tiger 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 Moremoony blues
It’s my honor once again to contribute to next year’s Lunar Calendar published by The Luna Press. I’ve been part of this fine endeavor since 1983, with it’s moon phases exerting a greater pull over time. I check it daily for the moonrise times, and embrace the swell of full moon energy every cycle. I submitted seven cover ideas to editor Nancy F. W. Passmore, including this one that overlapped my freshly completed project, Tiger Boy, set in India. My head was still full of naukas (fishing boats) and alpanas (decorative designs.) Nancy also provides a bounty of poetic...
Read MoreIn My Studio…
I just finished a cover illustration for the 2015 Lunar Calendar, titled “Seven Moon Sonata.”...
Read Moremany moons ago
On Wednesday, as I was zooming down the highway to Boston, it occurred to me it’s been 25 years since I left. Driving around there with the radio tuned to WERS brings it all back. This is an illustration I did in the early 80’s, a call for art for Peter Wolf’s first solo album. I was so nervous when I met him. I never saw the art again, or him, but it still captures those nightclubbin’ years under a full moon. I met Nancy, my longest running client, at the Boston MFA. She publishes the Lunar Calendar, to which I’ve been a contributor since 1982. As we entered...
Read Morepencils + trees
In the manner of Kate Bingaman Burt, who made her mark by documenting everything she bought each day with a drawing, I sketched some of the gifts I received this year as thank you cards. Did you see the moonbow in the sky last night? So awesome. My sweetheart gave me a pair of reading glasses that have little bulbs in the temples, so you can read at night, and ahem, not wake your neighbor. Invariably, when the moon is getting full, I am energized. An insomniac. He also gave me a Luna Time Clock, so I can always know where the moon is. An insomniac AND a lunatic! Between that, and my lunar...
Read Morecity of belief
I met the author of City of Belief, Nicole d’Entremont at the potluck conclusion of my second course in Sudden Fiction. Taught by Eleanor Morse, an island neighbor and award-winning author, the class was an epiphany of sorts. I’d already taken a correspondence Writing for Children course with the Institute for Children’s Literature. A pretty substantial course, too, in which every assignment involved research and revisions and word counts and age targets. Sudden Fiction was like vacation in comparison. Just putting pen to paper and letting your ideas wander for an hour. The...
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