Not throwing away my shot!

I am a very dedicated Hamilton fan.
Very dedicated.

Can't wait to see the PBS Hamilton special later this month!

Jean Little Library! July 16 at Matheson Memorial Library in Elkhorn, Wisconsin

I first became aware of Jennifer Wharton's brilliant book reviews on the Jean Little Library blog a couple years ago, when she mentioned an Ellie McDoodle book and my awesome friend, children's book author Carrie Pearson alerted me.
It occurred to me, why not look up Jennifer's library and see if my travels would bring me near it sometime? And to my utter shock, I was indeed going to be within sketching distance in just a few months.
I attended my agent's retreat in Lake Geneva, and the Jean Little Library isn't more than a pebble toss away.

We drew penguins, owls, Ellie McDoodle, Ben-Ben, dragons, cats, dogs, ... all sorts of stuff.
Here's Ben-Ben:

I like to draw on a document camera and project it onto the wall so people all over the room can join in easily. We were in a big room, and that crowd really filled it up.
One girl gave me a drawing with an impressive use of spirals:

This is my favorite kind of event: connecting with enthusiastic kids. What a great author life I lead.

Thank you SO much, Jennifer and Jean Little Library!

Drawing 100 lions (or maybe more)

When I ran a little advertising/design shop on campus a few decades ago I drew up a poster that said,
Before you decide on one, draw 50.
Under that headline was some line art: 50 thumbnail illustrations (and they were actually decorated thumbnails). The poster was to remind me not to settle on an idea too early in the brainstorming or drawing process. My best work doesn't usually come on the third try.

I'm illustrating a book about a lion.
The first task is to get to know that character inside and out: what's he like?
For a method actor the question would be, what's his motivation?
My best way to figure it out is to draw, draw, draw.
I don't just aim for 50, anymore.
Usually I aim for 100.

Eventually I figured out the lion. (After drawing 137.)

Now, on to the rest of the characters...

(And if I need to draw dozens more lions because I ultimately don't like the one I chose -- or the art director doesn't -- I won't be surprised. Whatever it takes to get my best work.)

Ellie McDoodle Typography Fun

I should be writing the next book, because I am on a tight deadline. And that's when my most interesting and amusing ideas come -- when I should be doing something else.
Here's the latest: Ellie McDoodle typography personalities. :)
Note: these are done in Arial; some fonts work better than others

Ö-Ö... Ellie likes

. : c :.

...v

Ö-Ö... Ellie surprised

. : c :.

...o

Ö-Ö... Ellie perturbed

. : c :.

...^

Ö-Ö... Ellie vampire

. : c :.

.(W)

Ö-Ö... Ellie questions

. : c :.

...?

Ö-Ö... Ellie yell

. : c :.

..@

Ö-Ö... Ellie nervous

. : c :.

...=

Ö-Ö... Ellie secret

. : c :.

...X

Ö-Ö... Ellie stoic

. : c :.

(---)

Ö-Ö... Ellie kiss

. : c :.

...*

Ö-Ö... Ellie unsure

. : c :.

...~

Ö-Ö... Ellie happy

. : c :.

...U

Ö-Ö... Ellie determined

. : c :.

.mm

Q-Q... Ellie look

. : c :.

...o

Ö-Ö... Ellie snore

. : c :.

...Z

Ö-Ö... Ellie whisper

. : c :.

...'

Ö-Ö... Ellie joking

. : c :.

...Y

Ö-Ö... Ellie singing

. : c :.

...g

Ö-Ö... Ellie forgot

. : c :.

...j

Ö-Ö... Ellie overbite

. : c :.

..iTi

Ö-Ö... Ellie complaining

. : c :.

...Q

Ö-Ö...Ellie quiet

. : c :.

...e

Ö-Ö...Ellie upset

. : c :.

...A

Ö-Ö... Ellie waiting

. : c :.

...H

Ö-Ö... Ellie whistling

. : c :.

...%

Ö-Ö... Ellie raspberry

. : c :.

...B

Ö-Ö... Ellie afraid

. : c :.

v^v^v

Ö-Ö... Ellie terrified

. : c :.

MMM

Ö-Ö... Ellie McDoodle

. : c :.

..<>

Doodling proves useful -- big surprise?

This article gives the details on a February 28 report in Ap­plied Cog­ni­tive Psy­chol­o­gy about a study on the value of doodling: Test subjects giv­en a doo­dling task while lis­ten­ing to a dull phone mes­sage had im­proved re­call over non-doo­dling subjects -- and we're talking about a 29% improvement.
Doodle! It makes you retain information better! (I knew it all along)
I loved the teachers in my high school who understood that doodling helped my retention of information. They let me doodle during class and I was grateful -- it was a big motivator for me, to get even more work done.
I let kids doodle during my author presentations. After almost every session, there are a few kids who run up to show me how they've covered nearly every inch of the paper. Invariably, they're expanding on something I said -- and it doesn't appear at all to me that they're drawing instead of listening.
They're drawing while listening.
Like I do.
Kids are so smart -- they're learning early what it took me years to figure out (and what it took science decades more to prove).