You never know what will come out of a broken crayon (#48 in series). I decided to take a video of how I created one of my broken crayon drawings, and I gave it away on Twitter – congrats to Ann Schimmoler, who won the final result (I am still waiting to . . .
One of my favourite Tim Federle quotes: One thing books teach us is that if your life sucks right now, you just haven’t gotten to the good part. You can get the above image as a free, print-ready poster in my Free, Print-Ready Archives.
Thanks to @fabtic_ltd for inspiring this post via their Twitter comment about this image.
Happy New Year! Here’s a fun doodle challenge for artists (and non-artists) of all ages: download and print my blank “2018” page and decorate however you’d like (art, inspiration quotes, random doodling) with what whatever media (crayons, pens, pencils, paints) you’d like. Maybe draw what you’re hoping to see or do in . . .
You never know what will come out of a broken crayon. Those of you who follow my Twitter and Instagram accounts will have seen my Broken Crayon series, now up to #35. To teachers: I’d love to see what your students draw with broken crayons! If you send me a link to an online . . .
I love how supportive members of the kidlit community are of each other, including those who create children’s book illustrations! I recently put out a call to some of my illustrator and author/illustrator friends, asking if they’d be willing to help me celebrate the launch of SAM & EVA by . . .
As some of you know, I am hooked on fountain pens (it began at a photo shoot for the Toronto Public Library, but I’ll save that for another post). Anyway, I’m totally loving my new Desiderata Daedalus! To artists using dip pens: you might want to check this pen out . . .
Everyone feels overwhelmed and discouraged sometimes. Or sometimes life gets in the way, with circumstances out of your control. Take a break if you need to, but don’t give up hope. Put your half-finished mss or picture book dummy in the drawer for now and find other ways to keep . . .
One of my favourite pieces of advice for writers and illustrators is from literary agent Jenny Bent: “…Be brave. Fail. Try again. Succeed. Rinse and repeat.” It applies as much to the published as well as pre-published. In fact, this advice is good for life in general. Thank you, Jenny!