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a fierce thanks

Thank you to the folks who’ve sent me messages and shared I will be Fierce with kids. Illustrating this book was a huge challenge as the text is powerful but not clearly visual. I revised sketches many times in order to match Bea Birdsong’s words with a strong visual story about a girl facing the challenges of her day. The positive response makes it worth it!

Here are some interior spreads – the librarian is based off my kid’s favorite story time librarian!

Thank you and I hope you have a lovely week!

Fierce tomorrow!

Tomorrow our picture book, I WILL BE FIERCE, written by Bea Birdsong and illustrated by me is out! As I prepare for promotional events in the bay area and beyond, I reflected on the process. From when I agreed to illustrate it in October of 2017 to when it hit shelves, it’s been a year and 7 months! I created the illustrations from sketch to final in 5 months and delivered in July of 2018. In between July and now, our publisher, Roaring Brook, prints and promotes to help build excitement.

One of my favorite pages is in the library (of course!) and below are some early sketches. I receive manuscripts with art notes. From those notes, I drew our fierce girl in a well stocked, inviting school library with a helpful librarian.

But my editor wanted to try a few different ideas, so I drew a more fantastical library.

But we settled on the first take, modified.

Creating picture books is a fascinating challenge. These opportunities allow me to grow as an artist and story teller. Like my graphic novels, I add people from my life into the art. The librarian is based off our local librarian who my daughter loves, the bus driver is my adopted auntie and the grandma is based off my mother in law. I also added the author and her son! It’s these things that make the work personal and fun.

When I held the finished I WILL BE FIERCE in my hands, I felt the same as when I first read the manuscript – happy and strong. I hope that it’ll make you feel that way, too.

Thank you for the opportunity to share this and I hope to see you on the road!

P.S. For any who are interested there’s a free story time kit available to use in conjunction with the book.

 

i will be fierce + more

The cover for our forthcoming picture book, I WILL BE FIERCE, written by Bea Birdsong and illustrated by me is out! The book will be available May 2019.

Meanwhile my schedule for New York Comicon is shaping up, I will be speaking on a few panels as well as participating in a stellar group signing at Books of Wonder on Friday October 5th. I will be with Luke Pearson, Kazu Kibuishi, Molly Ostertag and many more. Find all the details here.

And lastly I’m happy to share that we’ve added all over print pillows and totes to the site! They’re great quality and made in the USA.

I hope you have a great week!