sink

Let's continue with the holiday theme with this poor little penguin.  It's hard to sing well when you're sinking into snow :(

And oh, looky here, another coloring page for you guys:

It's in a weird size but that's part of the fun!

As for picture book tips, we had our last day in class and it was amazing seeing all of my classmate's final projects.  Along with two finalized illustrations, we submitted a manuscript, cover letter, and dummy for our picture books.

If you're wondering, a dummy is a very rough mockup of your entire picture book.  Yellapalooza has a great site that goes into detail about making a proper dummy book.  This is what mine ended up looking like:

I spent a little extra money to get it stapled and printed professionally, but some dummies can be as simple as black and white print outs taped back to back.  A dummy is basically there to help you get a sense of your book's overall pacing and rhythm (for both the words and the illustrations).  I found the process very helpful!

I probably won't be updating until next year, so I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.  See you on the other side folks :)

separated

Cats are sneaky. . .I've always been on my guard around them. . and here's a reason why!  The poor snowman got separated from his own body :(

And here's another coloring holiday treat:

Feel free to share your masterpieces in the comments section!

As for picture books, here are a few very helpful resources:

--Picture This:  a blog created by a group of well known and respected illustrators in the industry.  It's always chock full of recent picture book news.

--Love Sketch Books:  this is a blog started by my talented classmate Sungyeon.  The blog showcases gorgeous picture books from all over the world. 

So tip of the day: peruse these blogs and get inspired!

brigade

This is the final scene from a story I'm working on for the picture book class.  Here, Captain Cluck's brigade of pigships brings back their farm animal captors and sets them loose on their own version of paradise.  Check out the corn river and mud fountains. . sweeeet.

During the past few weeks, this illustration went through several iterations:

I first roughly mapped out the composition in pencil.

Here was my color study.  This basically helped me figure out my palette and saturation levels for the piece.

This was my first painted draft.  With feedback, I ended up taking away the sun and moving the background scene lower because they were pulling focus away from the middle and foreground.  Also, the monitor screen and font were in an awkward position and style, so that was also changed.

I can't emphasize how important it was to have my classmates' feedback throughout this process.  They really helped me tighten up the composition.  My friends at the Illopond helped me many times as well.  I'm still not sure if it's quite finished, but I definitely think the illustration has come a long way.

So I guess that's my picture book tip for the week: revise revise revise. . and in between, get feedback from people you respect and trust!