Little Red Riding Hood

My entry for the Tomie dePaola Award.

The assignment is simply to illustrate a moment from the following passage from Philip Pullman’s version of “Little Red Riding Hood” from FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM (Viking, 2012). 

Once upon a time there was a little girl who was so sweet and kind that everyone loved her. Her grandmother, who loved her more than anyone, gave her a little cap made of red velvet, which suited her so well that she wanted to wear it all the time. Because of that everyone took to calling her Little Red Riding Hood.

One day her mother said to her: ‘Little Red Riding Hood, I’ve got a job for you. Your grandmother isn’t very well, and I want you to take her this cake and a bottle of wine. They’ll make her feel a lot better. You be polite when you go into her house, and give her a kiss from me. Be careful on the way there, and don’t step off the path or you might trip over and break the bottle and drop the cake, and then there’d be nothing for her. When you go into her parlour don’t forget to say, “Good morning, Granny,” and don’t go peering in all the corners.’

‘I’ll do everything right, don’t worry,’ said Little Red Riding Hood, and kissed her mother goodbye.

Her grandmother lived in the woods, about half an hour’s walk away. When Little Red Riding Hood had only been walking a few minutes, a wolf came up to her. She didn’t know what a wicked animal he was, so she wasn’t afraid of him.

Let the Ideas Begin – PiBoIdMo is Here!

If you create children's stories (or want to), join this fun writing challenge for picture book writers and illustrators. The idea is to come up with one picture book idea every day in November, so by the end of the month you'll have 30 new ideas to help you throughout the year! 

Don't miss the daily posts on Tara Lazar's site from authors, illustrators and picture book professionals to help you along on your 30-day idea journey this November.

Nerdy Chicks Rule Art Contest

Over at Kidlit Summer School, they are having a little art contest: to draw a new nerdy chick. Here is my entry. Look up #NerdyChicksDraw on Twitter or FB to see all the super cute chickies.

Kidlit Summer School

Are you ready to delve deeper into your book plots? Join me at Kidlit Summer School!

If you haven’t registered yet, click here to do so by July 20 to be eligible to win prizes, participate in special webinars and a private Kidlit Summer School Facebook community!

What is Summer School?

The brainchild of authors Kami Kinard and Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Here is a little about it (from nerdychickswrite.com):

"Kami and Sudipta both enjoy writing, and teaching writing, so their idea was to create a program that offers in-depth writing advice on a particular topic each summer. The 2014 focus was on character development. The 2015 focus will be on plotting in children’s literature.

Daily blog posts by authors and writing professionals will offer inspiration and help you hone your craft. Our “faculty” includes award-winning PB, MG and YA authors!
Kidlit Summer School is for anyone one who loves to write children’s literature, from accomplished writers, to those just starting out."

Draw This! SCBWI Illustrator prompt - Adventure

SCBWI has started putting out a drawing prompt every month, and then showcasing everyone's illustrations in an online gallery. This is my solution to the prompt ADVENTURE. You can see the whole gallery here.

RhyPiBoMo Week 5

My reading material from this week:

 

My favorite for the week is WHEREVER YOU GO by Pat Zietlow Miller illustrated by Eliza Wheeler. Love, love the illustrations!

Here is my poem for the Golden Quill Poetry contest:

KITTY'S QUEST FOR FREEDOM
I must sneak out, I must sneak out,
this kitty wants a walk about.
I’ll duck out when Dog comes in –
if I fail, I’ll try again.

Now I’m out, now I’m free!
I’m scared – it’s way too much for me!
I should be glad ... to my chagrin,
now I want to sneak back in!

RhyPiBoMo Week 4

Here are the fun books I read this week:

I think I have 3 favorites this week! First is HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADAME CHAPEAU by the author/illustrator team Andrea Beaty and David Roberts (the same team I mentioned before). 
Again, I love the quirky drawings and the story is funny about a hat maker  without a hat. It's so funny.

YOU NEST HERE WITH ME by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple, illustrated by the wonderful Melissa Sweet is another of my favorites. This book is like the illustrators's name – sweet and beautiful.

TABBY MCTAT by anther dream team, writer Julia Donaldson and illustator Axel Scheffler is my other favorite. It's about a busker who has a cat buddy sing with him, and something happens where they get separated, but it comes out happy at the end. I'm always a sucker for a cat book.

RhyPiBoMo Week 3

Here are the fun books I read this week:

I really enjoyed all of these books, but I think my favorite is TOM'S TWEET.  STANZA is really cute, too – both are written by Jill Esbaum. I just had to pick TOM"S TWEET because it's about a cat (LOVE them) and is so wonderfully illustrated by Dan Santat (LOVE his work!) That little bird is too darn cute! STANZA is illustrated by Jack E. Davis.

I'm really excited because one of the optional writing prompts gave me a great idea for a book.

Still working on my new poem for the contest, which has a deadline in a week.

RhyPiBoMo Week 2

Here are the fun books I read this week:

They are all really cute, but I think my favorite is A GIRL AND HER GATOR by Sean Bryan and illustrated by Tom Murphy. It just made me laugh out loud too many times!

The two books by the author/illustrator team Andrea Beaty and David Roberts, IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT and ROSIE REVERE, ENGINEER, are really, really good, too. I love that they're about two different kids from the same class. The illustrations are so weirdly quirky, and the stories are so fun.

Still working on my new poem and story!

RhyPiBoMo Week 1

Here are the books I read this week.

My favorite is THE GRUFFALO by Julia Donaldson and illustrated byAxel Scheffler.  

SNOOZEFEST by Samantha Berger and illustrated by Kristyna Litten came in a close second, though. I mean, a sloth in pjs going to a sleep event with other animals in pjs! How cute is that??

I'm working on a new manuscript during this month, and I plan to enter the Golden Quill Poetry Contest again. Keep rhyming!

RhyPiBoMo 2015

Happy April! Not only is it the month where Spring REALLY arrives here in St. Louis, but it's also National Poetry Month and along with that, RhyPiBoMo!

RhyPiBoMo is a month-long writing challenge for children’s writers aspiring to write rhyming picture books poetry and to add poetic techniques to their prose.

There's still time to sign up (you have until April 8) , or just follow along! There are daily posts about rhyming and optional challenges – if you've ever considered writing in rhyme, no matter what THEY say, join in the fun! If you're up to the challenge, and a chance to win some prizes, here's what you need to do daily:

Missouri SCBWI PAL Postcard Art Contest

Our regional SCBWI chapter is going to send out a postcard to schools to promote our local PAL children's authors and illustrators. It's meant to encourage school principals, teachers and librarians to invite book creators for school visits.

They had a illustration contest for the art side of the postcard and they just announced that I was the winner!! Not only will my art be featured on the card, but I also get a free portfolio critique at our upcoming conference! Here is my piece:

Congrats to the second and third place winners. You can see them here.

Animals Playing Instruments – #kidlitart's Twenty-Eight Day Challenge Part 3

Here is the third batch:

RHINO PLAYING A REBEC

SKUNK PLAYING A SAXOPHONE

TIGER PLAYING A TUBA

 

UPUPA PLAYING A UKULELE

VERVET PLAYING A VIOLIN

WALRUS PLAYING WASHBOARD 

 

XERUS PLAYING XYLOPHONE

YAK PLAYING YUEQIN

 

ZEBRA PLAYING A ZURNA

Animals Playing Instruments – #kidlitart's Twenty-Eight Day Challenge Part 2

Second batch:

JERBOA PLAYING A JEWS (OR JAW) HARP

KOALA PLAYING A KORA

LION PLAYING A LUTE

MOOSE PLAYING MARIMBA

NUMBAT PLAYING A NEY

OTTER PLAYING AN OCARINA

PINE MARTEN PLAYING A PENNY WHISTLE

QUOKKAS PLAYING QUITIPLAS

 

Animals Playing Instruments – #kidlitart's Twenty-Eight Day Challenge

The folks over at #kidlitart* wanted to help illustrators find their voices as illustrators, so they set up this challenge.

The idea is to draw something every day for the month of February featuring a theme, creature, idea, character, etc. that you LOVE. 'To illustrate things that you are ALL ABOUT – not just as an artist. As a person. What tickles your fancy? What do you geek out about? What stories would you tell if you just had the chance?'

I've had this idea for a while to illustrate the alphabet with animals playing instruments, since I love art, animals and music. I started out innocently enough, then I got to researching both animals and instruments I've never heard of, and it starts to get really exotic! I am having a lot of fun with this!

Here are the first batch:

ALLIGATOR PLAYING AN ACCORDION

BADGER PLAYING BONGOS

CAPYBARA PLAYING CYMBALS

DIK-DIK PLAYING A DJEMBE

ELEPHANT PLAYING AN EUPHONIUM

FERRET PLAYING A FLUGELHORN

  

GOAT PLAYING A GUITAR

HEDGEHOG PLAYING A HARMONICA

 AN INDRI PLAYING AN IYA ILU

 

* #kidlitart is an hour-long Twitter chat on Thursday nights at 8 pm Central, where children's illustrators talk about anything to do with kidlit art.