Illustration Friday: Dessert

Dessert is an apt word, because this week, life is sweet. I received a sneak peek of the cover of my forthcoming picture book, Buglette the Messy Sleeper (Tricycle Press/Random House Kids, May 2011). Woot! I could not be more excited. The cover is below—along with dessert, of course.







Webinar with Agent Mary Kole

My amazingly fabulous agent, Mary Kole, will be teaching a webinar about writing for children with the folks at Writer's Digest. Mary has incredible editorial instincts and is also unbelievably knowledgeable about the industry in general. Plus, she has offered to critique the work of all participants! Click on this link for details and much more information.

Mary blogs at kidlit.com. You can get a good sense of what she's all about if you check out her site.

Illustration Friday: Atmosphere



Another aquatic theme this week -- I've been daydreaming about swimming lately. Perhaps this happens when one lives near San Francisco and endures a foggy, cold "summer". I've been layered in sweatshirts and sweaters for weeks.

Illustration Friday: Caged

I painted two images for this week -- both with a bear theme (can't exactly say why that is). Happy Friday!

The bear cub awoke from his nap with a strong suspicion that something was not quite right.















Try as he might, the panda just could not keep up with the bamboo.
(The bamboo next to our house grows FREAKISHLY fast. It's actually unsettling.)



Ripples!

My sketch card appears on the Ripple blog today (which just happens to be my birthday!):

 

For those who aren't aware of it, the Ripple blog allows folks to help with the gulf oil spill...either by contributing images or purchasing. I've been doing both :) The Mo Willems painting I purchased arrived in the mail this afternoon -- one of my favorite birthday "gifts" ever!