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 claims he wants to see “an image, a style, a vision that I’ve never seen before!” (exclamation mark included) I’m having my doubts that that’s entirely true, but I’m going to enter anyway.
This is the sketch I came up with:
I wanted to add a little bit of my own twist to the illustration by giving her a steampunk attitude. The timeframe would be right-ish, and the goggles were especially helpful for a reflection of the Alps.
Addendum: As an aside, here are the scrap paper thumbnail ideas I was playing with. I guess technically I went with #2.