Once Upon a Memory

This is still a ways off, but it's starting to show up on the internet and I wanted to be one of the first to post about it. This is my next book! Published by Little Brown, it is a lovely poem/story written by Nina Laden and as soon as I read it a few years back I knew right away that I wanted to illustrate it.

Here is the blurb for Once Upon a Memory which will be released this December 2013,

 Does a feather remember it once was a bird?

 Does a book remember it once was a word?

 When a feather drifts through a child's window, a magical journey begins. As the boy follows the feather, he is swept away to a world filled with adorable animals, where fantasy and reality come together in surprising and playful ways. From the cake that once was grain to the ocean that once was rain, whimsical "before" and "after" scenes offer readers a peek at the world as seen through the eyes of a curious child, ultimately asking the question, "What will you remember?"

Door view

We are in between shows at our studio so Mike has put up some prints from some of my books in our front window.

Red Wagon Board Book

Red Wagon is being released as a board book this month.  This is my very first board book and I think it suits Red Wagon very well. This is a drawing from when I first started doing sketches for the book.

Red Wagon board book is out May 16!

Plants and Animals

I was looking at my bookshelf trying to figure out what books I look at the most,
and realized that I am constantly using these two the most - for reference and inspiration.

I need to work on drawing a tree for the book I am making right now.

How to by Adam Rex

This is a good how to illustrate a children's book blog post,
http://muddycolors.blogspot.ca/2013/04/how-i-make-picture-book.html, and it even has a panda!
I have a couple of his books in my collection that I would recommend - Chloe and the Lion written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Adam Rex, and Tree Ring Circus written and illustrated by Adam Rex.

That Is Not A Good Idea!

That Is Not A Good Idea! by Mo Willems is a (super) good book! I had the opportunity to read it when visiting the publisher in February and it had me laughing out loud. It's being released in a couple of weeks.

A Happy and Lovely Easter!

To all of you from all of us.

Break down with yellow stickies

This week I am doing the story break down for one of my future books. I thought it would be good to lay it out all in one so I can see how the story flows. And use yellow sticky sketches to swap in and out.

The sketches are pretty rough!

Part-time Princess

Deborah has a new picture book, I'm looking forward to reading it! 

Part-time Princess written by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Cambria Evans

Tour of Little Brown

I have just returned from a trip to Brooklyn and New York accompanying 3rd year students from the Alberta College of Art and Design. During the trip my Editor Connie Hsu and Art Director Patti Ann Harris gave the students a lovely tour of Little Brown and a great talk on how books are made. Thank you so much Connie and Patti!

My editor and art director at Viking had also generously offered to show the students Penguins offices too, but by that time the students were pretty exhausted exploring NYC for the first time - it's a big city! But Mike and I met up with them to talk about the new book I am starting with them, Boom, Snot, Twitty. More on that soon!