To the enchanted forest I go...

I am busy getting prepared for this weekend when I will be attending the illustrator's party that Highlight's gives annually for the illustrators who have worked for their company through the years. This is the first opportunity I have had to go so I'm super excited to see some of my illustrator buddies there! I'll try to share pictures after I return so stay tuned...

My new and updated website

OK, folks....it's done. Stop by and take a look and let me know what ya think. If you have visited recently, you may have to refresh your browser to pull up the new site.

I had plans to do more bells and whistles but I found out Dreamweaver is more difficult than I'd anticipated so there are no roll-overs as of yet and I am still tweaking here and there but at least it's up and running. Whew!!!

First day of Autumn

Today is officially the first day of Fall on the calendar and the beginning of my very favorite time of year!!

I'm in the middle of trying to learn Adobe Dreamweaver so I can redo my website so unfortunately I haven't been sketching much these past few days. Here's a piece I pulled from old archives to help celebrate Fall.

Final Katharine Covers!

I just got the final designed covers(front and back) for the series, Katharine the Almost Great, available January 2009 through Magic Wagon, a division of the ABDO Group, www.abdopublishing.com or your favorite educational wholesaler!

The designer did a fabulous job! I love how colorful they are! Lisa Mullarkey, the author did such a wonderful job creating/writing this series. I really think kids will enjoy reading these fun stories.

Here's all six covers in order.

The Oct/Nov Jack and Jill Magazine

There's a lot of exciting things in the new Oct/Nov Jack and Jill Magazine issue. First, my hubby's and my book, My Brother and I is featured on page 7 right under a story illustrated by my friend and fellow blogger, Paige Keiser . So go check it out!

Here's a little peek at one of the pages I illustrated with the Jack and Jill characters in vintage "Press" gear. Boy, cameras sure have changed over the years! Can you imagine having to lug one of those around to take photos all day?!

Second try...

Ok...here's another try on hot press with some other changes and a little colored pencil added. Better? Of course I do realize we artist's are never completely happy with any of our work...or at least I'm not. ;o)

Hey, even Maurice Sendak fears that his work is inadequate, so I'm not alone in my insecurity.

First try

OK, here is my first try at painting the cat and moon sketch. I did it on cold press watercolor paper and I think I'd prefer a soft press or hot press....I dunno. What I do know is it's been way too long since I have painted with traditional watercolor on paper!! I am so out of practice and my confidence level isn't too great either.

I like the original sketch of the cat better...back to the drawing board but I just thought I'd post this first try anyway.

Miraclulous!

Charlotte's Web was one of my favorite books as a child and still is for that matter. I woke up this morning to some of the most amazing handiwork of the local spiders in our neighborhood! Here's just a few that I found.

More Katharine

I thought I'd share a couple more images for the new series, Katharine the Almost Great, available January 2009 through Magic Wagon, a division of the ABDO Group, www.abdopublishing.com or your favorite educational wholesaler!

This is one of the black and white interiors for the first book in the series.

And this is the cover image is for the last book, which has a Halloween theme. These colors are a bit truer to the actual palette I used on all the covers. The previous ones I posted were a bit light.