Illustrationland
Today’s rain is a welcome break in the action. June’s been a swoon of events involving illustration all over the Maine map. Things began with a bang on First Friday with the opening of Cathryn Falwell’s exhibit in the Children’s Room at the Portland Public Library. My show is up next, so I needed to see How It Is Done. Bravo, Cathryn! Besides showing the original illustrations from her latest book, The Nesting Quilt, she also made it real. As well as a big nest for little peeps to play in! From the library, I flew to Pinecone & Chickadee, where I am part of a...
Read MoreIsland Birthday party
Thanks to the Friends of the Peaks Island Library, a swell party for Island Birthday took place on Friday at the Community Room, with the whole Peaks Island School in attendance. Woot! I shared a slideshow with some of the back story. One sharp-eyed student noticed that I printed “island” and used cursive for “birthday” in the illustration for the title page. Yes, that’s a real stamp on the envelope, which I placed over my pastel. I showed some of my reference photos, like this one in which my model, Nikolai, is pretending to swim in my yard. And his friend,...
Read MoreBloomin’ books!
This is a super duper first: I have 3 new books recently published! They are written by different authors, and have very different stories to tell. BUT, they have a few things in common, besides featuring my work: Each book has lots of blue on the cover, yup! And there is water involved. And the moon plays a part in every story. Here’s a list of bookish events coming up: June 27 at 10 AM Hello Hello Books Rockland, Maine Author of ISLAND BIRTHDAY, Eva Murray, and I will have our first book event together. Two islanders’ ferry schedules converge, watch out. Eva will read and I...
Read MoreOceans away!
Today is World Oceans Day! Now’s a good time to share my recent visit to Portland’s Reiche Elementary School at the invitation of Side x Side, an arts integration program. I felt right at home upon seeing this lively mural: I came to draw ocean creatures with three second grade classes, and talked about using the long horizontal for this illustration in Here Come the Humpbacks! by Caroline Arnold. I brought along my handy humpback toy for reference. This artist made great use of his page area, lower left. Everyone was provided with a line drawing of their chosen creature to look...
Read Moreslow motion ocean
Isn’t the internet grand? How else would I learn that May 23 is World Turtle Day? Now’s a good time to share a recent assignment for Cricket Magazine’s May/June cover about loggerhead turtles. I did a pile of small thumbnail sketches, and within this batch Art Director Karen Kohn chose the direction to go. She asked for a visual “reveal” to appear on the back of the cover art. I did this colored pencil sketch next, showing the mother returning to the sea at sunrise, her eggs in a sandy nest. This final illustration appears inside on the Contents page. Inside, a...
Read MoreMECAF follies ’15
I inexplicably missed the last couple of Maine Comic Arts Festivals, for shame! But the fog lifting over Portland pulled me right in this year. It’s important to check out the local peeps first. Here is the inimitable Fulton Beal, wacky dad and crazy cartoonist. Former MECA peeps here, Meagan Gibson and Declan McCarthy: Something about Murilo Martins book, I’m A German Shepherd looked familiar. When I found out he was from Brazil, I gave him one of my PDX zines, about the Other Portland. Lo and behold, he was at ICON8, too! Funny how tight the circle of illustration/zines/comics...
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