Postcards from the Rock

I have always been a snail mailer. Even when I was growing up at the Red Doors Motel, I cultivated pen pals. Creating post card promotions as an illustrator is one occupational hazard that I enjoy. These are just a handful from many years of mailing out samples.

Here’s the scoop behind my most recent postcard, Summer in the Slow Lane.

I’ve always hankered for little campers and the time to take road trips. I made a sketch on the ferry one day based on a photo I took a few years ago on the way to Stonington, Maine.

Kirsten Cappy happily modeled inside this camper we spied for sale along Route 1.

She recently sent me this photo which sparked an idea.

My sketch got a little more specific, working within the post card proportions.

While I’m awaiting the publication in October of Ana and the Sea Star, I decided to have Ana in the scene, too. Peaks Islander, Zoe, was the model for my Ana illustrations. She showed up for the photo shoot last September in the most adorable dress that I LOVED drawing.

I drew on blue paper, bringing out bright colors, and added a turtle friend.

This is the final illustration.

The truth is, this summer has been anything but slow. I’ve only had a chance to mail out about half my batch. There’s been a bounty of activity on Peaks, thanks to the Illustration Institute. I’ll spill tales about that soon, but right now I am super excited to see Mimi Pond tonight at Osher Hall at Maine College of Art! Her latest graphic novel, The Customer Is Always Wrong, features a waitress facing a cast of characters in Oakland, CA.

I can relate. I waitressed my share during college years. That experience shaped my serving powers in many ways, becoming a visual metaphor in a couple of very early postcards I created.

Drawing on demand is not for everybody!  Yet I tell my illustration students: a bad day illustrating is better than a good day waitressing. This postcard is from ages ago, when I used gouache on regular basis.

In other news, Tiger Boy has been released in Japan! I am thrilled to see how they used one of my interior illustrations from the hard cover version on this one.

Biggest surprise of all: coming home last night to find my illustration for Portland Stage in the New Yorker!

My island neighbor and biggest fan, Ann Hinderer, wasted no time in mailing me her congratulations. I mean, it’s a regional ad placement not a direct job for the New Yorker, but still. That’s life on a big rock in a blue bay.