Gift Show in Steamboat

I'm bringing all of these goodies to The Depot today. It's an old train depot that houses our Steamboat Springs Arts Council. This December they are putting on a Gift show with small works, ornaments, cards, and gifts for sale that you can take home the day you buy them. What a great idea for the holidays! The opening is this Friday, Dec 4th if you are in town.

100 Trees

I'm working on a large linocut right now that I can't share yet. But it's exciting and just as soon as I can show it to you, I will!

So, since I feel like I'm on the 5th month in a row of working on projects that I really can't show much online, I wanted to have a fun little project to share. For a while I've been hearing about how artists have gotten so much from doing a daily project. I think the biggest two benefits are improving their craft and gaining a lot of followers. As Andy J. Miller says, when you do something every day for a long time, people start to notice. An artist who does amazing daily sketchbook paintings is Jennifer Orkin Lewis of August Wren. Wow! She works so quickly and every one of her paintings is beautiful.

I didn't want to commit to anything too crazy for my first go-round, so what I decided on is drawing 100 tree pictures in my sketchbook and posting them on Instagram. I'm going to try and do one a day in any medium or style, as long as there's at least one tree in the image. I love drawing trees and there are so many different types and so many different ways to draw them! I'm excited to explore and see where this path through the trees leads me. Here are my first 6-

Dummy! Again!

Last weekend I finally got through redrawing my dummy, Our Home. I had lots of time while working on it that I really wondered if I was off track, I felt uncomfortable, thought the book was lacking continuity, thought it was too repetitive, and wanted to just hide it away in a drawer. But I kept going and in the end, the book flowed much better than I thought it would.

I got to have quite a few drawing sessions at out beautiful Bud Werner Memorial Library. This table is big enough to spread out an entire book! And the view is so wonderful- the Yampa River is right there, a walking path, a pretty bridge over Soda Creek, A park and playground, golden autumn trees, and a train sometimes goes by just on the other side of the river. I think drawing at the Library is my heaven.

Here it is in book form. The newer version is on the lower right. I decided to simplify the cover image, although it will still be finished as a linocut with color. I don't have much confidence that I know how to make a stand-out cover. I know a lot goes into the layout of a cover! Semadar Megged, art director at Philomel Books gave us a great workshop about book covers at the last RMC SCBWI Conference.

I have sent my dummy, text, and query letter to Harold Underdown (with payment.) I hope to hear some good feedback from him! Afterward I will make changes he suggests, finish some spreads as linocuts and finally submit to publishers.

I actually have some nice news, I applied for a grant from my local Arts Council to cover Harold's editing fee and they awarded me the money! Yay! Thank you Steamboat Springs Arts Council!

Penguin Journal

A few years ago, I made this image as a mock-up journal cover for Lilla Rogers' Global Talent Search.

And then last week when I was poking through my flat files I saw it and posted a picture of it on Instagram. My friend really liked it and that prompted me to think, Hey, I should put that image on an actual journal just for fun!

I searched through a lot of sites and this journal on Shutterfly seemed like the closest to what I had in mind. The sweet little things turned out great! The pages are lined, there is a ribbon bookmark, and This Journal Belongs To: on the inside cover. They are a little smaller than I wanted at 6x8 inches, but still a nice size. And just a hint, if you create an item on Shutterfly and save it but don't order it, after a few days they will email you a fantastic coupon code to encourage you to go ahead and order.