I’m working on an illustration for a twisted little story for the book. (Wait, they’re all twisted, aren’t they. Sorry.) Here he is on my drawing desk. The drawing on the left is the sketch I’m working from, and the one on the right is the final version in progress.
Napkin doodles @ Dino’s
This is Ted. I drew him on my napkin at Dino’s Restaurant in Latrobe, PA. He says “hi.”
New sketch, updated to fit
Here’s that jack-o-lantern sketch updated to fit the format of the book. I’m not telling what the title of the illustration is because that’s also the gag line. And we all need to do our gagging on cue.
Illustrators I Greatly Admire: Exhibit E
AnnaLaura Cantone I first came across AnnaLaura Cantone’s illustrations a while back as I flipped through a Houghton Mifflin Kids catalog and found Prudence and Moxie by Deborah Noyes. The combination of the illustrator’s looseness and her confidence in her mark making made me rip the page out to explore her work a little further. Of course the page went …
Dear Fall: If I had appreciated you more, would you have stayed?
(The trail photo is from September, taken while riding my bike on the Great Allegheny Passage.) I’m already tired of the snow. And the winter. And the scraping of the car every time I want to go somewhere. And the gloves that you can’t use to do anything except keep warm. And it really isn’t even winter yet for another …
Rediscovered an old sketch
I had originally drawn this sketch with the intention of turning it into a greeting card, but instead it’s spent the last few years collecting dust on my hard drive. “But,” thought I, “if things were rearranged around a bit to fit the format of the book…” I’ll post the new sketch as soon as it happens.
“Steampunk Heidi” is finished!
I think I’m finally finished with this one; I really don’t know what else I can do with her. I’m about to send her off to Tomie dePaola, and we’ll find out on January 3 what he thinks.
“Steampunk Heidi” color #1
Here’s the latest on Heidi. The background texture is a combination of a watercolor texture I painted a while back and a photo of my concrete driveway. I tinted the watercolor a reddish tan to help with the steampunk look, and the driveway layer I left as gray.
“Steampunk Heidi” sketch for Tomie
Starting this year, SCBWI is taking over sponsorship of the Tomie dePaola Award, although Tomie will still be choosing the winner. I’m not expecting much of a look from Mr. dePaola, but it does give me a subject for my next postcard. They’re looking for an illustration based on the opening paragraphs of the classic Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Tomie …
If I’ve ever said anything bad about Steve Jobs, I want to take it back now
Right. So my MacBook belched up a huge hair ball, and decided now would be a good time to never, ever allow itself to go through that whole “Start Up” bull again. After some pleading on my part, it decided to let me sneak in through the Safe start mode, so I backed up anything I could get and could …
Writer’s critique kicked my butt
Fresh from (my part) of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ pre-conference writer’s critique, and my little brain is whipped. These guys are good, and it was enough to make me want to take a long step back from the book. Maybe into the next state. I read three of the short stories from the book, and the …