Happy Spring! Yesterday was the book birthday for Aven Green Soccer Machine, written by Dusti Bowling with interior illustrations by me. Cover art is by Marta Kissi. To celebrate, I’m giving away 3 sets of books - the newest one and Aven Green Music Machine. How do you enter? Just be a subscriber by April 10th at midnight. I’ll pull the winners the next morning. US residents only, please.
This month’s drawing sheets celebrate a strange bird called the Potoo. I had a lot of fun learning about them. If you want to extend the learning beyond my worksheets, I found this video really educational and fun. I also nerded out with this fact: you can hear a potoo in the background of a scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark at about 50 seconds in. (be warned, this scene is not exactly little kid friendly!)
I’m working on an array of smaller illustration jobs this month - including some really fun Highlights hidden pictures assignments. Last month, we took a family vacation to Palm Springs, CA and Joshua Tree (with a touch of the San Diego Zoo). Later this spring I should be starting on a NEW project that I’m still free to discuss (publishing is really slow, people!)
Palm Canyon was prehistoric and unlike anywhere I’ve ever seen - very Flintstones, including those cartoon blue skies! Of course, we had to see the Pee Wee dinosaurs in Cabazon - inside and out. Joshua Tree was gorgeous but we did not plan on the snow and foolishly left all our winter gear home in New Hampshire. Thank goodness for hearty New England kids that were unaffected by the cold (unlike me, I was freezing!). The house was mid-mod amazing. Marilyn really IS larger than life in California (har har) and the art museum was lovely. I feel very lucky to have seen another new and beautiful part of our country.
I’ll round out my ramblings with a strong suggestion to watch The Big Door Prize on AppleTV (if you’ve already binged Shrinking which was GREAT.) I also just tore through the first three Truly Devious books - I’ll have to satisfy my literary maple syrup references by picking up another Three Pines book…
Ta-ta until May - and don’t forget to subscribe if you’d like to be put into the Aven Green Soccer/Music Machine book giveaway!
I love these books so much!!