Illustration Friday: Old-fashioned

"Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer sitting on a branch," said Walter to the birds on the wire.




(Obviously I'm continuing on with the bird on a wire theme from last week.) I've been doing IF since May and wanted to take a moment to thank the IF community for your support and encouragement. I LOVE seeing all of the fantastic work and I am so jazzed that people take the time to leave comments. Soon, in addition to IF, I'll be blogging weekly about the process of making my first picture book. Please consider becoming a follower. Thank you!

Illustration Friday: Acrobat


























I did two images because it's such a fun prompt this week! I remember having levitation dreams as a kid. They were AMAZING. Being on a trampoline is the closest I've come in real life. In fact, I had the chance to do some trampolining with a bungee harness (I'm sure there's a technical term for this?) a few weeks ago and that was super cool.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently finished my first picture book. I am considering doing weekly blog entries about the whole process. Is that something folks would like to read? If so, please let me know in the comments. Happy weekend everyone!

Illustration Friday: Dessert

Dessert is an apt word, because this week, life is sweet. I received a sneak peek of the cover of my forthcoming picture book, Buglette the Messy Sleeper (Tricycle Press/Random House Kids, May 2011). Woot! I could not be more excited. The cover is below—along with dessert, of course.







Webinar with Agent Mary Kole

My amazingly fabulous agent, Mary Kole, will be teaching a webinar about writing for children with the folks at Writer's Digest. Mary has incredible editorial instincts and is also unbelievably knowledgeable about the industry in general. Plus, she has offered to critique the work of all participants! Click on this link for details and much more information.

Mary blogs at kidlit.com. You can get a good sense of what she's all about if you check out her site.

Illustration Friday: Atmosphere



Another aquatic theme this week -- I've been daydreaming about swimming lately. Perhaps this happens when one lives near San Francisco and endures a foggy, cold "summer". I've been layered in sweatshirts and sweaters for weeks.

Illustration Friday: Caged

I painted two images for this week -- both with a bear theme (can't exactly say why that is). Happy Friday!

The bear cub awoke from his nap with a strong suspicion that something was not quite right.















Try as he might, the panda just could not keep up with the bamboo.
(The bamboo next to our house grows FREAKISHLY fast. It's actually unsettling.)