New Work!

After completing a very "tightly rendered" project, I wanted to do something much more loose! I like to look at photos that spark my imagination and inspire me to draw, and I found this photographer/artist -  Soraya Jean-Louis McElroy - whose photos really grabbed me.

She kindly granted me permission, and so here are the images I made from her photos. Usually when I use photos for inspiration, I change them a LOT so they don't look like they are from the photo. But Soraya's photos were perfect the way they were, so I didn't change very much.


Part of the experiment was to use colors differently - to let them blend on the paper rather than mixing them myself and trying too hard to get consistent colors, or layering them up and risking the art being "overworked".

Since I really needed new art for my agent's fall mailing, I worked on creating a "story". Soraya had a series of photos showing two girls, one with a birthday crown, another with a girl's gap-toothed grin in the shade of a willow tree, and another with two girls walking arm in arm. 

So I changed a few things, imagining the girls are walking away from an old borded up house - what if it was Grandma's?

What if the birthday crown was a treasure, buried in the back yard?

I'm going to be at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art tomorrow at 2:30pm to do storytime for kids. :)

I'll be reading "First Peas to the Table" by Susan Grigsby. :)

Happy Independence Day!

Bayswater Book Festival

I'm going to be at the Bayswater Book Festival!

 July 28th in Center Harbor, NH. Along with 9 other authors and illustrators. Should be fun time, swing by if you can. :)

Mother Daughter Wedding Day

I was going to use this as a postcard...didn't end up doing so. :) Weddings aren't always about the bride and groom. :)

Loosely based on Mom and me (I didn't even try to make her look like my Mom...who is too beautiful to capture in pictures!) 

I liked having the bride a bit geeky, like me.

Pie Day!

Playing with photoshop painting! Mmm, pie! It's starting to be really fun now instead of just frustrating. I can get brighter colors, change my mind as often as I want, and paint in an additive fashion - without wasting paint or breathing in fumes. Next, I want to see how much I can integrate traditional and digital media so that it is fun and satisfying.

Happy Mother's Day

First Peas to the Table

 

First Peas to the Table by Susan Grigsby. Spring 2012 Albert Whitman & Co.

Reviews:

"History, science and a guidance lesson all rolled into one, this could surely be the spark for many a school garden." Kirkus Reviews

"This beautifully illustrated story has a mixture of both fiction and facts about the life cycle of peas....Teachers will find a multitude of ways to use this book and this team's In the Garden with Dr. Carver." School Library Journal

"The first-person narrative relates events and Maya's changing perspective in a believably childlike voice, while the pencil-and-watercolor illustrations capture the story's tone as well as the characters' emotions." Booklist

 "This picture book seamlessly meshes together a little science, a little history, and a strong storyline." Library Media Connection

Awards:

2013 Growing Good Kids - Excellence in Children's Literature Award

Selected by the Nebraska Farm Bureau's as the 2012 Children's Agricultural Book of the year for grades K-3

2013 Learning Magazine’s Teachers Choice Award

Behind-the-scenes:

http://nicoletadgell.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-making-of-first-peas-to-table.html

More Inks and Sketches - 3

More Inks and Sketches - 2

More inks and sketches - 1

Apple

Digital drawing/painting of a stylized apple on my Wacom tablet, in Photoshop CS5.

First Peas Contest Begins!

Kids and teachers might just love this one! Grow and harvest your own peas, might just win like Shakayla! Check it out here.

Ink

Love

So many kinds of love. I'm reading 8th Grade Super Zero by Olugbemisola-Rhuday-Perkovich and seeing the different kinds of love in Reggie's life is what inspired me to sketch this.

I'm not done reading it yet, so don't give away the ending! ;)

Coloring Pages for First Peas to the Table!

Merry Christmas!

First Peas to the Table is on Facebook!

This is a book I'm really excited about! Classroom gardening, spring, contests and kids! It's called First Peas to the Table and it's coming out this spring from Albert Whitman & Co. Susan Grigsby and I teamed up again, and it's a great story. More to come - teacher's guides, coloring pages, an maybe even a contest!
Visit and like the new Facebook page! :)

Halloween!

What if...

Squirrels eat pumpkin...are they Zombie Squirrels?

A scary moonlit night...the old tree stump looks like it might have a face...

Dog tags

I kept all of dog's tags. Strung ribbon through them, made a loop, and they're Christmas tree ornaments. :) This one I did on cold press watercolor paper with Winsor Newton colors.

Yupo!

I got some "Yupo" paper and experimented with it. It's very smooth, and watercolor can "sit" on top of the surface, almost the way it looks on a paper palette. The experience was very frustrating for me so far...

 

I think the watercolors were too thin and light.

So I did a really loose sketch of a maltese, and threw on darker, richer colors. This is when I realized that unless your hands are superclean, oils will leave areas that the paint won't adhere to.

So without any pencil, I loaded up some brushes with green and brown and did this. Ah, I think I see how it should work now.

Next I'll experiment with printing a drawing onto it from my Epson. Then make sure I don't use any lotion on my hands before painting!

Sketches

Some sketches to share...

Celebrate!

Squirrel sketches

In the Garden with Dr. Carver wins the Growing Good Kids Award!


The American Horticultural Society and the National Junior Master Gardener Program are pleased to inform you that In the Garden with Dr. Carver published by Albert Whitman & Co. was selected as a 2011 Growing Good Kids - Excellence in Children's Literature Award winner.

This book awards program was established to recognize and build awareness of picture books that effectively promote an understanding of and appreciation for gardening/plants and the environment. Through engaging story, illustration and design, In the Garden with Dr. Carver was designated by our book awards committee as exemplifying excellence in this aim.

Click here!

Bestseller list!

In the Garden with Dr. Carver is on the Shelf Awareness blog's best seller list! Neat!

Featured on Kathy Temean's "Writing and Illustrating" Blog!

Cool! I'm featured on Kathy Temean's Blog! Thank you, Kathy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Lucky bunny...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Photos and Video from my School Visit at Brophy

I visited a 4th grade classroom at the Brophy School in Framingham, and local reporter from the Patch was there. She took photos, video, and wrote this very nice article about the visit. :)

Thanks Susan Petroni!