I wish I could be...

While Mark was building the deck, I was inside, away from the sun and rain, working on a (much smaller) project of my own: an illustrated storybook for my nieces and nephews. The book took over my non-working hours for about five happy months. The story is adapted from Kimya Dawson's awesome and quirky song "Treehugger" (popularized by the Juno soundtrack).

For reference, I used old encyclopedias and my own photos. Finally, my snap-happy tendencies came in handy! For instance, the hundreds of photos I took in Sequoia NP last April made for excellent tree studies! After I was happy with the pencil sketches, I traced them in marker on tracing paper, scanned them, and coloured them in Photoshop. In the future, I'd like to experiment with actual watercolours, so I can spend even less time on the computer. But regardless of medium, colouring is fun. Oh so much fun.

I loved making this book, from head to toe. Without deadlines, rules and expectations, the drawings evolved and the characters formed. I think this is the first project in a long time where I was able to keep that critical, judgy, inner voice at bay, and was able to maintain a sense of fun and exploration. And I am thrilled with the outcome. I used Blurb again (as per usual), and I'm so happy with the quality. The thick, matte paper looks like a sketchbook, the colours are so vivid and the details nice and crisp. Zero complaints there.

However. Very, very unfortunately, I didn't get these printed copies in time for Thanksgiving (even though they were scheduled to...), which was my last chance to visit my nieces and nephews before I leave... So I showed them on the iPad, and the printed copies will find their way to those little hands in time for Christmas. It makes me sad that I won't be able to deliver them in person, but I look forward to the day when we can read it together. Hopefully my illustrations will fire up their imaginations and live long in their memories, as old storybooks did for me. Have you experienced that feeling of happy familiarity when coming upon a book from your childhood?

My very own book. In good company on the bookshelf!