Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Mug Winner!

Back in July, I was featured on Kathy Temean's blog, Writing and Illustrating. If you missed it, check it out here. I decided to give away a mug from my society6 shop as part of the post.


 I am happy to announce Cathy Hall (writer and fellow SCBWI member) is the lucky winner! After much deliberation, she chose the Pop! Owls design for her mug. Now this happy little mug is bound for Georgia where I'm sure it will spend many a splendid morning in its new owner's clutch--maybe even assisting (in the form of caffeine conveyance) in the writing of a best seller. Good luck little mug, do your best!


Saturday, July 11, 2015

A little Portraiture

The hubby recently recently downloaded this portrait course from Scott Waddell's website. We sat and watched it in silent awe for most of the 149 minutes of its duration. Isn't it mesmerizing to watch a master at their craft? 
The Portrait Course

We concluded that there should definitely be a TV channel dedicated to "people who are really good at stuff, doing said stuff"--but quietly and without showmanship. Just doing it. Imagine whittlers, chefs, potters, bonsai tree pruners, those guys that put ships in bottles. You know what I mean . . . Am I right?

Anyway, it inspired us both to do a little portraiture. Since I'm too squirrely (read impatient) to deal with oils, and since I've been thinking I should do some studies of children anyway, I whipped this up:



I spent about an hour on it in Photoshop. Yes, she's from a photo, and no, she in no way compares to Mr. Waddell's amazing work. But, practice makes perfect, right?

Friday, June 19, 2015

New Jersey SCBWI Annual Summer Conference 2015

OK, yep, so the 2015 NJ SCBWI conference has been over for almost a week and I'm just getting around to posting about it. Give me some slack here, folks. A week is good for me.

There seems to be a general consensus that New Jersey's SCBWI conferences are extremely awesome. I think it has a lot to do with the relatively high staff to participant ratio, and the proximity to NYC's excellent collection of agents and publishers. It also has to do with New Jersey-ites being super cool people.

As a member of the Leigh Street Illustration Critique Group, I was shocked and proud to learn that fellow member, Cathy Thole Daniels will be the new NJ SCBWI  R.A. What an honor for her--and what a responsibility! Congrats, Cathy!

As always, Leigh Street member Karen Romagna did a great job as Illustration Coordinator. Another fellow member, Lisa Falkenstern won Honorable Mention in the Professional Category for her illustration. I must say, we are one fantastic group of ladies!

Lisa Falkenstern's award winning piece

The conference was wonderful and completely exhausting. I did a terrible job of taking photos. Luckily, the always reliable Kathy Teamen has some great photos on her blog here.

Maybe I'll post about some of my more thrilling experiences at the conference soon, but for now, I'll just brag a little about all my plunder.


 I returned home with two new tote bags and a bum-load of books. I have to thank the adorable Meredith Mundy, editor at Sterling, who gave me the tote on the left, and then handed me her raffle tickets. She never knew, but I won the very last raffle with one of her tickets! It was my lucky day meeting Meredith. I can't be sure, but she might be a little bit magical. The raffle tote is signed by The fabulous Floyd Cooper (last year's key-note speaker) and filled with books on which staff members at this year's conference have recently worked. Just check out this haul:


 The other tote, I proceeded to fill with books from attending authors. Did I need more? That's debatable. Could I resist? I think the photos are answer enough:




I don't collect many things, but I cannot resist a signed book. It makes me go "squeeeeee!"


 Even Mona's excited about it. Just look at that face. (And, no, she's not pooping in case you were wondering).


 Now I guess I'll have to sit down and read all of these books. What a terrible task . . .