Posts Tagged ‘picture books’

It’s time to be fearless! (of mice and IF)

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week is, “Fearless.” It reminded me of a series of images I’ve done over the years that I continue to revamp, because I like the visuals but haven’t  found the right story yet. The images below are from the summer of 2007. There’s a more recent version, but I like this one better. There are also older versions, but I couldn’t find them in time for this post.

Here is, “Fearless Mouse” (a.k.a. Circus Mouse, Adventure Mouse, etc.)

A distant relative of the Hickory, Dickory, Dock mouse.

A distant relative of the Hickory, Dickory, Dock mouse.

What time is it Ms. Mouse? It’s time to be brave …

This elephant isn't scared of a tiny mouse!

This elephant isn't scared of a tiny mouse!

…and slide down the elephant’s trunk! Then it’s off to the Big Top, sporting her top hat and tails, because Ms. Mouse is FEARLESS! Only a fearless mouse would dare to …

Two daring young sheep and a mouse on the flying trapeze!

They fly though the air with the greatest of ease!

… perform with two daring young sheep on the flying trapeze! After a long night at the circus, Ms. Mouse likes to go back to her tent and relax.

Bath time is better with bubbles.

Bath time is better with bubbles.

She slides into a nice warm bubble bath and relives her adventures, while planning for more tomorrow.

Update: After posting this late last night (actually early morning), I had a brainstorm about where and how this might work! It won’t star the mouse, but she’ll still be running around the circus. :) I scribbled my ideas down and put them away for when I’m done with my zombie novel and chicken graphic novel projects. I love when solutions suddenly present themselves after years of not quite working out!

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Posted in art, children's books, fun stuff | 7 Comments »

5 ways to manage online time & 5 reasons online time is important

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Of all the things I need to manage, internet time is on the top of my list. It’s easy to get sucked in and hard to break out of the interwebs! On the other hand, I think it’s important to be online, at least some of the time.

Here are five suggestions * for managing online time and five reasons you can use to justify** the hours you spend there.

Managing Online Time

1. Set The Timer: If this suggestion sounds familiar, it’s because it was in my last post as a suggestion to help complete chores and/or creative projects. The beauty of the timer is that you can also use it to keep the internet from being a time suck. Before you go online, figure out how much time you have to spend, then set the timer for 5-10 minutes before that. Why set the timer early? Because it always seems like I’m right in the middle of an email or reading a blog post when time is up. If you give yourself an extra 5-10 minutes, you can finish what you are doing without feeling rushed.

2. Only Go Online After Your Work Is Done: Think of the internet as a reward for all your hard work on a manuscript or a painting. It’s like an ice cream sundae after a week of dieting, but without all the calories.

3. Use Social Media Only On Certain Days: Stay offline for whole days at a time to stay on deadline or achieve goals. You could also set a specific online schedule every week. My current process is to set weekly goals for my WIP. My week starts on Thursday and ends the following Wednesday. That way, I don’t have to rush to get done by Monday, when I want to spend time with my family on the weekend. Monday thru Wednesday is when I rush to finish weekly goals. Thursday and Friday is when I plan the next set of weekly goals and start in on them. If I need to go offline to get my work done, then I do. The internet will still be there when I have more time.

4. Think In Percentages: If you take the total number of hours that you have to work on your manuscript or art, then figure out how much of that time is spent online, it can be a staggering statistic. (Note: This one made me cringe at how much time I’m online.) Here are two easy math examples to show you what I mean.

- A full time writer or illustrator, with 40 hours a week to work (no weekends, that’s family time), that spends 2 hours a day online, M-F = 10 hours a week. That’s 25% of their writing or illustrating time!

- A writer or illustrator that has 14 hours a week to work (including weekends, because of a day job), that spends 1 hour a day online = 7 hours a week. That’s 50% of their writing or illustrating time!

Those are just examples that made the math easy, but it also makes it easy to see how those hours online can add up. Try it yourself. Is your percentage what you want it to be?

5. Take An Internet Vacation: If the internet is causing you to ignore your family, your writing, your art, or other obligations, you might want to think about taking a break from it. Take weekends off, or take whole week, or a month, or stay off line until you’ve made the deadline for your project. Pick a time period that works for you, then re-evaluate your online time when that’s over.

The Benefits of Spending Time Online

I. Research: The internet is a great place to start your research for the project that you’re writing or illustrating. It can also point you to books and people that are important to seek out to make your WIP or illustration seem authentic.

II. Industry News & Networking: There are a ton of children’s book people online, including agents, editors, publishers, authors, and illustrators. Many of them post helpful articles or links to news about the industry, as well as book recommendations to add to your reading list. You can also find critique groups and friends online. They understand what it’s like to create children’s books, even if your offline family and friends do not.

III. Education: If you want to learn how to do something, you can probably find a tutorial or explanation online. There are many articles specific to children’s and YA books, including articles and blog posts on: plot, creating characters, how to put together a PB dummy, fictional settings, writing queries and hooks, how to write a synopsis, agent submission guidelines and preferences, and even how to paint in Photoshop.

IV. Community: Twitter, Facebook and discussion boards might seem like a waste of time, but they’re not, if you limit your time on them. Sometimes it helps to talk with others online; you’re not the only one struggling with your WIP or illustration or getting rejections from an agent.  Time spent online is a lot like talking with colleagues in the break room at a regular job, which is a good way to maintain your sanity and possibly make a few friends.

Discussion Boards for children’s book and YA writers & illustrators:

Helpful Twitter Chats:

  • Mon. 10pm EST #pblitchat
  • Tues. 9pm EST #kidlitchat
  • Wed. 9pm EST #yalitchat
  • Thurs. 9pm EST #kidlitart

V. Fun: We all need to have fun or escape at times. When you go online, there are friends to talk with, games to play, news about what’s going on in the world (outside of publishing), stories to read and inspiring art to look at. Go play, then get back to work!

* Not that I’m an expert on managing my online time … but I keep trying. Eventually reason will win out over shiny objects and fun links, or at least I hope it will. If it doesn’t, I may have to call in the zombies to keep me in line. There’s nothing like the threat of brain munchage to alter your behavior.

** I can justify almost anything, really. It’s my super power. I’d rather have the power to heal myself when I get injured or fly like Superman, but being able to finesse the BS is a useful power too. (I knew my art degree would come in handy eventually – I learned the art of BS while getting my BFA.)

This is the second in a series of three Time Management articles.

Article #1: Time Management Tips Article #3: Multitasking and Achieving Your Dreams

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Posted in YA, art, children's books, fun stuff, writing | 12 Comments »

Time Management Tips

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Recently I’ve been re-thinking how I manage my time, because I don’t manage it well. I was also going to write a couple of articles on time management* (which I may still do), when I remembered that I’ve blogged about this topic before. The post below is from my old blog, posted on October 20, 2008. I decided to run it again because the information is still relevant and could help me and maybe you manage your time better.

Time Management Tips from sruble of the past

When I registered for the SCBWI LA conference** this year, I listed my occupation as “procrastination exterminator,” in addition to writer and illustrator. At the time, it was wishful thinking, and as evidenced by my behavior last week, I tend to go off on tangents with projects that aren’t necessarily the ones I should be working on. I don’t think I can ever completely curb my tendency for tangential projects, and I wouldn’t want to (Sheila the zombie cheerleader is another example). However, I need to be a little more focused in getting the things I need to do done, so I can go off and play afterwards.

Everyone has their own time management system. Here’s what’s worked for me in the past and what’s new. Use the tips that might work for you, and share your tips in the comments if you want.

15 minutes of fame: Each person reportedly gets (at least) fifteen minutes of fame, the same should be true for your procrastination projects. Set the timer for 15 minutes and dig into that task you don’t want to do (even if it’s your WIP and you really do want to write or draw that scene, but just don’t know how). When the timer rings, hopefully you will be so engrossed in your project that you won’t hear it, but if you’re not, you can always try again later. Set the timer again the next time you work on it. Repeat until you’re done or you don’t need the timer anymore. Works for chores as well as creative endeavors … thanks mom.

Get a cheerleader: Your cheerleader can be anyone that helps cheer you on and supports you with your goal. I have Sheila the zombie cheerleader. If I do what she says, she won’t eat my brain. She’s new to the cheering team. My husband, parents, and writer/illustrator friends are part of the team too. Luckily they don’t want to eat my brain, they just want me to use it to be creative and get my work done.

Set goals: Set realistic goals so that you can achieve them. If you’re a big goal setter like I am, write down the big goals, then break them up into smaller steps and use those steps as goals along the way to achieving something bigger. It’s a lot easier to get things done when you know it’s possible, instead of having something hanging over your head that’s hard to finish in a day or a week or a month.

Make a to do list: Write down what you can realistically accomplish each day. Some days you might not finish it all, and some days you might get done early. If you have lots of things to do, make a big, huge list, then take a few of those items and put them on a to do list, for today. Tomorrow you can take more things off the big, huge, master list. Just like setting goals, your to do list should be manageable, so you can feel a sense of accomplishment each day. Plus, it’s really fun to cross things off the list.

Play: Sometimes you need to chuck the timer, the goals and the lists, and completely ignore the cheerleader, who will be confused as to why you have gone off on a tangent. Playing and following your bliss is important. You have to do that once in a while to connect with your creative side, and maybe you’ll even come up with a brilliant new idea or character. Just make sure to get back to your timers, goals, and lists when you’re done, otherwise you may never get anything done. Besides, if you don’t get back on track, Sheila will find you and eat your brain.

(2010 Update) Having fun can lead to other things: A year and a half after I wrote this post, Sheila the zombie cheerleader is in the YA novel I’m writing. Not only that, but the mini comic about Sheila that I wrote and illustrated last summer, launched a new character for a picture book, Daria the chicken, and I’m thinking of re-writing the mini comic as another story starring Daria [Sheila won't be in it]. So far my chicken PB has been requested by an editor, an art director, and an agent. It hasn’t sold yet and might have a revision looming [I'm considering re-writing it as a graphic novel chapter book], however, if I hadn’t painted a picture of a zombie cheerleader, just for fun, I wouldn’t have either of these characters or stories! Allow yourself to play – you never know what might happen!

How do you manage to manage your time and control your tangential projects?

* This is the first in a series of three Time Management articles. Article #2: 5 ways to manage online time & 5 reasons online time is important Article #3: Multitasking and Achieving Your Dreams

** Looking for notes from the SCBWI LA conference? Here are links to my 2009 notes and 2010 notes.

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Posted in YA, art, children's books, fun stuff, writing | 9 Comments »

notes from 3 illustrator workshops: Steve Metzler, Patrick Collins and Regina Griffith

Friday, March 5th, 2010

I attended three illustration workshops in January and February. The talks were given by Steve Metzler (Dutton), Patrick Collins (Henry Holt), and Regina Griffith (Egmont). Here are some notes from those sessions that I thought might help both illustrators and writers.

Steve Metzler gave a talk about Dutton, then reviewed several portfolios, including mine. I learned almost as much from what he said about other portfolios as I did from what he said about mine. If you have a chance to have him review your portfolio, take it.

- Characters are selling in picture books and graphic novels, especially quirky characters (like Fancy Nancy, Skippy Jon Jones, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Baby Mouse).

- A good character leads to a good story.

- He likes to see people in portfolios, not just animals.

- 2012 is supposed to be the height of the new PB market (baby boom in 2006).

- If you’re an illustrator, also be a writer.

- He works on everything from PB to YA.

- Sees a need for graphic novels for boys (7-9 year olds).

- Don’t ever do a PB dummy where it’s all the same (all full page spreads, all vignettes, all single pages, etc.)

Patrick Collins gave portfolio reviews to three lucky people, followed by Q&A at a local SCBWI meeting. He didn’t review my portfolio, but I learned a lot from the portfolios he did review.

- A publisher might choose your art or your writing, but not always both – even if you do both.

- Try to have a focus in each image. How do you get the focal point of the image to come forward and have everything else fade into the background? Try varying the tones/values.

- Kid’s books are all about characters and storytelling.

- Pay attention to how you draw people and animals and how you incorporate them into your backgrounds.

- You really need to put in the time to make progress if you want to have a career in art.

- Make sure you have character in your characters. They should look like living people, not mannequins. (You can achieve this through expressions, body language and interaction between characters.)

- Need to have more than one perspective/point of view.

- Think about how you can show focus in a busy image. You don’t want people to miss the important part of the scene.

- The reason an art director looks for a consistent style is so they know what you can/will do if they hire you. You can always market a different style later. Show your best style at the time.

Regina Griffith gave a talk about Egmont, then reviewed several portfolios, including mine. As with Steve Metzler’s talk, I learned almost as much from what she said about other portfolios as I did from what she said about mine. Regina was really great about reviewing a portfolio and then talking about what was working or not with the whole group. If you have a chance to have her review your portfolio, take it.

- Not publishing many PBs right now. Focusing on older books.

- She’s looking for a broad range with real kid appeal.

- Most of the books on their list right now are US books, but they do have a couple that are foreign books.

- No graphic novels yet, but maybe in the future.

- Can’t imagine not liking animals in clothing. It depends on the text though. (In response to a question about anthropomorphized animals.)

- Picture books should have a plot.

- In a crowd scene, everyone should have different personalities.

- Page turn surprises in picture books are a good thing.

- It’s good to show you can fill a page with spots/vignettes or with full page spreads.

- It’s good to have black and white images in your portfolio when picture books are in a slump.

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Posted in Conference Notes, art, children's books | No Comments »

there are a whole lot of mean girls in books

Monday, February 15th, 2010

I’ve read a lot of books with mean girls in them lately. Even books that aren’t about mean girls seem to have mean girls in them, and popular is often shorthand for mean girl. I have been thinking a lot about this subject as I’m writing my current YA and brainstorming my next one. Here are my (unscientific) thoughts on mean girls and writing:

We’ve all known a mean girl or two.

There are people (usually of an older generation) that claim to not have any experience with mean girls. Good for them. Maybe it’s true, maybe their memory has allowed them to forget, or maybe they were the mean girl. For the rest of us, we know what mean girls are all about. It’s human nature to want to control your world. Mean girls take that to another level.

In books, mean girls are almost always popular and all the girls want to be like them. They usually have money and/or status, are good looking (or have another attribute that makes up for it if they’re not), get all the hot guys, and rule the school. There’s a ring of truth to this, because there are a lot of popular girls that are also mean.

**However, not all popular girls are mean, just as not all mean girls are popular.**

Girls who are popular are usually labeled “mean girls.” Girls who are not popular get names like, “bully,” or “future serial killer.”

These are the mean girls that we’ve all read and heard about, the girls (popular or not) that pick on people for no apparent reason. The ones that make high school a living hell, and probably junior high / middle school as well. These are the girls you want to stay away from, keep off their radar, and hope that they don’t single you out for their brand of fun. They’re also, many times, the girls that other girls aspire to be. I don’t think this is because the other girls want to be that cruel, rather that they want immunity from the kind of torture that’s handed out.

There are other types of mean girls.

The mean girl that doesn’t usually get a label and isn’t recognized that often, is the “not in the popular group” and “not a bully for no reason” kind of mean girl. She’s not signaling out people for random torture, criticizing her friends, or dictating what they should wear. She is not a queen bee or a wanna be. What is she then? She could be one of two main types.

1. She’s a normal girl in a group that tends to have a stronger opinion than the rest of them. There’s usually a leader in any group of girls who are friends, whether popular or not, and even if there are only two or three in the group. One girl is the person that all the others look to for answers, like what to do on a Friday night or how to get the guy you like to notice you. She’s a perfectly nice person, most of the time.

2. She might be just a regular girl, not the group leader and usually nice to everyone. She also can’t handle stress. She can sway the group’s opinion with her emotions when she bombs on a test or her boyfriend breaks up with her. She’s angry and she takes it out on a friend – usually someone that didn’t do anything wrong, or did something by accident, not meaning to hurt her feelings or embarrass her.

Unfortunately, friends often have disagreements. With hormones raging, the stress of homework, finals, college applications, and boys, even the most friendly of girls could be a ticking time bomb.

Girls don’t get over their grudges that easily. Sometimes a girl is cast out and shunned from a group for weeks on end. This is a horrible experience to go through, but if that’s all it is, you will usually live through it, make up with your friends and go on to ignore someone else a few weeks later.

So, as writers, what can we do about mean girls?
We can write stories that shed light on the subject and provide a context for what’s happening (not preaching, not giving lessons, but telling real stories about characters that are the target of mean girls or are mean girls themselves).

We can write books about girls that aren’t in the popular group, but are still mean girls.

We can write books about girls aren’t mean girls or popular girls, but who are mean to each other. These girls exist just as much as the kind that are written about more often.

We can write books from the mean girl’s POV; what makes her tick?

We can write stories where there are no mean girls at all. Everyone needs an escape from real life.

We can recommend books about mean girls; there are a lot of them out there.

Mean Girl Books

Here are four books I recommend. If you read them all back to back, it’s a great way to see how mean girls can be handled in many different ways in children’s and YA books. Plus, they are all excellent books!

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers – I love this book because it’s from a mean girl’s POV. It’s amazing and cringe-worthy. Here’s how the main character, Regina, describes who she and her friends are, “We’re the kind of popular that parents like to pretend doesn’t exist so they can sleep at night, and we’re the kind of popular that makes our peers unable to sleep at night.”

How to Be Popular by Meg Cabot – this is a great book to read after Courney’s. It’s a look at how one girl was able to take care of the mean girl that was harassing her and find a way to be true to herself at the same time. It’s fun to read such a light-hearted and positive mean girl book.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray – this book is not at all about mean girls and the main character is a boy. However, the mean girls still manage to get into the story. It’s a good way to see how mean girls are a facet of every day life for a lot of high school girls, and for boys too. It’s also a really great trip, has a garden gnome in it, and won the Printz award this year.

Two of a Kind written by Jacqui Robbins / illustrated by Matt Phelan – a picture book about mean girls and friendship. You don’t usually think about mean girls this young. Most books with mean girls are for YA or middle grade readers. It’s great that there’s a picture book that tackles the subject in such a thoughtful way, and the illustrations are spot on for the emotions involved.

What do you think about mean girls?

I’d love to hear what you think about this subject. What mean girl books would you recommend? What do you think we can do about mean girls, if anything? Any other thoughts you’d like to share?

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Posted in YA, children's books, reading, writing | 7 Comments »

promotional chickens

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I’m designing my postcards for the SCBWI winter conference next weekend. I had it all planned out when I realized that I wanted a different image on one side. I’ve already done several finishes for the chicken PB, but they were all similar emotion-wise. So I did a new finish from a different page in the dummy. On one side of the postcard will be the new image:

sruble postcard image 1

sruble postcard image 1

On the other side is one of the chickens I finished last week:

sruble postcard image 2

sruble postcard image 2

I also have new business cards with this image on one side (and a crop of the new image on the other side):

sruble's new business card

sruble's new business card

It’s always takes longer to design postcards and business cards than I think it will (not to mention that printing and cutting usually takes twice as long as I think it will). That’s why I started early this time, but it’s worth it if they turn out.

Update: all 105 postcards and business cards are printed and cut, and ready for the conference! This is the earliest I’ve ever been done with promo materials before a conference. Now all I have to do is finish all the art and stuff for my portfolio! Whew!

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Posted in art, children's books, promotion | 9 Comments »

new blog chickens, IF chickens & portfolio chickens!

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

It’s chicken week here at sruble.com, which means new chicken art!  They’re all pictures of Daria (the chicken in my picture book), except for the IF sketch, which features lots of chickens. 

Did you notice the first picture of Daria the chicken? It’s on my shiny new blog header above. It’s based on an image from the PB dummy and is in my portfolio too.

There are also two new pictures of Daria. You might have already seen them on my CBIG portfolio, but they look a little bit different now. I changed a few of things to make them better. What do you think of the new images? 

Daria the snowboarding chicken

Daria the snowboarding chicken

Daria the skydiving chicken

Daria the skydiving chicken

And finally, the prompt this week for Illustration Friday is, “wilderness.” The first thing that popped into my head was this sentence: It’s a little known fact that the wilderness is full of chickens. I started sketching right away! (Yes, I do know I’m a strange; people tell me that all the time.) Since I don’t have time to paint this week, the sketch will have to do for now, :( but I am going to paint it later because the idea totally cracks me up. :P Doesn’t the idea of chickens in the wilderness make you laugh too?

chickens in the wilderness

chickens in the wilderness

It’s been a chicken sort-of week around here. What kind of week are you having?

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Posted in art, children's books, writing | 7 Comments »

Beach books and library books

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Here’s what I’m going to be doing on my vacation  … 

 

sruble doing a handstand?

sruble doing a handstand?

Ok, not really. I can’t do a cartwheel, or a handstand. What I will be doing is working; I’ll be writing, drawing, painting and reading while I’m at the beach. Here’s my reading list:

 

sruble's beach books

sruble's beach books

I’m way behind on my reading, so there’s a mix of old and new here to keep me busy. When I’m not reading, I’ll be taking long walks on the beach with my DH or building sandcastles. 

When I’m not playing in the sand, I’ll be working on a PB dummy a dummy revision, a zombie graphic novel, and another PB, if I have time. (haha) The PB dummy I’m almost done with is on deck first. Sheila the zombie cheerleader will probably be chasing me around the beach, threatening to eat my brains if I don’t work on her story, so that’s really good incentive to get my PB dummy done! I also brought watercolor paints and a couple of small watercolor blocks – just in case I want to paint something.

You might be wondering why I’m not bringing any PBs to read, since I’ll be working on at least one while I’m at the beach. There’s a great bookstore and a library where we’re going, plus I just got done reading all of these PBs from the library:

 

PBs from the library

PBs from the library

Some old favorites and some new favorites too!

You probably won’t hear from me for a while; I’ll be working at the beach. See you when I get back!

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Posted in art | 3 Comments »

Interview: Elizabeth Dulemba, author/illustrator

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

I’m interviewing author/illustrator Elizabeth Dulemba today. And at the end, there will be a chance to win her brand new picture book, Soap, soap, soap! (Update: The winner of the contest for Elizabeth Dulemba’s new PB, Soap! Soap! Soap! is Amy Baskin – yay!!)

list-Soap

What’s the difference between illustrating someone else’s text vs. illustrating your own?

The obvious difference is a sense of ownership and freedom to be able to tweak the text to work with the illustrations. However, in the end, I’m still illustrating a specific story the best way I can. And perhaps that’s the most difficult thing of all – listening to that inner voice and making changes (even tough ones) when I know I need to. When I am the sole creator, I have to live up to the highest and most demanding standards – my own!

What’s your process for digital painting?

 I’m evolving where digital painting is concerned. I used to do all my sketches by hand (elements scattered every which way on a page) and scan them into Photoshop to create my composition, but more and more I find myself actually drawing in my computer. It really depends on how the art wants out of me. I also used to lay in all the flat color in Photoshop then render/shade in Painter (how I did SOAP), but I’m starting to experiment with working directly on a colored canvas in Photoshop and/or Painter.

 Many people think digital makes you faster, but I’m finding the opposite to be true. Since I don’t have to fiddle with mixing colors, I’m able to spend more time experimenting with method – and that has actually slowed me down. (In a good way, I like to think!)

Do you use the digital brushes that come with Photoshop/Painter or do you make your own or find them online somewhere?

 I’m in a bit of a transition with my brushes right now. I illustrated SOAP, SOAP, SOAP on my older computer using Photoshop and Painter with a Wacom tablet. I don’t often create my own brushes, but I definitely manipulate the ones that are available. On my new computer I’m experimenting with keeping everything in Photoshop – we’ll see. But I’m also wanting to pull in more texture. I started doing it in SOAP but really want to push that. In other words, I’m always experimenting and hope I never stop!

 

pages 14-15 from Soap, soap, soap!

pages 14-15 from Soap, soap, soap!

Do you have any tips for someone that’s starting to paint on the computer?

The main thing would be to be patient with yourself. You won’t get it overnight. Just play with it, work with it, learn something new every day and let your knowledge and comfort level grow over time. Working digitally is wonderful (and liberating) but it can also be intimidating at first. I promise you I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg of what these programs can do, and I’ve been working with them since day 1.

The other point would be to experiment with media (digitally) that you don’t use in ‘real’ life. For instance, I never considered myself a traditional painter, and yet my favorite brushes in Painter are the oil brushes. Go figure.

What’s your favorite thing about digital painting?

I came up through graphic design where everything was speedy, speedy. So I worked with quick media like markers and colored pencils. I never learned how to mix colors. And yet, with digital painting, I have the full rainbow and all its nuances available to me! I’ve often heard traditional artists complain that digital doesn’t allow for the ‘happy accidents’ that can make painting so exciting. But I can assure you, I get plenty of those happy accidents and unexpected results and they are downright wonderful.

What’s your least favorite thing about digital painting?

A finished piece of art for me is either the printed page or a giclee. I do hate that I don’t have an ‘original’ in the traditional sense. It makes me wonder if someday – way far away – I might actually play with traditional painting again.

What did you do for Talk Like a Pirate Day?

The last three years I created a Pirate-themed coloring page for my Coloring Page Tuesdays. All were linked to by the guys who actually invented “Talk Like a Pirate Day” on their main website. I hope to create another one this year to post to my blog along with pirate humor, poems, etc. Gotta love drawing pirates – Arrrrrrrr!!!!

What are you working on next?

I am currently illustrating “The 12 Days of Christmas in Georgia”, written by my friend Susan R. Spain, for Sterling Publishers (Holiday 2010). I’m also writing a new novel, shopping a new picture book and have lots of other works-in-progress. I’m busy, but I love it!

Bio: Elizabeth O. Dulemba was beamed to this planet with a pencil in her hand. Once she stopped chewing on it she began to draw and write stories for children. She is an award-winning illustrator for Highlights and of several picture books: Paco and the Giant Chile Plant (bilingual); the ParentSmart KidHappy™ series (3 books); Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese; The Prince’s Diary; and “The 12 Days of Christmas in Georgia” (2010). She also wrote her latest picture book: Soap, soap, soap!  “e” enjoys speaking to kids and adults about creating picture books and offers free coloring pages at www.dulemba.com.

Contest to win Soap, soap, soap!: You can win your very own copy of Soap, soap, soap! written and illustrated by Elizabeth Dulemba, by commenting on this post and leaving your blog or email so I know how to get ahold of you if you win. The contest copy is bilingual (it’s really cool to see the words in both languages). The cover of the book is shown above.

The contest is open to residents of the US for comments until midnight EST on September 30th. (Sorry it’s only for US residents, but last time I did an international contest, the shipping for the book was more than the cost of the book.)

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