Giselle McMenamin's Children's Book Illustrations

Great article below written by Harold Underground reviewing the 2011 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market

2011-06-22T15:26:00.005-04:00

"Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, also known as "CWIM," is one of the few essential books for a children's writer or illustrator. It includes an annually updated "yellow pages" of children's book, magazine, and other publishers, information about conferences and agents, basic how-to information, and interesting feature articles. And so I've been reviewing it annually--since the 2004 edition." Read more...

Illustration Friday "He He He...That'll Teach Him A Lesson!!"

2011-04-29T17:42:00.004-04:00

"He He He, that'll teach him a lesson!" 18x 12" Pastel Pencil

OK, so I took a sketch I worked on a few weeks ago for IF topic "Toy" and finished it in color for this week's topic "Lesson". I know I cheated a bit. Oh well, such are my mischievous ways. I think staring at this bear for a long time influenced me! Anyway, I thought it appropriate since the little devil of a bear here is booting clutsy rescue guy off the shelf for good. How dare he think for a minute he can share space with someone of such furry distinction! "That'll teach him a lesson!!"Green squiggly alien man is scared out of his mind he'll be the next once noticed. Poor thing. My 8 yr old son enjoyed this piece a lot since his prized possession, the bear, is at the center of it all. Hope you enjoy.

Illustration Friday "Duet"!!!

2011-04-06T14:23:00.001-04:00

Ok, so for this week's topic "Duet", I thought of all the times I looked like this mom pulling her hair out with little ones clinging to her screaming at the top of their lungs simultaneously! Ahh .. the wonderful moments of parenthood that make you want to scream yourself. This is a duet in "C" major and that's C for crying. Luckily these moments are outweighed by all the magic the rest of childrearing brings. Hope you enjoy! Oh and if you're experiencing this remember it always seems to get worse before it gets better. He He He...

Illustration Friday: "Toy"

2011-03-29T16:26:00.000-04:00

Bad Teddy, Bad!
11x14" Graphite on Paper

OK so this week I got my illo up by Tuesday, Yay!! Even though it's just a sketch, concept is the toughest thing for me to come up with and it takes me forevvvvvvvvvvvvvvver. I thought of a couple of different scenarios to illustrate relating to toys but none of them really did much for me until I was distracted by the never ending battle I have right here in my on house. Sometimes it even seeps into my studio space, argh!!! And that is my 8 and 10 yr old sons' debating or fighting is more like it, over anything and everything. A topic that surfaces on a daily basis is that of who's got the "Best or Better or super better or whatever TOY. Give me strength! Anyway, the famous "Teddy" with the checkerboard pads/ears was on the agenda and I thought of him fighting with the other toys about who's the best or bestest or super bestest! He's in an extra ornery mood and decides to shove Mr. Rescue Squad off the shelf to have the throne all for himself. Little Alien guy is hiding hoping he's not the next victim. That's it my friends. Hope you like.

Final color on "Stir" illustration

2011-03-25T00:01:00.002-04:00

Ok, this one took me a lot longer than expected! It's the final version done in pastel and colored pencil on last week's Illustration Friday topic suggestion, "Stir". This witch has traded in her broom for a snazzy sports car and caused a huge "stir" upon her arrival at the witches' convention taking place here at the Riviera Witch Hotel. This one was a lot of fun to finish. Got lost for hours coloring away! Anyway, hope you enjoy. Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow or better said today's (east coast midnight exactly) topic is for IF. Skipped a week but hope to start a new illustration this weekend.

Color Updates on "Stir" Illustration- Will I ever finish.

2011-03-19T14:35:00.002-04:00

Thought making different colored witches would make for a more interesting crowd!
Done in colored pencil.

I'm enjoying tremendously coloring these crazy looking witches but goodness I bit off way more than I could chew for last week's IF piece! I'm praying I can finish the rest of this in pastel by Sunday so I can start on the "Cultivate" topic Monday. With regard to the crowd scene here I once actually saw a blue haired witch on a NYC subway!God only knows if she was real or not. You never know what you're gonna see on the subways. Thought she would make for a good character reference. Hope I don't mess up the background!!!!!!!!!!! Off to color some more.

Illustration Friday: "Stir"

2011-03-17T00:50:00.012-04:00

Wed Mar 16 :What a "Stir" she caused when she showed up in her Bagatti racer.
18x24" Pencil/Ink Sketch with partial color done digitally

Sat Mar 19 . Below are some color updates and close ups. I'm So Behind!!!!!!!!!

Here's the sketch I came up with for this week's Illustration Friday topic "Stir". I 'll be posting the final color version in pastel hopefully by tomorrow. Ran out of timmmmmmmmme today, argh!!!! Figured I'd put my main character here in a sportscar, or like my 21 year old son likes to describe it, the most expensive, beautiful set of wheels on earth, a Veyron Bagatti ( it sells for 2million bucks) and if it actually went as fast as the speedometer says it can ( 245 mph) the tires would melt! This time around I wanted to place her in a hipper scenario among her witchy friends. Thought the audacity of her tossing a broom in for a snazzy set of wheels is something that would make heads spin at an annual witches' convention she's attending on the coast of uh, Witch Riviera maybe? They have conventions everywhere and for everything right (work with me here). Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to throwing the color on this one. Until tomorrow then.

"Warning" Do Not Touch!- Illustration Friday

2011-03-09T11:49:00.001-05:00

"Warning" - Do Not Touch
Pastel on Paper 11x14

Well, looks like she finally got away from him! Thought I would throw some Mark Rothko interpretations up on the gallery walls here to add some color and humor to the piece, I hope. Little smarty pants ( or skirt I should say) is the embodiment of every little, bored kid I've seen hundreds of times at fancy shmancy art museums that wants to reek havoc. My parents used to take me to museums all the time when I was young and I've heard I drove them nuts, hmm really - a toddler at the Met how so? Craaaaazzzzy. Their pain and struggle to educate and expose me to the marvels of the art world certainly stuck though. Nothing I love more now than my own kids is this thing called ART.
With regard to the illo though, seems like it took me forever to come up with an idea for the topic this week. Low and behold I always come back to my own experiences to draw from and try to incoporate a little more- a stretch of the imagination you could say? I have seen situations like the one above come close to fruition but the museum guards are usually ready to jump on it. Anyway, hope you enjoy this. I thought her drawing on the black and gray one was appropriate for her age group since she could associate it with a blackboard - hee hee. Ahh- the beauty of innocence. I think she adds something to it anyway!

"Swarm" Illustration Friday- "Look Before you Leap"

2011-03-02T14:34:00.006-05:00

Original

Final!!!

Here's my Illustration Friday painting for the topic "Swarm". It's done in pastel pencil with the blue background photoshopped in. The first thing I thought of when brainstorming what to illustrate for this week was my son's dilemma about not wanting to get on the school bus when he was little! Any mother with this problem will tell you it's not fun. Anyway, the whole process terrified him until he finally got used to it and made some new friends on the bus. Believe me everyone got to know him with all of the crying and were actually quite helpful in soothing him and offering their help, so sweet! In a crazy kind of way I miss that whole stage. He's 8 now and wants to be Derek Jeter so who knows what the future holds. I figured I would apply my experience to a little baby bee not wanting to join the "swarm" like all the other kids with it's mother coaxing him to participate. Hope you enjoy!! Note:

Top is original the bottom one is an update. Changed the swarm a bit. Feel it works a bit better now.

Promotional Mailers

2011-02-11T17:14:00.016-05:00

Put together these promo mailers for my new mailing list!

New Book Dummy

2011-02-10T13:20:00.005-05:00

Thinking lately a lot about a new book dummy idea and as such started off with a visual instead of a full fledge storyline! Anyway, had a blast with this painting. Had a heck of a time getting the door slamming movement to feel right! The witch is the embodiment of myself (on occasion only) when I'm having a bad day. Will be working on more versions of the innocent parties at the door soon.

latest version of my little lamb

2010-12-05T08:41:00.011-05:00

Hi everyone,

Here's an illusration I've been working on based on a character I've been trying to develop. Done in pastels. Much fun was had doing this one!

You Tube Video of Loren Long's illustrations from Barack Obama's "Of Thee I Sing". One of my all time favorite children's Book Illustrators

2010-11-28T21:55:00.007-05:00

Little Lamb in progress

2010-11-21T12:29:00.004-05:00

A Little Revamping

2009-10-09T12:06:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone! Some of you know me from when I started this blog a few years back and others I haven't introduced myself to at all to. My apologies for that. I'm Giselle McMenamin a fellow artist that dabbles in children's book illustation as well as fine art. I took a hiatus from this blog while I focused on getting my fine art portfolio a bit more polished. I've gotten that much done and am presently exhibiting my work along with doing my masters in studio art. I'm taking a course in illustration with Bruce Waldman a great professor to say the least. Anyway, I've been inspired to develop my witch character ( that's her up there) further because of him mainly and put together a book dummy to send out to publishers. I very much hope you all can continue to participate and post your works on here in an effort to receive good feedback and support from me as well as I from you. I'm going to make the blog public once again like it was in its infancy in order to get more interaction from other sources and promote ourselves as children's book illustrators. Anyone that wishes to have their previous posts removed because of privacy issues please let me know and I will delete them. Let me know your thoughts and whether you'd like to stay on board. Just wanted to let everyone know that it will be going public in two weeks. Looking forward to to seeing your work on here!!

A little photoshopping

2008-11-19T12:22:00.004-05:00

ORIGINAL

PHOTOSHOPPED

Hello ladies,

Just thought I'd post an update on my witch lady here. I photoshopped the top piece a bit and darkened the right part of the background as suggested. I also pumped up the contrast on the green slime droplets. I'm still worried that the details will be lost so that's why I didn't make it even darker. You let me know though. For next week I hope to have a Xmas themed sketch done. I'm praying this time I get it done before the actual holiday! I guess I do that to myself to put the pressure on to get something out there.

On another note, I also didn't get anything new done because I was in the hospital over the weekend. I had a terrible episode with kidney stones! Not fun let me tell you. For the most part it's over now but I have to get some more tests done to make sure there are no more stones. Ok just thought I'd fill you in. Won't get into all the fun details. Hope everyone has a good productive week.

OK I think I'm done?

2008-11-12T21:42:00.002-05:00

Ok my friends, I realize I didn't even do my crits last week!!! Time just got away from me. My apologies really. My daughter was in a college art show ( she's still a senior in HS, brag brag) and sold her first painting!!!! I was so excited for her. I should post her work so you can take a look. Anyway, between the artshow, driving my son back to college after being home for the weekend, cooking, cleaning and prepping for my art history course ( only four classes left yay!!!) there was basically no time for moi. I managed to finally finish this piece today. Thank God. I was getting tired of looking at it sitting on my drafting table. Let me know what needs tweaking. I'm off to do my crits I failed to complete so take a look. Hope everyone has a wonderful week. Oh and thanks for all of your kind words. I wouldn't be doing any of this if it wasn't for this group!!!

Not quite done

2008-11-05T10:52:00.003-05:00

Hi ladies,

Thank you so much for all of your kind words! I was hoping to get this up here today finished but I guess it will have to be next week. After a while the other day painting this one I kept saying to myself " Why so many details Giselle????". Anyway, as much as I love details it's taking me quite a bit of time painting them in! The other thing that happened is that I kept having to go over and over some spots to cover up my ink ing lines. It never happened before but for some reason they kept resurfacing after painting them over. I think I was using too much of my drying agent and didn't realize the amount of paint I was putting down was actually much thinner than what it was. I was doing this to get it to dry faster so I could go to the next layer and I was actually slowing myself down because I kept having to repaint! The agent was making it look thicker than it was but when it dried of course it would thin. Anyway you learn from your mistakes right. OK enough rambling. I'm off to a little school visit this afternoon to do some fun activities with an art club and show them some of my illustrations. A great way to see what kids that aren't related to me really think. Have a great rest of the week.

Underpainting Stage

2008-10-29T10:58:00.005-04:00

Above: Actual piece

Below: photoshop ideas

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all of the feedback on this piece last week. Debbie glad you spotted my perspective "ooops" in the corner there. I will be adjusting that thanks though! Shouldn't be a big hassle at this stage. The top version is what it actually looks like right now. I've started my underpainting and will of course be adding layers of color when I'm done with this part of it. The witch will have salt and pepper scraggly hair. Hopefully my glazes will let most of the underpainting values show through. My question to you is this; Does the bottom piece seem good in terms of "lighting"? This bottom version is the effect I'm aiming for but haven't actually painted yet on the canvas, it's just the piece manipulated using photoshop. I find it's a great tool to use to see what something might look like before mistakes are made. I've darkened the background and tried to keep the focus on her and the lit up ball. Don't worry the little critters on the wall will all be highlighted but will be in shadow somewhat. Let me know your thoughts, your feedback is invaluable!

Grant verdict coming soon

2008-10-08T20:13:00.002-04:00

Hi ladies,

Love all of the beautiful artwork on here this week! Just fabulous stuff. Anyway, thought I'd let you know that I did last weeks crits and this weeks crits at the same time!! I know I'm a bit off these days but better late than never right? I think I said that last week too.
Ok, on another note I'll be finding out pretty soon whether I got the grant for the Stony Point lighthouse painting I'm going to be doing this spring for my local library. They said the end of October the latest so the verdict will be in before I know it. With the weeks flying by the way they have been I shouldn't get too much more anxious. Hope everyone has a good and productive week. Seems like you are all moving along at the speed of lightening. Good luck at those conferences ladies! Can't wait to hear all of the details.

Another teaching job

2008-10-01T12:51:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd let you know that things are going a bit better. I'm totally getting the hang of the college professor job. It's a wonderful college, very warm and inviting. So far so good. The students have been great thus far too. We will be doing the fresco project I posted here before next Monday. Should be a blast. It gives them and me a break from all the lectures.

I actually got another teaching job. It's just once a week for continuing ed at the local high school but I'm looking forward to it. No term papers to correct or quizzes to give so it should be totally relaxing. That makes three teaching jobs at the moment. When it rains it pours right. Too bad they are not all book deals right. I'm not complaining though I do love it all. Anyway, I want to thank you all for putting up with my absences again! You have all been so supportive! I do appreciate it. And I'm off to do my crits for the week, so you can check on your posts. Soooooooooooorry I'm so late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

College drop off

2008-08-20T16:17:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

I just got back from dropping off my oldest, Tommy, at college. Wow that was really hard. I didn't think it was going to be as difficult as it was only because he's pretty closeby, Stevens Institute of Technology right in Hoboken NJ 1 hr south of us. I'm really sad right now. I held it together at the goodbyes and contained the big knot in my throat. Gave him lots of encouragement and stole a lot of hugs and kisses. God I miss him so much!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nevertheless I know he's happy and was totally excited to be there. Then again I also could sense his angst at all of the newness and having to figure everything out on his own for the first time. That was the killer! Not to be able to be there for him. Such is life right. On the brighter side his roommate turned out to be wonderful. They both seemed to have the same easy going temperament so I was totally relieved. Met the mom and siblings too. I thought I was overprotective but goodness she seemed like she couldn't get herself to leave. I felt her pain totally. A lovely woman nevertheless.
Tomorrow I have to go to Dominican College where I start teaching art history on Monday to check out the AV equipment and make sure everything is in working order for my first class. Thanks for letting me vent. I feel a little better now. Anyway, just an update on my life this week. No artwork to speak of.

Test

2008-07-31T11:52:00.002-04:00

Penny did you get this via email??

More rejections but hopeful.

2008-07-28T11:10:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd let you know that I got two more rejections on my book dummy, argh. The only good thing was that I didn't have to wait too long for a response. Woopedeee doo right. Only 3 weeks! I thought that was pretty amazing considering I've waited up to 4 months and other times never heard anything. Oh well, I'll be shipping them out again soon and just keep at it I guess. Other than that I've been enjoying studying for my art history course enormously ( I'm up to the Greeks, thus Athena above) eventhough much to my surprise everyone in my family is sick of me talking about all my renewed knowledge, hmm wonder why, too bad for them I say. OK enough feeling sorry for myself. On to the rest of the week! I think I'm going to put Samson to the side for a bit more and maybe come up with something new and different althogether in terms of an illo. We'll see. Hope you have a marvelous week my friends. Looking forward to more of your great illo's to stir the muses a bit.

Good Morning from the Beach!

2008-07-14T11:14:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd pop in and say hello while down here on vacation in Bethany Beach DE. We're having a great time and the weather is wonderful. I don't think I'll have much time to do anything in the way of painting but it's for a good reason Relaxation. Anyway, thank you so much for all of the feedback on last week's Samson sketch. I definitely hope to add color in the next couple of weeks and use him as one of my portfolio pieces. Looking forward to seeing all of your illos this week including our lastest member's Carlyn's!

A little more Samson and I'm sick of studying!

2008-07-07T22:57:00.008-04:00

I'm happy to say I got a little bit of drawing time in this week and worked on this Samson book dummy sketch. It's where the little boy that's looking at him through the tank (illo below in color) finally gets in there and grabs Samson by the leg. Samson is suppose to be ecstatic at the prospect of getting "out" of the tank so although he looks a bit coy he's loving it! Let me know if the expression comes across with that in mind. I realize right off the bat that I have to make the finger's of the hand in the sketch above smaller so that it's consistant with the bottom color illo. Have a fabulous week everyone!!!!!!!!

New Member Joining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-02T14:36:00.004-04:00

Hi Ladies,

Just wanted to let everyone know that a new member will be joining our group next week! Yay! Her name is Deborah Cuneo and is a friend of Penny's. Hope you give her a warm welcome. I know she'll be an asset to the group. Thanks Penny (and yes I do have 4 kids Penny! and yes I know I went a little nuts at the end there but they keep me young somehow). Happy blogging everyone and enjoy the rest of the week.

Sent out another book dummy!

2008-06-30T21:06:00.002-04:00

Hi girls,

Didn't get too much done this week except to get another copy of my book dummy out. I'm continuing to focus on marketing and studying for my class in the Fall. Have a great week! looking forward to doing my critiques on time this week!!!

No Art but feeling better

2008-06-09T21:47:00.001-04:00

Hi Ladies,

Glad to see everyone on here today. Sorry to say I'm all out of steam for this week's posting. Thank you for your well wishes too. I'm in much better shape now thank goodness. Sorry about not getting to my crits last week. Looking forward to getting back in the groove again for this week. Have a wonderfully productive week. And stay Cool, for all of you in the northeast!

New Postcard

2008-05-25T23:38:00.004-04:00

Hi Ladies,
Hope everyone is relaxing and enjoying this wonderful holiday weekend. I'm zonked personally from lots of outdoor activity but figured I'd get a head start this week posting a few minutes before midnight knowing too well tomorrow will just run away from me with everyone home and looking for food and fun! Anyway, this is a promo piece I worked on this week along with printing out another copy of my Little Red book dummy to send out on Tuesday. I've already gotten two rejections for it but life most go on darn it!
I had lots of fun putting this promo piece together duplicating some of my own painted pebbles from the tank and making them look like they are popping off the page. You let me know if it works or if I need to adjust anything. On another note, thanks so much everyone for your concerns about my overloading on teaching jobs. I'm doing OK actually, the Dominican College position for the Fall is just one course, once a week right now ( Art History, which I'm furiously reviewing material for but enjoying believe it or not) and then in the Spring I'll add one or two painting courses which are less work and a lot more fun. My other current job at the JCC community center is really easy with small classes and little stress, painting and drawing for adults. I might have to give up the latter if things get hairy come the Fall. The Dominican job pays a lot better and is more what I was looking for and so focusing on keeping it for long term. The new adjunct position at our local community college I haven't heard anything from yet in terms of acknowledging my inquiry so we'll see. It would also be a one course kind of thing I think anyway. I love teaching so I figure if the opportunities arise nearby I'm jumping on them. My true goal is to keep a school calender schedule so it doesn't interfere with the rearing of my little munchkins. I can be at work while they are at school, holidays off and summers off etc. And of course still be able to focus on the freelancing. Enough rambling right. Have a great rest of the week and keep it all coming!!!

Working on getting another adjunct college job

2008-05-19T10:18:00.002-04:00

Hi ladies,

Sorry to say I wasn't able to work on my book dummy this week. I am on the other hand working on getting another adjunct teaching position at our community college here in Rockland. Just found out through the grapevine that some openings are going into effect for this summer and Fall in their art department so I pounced on the opportunity and sent out a cover letter and updated resume. At this stage in my life I have to try to get as much employment as possible with my son Tommy going to college in September and my daughter Caitlin the following year! Anyway hope everyone else is back on board for this week and there are some beautiful children's book illo's to see. Have a great week my friends.

Color Sketch

2008-05-12T21:54:00.002-04:00

Hi ladies,

Hope everyone had a good weekend! We had a double whammy here. My 7 yr old, Evan, had his First Holy Communion on Saturday and then of course Mother's Day on Sunday. Phew! Didn't think I'd make it! Much fun was had but to tell you the truth I'm quite happy (and exhausted) Monday rolled around so that I could focus on my art. I didn't get anything new done other than pull up this color sketch I think I'm going to turn into a party scene for my Samson story. This will be where he brings gifts to all of the little forest friends he meets during his initial escapade outside the confines of his glass tank. I know he doesn't look like my other Samson but it's just the concept I'm working on at this stage. Let me know your thoughts my friends. Have a highly productive week!!!!

I can't seem to post my art??

2008-03-31T18:55:00.002-04:00

Ok ladies,

I guess there's a first time for everything. I can't seem to post any images on here. I tried it through internet explorer but no go. The window just doesn't open up. I can't figure it out but will try again later tonight. Not that I got much done on my oil painting but I actually wanted your thoughts on what the reflection should look like on the glass of the tortoise's tank, argh!! Oh with regard to the Dominican College job no word yet. I'm still hopeful I'll get to teach at least one course. They were interviewing two more people this week so I guess I'll find out soon enough. I spent alot of this weekend writing up my overview for the workshop I'm going to teach on how to create and moderate an online critique group for the local arts council here. Who knew this would turn into some kind of paying position!!!! Welcome Sherry, officially that is, your stuff looks marvelous!

Update later this evening: I was finally able to upload this piece. I know it doesn't look much different than the last time but I'm kind of stumped as to how to incorporate the "glass". I've barely put in some reflection just with photoshop so I could get an idea of what it would look like when I go ahaed and put it down in oil. Blah, blah blah. I'm rambling now. I have to hit the hay. Let me know your thoughts.

More Progress, I hope!

2008-03-16T18:46:00.006-04:00

Present state:

Started working on ear and extended arm and hand:

More skin tone layers all over. Finalized mouth and eyes:

Where I left off last week:

Hi ladies,

Just wanted to say thanks so much for all of your support and encouragement as usual! Posting a tad early here because well with tomorrow being St.Patrick's day and with a name like McMenamin you know I'm making corned beef and cabbage for dinner and will be busy in the kitchen from early in the morning! Also half of my brew is off from school tomorrow so I won't have the normal amount of piece and quiet I usually have on Monday's. Argh! Although I don't have a drop of Irish blood in me I married someone that has a lot of it and so will be very dissapointed if I don't serve all the fixings! On another note, this piece has tested me thus far so all of your feedback has been a very positive source of inspiration. Here are a couple of more stages of my illo starting with last week's piece at the bottom and all the way to where I am right now. Oh and by the way it is an oil. I use MAX water soluble oil paints with "QuickDry Alkyd" gel as a medium. It has a drying agent in it and works miraculously! The painting dries to the touch overnight. I also use Turpenoid a non toxic kind of fake turpentine made from pine tree sap. Eventhough the paints are water soluble in still takes a while to clean the brushes with soap and water so I soak then in the turpenoid first rinse then do the soap and water. I really hope to finish this piece by the end of the week well with Easter coming and a few festivities we're going to have I know I'll never get any artwork done next weekend! Anyway, let me know your thoughts positive and negative of course. It all helps. have a wonderfully productive week!

A little color

2008-03-03T22:12:00.002-05:00

Hi ladies,
Really sorry about the terrible picture I took of my latest illo with my digital camera. I'm working in oils this time and didn't get it dry enough to lay on my precious scanner. I stink at taking photograpghs as you can see. Nevertheless, I'm having fun with this piece thus far. I know I've lost a lot of the detail but I will be working it all back in. Hopefully next week I'll be able to scan the piece so you can see it better. On another note, I got a letter this week from a local private college, Dominican, about an adjunct position opening up this Fall in their growing Humanities dept. They want to build their art foundation courses and are looking for prospective teachers. I only have me BA and they stated they preferred someone with a Masters but I sent my resume in anyway! I'd be crazy not to. Anyway, I'm waiting for the call to be interviewed or the rejection letter. Wish me luck. Hope everyone has a wonderfully productive week! Oh, I did end up getting the go ahead to give a workshop on how to start and maintain an online critique group at ACOR, Arts Council of Rockland! That was exciting. I'll be doing it this summer and actually be paid YES!!!!!

Samson meets his friend

2008-02-25T15:45:00.006-05:00

Version 1

Version 2 Below (This one looks a lot more like my son Graig and I promised him I'd put him in my next book dummy. The top version doesn't do him any justice. I also fixed the line of sight. Hopefully Graig looks more like he's looking right into Samson's eyes in the one below?)

Hi ladies,

Hope everyone had a good weekend! I got this done today! I had family here all weekend and as much as I love them I didn't get anything done while they were here. Thank goodness my youngest was pooped from all the activites going on and seemed to want to just chill after AM Kindergarten. I was able to finish this piece, or sketch I should say, for my Samson story and think I'm going to finish this one in gouache paints. I hope to start the painting by tomorrow so if you see any thing that really stands out let me know. This is where Samson is almost at the bottom of the hill of pebbles he's built up and sees his potential new friend through the tank wall. Let me know if the expressions are all right, I wasn't sure. Have a great week. Looking forward to get my fingers messy with paint!!!!

A Little More Samson

2008-02-11T14:40:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,

Thanks so much for all of your advice last week on the other Samson falling down piece. And yes I'm definitely going to show objects in the room through the glass. Just trying to get the preliminary down at this stage. Great suggestion! I think I'm also going to write the whole story down in regular text before I continue more with the rhyming. Another great suggestion! Thanks. I find it so incredibly time consuming right now that I don't feel I'm moving fast enough with the illo's for this book dummy. Anyway this is all I have for you this week. Let me know your thoughts on any or all of it. Have a wonderful week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Work, work , work

2008-02-04T13:59:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,

Sorry to say I got absolutely nothing done illustration wise this past week. Pretty much taught my classes, which are going real well, and wrote up so new course offerings for the spring semester at the art center where I work. Between that, the superbowl, and working on my library grant the week was booked. Hopefully I'll get back to Samson this week and use some of those wonderful suggestions you all gave me. Have a wonderfully productive week everyone!!!

Samson's Falling

2008-01-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for last week's feedback on my story! It truly helped, well I guess hopefully it will seem like it helped next week when I post the update on the manuscript! Anyway, this is the another quick sketch I did where he has built up his mound of pebblesa and wood chips in his tank and has attempted to call for help but stumbles and falls. There is glass behind him from the tank. let me know your thoughts?? Happy blogging.

Some writing

2008-01-21T10:50:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,
Hope everyone had a productive week and were able to get more done than me art-wise! This week I began teaching my new adult drawing class and had a great experience. I have some very talented students so I'm extremely excited. I set up a still life with some nice direct lighting to cast strong shadows and filled the room with classical music to set a relaxing atmosphere. It was an incredibly therapeutic morning to say the least. I could definitely do this until my dying day! I'm also teaching a kids cartooning class which was fun but I've been doing that kind of work for ages so it's not, well, as exciting anymore. The kids are sweet and very into art so that's always a plus. On another note, I wasn't able to get too much done on my own artwork but did do some re-writing on my Samson story which I hope to post for next week with a new illo. That's all for now folks. I'm off to work on my stuff as we speak on this wonderful day off we have. Thanks for all of the inspiration to move forward every week. Happy Blogging!!!!

PS Here's an update I posted later today Monday on my story "Samson". Any suggestions on my writing are more than welcome!

It's about a little tortoise that doesn't get attention from it's owners anymore. They grow tired of him basically and ignore him. He ends up disappearing and they all really miss him. Tortoise ends up having some wonderful adventures while "missing". Samson actually belonged to my kids in real life. Here's the beginning. Illo's to follow next week.

I've updated this writing yet again, today Tuesday, with Ginger's great suggestions in mind! Sorry if this is getting confusing!

Samson the Tortoise

Samson is lonely he goes round and about,

from this wall to that he keeps bumping his snout.

Day after day in his tank made of glass,

he shuffles he scuffles and longs for real grass!

Samson's quite sure when enough is enough,

knows he's not cut out for this kind of stuff!

His owners don't bother with him anymore,

He doesn't do tricks, they think he's a bore.

He tries to yell loud so someone will listen

to his call for help, to friends he's been missin':

"I want to be free, I want to be free,

I want to meet others that like me for me!"

Pushing some pebbles he makes a big heap

all with his hiney and his big feet.

He climbs to the top, standing real tall
ready to go he's sure he won't fall

At the top of the mound brave Samson calls:

"Please help me get out!!! but tumbles and falls

He wants to have fun, to run through the dew

to find a nice friend, oh someone brandnew.

With no one to play and always alone

there's nothing to do but grumble and groan.

Update on Apples and Color Study for Lighthouse

2008-01-14T10:48:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had a productive weekend. I got a little more done on my Tortoise piece for my latest book dummy. Thanks for the suggestion on the sizing of the apples Joni. I knew there was something off there but couldn't quite figure it out. I made some adjustments and changed the largest apple in the foreground so that it looks like it has just crash landed in the dirt, at least I'm hoping you read it that way? I added some extra flying debris and some startled little bugs. I don't think I'm going to make this any more finished looking like I did my other Little Red Riding Hood book dummy because it was just too time consuming. Please let me know if any of it or all of it works.
I've also posted a pastel color study of the lighthouse painting I'm going to be doing for the library project. This is actually a piece I did for my mother-in-law a long time ago that I've spruced up a bit. Normally I work much more detailed in my fine art pieces but I figured I'd show you what I was up to. No need to critique, but of course anything really standing out please do let me know! Have a wonderful week. Looking forward to all of your posts!!!!!!!!

The apples they are falling

2008-01-07T21:33:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,

Hope everyone had a great weekend and of course I hope I'm not the last one to publish my weekly post tonight! Where are the rest of you fellow artists? We are supposed to be starting anew with no holidays to blame for our delays!!! Anyway, I'm happy to say I was able to pull this rough sketch together from my lastest book dummy "Tortoise" at the last minute. I really think it needs a lot of work but it's a start. I wanted to make his expression seem like one of being startled at the sight of large apples falling all around him and nearly hitting him. You let me know if I've pulled it off. On another note I'm happy to say that the grant process for the painting I'm going to do for my local library is in progress. Whoo Hooo! After two more meetings with the director I've decided to do a landscape scene of the Stony Point Lighthouse which is a historic landmark that sits in a lush state park right on the Hudson River where I live. I'm totally excited to say the least. Athena will have to wait. That's fine by me. I'll have about a year to work on the project so that's just wonderful. Oh and no it's not a mural painted directly on the wall, thank God, but a large painting about 5 feet by 4 feet. It will be a permanent fixture so I have to give it up in the end. I hate the thought of doing that on something I'm going to be spending so much time on but it's right here in town so I can go take a peek whenever right. Have a great week everyone. Keep up the beautiful work. And get those posts cracking!!!!!!!!!

I made it!

2007-12-10T14:06:00.000-05:00

Hi girls,

Another crazy week flew by and I'm sorry to say Tortoise is still sitting on my drafting table. Ugh! I did manage to post comments on everyone's posts, today mind you, so if you're still interested take a look. Between Xmas shopping and preparing for the holidays in general, including the arrival of relatives for next week and trying to recuperate from my flu, I would really like to take a breather and run out of town to a spa or something for a couple of days and just "chill" like my kids would say. AHHH wouldn't it be wonderful. Of course I'm just day dreaming at this stage and need to face reality, the holiday crunch is officially here for moi!!!!!! Hope you've all managed to keep your stress levels to a minimum and if you have email me your "how to's" for the love of God. Happy blogging and may you all have a productive week.

A little more pastel

2007-12-03T21:04:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm feeling much better now and had a great weekend myself! The grand opening of the community center where I'll be working in January went really well. I had tons of fun teaching my workshops and getting people interested in taking a course with moi! I had lots of my work displayed so they could know more about me from cartoon funny faces so the kids could learn about facial expressions to still lifes and portraits to show the adults what my course offerings were about. It was a huge turn out considering we had 2 inches of snow fall that morning. Nevertheless they came in droves so everyone was happy. Anyway I had to put Tortoise on the back burner so I could prepare and did this still life. Sorry I don't have any children's illo's to post but hopefully it will be another story for next week. Hope everyone has a wonderfully productive week!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy holidays!!!!!!!!!!

Hope to have something to post next week

2007-11-19T22:09:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,

Just want to say thanks again for the suggestions on my tortoise story. I hope you all have the patience to give me more suggestions next week and let me know exactly where the beat is off when I repost it. I have a thick skin so don't worry about it. I really want to make it work and love to have fresh new material to illustrate. I've worked on the story some more but want to finish the rough draft before I post it again. I can't say I'll have much for next Monday with the holiday upon us and parties at school and at home but I'll try to sneak something in. So in a nutshell, I didn't get any farther with my sketch and feel like I'm coming down with the flu. This isn't good because I start my new teaching job in two weeks. They will be having their grand opening and having a whole celebration going on with many of the teachers giving demo classes so people will sign up. I being one of the teachers! I'm totally exhausted but totally excited too, if that makes any sense. Ok, I'm rambling now and need to hit the hay. Oh, on another note I was contacted by Bonnie who said she has too much on her plate at the moment and can't continue with the group. I was sorry to hear it but C'est la vie right. Hopefully she will join us again when things slow down. Best of luck Bonnie!!!!

Ahhh....Something New

2007-11-12T11:02:00.000-05:00

Hi girls,

Well, I've started a new story!!! Only gotten half of it written but that's a lot for me so I'm excited. It's based on a true story, actually, about a tortoise that we had just a few months ago. Unfortunately in real life he disappeared, my little ones think he's living happily in the forest but we don't really know where he went. It makes for a good story so I'm taking advantage.
It all started with him seeming totally restless in his glass tank and bumping his head into the wall trying to get out over and over again. It wasn't fun to watch let me tell you. And we all felt really sorry for him so miserable and all. He was what you call a Russian tortoise, and these are known for being incredible escape artists. Believe me this one was! Well, one day we decided to put him out in the yard to run free, if you will, and chomp on some dandolines (their favorite food). Of course we watched him vigilantly and never had a problem with it. Then we had a brainstorm. We put him in our vegetable garden which was enclosed! This of course was before we read on the internet that they can escape from unbelievable places. Well at first he would build up dirt and pebbles and sit on top of them always climbing and climbing on things. All was well so we let him hang out there most of the summer and checked on him a couple of times of day. One day he was gone!!! The walls on the garden are 12inches high and are made of chicken wire! Do you know that that little guy, Samson (named after his strength) got out. My teenage son found him the next day while jogging on the side of the road about a 1/4 mile away! We knew it was him because of his specific markings. We were all happy to have him back, eventhough the kids kind of forgot about him after a while. I mean come on he's a tortoise. He wasn't too entertaining after a while but it was a good alternative to getting a dog, which I would have loved but was not up to. To make a long story short we changed the walls of the garden so he couldn't climb them anymore and made them out of tarp and a little taller. He got out again!!!! and we haven't seen him since. It's sad I know but what's one to do. Anyway here's what I'm working on and I've done a rough sketch of him cruising the grass and dandolines. Let me know your thoughts on the illo and the text if you have time. Sorry about my rambling!!! Here's the beginning of the text:

Bored in his tank with no one in sight,
Samson wants out,
he wants freedom that's right.

He pushes his pebbles and makes a big heap.
All with his hiney and his big feet.

On top of this mound Samson feels tall.
He climbs to get out but then he just falls.

He wants to be free to run through the dew,
to eat some sweet dandolines oh just a few.

They loved him so much when he was brandnew,
so cute and so funny he'd walk and he'd chew.

It's really all Samson could do it was true!
Oh how they tired of him as he grew.

Samson was sad all alone for a while,
until one fine day a boy showed him a smile.

Are you here for me?
Can it really be?

Oh please pick me up I want to see,
the world all around me,
the flowers the trees,
I'll stay by your side I promise oh please!

He flew through the air held tight by his shell.
Landed quite gently he thought " this is swell,
the sunshine, the grass, soft under my feet,
adventures might follow who else might I meet?"

Crash it came down with a great giant thump,
next to his nose almost gave him a bump!

Quickly he hid deep into his shell.
He was in trouble this he could tell.

"Apples they're falling one by one from the tree
Bumppety bump they are falling on me!"

"Psst! Psst! Silly Samson this is dangerous ground"
said a dove and a bunny, "just look around!"

"Follow us to the forest you'll be safe far away,
the children won't notice what will they say?"

"Oh! Samson where are you? Where could you be?"
"Oh no we don't think so they're too silly to see,

that you are no fool you just want to be free.
They shouldn't have left you alone by that tree!"

As fast as he could he followed the pair,
bunny hopping ahead the dove low in the air.

Getting ready to teach !!!

2007-11-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies!,

Sorry to say I have no new work to post this week. I've been very busy getting ready for my new teaching job that's going to start in the beginning of December though. I'm extremely excited about it but very nervous to say the least. First time teaching adults so it should be a real learning experience. I visited the new location where the organization I'll be working for will be moving to and boy was that impressive. All shiny and new with great lighting and beautiful wooded areas where I can take my students outside ( weather permitting) and sketch, yay, I love that! I've been given the opportunity to start from scratch and furnish the artroom with the works! I just have to let them know what I'll need and go from there. Of course I'm in the midst of figuring out all the details so I'm a little overwhelmed right now. It's kind of bad timing with the holidays coming up but I said yes very enthusiastically to the job offer so there's no looking back now. Anyway I'm off to bed early tonight so I can get a fresh start in the morning. Have a great and productive week everyone. Goodnight

A little pastel piece

2007-10-29T22:43:00.000-04:00

Hi ladies,

Thought I'd show you one of the pieces that I entered in our local art exhibit for my town library. It's done in my all time favorite medium, pastels. I love the mess and the colors when they don't get too muddy. It's a scene from my mother-in-law's house looking out of her picture window. That's a little bit of the Hudson River you see in the center there. I always loved the view and thought it would make a nice piece. On another note I'm still printing copies of my book dummy and sending more packages out each week. Hopefully someone will like it somewhere. Not much else too tell other than being very busy with Halloween coming up and school conferences and a couple of my little ones birthday parties. It's been a funfilled last couple of days and the parties aren't over yet. I'm off to hit the hay and start anew tomorrow. Have a wonderful productive week!

Just Promos!

2007-10-22T21:50:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry to say I have no new artwork to post this week. I am working vigorously on promotional stuff though so I feel good about that. I just recieved the latest 2008 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market so I've been updating my mailing list and double checking everything. I really have never sent out sample packets, mainly just postcards. So this is a big step for me. The book dummy going out and this feels great. Thanks again for all of your feedback last week. Glad to see everyone seems to be enjoying this critique group as much as me! Have a great week!

After researching....

2007-10-07T20:59:00.000-04:00

Hi girls,

After researching again and again and again in the "Children's Writer's & Illustrators Market" (and different publisher's websites) about who to send my book dummy to and after absorbing all of your wonderful advice, I've come to the conclusion that I should send my book dummy to the art directors of a couple of houses I think my work would be a good fit for. This being mainly because my original intention was for publishers to notice my "illustrating abilities". I kept hearing that one of the ways to show your ability is to illustrate a classic tale that's well known ( also Little Red Riding Hood was my favorite as a child so it made it fun). A ton of the houses stated they were currently not accepting unsolicited manuscripts but then when I delved further and read about art submission guidelines they stated " book dummies helpful". So since my goal is to illustrate a book whether mine or someone else's I'm figuring the art director would pass it on, just like you mentioned Gina, if they really like it or just liked my style for another story. I'm game to anything at this point, my feelings certainly wouldn't be hurt! I think I'm going to state that I'm open to either so it would make it easier for them to ask me to illustrate another story if they have it. Also my Little Red story isn't that different from the original version so it's not like it has a new twist to it or anything. It's just tamer. On another note I had my kitchen renovated last week and only did lots of research and lots of printing. No new art for now but again thanks for your kind words and support. Hopefully something will come of all of this.

Ok I'm ready to print it out and send it off to publishing land!

2007-10-01T12:55:00.000-04:00

Wow, I thought I'd never get to post that title! I am so very ready but first would like some advice on what goes with a book dummy. What kind of cover letter do you send? Who should I send it to, the art director or the editor? I have my publishers picked and thoroughly researched but am getting "book dummy submission stage fright" if that could possibly be a term? Anyway, if you have any advice I would love to hear it. Oh and thanks for the feedback on last week's stuff. I fixed up all the loose ends and tweaked all that needed tweaking so now I just have to go get more ink for my printer and double check one last time for typos. Ahh, it feels great to be done at last but by the same token I'm not looking forward to the rejections I know will be in my mailbox. No artwork for this week just posted the two color pieces I'll be including with the black and whites for those of you who haven't seen them. Not intended for critique. Thanks in advance and have great and productive week!

And more tweaking!!!!!

2007-09-17T15:34:00.000-04:00

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

Hi everyone!

Here are a couple more spreads I worked on this week. I have only one more sketch I have to redraw and post for next week and then I'll be done at least with the total revamping. I finally have all of the text within all of the illo's, Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sure you're all as sick of these as I am but the end is near! Yeah!!! Anyway thanks for all of your help and last week's feedback. On the top doublespread here I realized I have to separate the two pages a little more visually. The greys seem to run into each other where they meet. Thanks in advance! Hope everyone is on track this week with their critiques and posting. Happy blogging!!!!

Should I paint the cover for my book dummy????

2007-09-02T22:24:00.000-04:00

Hi girls!

I had a pretty productive weekend so far. Considering the last two weeks I came up with practically nothing I'm glad to say I was able to enjoy my drawing board a lot more. Well above is a sketch for the cover to my book dummy and I don't know what to do at this point. I've heard conflicting suggestions as to whether one should submit a dummy with a finished color cover or not? Of course I'm going to digest all of your feedback first and foremost on the prilimanary sketch and then decide whether to paint this or not. But I'm totally confused whether one should present the dummy as a concept in sketch form with a few illos in color inside ( which I have) or go with the tremendous temptation to give the cover life so that it will stand out more and be more eye-catching? I've heard that the cover to a picture book is the most art-directed part of a book and so you shouldn't impose a finished concept on the publishers because you might rub them the wrong way. I actually got that feedback a while back when I posted a different, very finished, painted version on the SCBWI boards. But lately since I hit 45 this past June I'm feeling like I should go with my gutt instinct and make it pop a little bit more out of the slush pile. Was curious to know what everyone else here has done with their's? Also any suggestions on the type for the title would be great. I choice this one because I thought it would add some playfulness to the piece. All the traditional fonts seemed very boring when put together with my style. Any info would be great. PS If you didn't spot him the wolf is lurking in the woods to the right making his plans! Oh and thanks so much for the feedback on last week's piece. Great suggestions.

Just in the nick of time!!!!!!!!!!

2007-08-27T22:54:00.000-04:00

Hi gals,
I did make it here Monday after all! This is another sketch I switched the text to within the piece. It's not much of a change but it's something I guess. I have three others I'm still working on and will post for next week. It was a really really busy week for me and I honestly have to say I didn't get much drawing done. I can't wait to get back into the swing of things with regard to my art and finish visiting colleges. Although it's been really exciting I need my life back! Hope you all have a more productive week than me. Happy blogging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Version:

Old Version

"Come on in Sweetie!" said the granny

2007-08-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

New Version

Old Version

New Doublespread

Hi gals!
And welcome to Joni and Bonnie! I'm sure I'm speaking for all of us when I tell you how excited we are that you've joined our group. It's a great place to share your talents and ideas in a really supportive and friendly environment. That sounds kind of like a sales pitch but it's not, really! We're looking forward to your wonderful art and hope that the exchange of feedback will help you grow more as artists as it's helped all of us so far!

On another note, the top piece is a revised sketch from my Little Red Riding Hood book dummy I've been working on for over a year now and have almost completed. Yeah!!! Let me know your thoughts on any of it. Have a great, productive week!

New layouts and Ending

2007-08-13T12:43:00.000-04:00

NEW VERSION

OLD VERSION

NEW ENDING

Hi Gals,

In an effort to get all of the illo's in my book dummy consistent, with the text incorporated within the pieces, I've gone back to page 17 (the top piece with the wolf at the door) and lengthened it by adding more wall and laying in the text in white so it would show up better. I have five more pages I have to incorporate the text into and then I'll be DONE!!! Yeah!! Of course then I'll be pestering everyone about how to write a decent cover letter and how to deal with the agnst of the dreaded "eternal waiting period". I truly hope something comes of this all. We shall see.

On the bottom "ending" double spread piece I went back to a previous sketch and took it apart. I zoomed in on Granny and Red and set the huntsman giving Mr. Nasty the boot to finalize the story. You let me know what works and doesn't and if the text is all right surrounding the basket. I fiddled with that forever. If anyone has any suggestions send them on over. Looking forward to Bonnie and Joni joining us next week. Hope you're enjoying the blog and getting acquainted with everyone's work if you haven't already! Happy blogging everyone!!

Finally out of the belly!!

2007-08-06T14:40:00.000-04:00

Hi girls,

Sorry to say I wasn't able to finish my crits last week. I will do them tonight so take a peek. On another note here's the second to last illo in the book. It comes after last week's piece with the ginormic uvula. It's pretty self explanatory, I hope, and of course am curious to know your thoughts on any of it. Granny has vacated the wolf's belly and is esctatic to be reunited with Red. I was trying to think of a different perspective for this piece and figured Red would look neat reflected on granny's glasses. I'm off to take the kids to the movies and pizza at the mall so I'm not going to blab too much. Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the sun like I did!! Happy Blogging qand keep up the great work.

An illo from downunder!

2007-07-30T16:12:00.000-04:00

Hi Girls!

Something fresh at last you say right? Feels good to work on another illo finally. Being the slow poke of the group I actually feel proud to have finished my tedious reworking of last week's piece and also being able to come up with one of the final illo's. The one pictured above is, of course, where granny is being saved by the huntsman. I tried to give it a humorous feel so I hope I pulled it off. She's supposed to be really scared stuck down there in the wolf's belly but not scary to our tiny readers. I tested it on my 4 and 6 year olds, Graig and Evan, and they thought it was really funny. I'm happy about that but they're related so it really doesn't count! I could not bring myself to show any "body parts or persons" actually being pulled out of the wolf's mouth or swallowed by the wolf from a far, thus in the piece below you see the huntsman merely prying the mouth open only suggesting the violent act that's about to take place, I think the former would have been too scary.

On the piece below, which you've seen about 20 revisions for, I adjusted Red's eyes so they are more focused on the struggle and changed the huntsman's left hand again. Also added the kicked over stool to add more movement and lengthened the entire piece. Seems like I work backwards though. I start a piece and I always go bigger outside the boundaries of the paper for some reason and then have to physically add a larger paper behind it so that I can add everything I want to it. I then have to scan and blend the whole mess together in photoshop. I guess I have to start on a huge piece of paper so I won't go off the edges. Let me know your thoughts. Your feedback is invaluable!!

Reworking Old and New Rough

2007-07-17T16:53:00.000-04:00

New expression on Mr. Huntsman above.

Get granny out too!!!!

Hi girls,

I wish I had finished these a bit more before posting but I'm off to do a community project with a group of teens at our local library and I just plain ran out of time. Anyway, I'm trying to soften the look of Mr. Huntsman here. Before he had a more angry scary kind of expression which I think Gina you were right about being too much for the industry. I'm attempting thus to make him look like he's saying "OUCH" because he's feeling the wolf's teeth on his index finger poking him and he's totally perplexed with regard to the situation he's in mind you. Don't know if I've pulled it off yet but you'll let me know. Have a lot more work to do on his eyebrows/expression that I know. Then the next piece I started is where Little Red has just told him to "Get my granny out too!!!" after he's pulled little red out of the wolf's belly. Lots to do on this one too. Let me know your thoughts.

Back from the beach

2007-07-09T10:52:00.001-04:00

Hi girls,

Even though I'm missing the sound of the ocean every morning while drinking my cup of coffee on the balcony of my little condo with Isabella Allende's latest novel "Zorro" in hand mind you, I love being home and getting back into the groove of things. I haven't yet done any grooving with my sketch pad and pencil but I'm getting there. Got my two little men off to camp this morning and the two bigs ones up at least by 11:00!! Hope to get one of the 3 last illo's I have to do or redo for my book dummy done for next Monday. Enjoy your week and the warm weather.

Definitely moving at vacation speed

2007-06-26T12:14:00.000-04:00

Hi girls!

I haven't done laundry or cooked in 3 DAYS!! Yeah! We are all walking around and enjoying life here in Bethany Beach, De in our bathing suits mainly. Lovin it all! Experiencing great weather and nobody's come down with anything. Really can't ask for more!! I have nothing to post at this time because I've done nothin but caught up on sleep and relaxed a lot with the gang. I will certainly do my crits this week and try to post something for next Monday. I can't let it go for lng. Anyway what I've seen so far on here looks great girls. Hope to get back in the groove with you all. Thanks for the wonderful feedback on last week's pieces. I do miss being home in my tiny little studio though. I'm on my daughter's laptop presently and it's not as convenient as my nice computer at home. I'm in the middle of our condo's dining room trying to concentrate on writing with my two little guys running around and two teenagers warring over the usual stuff. Wouldn't trade it for anyone else's life even though half the time I want to run away to Tahiti!!! Keep up all the beautiful works!!!!

Finishing but not on time.

2007-06-17T21:56:00.000-04:00

Hello girls!

Hope you had a productive week.
I don't know where the time went but I did manage to finish these two sketches. Thanks for the feedback on the hands Brenda I know they were off but I think they are better now? In this top first one the huntsman is frantically looking around for the granny. He has previously knocked the wolf out cold by the doorway. I added some disarray to the room to make this more apparent. I also made the wolf's belly much bigger and left him laying by the door because in the previous scene that's where they were fighting. Does he still look like he's napping? Gina after you mentioned that I realized he did look kind of just relaxed there but didn't know how to make him look "knocked out" really other than adding things to the room that showed there had been a fight.

In the one below I'm hoping you don't think the huntsman is going to freak any little kids out as he's grabbing the wolf by the jaws. But you let me know. I felt since in the book I don't really show any "devouring of bodies" or real grusomeness I figured I'd get a little closer here and show his anticipation as he pries the nasty wolf's jaws apart. There's no text on this illo. It's a full page and the text is on the adjacent page where you also see Little Red already out and pleading with the huntsman to save her granny too!( Not done drawing that one yet)

TEXT:

"And so he took the wolf’s jaws and pulled them apart. As he looked down into the wolf’s throat he could see a brightly colored red cloak. He tugged on it pulling out Little Red Riding Hood very much shaken but still alive. She thanked him withall her heart and said, “Oh, thank you sir! I was so frightened, but hurry, hurry please save my granny,she too is in the wolf’s belly!”

Let me know your thoughts with all of this. Hopefully I didn't confuse you. I'll be leaving for vacation on Saturday for two weeks but will definitely still post my citiques since both of my teenagers are bringing their laptops. Yeah!! I have to stay connected!! If I get a little bit more done on another sketch this week I'll scan it before I leave and post it next Monday. Enjoy the great weather!! I know I will!!!

Very rough sketch!

2007-06-11T20:52:00.000-04:00

Hi gals!

Thanks for the feedback on last weeks pieces. Glad you think I've improved them in general. This project is taking me so long I don't think I'll be able to finish it by the time we leave for our summer vacation on June 23rd! I really wanted to mail it out before then and I just might make it but I'm not going to kill myself over it if I don't. I really want the last couple of sketches to come out well and not have a rushed look to them. Anyway, I barely got this started but it is the scene right after the wolf and huntsman have had it out and the huntsman is looking everywhere for the granny. He realizes that the wolf has most definitely gulped her down, thus his frantic expression, I hope? I have to add everything in between of course. It's a doublespread and the text is going to go below the huntsman and perhaps some above the wolf. I still have to rewrite that part! Oh goodness I'm rambling aren't I? God how I wish we all lived closer and could actually meet once a week. Then you could hear me rambling away! Wouldn't that be cool. Hopefully one day we will meet.

More updates!

2007-06-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

Hi Gals!

I'm late again this week posting my critiques but if you take a look you'll see that I gave you feedback just today!! Sorry but I've been really sick with a nasty headcold. I can't believe I got this in June for the love of God! Incessant dry coughing at night and a very cranky attitude in the morning as you can imagine. Ugh!!! Managed to get some work done on my mission to change my book dummy so that the text is designed within most of the illo's. I guess it's kind of like I've had to redo the entire book! But whatever it takes I say. After all the book reviews I had this past year this seemed to be an issue with all of them. To me it looks more like a traditional picture book anyway when the text is within the illo's and also it shows you have the ability to lay it all out, right? Well, here are two pieces I adapted and redrew to a certain extend by hand ( the pencil sketch) and also using photoshop. I widened and lengthened the color piece so I could get the text in at the bottom using the cloning tool in photoshop. The sketch was easier for me to add the extra areas in pencil to the original drawing. I've marked them with "before" and "afters" so it's not too confusing. I hope. Have a great week everyone. PS. Hope you're doing good Carlyn I saw you didn't post this week. Keep us updated.

BEFORE:

AFTER: Flipped this one horizontally so that the flow of movement would be from left to right.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Getting Closer to the Finish Line!

2007-05-28T20:32:00.001-04:00

Revised Version of Encounter

Old Version of Encounter

Hi Ladies!

I was hoping to get this up here earlier today but like most of you the holiday kept me from working on my art. Excuses excuses right? The weekend was very relaxing I must say, thus the late posting! Anyway I'm running on empty here and just wanted to show you this revised piece I did today(actually this is the second revision but who's counting at this point) and hope you can let me know if it works better with the text inside the illo. I like the two characters closer together as in the top piece. I think it creates more tension, but of course that's for you to judge. I have a couple of more pages to revise before I send this off and am very much focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel!! OK I'll stop using the word "revised". Thanks in advance.

And Yet Another Revision!

2007-05-20T16:19:00.001-04:00

Hi Ladies,

Posting a little early this week because tomorrow Monday, let's just say I'm booked to the max with my kids activites! I know I'll never get to the computer so here I am on Sunday. Anyway thanks so much for the suggestions on last week's piece with Red and her Mom. I'm definitely sticking with the larger view of the room with the billowing window curtains showing the wolf outside sniffing the air. I cropped it a bit closer so the perspective on the room is better and you can't notice all of the wonderful flaws, like Red being to long and tall compared to her mom, also you can see the wolf outside much better now too! Thanks great suggestions. On a new note this piece I've posted here ( a doublespread by the way) I was going to leave out of the book dummy but decided to bring it back because I really like the aerial view. I posted this last year but it wasn't finished to this level and the layout of the text was all wacky. Anyway,without rambling too much more let me know your thoughts. I've posted all my comments on your pieces just today for this past week so take a look if you haven't already. Again sorry for being so late again. I was able to get a lot of work done today on the computer. I take whatever I get around here so if the kids aren't around I'm working if they're around forget about it. Have a great week.

More Revisions!!

2007-05-14T21:54:00.000-04:00

Before

After ( Now a doublespread)

Close up of wolf outside

Hi Gals,

Thanks for all of the feedback last week. I knew it was too much to try and put all of those pieces on one sheet! It looked so crowded to me I don't know what I was thinking. Have adjusted appropriately and sent a batch out. Yeh!! In an effort to get my book dummy where I want it to be, mostly finished and out of my hair, I'm redoing some of the scenes to integrate the text in with the illo. hopefully this one works. Oh and I know the room looks a bit austere, I have to add more little details to the furniture and such. Will do. I have added the wolf in the window sniffing the air form the edge of the woods. Thus the fly away curtains in the open breeze to draw attention to his tiny figure. I suppose he will be more noticeable in color. Let me know your thoughts and keep up the great work! Hope all of you all had a nice mother's day whether you are a mother or have a mom and were able to celebrate. I had a great day drawing, reading and just "chillin" as the young crowd calls it and had a delicious meal cooked by everyone in the house except me! Loved it.

Having fun in Photoshop!!!!

2007-05-06T19:53:00.000-04:00

Promotional mailer:

Before:

After:

Hi girls!

Sorry I posted my critiques so late again this week but that's the best I could do. Lately I've been running around like a chicken without a head. I finished them all so take a peek. I didn't forget you. Anyway, I've been having a good week playing around in photoshop and changing my first page to my book dummy so that the text is within the piece. I'm going to go in this direction with most of the book so hopefully you'll bear with me with all of my revisions! I had to make this piece of Little Red wider and taller so I could pull this off and also repainted the sky using only photoshop. How exciting! This is something very new to me being able to change a piece without actually getting the paints out! Anyway, if I screwed it up and it looks way off I know you'll tell me. Also I got a promotional sheet ready to send out and wanted to know if it's too crowded? You be the judges. Have a fabulous week and try those Ice chips Carlyn, they might help you. Feel better soon.

Conference was fun but "Crappy" too

2007-04-23T22:07:00.000-04:00

Hey gals,

Just got back from the illustrator's day conference in NYC and had a pretty good day. Recognized some people from last year and yapped my little head away all day. The book review was a bit "crappy" ,sorry for the language but I don't know any other way to describe it. From the moment I set eyes on the person, no names mentioned of course, that was going to review my book dummy I knew it was not going to be good. She was really angry looking? Had definitely woken up on the wrong side of the bed and became very defensive when I asked her what her background was. I actually thought that was a legitimate question since I wanted to know what knowledge she was basing her critique on. All the other conferences I've been to always have a little bio on all of the speakers, editors, etc.. so you know who you're dealing with. And I asked her right up front too not after she started throwing the daggers so it wasn't a defnsive move on my part I was just trying to break the ice a bit or iceburg I should say. Or I guess she started throwing the daggers because I asked her? Who knows? I have a very tough skin so I made the best of it. Oh the funniest part of the whole thing was that in the middle of everything she asked why I didn't show Little Red Riding Hood being swallowed up by the wolf? I was like Huh??? I answered, "Wouldn't that be a bit much for the little ones who read these stories? Don't you think they would get scared? She answered "You might have a point there". God give me strength!
All in all though the day certainly wasn't wasted since I adore NYC and had the chance to talk to one of the artists' agents that was a speaker. I gave her my samples, which she loved, and said she would look at my site and email me if she was interested. Who knows , something might come of it. Well that's enough venting for now and I'm in need of lots of sleep so I'm off to bed. The piece I posted here is one of the last scenes from the book dummy. Let me know your thoughts and my apologies if I sounded whiny I just had to vent.

So I took your advice....

2007-04-15T16:14:00.000-04:00

New illo for Page 17

Page 15 and 16

Page 17 and 18

Hi gals,

I'm moving along at a quicker pace this week and I'm happy to say that I took your advice about zooming in on the characters. Hopefully you'll all agree this piece is better than the last one. The last one being with Snowy in the window looking out at the wolf's tail only, not his lovely face! SCBWI NYC illustrators day conference is next Monday , the 23rd and the following week is the Hofstra one on Saturday the 28th. I'm getting a book dummy review on the former and have one final sketch to revise this week and reprint the whole book new and fresh. Shouldn't have any trouble pulling it off I hope! Let me know your thoughts nevertheless.

Just a rough sketch

2007-04-09T23:17:00.000-04:00

Hi gals,

Hope everyone had a good holiday! I didn't get much done around here unfortunately other than this sketch showing "Snowy" going Coo! Coo! at the sight of Mr. Wolf's lovely tail making it's way inside. The doorway is supposed to look ajar and a hint of his fur will show in opening. Didn't quite get there yet. I couldn't really keep the wolf's tail showing through the window back in the bedroom as suggested for last week's piece because it didn't work with the front door being "inside" the granny's bedroom. The whole front entrance with the door and window in her bedroom was too confusing. I don't think there would be much of a surprise then. I wanted of course to go with your wonderful suggestion of keeping his tail in "a" window somewhere thus, I moved the scene to the adjacent room, the living room. I'll be adding some hints of furniture to reflect that. Anyway this scene would go right before the page with the wolf lying sound asleep in granny's bed dressed in her bonnet and all after gobbling her up! Let me know your thoughts. Ooooh! It's 11:33 pm here so I guess I made my posting on time! Yeh!!!

Some wilted flowers, Dead grandpa has a new expression,Changed layout

2007-04-01T21:42:00.000-04:00

Hi gals,
Hope everyone's weekend didn't whoooooosh by like mine. I don't know where the time goes lately. I know I was working on this book dummy but I guess it doesn't show too much this week. I'm actually nearing the end with this project and hopefully you can bear with me a couple of more weeks until I'm done. I have been going over it and over it and just basically fine tuning some of the sketches and adjusting the text so it reads better. I changed dead Grandpa's expression to look more perplexed in his picture frame above the bed where Granny thinks Red is at the door but it's actually the nasty Mr.Wolf! I also made this illo taller and added the canopy and ceiling above the bed so it would look better next to the previous page. I will be placing the wilted flowers with "Snowy" in the center as a one of the vignettes reflecting the doom approaching Red and the granny . And the last adjustment was on pages 23/24 at the bottom where I placed the text all by itself and made the illo a 3/4 doublespread layout. Before I had the text within the trees and it didn't really match the rest of the book with all the text on it's own.

Vignettes of flowers go from pretty in full bloom to wilted as the book progresses to reflect the doom approaching red and granny. At the end of course they are in full bloom again after rescue by courageous huntsman.

Before

After

Close up on "After". Dead Grandpa is quite concerned about his widowed wife letting Mr. Wolf in!!

Before

After

Reworking and more reworking!

2007-03-25T01:11:00.001-04:00

Redrawn sketch

Close up on redrawn sketch

Page 11 and 12

Page 13 and 14

Page 15 and 16

Redrawn expression on wolf

Hi gals,

Thanks for all the great feedback on last week's work. I will be working on all the points suggested and reposting so you can see my updates, but for now I've redrawn a previous piece ,that is the top one here, that I posted a couple of months back and hope it's gotten better! Don't know if you all remember it but whatever feedback you can give would be great. I've also redrawn the wolf's expression on page 15 and hopefully made him more menacing looking. All the text has been updated and in some parts completely rewritten so let me know what you think and if there are any typo's etc. I know right off the bat after looking at all of these layouts on one page that I need to make the tonality of the illo's more consistant so some don't look so washed out while others look too "contrasty". It's funny there's so much you don't notice until it all starts to come together. Looking forward to critiquing and seeing everyone's artwork for this week.

A bit more layout

2007-03-18T22:49:00.001-04:00

Hi gals!

I've been working on the layout of my book dummy some more and will hopefully post some of it for tomorrow. Just ran out of time this past week with my nephew visiting from college. No excuses though. I will have something for tomorrow!!

Well here's some more!! Better late than never right!

Red runs into the Wolf !

2007-03-11T23:12:00.001-04:00

Hi Gals,
As always thanks for the feedback on last weeks layouts for my book dummy. I'm quite happy with the way things have been moving along lately and will keep refining these pieces, with your help and support of course, until I feel confident enough to ship them off!! I've gone ahead and done another sketch here where Little Red runs into the nasty wolf for the first time. Hopefully she looks startled enough and he seems calm and collected with his sly approach. The text will be at the bottom of the page. I am going to keep the text outside of the art just to be consistent throughout the entire book dummy to give it more of a storybook feel like Carlyn suggested. Anyway let me know what needs to be worked on with this one and thanks in advance!

Updates on Sketches and Layouts

2007-03-04T13:10:00.000-05:00

Hi gals,

Thank you so much for the feedback on my site. I am pretty happy with the way it has turned out so far and am working on fixing the stacking issue on the gallery page which seems to happen only when viewed on a smaller window but nevertheless isn't very appealing looking by any means. Gina, I included a Gallery page in addition to a Portfolio page so that if viewers just want to look at everything at once, like viewing a real portfolio, they can. I've heard some people don't like to have to look at thumbnails and open each one to see the full work. I guess maybe a solution would be to call the Gallery page "Thumbnails" so they know what to expect. Good point made though, thanks!
On another note here are some new layouts of my book dummy. I've focused here on making the mom look consistent in both illos. I don't know if you remember but she didn't look like the same person before, thus adjustments were made. I also straightened up Little Red and I hopfully got rid of her "Poltergeisty" turning head. Made the path more level too, before it looked like she was climbing up a hill! You be the judge. Happy Blogging!!

Almost done with my new site!

2007-02-25T22:12:00.000-05:00

Hi Gals,

Again sorry I wasn't able to crit anyone's work this week. I ended up having a horrible stomach virus this weekend and it literally wiped me out. Feeling a little stronger now. I'm almost done with the new site. Have to add a links page. Let me know what you all think. Thanks www.artbygm.com

Hofstra University Children's Book Conference?

2007-02-20T10:13:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,

Thanks for your input on last week's pieces. In the first sketch I've rethought the gutter issue and decided to put the text at the bottom separately. Geez what was I thinking to consider slicing poor wolfy in half!! I could have integrated the text into the illo like you all suggested but I would have had to do a lot of redrawing that I didn't want to do to get it to really work, lazy I know. If you think it really looks boring then by all means let me know. I'm getting incredibly impatient with getting this book dummy out and thought this might be one piece I could cut a few corners with. Not sure though. Again let me know your thoughts on this. The painted piece you've all seen before and follows the sketch illo in the book. I've added some text this layout too, hopefully you can read it when you open it up in the larger version. No new artwork for this week, just laying out more of the book as seen. I'm still working on my stinky website, which won't be anything to scream about mind you and since I'm such a dufuss at this computer stuff it's taking me foreverrrrrrr, argh. Anyway hope to finish uploading everything and arranging it to the best of my ability for next week. Oh and I almost forgot, I hope to attend Hofstra Univ.'s children's book conference in April out on Long Island, NY and was wondering if anyone knows anything about it firsthand? It's cosponsored by Hofstra and SCBWI (http://www.hofstra.edu//ucce/childlitconf). They are going to have Brian Pinkney as the keynote speaker and an illustrator's picturebook workshop lead by Melanie Hope Greenberg. Sounds interesting so I think I'll attend. Thanks again for your critiques and support! Happy Blogging........

Working on Website

2007-02-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

Hi Gals,

No art this week because I'm trying to figure out my new management system for my website. Not fun!!!! I'm not very computer savy so I've been pulling a lot of hair out of my head this weekend. Love all the art I see here though and thanks for the feedback on Little Red. It's actually what I've been trying to get uploaded to the new site, my latest sketches. Will post for next week. Happy Illustrating, Keep it up girls!!!!!!!!!

Red Riding Hood off to Granny's

2007-01-30T15:18:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

Seems like Sunday postings have been getting more difficult for all of us in the last couple of weeks. Busy as bees we are!!!!!!! Thank goodness right? Thanks for your suggestions on last weeks wolf illo. Am reworking that one and will post at a later date. For now I wanted to show something new. Anyway, here's another rough sketch from my book dummy. Red Riding Hood is leaving her house here with the basket full of goodies for her granny and saying bye to her mom. I know I'm missing the line between fingers 4 and 5 on the mom's hand. Somehow I erased it when I was cleaning this sketch up in photoshop! Didn 't notice until I posted here. Also I'm planning on incorporating the figure of the wolf within the forest ahead. Not the actual wolf like he would be painted in the story but his image within the foliage and hills as a presence. The viewer sees it but the characters are oblivious. The kind of thing where you don't necessarily see it right away but it is there. I hope I can pull it off. I've begun to sketch the wolf in roughly but will keep him in the background as much as possible so as not to steal too much away from the interaction between Red and her Mom. Let me know your thoughts!!!

Wolf anticipating his next move

2007-01-21T16:18:00.000-05:00

Hi Gals,

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Thanks for the feedback for last week's Granny Redo piece. I think I'm on my way to finally finishing this book dummy or at least close! Anyway, the piece above is a couple of pages back in the story from the last two illo's I posted and takes place right before the wolf gets to the window and the dove is screeching close up against the glass. I know I have to show you my layout soon because I'm sure it's a bit confusing to see the images progress out of sequence. I'm kind of scattered that way and the pictures just come out like that in my head! Enough rambling and let me explain further. Here the dove has spotted the wolf outside and is just beginning to panic. I made a close up of the window with him in it so hopefully you can see his reaction pretty clearly. I had a heck of a time getting the wolf to appear clearly enough and distinguish him from the rest of the textures, schrubs,etc. His angle was hard to grasp too and I'm not sure if I've pulled it off? My seventeen yr old son , Tommy, told me he couldn't see the wolf until I pointed him out to him!! God they are so honest!!!! I actually thought I was finished when I did show it to him the first time and his comment made me look again and try working with the textures and shading. You be the judges. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Redo on Granny Piece

2007-01-13T23:04:00.000-05:00

Hi Gals!

Thanks for the feedback on last week's wolf piece. Will definitely work on the eyebrows on both the wolf and the dove to exagerate the expressions more. Great suggestion.
On another note I did some work on the piece below this week to see if I can finally finish up my book dummy and get it out there. Originally I had the wolf right outside Granny's bedroom window (bottom piece)and her resting comfortably in her bed unaware of her fate. In my updated version I've gotten rid of the window and added extra furnishings and have her more involved in the scene. In this later version she's actually calling out to Little Red thinking she's knocking at the door and her dove, Snowy, is tooting and screeching at the window frantic looking at the wolf face to face in the other room (last week's piece)! Let me know your thoughts they are always very helpful!!!

New Version/ Close up

New Version

Old Version

New Version

New Sketch for Little Red Riding Hood Book Dummy

2007-01-08T10:16:00.000-05:00

Hi gals,

Glad to see everyone is on here now without any glitches! Sorry I didn't get back to some of you that were having trouble getting your comments on here sooner. I wasn't able to get near my computer the entire weekend with so many family projects going on in my house! My apologies again.
Anyway, this scene takes place when the wolf is right outside Grandma's cottage. The bird you see is named "Snowy". She's Grandma's longtime pet dove that flies freely in and out of her cage as she pleases. She's obviously frantic because of who she sees outside the window! She toots and screeches with all her might but to no avail. Grandma ends up telling the wolf, who she thinks is Little Red, to come right in because she's too tired to get out of bed. Poor thing! Hopefully I'm conveying the idea through this illo. Let me know what you think.
I see lots of beautiful new illo's on here I'm looking forward to critiquing this week. Keep up the pace and the great artwork!! Happy blogging!!

Is it over yet?

2007-01-02T15:13:00.000-05:00

Hi Gals,

I'm feeling a bit guilty but maybe you all are thinking the same thing I am- Is the holiday season over yet? Is the season to be "jolly" and "cheerful" at it's end? Don't know about you but I'm kind of "pooped". Our tree is out on the street and everything is packed and put away since Saturday! I guess I don't like it when Xmas gets old. Anyway, I was hoping to have something to post for this week but no goes. I'm going to finish up my critiques and finally get my butt in gear for next Sunday!!!!!!!! Love the way you all have managed to keep going! I know I'll catch up soon enough. Thanks for making comments on my last post. It was good to hear from you. Happy end of the Holiday Season to you all. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On with the new year.

Holiday Card

2006-12-04T21:15:00.000-05:00

Hi ladies,

Thanks so much for your feedback on my "oh so not perfect" rhyming. I'll take everything into consideration and see what I come up with! On another note, above is my holiday card for this season which I managed to bang out today. Unbelievably. We are leaving for Florida on Friday so I won't be posting anything until the following week. I will have internet access while on vacation and will try to keep up with my critiques. Let me know your thoughts on this piece. I'll be mailing it out to friends and family by Thursday so if you see anything really off let me know. Of course, for a portfolio piece I will be leaving the names out. Oh Carlyn I didn't do a close up on your Anne Bolyne until after Gina mentioned the funky teeth! Didn't mean to sound like that actually looked like you. I'm sure you figured that, I hope anyway. Thanks in advance all and Happy blogging.

Did you mean this one Gina? Some more editing on my writing needed!!

2006-11-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

Hi gals!

Thanks so much for last week's feedback on my rhyming and sketch! Very helpful! Glad you liked the sketch overall too. I will definitely zoom in more on grandma's face in the color version. And yes Gina, I did the piece above of a nasty teacher last year. She was actually my Kindergarten teacher and I was mortified of her! I remember her like it was yesterday! That was a very long time ago too.

On another note here's some more of my Little Red story in rhyme. Let me know where it's off or what sounds awkward etc. I didn't get what you meant exactly about the tempo Carlyn. I've been trying to get the piece to have 8 syllables and then break with a comma and the last two words of each part of the phrase rhyme. Don't know help!! More suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It's all new to me but a lot of fun too.

"There was a girl so sweet and kind , to give a hand she’d never mind.
A warm and glad embrace she’d ask, upon completion of a task.
Rain or shine she’d find a way, to make the best of every day.

One day her grandma thought to find, for she was almost nearly blind,
a gift to give to her grand child, that didn’t mind to walk the mile,
along a path deep in the wood, for this was where her cottage stood.

Beneath her bed there lie a chest, with things the grandma loved the best.
It held a cape from long ago, she’d worn to town her goods in tow.
The color was a precious red, to suit a girl more young instead!

This lovely cape it fit just right, not short or long not even tight.
Red Riding Hood they called her so, she wore this cape for all to know,
Grandma’s gift she thought a treasure, love for her there was no measure! "

New sketch from Little Red Riding Hood

2006-11-19T01:20:00.000-05:00

Hi gals,
Just thought I'd post my latest sketch for one of the pages of my book dummy. Below is part of the text in rhyme I wrote for it. This is the part where the grandma is looking for something special to give her grand daughter and remembers she has something for her under the bed. Will be emailing more of story shortly. Let me know your thoughts, thanks! and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Beneath her bed there lie a chest,
with things the grandma loved the best.

In it a cape from long ago,
she’d worn to town her goods in tow.

The color was a precious red,
good for a girl more young instead!"

Haven't come far enough along on my authoring yet!

2006-11-12T22:32:00.000-05:00

Hi all!
Well, I'm still at it., that is the rhyming version of my Little Red story but it' moving along. Oh and thanks so much for all the feedback on the pros and cons of this style of writing. None taken lightly believe me! I find myself changing it over and over again until I narrow it down to something I can tolerate at this point. Maybe I'm reworking it too much, who knows. I don't have enough to show you yet but promise to soon enough. So for this week I'm sorry to say I've chickened out and won't be emailing you all anything just yet. Hopefully a fresh start in the morning will let me get the part I'm working on finished. Wish me luck! and happy blogging!!!!!

So much fun writing!!

2006-11-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

Hi gals,
I've been rewriting my Little Red Riding Hood story and been enjoying it tremendously! I actually rewrote it to my liking first and then some of the lines had a bit of a ryhme to them so I continued in that direction and am now rewriting the whole thing in ryhme! Don't know if I'll ever finish but I am totally engrossed in it. I know all of my kids always have loved stories like that so I figured I'd give it a whirl and try it out on them. They liked the little that I had so I kept going. Anyway at some point I will email it to you all for feedback. In the meantime I'm getting my latest mailing out and trying to recover from a very obnoxious headcold! Argh!!
Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Postcard Does it work?

2006-10-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

Hi Gals,

Was able to put a postcard together afterall with everything going on around here as I said in my email to everyone. I would really like your brutal honest opinion about the type I chose for the front of this postcard. After much struggling I hope this works. It keeps reminding me too much of a giant business card even though the postcard is actually the jumbo 8.5x 5.5 size!! The back images are not clear because they are just proofs. Hopefully you can visualize it.

Thanks so much Giselle!!!!!!!!

Wow!! Now that was what I call a conference!!

2006-10-22T21:05:00.000-04:00

I've come home from my Rutger's University Children's Book Council Conference totally re- inspired by the atmosphere at this gathering! I have to tell you I have not been to too many conferences but this one was absolutely wonderful. I got to sit at a round table of some very down to earth, incredibly talented published illustrators and authors who only had positive things to say about the industry and gave us all a new sense of hope and and told us to keep up our perseverence and just keep moving forward. I know a big part of their being there was to promote their works but considering they are not paid one red cent for donating a whole day to this conference they should really be commended. I had a great one on one portfolio and book dummy review with Eddie Weinberg from McGraw Hill/MacMillan. Right off the bat I told her I had a tough skin and would have no quams with any negative criticism she might have to say about my work. It was very positive overall but she did tell me that she wasn't partial to colored pencil as are many houses because of reproduction problems. I had a few pieces in this medium and she suggested I shy away from that and stick with the paint!! So yes Gina I guess we have to let go of those blessed little sticks, argh!! She gave me some great pointers on my book dummy about page layout etc. In the end I was very happy because she said with a tiny bit of more tweaking it should be sent out as soon as possible. That was very inspiring. Can't wait until tommorow morning when my house is silent and everyone is tucked away at school and work so I can dig into my stuff. Oh, the illustrators at my table were Denise Brunkus ( Junie Bee Jones series) the other was Sophie Blackall ("Meet Wild Boars" it won the Society of Illustrators Founders' award) and Ponder Goembel "Castaway Cats" also Lena Shiffman "Coralito's Bay" was the moderator of the group. They all have many books published. I just listed their current works. Anyway, I'm off to bed early tonight so I can get an early start tomorrow!!!! Happy blogging!!!!!!!!

I finally got my critiques done!!

2006-10-13T22:42:00.000-04:00

Hey gals,

Figured I'd let you know I wrote up all of my critiques today, Friday!!! I've got to get back in the swing of things and do them earlier in the week. Anyway sorry in case you missed mine at the very enddddddddddddddddddddddd of each post. Happy Blogging!!!

Finishing up my flyboy Evan

2006-09-29T22:40:00.000-04:00

Hi gals,

Well I took into account all of the sugeestions posted last week, which were great by the way, on this and think it works? You'll all be the judge of that though! Anyway, I managed to get this out in time for my little man's party but with regard to adding it to my portfolio if it needs more work just let me know. I'm going to my Rutger's Conference on Oct 21st so I'll have this one and hopefully the flying book one done by then as new pieces for my book. I'm really excited. Looking forward to it all.

Evan's Birthday Invitation!!

2006-09-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

Hi Gals!

Here's my 6 year old son's birthday invitation I've been rushing to finish and hoping I could get suggestions on before I finalize it. It's supposed to be him tossing tons of invitations all over the countryside via his toy plane for his upcoming party. He actually wanted to invite all of his classmates from the last three school years, PreK, Kindergarten and 1st Grade mind you! I figured he'd need to really spread the word so I imagined him doing it like this. A couple of the invitations you'll be able to see the words "You're Invited" still as they are falling. The white mass behind him I have to define more but that's the bag of invitations. I'm still working on the background as you can see. Im' not sure if I've integrated the color of the plane with the overall color palette? It still doesn't match to me? Any suggestions wopuld be really helpful. And I've put my flying book on hold until I get this done and printed out. Next week yikes! Thanks again for your comments for last week!

A little more color in the works!

2006-09-17T23:32:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone!
Hope you all had a great weekend. Thanks for the feedback from last week too! Well, I'm inching along on this one but have added the first layer of background in pastel and tried to define the figures' faces a bit more. Also lit up some of their faces more with reflective light. Anyway let me know how you think it's coming along.
Happy Blogging

2006-09-10T22:06:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had a nice weekend and are getting into the groove of the fall season. Eventhough it isn't actually Fall yet! Nevertheless here's an update on my current piece. As you can see I didn't get much done last week but truly hope to give it my all come tomorrow. I'm enjoying laying in the pastel and am looking forward to tackling the star filled night so I can really judge the values I've chosen for the characters thus far. Anyway, let me know what you think and if I'm going in the right direction with the choice of colors for the kids clothing. Thanks in advance!!!

Rutger's One on One Plus Conference!!!

2006-09-03T22:41:00.000-04:00

Hey gals,

Was wondering if anyone here has attended the Rutger's One on One Plus Conference in Piscataway, NJ? It's sponsored by Rutger's Council on Children's Literature and will be held this Oct 21st. I've been accepted to go and am very excited! I originally heard about it through an SCBWI regional conference I attended in June. It's structured in a way that gives you one to one time with an professional illustrator, author or editor etc.. and then has a round table discussion session where you sit with your mentor for part of the day and 4 other pairs of mentors/mentees. Anyway it sounded really worth the $125.00 and was hoping I could get some more insight on anyone else's experience or if you know of someone that has attended along with what they brought with them to show and all that kind of stuff. Thanks so much for the feedback on my piece last week too. And yes so far I've used just Pastels to keep things as loose as possible. I find when I get into the details with colored pencil I get carried away fixing everything too much! I hope to finish up painting in the children this week and move onto new territory so I have at least a couple of more fresh pieces to bring to the conference. Goodnight and have a good start next week for all of you going back to teach.

2006-08-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

Hello ladies!
Thanks so much for your feedback on this piece last week. I'm glad the book issue is over and it's clear now. I compare the two sketches now ,old and new, and I'm like what was I thinking. It looked so awkward!!! Like I keep saying all the time, thank God for this wonderful critique group. It's really been invaluable feedback.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. I know I did. I ended up taking my 15 yr old daughter Caitlin down to Manhattan for the day on Saturday. We're both city rats and love the hustle and bustle of it all eventhough we live in total suburbia! Managed to see lots of great stuff including visiting the Museum of Modern Art. Wow talk about inspiring! Hadn't been there myself for some years but remembered it well. Van Gogh's Starry Night is always an awesome sight in real life! We hit a couple of neat places for shopping and snacking in Times Square and then headed downtown to my alma mater Parsons on 14th street. It's always an adventure. Anyway as you can see from the colored version of my painting I didn't get very much done this week! Was having too much fun sight seeing!
On another note, the highlights so far on the faces are kind of bright because its going to be a night scene with the moonlight lighting everything up. Let me know your thoughts.

New flying book!

2006-08-20T03:08:00.000-04:00

Hi gals!

Couldn't sleep so I figured I'd post this week's work now, 3:00am!! Are any of you night owls?I relish the quiet. I pretty much started from scratch here as you can see. Hopefully this layout is working out better and not so confusing to the viewer with regard to the perspective on the book. I sketched it on toned paper something I don't normally do but figured why not? It's supposed to be easier to start on a neutral surface and it was the biggest piece I had of the good stuff left that this piece would fit on. My decisions are lots of times based on need versus plan, agh! Also eventhough recently I've worked a lot in gouache and colored pencil I felt a longing to go back to my all time favorite medium, chalk pastel. A mess to work in but a lot of fun! So let me know your thoughts on this piece. Oh, this is going to be a nightime star-filled sky with a couple of planets way off in the distance. Didn't get there yet but will be adding them in. Any suggestions on their placement in particular would be really helpful. I've been stuck on that. Not knowing exactly where to put them, how many, how big? The big arch is the moon. Back to bed now! Thanks........

Promotion blahs.........

2006-08-07T23:29:00.000-04:00

Hi gals,
Nothing to post for this week because I've been concentrating my energies towards the dreaded mailing list update. Not the most fun part of this business that's for sure! Anyway was just wondering how much time you all invest in this and if you have any tips on any part of it? Let me know.