My First SCBWI conference was an EDUCATION! Let the WORK begin!

School may be out, but now the work begins. My recent "education" was my first SCBWI conference in Princeton NJ in June 2016. Being an attendee, I have special privileges to send work to agents within a window of 1 month to 1 year. I am self-examining and say, "Do I have anything ready for submission?"
At the conference, I displayed my portfolio and viewed the displayed portfolios. There were illustrations submitted for judging...my spot was an empty space on the ledge–Just not enough time to even think about it before leaving on "the California Tour."  Having just returned from 3-plus weeks in CA promoting PLAYMATES FOR PUPPIES© by Roz Silva, published by Dayton Publishing, LLC. I flew by the seat of my pants and drove to Princeton for two days of listening, exchanging ideas, absorbing like a sponge, and frantic note-taking. As I perused the displays of various portfolios, I saw that I was lacking certain elements. Time to make "to-do" lists, and GET TO WORK!

The Journey of Creating a "VOICE" within the Development of a Children's Book

Above are Tank and Topo from Playmates for Puppies to be published May 2016, prequel to Three Tales, Four Dogs ©2015.  Below them are their "co-stars" from this second children's book by author Roz Silva and publisher Dayton Publishing.

Seems like I have been working on this second children's book "forever," but in reality, from conception to finish, THE JOURNEY is months of changes, tweaks, and just plain fortitude. One ebbs and flows through the excitement of creating the characters to the tweaking and tweaking and TWEAKING to get the characters to appear the same on each page. I don't think I realized how hard this would be over a period of months. I even find I am doubting myself by saying, "Are you sure you really want to be an illustrator of children's books?" And another exasperated "self-comment" is "I am so OVER THIS!"

This book has had me combing through reference material on drawing all kinds of houses, trucks, people, and DOGS! A good training, I suppose, but I still question, "Where am I?" My art toggles back and forth from cartoon images to realistic watercolor images, as I am also a trained fine artist. I bring some of the fine art skills into my cartoon images, and sometimes lose my way. My schizophrenic mind of silly to serious gets confused sometimes. Still, in all, I have created, or am in the process of creating, my "voice."

Puppies, Puppies and More Puppies!!!

Been a busy summer and I realize I have not posted in almost 2 months.

I am presently working on illustration for a prequel to my first children's picture book, Three Tales, Four Dogs by Roz Silva. With the help of Linnea Dayton, publisher of Dayton Publishing, we are attempting to carve out a picture of Tank's neighborhood approximately two years before the Three Tales story, "Tank Takes It All."

Take a walk through the neighborhood with the curious basset, Little Tank, and his inquisitive dachshund companion, Topo. Though new to the puppies, it will be an all too familiar journey for the reader in Anytown, USA, with a wonderful surprise at the end of the walk for the peppy puppies.

See preliminary sketches of Little Tank and Topo:

Little Tank

Topo

Plein Air Painter in Jersey Jungle Needs a Break!

My more recent watercolor classes have been plein air. What a challenge this New Jersey Jungle is! For those of you who have seen my FB posted watercolors and studies of "The Smokehouse"--enough of that! Trying to train my eyes, but "are we having fun yet?" So much rain! So much GREEN! So many shades of GREEN!

While on my visit to CA, I took some pictures of my green thumb friend's balcony. Painting the colorful succulents is a nice break. This is a study for the eventual watercolor painting.

The Isolated Life of the Artist–What is "GOOD?"

This drawing started on a vomit bag on a flight from San Diego (it was the closest thing to drawing paper I could find). I was inspired to write a story about a little girl who had a favorite uncle who was an entomologist. He arrived from the jungles of South America (at least that is where the story is for now) on her birthday and gifted her a headlamp. How the story evolves is still to be sorted out. The story is "shelved" for the time being, but its genesis provided fodder for illustrations. I have gone back and forth on Hannah's expression, the "buggy" birthday elements, the contrast, does the final art capture the original energy? etc...What works? What doesn't? What will a publisher think? See what you think!

"BOUNCE"

June 2015 entry for SCBWI  gallery for "DRAW THIS."  The word of the month is BOUNCE.

"Trampoline" was the first thing that came to mind..."pure" as opposed to other interpretations of "Bounce" i.e., "bounced checks", "bounced from a bar", or "bounce from job to job", or even "bounce back."

My neighborhood is changing, house by house, as younger neighbors are replacing the older. Two doors down from my house, the "squeak-a-squeak-a-squeak" of the trampoline, reminds me of the trampoline that sat in our backyard for years...Once my girls were done with that jumping period of their lives, they used it as a place for "girl-chat".

Change is inevitable, and I always hope that I "keep on bouncing" as those changes come my way.

My "Flying Companions"

I am soon flying to San Diego with Tank, Fluffy, Rocky & Ready to promote our new children's picture book, Three Tales, Four Dogs, by Roz Silva and illustrated by me, Sue Ann Erickson.

I will make sure Tank has a seatbelt on. He tends to wander and "borrow" things, and before you know it, the mess is everywhere!...not to mention some little girl crying that her iPad or teddy bear has "disappeared."

Scaredy-Cat Fluffy will be in my lap, as we take off. She'll be shivering through security before that! She's so afraid of everything...EXCEPT the Big Blue Garbage Truck!

Rocky and Ready are looking forward to the snacks–probably pretzels....I don't think airlines pass out peanuts anymore...good thing!! as Rocky's peanut allergy flared up at the pool party picnic in Bradley's big backyard last summer!

We should have 3 wonderful weeks in San Diego, as children get to know and love us!!!

Three Tales, Four Dogs by Roz Silva, illustrated by Sue Ann Erickson is available @amazon.com and other booksellers.
Published by Dayton Publishing LLC, Solana Beach CA (www.daytonpublishing.com)