Making FALL LEAVES… hundreds and hundreds of little Fall leaves.

The past few weeks I have been working on the illustrations for FALL LEAVES, which will be published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. I am so in love with this text… it slowly looks at the changes of the season and weather, creating so many possibilities for atmosphere. Here, I am making a rain scene. I haven’t yet added the rain or details, just getting the two little kids in place here.  This one only has trees in the background, so I didn’t make too many individual leaves… but wow, there are so many yellow, red and brown leaves floating around the studio right now that it is hard to believe it is summer.

 

The last couple of weekends have been adventures! This past weekend we took a trip to Toronto. Lily has been asking to see Wonderland. She had a blast and we all enjoyed some music the next day at the Toronto Urban Roots Festival.

 

The ALA in Chicago the previous weekend was amazing! I am so thankful to Running Press for taking me down to meet the librarians there. The signing went well (phew) and I got to meet so many passionate librarians and see so many beautiful books. Very inspiring! This is my editor Marlo Scrimizzi, one of the sweetest and smartest people you could ever meet. 

 

I met some authors and illustrators at the ALA. Have you seen One and Zero by Kathryn Otoshi? They are fantastic concept picture books. I also love The Yellow Balloon by Charlotte Dematons. There are no words… it is fantastical worlds that pull you in. I had a great talk with her. She flew in from the Netherlands and I was lucky enough to catch her just as she got there. She even drew a drawing for my little ones on the inside of the book which we will treasure.

I like to have a visual on hand to explain what I do, so for the signing I brought a diorama down. This shows the exterior and interior.

Is it too early to put Fall images in the shop – just a week into summer? This is Hide and Seek.

Hope you are having a great summer so far! – Elly