Characters

Still working away on secret things. 

Here's a few characters who have shown up in my sketchbook lately.

Now if you want some serious sketchbook inspiration, check out Renee Kurilla's

video of her sketchbooks. Amazing!!!!

Pigs again

I can't show you the project I'm working on, so this will have to do for now.

What I'm up to…

Around here lately:

Sketching.

New carpet.

New work for Highlights Hello Magazine. So excited about this one!!! 

I love the orange they used on the type and boxes.

Here it is without the type.

 More sketching.

And now back to putting reorganizing my studio. Ugh, I mean, yay.

UPDATE: I've added a new Sketchbook section to my website here.

Epicness

My dog is a hero in his own mind. Bravely facing off squirrels, pigeons, and the occasional pair of ducks (from a safe distance, of course). He is always on the job, unless he's sleeping. He is, in a word, EPIC.

I would have loved to see his reaction to this HUGE wild turkey strolling by the house like a regular neighbor. If he hadn't been so busy sleeping, this baby would have blown his tiny mind!

I need to get these lovelies planted. I can't wait until I have lots of home grown veggies to harvest. Drums fingers impatiently.

I have several projects in process right now, one of which is my first ever embroidery pattern. I hope to have it ready to sell as a downloadable pattern in my Etsy shop sometime this month. Stay tuned.

Meeting Chris Columbus

Thanks to our local children's book store, Hicklebees, the boys and I got to meet writer/producer/director, Chris Columbus. He gave a great talk today. He shared a lot of behind the scenes of his movies and of writing the book with co-writer Ned Vizzini, House of Secrets. He wrote Gremlins and directed the movie. He directed Goonies, Mrs. Doubtfire, the first two Harry Potters, Home Alone, Night at the Museum, and Step Mom.

Chicken Talk — Don't fear the white space!

I created this little lady for my new contact page on my soon to be launched new website. It's actually already launched, but I'm waiting for some behind the scenes stuff to be completed.

I knew I wanted needed to have another chicken in my portfolio. It's a thing, right?

Anywhoo, this is my attempt to continue my quest to leave white space in my illustrations. It's soooo difficult! I love to keep things simple, but I still get hung up on the art not feeling finished if there's white space. It's crazy, because I love it when other artists do this. Is there a self help group for this? Hello, my name is Laura and I fear white space.

Quick Hello!

I'm working on my new website. It's pretty much complete, except for a new illustration for my contact page and some domain transferring. I'm switching over to Squarespace for my hosting & I am loving the interface so far. So much easier than Headway and WordPress! Today, I have no email access, though. Hoping that's fixed quickly. I feel so cut off.

Meanwhile, I'm working on some new characters.

This little piggy went to MIT.

I'm so excited to be going to the SCBWI National Conference this summer! Excited and panicked. I'm planning on adding a bunch of new portfolio pieces and completing a book dummy by then. Eek! I'm still having an LA or Bust Sale in my Etsy shop and I'm clearing room by selling off my remaining BeautiControl stock. Spa anyone?

Don't forget you can also find me and my friends at our new group blog. Lots of tips and tricks over there.