This is probably the most Aussie thing Hera has in her closet, a baby lifeguard swimsuit, now part of my illustrated diary of Hera’s clothes. (Illustrated with pen on bond paper, colour applied afterwards in Photoshop.)

Whew, this one took a while to finish up! Was a little sad packing these away as Hera’s grown out of them all… this is the latest drawing from my illustrated diary of Hera’s stuff. (Illustrated with pen on bond paper, colour applied afterwards in Photoshop.)

Well, I took a BIG break from my illustrated diary of Hera’s outfits… and have the drawing itch again so here is the first of many new illos! (Illustrated with pen on bond paper, colour applied afterwards in Photoshop.)

I was reading Frankie 26 a couple weeks back, and just fell in love with the polymer creations of Meredith Dittmar. They’re quirky, retro, playful, and so awesome my eyes are going to go blind from pure awesomeness (Sorry, been watching a lot of Kung Fu Panda with Hera.)

Wow, this is such an honor… Diane Cantrell’s and my story, Good-bye, Baby Max, won a gold Mom’s Choice Award in the category of Values & Life Lessons. To win this award, Good-bye, Baby Max was evaluated on its “production quality, design, educational value, entertainment value, originality, appeal and cost.” And I must say… it was fun sticking the gold seals on my copies of the book!

“The Mom’s Choice Awards® (MCA) is an annual awards program that recognizes authors, inventors, companies, parents and others for their efforts in creating quality family-friendly media, products and services.

An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of our panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of PBS’s Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times best-selling author; Priscilla Dunstan, creator of the Dunstan Baby Language; Patricia Rossi, host of NBC’s Manners Minute; Dr. Letitia S. Wright, D.C., host of the Wright PlaceTM TV Show; Catherine Witcher, M.Ed., special needs expert and founder of Precision Education, Inc.; and Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, founder of the Mom’s Choice Awards.” – Mom’s Choice Awards®

Stay tuned for Diane’s and my next children’s book, which we are working on right now!”

Eeeeee, my copies of The Brotherhood of the Stinky Underpants arrived in the post this week! I’m very pleased with the colours and how they turned out so close to the original illustrations. The book is available online and some of the illustrations from inside can be seen here.

I stumbled across Grandma’s Graphics (via Boing Boing), a treasure of a website full of illustrations from antique children’s books which are out of print and are now in the public domain. Well worth taking a look through for inspiration! The above illustration is from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson.

I can’t help but beam when I show off Jason MacKay’s digital illustration… not only is he extremely talented, creative, and funny, he’s also my brother! It’s been exciting watching his style bud during his time taking the Bachelor of Applied Arts (Illustration) program at Sheridan College. With experience with packaging design (Davis Design), illustration for film (The Mysterious Journey of Delroy Kincade), and video games (Capybara Games), as an illustrator Jason’s a real catch!