New Illustrations and a Working Vacation

Big conference coming up for me: The annual New England Society of Childrens' Book Writers and Illustrators (you know, the NESCBWI) Spring Conference in Springfield, MA. From Friday, May 2nd thru Sunday, May 4th I'll be politely canoodling with illustrator friends, author friends and various important Art Director, Editor and Publishing types who have the power to, at the least, get me an introductory cup of coffee in the picture book industry. There will be lectures, workshops, keynotes, meals, drinks and other assorted shenanigans. This will be my third conference and with the exception of having to finish a few final pieces for my portfolio I'm extremely relaxed and ready to meet as many movers and shakers as time allows. Hopefully they feel the same way I do about my work – It's ready to be published.

Here's one of the eating and drinking moments from last year's Conference. I can almost guarantee you own or have at least read a book written and/or illustrated by one of these fine folks. And if you haven't well then you be ashamed of yourself.





The Conference couldn't come at a better time, because I'm pretty burnt out at my day job. Our company is growing and we've been producing a lot of really nice work lately. We've also done a fleet-load of updates to our biggest client's web site over the past # of months and although the end is in sight we're still not there yet. Many many many hours of overtime and weekend work have caught up to me, so the NESCBWI Conference will also be serving as a mini-vacation. A very busy and hectic vacation, but I have a solid group of illustration and author friends (you cats and kittens know who you are) and many of them will be in Springfield to speak, learn and have a few beers with me.

In my spare time (before 7am and after 9pm) I've been overhauling most of my portfolio. There are a handful of pieces I'll keep. Okay, maybe more like a handful and a few more fingers. I'll also add a few finished pages from a couple of picture book dummies I've been working on. I'd also like to add another finished piece from Pirates Go Shopping as well as a few comic-style pages featuring recent lunch notes I've been drawing for Jake. I've been slipping a full comic page consisting of four to five panels of Star War Episode IV: A New Hope into his lunch box a couple of days every week for the last month or so. They're crude. They're intentionally goofy. They're a whole lot of fun to draw. And kids from other grades crowd around when they see he has a new one. I appreciate winning awards, but that's the highest compliment my work can get. I'll also start adding the Star Wars panels to a new tab on my web site starting May the Fourth.

Here's the one new piece I'm allowing myself to share with everyone before the conference:




I'll add the rest to my site as well as this blog in early May after I've had some time to decompress from my Springfield adventures.

Later.

Greg

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