Summer Dreams

Wow, it's been way too quiet around here! It's well past time I post about what Renata has been up to this summer. I will start at the beginning, in early May she completed perhaps her most whimsical work - Dormouse Dreams written by Karma Wilson. As the name suggests it is a very dreamy book which allowed Renata to let her imagination fly free and includes fun stuff like wing walking stunt birds, foxes cross-country skiing, and a dizzying pack of wolf pups. It will be out next year sometime.

After that we were excited to be able to attend ICON 8 - The Illustration Conference. And we were even more excited to do a short presentation. It was perhaps a little too short for Renata, she's super great at longer talks - she needs to take her time to express herself. Nonetheless it was a exciting visit as Renata got to meet many of her favourite artists (such as Calef Brown). She was particularly pleased to purchase a miniature painting by Susie Ghahremani - a cute bear with green jeans.

The rest of the summer she completed the second Boom, Snot, Twitty book - This Way, That Way written by Doreen Cronin. I think I have mentioned before that although illustrating picture books can seem a pleasant way to pass the time, it's not always that way for Renata - each book is a near insurmountable task. Until she uploads the final image, she's never sure she will be able to complete a book. But so far she always does! She just uploaded the final image last week.

With the summer winding down, Renata is winding up for her next adventure. She's been looking forward to working on her next book since the day signed up for it, more than a year and a half ago. It's written by the amazing Mac Barnett, and I have to say it's a super story and perfect for Renata. She loves to work with manuscripts that allow her to add her own story through her pictures.  We had a chance to have lunch with Mac in Berkley after the illustration conference and he mentioned that when he writes picture books he is mindful of leaving something for the illustrator's pictures to tell. I was going to post a snippet of one of the drawings, but I remembered that Renata wouldn't want to jinx it before the editor has seen the drawings!