Birds do it. Bees do it.

Here's some illustrations from a work-in-progress. Did you guess that it's about pollination? Right now the project is very fluid, lots and lots of changes going on. I won't bother to give you the working title because that's been changing weekly right along with the story. Here are some page spreads which may or may not make it into the final book. So it's a sneak peek just for you. Shhhh, don't tell anybody.

A tiny fleet of insects wings its way to nectar and pollen.

Hummingbirds hover at petunias, and tango with trumpets of mint.

Flowers bloom around the clock. Some only bloom at night. The Cereus cactus blooms once a year so you better be watching. Most of us are familiar with daytime pollinators like bees, hummingbirds, lady bugs and butterflies. What about the nighttime pollinators? Bats, fireflies, hawk moths and even some geckos are a few of our nighttime heroes working hard to save our planet.

Their feast awaits.

By day or by night, pollen falls when creatures feed.

One of my favorite projects that capped off 2020 was illustrating a picture book by Ryan Caver and Jacqueline Bordeaux. The book is for CleanHorizons.org, an environmental Conservation Organization. Check out their inspiring instagram feed, @clean.horizons (https://www.instagram.com/clean.horizons/) and their website is https://cleanhorizons.org.  

For every book you purchase Oliver and his friends pledge to pick up a pound of trash in your honor. This is your opportunity to help protect our coastlines along the Gulf Coast, keeping our beaches safe and beautiful and our wildlife happy and healthy. Who is Oliver, you ask? Well, he's absolutely amazing! You really need to buy a book to get involved and find out more!... 

Below are some free downloadable activity sheets created for the book.

Cootie Catcher Sea Turtle Challenge Activity Page for Litter, Litter, Please Come Here

Be-A-MAZE-ing activity sheet for Litter, Litter, Please Come Here

No to littering! coloring sheet for Litter, Litter, Please Come Here

Scratching my head, trying to work out the kinks for the cootie catcher/sea turtle activity.....

Think I've got this thing figured out with a lot of help from kids who totally know their cootie catcher construction and games!

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. Clicking on the illustrations enlarge the images, much easier to see details. Click the links to go to Clean Horizons for more information about their environmental group and to purchase a book. You can also click on the activity pages to download them, print them out and enjoy!!

Cathy

Wrapping Up 2020, One Illustration At A Time

What can you say about 2020?  

It’s been no picnic, but we’ve tried making the best of what life has thrown our way this year. I’ve been grateful to be able to work from home and have some fun projects to wrap my mind around. 

Below are illustrations from Litter, Litter, Please Come Here by Jacqueline Bordeaux and Ryan Caver. This is a very fun, simple story with an empowering message for today's kids. “You can clean up your environment, a piece of litter at a time. It only takes one to to make a big impact.” When the book is published I'll post a link with more information.

Our beach friends make the trash a meal. Imagine how that makes them feel?

Litter, litter, everywhere. Litter, litter, please come here. 

Many call the beach their home. Fish that swim and crabs that roam.

Now back to that Picnic theme...

The last several years I’ve been illustrating various projects for Darling NYC. They always throw fun challenges my way. The videos below are for Pink & Pepper, two of five picnic themed ads to launch Morton Himalayan Pink Salt & McCormick Ground Pepper Shakers. All the creative, the animation, design, etc., is Darling. I drew the illustrations.

 Various illustrations from Pink & Pepper

So now you know, children’s book illustrators sometime do more than illustrate children’s books.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog. 

And here’s hoping for a brighter and better 2021.

Cathy

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

US Forest Service Poster framed by a Colorado sunrise - I'm an early bird illustrator

In with the Old!

Here's one of the last illustrations completed in 2019 (so last decade!) which goes to press January 2020. This was such a fun project to research and illustrate. I'd love to have more jobs like this come along in this new decade.

The Ribbon, new story in the works

 Something New!

I'm collaborating on a new picture book. The working title is The Ribbon. So far I'm just playing around with different looks and exploring possibilities. The story is in flux as well as the illustrations. I don't feel I'm where I want to be yet, but you have to start someplace. Plus, turtles are fun to draw.

Download, print, color and laugh!

 Something Borrowed!

I borrowed these jokes from the folks who bring us Arbor Day. This fall I have a new book, The Tiny Giant coming out. The premise of the story shows how it takes one small thing to make a huge impact. We get the concept through watching the life cycle of a tiny acorn becoming a giant oak forest. I love to create activities that relate to the book. And kids love jokes, right?

Below is a partial cover reveal. The acquiring publisher, Schiffer Books, has been great to work with and is putting all the bells and whistles on the book cover and interior design and layout. You'll be seeing more throughout the year.

Partial cover reveal with a Colorado sunset in the background - gotta set the mood

Shhhh, Blue Beauty and her animals are trying to sleep!

And finally something Blue!

What's This Tail Saying? by Carolyn Combs, illustrated by Cathy Morrison

And I'm adding one last bittersweet announcement regarding my picture book coming out this Spring with Dawn Publications. I've been a huge fan of Dawn's creative nonfiction nature books long before I started working with them. This is our seventh book together and they have always been amazing to work with. Dawn has been acquired by Sourcebooks based in Chicago and is now part of their eXplore juvenile nonfiction imprint. You can find the acquisition details in this Publishers Weekly article. So on one hand I'm excited that Dawn Publications has found a new home with Sourcebooks. This should bring a wider audience to their books, continuing their mission of connecting children with nature. But on a personal note I'm going to miss working with the original folks who have always been so supportive and put their heart and soul into creating these fun nature titles.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog. You can keep up with new images by following me on my Instagram account, @cathymorrisonillustrates. Also, clicking on an image will enlarge it for a better view and clicking on a link will give you more information.

Happy 2020.
Cathy

The Long and Short of It

Denver Children's Festival of Stories 2019

This year's Children's Festival of Stories was wonderful. I've put together a small collage to give you an idea of our day, or at least my little piece of it. Please click on the image which takes you to the Book Fest's Gallery to get the full picture, including story tellers, entertainers, books, book creators, food, (specifically Little Man Ice Cream!), music and the cutest kids ever! Thank you Second Star to the Right and Denverfcos for an amazing event.

Below is a free printable mask activity created for If A Mummy Could Talk. The kids at the book fest enjoyed cutting out and decorating their mask and I hope you will too.

 Cat Mummy Mask Activity

...As a valley becomes a forest from the efforts of just one.

Above are some illustrations from The Tiny Giant which comes out Fall 2020. This week I completed the illustrations and turned in all the artwork early! I can't tell you how good that feels. Now I just need to complete the illustrations for the picture book coming out Spring 2020. Such is the life of a children's book illustrator and I know somehow it's going to all work out.

Thanks so much for taking time to look at my blog. Click on the images for more information or a larger view.
Cathy

Welcome to my world!

The view from my home studio with a work-in-progress from What's This Tail Saying?

 Welcome to my world. Winter in Colorado is a great time to be inside all warm and toasty working on new projects. Below are illustrations from a creative nonfiction picture book with Dawn Publications. The working title is What's This Tail Saying? and it's a Spring 2020 release. The author, Carolyn Combs is a super smart scientist as well as author who knows precisely what animals' tails are saying. When you read our book you'll know too!

Flip! Zip! What's baby Elephant's tail saying?

Uh, oh! Skink doesn't see the raccoon in time to run away.

Two page spread showing copyright page and beginning of the story: Animal tails are talking. Can you guess what they are saying?

Stranger danger! Hearing the alarm all family dives into the pond.

And finally, If A Mummy Could Talk by Rhonda Lucas Donald unwraps at a bookstore near you very soon. To commemorate the book release here's the vintage 1978 King Tut performance by Steve Martin for SNL. And yes, we have an entire spread dedicated to King Tut in the book.

Cover, title page and interior spread from If A Mummy Could Talk...

Arbordale Publishing sent a book ARC (advanced reading copy) and I'm very happy with it. Also, the first review by Kirkus hit this December and they seem happy with it too!

Kirkus Review for If A Mummy Could Talk...

There's more books and projects in the works. I'll catch up with you in 2019 about those!
Thanks for taking a look. Be sure to click on the images for a more detailed view or a link for further information.
Cathy

21st Century Children's Nonfiction Conference

21st Century Children's Nonfiction Conference

I've been looking forward to this conference all year. Now it's only a week away and there's still a lot to do. I'm honored to be presenting two workshops. Saturday afternoon I present "Creating a Picture Book - An Illustrator's Perspective". And on Sunday I'm co-presenting with James Ransome, whose work I LOVE! That workshop is "Surviving as an Illustrator". I'm sure his perspective must be totally different from mine so it should be interesting.

Conference faculty

And while on the subject of creating a picture book, here's a couple of new illustrations for Baby on Board, written by Marianne Berkes and published by Dawn Publications. It's a Spring 2017 release, due around the same time as all the new spring babies.

This 'possum hauls her babies from one place to another. The joeys have it easy as they all ride on their mother. 

Here's a little background about North America's only marsupial, the strange animal with the appropriately confusing name. In 1608 Captain John Smith coined the word opossum from "opassum", the Algonquian term meaning "white animal." In his notes he wrote, "An Opassom hath an head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignes of a Cat. Under her belly she hath a bagge, wherein shee lodgeth, carrieth, and sucketh her young."

No one really knows why the opossum's "o" was dropped, but it appears in print as early as 1613. There are true possums in Australia and New Guinea, not to be confused with their North American cousins, the opossums. I told you it was strange.

Baby clings on Mama's hair. They slowly move with ease. They sleep while hanging upside-down from branches in the trees.

And who doesn't love a sloth? Two-toed sloths are nocturnal while three-toed sloths are diurnal, which means they are most active during the day. Skeletons of now extinct species of sloth suggest some varieties used to be as large as elephants!

You can click on the first two images for details about the conference. Click the illustrations to enlarge and get a better view. Thanks for taking a look!

Baby on Board

I'm working on a new book scheduled for Spring 2017. It's by Marianne Berkes and published by Dawn Publications. I'll post more as I go along. If you haven't guessed by the illustrations it's about how animals carry their young. How did somebody carry you when you were just a tiny baby?

This baby chimp is cradled in a "sleeping" nest.

Baby clings on mama's hair. 

This mom is like a living raft as she transports her pup.

The illustrations above are known as works-in-progress or WIP. They change as we continually tweak, refine and research. What you see now may look very different by the time the book goes to press this fall. I work directly with the art director and editor then they show the art to the author. There's a lot of collaborative feedback - all this behind the scenes tweaking goes into making the book that much better. After we're all happy with it then it goes to vetters, professionals in their field, who might make more suggestions. We want the final outcome to be a fun and imaginative picture book that's based on reality in nature. Here's a great article by Tania Lombrozo, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley who explains why kids love books based on nonfiction!

Check back for new babies as I continue to draw; maybe a cub, a joey, a pup, a spiderling, who knows? And there will be at least one spread showing a special father who's the caregiver for his young. Can you guess which animal that could be?

And I'm totally honored to be a part of Fulcrum Publishing's 3rd Third Series. Patty Maher is in charge of this program. She was my art director for Ignacio's Chair and we've been friends ever since. She didn't mention this in the flyer, but Patty will be doing a presentation on the Caldecott Award. Hopefully I won't be too nervous about my presentation to enjoy hers.

3rd Third Seminar

As always, thanks for taking a look! You can click on the images for an enlarged view.

Sneak peek at Spring 2016 Titles

Over on the Farm cover

So they galloped in a field where the corn plants thrive.

"Waddle, " said the mother.

"Roll," said the mother.  "We roll," said the ten.

 It's always fun to get the first look at pdfs from a book I illustrated after the designer has finessed the layout with type and design. It's also fun to work on a book for very little kids that rhymes, can be sung, is a counting book and has a surprise rooster ending. This will be the fourth book Marianne Berkes and I have done together and my fourth book for Dawn Publishing as well. Over on the Farm comes out spring 2016.

I'm working on a second book that will come out the exact same day, so here's a few images from that book as well. The working title is Wild Ones: Critters in the City. The author, Carol Malnor has several nature books for kids and I love her story about animals living among us.  I'll post more details in a bit.

He darts off to investigate.

Always curious about what he might discover, Scooter follows the bird.

Meanwhile, while Scooter is discovering city critters, his family is looking for him.

He wanders over to check it out.

Please click on the images for a larger view. And as always, thanks for taking a look!

Latest buzzzz for If You Love Honey

After turning in artwork for If You Love Honey, Nature's Connections I got a look at Patty Arnold's design and layout for the book. I'm posting a few spreads here to give you a sneak peek. This is my second book illustrated by Martha Sullivan and third book for Dawn Publishing. It comes out this fall. After doing a lot of research for the illustrations I've converted to a true honey bee fanatic, not to mention a Martha Sullivan fan!

And here's a couple of early reviews:
"If You Love Honey is vibrant and engaging with warm, lifelike, and impressively accurate art that remembers the young audience the book is written for. Parallel sections of text throughout the book effectively lead the reader through the pages. The theme text is repetitive and playful, while the more instructional sections are informative but still easily accessible and interesting to a young audience" --Randy L. Seagraves, Curriculum Coordinator, International Junior Master Gardener Program

"If You Love Honey takes its readers on a beautifully illustrated adventure through the intertwining natural world around us. It highlights the work of our bees, linking golden honey on bread to the earthworms crawling underground, and everything in-between. Children will be fascinated by this tale." --Sarah Red-Laird, Bee Girl, Executive Director, American Beekeeping Federation, Kids and Bees Program Director

And I wanted to say "Thanks!" to William Porter at the Denver Post for including me in his Mother's Day tribute. It's always great to give a shout out to our moms, especially our moms who spent so much time reading that favorite book once, twice, three times and please, just one more time before going to bed.