The Feed - Stories of Feeding God's Hungry Children in Body and Spirit

I wanted to share with you this wonderful story from "The Feed" a blog from the organization Feed My Starving Children.  They featured me and my picture books in their latest post because of the contribution I make to them with the sale of my picture books.  I am honored to be recognized by Feed My Starving Children as a Hope Champion.   You can read the story here: 

No Truer Way to Live My Faith 

FMSC is a wonderful organization that I seek to plug every chance I get:)  On their blog you will find lots of inspiring stories of Hope Champions who give to Feed My Starving Children in unexpected ways.  Maybe you want to become a Hope Champion yourself.  I highly encourage you to explore the blog and learn about FMSC.  If you love children like I do, then you will want to get involved.  

The quote that they put at the top of the feature says it all....

"But Jesus called the children to him and said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'" – Luke 18:16  

Thanks for taking the time to read this post:)

SCBWI Traveling Sketch Book

Wow!  It's May and I'm just getting around to posting this piece of art I made back in March.  Well, I think you are going to like this even though it's a bit late. 

 

So here is the story....I belong to the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators and we have a local chapter for those in New York state.  Back in the fall, the leaders of the local chapter (WestCenNYSCBWI) decided to start a sketchtravel, which is a traveling sketchbook that moves from illustrator to illustrator.  I signed up to participate and wound up being the last person on the list to add a sketch before the book went off to our annual spring conference.  That means I got to see all of the art before anyone else did, not even the organizers of the sketch travel got to see it before me.  How did I get so lucky?  

When I received our traveling sketchbook it was like receiving gold in the mail!  I was so excited to see the contributions of everyone and wondered what I would contribute.  When I opened the sketchbook I was blown away!  The most amazing art was in there and each piece has it's own personality.  There was no theme to follow, just sketch whatever your heart desired.  It was very inspirational to see the work and the mediums people chose to work in. 

 

Here I am receiving the sketchbook in the mail.

To start I made a little video of the whole book for you to see, then I'll post some of the art individually, and lastly my contribution.

Now, here are a few pieces from the sketchbook that just blew me away...

And my contribution.....

When I painted this it had snowed again for what felt like the thousandth time.  I was dreaming of spring and wishing it would hurry up and come.  I thought of all the creatures that were sleeping the winter away and wishing I could do the same:) 

Below you can see how the painting came together... I started with references and then made a sketch the size of the book.  You can't imagine how nervous I was painting in this book that had so many wonderful pieces of art in it.  I transferred my sketch into the book ever so carefully and then put tracing paper between the pages to prevent bleed through.  I put a piece of plastic underneath it to keep the cover clean and I even moved my water to the other side of my work surface so I wouldn't spill it.  Could you imagine...  

Starting with a watercolor wash for the sky, I then moved to acrylics for the majority of the painting.  I added in details with colored pencil and pen and ink.  

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the WestCenNY SCBWI Sketchtravel.  I would be honored to participate in a project like this again.  It was truly magical:)

TTFN!