There wolf.

A Keeper of Bees

Just a little drawing of Mr. Holmes in his later years. Pencil, color pencil, scanned paper/texture, and digital white.

In Storm news, there's a new interview up on Wendy Martin's blog featuring hula hoops and a monkey.

Running

Another Boy

Pencil studies

These are warm-up sketches for a picture book I'm working on now. I'm trying to capture a certain boy-ness.

Pastel Fatale

Sketching with a Faber-Castell pastel stick and Conte Pierre Noire pencil just to shake things up.

There's a new interview up on the cool Bildungsroman blog wherein I list 10 favorite books. I'm not very good at coming up with those sorts of things so I cheat at the end. But they're all good books and I stand by 'em.

"Hfuhruhurr. It's spelled just as it sounds."

Ever wonder how to pronounce Scieszka or Krosoczka or... Phelan? No? Oh. Well, if you did wonder, you could check out the Teaching Books site to hear various folks pronounce their own names and give a succinct linguistic history of said surname. Mr. Rex is even up there (who knew the R and X were silent?).

In other news, I'll be signing Storm in the Barn at the Borders in Wynnewood, PA on Saturday 10/17 at 2 pm. Stop by and tell me how to pronounce your name.

A Little Experiment

I've recently picked up a high-end printer (Epson R1900) that can print on large sheets of watercolor paper. I'm thinking of using it as a way to work directly from my sketches. So for this experiment, I sketched this girl in my sketchbook...



Then I enlarged it, printed it onto watercolor paper and painted it. (click on the picture to see it larger).



It has possibilities. More tests are needed.

Trains & Moleskines

A big thanks to all who turned up for the signings at Children's Book World and Books of Wonder! I had a fantastic time. Zipping to and fro NYC on Amtrak is a good opportunity to crack open the ol' moleskine. I realize that this sketch blog has been light on sketches for awhile and I intend to remedy that. There's lots to be drawn in the next year and I need to loosen up a bit.

Of course, I will continue to mention various bits of Storm in the Barn news. The latest? A fourth starred review is on the way, this time courtesy of The Horn Book. And here's a new review from the internet via Graphic Novel Reporter!

Books of Wonder on Sunday!

Hey, New Yorkers! I'll be at the great Books of Wonder on Sunday 10/11 from 1-3 pm.

I'll be one of eight, count 'em eight, authors signing books. The line-up includes: Richard Peck, Ann M. Martin, Lauren Myracle, Michael D. Beil, Gitty Daneshavri, Peter Howe, and Nova Ren Suma. Whew.

They also have an in-store cupcake cafe to sweeten the deal. Hope to see you there.

Children's Book World on Saturday!

I'll be at my home base bookstore, the great Children's Book World this Saturday at 11 am!! CBW is celebrating 20 years of being one of the best indie children's book stores in the world. Come by and say hello!

I'll be signing along with my pal Gene Baretta who will be there with his new book, Neo Leo! Because Gene is an even bigger Wyeth fan than I am, I've posted one of the reference photos that I took for Storm in the Barn. You know Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World? (of course you do). Well, this is the barn from that farm. Yep.

Thanks, NAIBA!

I had a great time at the NAIBA conference this past weekend where I met many, many great indie booksellers, applauded Peter Brown as he accepted a much-deserved award for The Curious Garden, and got to meet and hang out with Michelle Knudsen, author of one of my favorite picture books, The Library Lion, and now a novelist with The Dragon of Trelian! If you haven't seen these books, you really oughta.

Event-a-Rama!

Just a quick reminder that I'll be at the New York Public Library's Children's Literary Cafe on Saturday at 4 pm with Jarrett Krosoczka and Geoffrey Hayes!!

For the full skinny, go to our fearless moderator Betsy Bird's official announcement!

I'll be back in NYC next Sunday at Books of Wonder (more on that later).

And if you are attending the NAIBA conference in Baltimore on Sunday, I'll be signing on the exhibit floor at 6:30 at the Chesapeake & Hudson booth. And later that night, I'll be one of the Bedtime Stories author at 10:30 pm.

If you go, make sure you stop and say howdy!