chat de ville

a tiny snippet from one of the Paris scenes in CITY CAT, written by Kate Banks

 Last month I started on the final art for my next picture book, CITY CAT, written by Kate Banks. My editor Frances over at FSG offered this lovely script to me waaaay back in the spring of 2009, knowing that we weren't going to get things going for a long while. It was so hard to keep this project on the back burner all this time. Location drawing is my absolute favorite thing, and I don't just get to research and capture one beautiful location for this book, but eight! The story takes the reader on a journey through Western Europe, as a cat follows a family on their holiday adventure. I'm in love with Kate's poetic text and selection of cities, and I am so grateful to Frances and Kate for pulling me in to this dream of a book project.

scenes from Le Ballon rouge, The Red Balloon

For the last week I have been drawing the gorgeous city of Paris, and the other day I decided to take a trip down memory lane and watch a movie I remember one of my teachers showing in elementary school: The Red Balloon. This film is magic and a must watch if you have never seen it. The above clips are proof.

Unfortunately I'm not able to go to Paris while working on this, but I did travel there in 2009 for a little inspiration and reference collecting. The above are a few sketches from my adventure. I fell in love with this city, and hope to visit again soon ♥

Back in BK

Happy July all!

I've returned to sweltering hot Brooklyn, after a very relaxing cruise vacation. I admit, it is extremely hard to get back in to work mode... BUT, I do have two exciting projects I'm looking forward to working on for the remainder of this year. One, a picture book written by the talented Maribeth Boelts. And the other a chapter book written by the highly acclaimed Ann Cameron. I'll share more about both of these later on this summer!

Now, I didn't get to do that much drawing on my trip because we weren't in one place long enough. But I did get to see a lot, and took many photos. Here's a shot of my favorite location on the trip, The El Yunque Rain Forest in Puerto Rico. Absolutely breathtaking views, and a must see if you visit Puerto Rico!Ok, now back to the [steamy] drawing board!!!
~Lauren

Adiós!

Hasta luego, New York . . . Hola Bermuda, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and, last but definitely not least, Puerto Rico!!! So psyched to sail the seas on this for ten days!
See you back here in July, mis amigos!

A few sketches from the trip~

Back in the U.S.A.

Aaand, I'm back! Paul and I had a wonderful two weeks touring around France and Germany~All I can say is, to thoroughly cover 4 cities in 15 days is H-A-R-D! I managed to take over 1000 photos, yet a pathetic amount of drawing was done--we were on the move way too much for that (still, I will post the few that I have later on this week)! I successfully gathered more than enough reference for my upcoming book, CITY CAT (by Kate Banks). YAY for travel books!!!

Here's a little overview of our journey (click to enlarge):

France+Germany=bliss

Well, the time is FINALLY here--I am headed to Europe to do research for a new book project (written by the wonderful Kate Banks)! The travel route will include Paris, to Ravensburg and Weingarten, to Meersburg, to Munich (arriving just in time for the lord mayor to tap the first keg at Oktoberfest!), and finally back to Paris. I am so so psyched to explore these cities and their landmarks, and hopefully fill up some memory cards and a few sketchbook pages! Oh, and my assistant (and official translator!) is pretty excited as well :)
So long, au revoir, tschüss!!! Catch y'all at the end of September~