50 Precious Words 2018
I’ve been working on my writing skills of late. So here’s my very first entry in Vivian Kirkfield’s 50 Precious Words contest: A Day In the Woods Morning air; crisp, smoky scent, Daddy, please, unzip the tent! Let’s canoe and ride our bikes, Then let’s go on nature hikes. We’ll see squirrels, owls, and deer […]
Facing the wolves…
I’m thrilled to announce my piece, Little Red won an Honorable Mention in the 2016 Tomie de Paola Illustration Challenge. I have to be honest, I almost didn’t enter. I guess you could say, I had some bad wolves of my own to face down. Sometimes it’s that grand leap of faith, pushing past your fears […]
Princesses, princesses everywhere…
Last spring I was approached to illustrate a picture book retelling of “The 12 Dancing Princesses” (written by Carly Graf) by the lovely folks at ustyme. They saw this painting that was at one time in my portfolio which I did in honor of Prince William and Princess Catherine’s wedding They liked the mice in royal dress and they wanted […]
What big ears you have!
This year, 2015, marks my tenth year in the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. It’s been such a great organization and a continual resource for learning, without which, I don’t think I could have ever made the strides I have in the kidlit business. Among the many annual awards they offer to aspiring […]
Dancing princesses in my dreams…
Hooray! I just finished up my very first picture book. Thanks to the folks at USTYME who had faith in my abilities enough to give me the task of creating their version of THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES. I especially want to thank my AD, Nick, who has mountains of patience and was such a great […]
Blog Hop (Hoppity Hop)
I was asked to participate in a blog hop, featuring some amazing kidlit authors and SCBWI friends. This post is my contribution to this blogging venture. First and foremost, let me introduce to you, a talented author and SCBWI member, Dionna L. Mann: Dionna is a spinner of children’s yarns, a weaver of nonfiction articles, […]
Illustration Friday: Edge
“He crouched in the sink, peering over the edge, ready to pounce at any given moment.” I’ve been adding some black and white work to my portfolio. It’s been cool working in pencil and totally analog. I’ve been working digitally son long, my brain keeps saying “undo!” when I make a mistake.
something neat…and something sweet.
Hi there! I just wanted to share with you a nice little article by Will Terry (who I think is an amazing illustrator and all around nice guy!) on the new field of Picture Book apps. He’s created quite a few successful e-books of his own and speaks about his most recent experience with story […]
Gone to the dogs…
I’m don’t call myself a dog person, per se, I’m more of an equal opportunity animal lover. Dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, bunnies…if it has eyes and is remotely cute, I’m going to pet it and maybe take it home with me. I grew up with dogs — in a family of “dog people” — […]
Bubble Buddies!
Sometimes I just don’t know what’s going to ooze out of my weird head when I am free-sketching. I drew this watching my kids playing around at the bowling alley, of all places (aside: I am not a fan of bowling, but my kids meet with friends sometimes, so I bring my trusty sketchbook!) I […]
The menagerie next door…
It might seem odd to have a taxidermist next door but for me, an artist, it’s a great source of animal reference. My neighbor, the taxidermist, is also nice enough to allow me to come over and draw from his menagerie and that’s where I found myself a few days ago. My two kids and […]