Complementary
My best memories are of color. It is summer. I am two. My mother sets me in the red laundry basket on the lawn while she does what she needs to do… Continue reading
Words and Pictures
I have just finished building the book dummy for Zando with InDesign. Celebration time! My favorite part is adding the story text to the rough drawings. Though I have planned space for the… Continue reading
Fifty Times
In May, I attended an illustrators’ workshop in Oakland led by an art director at Viking Books. Observations: I should have studied up on the BART train routes. Bay Area attendees, uniformly kind and… Continue reading
Triple Play
I can always tell when my first idea for a story-painting is a flop. I’ll be enthusiastic for a day, just because I had an idea. “Great job, Brain!” I’ll think smugly. “Here’s your… Continue reading
Cat and Mouse Detente
I’m working on a picture-book project using the old nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock” as a springboard. In my version, Jock Tock, the Clock Doc, every inch a professional, and every inch a… Continue reading
The Lower-Case “N”*
Sesame Street made its debut the year I started kindergarten. Far northern Montana got the broadcast out of Canada, so I learned to count in French. Cool! But the coolest part of Sesame… Continue reading
A Donkey’s Hind Leg
So, there I was a couple of months ago, trying to draw the hind legs of a donkey for my new children’s book Zando, a re-telling of the classic folktale, “The Bremen Town Musicians.”… Continue reading
Drying Time
I’m sitting here in my armchair at ten p.m. waiting for the dryer to ding. A year ago, it began running through its cycle in exactly half the time it takes to actually… Continue reading