Blog Interview: "Illustrator Saturday"

Today I am the featured artist for "Illustrator Saturday" on a great blog about illustrating and writing for Children's Books. It's a very extensive interview with a whole bunch of my work, new and old, and very old. 

I've never had an interview before, and especially not one that is this long.

Read the interview on Writing and Illustrating Blog and share with your friends.

Thanks Kathy!

Dimplemeyer's Design: A Secret Meeting

Hot off the scanner: another finished painting for Dimplemeyer's Design. My favorite so far.
I'm pretty satisfied with how Dimplemeyer's face and hand turned out, I lack confidence in illustrating and rendering hands and human faces, but I think they turned out ok! The biggest challenge and scariest part of this painting was the glow on the eye. I can easily add a glowing effect digitally, but with paint I don't know how to get the same effect. I think I got a semi-decent glow going. I guess the more I practice the better I will become. Maybe I should do some more glowing illustrations...

Introducing: Ratty Rhymes

While working on Vulture Verses there was always talk about doing a sequel book, but it was never for sure and couldn't be committed to. After dropping hints, begging, and pleading -- ok, maybe not very much at all -- we finally got the word in September from the publisher that they COULD commit to a second book! (I knew they would all along...hehe)

So with MUCH excitement, this is my official announcement that the sequel book to Vulture Verses is Ratty Rhymes! Coming Fall 2013, published by Prospect Park, with more fun and educational poems by the wonderful Diane Lang, and illustrated by me, of course! This book will be mostly bugs that live on or in the ground, but also the oh so cute mouse and rat!

I will be posting a few sketches as they are developed but for now, here is my sketch for the front cover. I hope you are as excited as I am, but I highly doubt it. :)

More news and announcements coming soon...

Fullerton Art Shows

This year I haven't done as many art shows as I usually do because I have been so busy working on projects that I haven't had new work to put in shows. But this month I am in 2! If you are available and in the area, please come out to one or both to say hi!

This will be my 5th consecutive year participating in the Art-4-Health Show and Auction at Cal State Fullerton. I have had such a great experience being a part of this show I plan to be in it as long as they will accept me! This show (and Misti in particular!) was responsible for giving me the opportunity to have my very first solo art show in the Titan Student Union in January 2011, which gave me lots of exposure and opened a lot of doors. I am forever grateful!

This year my picture and my work was included in the Art-4-Health article in the Fullerton Observer! I know this year is going to be a great show, as always. The show opens with a reception and art auction featuring over 90 works of art from 3pm to 5pm on Wednesday, October 17, 2012. This will be the only day it is open to the public since the show is held in the Health Center hallways. Come stop by if you can!

Secondly, I will be participating in the monthly Fullerton Art Walk at the Green Bliss Cafe on Friday, October 5th from 6-10pm. This is a newer cafe in Downtown Fullerton with probably the best coffee in town and they are also very conscious about the environment. They won't even give you a paper receipt! I will be there for the evening enjoying a cup-a-joe and selling some of the books I've done as well as prints. I'll have some of my newer work up as well as some older stuff. Come stop by for a cup or a chat! I hope to see you there!

Finished Painting for Dimpemeyer's Design

Three finals paintings for Dimplemeyer's Design are finished. Here is the one I like the most so far. Of course, there are still 13 more paintings to complete so that might change. I think this one if worthy of my portfolio, so I am also adding it to my website shortly.

There has been a recent change in plans as far as prioritizing projects, so this book will take longer to finish than anticipated. But in the end it will all be a good thing. More explanations to come.

Vulture Verses Release

Today is the official release date of Vulture Verses (even though it has been available online for awhile)! It seems like there has been so much going on already, I'm excited to see how the book does now that it is officially out! I have absolutely loved working on this book and working with Diane Lang and Prospect Park on this book and there is talk about a second book, so my fingers are crossed!

There has already been a lot of publicity for the book including newspaper articles, reviews, radio interviews and I'm sure so much more that I don't even know about!

Here is the Radio Interview with Diane Lang that happened last Monday and they so kindly mentioned me as well!

Here is a great review from Forwardreviews.com

And a great article from Mercurynews.com

There is a whole list of events planned to kick off the book release. If you are interested in attending one, see the Prospect Park Events Page. I will be attending a few of theses events in Southern California if you want to come get a book signed!

Hope to see you there and thank you to everyone for all your support and encouragement! I am so thankful for all my friends and fans!

Post-Conference Ponderings

(Early apologizes for a long, text-heavy post. Bear with me and hopefully you will be as inspired as me!)

The last 3 days have been a whirlwind of inspiring speeches, talented illustrators and writers, remembering forgotten advice, and tons of new and motivating direction for my work. I went to the SCBWI Conference this year thinking I was mostly going to hear things I've heard before with a few new nuggets of information.

I was most certainly wrong!

I feel like it was my first time attending this conference, not the second, and even if I heard something I have heard before, it was presented in such a way that made it sound like something completely new! I will not go to another conference with that attitude, that's for sure.

The biggest change I've come away from the conference with is (finally) a desire to attempt writing a story as well as illustrating it. It's always been in the back of my mind and I've been told over and over again that I'd be much more enticing to Publishers if I could give them the whole package, but I've never been confident in my writing abilities and have therefore, avoided it as much as possible. I thought some day I would write my own stories, but for now, I was satisfied with illustrating other people's stories. All that changed over the weekend! So we'll see where my new adventure will take me on the Writing Road. I will share my struggles as I work through them.

There were definitely some over-arching themes that I noticed, or maybe certain things just stood out to me because of their relevance to my current circumstances, who really knows. I've spent a day (definitely not enough time!) re-reading my notes and trying to make sense of everything and deciding where to go from here. There were so many treasures that it's hard to narrow it down to a nice easy summary of my time there, so I'm just going to share some of the things that stood out to me the most and maybe you can tell me what I'm struggling to see.

• Tony DiTerlizi (the highlight of the weekend for me!) gave a wonderful and entertaining speech in which he shared how he writes to the 10 year old Tony inside. Which made him think of what kinds of things he enjoyed doing/playing as a kid. This, along with many other confirming speeches (E.B. Lewis and Karen Cushman) have encouraged me to write and illustrate the story I've always wanted to read. 
• Bryan Collier had an inspirational and captivating speech entitled From a Seed to a Tree and encouraged us to be aware of the seeds that have been planted in us. These are seeds of inspiration, encouragement, difficult times, a gift of love, almost any circumstance, and they can come from anyone, a mentor, your mother, a teacher, a friend, an enemy. No matter where they come from, be sure to protect and nurture your seeds, water them and stand back to let them breathe. At some point the seeds will sprout and grow into something wonderful and meaningful that you didn't know was there.
• Deborah Underwood gave a convicting and motivating speech on the Power of Quite. With all the distractions of life (smartphones, internet, TV, radio) and a culture that tries to get our attention around every corner, we are left with little or no time to sit alone in our own thoughts. This can be a scary thing for some people, but so important for the creative mind. She encouraged us to make "day-dreaming appointments" in our work schedule where we sit and take in a quite room or park or beach and let your mind wander and play. It can be the most rewarding and important time of our day! When we go through our days without time to let ourselves think how will the fun, creative thoughts grow and reveal themselves to us? Even if you don't think you can afford these "appointments" there are still windows of opportunity that can easily be missed. Do it while your driving, or showering, or folding laundry, washing the dishes, waiting for a concert to start, anything! If you search for them, you will find those windows. Take them!
• Finally, our last speaker of the weekend Gary Schmidt, by far topped off the Conference with the most inspiring and motivating words for me. For the longest time I have struggled to put into words why I do what I do, and why I love it. I've also struggled with the idea that what I do for work is meaningful and contributing significantly to society. Well, Gary addressed these things exactly. He encouraged us to never doubt that our stories can change a child's life. He called us to give our reader more to be a human with. He told us to to give the reader the deepest questions to ask and ponder. And finally, there is no other way to say it than exactly the way Gary did: "Artist's are about bringing beauty, understanding, knowledge, and wisdom into the world, but the first question to ask is 'does the art serve?'" I am called to service to cherish our children. Why? Because according to Gary, no one else in out culture will. And even if that is not true, I want a part in that task because I see the importance of it. This is my motivation to succeed.

With all these tips and lessons, I've decided on some practical things to change/try as far as my daily routine and habits in order to be more efficient and allow myself to optimize my creativity:

• (From Illustrator Melissa Sweet) Draw from life daily. It only has to be for a few minutes, and it doesn't have to be finished or polished. Simply observe life and the things going on around me. I am going to add to this advice by also doing a compositional study of an image I like.  
• Take an Art class. This is something I have been wanting to do for awhile and never acted on it. I still might wait awhile on this, but I really want to do it! I am never done learning and growing and getting better at my craft, but if I don't continue practicing certain ones, I will lose the abilities I have. Maybe a life drawing class or perspective class is what I need since those are where I feel the weakest.
• As Deborah Underwood advised in her speech, I will be making daily (or at least weekly) "day-dreaming appointments" to give myself time to let the creative juices flow and work on my own projects in between all the other ones I have going on. If I don't allow for these precious breaks in my work I wont move forward in my career and I will not feel completely satisfied with the work I am creating.
• In response to some practical advice from the Agents Panel I am not going to be afraid to say no to jobs that I believe will hinder me from moving forward in my career. I should also be wary of jobs that only move me sideways in my career. Instead I will actively seek jobs and opportunities to move my career forward by actually sending out postcards regularly and researching and submitting to Publishers AND Agents! It's about time I put myself out there! I'm ready to move my career forward, hopefully someone out there will see my potential and take a risk on me. After all, as Melissa Sweet said at her Break-out session, "Everything is sweetened by risk".

Some of my favorite quotes of the weekend:

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairytales" - Albert Einstein

"Lions are made from the lambs they have digested" - Unknown, shared by Karen Cushman on being inspired by others' work.

"If you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool God has turned out." - Ray Bradbury (paraphrased)

Although it was draining and overwhelming, overall I feel rejuvenated and refreshed from my weekend away from working. I've come back with new goals, a renewed motivation to finish my projects, and a sense of purpose which will help push me along when I start to grow weary once again.