On the Shelves…
John Muir Wrestles a Waterfall by Julie Danneberg will be shared with young readers on July 23, 1 – 2 PM at the Louis T. Graves Memorial Library in Kennebunkport. As part of the “Every Hero Has a Story” Summer Reading program, Illustrator Jamie Hogan will talk about hero naturalist John Muir and lead a drawing activity. “Hogan’s expressive renderings of the explorer’s face are the highlight of this book…” —School Library Journal...
Read Moresketching natural history
What a thrill when a box of new books lands on your doorstep! Yesterday was Publication Day for John Muir Wrestles a Waterfall by Julie Danneberg, my first book illustrated with colored pencils. Charlesbridge Art Director Whitney Leader-Picone had seen my Sketchbook Project postings, and wanted to mirror the pencil sketching Muir did in wilderness travels. You can read more about that meander here. I’m all for drawing directly from nature. Last week I brought Maine College of Art’s senior illustration majors to the Harvard Musuem of Natural History in Cambridge, MA. With over...
Read Morecha- cha- Charlesbridge
O October, how I love thee! This month has been super full of everything: deadlines, events, travels. And the San Francisco Giants just won the World Series. How much better can it get? Well, today my advance copy of John Muir Wrestles a Waterfall arrived from Charlesbridge Publishing. This non-fiction picture book details a single episode in Muir’s youth. I learned a ton about him, and sharpened a pile of pencils illustrating it. Last week I received a new version of the book jacket for Tiger Boy by Mitali Perkins due out in spring 2015. I wrote about the cover process here. This is...
Read Moremy mountains
I’ve lived on an island for 22 years, yet every autumn when the air turns crisp, my mountains in New Hampshire beckon. Sailing over the Kancamagus Highway last week with my curious partner in creative retreats, Kirsten, we saw sunset clouds tumbling over a ridge in the White Mountains. We arrived at dusk at the Indian Head Resort, where I waitressed one season in high school. The motel my parents owned down the road has changed owners many times since they sold it in 1977. Yet Indian Head is remarkably the same as I remember it. We checked into a wee cottage with a gas fireplace for...
Read Moretiger tales and moon shadows
Hear me roar: I’ve illustrated another book by Mitali Perkins, author of Rickshaw Girl, which made the New York Public Library’s list 100 Great Books/ 100 Years. Did the small spot, above, from that book perhaps foreshadow her latest story, Tiger Boy? My mind’s been in the mangrove forests of India for months, dreaming and drawing tigers. The cover illustration took as many turns as the story does. I began with very sketchy thumbnails to show Charlesbridge art director Diane Earley. Villagers living at the edge of a tiger sanctuary wear masks on the back of their heads to...
Read Moredaring adventures in collage
When my super talented kin Mati Rose McDonough asked to interview me for her colorful e-course, Daring Adventures in Collage, I said YEAH! It prompted me to consider my connections to collage and the currents running through all my work. I didn’t discover collage formally until art history class at RISD, but had made cut paper cards as a child. This is my first published illustration, incorporating a scrap of Dick and Jane text to reference an educational crisis in teaching, August of 1980! My first eight years of freelance illustration in Boston brought opportunities for collage added...
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