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illustrator-sam.com  -- website update! Gone Conferencing! The website has been updated with a fresh coat of (digital) paint, and new pieces born since the New England SCBWI Conference . Now I'm setting off for the West Coast for the Biggie Conference in Los Angeles. Hope to see some of you there, and for those not attending, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators will be blogging and Tweeting the whole shebang here (blog) and here (twitter feed or follow #LA13SCBWI). I'm ready for some learning!

I flourished despite about 50 disputes with a container of Mod Podge: "Flourish" decorative collage. I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I nearly (and am still tempted to) tear up a huge wad of tissue/tracing/velum/watercolor papers and just spell out the word "SHIT!" I didn't think it would be appropriate for the class, it seemed resentful. It does sound snarky and negative, but I can see it... "Shit" would be fun. Who wouldn't want a big "S-H-I-T" on their wall? Yes, I did swear at my materials about a dozen times before collaging  won me over. I think it's the designing of the composition I like so much... that and transparency papers. Part of the construction of this piece consisted of a fight with a single paint brush, glue, humidity, bleeding inks, and my inability to get a zipper to zip the way I wanted it to. Also I was stabbed by a staple from the zipper package. My grudge against the zipper has passed and I

Meet my egotistical snail! So week #3 from Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells eCourse was all about the Picture Book. "Yay!" I thought. I thought.... Almost there, but no lollipop! We were to either illustrate a book cover or interior spread to a Hans Christen Andersen fable. I chose the spread because I really liked the assortment of possibilities, but I feel like I tried to show too much: "Finished" illustration spread for The Snail and the Rose Tree , by Hans Christen Andersen. The bit I enjoyed the most about this assignment was that we needed to somehow integrate hand-lettering - whether it be the title of the book or text within the story.  I can't explain why I've been dragging my feet on about testing out hand lettering, but I really had fun with this, I just wish I tried illustrating type and hand lettering sooner: Text "Bear Nuts" - Those are Hazelnuts. Text "Give Milk". Text "Grow Roses".