I have just returned from the beautiful Northwest—a road trip through Ashland enjoying productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a visit with extended family in Salem, then several days relaxing on Bainbridge Island with my in-laws.
I flew back early to work on art for How Sophany Saved the Cambodian Dance, a true story of a Khmer Rouge survivor by Daryn Reicherter, to be published by Tuttle. Here's the tiniest sneak preview of finished title page art and an early spread in the first phase. I'm combining traditional and digital methods as I create art.
The hours are too few for all the projects I have cooking. After this due date (Sept 1), I'm on to illustrations for Ansty Ansel, a picture book biography of Ansel Adams for Holt. Meanwhile I'm doing further research and additional writing for a new Lee and Low project; Tilbury has requested a book on another topic; I have another author-illustrator project almost ready to pitch, but in the midst of this yet another idea keeps tickling and distracting me. I need horse-blinders!
Also this summer I am helping my daughter develop her first picture book. She's written a fun fictional story with nonfiction backmatter in response to a Madagascar trip she took with a Stanford genetics project to work with lemurs. Following that trip she created art to include in her college admission portfolio. Perhaps you can see why I wanted to nudge her into creating her own book. She was a guest at my writers group a couple weeks ago and received helpful feedback and soon will meet with someone from my illustrators group to get assistance with her dummy. I don't think she will necessarily pursue this path in the big picture, but she will inevitably find her own ways to combine word and image.
