Bronte (hearts) Bella

I dunno. Girl looks scary to me. Not often that I draw a picture that makes me burst into chuckles when I gaze on it. Poor doggie. I woke up with this illustration on my mind (I've been fermenting an idea for a new picture book starring these two) Click on the picture to check out the book cover mockup in my online portfolio and select the second thumbnail down.

Pencil was sketched directly onto Painter using the Cintiq, then faded the line back as a guide. On a second transparent layer used my favorite Painter pen -- the scratchboard tool -- to "ink" the drawing in brown. Next colored on the canvas layer with the digital watercolor, keeping it wet the whole time. Finished up modeling Bella's (the girl) face with the scratchboard rake. Probably could add some more modeling to Bronte's fur with the rake, but she was a "unique" looking cattle dog in real life (RIP my poor Bronte, who died last week) and I want to keep her DNA slighly ambiguous. Is she part pig? Part seal? Will have to think on this.

Definitely not Edgy.

I know I didn't work on this one long enough. But you get the idea, it was going cute again. Sheesh.

Edgier, or just strange?

Wow. This is kinda fun. Edgier? Less cutsie? This one was done in a thick brown line, then "modeled" using the scratchboard rake.

Cute is Evil

Trying to avoid the cute adjective. Can I go edgier than this for a board book? Should I?

Blog Reviews

Ugh. Marketing. It's so hard for an introvert like me -- especially when my publisher, Clarion, seems to be cutting costs everywhere. But a few weeks ago, my Google Alert sent me a link to Pinot and Prose after the blog's author, Laura Lutz, mentioned in a post that she was looking forward to seeing Kitchen Dance (which she declared a "foodie book" yay!) Laura is the children's materials selector at Queens Library in NY. Her excellent blog brings together two of my favorite things -- Food and Books!

You'd think since I head two kids book review blogs, (3 Evil Cousins and Toad Hill Reviews )I'd have had some clue to the joy an author gets when her book is reviewed online. But I didn't have an idea until Laura wrote this SWEET review.

Now if I can just convince Clarion to send out review copies when I ask them to, because I'm thinking blog reviews are completely going to replace printed reviews.