New Craft Coalition and Crafty Llamas

Oh my where to begin! It's been awhile so maybe I'll start at the end. These are some drawings Renata is doing for New Craft Coalition coming this May 22 and 23, it's a carefully curated collection of craft, art, and design. We are a big fans of the coalition and excited to be chosen to be included, It's going to be a lot of fun!

But it's not all fun and games, we're also doing New Craft Coalition to do research for a new book series for Bloomsbury called Crafty Llama. Renata is illustrating a story I've written for her about a Llama who knits, of course, and decides to show her work at a craft fair. So it only made sense that we do a craft fair ourselves to get inspiration. Just over a week ago we also did Market Collective and Renata got some great character and story ideas from the wonderful people we met there.

Doing the drawings just for the fun of it has really reenergized Renata which is good because she has a lot of exciting work ahead of her before she can even start Crafty Llama.

As we are currently waiting patiently for Summer, Renata is trying to think about winter as she works on a lovely story called Waiting for Snow written by Marsha Diane Arnold. It's a return for Renata working again with The Quiet Book editor Kate O'Sullivan at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

At the same time she is also working on a super story written by Mac Barnett called Places To Be. This one has been a long time coming, but the wait has been worth it and the book is going to be a wonderfully inspiring place to be!

I thought I would update a story Renata just completed a few months ago called Dormouse Dreams written by Karma Wilson. I'm biased, of course, but each time I see the artwork on Renata's computer screen (see above) I'm blown away by the beauty of it, it's a winner.

And last but not least I want to mention This Way That Way written by Doreen Cronin which is coming out next month. Renata had a lot of fun with this book and it shows.

That's all for now, I'll be back soon with more on This Way, That Way.
Visit Renata on Twitter @RenataLiwska for more up to date happenings.

Finalist for the 2014 Governor General's Awards

This year Renata was nominated for Canada's prestigious Governor General's Award for Literature for her illustrations in Once Upon a Memory written by Nina Laden. http://ggbooks.ca

This is her third time as a finalist for the award, The Quiet Book and Red Wagon have been nominated previously, but it is no less exciting and humbling to be selected amongst all the amazing picture books made by Canadians. Such as the other wonderful finalist including Marie-Louise Gay for Any Questions? written by Marie-Louise Gay and published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, Qin Leng for Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin, written by Chieri Uegaki and published by Kids Can Press, Julie Morstad for Julia, Child, written by Kyo Maclear and published by Tundra Books, and Jillian Tamaki for This One Summer, written by Mariko Tamaki and published by Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.

Interestingly three of the finalists, Renata, Jillian Tamaki, and Julie Morstad are graduates of the same alma mater, The Alberta College of Art and Design. The winner will be announced in a few days!

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!

Sandwich Break

Whew, it's been a busy last few weeks. Time to take a sandwich break!

Sketch and finished book illustration from Once Upon a Memory written by Nina Laden.

Crystal Kite, Communication Arts, Librarians, etc

I would like to share some recent good news. First off we had a wonderful time at the Alberta Librarian Association Conference in Jasper, Renata was so pleased by the feedback she received from the librarians who attended her talk - she's convinced that librarians are the most friendly people ever!  We also had some time to enjoy the beautiful mountain park and make some wildlife pictures.

Some exciting news is that Nina Laden's and Renata's book, Once Upon a Memory, has been selected as the western region Crystal Kite Award winner for 2014! Visit Nina's blog HERE to hear more. Once Upon a Memory has also been recently chosen for A Bank Street College Children's Book Committee Best Book of 2014 Selection.

Also just on the new stands is Communications Arts 2014 Illustration Annual which as you can see below includes Once Upon a Memory. Yeah!

BOOM!

Boom Snot Twitty published by Viking, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Renata Liwska is officially released this week. It's about three unlikely friends, who have three different ways of being in the world. Boom the bear is good to go, Snot the snail is happy wherever she is, and Twitty the bird feels best safe at home. Renata's reasons for choosing to illustrate Boom Snot Twitty is the same reasons as all her other books. The story made her smile and she had ideas for drawings right away.

Here is a little process for one of the pages from the book: