SCBWI had an illustration contest last year at around Thanksgiving. The theme was "Thanks but No, Thanks!" And for me, instead of showing a family serving up some hefty helpings of things children would definitely not like on Thanksgiving (for instance, liver, brussel sprouts or even canned cranberries) I wanted to show what it may be like to serve up something we consider delectable to a pair of out-of-towners - specifically two aliens from space. In this particular "story in my head," these aliens are stranded here and have to adapt to stay undetected. In this scene, the family that is hiding them serves up turkey for Thanksgiving. Little did the family know but what some beings consider delicious may be disgusting to another.

Recently, I took on a job doing calligraphy for wedding invitations - just the addressing of the outside envelopes and the inside envelopes.

I jumped at the opportunity since it is rare that I get to use my calligraphy pens. I learned to write in italic when I was in junior high and high school. And as an illustrator, I think I neglect the wonderful possibilities a calligraphy pen has to offer - the lyrical thick and thin scrollwork and filigrees. But I decided to keep this job fairly simple as I had to address 130 invitations (which translated to 260 envelopes total). For each envelope, I measured guide lines to use. I set my "x-height," ascender and descender with these guides.



I may feel confident to do this with only a baseline one day, but not today. Without going into specifics on what each term means, I had basically set the guides to show me how tall my capital and my lowercase letters could be. Next, I began the process of inking.

I spent many hours inking. I had to take frequent breaks as my eyes would tire and when that happened, mistakes would too. Then the last step was to erase all the guide lines.

Real simple. As I am not a full-time calligrapher, I think I will leave that work to the pros. And for more info on the technique itself, just give Google a visit. There is a world of information on the techniques and the many styles of calligraphy.

I realize that the protagonist in this illustration is not yet cracked, but we all know his demise. When I did this, I had seen what it looked like before the fall and after, but I imagined something in between. I don't know, I guess I enjoy a little tension in some of my illustrations. This I call, "Humpty's Predicament."

There are times when laughter can be contagious. These two tiger cubs considered each other enemies at one time, until they survived a life-altering adventure. Upon returning from their journey, they wondered, "Do we resume the ridiculous hatred we had for each other before?" Then the laughter of friendship broke the silence and caught on quickly throughout the pack.

I was contacted by a friend of mine earlier in the week. He wanted me to do a portrait of their son for his wife to give her on Mother's Day. Of course, I obliged! It was a nice change of pace from the week I had previously. And it was to be done in pencil, which I rarely get to do these days. The great thing is that he had a wonderful photo for me to use as reference. It captured the joy and energy of this child. I just hope the mother likes it as much as I did. I almost didn't want to part with it!

I've posted this image before on my blog. It's one of my first serious Star Wars illustrations. It depicts the Skywalker family tree: Darth Vader (Anakin), Luke and Leia. I plan to revisit this idea to include many of the new characters introduced in various Star Wars fiction, including Han and Leia's children, and Luke and Mara's children.