SCBWI Bulletin

When I checked the mail today, there was a pleasant surprise waiting - the latest SCBWI bulletin!

Guess who has a few sketches featured inside!

 Many thanks to Sarah Baker at SCBWI.

Also, be very careful when returning home after checking the mail... you never know when an attack-cat might be lurking.

Panthers and Flamingos

I know it's been forever. The summer has been zipping by with a speed and ferocity only matched by my cat (who thinks he's a panther, but in fact much more closely resembles the Cowardly Lion).

Yes, this cat...

It has been eons since my last update. Eons. Yes, you heard me, eons. Since graduation, I've been interning at Penguin in an imprint of their Young Readers division. It has been an incredible learning experience; my projects have ranged from design based (book based merchandise for Christmas, end-paper design, picture book layouts, scanning and placing artwork) to daily support of the art department (archiving old work, mucking my way through the slush pile, packing up artwork (this is MUCH cooler than it sounds... the other day I got to - very carefully - handle original artwork by Dave Catrow, Sophie Blackall, Patricia Polacco, Tomie dePaola... I mean, Tomie dePaola!!!!)). Not to mention, the people I work with are fantastic - the art director is brilliant, the two designers are incredible at what they do, and the assistant to the department is always super helpful and is an artist/designer in her own right.

That being said, with the full-time gig and summer rolling in full tilt, there has been little time for much else... like updating the blog. That being said, I haven't stopped working on artsy things. So here's a little something for all of you fab blog readers out there.

I made a "Get Well Soon" card for a dear friend/mentor who just had knee surgery.

Side projects... and a kitten!

Happy Monday everyone!

This is more of a crafty post than an illustration sort of entry, but I do think it will be worth it. So if you think you can handle it, read on for overwhelming cuteness.

It has been quite a busy weekend... one spent, for the most part, squeeee-ing over a tiny, fuzzy, handful of kitten. On Friday, I adopted a kitten that a friend found on a walk around her neighborhood. After the kitten crawled out of the bushes, she brought him over to the vet, who, following a week of check-ups, gave him a clean bill of health. I went out to Long Island to meet him on Friday and just couldn't say no. With a face like this

how could I?!

I was out visiting my folks for my dad's birthday this weekend, so the kitten ended up hanging out with the whole family. He is super friendly and just wanted to be around people all day, so with a bit of tucking here-and-there I engineered a makeshift kangaroo pouch out of a belt and an apron. It left me free for frosting-making and birthday-cake assembly.

Later, when it came time to head back to Brooklyn, I realized that the little kitten had grown accustomed to sleeping on carpet and couches. My apartment has one rather uncomfortable, heinous love seat and no carpet at all, so I thought it might be nice for him to have somewhere comfy to catnap... when he's not sleeping in my lap, that is...

Anywho, if you can tear your eyes from the extreme cuteness above, there is actually a photo of the craft project just below. Using a discarded cardboard box, a bag of old fabric scraps, some polyfill, and a bunch of hot glue and duct tape, I engineered a makeshift bed for the little bear.

A little lumpy, but he seemed to think it was pretty swell.