Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Porcupine and Armadillo's Schedule


These two friends have quite the busy schedule!

 On sunny Sundays Porcupine and Armadillo sit in the shade and sip sarsaparilla.

 Every Monday of the month, Porcupine and Armadillo make marmalade and marshmallow muffins.  

 At two o’clock each Tuesday, Porcupine and Armadillo tidy their tiny trailer. 

 On warm Wednesdays, Porcupine and Armadillo whistle while wandering through the willows. 

 Every Third Thursday at 3:00, Porcupine and Armadillo meet for tea under the tulip tree. 

 On the first Friday of February, Porcupine and Armadillo dance the foxtrot with friends. 

Every second Saturday Porcupine and Armadillo watch the sunset from Snapdragon Summit.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

RMC SCBWI Conference


Last weekend was the regional conference for the Rocky Mountain Chapter SCBWI in Denver. I had a great time! It's wonderful to see friends that I mostly spend time with online. This year was our chapter's 40th anniversary, so we were very happy to have the SCBWI founders Lin Oliver and Steve Mooser there to speak and help celebrate the anniversary.


For the portfolio display, I had postcards printed by Moo with an image on each side.





And my portfolio was printed by Blurb. It turned out nicely!

There were great speeches and breakout sessions, but other than seeing and spending time with my good friends, my favorite part of the conference was Judy Schachner and her gorgeous character bibles!




For every picture book she creates, Judy makes a book full of collage, sketches, painting, thoughts, and bits of story. This helps her get to know the characters and storyline. The one she brought was for a new story about Sarah Bella. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!! In the pictures above she is showing some spreads to my friend Dow Phumiruk at the Illustrator's Intensive.


And then we got to make mixed media illustrations ourselves- Dow and I are working furiously in the photo above. Our art was based to this funny prompt that Judy brought:

"Jane AkiKahaleauki herself was sitting in the shade of a tree, sharing a Pepsi with a month-old wild goat called Hoku. "I give him soda and ice cream, but he doesn't like beer," she observed. "I want to teach him to talk."


Here's how mine turned out!



This was everyone in the workshop. The pieces we made were all so different! Thank you so much for the awesome inspiration, Judy!!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

The Counting Serpent


Things are changing quickly around my house! My daughter just started preschool, started drawing people with recognizable features and bodies, AND is counting to 20 all by herself only sometimes skipping fifteen. :) How timely that I just finished The Counting Serpent! It's a companion to go with The Alphabet Dragon. They are about how hard and scary it can be learning letters, numbers, reading, and math but how wonderful it is once you learn how it all works. Reading and numbers can become your good friends taking you on new adventures.

Below are the two linoleum blocks together, the bottom one has been printed and is stained with ink and the top one hasn't been printed yet in the photo.


I'm scrambling to get ready for the Rocky Mountain Chapter SCBWI Conference coming up soon in Denver. I've ordered a portfolio book and postcards. I can't wait to see them! I'll share a photo of them when they arrive!