Guest blogger: Ms. Haney's 3rd Grade Class at Granbery Elementary

This class of 3rd graders were wonderful hosts for a Friday afternoon visit to talk about illustration and how a book is made. They asked really wonderful questions, including one boy who asked what made me want to be an illustrator. At the end we talked about how to really tell a story with expressions and angles in an illustration. I had them illustrate a scene from The Princess and the Pea and we talked about it as a class. Here's just a few of the illustrations they came up with. My favorite thing? All the different kinds of chandeliers they decided to draw in:

Monster sketchbook

So a blue million bunch of sketches going on around here but they are not making on the blog. To catch up here's some character sketches from a new book, 12 Months of Monsters:

School Revisited

One of the coolest things about being an illustrator for children is getting to go talk to children about what I do. Recently while getting ready to visit a class I climbed out of the shower and rambled through my closet for something other than my usual uniform of pajamas to wear. Hanger after hanger of grownup clothes were paged through and then it dawned on me.

O.M.G. I don't have to wear a business suit... I can actually wear jeans and they won't care!

In fact as it turned out for the class below I COULD wear my pajamas. The teacher had informed me earlier in the week that the day I was scheduled to be there was "pajama day" for the kids so I decided I might as well blend in.

Winnie the Pooh t-shirt and hawaiian print pants it was.

We talked for an hour about where I do a lot of sketching (the bathtub) and whether or not illustrators like to be silly (they do.) In the end I let the kids be my art director and they helped me design a monster for a new book I'm working on. Here's the sketch with the input from my 22 art directors penciled in at the top:

Don't be Miss Construed

Easily one of the top 5 reasons people keep having kids has gotta be because they come up with the most dadgum funny things. Below is a recent conversation between Baby Sprout and her teacher, Ms. Claire. I hope I was this entertaining when I was 3.

Sprout: "I'm God!"

Ms. Claire: "What does God do?"

Sprout: "God hits people."

Ms. Claire: "I think you have that misconstrued..."

Sprout: "Miss Construed hits people?"

Ms. Claire: "Yes Miss Construed hits people, not God."

Sprout: "She is a bad guy!"

Ms. Claire: "Who is the good guy?"

Sprout: "God!"


.... good answer Sprout

Next week, the serious theological conversations I have with my 6 year old about tornados.

Cool, I'm the featured illustrator on the National SCBWI site!

Check it out:

It links to me SCBWI profile here. Though you can get all the same info and more at my website.

What Sunday morning might look like with Rush's version of logic:

Anyone who thinks the behavior exhibited in this picture is abnormally bad doesn't have kids.

oh and I'm throwing this into Illustration Friday - Intention.... as in surely this is not his intention?