I told you I had a lot of stuff to share, and I wasn't kidding!
About a year ago I was asked if I'd be interested in illustrating a series of books about a teenage girl. That sounds kinda cool, right? BUT, her primary interest in life, besides boys, and clothes, was
cheerleading. I know most of you don't know me personally, but perhaps you can tell by the overall impression of moi that you get from this blog, that I could give a care about cheerleading, or school spirit, or anything remotely involved with liking high school at all. I didn't enjoy high school one bit, myself, and I was about as far from a cheerleader as you could get.
It sounded like such an un-ME project that I almost said no. But then I said yes.
And now those
books exist, in the world, and my name is on them!
The first two books (in a series of five) are out now, and although they're chapter books they are riddled with illustrations. I plucked a few of my favorites out to share with yous!
The illustrations are meant to be doodles and sketches by the narrator/star of the book series, a teenage girl named Maddy. She wants to be a cheerleader SO BAD which I SO CAN'T relate to, but she is also an artist, and I CAN relate to doing silly drawings of things!
Like wishing your nerdy best friend would dress cuter...
...or your best friend making faces at you...
...and getting dagger eyeballs from mean girls!
It's a trip to see my own handwriting in a book.
Ultimately, I'm really happy that I decided to jump into this book series. The sketches are fun I make a point of forcing them to be interesting by inking them with a brush pen. That way I can't noodle them forever (like in photoshop) and you get little spontaneous surprises sometimes.
Plus they are supposed to be kind of wiggly and sketchy. It's hard for me to avoid making them all clean and nice sometimes, tho...
So that's what I've been up to. I wish I knew more tween-age girls, cuz I love to know what the intended audience thinks of the books.
Now, back to work!
