Portrait 1

I don't usually do portraits except for family members as gifts...it's been a while. Portraits are hard, especially when you know the person you are drawing. You know if you haven't captured that glint of mischief in their eye or that smirk they always make. But my hairstylist asked me to do some trade work...she does my hair (multiple times) and I draw portraits of her 2 kids. We worked out the monetary values and we're both excited for the agreement. Here's the first portrait...it's of her oldest daughter. It's done with conte crayon and some pastel pencil on canson paper. The paper was more rough than I remembered but I think the portrait turned out well. I bring it to her today...hope she likes it!

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Happiest Mommy Ever! Mother's Day Signings

I just thought I'd let everyone know, I'll be signing my latest book (that I illustrated) "The Happiest Mommy Ever!" (written by Alice Furniss and published by Deseret Book) at many locations in the next month before Mother's Day. It's the perfect gift for any mom out there...young or old. I had so much fun illustrating it and was able to put in a lot of personal things...I used my daughter as a model, a few scrapbook photos of my own were referenced from when I had my first baby and when he graduated preschool, my wedding photo, and there is even one of my little kids' baby footprints in the book. It's a sweet story about finding out what makes mom the happiest mommy ever. I couldn't be happier with the way the art and design turned out.

Here's the schedule of signings...

Saturday, March 28th 12noon-2pm : Seagull Book in Spanish Fork, UT (on Main street)
Saturday, April 4th 6-8 pm; Ladies Night at the Deseret Book at University Mall in Orem, UT
Saturday, April 18th 10 am; Juab County Library
Saturday, May 2nd 2pm: at the Purple Cow bookstore in Toole, UT

I'd love to see you there!!!

Or if you can't make it, go purchase it online here...

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School Visits and Literacy Day

As I've said before, part of the job of being a book illustrator, is that you get to go out and present what you do and how you do it to kids, adults, writers, artists. Well this Friday, the 27th, I'm going to speak at Daybreak Elementary School out near Kearns, UT from 2-4pm. So if any of you live close by, feel free to come heckle me.

In addition, I'll be presenting (about illustrating children's books) at the Spanish Fork City Library's Literacy Day on Saturday, February 28th from 2-4pm. It's on Spanish Fork Main Street and Center. Come on by for fun and books! Both events are free!

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Book Dummy Redo

Sorry I'm not posting regularly...I've been really busy finishing up stages of jobs. And two minutes ago, I finished the final layout and redo of my book dummy for "Tickle, Tickle! Itch, Twitch!" a book I wrote as well as illustrated. Marshall Cavendish publishing acquired the book last fall and I've been working on revisions with them. But LONG ago I came up with the idea of writing a story about a cute little groundhog who gets an itch on his back he just can't reach to scratch, and all the adventures he goes through to get this itch scratched. Anyway, I'm really pleased with the outcome of the dummy redo. The suggestions of the editor were great and the book is only better now. And I'm glad I got it done on time.

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A Little Press

So, after nearly 8 years on the market, the first picture book I illustrated got some major TV publicity just last week. Our local morning TV talkshow featured it for a few seconds. If you skip ahead to the 3 minute 11 second mark, you can see the little blurb. I didn't see the show that day, but plenty of friend have told me about it. So I had to share! (too bad they don't mention the illustrator...oh well, this will sell books anyway). You have to wait through the short commercial first though.

Or you can go here to see and read about it...

VIDEO PRESS

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Release Date Scheduled

My next picture book to come out is called, "The Happiest Mommy Ever!" by Alice Furniss. It's published by Deseret Book and is their Mother's Day Picture Book for 2009. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The release date is April 1, 2009. That's plenty of time for you to buy one for your own mom before the May Mother's Day. Here's the cover and one of the interior spreads.

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