April Newsletter 🌷

Pattern Challenge, Lettering, and Upcoming Lives

Apr 01, 2024

Happy April!

If you’re in children’s publishing, then you know that the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is next week, woo!! I am very excited to meet some of you there, and to soak up all the inspiration from fellow kid book creators.

Welcome to anyone who is new to the monthly newsletter! This newsletter (on the first of the month) is a space to share and reflect about the previous month. I share my updates below, but what I really love is hearing what you’ve been up to as well. So please feel free to share in the comments!

What I have for you this month:

Commissions:

I’m finishing up a wedding map commission this month. I got to paint some buildings around Boston which has been on my list, so I was really happy to do this one!

Do you remember last month I told you that I have a new idea for commissions? It’s perfect for weddings or celebrations of any kind that involve flowers. If you’re curious, reach out! I’m super excited about it :)

Learn more about commissions here

Recordings from Live Events

Watch now - Illoguild Live: Embracing Rejection
Watch now - Illoguild Live BONUS: Visiting the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Watch now - Art Gym: Faces Workshop

Weekly Artist newsletters:

In case you missed any posts, here’s what I wrote about last month:

Children's Book Study #9
The many ways to draw a face 👦🏿👧🏽🧒🏻
What should I draw? (part 2)
Surface Pattern Challenge (part 1)
Bonus: Visiting the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (Re-post from last year since BCBF is coming up!)

Get an annual subscription for $50 to get drawing workshops and all the things in the Library!

Online Shop

The shop is closed for the next two weeks while I focus on the Bologna Chidlren’s Book Fair. All orders will be shipped mid-April.

Upcoming Live Events:

Illoguild Live | April 22 - 7 AM EST / 12 PM GMT / 8PM MYT / 11 PM AEST

(open to all subscribers)

Join the guild as we recap our experiences from this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair. We’ll share all about what we learned and how the fair went. Use the button below to sign up and check the time for your location:

Art Gym: Emotions Workshop | Tuesday April 23 at 10 AM EST

(open to paid subscribers)

Join Adam Ming and me in our fourth Art Gym workout! We have tons of good stuff to share with you about drawing emotions. If you’re a paid subscriber, be on the lookout for the sign up link later this week!

Updates from last month:

Book Cover Design

Last month I told you a bit about the lettering class that I’m taking. We all designed chocolate bar packaging in February, and in March we all designed book covers. I’m still trying to figure out my lettering style, but I have learned that I mostly enjoy writing letters on paper with pencil and scanning it into the iPad. I feel like the words “Travels in Rome” could have been a bit bolder or thicker, but hey that means I’m learning something if I’m able to critique my own work!

I had an absolute blast with the storytelling of this cover. I imagined this middle grade story is all about two girls who thwart an art heist, and of course Rome is the backdrop. Specifically, this illustration shows the Villa Borghese, because after doing some research, I learned about a painting by Raphael that’s in the Villa Borghese, which has an interesting story. It also has unicorns, so I was sold. That painting is where all the unicorns and the ruby necklace came from. It’s fun to get inspired after getting lost in some research.

Left: The Raphael painting that inspired this story and the color palette. Right: Lettering with pencil on paper

Egg Painting for Nowruz at the Museum

As many of you know, I’m a part-time educator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. We hosted an art making event at the museum’s Nowruz celebration, and visitors got to paint eggs. I recreated one of my pattern designs on an egg and was really happy with how it turned out!