Posh Living for a Bear

Yes, if I had all this nice stuff in a big mansion, all I'd do is dust too. So don't judge the bear too harshly.

Patterns in Furniture

I am really proud to show this off as it is my first venture into patterns. On a trip to the Met, I explored the American wing looking particularly at early American furniture. The craft of the designers then were exquisite, and it blows out of the water the couch that I normally sit on.

What struck me then were the amazing patterns in the fabric. Here, a question that's been on my mind for a long while popped on. "Huh! How do they make those patterns?" I never realized how easy it was to make repeating patterns until I looked it up online.

So, patterns and some Photoshop magic, here we are!

Letting the characters speak.

This is very important when writing a new story, especially character-driven stories. Stories flow from me when my characters tell me what to do.

Does that make sense? For example, let's say I draw a dog, and I tell him to be funny and goofy, but if that dog doesn't look like a funny, goofy dog, he's not going to do what I want him to do. Instead, if he's drawn like a sad, droopy dog, then he's going to be sad and droopy.

When the characters that I draw start telling ME who they are, that's a good sign. The earliest character that did this for me was a girl named Bev. Right away from the drawing, I knew who she was. She started informing me what her thoughts are.

I share this because while I was drawing and thinking up new picture book ideas, a character yelled at me and said, "HEY! I'm this kind of bear and don't you forget it!" No longer am I writing then. I'm more like reporting.

Here's Merlo, being all hip and cool.

A Park illustration

The last couple drawings I've done for some reason are contemplative characters. Reflecting and moody. I suppose I've felt this way the past couple weeks of August. Regardless of my characters, I really like this illustration of what is a park I guess. I think I'd like to do some sort of picture book in a park next. That'd be lots of fun!