Monday Hangover

Whew! Worked a lot this weekend on some books that have lots and lots of cute little mice in them. I always like to search the internet for reference and found this very funny picture of a

mousey that kept me laughing all weekend long.

What did we do without the internet? Remember in the olden days when we actually had to keep scrap files and dig through the library for reference books? I'm not really a cat person, (meaning that I've never owned a cat) but had to draw a cat batting around a roll of paper towels. I Googled "cat paper towels" and found some very entertaining YouTube videos for reference. Amazing how much information is at our fingertips.

What I'm Working On

Today is Friday and my deadline is Monday. I will definitely be working over the weekend. I'm finishing up a picture book for a UK client about a rabbit who loves to read. It's a cute concept, encouraging young kids to read more books. The characters in the book are two rabbits, a squirrel, a frog and a mouse. At first the mouse was a hedgehog, but the publisher felt a US audience would relate better to a mouse character. Personally, I love hedgehogs....but I've never found one in my backyard. There are hedgehog breeders here in California and you can buy them as pets....sort of like a hamster I guess. But I digress....

There have been lots of tweeks and changes along the way. At one point, the story was actually rewritten in the middle of my sketch phase. The book is a montage of my hand painted ink and watercolor characters against photographic images. One stop shopping at istock photos.

© Deborah Melmon 2011

I wish I could show you the completed spreads as they are very cute. Instead just a peek.....

Have a great weekend everyone!

Welcome Babies!

©2011 Deborah Melmon

Surtex was held in New York City this week, which is the big show for artists who want to license their artwork. Buyers come from all over the world to view the latest trends. It also coincides with the National Stationery Show. Our own Kathy Weller displayed her art at Surtex this year! It was an awesome booth and I'm sure she will be posting pictures of her experience soon!

It made me feel kind of nostalgic, as I have also shown my work at Surtex. So I took a stroll down memory lane and I came across a baby collection that I put together. And since I suddenly have several baby girls that have popped into my world or are about ready too, I thought I'd post this baby card.

Welcome to the world babies!!