recent commission - the silk road building in calgary

painting process

Here's how one of the illustrations from Bye, Bye, Butterflies! looked at different levels of completion:

(Sorry about the yellow tone on some of the photos.  I wasn't using the best camera and didn't always have the best light).

uppercase magazine, issue #14

The latest issue of Uppercase Magazine contains a large section about children's books and I was lucky enough to have been mentioned.  I was so excited to be interviewed for a magazine that I really respect and enjoy - I've had a subscription ever since returning to Canada from Europe.

(click on the images to view them bigger and more clearly)

When my copy of the magazine arrived in the mail a few days ago I was thrilled to see how beautiful the article about me and my book (Bye, Bye, Butterflies!) looked and then even more excited to see that included in the issue were three of my favorite picture book illustrators: Isabelle Arsenault, Jon Klassen and Oliver Jeffers.

Thanks so much to Janine Vangool for including me and to Kait Kucy for writing such a nice article.

update

My husband and I bought a house last month and are currently up to our ears in boxes. We'll be moving out of our uptown apartment at the end of this month, staying with friends for a couple weeks and then moving into our new home in mid July.

I'm currently packing up my studio. I can't wait to re-open everything next month in my new studio space. Tonight my hubby and I took a short break from packing to enjoy a 'Fat Elvis' milk shake from Boogie's Burgers. Peanut butter, banana and bacon. Mmmmm...

the butterflies get launched

Here's a peek at one last spread from the book:

MY BOOKS ARRIVED!!!!!!

I just got back from the post office with my copies of the picture book I illustrated. They smell great; they look great.  I'm one happy girl :)

(the letters in the second photo are backwards because I took it with my computer)

final art & layout for the 'caterpillar' spread

I had done a post about the process for this one here.

available for pre-order!

I've had many people ask me where they will be able to pick up a copy of my soon-to-be-released picture book, Bye, Bye, Butterflies! and I finally have an answer. So far it is available online for pre-order from Amazon and Chapters/Indigo. I'm hoping bookstores will also stock it on their shelves, especially local ones, but I'm told that most bookstores who don't stock it should still be able to order it in on request.

another spread from the book

(click on the image to see it larger)

You can see some of the process for this spread here.

first look at final art for Bye,Bye, Butterflies!

I've had permission from the publisher to post some of the final art from the picture book that I recently illustrated (Bye, Bye, Butterflies!) for over a week but just couldn't find the time to get it done.  My world has been filled with chaos lately.  In addition to some freelance work, over the past month my husband and I have been dealing with several issues with our apartment (including but not limited to an attempted break in) and we've also been searching for a home to buy - which is pretty time consuming and stressful in itself.  The apartment issues seem to be getting resolved and the new home search may have come to an end so I feel like I can finally take a moment to get caught up.

I just added an icon of the book cover to the right and as far as I'm aware the book is still on track to be released in June. I can't wait!

So, without any further delay, here is the opening illustration for the book:
(click on the image to see it larger)

Stay tuned, as I'll be sharing more images in the coming days :)