Event!

I'll be reading and doing a short presentation at a local literacy fair this Saturday, from 10-11am. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)

If you live nearby, come on over!

What I'm Working On Now: Map With River & Libraries

I'm working on the finished art for this map. This is the rough sketch. Let's hope my eyeballs hold out-- it's big!

May 11th - Haiku Festival

I haven't tried my hand at haiku since Mrs. Atkinson's 7th grade English class.

So when Elizabeth mentioned that she and a friend were planning a blogoshphere Haiku Festival I thought it would be fun to join in. (Remember the "Door" themed day from last year? Turned out to be a great way to meet new bloggers and travel the world vicariously.) So save the date- May 11th- and drop Elizabeth a comment if you'd like to be added to a list of participants.

Here and here are a few sites that explain how to write haiku, if, like me, you need a little refresher course. Let's make Mrs. Atkinson proud!

Monday Map: Windy City Neighborhoods

These little locator maps for TimeOut Chicago are always fun to do.

Friday Fun: Blueberry Girl

I teared up hearing this read by Neil Gaiman. Maybe it's that I've been thinking a lot recently about certain women and girls in my life, and what I wish for them. The words and pictures are beautiful. Enjoy.

Dept. of Freelance: How to Get Work

1. Start making progress on your own projects, and real work will come in the door.*

2. The best way to get lots of work is to plan a vacation.**

* Meaning the kind that pays bills. (This is a good thing!)
**Haven't tried this one in a long time, but it really works!

New Piece: First Stage

This is the first stage of a new piece I'm working on. (Here's the sketch.)

I've transferred the drawing to watercolor paper and started drawing with colored pencil. Next comes the paint. The first layers of watercolor always soften up the pencil line, an effect I like, then I can go back in and redraw/strengthen the line as needed.

Maybe I'll post the different stages as I do them. Although there's always that inevitable point where I hate the piece and think it's dreck, in which case I think I'd just die if I posted it. (Reminder to self: that's normal, keep working!) We'll see.

The Visitor

This plump fellow paid us a visit during spring break last week. He pranced around the backyard for a while, and then zipped off into the woods.















Turns out he was preening for a few lady friends, who promptly ran away. I guess they were camera shy.

Monday Map: Garden Madness

'Tis the season for prepping the garden beds. The husband has cleared and tilled and put up most of what will be a very-big-deer-fence for our "Victory Garden." I finally started my seed flats. It's been a late spring around here, and we want to be ready to plant once the weather turns around for good. Perhaps come August I'll hold a blog vegetable give-away, with any luck!

... Can't figure out how to make the video below fit to the correct width. Darn you, blogger!

Friday Fun: Flutter, Anyone?

I really like those eyeglasses... hmmm.

The kids are on break next week and it's time for some spring cleaning. I may blog or not-- will have to play it by ear. Have a great weekend, everyone!

(Top Secret Project)

Spring Promo, in Green

PBAA's spring promotional poster!

Prints!

From time to time people have asked if they could get prints of my work, so I've opened a gallery at Imagekind with some of my favorite pieces. I plan to add more, including some maps that might be suitable for a more general audience. (Most of my maps are customized for the particular client, so I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in them.)

I hope you'll check it out-- any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

Monday Map: Big Sur to San Jose

Here's another map from the Mobil Travel Guide Luxury Drives book I worked on last spring.

How funny, amazon has me listed as the editor. Ah well, don't believe everything you read!

Friday Fun: Type & Communication

Typography Animation - One of These Mornings from tousue on Vimeo.

I can't remember where I found this link! But there are more neat type animations here.

Silly Questions**

Can somebody please explain to me why good-hair-days always happen when you plan to wear sweatpants and hunker down in the studio to work-- yet on the days when you have an important meeting or a fancy party, it's awful??

On another note-- April is National Poetry Month. You can sign up here to receive a daily poem by email.

(** While I believe there truly are no silly questions, some are probably more trivial than others. This would be one of them.)

Wednesday Noir et Blanc: This Cat Has a Story...

... I just have to find it.