MECA merry
The second half of the semester in the junior illustration majors studio at Maine College of Art has been a blitz of activity. Students worked in November on bottle and package designs for the annual Geary’s Summer Ale contest. Here’s Sarah Oppelt’s mock-up. Katie Ackley created a lively pattern, which she made use of later, stay tuned. The next project was to create an image to promote Circus Atlantic, the school arts program of the Circus Conservatory of America, coming to Portland in 2015. President Peter Nielsen gave an informative talk to students on the history of...
Read Morebeard up
Any idea who this bearded wonder might be? It’s John Muir, subject of the current non-fiction picture book I’m working on with Charlesbridge Publishing. The story, by Julie Danneberg, is spun directly from Muir’s own journal, about an event in Yosemite in 1871. Drawing Muir’s beard has become quite the challenge, and now beards are on my brain. In one scene, Muir gets soaked by a waterfall. Hmm, what happens to a wet beard? I found the curious social network, Wet Beards, but it wasn’t much help. I noticed a colleague at Maine College of Art has a very Muir-ish...
Read MoreMECA inspired
Local Portland illustrator Betsy Thompson visited the Maine College of Art illustration department this week, sharing her professional wisdom and talented work. A former K -2 educator, she quickly turned the tables and asked each student to share what medium they worked in, what area of illustration interested them, and what did they want her to address. I love when visiting illustrators reinforce what I preach in class. She asked how many students kept sketchbooks, and how many were drawing in them right then. I myself was in the middle of a drawing of senior Miles Cook. She talked about...
Read Moresketch bookin’
Ever since doing the Sketchbook Project in 2011, I have a new respect for the sketchbook practice. Before doing that, my sketchbook was a spiral bound scrapbook of sorts, including drawings, clippings, tickets, any bit of ephemera crossing my desk at the time. Thanks to Charlesbridge, I am now working on a non-fiction picture book about John Muir, an avid sketcher of his travels in the wild. He’s considered the father of the National Parks system, visionary author, and founder of the Sierra Club. Muir discovered Yosemite in his youth, and built a sawmill along a stream that kept him...
Read Moremaine streets: past, present, and future
I’m a fan of Find, Portland’s shop for vintage clothing. I included the store in my Sketchbook Project 2013’s Shop Walk. The owner, Laura Ker, also maintains a site for her style spotting, Maine Streets. Not surprising that she’s a former art student, with a keen eye for the everyday style of folks trotting around Portland, Maine. I assigned my junior illustration majors at Maine College of Art the task of choosing a person found on Maine Streets, and illustrating that person as is, and also in the distant past (at least one hundred years ago or more) and in the...
Read MoreSeven kickers
1- With yesterday’s news that I am on the New York Public Library’s first Top 100 books of the last 100 years, I am OVER THE MOON. Hooray for Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins! To see what amazing company I am in, see the full list here. This chapter book was my first children’s book published, and Mitali remains an amazing mentor for me in the field of children’s books, leading the way in my first outings at schools and libraries. My portrait barely catches her brilliant smile. 2- Cool news: I will be illustrating another Mitali title, Tiger Boy, still in the...
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