Tiger hidden in my soup. (Should have added more cumin.) Or how sleep is optional before a SCBWI conference.

So I am totally delighted to say that I get to attend the Midsouth's SCBWI conference in 9 days. I am not delighted to say that I am bone tired. But it seems to me that this is how things are suppose to go before a conference. As my sweet husband will attest, I get a wee bit cranky running on 5 hours of sleep. ;)                                                                                                                                                    

So the SCBWI has started to do intensives in the last few years. I LOVE intensives. It's like being back in art school again. Basically you get an assignment from a super amazing Art Director. This year we are privileged enough to work with Ms. Loraine Joyner from Peachtree Publishers. My assignment was to illustrate a spread of the story Tiger in My Soup written by Kashmira Seth and illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbler. (We were encouraged not to look at the book, so I have no idea what it the story looks like other than the cover.)

Anyway, you submit your concept art, thumbnails and a final sketch to the Art Director and they give you constructive notes on how to fix or better enhance your illustration, then you come to the intensive with your final illustration.

This was my initial complete sketch of the spread:

Ms. Joyner went above and beyond the call of duty and sent me three pages of incredibly helpful and super encouraging notes. She helped me see where I needed pump up the action or fix things here and there. She basically liked the left side of the spread, so here is a simple upgraded version of the right side of the spread:



I'm working on the painting process right now and I have basically one week to finish. Excited for next weekend. Hopefully I can have enough time to be as meticulous as I want to be. Wish me luck, will you? :)