Cover art

I just finished working on a great cover assignment for Wayne State University Press. This young adult novel, entitled Who's Jim Hines? by Jean Alicia Elster, is a fictionalized account of life in Detroit Michigan in the 1930s. The story, based on the author’s family history, concerns an African American family in their Detroit neighborhood during the Depression Era.
Many thanks to Maya Rhodes, design and production coordinator, for giving me the opportunity to work on such a fun assignment!
I also got to do the hand-type, which was another excellent experience!
Look for this book, available August 2008!

Punked out.

...Well not completely. I stuck to my "1 location drawing a week" rule, though it was WAY too cold to draw outside today. Instead I ducked into a cafe, and since nothing much was going on in there, I dully drew the coffee corner...BUT, I did my drawing after all :)

Charlotte Zolotow Award Books

The Charlotte Zolotow Award is given annually for outstanding writing in a picture book published in the United States in the preceding year. This year there were 3 "honor" books, and 10 "highly commended" titles named -- WEDNESDAYS was chosen as one of the 10 "highly commended"! And my friend Jonathan Bean received an "honor" for his title, AT NIGHT! To view the complete list of award winners go here.

On Location Again

Well, location drawing used to be one of my most favorite things, but I somehow managed to abandon it for pretty much ALL of 2007. One resolution for my new year was to kick it in gear again, and head out once a week on a drawing excursion. Just once a week -- now that's not too much to ask of myself, is it. Plus, I get fresh air, get to see people, and feel like a real person for a change (working out of my apartment studio gets pretty lonely - especially in the wintertime!). So today was my first attempt, and I was pretty rusty as predicted, but it felt really good to be drawing out-and-about again. Yay location drawing!

"Best of 2007"

I forgot to mention that WEDNESDAYS was a "best children's book of 2007" in Newsday's end of the year issue "Best of 2007". And, it even got its picture in the paper! You can view the list of favorites here.

A 2007 Booklist Editors' Choice selection!

I just got word that WEDNESDAYS was selected as a 2007 Booklist Editors' Choice, Book for Youth! To view the entire list you can go here.

2007 ends on a nice note

WEDNESDAYS received a nice nod in Bloomberg's 2007 roundup of favorite books -- you can read it right here.