It's been a while Panda

I haven't posted a panda in quite some time!

Librarian Presentation

A few of weekends ago I enjoyed a wonderful satuday morning spent with local librarians, artists, and writers of children's literature. It was a great time for me and I hope for them as well. It strongly reminded me of what a vital role librarian's play in introducing children to literature! I was also fortunate to listen and look in on the presentations of the other writers and illustrators and it was great to hear their perspective on making kid's books.

Here are a couple of the slides included in my presentation. I mentioned how I feel making a kid's book can be compared to making a film (only much smaller of course). You have to cast characters, or in my case, critters. This mole tried out for a role in Red Wagon - unfortunately he didn't make the cut. But I am sure there will be a picture book in his future someday.

Red Wagon is a finalist for the GG's

I am humbled and excited that Red Wagon has been selected as a finalist for this year's Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration! This makes it two in a row as The Quiet Book was selected last year. The competition is pretty stiff again this year, I have already read Migrant illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault and Along a Long Road by Frank Viva. They are both simply amazing books that I would highly recommend, I look forward to checking out the other finalists.

Here is a link to the Canada Council for the Arts official GGs website featuring all the 2011 finalists.
http://987321654.canadacouncil.net/en/archives/2011/Finalists.aspx

Thank you

His vision helped open up possibilities for me as an artist in creating my own worlds, Thank you Steve Jobs.

365+ Sleeps to go

Last week I finished the interior artwork for my latest book, Yeah! Now only 365+ sleeps until it is released. That will give me a little time to write up a new story to draw.