Illustration Friday - Acrobat

I just had these 8.5" x 5.5" postcards made that I'll be sending as art samples to art directors and editors at publishing houses that I want to work with on picture books.

These illustrations are from my WIP picture book dummy. I've been working on this dummy on and off for a couple years. It's been off since last fall; I've illustrated 4 picture books and had a baby in the meantime! Now I finally have some time to start working on it again. I've completely rewritten the story but kept most of the same characters. The new story has a much stronger plot structure, but it still needs some revising. I've given the manuscript to my critique group and also have some other writers critiquing it at the Midsouth conference next weekend. Can't wait!

My new books!

I received my first copies of Dancing Dreams and Oliver's First Christmas from Accord Publishing. I turned in the final illustrations for Dancing Dreams days before I had my baby in January, and the finals for Oliver's First Christmas were due in April. Both of these will be released within the next month.

They both use AniMotion(tm) technology, which is a fancy way of saying that there are action windows which look like animations as you turn the page. You can see the woman in the red dress is in two different poses above. Super fun!

Shiny sticker on my book!

The award banquet for APALA was great. I loved getting to meet the author of Cora Cooks Pancit. Most of the time as an illustrator I don't have any contact with my authors; the publishers like to keep us separate so we can work more creatively in telling our own half of the picture book story. Dorina is a wonderful woman and it was an honor to share this award with her. Congrats to Renee at Shen's Books as well.

Now our book has a shiny award sticker!

Illustration Friday - Star gazing

An illustration from my picture book, DANCING DREAMS, to be released next month by Accord/Andrews McMeel.

WriteOnCon

There's a free online writer's conference focused on picture books, middle grade, and YA going on right now at http://writeoncon.com.

You can see videos, read about editor and agent preferences, etc. Here are just some of the topics:

Questions to Ask Yourself Before a Revision by editor Kendra Levin
Illustrating Children's Books by author/illustrator J.H. Everett and Studio 5
Plot and Pacing Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, by author/literary agent Weronika Janczuk
Myths and Misconceptions by literary agent Holly Root, and editors Molly O'Neill and Martha Mihalick
Do's and Don't's of Querying by literary agent Kate Testerman

Enjoy!

Illustration Friday - Paisley

Cora in her paisley dress from my award-winning picture book, Cora Cooks Pancit. In a week I'll receive the APALA picture book award for this book at the ALA conference in Washington DC!

Illustration Friday - Slither

Another illustration from my picture book, DANCING DREAMS, to be published by Accord Publishing in Sept 2010.

Illustration Friday - Early

This is an early peek at a picture book I have coming out in Sept 2010. The title is DANCING DREAMS, to be published by Accord Publishing. In this story, Gracie dreams of dancing everything from ballet to hula to flamenco to country.

Illustration Friday - Fearless

Oliver the puppy isn't afraid to join in and sing out loud. He obviously agrees with Buddy the Elf who taught us, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."

I illustrated these for the picture book Oliver's First Christmas, to be released in October, 2010, by Accord Publishing.

Illustration Friday - Ahead

I just finished this cover illustration for a picture book I have coming out this fall called Oliver's First Christmas, to be published by Accord Publishing. The snowflakes in the snow globe will actually be animated with an animotion window.

What's ahead for this little puppy? Lots of mischief!