PiBoIdMo 2015 - Winner!

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully

executed the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,

and will, to the best of my ability, parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

Wow! My sixth year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) was a success!! (even if I was delayed by visiting family for the holidays)

It's always a wonderful challenge… and I'm looking forward to continuing my writing experiments with these ideas. That's been a slow, slow process for me, but definitely something I'll be concentrating on in 2016!

Congrats to all the other winners as well—it's a long haul, but WE MADE IT!

7th Annual Picture Book Idea Month — PiBoIdMo 2015

I have been SLACKING… how can my SECOND blog post of the year be in late October?! I guess it doesn't help that I've have a mysterious illness for almost 2 months… but thankfully that's getting better and I almost feel like a person again (although I still have no idea what it was/is).

It's harvest time for group projects and creative challenges! PiBoIdMo 2015, here I come!

Head over to Taralazar.com to find out more about PiBoIdMo. This will be my SIXTH year participating (and PiBoIdMo's 7th year). 

I'm really looking forward to the month-long guest blog posts, inspiration, and support that PiBoIdMo provides.

I finally started writing last year… and while I've made some progress, I'm still not where I'd like it to be—so, as usual, #PiBoIdMo is a reminder (and a good kick-in-the-pants) to revisit my collected ideas and start WRITING… you know, to go along with all my artwork. I'll just say it: I'm tired of waiting around for someone else's story—time to create my own stories.

I'm so excited, I've started already. (…just a minute ago…idea #1 was recorded for posterity…I think I feel another idea coming on…this is what it's all about)

PiBoIdMo 2014 - Winner!

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully

executed the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,

and will, to the best of my ability, parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

Wow! My fifth year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) was another success!! It's always a wonderful challenge… I don't know if it's because so many others are working right along with me and our combined motivation keeps us going or what, but it works… every year for me!

The best part, after 5 years of participating in generating ideas… I've finally started writing! Well, I actually started before PiBoIdMo, (and I've started several projects in the past, but I'm not counting those, because I never finished any of them!), but it was a real confidence booster overall—actually writing something, being happy with it, working through ideas and story structure, getting it critiqued (by friends and an editor!)… it's a whole new avenue for me and I'm super-excited to keep going! On to revisions!!

Congrats to all the other winners as well—it's a long haul, but WE MADE IT!

Insta-Inspiration—Workspaces

Still collecting my random Instagram screen-captures and thinking it's about time I share another batch… only this time, I had a really hard time choosing a theme. There are so many inspirational photos uploaded everyday. I actually ended up collecting a few ideas (and saving some for later), so today I'll share images of (relatively) recent artist workspaces.

I love seeming photos of messy artist workspaces, and not only because it makes me feel less guilty about my own. I just love seeing how other artists work! Materials on the desk/drawing-table, splashes and spatters of paint, whether they stretch their paper or not, or just how many times they draw and re-draw one thing—maybe even how it eventually ends up. And BONUS, workspace images usually include new works-in-progress or a progression of these pieces!

So, here are workspaces from 4 artists I admire greatly: Gina Perry, Julissa Mora, Tony DiTerlizzi, and Cory Godbey. (Singled out because they post on Instagram, I follow them, and they recently posted images of their workspaces). Gina's space looks a lot like mine, cutting mat and all. I love that Julissa is mobile, I used to do that a lot more than I do now and I miss it. I think it's so wonderful that Tony shares works-in-progress as much as he does. I love calligraphy & lettering as well, and the behind-the-scenes of Cory's current project totally feeds that love—check out his Kickstarter to fund this amazing project, Tales from the Wilder Forest. I also enjoy seeing the mess-and-trial of traditional lettering combined with the digital end of putting it all together. And I'm jealous of his cats, I have no studio companions at the moment. :(

Random Insta-Inspiration

For the last year or so, I'm been screen-capturing instragram photos I like and saving them in a folder I call Art&Inspiration. I can't say that I've gone back to look at the folder very much, but this week I did and I pulled out three, recently posted, quote-based images that stood out to me:

Wow. They all pretty much speak for themselves, but they each stood out for a different reason that resonates with me at this moment in my life.

Look at all the failure Abe Lincoln went through, over and over and over… and the man could not be kept down. That list is a great reminder for me, when I start to beat myself up about not being more successful at this or that or anything in my life right now.

I've also been working very hard to be more active and healthy, starting back in August 2013. I think I've finally found a nice balance of various practices and I can confidently say I'm in the best shape of my life. *I may never have a stomach like the one in the picture (I just like cookies and ice cream too much), but I've noticed the changes, ever so slowly, over these last 7 months—the good results DO come. Also, this philosophy applies to career goals as well, so… yeah—that too.

Lastly, there is nothing so important to me as my dreams. Big ideas. Something to strive for. And gorgeous calligraphy—that too. Just love that. ;)

FaceTiming with an Awe Inspiring Artist

Fun little tidbit… today I got to FaceTime with my brother, the amazing painter, Sean Beavers. Being two busy creatives with multiple jobs, we rarely get to touch base… but today, of all days, it happened—making this one of my best Valentine's Days ever (really, they're generally never very good to me, LOL).

BroTime + PupTime

Golden Light, by Sean Beavers

Conference Photo Recap: SCBWI Austin 2014

Road Tripping through west Texas—the drive from ABQ to Austin

Happy Birthday

To me! LOL
Seriously, I had an amazing birthday this year… because it lasted like, a week. And, most importantly, I didn't get the flu (like last year—literally, on my birthday).

My friend, Mike, held his annual White Elephant party a bit late this season… and my friend Lynn arranged to combine it with a surprise party, for ME! I usually hate surprises, but this… was totally awesome! Check out the handmade birthday card from Lynn and the awesome colored pencil frame!

My friends Lynn and Vicky also treated my to an evening tea at the St. James Tearoom. The Tearoom had an artist theme this month, including my favorite tea, Van Gogh Smiling. Look at all the goodies we enjoyed, do they not look amazing?! And that's the gluten-free menu!

Vicky took me to the same tea back in 2012, here is a page from my morning pages, on which I drew the entire menu. So good! (the food specifically, but I like the drawings too)

Happy New Year, Let's Celebrate!

So, it's the new year! Yay!!
And a new season of Downton Abbey is about to start. It's a wonderfully entertaining show with amazing art direction—costumes, sets, you name it, it's just great visual inspiration.
Last month I had the opportunity to attend a Downton party of sorts. It was like a second Halloween for me. Doing my hair Edwardian style was a highlight, here are couple pics just for fun.

PiBoIdMo 2013 - Winner!

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed 
the

PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,


and will, to the best of my ability, 
parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

My fourth year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) is a success! I even tried a new approach which has landed me at the end of the month with even more than 30 ideas!

I can't believe it's been a whole month and PiBoIdMo is done once again. This whole year has positively flown by! I'm so thankful for all my experiences and opportunities this year has brought, and I'm especially thankful for the excuse PiBoIdMo has given me to daydream a little extra every day.

PiBoIdMo 2013 — “Ideas Taking Flight!”

It's almost November!?!! Wait… what?! Sometimes I feel like 2013 has hardly arrived, and now it's winding down. But it's harvest time for group projects and creative challenges! PiBoIdMo 2013, here I come!

Head over to Taralazar.com to find out more about PiBoIdMo. This will be my FOURTH year participating (and PiBoIdMo's 5th year). I'm still not much of a writer (gotta get over that), but I'm so thankful the month-long guest blog posts, inspiration, and support that PiBoIdMo provides.

I haven't made the best use of my PiBoIdMo challenges, but I have my lists saved and simmering. I'm working on an illustration right now that germinated from a PiBoIdMo idea I had back in 2011. Personally I think it's a great way to brainstorm and gather up project ideas for the coming new year (or future new years, if you happen to be as slow as I am to getting around to them).

I can't wait to get started!
Is it cheating if I start my list now?
LOL, ;)

PiBoIdMo 2012 - Winner!

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed 
the

PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,


and will, to the best of my ability, 
parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

My third year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) was another success. And, once again, I find myself thinking… this is really something I should do more regularly – keep a PB idea list going all year long. I still haven't found a way to make it a regular practice, but I think it'll definitely be on my 2013 Resolutions to find a way to make this happen!

And of course, I'm interested in the follow-through of the these ideas. Even if they're only dummies, turning these ideas into completed books is the next big challenge!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since the last PiBoIdMo, and here we are at the end of another one. I've done a lot in the past year, including completing my first finished picture book (as illustrator only), signing on with an illustration agency, visiting the SCBWI-LA Conference for the first time (and as an SCBWI Volunteer), and reading over 200 picture books (as a self-study project to just read more PBs regularly - I posted about it here and here). I did start writing a few of my own picture books, but haven't gotten very far with them yet. I keep stopping myself. It's the one step I haven't figured out how to approach, but I  continue to try and in the meantime – I'm keeping the new ideas rolling in and ready for me when I do figure out the right process for myself, to write AND illustrate my own stories.

PiBoIdMo 2012!

So, I haven't posted in a few weeks, it's just been madly busy. But it's that time of year again, and time to spread the word — PiBoIdMo 2012 is upon us! 

So get out your pens, notebooks, or computers ready and head over to Taralazar.com to find out more about PiBoIdMo. This will be my third year participating. I'm not much of a writer (yet), but I'm so thankful the month-long guest blog posts, inspiration, and support PiBoIdMo provides. I have 60 ideas just waiting for me to turn them into amazing books thanks to the driving force of this event and I'm about to add 30 more. I can't wait!

Sign yourself up here or just follow-along privately on your own.

Reading & work… reading & work…

It's been a pretty hectic week… I'm working on several rather large illustrated map projects – which I love, but they seem to be all-time-consuming, leaving with very little energy to check in here and often as I'd like. That and I've been going through an "I-hate-everything-I-draw period" which is always frustrating.

But in the meantime, I've still been reading plenty of picture books, more than 10 this past week.

• DANNY AND THE DINOSAUR – Syd Hoff  *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
• THE PHILHARMONIC GETS DRESSED – Karla Kuskin / Marc Simont *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
• THE SNOWMAN – Raymond Briggs Classic, what more can be said? *from Steven Malk's list.
• CHRYSANTHEMUM – Kevin Henkes *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
• I'LL FIX ANTHONY – Judith Viorst / Arnold Lobel *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
• MISS NELSON IS MISSING – Harry G. Allard Jr. / James Marshall *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
• TED – Tony DiTerlizzi 
• WILD ABOUT BOOKS – Judy Sierra / Marc Brown 
• BADGER'S FANCY MEAL – Kieko Kasza 
• THE DOG THAT CRIED WOLF – Kieko Kasza 
• SCAREDY SQUIRREL – Melanie Watt 
• TOOT & PUDDLE, A PRESENT FOR TOOT – Holly Hobbie *from Steven Malk's list (LASCBWI12)
• WHAT NEWT COULD DO FOR TUTLE – Jonathan London / Louise Voce 

• GERALDINE, THE MUSIC MOUSE – Leo Lionni
• IN THE RABBIT GARDEN – Leo Lionni 
• THEODORE AND THE TALKING MUSHROOM – Leo Lionni 
• THE ALPHABET TREE – Leo Lionni 
• INCH BY INCH – Leo Lionni 
• LITTLE BLUE AND LITTLE YELLOW – Leo Lionni 
• CYRUS THE UNSINKABLE SEA SERPENT - Bill Peet *I am a long time, huge, Bill Peet fan from childhood. Every time we went to a book store I looked for a new Bill Peet book. *from Steven Malk's list.
• CHESTER'S MASTERPIECE – Melanie Watt 
• AUGUSTINE – Melanie Watt 

*I'm in the middle of one of my first official responsibilities as SCBWI-NM's Illustrator Coordinator: organizing a 2013 Illustrator's Day event for our region. Patti Ann Harris, from Little Brown and Company Books for Young Readers, has graciously agreed to come visit us in NM next year and we're currently planning the event together. As part of this process, I've been reading up on some of Patti Ann's other SCBWI appearances – including the big SCBWI Winter conference in New York, beautifully recapped by my friend Leeza Hernandez here, and SCBWI-Austin, as well as some of the books she's worked on:

• SUBSTITUTE CREACHER – Chris Gall 
• SHARK VS. TRAIN – Chris Barton / TomLichtenheld 
• DAVE THE POTTER – Laban Carrick Hill / Bryan Collier 
• WHEN BOB MET WOODY – Gary Golio / Marc Burckhardt 

*Books I already own/have read, that are also part of Patti Ann's list:
ME… JANE – Patrick
DINOTRUX – Chris Gall

Reading Picture Books, Sans Kid/s

So, I've be a "pre-published" picture book illustrator for more years than I'd like to admit (shortly to to be remedied, hangin' in until November-ish, I think). But after Steven Malk's talk at the the SCBWI LA conference since summer, I brought home his "30 PICTURE BOOKS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW" list and I realized that I really don't read enough picture books. Sure I always pick up a few when I walk into any bookstore, but that's all haphazard and casual, not a conscious effort. So, along with a couple of my critique group partners, I've decided to work picture-book-reading-time into my weekly routine. The goal is at least 10 per week, but sometimes it's more and sometimes it's less, I just fit in what I can. The library is such a blessing. I have to say, the Hold/Inter-Library-Loan system makes it a lot easier for me, even if I do look funny running in and out of the library with massive piles of picture books and no kid attached. I hit the limit a couple weeks back when I checked out my 50th book (that's 50 books checkout AT ONE TIME … *although it took me a couple visits to reach that ;), oops!
So, here are some images to catch you all up on the several weeks this has been going…

Library session #1

Library session #2
+ a small Crockett Johnson book-a-thon

Library session #3
a MASSIVE Leo Lionni book-a-thon
*can you tell I'm also reading The Girl with the Brown Crayon?

Bookstore Session #1, for some fresh new flavors!

Library session #4
+ some more Crockett Johnson love
*starting to mix in suggestions/books my crit partners are reading

Library session #5
+ mixing in suggestions/books my crit partners are reading
*also re-read two childhood-favorite classics, just 'cause I love them

Illustration Friday: PREPARE

I actually started this on Friday, and got it mostly done… but it's been a crazy few days and I got side-tracked as per usual. But I've finished this up today and am posting for IF on my birthday… my gift to myself I guess!

What was funny, I made a pear/gorgonzola/pecan salad on Thursday evening, and had drawn it similar to this (only in pen & ink, not pencil -- will post as part of my drawing morning pages in a bit). When I showed it to my friends at our weekly Illustration Friday get-together at the local coffee house, Lynn Platow suggested it would make a great drawing for this week's IF theme. Ha! Not wanting to "cheat", I decided to make a new drawing, in pencil, based on the salad I made for lunch on Friday. If I'd done it to the right template, this could totally work for TDAC. LOL


BTW, I totally did this on the fly… remembering the ingredients and picturing them in my head. Sometimes it's good to draw from life, sometime it's okay to make it up as you. ;)

PiBoIdMo 2011 - Winner!

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed
the PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,
and will, to the best of my ability,
parlay my ideas into picture book manuscripts.

My second year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month 2011 (#PiBoIdMo) was another success. Once again, I find myself thinking… this is really something I should do everyday, keep this list going all year long… or at the very least, find a way to make it a more regular practice. Of course, I've got two long lists to work through, and this year I'm more interested in the follow-through of the these ideas. The next step… turning these ideas into real books!

Illustration Friday: SILENT

I'm not quite sure how I landed on this process of doing TWO drawings for Illustration Friday, but this make two weeks in a row.
Trying to limit myself to line drawings for the time being, just as a challenge.
What is it about wombats that's so darn CUTE!?

Illustration Friday: STRIPES

Well, since I didn't finish my drawing last Friday, I've had a few days to think about this one and I ended up with two cute little line drawings for Illustration Friday.

Illustration Friday: SCARY

If there's one thing getting back into IF is teaching me… it's that I really don't like the way I draw stylized people. Gimme a reference and I can draw it well… but I just can't "imagine" them like I can animals… sensing a new self-challenge may come of this.