Goodbye Sarah

I am sorry to report that Sarah Tommer has left our Creative Cup blog, due to illness and not being able to illustrate at the moment.

We're sorry to see you go Sarah and hope that you'll be back very soon!!!

All the best to you

..released today

Hi Everyone, big day...my first children's book was released today http://tinyurl.com/ybgk3hs An exciting day for my family and I. Just thought I would share it with you.

New Book News

Just thought I'd announce here some very exciting news! I have just started work on illustrating a book for HarperCollins Australia - a Christmas book that will be out for Xmas 2010. I can't say much about it at this point, but am very excited to be working on it!! I'll be posting as many sketches and thoughts about the process as I can on my blog.

Illustration Friday: Tango

First Tango

I'm listening to The Tango Lesson, which I can "hear" from my latest illustration, First Tango. Like first love, the dance is intimate yet exhilarating.

Would love some feedback as people are hard to capture in collage.

I'm hearing crickets out there...but I'm not giving up! Yoo-whoo! Where are you?

Illustration Friday: Drifting

Ticket to Ride / White Ticket Fence

Just playing around while I wait to hear something/anything from publishers. I mailed off my stuff and am "relaxing" before I hit my next project. How's everyone doing out there?

Hello? Is this thing on?

Staying On Top of Things

April's Picnic

Thank you, Princess Tomato, for the reminder to stay on top of things! I'm happy to report that since my last post I finished the birthday image (above) and have that off my plate.

I finished perusing my marketing book and found 20 or so publishers that would receive unsolicited manuscripts. I visited their websites to get the latest submission requirements and review the types of books they publish. After the website research my list of publishers dwindled to 12.

I am now in the process of reviewing my images since they are 3 years old already. I'm doing some retouches this week. By early next week, my plan is to have my materials printed and mailed to the chosen twelve!

Once those are "cooking" at the publishers, I will prepare my marketing materials and send illustration samples to other publishing houses. AND while those illustration samples are "cooking", I'll work on my next book idea :)

I'm back, baby! Slow moving...but back.

What are you up to?

Hi everyone. Thought I would share what I'm up to these days. I'm currently working on a personal image, an illustration for a friend's birthday. I'm almost done and then I'll share it...it's taken me quite some time to get motivated! Whenever I get some free time I just want to relax and regroup for the next toddler marathon!

After I get done with my image, I want to dig into my marketing book. I've written some prose several years ago and, knowing that I won't be able to illustrate all that with my time restraints...want to just send it out as a manuscript. I also have done NOTHING with my ABC book that I keep meaning to send out...and I want to do that too. No distractions this time!

Any advice on sending stuff to publishers? Do I literally need to make a dummy book? Or can I send a couple sheets with the alphabet pics on them?

What's everyone else up to these days?

Hope you're all doing well!