New Year, New Projects

Plans for 2012 are lining up nicely.  I worked on several new paintings over the holidays, which I will share soon (working on getting a new camera, oh boy!)

As of yesterday, I am participating in kidlitart's  Picture Book Dummy Challenge. I'll be creating my own little mock-picture-book, and it will be done by July. How fun!  I'll keep you posted on my progress.  I'm writing a poem for this project that should be lots of fun to illustrate.  It's still rough, but I thought I'd share a clip: 

When Lily falls asleep, her dreams are full of stars.

She walks on paths of stardust that glitter from afar,

wondering and wandering, as children often are.

Nearby she hears a tiny song, humming through the dark. 

There upon a silver tree, she finds three golden larks.

Three tiny larks with crystal tears, three little broken hearts.

"Oh Lily, dear," sang the first, "Our magic eggs are gone.

The second sang, "An owl came, and took them far from home."

"Come sit inside our wish-tree nest, and tell us where he's gone."

In other news, SCBWI recently announced Yvette Piette Herrera as the winner of the 2012 Tomie dePaola Illustration contest! Congratulations to her and the other people who placed! It was a lot of fun to particpate.  I look forward to trying again next year. 

And last but not least, I've been working on an illustration for a story idea of mine, called "Pia and the Dragon." I faced one main challenge: I've never successfully drawn a dragon before in my life. But after a long afternoon of practice, I think I got the hang of it.

Here's a very early version of Pia and her dragon-friend, based on a beautiful work by one of my art heroes, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.

(Side note, I don't know how this short-winged, barrel-chested dragon would fly... magic?) I later developed Pia to have more spunk and a dare-devil attitude.  The dragon has also morphed into something more my style. I'll share the final composition as soon as I can get a decent photo.  I'm starting the painting tonight, and I'm so excited! Really, this is a lot of fun.

Happy 2012 to all!

Tomie dePaola Award Entry: Chicken Licken

I submitted this entry for the Tomie dePaola award. The winner will be announced on Jan 2! I did my best to put some zany fun energy into it.

So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey
“Good morning, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Henny Penny,
and Chicken Licken,” said Turkey Lurkey, “where are you going?”
“Oh, Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the King!”
“How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Turkey Lurkey.
“Ducky Daddles told me,” said Goosey Loosey.
“Cocky Locky told me,” said Ducky Daddles.
“Henny Penny told me,” said Cocky Locky.
“Chicken Licken told me,” said Henny Penny 
“I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears,
and a piece of it fell on my tail!” said Chicken Licken.
“Then I will go with you,” said Turkey Lurkey, “and we will tell the King!”