Merry Christmas!

Here's something fun to do - make yourself into a dancing Santa! View mine here. Have a great holiday!

Inspiration

I read blogs for inspiration and one of my favorites is Penelope Dullaghan's. She has a great post today with two great pieces of inspiration. I had to repost this one since I love Elizabeth Gilbert much and this is a great talk. I had the opportunity to see her speak about the book, “Eat, Pray, Love” at an Oprah taping (actually, there was so much good stuff, she taped two shows that day with Elizabeth ... and you can see me in the audience ... and I was "this close" to Oprah ... sorry, I got sidetracked). She is so inspiring! One thing she said that I will never forget is when she was talking about having a breakdown and writing to recover from it, “I wrote a ladder of words to get me out of the hole.” I love that. Check out Penelope's post to read some of her inspirations.

Where the Wild Things Are Movie Review

I was so excited about this movie coming out, (hence my banner) but was a little disappointed. Not because of the violence that a lot of parents are worried about, but because it just didn't have the magic of the book.

My favorite part of the book is when Max's room turns into the forest. Those pages are the best - the movie didn't even go there. Max runs away from home, and it's not clear that he's imagining the place he goes to. I wish the makers of this film portrayed that part in the same vein as in the movie Frida, when she is imaging the trip to New York, or when the scene turns into a painting - love that!

I am surprised that Mr. Sendak let that happen (he is one of the producers). Maybe he didn't have as much control over it as I thought because he seems to agree with me. Here is an excerpt of an article that was in Newsweek. Reporter: "One disagreement you had is that in the book, Max stays in his room. In the film, he runs away from home."
Sendak: "It was one of my favorite scenes in the book. It was so much about the ability of children to imagine themselves in another place. He was a prisoner, locked in his room by his mother. And by his imagination he was able to get through those few hours where he was isolated and trapped. That's how I saw it. But there was something so totally valid in what Spike was doing."

I don't agree with that last sentence, but I'm glad me and my buddy Maurice are on the same wave length. Maybe there IS hope for me! :)

For a bunch of incredible art dedicated to the book, visit Terrible Yellow Eyes. Some awesome stuff!

I'm Participating in PiBoIdMo

What in the heck is PiBoIdMo, you ask? It's the brilliant idea of Tara Lazar for Picture Book Idea Month. It is an offshoot of NaNoWriMo (which is National Novel Writers Month in which participants write every day in November and have a completed 50,000 word novel at the end of the month). It's for us picture book writers (yeah, I said it, I'm a writer) to come up with an idea a day for the month of November. I've already got 9 ideas! Who knew I could do this??

For anyone wanting to be a picture book writer, check it out - there's a new inspiration every day this month.

Illustration Friday – Fast

Susie learned really fast that eating her vegetables would be in her best interest! Happy Halloween everyone!

Is it a kick in the ass, or a gift?

Did you ever agree to go out with someone that you didn't really want to go out with, but he was so persistent that you finally agreed, then he stands you up??? I really had this happen to me, by the way. I feel like it just happened again - I just found out I am getting displaced from my job where I really don't want to be. After two mergers, it finally happened. After the shock of it, I am thinking of it as a gift - I am ready to do this illustration thing full-force, and to me, this is a sign that it is time.

I've always thought that being a graphic designer is what I've always really wanted – well, not so much now. After college, I opted for being a designer instead of an illustrator because, among other reasons, I thought I could always design something and work in my illustrations into the design somehow. In the 25 years of doing this, it has only worked out that way about 2 or 3 times.

This is scary for me, but hopefully Barack (we're on a first name basis - in my dreams!) will convince those stubburn Republicans to pass the health care reform, so I won't have to get a job I hate just to have insurance (it's so ridiculous!)

Any advice and encouragement is welcome!

Illustration Friday – Flying

My entry for the ABC's Picture Book Competition which came in 3rd place. My apologies to my regular followers for the multiple postings of this piece, but it fits so perfectly with IF's word "flying," so I couldn't resist one more post!

Just Say No to Spec Work!

No one would really do this in these situations, but to a graphic artist/illustrator, it is a regular occurrence! This really was said to me recently: "I'm not asking you to work for free, but can you come up with a few ideas, then do the finished art, then I'll see if I like any of them before I decide whether to pay you or not." Um, I'm not really asking you to kiss my ass, but why don't you just pucker up and plant one on my behind.

UPDATE: "Pig On My Bed" came in 3rd place.

VOTE NOW for "Pig on My Bed" in the ABC'S Picturebook Competition

Please vote for us!

UPDATE: Ignore my last post - now I find out the voting has already started today even though we were told tomorrow.
http://www.abcbookcompetition.org/5th_comp/PigOnMyBed.html

Vote for "Pig on My Bed" in the ABC'S Picturebook Competition

Please vote for us!

UPDATE: Voting starts MONDAY, Sept. 21th. I've been telling everybody to start voting on Sunday, because we were told the voting started Sept. 20th at midnight. But the woman running the competition thinks that Sept. 20th at midnight is the end of the day Sunday, but I disagree. It is 12:00 A.M. which in most people's world, is the beginning of the day (doesn't it stand for "at morning?"). Think about it - on New Year's Eve, we celebrate the new year at midnight because it's the start of a new day and year. Just a little mini-rant.

Anyway, it doesn't matter, she decided this, and she's in charge, so vote on Monday, not on Sunday. http://www.abcbookcompetition.org/5th_comp/PigOnMyBed.html

ABC's Children's Picturebook Competition

I have been chosen to illustrate one of the finalists stories for this year's contest. The story I illustrated is called "Pig on My Bed" by Sandy Grubb. Check out the contest and please vote (for us??). Voting begins September 20 and runs through October 4...be sure to vote daily!

Help for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

I'm back from a self-imposed break because I've been suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for a while now. I'm on the computer all day at work, then come home to blog and read others' and I just had to make myself cut back until I healed. I just want to spread the word about this wonderful book that helped me! After going to a neurologist to diagnose my problem (I was tested by having shocks sent through my arm, then a needle was inserted, and then they moved around my wrist to see if it hurt. Umm - YEAH IT HURT!) The doctor said, yep, it's carpal tunnel and started to leave. I had to keep asking questions about what I should or shouldn't do. She said if it doesn't get better, she'd have to operate. And the only thing she came up with is to wear a wrist brace while I worked and slept. $300 out of my pocket for what??
Luckily for me, a trainer at the gym suggested I do some exercises out of this book. And after suffering for months and months, the pain went away in about 2 weeks. The author Pete Egoscue is a physical therapist, and what he says makes so much sense! Wearing the brace probably made my condition worse, because it restricted my movement too much. Our bodies are MADE to do repetitive motions, the problem is the sitting and not moving our bodies. He also said that if you get operated on (unless you have an injury - not just pain like mine) that it would probably mess you up for life -because you'll keep doing the things that caused it in the first place. And the cause isn't just using the computer - it's the way our bodies get out of alignment and our posture suffers from sitting at a desk all the time. I have really bad posture!
Anyway, if anyone is suffering from pain or numbness, get this book before wasting any time and money at the doctor's. They know nothing about prevention - just how to fix a symptom of a problem, not the root cause. Okay, I'm off my soapbox now - back to art. (I had to curtail that, too, because while drawing, my whole arm would be totally numb!) I'll be posting a project I'm working on soon.

Happy Birthday Mr. President!

Just couldn't let the day go by without a shout-out to my favorite Dude-in-Chief on his 48th birthday.

OMG! The conference was awesome! I feel like I got so much crammed into my brain last week. I am so inspired and motivated, and it was wonderful to spend a week with other creative people who want to create children's books.

Our instructor for the daily 4-hour workshop was the talented and very cool Will Terry. Will taught me so much – I have never got so much valuable info at one time.

If anyone is interested in writing and/or illustrating children's books, GO TO THIS CONFERENCE – there's one every year. It's so worth it! And the two women that organize it, Carol Lynch Williams and Cheri Pray Earl, are an absolute riot!

Meet Rossobella

She is the newest resident of Wibbly Woobly Woods. Click here to learn more about her and her friends.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Isn't this cute? It's from a card my hubby made me. Happy Birthday to George Clooney, Bob Seger and Tom Bergeron, too.

Illustration Friday - Fleeting

Spring is so fleeting, Sophie is determined to see the first flower bloom.

Update on post below

Update: the voting is over, and thank God for that. I've never seen a bunch of more mean-spirited people in my life! Ok, they didn't like the font, the tree, the textures, too simple, too boring... I can take constructive criticism any day, but this wasn't constructive, this was just plain mean. What has happened to respect for other artists?

Contest entry - vote for me!

I entered this design in another contest - click below to vote so I can win some cool stuff!

Illustration Friday - Legendary

Here's another drawing from my "Everyone We Know" sketchbook that I think fits the Illustration Friday theme. Katherine Hepburn is legendary for being a strong, independent woman who was way ahead of her time.

"Everyone We Know" Sketchbook

I went to the St. Louis leg of the show on Wednesday. The way it was set up was not ideal, with all 2,800 books all stacked in one small area of the gallery. Amazingly, I actually found mine among them! It was very cool peeking into other artist's minds.

Did you guess the theme? Here it is:

More sketches from my "Everyone We Know" sketchbook

Here's some more drawings from my "Everyone We Know" sketchbook. I'm excited about the show coming to my town Wednesday, March 11!

More sketches from my "Everyone We Know" sketchbook

Here's another drawing. I do have a theme going, can you guess what it is?

From my "Everyone We Know" sketchbook

I sent my sketchbook in to the Sketchbook Project 3 and they had a show on Saturday in Atlanta. Tonight they're in Washington, DC. and tomorrow in Philadelphia. Check out the photos of the opening here. I wonder if anyone actually looked at mine? Over 2000 artists participated!

Keep It Cool

This is so funny, and so true...

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

POTUS Obama

Today is such an historical day, I couldn't let it go by without a sketch of our new president. I have to remember he is just a man (and a politician at that!), but I can't help but to have a little hero worship for him.

Illustration Friday – Resolve

Resolve to not be ordinary.