Patterns experiment

OK, after Jim's advice, I deleted the patterned floor and added my own. I think it looks better. I also added some shadows on the floor that I forgot to add in before.

I'm illustrating a story for January's Stories for Children mag about a dog who steals Casey's bed.

I was playing with backgrounds. What do you think? I'm not sure that I like it. I don't know if I'm just not used to it, or if it really does look off. I'm also including the scan without the backgrounds. Should I just paint a light wash background instead?

Any advice is welcome!!

Warm Fuzzies

I'm really happy with the way the rebus I illustrated for the Dec issue of SFC turned out. It was entitled "Warm Fuzzies" by G.R. LeBlanc. I even received a thank you email from the author. Cool!!

The Mixed-Up Platypus - Stories for Children

Here's a quick little illo for an article on Platypi (?), well you know what I mean. I'm working on another illo for the January issue too, but this one was pretty quick and straight forward.

Stories for Children - Rain Dance

Stories for Children - Warm Fuzzies Rebus

December's issue of Stories for Children is a fun one for me. I got to illustrate a Rebus. A Rebus for those of you unfamiliar, is a story that uses pictures in the place of key words.

I really enjoyed this piece by G.R. LeBlanc about a little girl getting dressed for a snowy day, and remembering to give her mom a hug before she goes out to play.

Stories for Children - Stick Friend

This illo (November Issue of SFC) is for a really cute story about a little girl who teaches how to be a good friend with the help of Henry her stick.

Stories for Children - Jack O'lanterns

Sept SFC - Tall Boots - Painted

Here is the painted version of "Tall Boots" for the Sept Issue of SFC. I'm actually pretty happy with it.

SFC September Sketch

We're back from vacation which was wonderful. We had a great time visiting with family, friends, and seeing all sorts of iconic tourist sites! Unfortunately, on our way home from picking up our dog from the boarder we were in a pretty nasty car accident. A woman coming from the other direction tried to make an unsafe pass decided better of it and lost control of her car ultimately, crossing the center line and crashing into us. Fun! I broke my foot in three places and am on crutches, which makes for lots of couch time. So, hopefully my drawing will benefit from this! :)

Anyway, here is a sketch for the September issue of Stories for Children. It's a really cute story, and I hope the drawing does it justice.

Stories for Children - Wings Story

Stories for Children - Wacky Dream Contest illo

SFC - Bike Ride Color

And in color....

SFC - Bike Ride Rough

This illustration is a rough sketch for Stories for Children's July Issue. The central image is of the mother and son, with the three other illustrations representing what he's done during the day. Hopefully, they'll be happy with it at this stage, and I'll be able to ink/paint it soon. :)

Redo of Sketch

After some valuable feedback from my friends at NESCBWI, I reworked the Dad in the background. In the previous sketch, he looked more like a friend than a Dad, so I played around with him a bit. Does it look better, or does it still need some tweaking? And the dock? Is it any better?

SFC - June Cover

And the hits just keep on coming!! I'm so excited! SFC asked me to do the cover for their June Issue!! How cool is that?!?

Here is a rough so far... what do you think? Does it work? Anything not working?

Stories for Children - May Issue

I'm working on the roughs for the May Issue of SFC. I've been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to illustrate a great story by Kai Strand called "Buried Treasure." Here are the roughs I've done so far.

I'm baaaack....

It feels like I've been away from this blog forever. We've had a very busy February, with sickness (my eldest daughter had pneumonia), with vacation (we were out in Colorado), and finally, I've had a chance to sit down and get some work done.

I finished up my poster for the NESCBWI Conference in April -- I can't believe how fast April is creeping up! And I finished the illustrations for the April issue of Stories for Children. I got to work on a really sweet story called The Magical Easter Egg by Billy Burgess. So without further ado, here are those illustrations.... Next, on the to-do-list, get some illustrations done for WW, and for IF.... tonight, after the kids are in bed.

Colored versions of SFC illos

More Stories for Children

Here are some of the roughs for another story I'm working on for Stories for Children Magazine. I think these are going to turn out nicely .... fingers crossed. (Sorry about the scans, I had very light pencil.)

Winter Water

Here is the illustration that I did for an upcoming issue of Stories for Children Magazine.