POWERED BY 'MAGINATION...

The 2016 LA SCBWI Conference was held at the historic (and haunted) Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.  It was a fast-paced week of stellar keynotes, inspiring breakouts, great people and new friends. At the opening Keynote each of the faculty members were asked to give their "one word" take away.  They were inspiring and funny...thought-provoking and encouraging.  The impact was undeniable. I scribbled down each word as fast as I could...being a word nerd I didn't want to lose a single letter! The One Word List is too good not to share.  Whether or not you attended the conference, the impassioned "one word" list is meant for each creative reading this post. CHALLENGE:  Throughout the following months, I encourage you to look to this list for inspiration and fill a blank page.  If you create an illustration from a word, or words, on this list, please share on the social media of your choice and hashtag it #2016LASCBWIoneword. 2016 LA SCBWI CO...

Who hasn't had the urge to go WILD sometimes? I knew this book was destined for my book shelf when I saw the beautifully illustrated cover.  Mr. Tiger's fun expression begs the reader to find out how this properly dressed tiger is going to go wild. Mr. Tiger lives in a very proper town, where they dress in very proper clothes, walk on two proper legs and lead very proper and boring lives. So Mr. Tiger, who was "bored with always being so proper" got a "very wild idea." Starting with getting on "all fours", Mr. Tiger starts casting off his proper constraints and gets WILD! And he ROARS! The town folk are not too happy with Mr. Tiger and tell him to kindly act wild in the wilderness.  Mr. Tiger says "What a magnificent idea!"  Although he has lots of fun being wild and free, Mr. Tiger soon misses his friends, and the city. He returns to find a surprise! And this is where I will leave you hanging in suspense until you read this l...

I'm a bit behind in posting anything lately...I'm trying to do better! Day 6...sketch for a book I am working on (two for one!). This year I joined PiBoIdMo challenge (Picture Book Idea Month) and the SkADaMo...or Sketch a Day Month. For the month of November my sketchbook is to be a playground for all of the ideas and words trapped in my imagination :) I think it's time to go play!  Have a creative and wonderful day!

Megan's other sock was missing...she looked everywhere...

This was an old sketch I decided to finish before diving into my "actual" work...

Book #2 is available this month through HighReach Learning (curriculum only). This book is different because it was done in Illustrator. Visit my web site to view the interior pages. This is the entire cover design (done in-house at HRL)

Art Monday was ...Crazy Hairstyle...I pulled this old thing from the moth balls for...um...CRAZY HARE... :) And yeah...it's really OLD!

Little pink piggies...can't get enough of them...more to come!

A few pencil sketches of squirrels for a project I worked on (can't be seen in it's entirety until published). This past weekend I spent some time with my daughter (an art student at JMU) and we went to Michaels. It's not my favorite place to buy art supplies but they had what I wanted - woodless graphite pencils and rolled paper stumps. All of my work is digital and I've missed just good ol' fashioned pencil sketching. Do you know what tells me I'm a digital artist now??? Instead of reaching for my eraser I went to hit "ctrl z" on my keyboard! How many of you have done that?!

My friend in the Marine Corps (OoooRAH!) had asked me (some time ago!) to illustrate a sick bunny for his presentations he gives at Camp LeJeune. I guess with so many Easter Bunnies hopping around, I decided to take IFs theme of "green" and go with it. This was extremely quick...not alot of detail...but I know FWB will like it!

I updated my website but it's not in the program I wanted to use. I will be tweaking it more over the next few days.

Does anyone else ever hit a "block" when it comes to their webpage design? It seems that everytime I go for something "simple" the entire process ends up a complicated, time consuming mess! I've been using MS Publisher 03 just to have something up while I work on the real thing in Golive. I want something clean and simple - point, click, pop-up, NEW JOB!!!! I have motivation to finish it though...I will not do a Spring Promo mailing until it looks better! If you have any advice please feel free to share! Meantime...keep checking my site as it morphs...feedback is always welcome!