Illustration Friday : Chicken

And they were only watching Mary Poppins...

more new work!

Happy New Year!

Continuing on with diverse creatures, expressing diversity, with luxurious textiles and fabrics. Here we journey to Egypt & China.

Update on 1:45 AM by little jo

ha! I really am a foodie. Feasting plays a big role in my stories and images as you can see by this pair!

Update on 5:57 PM by little jo

Just finished the artwork for a commission. I am finally satisfied with this piece.

a new-ish image

In preparation for SCBWI-NY and for my new page and web presence with the Directory of Illustration - I have done some new illustrations. Most, I think I need to rework still, however, this image I think turned out quite well. It may look familiar - I redid a rough illustration that I had done in watercolor originally for You Go, Goat! (one of my children's stories). This one is done digitally.

a beautiful glasswing butterfly. Amazing.

Nature inspires me. Here is a beautiful creature.

all about crows - the nature of things

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/murderofcrows/index.html

One of my children's stories, A Feathered Tale, has as the central character, a crow.  This program linked above is incredible. Did you know that crows are one of very few species that uses tools? (the others include apes, elephants, dolphins) But not only that - they can make and customize tools and do things that they have never been shown how to do! They can think many moves ahead. They are a social species and can recognize individual human faces in a crowd. They speak 2 separate languages one with the general crow population and one with the immediate family. They have over 200 distinct caws - each with a different meaning. They are extremely intelligent creatures. They will even bluff/lie to make a spying crow think they buried their cache in one spot  - in order to fool the crow and avoid the theft of their cache! Which is very interesting as my story is about Truth vs. Lies. Crows also have funerals and mourn their dead. You will never look at crows the same way again.  Remarkable creatures!  I have a feeling I am about to get working on this book's illustrations soon.

It is wonderful when you can fall in love with your characters and that they be inspired by such real marvels.