A new book has arrived!

After many many months of hard work and then waiting, I am excited to share with you a new book that I illustrated titled "Come Sign with Us: The Adventures of Potts and Friends". Written by Marsha Peterson, "Come Sign with Us" is a teaching resource for young kids to learn the skill of sign language through stories. As Marsha states:

"My son was born with Down Syndrome and later diagnosed with Autism. He started special education services at 7 weeks of age. When he was a year old, his teacher told me that we may need to learn sign language. As a single parent, I had no time to attend classes and I didn't want to use videos. I started reading to my son and found it to be a wonderful experience. He would snuggle next to me and give me his full attention. I decided that teaching sign language through stories would be an excellent way to learn and to teach him. It also provides an activity that teaches others that care for him so they too can communicate. Today my son knows over a 1000 signs and behaviors are controlled without speaking a word. I hope you will love Talking with Baby."

Having worked with Marsha over the course of the last year, I have really come to respect and love what she is doing and I really hope that you will pass this great book onto people in your lives that may have difficulty communicating with their little ones or who simply want to teach their kids sign language. This first book is actually two stories in one. The first story deals with Breakfast time and the second story deals with Bath time, two of the most important aspects of your little ones day! So with that, I will leave you with a couple of images and hope that you will try Talking with Baby when the book launches on June 28th!

Illustration Friday: "Craving"

This is an illustration from my upcoming children's book titled "Come Sign with Us" where baby is learning the signs for the activities surrounding breakfast. Here, baby definitely has a craving for some cereal!

Meet Reno

Happy Sunday everyone. Hard to believe the weekend has come and gone already, but at least it was a relaxing one for a change. Yesterday I actually got a chance to finally clean up the studio and found a nice pair of scissors that I had misplaced a few months back. If only I had moved that pile of crap it was under weeks ago!

Another fun activity that I got to do this weekend was visit Hoofbeats and Heartbeats to get some reference material for the new children's book project i am working on. With that I wanted to introduce you to Reno, the soon to be star of the book. Linda was kind enough to bring Reno in from the back and got him all saddled up for some shots. Here are a few of him



The funniest thing of all though with the visit was all the other horses who were wondering what kind of mischief Reno was getting into(or what kind of treats he was getting more likely). They were all over the back fence area but as soon as Reno went inside they had to take turns looking in to see what he was doing. Nosy I tell ya! I know I am really going to enjoy this project and am going to be anxious to show you more updates as they come! Until then, you will just have to think of all the fun Reno could get into.

An end and a beginning

Over the last couple of weeks, things here in the studio have been quite hectic. One on hand, I was finishing up with a book project, and on the other I was gearing up for another. The good news is that I am done with the one book and have sent the final scans to the designer. It is always such a great feeling to pass the illustrations on to the designer knowing that the final step of the book is near. And then off to the printer once they are done with it. Hopefully I will have some info soon about the final production date of when the book will be out, but it should be late summer/early fall some time.

So, with that out of the studio, I have a great new project that I am going to starting. The children's book that I will now be working on is going to be a fundraising venture for a wonderful non-profit named Hoofbeats and Heartbeats. They are a therapeutic riding and teaching center for individuals and kids with emotional and physical disabilities. Linda Lewis who runs the center is going to be great to work with and has an amazing dedication to not only her horses, but all who come to ride and learn. To get the project kicked off a little bit, I have attached some sketches for "Reno the Palomino". I look forward to sharing more info about this very important project!

Illustration Friday: "cracked"

The door was left cracked a bit..... This is an illustration I did from the children's book titled "Catch the Wind"

Good news Friday

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you have some fun plans for this beautiful weather we have been experiencing. I wanted to end the week on a little bit of good news. I just received word that "The Sick Bug" has just won its 4th award! How exciting it is. It was named a finalist in the Children's Picture Book category for the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Award. One of the great benefits of winning this award is that now the book is going to be promoted at the Book Expo America show out in New York later this month!

In other news, I am down to the last few days on my current children's book and am excited to be getting so close to the end! I can't wait to see what the designer does from there and then of course the book coming out later this year! I will keep you posted when I have some more info on the release date. Until then, have a great weekend and will be back beginning of next week!

Illustration Friday: "Contagious #2"

Isn't happiness Contagious. This is an illustration from my upcoming book "A Path to Forgiveness" to come out later this year!

Illustration Friday: "Contagious"

Thought this was a fitting image. It is from a children's book I illustrated titled "The Sick Bug".

Recycling an old painting

Often in my studio work, I will decide to do some painting and realize that I have many unfinished starts to paintings lying around. I know I should finish these pieces, but when it comes down to it, some of them I just won't ever get the excitement back into it. So what to do with these paintings that have started, yet never been realized. Well, today I re-energized one of the them and started a new painting right over the top! What better way to recycle and reuse than to paint over existing work! As you can see by these two images, the image has drastically changed from one of a landscape to a closeup of some of the flowering cacti that I came across a couple of weeks ago. I don't know why these cacti have kept my attention, but for some reason I have to paint them. So look for updates in the next few weeks as the progress on these continue. Now I just have to decide if it is going to be a chunky painting done with a palette knife or a work with brush. PS, the first image I had already started sketching a couple of lines when I decided to take the picture, so sorry I don't have an image of the old piece without any new lines over it.

Mo Willems on NPR

One of my favorite author/illustrators out there in the land of children's books is the multi talented Mo Willems. You might recognize his name from a number of award winning series of books which include "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and the Knuffle Bunny Series. Recently he did a wonderful interview for NPR dealing with "Getting Adults to Draw" and the reasoning behind why they don't anymore. It is really a wonderful listen and would suggest you check it out here. Also a fun link is to his website. Hope you enjoy and get back to doodling!

Art in Bloom Street Painting

This years "Art in Bloom" at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was a mix of beautiful spring weather and lots and lots of people. I had the joy of recreating Cy DeCosse's "White Lotus" for the Saturday festivities. Given the fact I only had a little more than three hours, I think the piece turned out rather well. This street painting measured 7' x 7'. Also, I have decided to start a blog with my street painting images. The reason behind it is to allow for a quick and easy way for people to check out the work that I have done at festivals and events more easily. Just for your sake, the post on there now is actually the same as here, but is fun to check out the new link anyways! I just started it so it only has a few posts, but I will be sure to get more of the images I have done over the years up on the blog soon. You can get there by clicking here

Some great news for "Catch the Wind"

Happy Friday every one! What a Friday it was. One of the great things as an illustrator of books that happens every now and then is the recognition of a book that one has worked on. In the recent past, the news has usually focused around a great project I was involved with titled "The Sick Bug". Today's email that I received though was focused on another fun book I illustrated titled Catch the Wind which was a project by Mortenson Companies on Wind energy. To my surprise, "Catch the Wind" has won not one award, but three! You can imagine how excited I was and couldn't hold in the news much longer. The good thing here is I won't have to take up three separate blog posts to announce them, just this one. But there is a definite congrats that goes out to all involved in the book and a toast to boot! So here are the recent awards for "Catch the Wind"

1. A silver medal in the MIPA awards

2. A Silver Nautilus Award

3. And a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award

Thanks again to all of you who have helped support this great venture and hope that this is just the beginning of more news to come!

Art in Bloom 2009

Spring has officially arrived here in Minnesota. It is that time of year for the annual "Art in Bloom" at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. With 4 days to discover the beautiful art and floral arrangements that were inspired by the art itself, it is sure to be a great time. And if that isn't enough to get you to come down to the museum, I will be doing some chalk street painting all day Saturday. What better way to spend a Saturday? So come on down, say hi, and wander the galleries. It is sure to be a great time. With that, I will leave you with this Art in Bloom inspired sketch of my own. You never know what the floral arrangements might truly be inspired by!



As for the location of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, it is at:

2400 3rd Ave South
MInneapolis, MN 55404
"Click for Map"

illustration Friday: "Theater"

This is an illustration I did for a memior called "On the other side of the Ocean". It is of opening night at the theater!

Back to the grind

After recklessly enjoying a week off last week in the sun during a deadline, I am back to the grind in the studio. Even though it was a lot of time away from the paints, I think it actually did me good to get away and refocus a little bit. I find myself more energetic and excited to dig in and get this book project complete (which is due in like 3 weeks). The illustration that you see is one from the book titled "A Path to Forgiveness". It is going to be so much fun to see it all come together these last three weeks and can't wait to show you more as I am able to! Until then, enjoy this piece and check back soon for other little sneak peaks

Chihuly: Nature of Glass

One of the great pleasures from this weeks trip to Arizona was a visit to the exhibit "Chihuly: Nature of Glass" at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Having seen many of Chihuly's pieces before, I was not prepared for the immensity of what I was to see. Not only was the gardens a perfect fit for his work, but the day was as great as it could get with temps in the 70's. It truly is amazing how an ordinary space can be transformed through one artists vision. Overall, the piece that spoke the most to me was the "Blue and Purple Boat".


And then the "Blue Polyvitro Crystals"


And then...... Sorry, I could go on and on about all the beautiful pieces.






There were also some natural surprises as well with some of the blooming plants.

Off to catch some sun!

Happy Easter weekend to you all. I hope you have some wonderful plans to be with family and friends. I know I will be enjoying not only the company of my family, but also the beautiful sunshine that only Arizona can offer! I will be sure to share with you the amazing photos that I capture of the landscape while I am out there. Until then, TGIF!

Making a push before the trip

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend and were able to get some fun activities in. Things here have been pretty busy lately with lots of illustrations needing to get done and a shorter and shorter window to do them in. So with a trip to Arizona coming up at the end of the week, it is going to be a crazy busy week. The good thing though is it is really exciting to see the progress of the illustrations come together. To give you a little tease of one that is in its beginning stages, I have attached a photo of its progress. I know it isn't going to look like this when it is done, but wanted to show you how it looks now. Hope you like and wishing you all a productive week!

Illustration Friday: "Talisman"

Before Ned could go out and scare the local children during the night, he had to make sure he carried his lucky Talisman around his neck. I guess even scary things need something to protect them!

Festival of Children's literature

Coming up in a few short weeks is going to be a great event at Open Book in downtown Minneapolis. Not only will the"Reflections" show that I spoke of earlier be on display, but there will be a great festival full of wonderful opportunities and workshops galore. The"Festival of Children's Literature" will be held the weekend of April 18 and 19 at Open Book in Minneapolis. It is sure to be a great time with speakers ranging from Novelists, publishers, and literary agents. Beings this is my first time going, I am anxious to see all that goes on since I have heard great things from it in the past. For those of you interested in going, the information is as follows.

Festival of Children's Literature and Young Adult Literature & Illustration
Saturday and Sunday, April 18-19, 2009
Open Book in Minneapolis
1011 Washington Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Cost

$ 265 for Loft Members
$ 280 for non members
$ 265 for members of MNSCBWI

Chalk Street Art and supplies

As the spring weather gets better and better, I am anxiously awaiting a fun event that will be happening at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in a little more than a month. Art in Bloom is a great fundraising event that the Friends of the Institute put together and help raise money for the Friends Children's Fund. This year I will be doing 2 sidewalk chalk paintings and am going to have a blast, weather permitting of course. So with that, I have been busy getting the supplies of chalk that I will be needing and wanted to share with you some of the ones that I have had success with! The biggest problem I had up until I bought the chalk backpack below was how to get all of the messy chalk out to events that were across town. I have really come to love this tackle box that I picked up at Cabelas. It allows me to store my chalk and still be able to look into it without having to open up each of the plastic bins.




So onto the most important aspect of any chalk artist and that is the CHALK/PASTEL. Over the years I have come to find varieties that work well for me on surfaces including concrete, asphalt, and bricks. The one that is always my go to is the brand of Koss. I have really loved this semi hard chalk and its brillant colors that it brings. The only problem is that it is not the most readily available, but worth the shipping costs to get it. Most of the time with Koss, I will order the 48 stick packs and they are usually around $20 each set.


Another variety that I really love to use is the Reeves pastels. I know that these tend to be on the lower end of the quality scale but when you are painting on concrete, you can go through tons of chalk in a hurry. It just isn't feasible to use high quality like Unison, you would go broke if you did. Anyways, Reeves provides a great foundation to get your images started and can be a very useful and inexpensive product. With these, the sets of 12 can usually be bought for around $4 and the sets of 36 can be attained for around $9


A third great option that I like to use is chalk from "Eternity Arts". It is larger in size, but works great for a quick layer of color. It also is used by some of the well known sidewalk artists such as "Tracy Lee Stum". These sticks of chalk are available in sets of 72 or 35 or by individual sticks for around 90 cents a piece.


Finally, there are other options when it come to pastels, I would just suggest that you find the manufacturers that you like. Others that I use here and there include Unison, Sennelier, and Rembrant. So as you can see, there isn't any one chalk that is out there, but by mixing and utilizing the different brands, you can attain the best images for the sidewalk! The one below was one I did from a mixture of Koss and Reeves.

And the winners are........

What a fun evening last night was! I attended the opening reception of "Reflections" at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts and had a wonderful time mingling with fellow illustrators and poets and perusing the beautiful work that was juried into the show. "Reflections" was a two year long competition between the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts and the "Minnesota Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)". It started with a poetry competition last year that produced 5 wonderful poems that turned into this years illustration competition to illustrate them. I was fortunate enough to have been juried into the show and as you will see below, a little more excitement came at the opening. Here are some shots from the show



This is the piece of mine that was juried into the show for the poem "Two-Wheeler" by Jane Thomas Noland



AND THE WINNERS ARE........

So onto some really exciting news, the awards. The awards for the show included three honorable mentions, three first place for each category and an overall Best of Show. With that I was so proud to see my fellow friends and illustrators Nina Crittenden and Barb Bjornson receive honorable mentions for their pieces. In Nina's case, it really shows how much of a great track she is on to becoming an up and coming illustrator in the children's market. Way to go both of you. Your pieces were wonderful. And then just when I thought the evening was done, there was one more award that blew me away. Having looked at all of the wonderful illustrations in the show, I would have never expected to have walked away with the Best of Show! What an honor it was to receive this award from a panel of very esteemed judges! I recommend that if you are near the downtown Minneapolis area before May 3 to check out this amazing show. The details for the MCBA are below.


"Reflections"
March 20, 2009 thru May 3, 2009

MCBA
1011 Washington Ave South
MInneapolis, MN 55415

Finding history

This weekend's trip back home was one that brought about some interesting surprises. It first started with heading towards Wahpeton, North Dakota and the notion that we were going to be cleaning out my grandma's house in order to get it to the necessities she needs in her new apartment. At first it seemed like any other move that I have helped with; packing things up and deciding what should stay and what should go. But this was definitely different. Having never truly dug through my grandma's stuff, we were astounded at all of the memories that came alive as objects both present and past came to light. Decades worth of memories were being found in every closet, cabinet, nook and cranny. But what really hit home for me was a discarded notebook that at first we thought was trash. Having already gone through many many old papers, note pads and chicken scratch, something caught my eye as it was being looked at. This notebook was one that was full of sketches. Sketches that were placed in a Ford Model T Mechanics student handbook. It was one that was used to train students how to fix these new machines, these horseless vehicles. Since the Model T was first introduced in 1908, it was only two years into the production that this 1910 student training manual was being used by my Great grandfather Parley McCann.

Now what I happened to notice as I started gingerly looking through this student notebook was that wherever there was a spot for "student notes", there were sketches instead! Now this is my kind of learning. I was astounded at the scenes of steam engines, bailers, farms and such that filled the pages. Having found this new information that I had never known about my great grandfather. He too loved to doodle! How great of a find it was and how much I am going to cherish this notebook. To share with you some of the sketches that I was able to scan without damaging the pages, here you too can see where my artistic roots may have started!

"Reflections" at MCBA

In a little over a week, a great show is going to be opening up at the"Minnesota Center for Book Arts". "Reflections" is a juried exhibit sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of"SCBWI" and is a show that features illustrations inspired by 5 award winning poems. It is sure to be a great event and am really looking forward to the opening reception next Friday. The info is as follows

"Reflections"
Opening reception Friday March 20, 2009
6-9pm

MCBA
1011 Washington Ave South
MInneapolis, MN 55415

Another award for "The Sick Bug"

Happy Saturday to you all. Some exciting news came through the wire the other day about my children's book "The Sick Bug". It won Honorary Mention in the Readers View Annual Literary Awards. That makes it the second award that the"The Sick Bug" has won and hopefully not the last! I just want to thank everyone who has helped support and spread the word about the book. Without you guys, none of this would be possilbe!

Illustration Friday: "Intricate"

This is one of many intricate sketches i did of an amazing organ in a local Minneapolis church.

Dog days of painting...

My very good friend and mentor "Terry Stanley" has decided to put a great challenge out to herself this year by creating a new dog painting each day for a year. Doing 5 of these a week is definitely going to be a challenge, but I know her love of animals is going to inspire her to create the best. I would definitely suggest you checking out her "Dog Days of Painting" and maybe even submit your own doggy photo into the mix!

In studio news, I have been busy getting the groundwork done for a children's book I have been working on recently. I am excited to get to work on the final illustrations and can't wait to show you guys more as I am able to. To give you an idea of how many illustrations there are, this is just half of them on the boards in the photo. Looks like fun doesn't it!