More Picture Book News!

Can you guess the subject of the SUPER SECRET book I've been working on since winter? Check out my desk. It's what it looked like as I completed my last painting. I had to use a LOT of cowboy hat referencing for this one. Hmm.....




The story is called My Little Girl, written by Tim McGraw, after his song, "My Little Girl" featured in the film, Flicka. It's about a daddy and his daughter, sharing a day together.



Though I never really gave country music much time on my iTunes, I made a Pandora station for just for Tim, to check out his sound. I did grow up surrounded by a love of old southern spirituals, and my mother was always crankin' up the Mary Chapin Carpenter, or playing her favorite folk on her Yamaha (a singer/songwriter herself!). So although country's roots and my roots might have shared familiar soil, I had to introduce myself. I admire the narrative spirit and innocence in that music's tradition. And I took a liking to McGraw's "Last Dollar"- the sweet little voices with their own twang at the very end of the song!



So, in the spirit of that song, my own blue grass collection) and some of my sunniest girlhood memories, I made a little book for Tim Mcgraw and his daughters. I really do hope they like it. It was my first book working in watercolor/digital composite, so I know now what I will change for my next book and such...a learning experience I am very thankful for.



So I tip my hat to Mr. McGraw. Look for My Little Girl on shelves Fall '08!

Picture Book News!

I signed on to do a picture book with Abrams Book For Young Readers, due out in 2009!

Erica Perl has written the tale, DOTTY, about imaginary friends (who I can't wait to begin imagining...and sketching!) This one, Dotty, is especially feisty. She describes the story as, "a testament to the importance of keeping your imagination as long as possible." I am whole-heartedly behind that philosophy, Erica.

Please check out her website. She is delightful, she wears chicken hats in interviews, and her books are so much fun. Thanks as well go to Chad Beckerman at Abrams. His book design blog is also extremely entertaining...it's a cool peek into the industry too. Art for this book will start in fall...I'll be sure to update you on DOTTY, so come back to visit.

Stay tuned for more secret revealing. It's HOT in Boston...crossing my fingers for a cold front and pa(i)nting, in the meantime.

Swords, Sultans, and Secrets

Oh so many posts to post! For now, I'll throw a current ROUGH sketch up there before I start on the final watercolor for the book cover. It's for book 2 of Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy with Little Brown. It's interesting to have to be emulating another artist's style for the watercolor technique. I'll post it when I'm done. It's fun to study someone's handiwork closely, and I will be studying his.

So here he is, a crazed sword wielding berber!

Meanwhile I am scanning my drawings for the final pages of the undercover picture book, which I got the OK to announce last week! And stay tuned for some news about another new picture book on the way this fall with Abrams. I have secrets to reveal, so stop back soon!

Doodle

On the phone doodles... Art updates soon. Lots of projects on the way!

Olden Days

Another discovery from the basement (see below). I wouldn't have so much fun playing every day for work, if it weren't for these people- my Pocca and Pop pop. Here in our first house on the coast of CT, we grew up with my grandparents living upstairs. There were good times and hard times in this old weathered house, but I wouldn't have traded away any of what came along with them; singing old Southern rounds which Pocca taught us to sing together, sipping Coca Cola through straws, and inventing "pass around stories", which Pop Pop excelled at. Our grandparents had as much fun playing pretend as we did. I've got the umbrella; my sister, Christa, has my dad's shoes on (and the BEST expression); sister, Anna, is in her little eggshell-blue hoodie. Lots and lots of love from this front porch in CT, having a "grand ol' time"<3

Career Day

I've had a feeling I'd be doing this since I was about 5.

This was on the cover of my first "book". It was a book made in my free time, which we had tons of in first grade. I rallied my desk buddies to "publish" a picture book together. We fought over who would write it and who would "ileastratide" it. I had heard wild rumors of a machine in the teachers' coffee room that could PRINT. It was a magical publishing machine, and I implored the assistant to please make as many copies as possible of this story on her break, since this was a serious endeavor. She didn't seem excited by her ability to publish our book (make copies) and I honestly didn't understand why. What a bored grown up.

I remember getting them back feeling a little let down that they weren't bound with jackets, but I was still mighty satisfied with stapled packets. I have been on a literal mission since then. I found this last weekend, while visiting my family in CT, on a late night search for old forgotten treasures in the basement. Look at that crazy Ed up there! He must be furious about being sent to his room, he looks downright maniacal. Ok, off to make some "dener."

A Quick Bookstore Moment

I am sitting in a place that serves as a daycare for stories. Loud children come in, watched by the nannie, not always paying good attention. But we care for the stories who wait here. Spoiled rotten stories, selfish stories, good natured stories and ugly fat stories too. Stories wait here, loudly, looking at us behind the desk in face-out attention. They are waiting to go home. Characters in shoes, on rooftops, in second grade, all asleep until fingers pull them from between their alphabetical siblings and slightly tear their jackets. Rung up, into the bag and home. And then it's flick flick flick stop motion color or black and white, whichever the little mind chooses for the film. And then one day it is done and the spine cracks back, pages fall, book shuts but never as flat and solidly square as before the adventure began. There is a sigh of relief from the book easing back from the child's use, and from the child leaving that world finished for a time. Sometimes the sigh is tinged with longing. For books and children are always teasing each other.

Sweet and Sour sun

I am sitting at my desk looking out the window, while the scanner whirs below, scanning spread sketches for a picture book. I was just thinking how luxurious light really is, and how it makes simple things like window sills look opulent. My little space has two windows which I am very grateful for! Usually, I am complaining that Massachusetts never seems to get the same sweet and sour sun you see at the end of the day, that such sunlight is only found in Connecticut. But here I am working away in a pearl colored room (a messy) pearl colored room and I feel rich in light, right here.

Here is a little picture of that sun I tried to capture when I was home with my family in Connecticut, a few weeks back. This is ultimate sweet and sour light, especially falling on my Nana's things we took into the house when she passed away.

Hello, Onyx

And here is Onyx. She came out of the same sketch session. I'm shooting these out between assignments and minutes when I can. It's always my busiest times when I need need need to draw. Hope you are well, and a Happy Birthday to Kate <3