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Firstly, I must send a HAPPY 11th BIRTHDAY shout-out to my awesome (and second oldest) son. YAY!
With August arriving tomorrow, I'm sneaking onto the computer to quickly post my August 2014 desktop calendar, and then it will be time to " Assemble the Trifle!!" My son's favorite dessert. ( *note- this must be hollered in an "assemble the minnions!" Frau Farbissina sort of voice, LOL).

  I have been experimenting with adding mixed media to my Plasticine illustrations, and this month's desktop calendar features an illo that has a fun Steampunk-y flavour. I used a mix of antique-y map papers, watch gears, burlap, metallic paints and polymer clay. Ever since I created the Steampunk-y Infinity Coil medallions for the covers of Marty Chan's YA novel,  The Ehrich Weisz Chronicles, Demon Gate, my head has been swirling with Steampunk inspired ideas. I have been working away on a picture book manuscript, featuring this little guy and his mechanical wings.  It's not quite there yet, but it will be one day...

I've also been working away on the pencil sketches for Gerbil, Uncurled(Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Spring 2015), written by Alison Hughes. I love this stage. Well,  I guess I love every stage of illustration :)  The studio is a flurry of papers. I like to hang up the sketches all around me, for easy reference- I am getting very excited to translate these into plasticine. Here's a pic of one wall of my studio at the moment:

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Yup, that's right, it is final artwork time!!! I'm so excited to get started on the plasticine art. Can you tell? It has been so quiet on the blog lately and I didn't even even get a chance to make a July desktop calendar- so sorry everyone, but we made a last minute dash to the cottage.

So this is what is going on over here. I've been mixing and kneading lots of plasticine. It's a great way to keep the arms toned ;) I also keep track of my ratios on a sheet of paper, a sort of mixing chart, so if I run out of a colour I can refer back to it and make it again.

I'm SOOO excited to get cracking on the plasticine art...I think I already said that, oh well. I still feel like I need to pinch myself most mornings because I feel so incredibly lucky and honoured to be working on this picture book project. The story is such a perfect fit. And I have had such a wonderful time bringing Stewie the skink to life in my sketches from Lisa Dalrymple's fab manuscript. I still have a few revisions awaiting approval, that might need further tweaking. It has been a great learning experience to go through my sketches with my editor, Christie Harkin. She gives great constructive feedback, and our brainstorming sessions always leave me feeling energized with tons of great ideas. She totally rocks!!
For those of you who follow me on FB, you may have noticed a bunch of Stewie(the real Stewie) pics that I shared yesterday from Lisa's recent trip to Pinery Park. She shot some fabulous photos of him. And it turns out, after lots of searching with the naturalist outdoors, Stewie surprised them all by hiding under a desk in their office. Stewie found Lisa! That silly Stewie :)

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