Favorite classic animal characters 2

I’m back with a follow-up report on my previous post about ‘ Favorite Classic Animal Characters’ in picture books. Thanks to everyone for commenting and suggesting titles! I’ve been on a quest to find anthropomorphic characters that I could love as much as those chapter book classics; Frog and Toad, Winnie-the-Pooh, …

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Reporting From The Picture Book Bunker

I’m currently in the chilly mid-west, in the midst of the last week on a final artwork deadline, creating illustrations for a picture book by Caroline McAlister, JOHN RONALD’S DRAGONS: STORY OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN (MacMillan, Feb 2017). The last stretch of work on picture book artwork especially feels a lot like being in a bunker; social …

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“Visual Inspiration”, or “My Life as a Potential Hoarder”

The first step when beginning a picture book project is to go shopping. I have only recently acknowledged this because I seem to be amassing quite a collection of, “stuff”, all in the name of my “craft”. I don’t recall learning this step in art school, so I began paying attention, noticing, contemplating this …

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These Books Give Me Courage

In Tammi Sauer’s last post, she mentioned that “The Watermelon Seed” made her want to be a better writer. Reading that simple statement led me to know immediately what I had to write about next. Don’t you love it when inspiration strikes like that? (Thanks, Tammi!) My first book, MISS …

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