I’m on deadline this week and, like virtually every project I’ve ever done, woefully behind. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just the way I work. I start slowly and ramp up the speed and productivity the closer the deadline gets. So as a kind of cop out, …
Okay, sorry writers, this is really illustration-oriented. My illustrations have been called cartoon-like in the past, and I’m fine with that. In the most basic sense, my illustrations seem to be black lines with color fills. Which can be, well…cartoon-like. The second to the last book I did (Swamp Gas) …
I have a love/hate relationship with wordless picture books. Well, not really “love/hate,” more like a “love/um?” relationship. As an illustrator, my love for them is obvious. A whole story told in pictures! How cool is that? As a parent, “reading” wordless picture books to kids, for me, was occasionally …
I had different favorite animals at different points my life. I remember being smitten with monkeys when I was quite young, pining for a raccoon (after reading Rascal by Sterling North) when I was little older, and in high school I studied crows and ravens for a couple of years …
I’m working on the illustrations for my next book and frantic to make the deadline in 4 days. For my post today, since all I’ve been thinking about for the past month or so is these illustrations, I thought I’d share with you my process of one page, number 11. …
Someone had to do it. Well, not really HAD to do it but I WANTED to do it: review A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo. Written by Jill Twiss (with a co-writing credit to the star of the book) and illustrated by E. G. Keller, which is a …
When both of my boys were little they each had a plush animal that they loved and were anxious without. How many times did we head out for something and leave one of them behind? (One of the animals; we never left one of the boys behind. No matter what …
After a recent stay in the hospital a friend brought me dinner and a book. The dinner was tailored to my current gastro-intestinal needs, and the book seemed tailored to my current life and heart needs. The book, THE RABBIT LISTENED, by Cori Doerrfeld, is quiet and powerful. It is …
The past several years I’ve posted a New Year cartoon featuring a pair of characters I’ve been working on for years. I call it Two Unlikely Friends. Last year I posted one here about losing and finding one’s mojo. This may be nothing more than musings, but I enjoy creating …
Otis is a very curious pony. So many questions run through his head. In PONY IN THE CITY by Wendy Wahman, Otis peppers his stable mates into the night with questions about the children that visit and ride them during the day. “do they graze on grass and daisies?” “Do …