Hey guys and gals!

Hey everyone. I thought I'd just mention that I'm currently in the process of moving my blog and website to Squarespace. It's an incredibly easy way for me to update my portfolio, as well as have both my blog and my portfolio on the same site.

Hey everyone! I am pleased to finally unveil the cover for Traveler's Trunk: Pirate's Treasure by author Amanda Litz. The book should be available in August, so keep your eyes and ears open as to when you can pick it up!

Big thanks to everyone who made Illustrator's Day 2009 such a success! Myself and the others got some great feedback from art director Joann Hill. Here is the second piece I did for today, though I wouldn't mind adjusting a few things.

Hey everyone. I'm busy wrapping up work on Traveler's Trunk, and finishing illustrations for Illustrator's Day 2009 in Philadelphia. Here's an almost completed version of the first of two illustrations! Any feedback is always welcomed. Hope everyone's doing well!

Hey everyone. I thought I'd announce that we've created a fan page for the Traveler's Trunk books on Facebook! If you're on, please become a fan. You can receive updates and behind the scenes looks at the art, as well as announcements about the book's release. It'll be a great way of staying updated on the book. If you're not my friend on Facebook, feel free to add me! You can find the fan page here.

The website should be up soon, but I thought I'd post a pic of a work-in-progress chapter picture. Jacob thinks they might be going the wrong way!

A painting of my niece Samantha in progress. Some changes I need to make but I think it's coming along okay. It's funny the stuff that I (or any artist types reading this) will see that other people don't catch. I still don't see that as a reason to fudge things one way or another. Sooner or later someone will call you out on it.

Hey everyone. As some of you may know, I'm currently working on images for a self publishing author's chapter book (that I'll go into more detail as the publishing date approaches). For now, enjoy some in progress pictures of the main characters and a mysterious trunk. What lies inside, I wonder?

Hey all! I am here at the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains. I have a little time to kill so I thought I'd maybe blog some of the events that are going on. I just registered and checked into my room, and upon doing so was given a nametag. Since they picked my art for the retreat, my image is actually on the nametag! Pretty awesome.

Since I was unfortunate enough that the peer critiques were full, I have a couple hours to kill before everything starts. I'll keep everyone posted.

Update:
Hey everyone. We've since had our first presentation and just had dinner. I just had a nice chat with Lee Harper, one of the retreat's guest illustrators. It is always nice to hear from people in the industry. I'm meeting some very nice people and having a great time so far. Looking forward to our illustration intensive this evening!

Update:
We had our illustration intensive forum, which was really just me and 3 other illustrators chit chatting. Very enjoyable though! I'm now enjoying a drink in the lobby, excited for tomorrow.

Last update:
I'm home at last. Today was full of fun and more odd coincidences (the whole weekend has been full of them!). I was honored to get the editor's choice for illustration. Feeling really good right now.

If any SCBWI people read this I'd really love to thank everyone who made the retreat come together. I'm delighted to say that there are too many of you to call out by name! Looking forward to getting together for some literary critiques soon!

I was doodling this before bed last night. It's pretty rough but after some refining I'd like to do something more with it.

I miss Sonic. He used to be so awesome. Now he's become a laughing stock of gaming. Horrible music, junky gameplay design, forgettable characters...no heart. This is the Sonic I remember. Running around green grass with blue as far as the eye can see. Helping animals escape from the clutches of a mad man who wants to turn them into robots. It saddens me that the Sonic as I knew him is gone.

Gingerbread Boy sketches...values look pretty rough right now because of the tracing paper so excuse that. Happy spring everyone! I wish every day could be as nice as today was.

Edit: I know his face kinda looks like the Shrek gingerbread man....making changes.

**Update**
Upon getting some feedback I'm thinking the leprechaun picture, while more recent, might not be entirely appropriate. I'm thinking of doing something like this:

Hey people. Here is my latest, a cover for Stories for Children magazine. The issue includes many stories where children see more than what's really there. Kids have such an ability to create worlds where they don't exist, or see one object as another. Seeing as it's March, I thought it'd be fun to see some leprechauns finding pictures in the clouds. What should they find?

Hey everyone. I'm on Twitter now as 'jamiepogue'. Send me a note sometime or let me know if you're on so I can give you a tweet.

Hello! I am back home from New York after a fun weekend at the SCBWI 2009 conference. I gained a lot of insight into the children's book industry and...I don't know, a renewed sense of confidence that I can break into this little world. I currently have a lot of things on my plate, from doing the cover for Stories for Children, doing work on a freelance chapter book, portrait paintings, cleaning, rough drafts, and more! I'll be sure to keep you all up to date in the coming weeks.

I also have very few pictures from the conference, as my camera conveniently ran out of batteries. I did get to meet Leo and Diane Dillon, and we have some spectacular speeches by the following artists and writers - Jarrett Krosoczka, Jay Asher, Bruce Hale, Jack Gantos, and Richard Peck.

Hey everyone. I'm really excited for the SCBWI conference next week! Before that, I thought I'd post an assignment I was given by Stories for Children magazine. You can find their site here. I'll let you all know how the conference goes!

Hello my readers. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I will have more to upload soon. January 30 is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators annual conference in New York City. The keynote speakers this year will be none other than Leo and Diane Dillon! Needless to say I'm very excited. I have signed up for the illustrator's intensive as well. Hopefully someone will take notice? The next month will consist of me ordering new self promotional materials and just getting as much done before the conference as I can.

I hope any old classmates or whoever reads this knows how much I think about them all the time! I will be sure to keep you all updated on everything.

Hey everyone. Sorry for being lazy with updates lately! The following is a link to the next regional Eastern PA Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators gathering. I was lucky to have my artwork picked for their website/brochure! Check it out here:

http://scbwieasternpa.onefireplace.org/

Here's what I've been working on while I'm not at work. I hope to do another image and dummy book and trying to submit the idea for a children's book. Any feedback would be great! Hope everyone is doing well.

SCBWI's Eastern PA chapter is looking for imagery for the Pocono Mountain Illustration Retreat. The theme was "Inspire the Fire", and while I had some other ideas, I ended up with this little Greek guy. It might not directly involve illustration or what have you, but I thought I'd try to do something a little outside the box. And hey, if it's not picked, I have a nice little spot here. I had fun doing this, and I think I'll work up a bunch of similar black and white spots.


I also sent this in, though in retrospect I didn't feel like it was particularly inspiring, or exciting for that matter. Regardless, I had fun with it.

Hello! It has been far too long since I last posted. Now that I've settled in my new job a bit, I've begun working more on my REAL job. This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Fall Philly conference in Exton, PA. It was so nice to be in an environment where I was surrounded by other artists and writers! Definitely a nice kick in the butt. Huge thanks to Linda Rogers, Lin Oliver, and especially Cathy Giordano for making Saturday such a great experience for me.

I'll hopefully have some progress on an illustration this week. Let's just say it involves the sea, puns, and baked goods. Yum.

So it's about that time...I'm currently in the process of updating my website. I'm taking Robin Eley's comments about web design into account, and keeping my contact information and portfolio visible at all times. It's not TOO much different from what it is right now, but if anyone has any advice, I'd love to have some. I plan on keeping the "News" section the main part. Clicking on a thumbnail or link on the left will put something new in the main window. Clicking on the email link will open up the user's email program, and clicking on the blog link will take you to my blog. Now here's my question - are the links on the right too out of the way? If you were browsing that site, would you think to click on those words?