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 . . .

New Images on Society 6 (and a sale)

I have several new images up on Society 6. I'm happy to report that they've recently expanded their line. Images are now available on children's and infant's clothing as well as mugs, stationery, electronic cases & skins, even clocks. Have a look-see.

Bloom Where you grow framed print

Bunny children's t-shirt

Good Boy framed print

Nordic Kids tote bag

Nordic Kids ipad skin

Shepherdess pillow

Shepherding In Spring

Here's a little something I did in celebration of spring. Thank heavens for blue skies and green grass!

Character Designs

The main character design for my current project, ChefArella, has been approved. Huzzah! She's cute, no?

These were my original sketches (below). Ultimately, we decided to go a little younger. She's cute, but not quite right for the project. Who knows, maybe she'll re-incarnate in my work somewhere else, one day.

Nordic Kids Postcards

They're here! I have new postcards. OK, I realize it's March and most of the snow is gone. But, as usual, I'm a little late posting. These actually went out last month. I've had this image on my site for a while, now. I posted the original (and a close-up) below for better viewing. I wanted to go a little moodier for the postcard, and darkened the background. I went with Vistaprint again, and re-used my design from the last postcard. Coincidentally, the dots and half-dot elements mirror the gingerbread details on the house, and the logo looks a little like a moon. Perfect!

I did a little winterizing of my logo. Here's a close-up.

Visions of Sugar Plums Dance in my head

As promised, here is a peek at some more of the work that has kept me en pointe  lately.

Please welcome our next guest. She isn't a sugar plum, but she could teach you to make one, and she dances (though, admittedly, not well);

she's ChefArella!

ChefArella Is a rhyming story about a princess who wants to be a chef, but whose mother insists princesses should be ballerinas.

If all goes well, the story will be self-published by the author sometime next year (cross your fingers). I have been contracted to do some editing and illustrating.

I recently finished a mock-up, or "dummy" for the project. A dummy allows you to see how the book will split into pages and where the text will fall. It's a rather involved process, but a lot of fun. 

 For now, I will post some of my favorite thumbnails from the dummy. 

No Longer November

Obviously, it's no longer November. The last time I posted, I was excited about NaNoWriMo. Did I "win"?
"We all won!" the cheerily inclusive voice in my head exclaims.
"Ummm . . . no," the hard-boiled voice corrects, "don't be obnoxious."

So, to be honest, no, I didn't write the 50,000 words that I wanted to write in November. I did write about 27,500 words (to make a total of 32,088) for which I am justly proud.

I meant to write the extra 22,471 but life happened instead. To be exact, some jobs happened . . . all at the same time. Wanna see?

Here are a couple of coloring book covers created in Illustrator (or parts of them). They're highly Christmas appropriate, no?

. . . and a few interiors (drawn in Photoshop):

There is another project that has kept me busy lately, and I'm excited to share it with you all. I'll leave you with the tantalizing promise to post about it soon. Really.