Resolutions

It’s that time of year – time to think about what needs fixing, what needs attention in the next year. I’m not going to go into personal things like pounds to be shed, coupons to be clipped or laps to be swum. Instead I will focus on my career and the bordering personal habits that affect it.

I try to acquire a new skill every year. One year it was juggling, another it was to grasp fundamental Photoshop use, another it was rhyme and meter in poetry. Judging by the many cookbooks my family gave me this year for Christmas they would like my next skill to be cooking a palatable meal. That is what take-out is for, though. This year the little nag in my head is saying “write something, write something”. Last year I did write things – many more than I have for years. I wrote a few articles and the poems in my ABC book. I resolve to face the challenges of plot and character development, maybe even dialog (shudder).

I seldom had time to track down photo reference in the hectic years I spent storyboarding. Old habits are hard to break and I still work primarily without reference. I believe that relying on reference is limiting, especially when using existing images on the internet or in print resources like books or a photo morgue. It is too tempting to adapt the drawing to the reference available. I like to do my initial composition sketches first and then track down help so I am not overly influenced by existing images. However there are times when I find myself just sort of muddling through, relying on “style” to shore up a weak drawing - in other words – I fake it. I resolve to use my camera more and set up my own reference once I have established my composition.

Sometimes I get so focused on my own artistic standards that I simply forget the ultimate purpose of what I am working on. I resolve to serve the story and worry less about technical proficiency. The technique will take care of itself with practice; the real strength in a successful piece of art is the process going on in my head – not my hands.


I’m a mother, a wife, and a professional and we all know what that means – serious juggling is going on in my every day life. I keep a book bag filled with stories to read and sketching materials when I am sitting at the ball field waiting on my kids. I shelve books at the school media center once a week. It gives me face time at the school and I get to look through all the marvelous books when the librarians aren’t watching. I load my head with a concept to resolve or ideas to expand on when I walk the dog every morning. I never just sit in the car line at school – I come prepared with notebooks to scribble in, mail to read, calls to return. A trip to the bathroom – well, you get the idea. All this muti-tasking makes me feel like I am only getting pieces of things though. I have missed my daughter’s great play at third base because I was busy drawing. I didn’t see the dazzle of golden leaves against a blue autumn sky because I was trying to find a visual metaphor for high employee turnover. I resolve to continue my quest for ultimate efficiency but to permit myself to be downright wasteful sometimes.

A little bit of quiet time in my head goes a long way. Just a little – too much and I start to dream so big I get overwhelmed. Little bites, little bits of time to let my mind wander, to consider things. When my head is full of deadline worries and obligations there is no room for creativity. I resolve to daydream. I resolve to make dumb jokes and to be goofy. I resolve to let my mind wander whatever path it will.

An Exceptional Year

A little while after my youngest child was born I began my journey into children’s illustration. It wasn’t without a little nagging from my husband. After years and years of doing art for grown-ups I just didn’t see myself doing art for kids. As my children got older and I started to read picture books to them it became clear to me what a glorious niche this was. My first baby steps into what seemed an easy career change turned out to be a path full of hurdles. My husband’s twelve year freelance career came to a crashing halt and culminated in a very unwelcome cross country move that uprooted us from our beloved Ohio town. I felt ungrounded and isolated and my career – well, what career? Not too long after the big upheaval, we moved again. This time we landed fortuitously just as the year 2004 came to a close.

Well okay, technically we moved in the autumn of 2004, but I consider the move to be official when the boxes are unpacked and that put us well into the new year - 2005. The kids are thriving, my marriage is strong, and my toddling career has gained some momentum. The internet has given me a virtual community of peers that gives me daily contact, advice and support that brought me out of my isolation. In my new home I have found a real community through our regional chapter of SCBWI that has allowed me to put down the roots that are essential to me.

Early in 2005 I completed a manuscript and dummy to enter in the SCBWI Don Freeman Memorial Grant in Aid. Finishing this undertaking was accomplishment enough. In the spring I was notified that I had won the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for illustration for 2004. That took the sting out of the rejection letter from a publisher that came in the same day’s mail. Soon after, however, I was offered my first contract to illustrate a picture book, One Odd Day by Sylvan Dell Publishing (see below). This has been such a rewarding project for me. After all those years of working to build my skills I was finally able to test whether I had the chops to do a picture book. I do! I really do! In October I received a phone call from author Bruce Coville. I met Mr. Coville just a few weeks earlier at the SCBWI Carolinas conference and assumed his call had something to do with that – like I had dropped my purse and he was calling to return it. What I came to understand after the initial shock and apparent loss of function to my speech center was that I had been awarded runner-up for the Don Freeman Grant.

Today, with a decidedly shaky signature, I have become a children’s book author as well. My book, Alphabet Safari will be published by Sylvan Dell Publishing in Spring of 2007. The sequel to One Odd Day has also been signed into contract for Fall 2007. I couldn’t have hoped for a better finale to what has been a fantastic year. When I am old and doddering I am sure I will say “Ahhh, oh-five, now that was a good year.”