You may have noticed I’ve been lean on the blog entries lately.

I’ve been doing my best to spend more time at the drafting table and less time on-line. Fewer blog posts are a result of that.

But, also a result, is new art!

Here is the image I entered into the Tomie dePaola SCBWI award.

The rules were to illustrate this passage:

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!”

Tomie said he wanted to be jealous of the solution portrayed by each artist’s entry. I don’t know if I accomplished that, but I am pretty pleased with my concept.

It’s a nippy day today. A welcome change from the record breaking heat over 100°F for most of last week. I actually have on a light weight hoody. I love this time of year. Come on fall.

It’s also time once again for a promo postcard. This is the new one I am about to send out.

"Playing Doctor" promo card front

"Alone at Last" promo card back

Emarily aimed carefully before she launched her favorite marble. She couldn’t lose this one to her pesky little brother.

I’ve been hard at work painting the last few days.

Cooking with Momma is an image of two bears making chocolate chip cookies from scratch.

As with any young cook (and sometimes an older one) the batter splashes out of the bowl after a too vigorous stir.

Momma admonishes Baby bear to be more careful.

Baby bear answer that she will try.

Painting images is labor intensive for me, and as result not many other creative things make it off the back burner.

Sometimes I berate myself for not doing the Daily Doodle Challenge, but then I remember the whole point of the challenge is to make sure I am making some kind of art every day. The doodles are for the times when I am not creating something else, or when I need a playful warm-up session with no pressure. I do tend to put a lot of pressure on myself.

Spring 2011 Postcard mailer

I started this a while ago and have been chipping away at it for several weeks in between other projects.

One of the problems of being a freelance illustrator is that when you are busy with paying work, you don’t have time for self promotion. Since I have taken this year off from book touring for health reasons, I have suddenly found “extra” time I haven’t had in the last 5 years of traveling across the country.

Until you are actually doing it, you have no idea how incredibly draining constant travel can be. But that is another story all together.

Since I now have all kinds of gobs of time (insert maniacal laughter here) I have ramped up my artistic output. Along with moving my coloring page schedule from monthly to weekly, I am also renewing my self promotional efforts. Part two of this plan was (and is) to create and mail a quarterly postcard.

This brave heroine on her trusty steed is the first promo piece to be completed in 2011.

There will be some black and white line work on the reverse side of the postcard. The address side. I just have to decide which of my pieces I want to include.

I had fun with this, I hope it shows!