Last month I attempted my first SVS (Society of Visual Storytelling) Challenge. They had chosen a word prompt for the month: “Isolation”. The online critique was helpful and I went back in to make a couple fixes to the piece afterwards. I am trying to communicate the isolation of the gorilla at the zoo (something my family and I have witnessed before) and also express the girl’s feelings of shame and empathy for the gorilla while the other humans seem less affected by the same experience.

• 

• 

• 

• 

I finished the color illustrations for the self-published children’s book I’ve been illustrating… my first time completing 16 full color spreads! I’m currently adding the text to each page before it gets sent out for publishing. It has been an fantastic learning experience and I’m looking forward to turning my attention again towards portfolio development!

The big project over the last year has been a book I’m illustrating for a couple who is self-publishing a story about a neighborhood beagle. This is a sketch for one of my favorite spreads in the book.

This year’s Illustration Challenge was “An Act of Kindness Along the Way”. I choose to create an illustration geared towards non-fiction about how kids and their families can help monarch butterflies along their migration. Monarchs have faced a lot of challenges recently due to habitat loss. Putting fruit out for monarchs, planting milkweed, echinacea, zinnias, Black-eyed Susans and other nectar-rich flowers can create a “Monarch Waystation”(https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/).

“Giant!!!” cried the Queen

This year’s Illustration Challenge was “Fairytale Mash-Up”. I chose to turn the tables on Jack and the Beanstalk by having the Wizard of Oz’s Queen of the Field Mice capture him and his golden harp Gulliver’s Travel-style near the poppy fields not far from Jack’s cottage.