My Summer Submission for PBAA

Here is my summer art for the Picture Book Artists Association's (from here on affectionately known as PBAA) website. Currently you can view the spring art there, but be sure to return on June 15th for the unvealing of everyone's summer art.

The image is from my 2004 book, Good Morning, Garden, written by Barbara Brenner. I found out recently that it received a starred review in Kirkus and no one told me! It's available on Amazon or my website.

A little about PBAA. It started out as a listserve for professional picture book illustrators but has turned into much more. These people are my mentors, my crying shoulder, my sounding board and my peers. I would be lost without them, so thank you guys!

A Handmade Sketchbook

Here's a nifty little sketchbook I made with my own little hands. It's about 6" square and 1" thick. I included many different types of paper—watercolor, charcoal, pastel, vellum, oatmeal, grass, mulberry, etc.—to see which I will like the best. I hand stitched them into 4 signatures included some spacers so I can paste in other things or do a collage without having the book splay open. I'm hoping to try many different media inside. And the best thing about it is that it lies perfectly flat when sketching or scanning! I'm sure I'll be sharing some of the (more successful) sketches with you soon!

A Visit to Belmont Elementary

Yesterday I visited the wonderful children at Belmont Elementary School in Belmont, NH. They were attentive and inquisitive, just the way I like them. And they weren't the least bit wiggly. Oh no, not them! Well, okay, maybe a little, but it had been raining forever so I can't fault them for that. So thank you children for a wonderful day!

(and I truly do apologize for saying that bad word! We'll blame that on the rain too. Deal?)

A Great Conference!!!

WOWZERS!!!

I attended a great conference this past weekend put on by the New England chapter of SCBWI. Friday was a Nuts & Bolts day for more advanced workshops. I presented a workshop on Copyright Registration for Illustrators. It seemed to go well. I definitely had more material than my 45 minutes allowed for. I'm also so proud that I figured out the whole PowerPoint thing (though I really need to get over my plug phobia!)

Saturday was also a fun-filled day of workshops. I especially enjoyed the talk by Jacqueline Davies, et al. entitled "The Whole Shebang". Jacqueline, editor Ann Rider from Houghton Mifflin, illustrator Melissa Sweet, art director Sheila Smallwood and the marketing manager all talked about Jackie's book The Boy Who Drew Birds. Jackie is a wonderful speaker and her book is a delight. In fact I may need to buy another copy.

Melissa Sweet is one of my new favorite illustrators. I also picked up her new book Carmine. Think Red Riding Hood with a twist. You'll love it.

Sunday was a wonderful picture book retreat with the fantastic Eric Rohmann as the keynote speaker. Later, he gave me his thoughts on my dummy for Sir Draws-A-Lot, which I really appreciated. I also met a Kim Jacobs, a superb illustrator. Keep an eye out for her as I'm sure some publisher will snap her up quickly!

But my favorite part of the weekend was meeting up with my critique group. There were 10 of us there in person and two in spirit! They are a bright, funny talented group of women and I'm proud to be a part of THE HAMPSTERS!!!!! You can see their writing BLOGS on the right hand side of this page!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

I've been enjoying everyone else's BLOGs so I thought I'd try one for myself. No promises that it will be updated daily, or even weekly. No pressure, no worries. Works for me!