Picture-Bookies Showcase Farewell

Sadly, Picture-Bookies Weekly Showcase, a blog created by the Picture-Bookies dedicated to showcasing the work of nearly 50 children's illustrators, is coming to an end.
Thank you members:

* Ginger Nielson
* Sherry L Rogers
* Amy Cullings Moreno
* Kathleen Rietz
* Kristi Valiant
* Paige Keiser
* Bron Smith
* Gina Pfleegor

And special thanks to Ginger for keeping things running smoothly.

Be sure to stop by and have one last look!

SCBWI AZ Illustrators' Intensive

Award-winning Author and Illustrator Pat Cummings will be running a full-day workshop in Scottsdale on October 4th. Early bird, discounted registration is available through September 1st.

This hands-on intensive illustration workshop will focus on developing and improving your illustration skills for the children’s book market. It will also include craft topics such as style and technique, and industry related subjects such as the submission process and marketing. Homework assignment required.

You will find more details and registration information here. While you're there, be sure to check out our newly designed, regional website!

Note: SCBWI-AZ logo design by Juana Martinez-Neal

Escaping the Heat

It's that time of year. A 114 degree day. So far, more than a dozen days over 110 degrees. It's that time of year when we Phoenicians flee this oven we live in otherwise known as "They Valley of the Sun." So, for the next couple of months, as I take every opportunity to escape the heat, this blog will be on hold.

An Interview!

Want to find out more about me? Check out my interview on the Susan Sandmore Blog! Thanks Susan! Susan's a very talented writer who just landed an agent. (Not that long ago I called her up and coming. I was right!) She's got a great blog and a great sense of humor. She threw some fun and unexpected questions at me. If you haven't done so yet, head over and check it out. I won this honor by choosing the right answer on her 10 Truths and a Lie post. I love contests and winning things! In fact, since then I also won the book Moon, Have You Met My Mother:
The Collected Poems of Karla Kuskin, thanks to Elaine at Wild Rose Reader.

Want to win a book yourself? Check out Cynsations for the latest Giveaways!

Note: This post was re-posted and updated from last week. I felt it got lost in the middle of my W-I-P, so I'm giving it another go with a few more links.

The Prize Winner is...

or should I say are!

Kate and
Angela Fox (azang)

Why two winners you may ask? As it turns out when I set the rules for this contest, I was celebrating the 10,000th visitor to this blog and I figured the chances were slim, even with Statcounter, that I'd be able to discover the true identity of the 10,000th visitor. Well I was wrong! I hit 10,000 right on schedule on Wednesday and guess what? I was able to track it right to Angela Fox.

Kate your name was drawn out of a hat! OK, I didn't think of actually using a hat, it was more like a Tupperware container. Among everyone who left a comment last week your name was chosen!

Thanks to all who entered!

If the winners could please drop me an email with your mailing address I will send the prints off to you. You can reach me at gail (at) gailmakiwilson (dot) com. Kate, if you have a blog or website let me know and I'll add the link!

Work-In-Progress Part 5

And here's the final! Click on the image to enlarge.


To see all the steps of this work-in-progress click here.
To find out how you can win a signed print of the finished illustration click here.

Work-In-Progress Part 4

Finally the bubbles! They are done with Prismacolor colored pencils on DuraLar Matte . I've never used Prismacolor on Duralar before and thought this piece would be perfect for it. I've seen others use it, and I've played with it some, but wasn't sure how it would work with my "many layers" technique. (Which can easily be 10-20 layers. For the bubbles I probably have 4 or 5.) It was very different for me. There is less detail than I normally do. Which is fine. I was going for a softer focus, blurred motion thing. It sure went a lot quicker! And it gave me the shiny quality of a bubble that I don't think I would have gotten as quickly on paper.

Here's detail of one of the bubbles. I'm doing them on a separate sheet of Duralar, scanning, and adding them to the composition in Photoshop. This way I can play with the exact placement and add a transparent quality. Even though I'm drawing each element in this piece by hand my final "original" will be a digital file.

To see all the steps of this work-in-progress click here.
To find out how you can win a signed print of the finished illustration click here.