What's On My Desk? Squeak Squeak!

This is a tiny corner of a gouache painting in progress. With any luck, it'll be completed in a few days and I will submit it for the Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search. I've enjoyed watching friends participate in her Make Art That Sells course, so this was one way for me to get a taste of the action. I'll share the final piece after the deadline next week. I'll also share the internally-dramatic journey I needed to take to get to a final direction for the submission. More to come! And good luck to any readers out there who are also submitting for the contest!!!

What I'm Working On

Here's a blurry (instagram'd) version of what's on my desk. I'm currently at a crossroads. I get all squirrely just thinking about it. I had been so confident in my style/process choice for this picture book dummy until yesterday. Now I'm a jiggly mess, unsure of anything. Should I switch to digital? Should I just paint it all over, no collage at all? Should I just finish the digital version I worked on earlier this week? Should I plow forward with what's on my desk, even though there is no CTRL-Z?
I thought working on storyboards for another dummy this morning would clear things up a bit. But that's a different book altogether (a board book, actually) which demands a totally different style/process (I think!?!).
See. I'm a little confused.
I know this happens to all of us at times.
I think it has a lot to do with the pressure of the upcoming NESCBWI conference and being signed up for the Portfolio showcase.
I think I'll just sit down and work, and see what happens this time. Isn't that all we can do? Try. Wait. Distract. Think. Ask others. Try again. And in between, breathe.

What I'm Working On

My desk is a bounty. And a mess. And nearly impossible to work at with all my plastic plates full of paint, bits of cut gouache-painted cold-press, colored pencils, water cups, etc.

I'm still working on a spread for my dummy. I packed it up last weekend to bring to a critique group. Halfway through that ordeal I realized I needed to call UNCLE. I will be collaging this piece digitally. I had been layering gouache using glue dots and other archival sticky bits. But the scale of this was just not working. Paper was warping. The idea of registering all the moving parts together was just overwhelming. And then there's that messy desk to consider. And the curious 3 year old boy who was no longer allowed near that corner of the house.
I was happier once I cried UNCLE. I'll just paint and pencil my bits, scan them and use the digital magic button (what, you don't know where that is?) to make it all look layered.
Stay tuned for next week's rant where I cry UNCLE with my digital magic button...

Richard Scarry and gouache

I've read lots of later Richard Scarry to my son, but we picked up Polite Elephant at the library last week and found it quite endearing. I really was taken with the more rendered style and as I read it (over and over and over) I guessed it might be gouache. After a little searching online - mainly this great post from 7 Important Things Before Breakfast, I discovered ALL his work is gouache! Wow. This, as I just finished an illustration job last night where I just didn't get my cheeks rosy enough and had to boost them in Photoshop a bit. Oh Richard Scarry. I wish I could pick your brain about how you paint such gorgeous, rosy, cheeks.