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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.

After getting an approved sketch for Lost, I began sketching concepts for two new word prompts, “Time” and “Flight”. I haven’t gotten the go ahead on any of these yet… still working on it. EB wants the image to stand on its own, be instantly readable as “Time” or “Flight”… not needing any explanation of what is going on.  I do think that my thumbnails as drawings are getting better though, and one of the thumbnails has given me a story idea I’m pretty excited about.