Opossum Tails to Come

I met Wilbur well before I began illustrating a picture book story about opossums!

Last October the Center for Wildlife brought him in as a wildlife ambassador to my junior illustration class at Maine College of Art. We were all smitten by his toothy grin.

This was my first sketch of many.

By the spring of this year, author Lyn Smith sent me her manuscript for What Makes an Opossum Tick? and  another journey of illustrating a picture book began. I gathered all I could on opossums and traveled to Moody Point for a creative retreat in late May. This house would become the setting for the story.

I knew right away what room I should dream in!

This is where I could put myself in the shoes of Bailey, a boy who visits his grandfather in June.

I worked on a thumbnail storyboard to show Lyn. She provided me with even more reference photos and nature objects. Once we worked out the scenes to be illustrated I worked on a larger dummy.

Back on Peaks, I was casting about for a boy model for Bailey. Since my stellar island neighbor, Scott Kelley, had become a character in Island Birthday, I thought I’d see if his son, Abbott, was willing. YES! This was a major coup, since Abbott is a kid of fantastic faces. A photo session provided the references I needed to complete my preliminary sketches.

I mailed Lyn a complete dummy in mid June.

With some revisions in mind, I began final art a week after the Fourth of July.

Lyn and I had the good fortune to be involved in the Illustration Institute’s Faison Artist Residency the same week in late July. I set up a work table and did this piece between meals shared at her cottage or mine.

Up in the island woods, I was finding inspiration literally everywhere.

The highlight of the week was doing a nature studies workshop together at the Fifth Maine.

I got back to my own drawing board the following week, doing this portrait of Oliver, the book’s opossum, as he devours a juicy slug.

Pretty coincidental that a resident slug was slithering about our back deck.

Look, my little corner of chaos.

After a hectic summer of events and a trip to Baltimore, I showed Lyn my progress. We went over each illustration with a list of edits to be made.

After a rejuvenating week in Nova Scotia, I had two weeks left in the deadline. I made it by the skin of my teeth, in typical fashion.

On September 21, final art was revealed at El Rayo, and Lyn was pleased!

The publisher, Piscataqua Press, is scheduled to deliver books before Thanksgiving. Woot! Here’s a little cover reveal..

Lyn will be signing books at the Christmas Prelude on Saturday, December 1 at the Community Center on Temple Street at the South Congregational Church in Kennebunkport.

Stay tuned for book launch plans!