All ABout Books Event at Preschool

On April 3, I was the guest illustrator at the JCC Newton's preschool All About Books event (and also, ahem, pajama party).

Each classroom previously explored and created their own versions of a favorite children's book and then displayed their final work at this event. It was really fantastic to see different interpretations of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, The Book with No Pictures and Pete the Cat (among others).

With the help of my four year old daughter, I did a presentation for the 2-5 year olds on creating a character (they wanted him/her to be silly) and then the kids helped me write the story as I drew in front of them.

We ended up with a one eyed silly monster/king named Yuni with a uni-brow and spots who had three arms and travelled around on a spring and a wheel.

Once I was finished, a number of kids continued the drawings I had stuck to the walls while others made their own stories and turned them into books for me to see.

It was a fantastic event!

SCBWI Book Launch Party for Elephitten

Today, The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators launched a new section of their website highlighting books that have been published in 2015.

My most recent book, Elephitten, is one of the launched books! It's a story of a boy trying to find the perfect pet so he creates interesting amalgamations and this third book in the Petimals series takes an interesting turn.

Click the images below to go to the launch page (and click the like button!). To see all 450 of the books in the launch, just click the "Return" button at the top of the Elephitten page.

Winter Bunny

This illustration started out as a sketch in my sketchbook and ended up as a fun color and texture exercise.

Groundhog Day 2013

Welcome to Groundhog's Day! Again. Feels like it was only yesterday that the groundhog last checked the weather for us. This year Phil has a positive outlook, regardless of what he does or doesn't see when he climbs out of his hole. And what he saw was: No Shadow! That means it'll be an early spring!

For 2013, I decided to create 2 illustrations so I'd be ready for whatever the outcome. The alternate version is below.

You can check out a bunch more Groundhog Day illustrations on this blog by clicking HERE.

Oh- and go watch the movie!

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I’ve been doing a lot of character development lately and from time to time I’ll be displaying on my blog new designs. Sometimes they’ll be black and white and sketchy and other times full color and finished. If you want to see more from this series, just click the “characters”, tag at the bottom of this post. You can also see a collection of characters in my Behance portfolio or on my website.