For the Fun of It - summer blues

a few things to brighten the june gloom

Oh it’s been too long! I’m so sorry, Substack! I don’t have much of an excuse except work got too busy and life felt like too much of a mountain and my brain caught fire. I’m feeling a bit better though, and even started drawing in my sketchbook again. Also, I just entered my 3rd trimester and look like this now:

you’re not actually supposed to lay on your back tho

Anyway, let’s dive into some of the things I’ve been up to!

The Book Buddies Tour

I took a trip to the Hudson Valley to do some absolutely lovely school visits with my friend Emily Arrow! Shout out to the amazing librarian Cathy who set up this whole tour for us!

i took this selfie and emily taught me how to take selfies later because my lighting was terrible

Little Art

I set up a little free art gallery at the LA County Fair filled with my tiny paintings! I had a lot of fun making the gallery “visitors” for this! My fave is the little bear.

Inspo galore

I saw my friend Cheyenne and we of course bought bande dessinées.

Inspired by, and reoccuring new theme in my works…

Lots of fun and I’m so tired.

A few random things I’ve been tossing into my brain stew.

Gradient Mapping I’m not a digital paint person. I just can’t wrap my brain around it. I can vaguely do it, but I don’t love it. I still paint all my books traditionally and add bits and pieces after. But that doesn’t stop me from trying to learn more things. I guess there’s this newish thing called gradient mapping where you can paint in black and white, and use photoshop tools to add color (similar to how we did with adjustment layers or multiply/color dodge back in the day).

The Grammar of Fantasy! Meg Hunt recommended this book to me. I’m really interested by books that talk about storytelling FOR kids, and what works and why. This new edition has illustrations by Matt Forsythe, so it’s a no brainer!

ok love u bye