Monday, November 30, 2009

Long time, no post!

No excuse, really! Just an incubation period, I guess. Do you ever go through such periods, o fellow creatives? Well, I've been enjoying some new creative outlets recently, and one of those creative outlets is a new part-time job at the Portland Children's Museum! A great institution, and I highly recommend it as a fun afternoon for you 2-4 year-old readers out there. Anyway, it is a REALLY fun job for me, because it allows me lots of time to interact with kids, something I have never really done consistently before. I know that lots of children's book authors never had kids, but for me it's been really helpful to spend some time around my target audience, and observe them as they're playing. I come home every night inspired to draw...





I've never really felt as comfortable drawing kids as I am drawing animals. And that notion (that I'm better at animals than kids) was something I was never comfortable with, either! After all, I love figure drawing. But figure drawing was always adults, never kids- and their anatomy is so different from adults. Those huge heads! So it's been enormously helpful for me to be able to hang out with kids on a daily basis.

7 comments:

Nina Crittenden said...

Oh, that little fella in the boots is so adorable!!!

JaneA said...

I absolutely love the energy of your sketches. Lovely.

SC said...

How cool that you are working at the children's museum! And all the roller derby-name suggestions you got were amazing. Did you pick one? I am partial to "Nancy Drew Blood" and "Wheel'ya Bedelia."

Flower said...

Your children are right on! I draw a little..and when I draw a child..they have the same personality each time. It's like having the little kid in me come out on the paper.

Anonymous said...

Oh man I'm totally jealous of your museum job! That sounds like a great outlet for other creative energies (not to mention just getting outside).

Vicki said...

Oh, thanks, everybody! Your comments are most kind. I'm still contemplating my roller derby name, but those two are a couple of my faves...

metro manila said...

very nice great stuff