, but I was very aware at how long it was taking me. I felt confined by the paint's permanency, and not being free to hit Cmd+z and try something else. I just wasn't losing myself in this art, which is something I really love to do.

So, I switched gears, and began to color my illustration digitally. As I'd hoped, time slipped away, and I was immersed in the process. I felt light and happy, which I hope I conveyed through my bright red birds.

This work is titled "Birds in the Tree (Commit)," and is now also available as a print here.

Next week, I hope to focus on this year's holiday card. I'll be posting along the way.

Adding color

I've started to watercolor my bird drawing, moving along in phases. The yellows ended up with a much more greenish tone that I had wanted, and the transition to blue is a bit harsh, so I will probably digitally tweak the background. But I'll fill in the tree next and decide which colors feel unbalanced. More to follow!