Summertime Reading Beyond the Book

I love how museums and companies are thinking outside the binding to expand books way beyond their borders. As a volunteer for Fort Collins Museum of Discovery I've been able to share several of my creative nonfiction picture books through Storytime in the Dome.

Wild Ones: Observing City Critters by Carol Malnor

This program happens twice a month in the expansive 360° digital dome. The books always have a live narrator to keep it interactive for these young book lovers. The books are digitized with animated page turns and some include background sound effects! It's a fun, creative way to engage these young kids in reading. Afterwards we head down to the Learning Lab for a related craft.

If You Love Honey by Martha Sullivan

Here's a couple of the photos the Murray family sent me after reading If You Love Honey in the Dome. The girls created a bulletin board full of artwork, crafts and activities relating to the story, especially focusing on the honey bees. There's no limit to their imagination!

Over on the Farm by Marianne Berkes

Are you familiar with Ivy Kids Kits? These are monthly subscription boxes designed around a picture book. I've been in awe of this company for awhile. One day I was on their website and was surprised to learn they were featuring one of my books, Over on the Farm, for that month. (Seems the illustrator is always the last to know!) But it was a happy surprise and I was blown away by all the STEAM based activities created to enhance the book. Please check out more about their company at Ivy-Kids.com. I love their mission and wish they had been around when my own kids were little.

And finally, here's some illustrations from a picture book I've been working on that's a little different for me. The publisher doesn't want me to talk about the book, but says I can show a few illustration samples. So here's my show-and-tell. It's been a fun project full of flowers, fairies and the moon.

Thanks for taking a look at my blog. Click on the links for further information and the images for larger views.
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

It Takes A Village

Nothing's normal this summer. "Normal" is sitting in my little cabin researching and illustrating picture books. And while that is happening this year there's more. 

I got to participate in a stage production for Tales and Tune Live!, the brainchild of Kristen Olsen. She produces a radio program featuring children's book creators. This was part of a larger program, SummerFest 2018 and Off The Hook Arts which inspires a love of the performing arts through public concerts, education and collaboration among the arts and sciences.

Here's images from the show at the Carnegie Center for Creativity in Fort Collins. I met so many wonderful volunteers, entertainers, technicians, not to mention kids and their families! I never realized all that went on behind the scenes to put together a half hour show.

Off the Hook Arts and Tales and Tunes Live!

That's Jesse G. Shepherd performing on stage. Jesse produces a regional radio program, plus writes songs for children's picture books. He wrote three songs to tie in with my books as part of the program and the kids absolutely loved it. Hopefully I'll get some better photos to post because you need to see the super cute wood nymph along with her bear who live in that hollow log to the left of Jesse. I can't think of when I've had such a fun time.

I have to give a special shout out to thank the folks at Second Star to the Right Books in Denver. They drove up to Fort Collins for these events and set up a pop-up bookstore to sell our books after each show. They do so much to support kids in our community.  

Thank you Marc and Dea, owners of Second Star to the Right Books for all you do

And finally, some new art. Even though illustrating children's books is my passion, I've been picking up more commercial/editorial work lately. Here's a tomato illustration as part of a series of seed packet labels. 

I combined three of the images into a spread and worked up an illustration featuring a vole. It must the children's book illustrator/gardener side of me, I just couldn't help myself. Maybe it'll find itself in a kid book one day, you never know. I love stories about kids and food.

Tomatoes

Children's book illustrators are usually creative gardeners too. Just think about the amazing fairy tale gardens Tasha Tudor used to create!

Gardener Girl, working title

Writing and drawing

Revising, redrawing, rewriting, again and again and one more time

And one last bit of news that I'm excited about... I've long admired the organization, ILCW, International League of Conservation Writers. This is a forum that brings creatives together from around the world to promote wilderness, nature and conservation as a means to protect and restore natural areas, habitats, animals, and plants for our planet. This year I applied and was accepted as a fellow. I'm looking forward to getting involved with all they have going on.

Thank you for taking a look at my blog. Please consider me for an upcoming project. You can click on each image and link for more information and a larger view.
Cathy

Back to work, reading, writing and drawing

Off The Hook Arts presents Tunes and Tales

Off The Hook Arts provides free and low-cost performance education for kids and their families throughout Northern Colorado. This summer they will sponsor SummerFest 2018 Mission Earth in Fort Collins. This program provides a host of fun events including a STEAM science fair, a day camp with CSU's Little Shop of Physics, FORTCAST's WeatherFest, along with Tunes and Tales Live storybook and art classes. I'm honored to be included in the program along with Colorado children's book creators, Dow Phumiruk and Brooke Boynton. My program is on July 10 and I hope to see you there.

Kristen Olsen, mom, writer, art instructor, radio producer, community organizer!

Here's the amazing Kristen Olson - the force behind Tunes and Tales Radio Program on 88.9KRFC. I get to work with Kristen on the upcoming Mission Earth Story time and Art Class.

Text in the City is featured in Where Women Create Magazine 

Ok, everybody who knows me knows that I'm an enthusiastic member of Text in the City, a Colorado book club made up of a dozen women artists. Our book group's been going strong for fifteen years now and I'm super stoked that we're featured in Where Women Create Magazine's premier 2018 issue. Thank you Jo Packham for being such an advocate for women in the arts! You can click on the magazine's cover to pull up our story.

 

Colorado Country Life Magazine commissioned me to illustrate four seasonal themed illustrations for "Thank You" Cards  - Here's SPRING!

Interior spread from I Spy Blackberry Pie, a work in progress

Above are a couple of new images from recent projects.

So far 2018 is shaping up to be a busy and creative year. I'm working on a few manuscripts as writer/illustrator. They're in various stages from doodles whirling around my mind to storyboards to book dummies going out into the world as submissions to agents and publishers. Wish me luck!

Studio With A View

And here's one last image and a reminder of why I named my blog, Studio With A View. Thanks as always for taking a look. You can click on the links for more information and the images for a more detailed view.

Cathy

Nature Recycles by Michelle Lord

To say this year has been busy is an understatement. I'm quickly wrapping up illustrations for Nature Recycles by  Michelle Lord, published by Sylvan Dell Publishing. Wish I was quicker, five more spreads to illustrate, but it makes it more doable as I really like the story. I'm currently working on the spread which focuses on Asian elephants and how they recycle. I'll post it and the others as I get further along. But wanted to mention Asian elephants because that's where I'm heading in a couple of weeks - Bangkok Thailand! My husband, Andy Brown is working there for most of the summer, creating communication centers in that area so I'm excited to visit and see another part of the world I've never experienced. When I come back I'm starting a new book about dinosaurs. More about that one later.

Here's two additional images I cropped from Nature Recycles. Three more to go and I leave for Bangkok in just over a week. Lots to do before I go. Also wanted to add "Happy Memorial Day!", especially to my son, Evan and all his Navy friends.

So here's two more cropped images. I'm working on the last one and leave late tomorrow - will I finish before I go? Or am I destined to always carry work along on my vacation?