Hello friends! It's been about a year since I've updated the blog but I haven't slowed down on my art related projects a bit! I did take a big step back from social media last year in order to focus on the art for a book that will be coming out in the near future and to welcome our 8th child, born in January! A recent goal of mine has been to work on reviving my old @ink_and_tome IG account into something that is more up-to-date and reflecting my current work. It's kind of a challenge trying to resurrect a long dormant page over there, and the algorithms don't give you much help, but it has been fun slowly reconnecting with other authors and artists and building a nice portfolio of work back up. One way that my newly active Instagram was helpful recently, was in spreading the word about a local event! I was able to participate in my first ever author fest and wow, what a time! A whirlwind of over 40 local authors, coffee, music, good eats and bookish merch, I only...
Mermaids are a subject I come back to on a regular basis. Someday I'd like to put them in a story - but in the meantime, I populate my sketch books with watery sea maidens. This was one I posted a few years back on my Instagram and she's still a favorite. I was so happy with her hair and the pearls and just the general boiency of the drawing. I used metallic pens to highlight, too, but I feel they get a bit lost in the photograph. Crayon over watercolor here. I have a lot of kids, so I've never fully had the opportunity to fall out of love with a good, old Crayola 🖍 😄. Ah, here's a flash back. I drew this one in 2014. I came across it in Google photos just the other day. I still like what I did with her legs and flippers and finger webbing, but I had a chuckle over my over use of filters. It was my first tablet, and I had a lot of fun playing with effects over photos my art. These days I generally keep it original when I post.
Jack and Jane, written by my friend Bethany Wallace and illustrated by me (!) is almost ready for publication! If all goes according to plan it should be available as soon as next week. To say I'm excited might be an understatement. Seeing this in book format looks amazing! I can't wait to have a copy to actually hold! Concept art from working on cover ideas... It's a fun story about a little boy who is very happy in his country home, but feels a little lonely until he meets the most unlikely friends! Details from the finished cover artwork. Things feel a little surreal right now. Will people like the pictures? I don't know, but Illustrating a book has been a lifelong dream and definitely a bucket list item, and now it's about to be real. Just that one thing makes this experience really special to me. Making the art for this book changed my mindset about my work in a lot of ways and has taught me that I can actuall...
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