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I love YouTube, but I have been absent from it for some time due to work + lack of down-time to pick up the camera. I took time out of last weekend to embark on a mini project: complete the tags I've had queuing up for the past couple months. Introducing: TAG WEEK! Everyday, for 5-ish days, I released a video, answering questions proposed by the tag creators. This launched Sunday, April 19th, and lasted until Friday, April 24th. So… 6 days. I did record the videos in one "sitting," hence why I'm wearing the same outfit in each post. But give me an A+ for consistency! Sunday, April 19: Unpopular Opinions Book Tag Monday, April 20: Page to Screen Book Tag Tuesday, April 21: Anything but Books Tag Wednesday, April 22: (Belated) Pi Day Tag Thursday, April 23: Drunk Book Tag Friday, April 24: The Book Pusher Tag. This is the first original book tag! If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that I'm WAY...

Hello February! It's nice to see your pretty face. As I wrapped up the end of January, I closed up my 2019 updates... at least with reading. I weighed out the "yeah's" with a top ten books of the year: Naturally, that was balanced out with the "meh's": A core goal with my channel is to merge my creative life with leisure reads, by crafting around a piece of text which inspired my engagement. Thanks to January, I have my first project planned. I will film it this coming week after I get my first (ever) professional manicure! I should point out that an ulterior motivation to start my channel was to help me quit biting my nails. What did I say about no New Years Resolutions? If my fingers are going to be center stage, I need not apologize for their... lack of nail-age. 100% of my channel is driven by self-improvement, and that includes finger "impressions". So looking at January in the rear-view mirror, it was a hectic month for me p...

Basking Lion doodle (left). Actual Basking Lion (right) from the Franklin Park Zoo. Here's a mini rewind of the past couple weeks: Unfortunately, The Elephant Listening Project and I did not win the AE Roastery and Tea Earth Day coffee label contest . We'll get 'em next time! Congratulations to the winning Daddy-Daughter team (aww!) A teeny-tiny visit to the MFA (so small in fact, I'm plotting a re-visit for mid-April). I made a brief trip to the Franklin Park Zoo to spy on some of the cool-temp tolerant critters. The Zoo trip was very brief, due to my sudden spite for the cold weather. It probably didn't help that I lacked a hat and scarf, and had to keep pulling my mittens off to take a picture, or doodle in my sketchbook. I visited for the wildebeest, and I'm planning a return when the zoo "unpacks" the giraffe. Shocked, I was to see Zebras (one of which wasn't even a month old!) and Ostriches, romping around in the New England bree...

Sketches & cover ideas for Plank & Pancake I follow enough librarians on Twitter to know that it's really that book cover that wins a reader's attention. It's also interesting to know that the book COVER, (though the first taste to the overall book experience,) is usually the LAST bit designed to complete the story. It's the reader's first introduction - that first impression, so you want it to be a good one. As I work on my first picture book dummy, I am piecing together a cover to make my story feel polished. Then this morning I couldn't help but think what would Master Kidd do ? Chip Kidd is well respected as one of the "Kings of book coverings. Though the titles linked to his name are actually novels, his Ted presentation is an excellent example of how he deconstructs a book to build upon the story it encases.  All this can be applied to Picture Books as well. One just has to be consistent with the book's illustration style....