NESCBWI Conference - Jenn

Don't forget, registration opens today for the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference begin held in Fitchburg, MA on May 13, 14 and 15th.

I'll be there all weekend. And on Sunday, I have the privilege of giving a two hour presentation with my friend, and very talented illustrator Carlyn Beccia entitled, "Digital Painting Duels." If you are familiar with Carlyn and her work, you know that she loves Corel Painter. I, on the other hand, am a Photoshop kind of gal.

If you know anything about New England, you know New Englanders are extremely loyal to their teams. So of course, we could spend the two hours fighting over which which is best, Team Painter or Team Photoshop. Which would be silly, because we all know Photoshop is wicked bettah!

But seriously, both software packages have there own strengths and weaknesses, which is what we will be exploring during the course of our talk. Hopefully the audience will walk away with a better appreciation for both tools, as well as a few new tips and techniques they can take back to the studio with them. By the way, does anyone know where I can get a Photoshop t-shirt to wear?

What I'm working on at the moment - My Website

I've been working to revamp my portfolio website recently. You can see my new, and hopefully improved site at www.jemorris.com. I'm still tinkering with the layout, but here are the things on my wish list that I've accomplished so far...

1. Update the pieces in my portfolio - My portfolio was pretty out of date, which is rather pathetic, considering that's my main source of advertising. So I went through and decided what sorts of work I would like to do in the future and tried to showcase those sorts of pieces. One of my resolutions this year is to review my portfolio the first of every month and cull out the weaker pieces. No more letting it go for 6+ months at a time!

2. Make the site more maintainable - By changing most of the formatting over to CSS, I hope to be able to change the look and feel of the site just by tweeking the CSS files. At least that's the plan.

3. Make it more mobile friendly - Another thing that I could do by putting the formatting in CSS files, I was able to create a style sheet for iPhones and another one to display on smaller tablet screens.

4. Have a way for folks to access individual images in my portfolio - Actually, I fixed this last time I updated my website. But it's a feature I was felt was important to keep. And something you might want to keep in mind if you are setting up your portfolio. A few versions back, I used frames to create my site and it was hard to bookmark a particular image or email a link to an image to someone.

So if you have time and want to let me know what you think, I'd appreciate any comments.

What I am working on - Susan

I am currently illustrating my first Little Golden Book, which is quite exciting :)
I can show you the cover because it is now available for pre-order on Amazon:


Sketches are all finished for the interior and now the painting begins!

Alfie the Alligator T-shirts Available

I have had some parents contact me and say that their kids love Alfie the Alligator so much that they would like to know where they can purchase an Alfie T-shirt. I'm thrilled that someone enjoys Alfie that much, and so I was happy to oblige. T-shirts and sweatshirts are now available on-line. And if you just can't get enough Alfie, there is also a coordinating coffee mug.

What I'm working on at the moment - Anette

One of the projects I'm working on at the moment is book 3 in the "Nilsen" series that I wrote about in my last post. I've made a lot of thumbnail sketches and now it's time to start working on the final sketches!

My Latest Board Book: What Does Cow Say? -Jannie

I spotted the latest board book I illustrated, What Does Cow Say? written by Joan Holub, published by Cartwheel books. You can get it on Amazon or there is a giveaway over at The Children's Book Review. Good luck!

2 new books!

Last year I illustrated the first 2 books in a new series for 2-3 year olds here in Norway. Today I received a copy of the final books, and they will be in bookstores all over Norway any day now. I'm already working on the third book that will be published this fall. I'm really happy about how the books turned out!
(Written by Bodil Vidnes-Kopperud. Published by Cappelen Damm)