Harts Pass no. 752

With the whole recent spectacle of public lands profiteering, the wolverines have been paying attention… and the “Byrd Rule” saved us. And while it was good to see the people of this country rally from across the spectrum to protect our public spaces, it is likewise equally disappointing that the same sort of common ground can’t be found for the value of public eduction or the right of people in this country to love who they love, to make considered and personal decisions about their own bodies, and to be who they are regarding our trans and LGBTQ+ communities. “Rules” are good — I suppose — but at the same time a sense of human decency and a capacity for nuanced discussion — a striving for more and “inclusive” rather than less and exclusive — is still sorely lacking.

Harts Pass no. 749, 750, & 751!

Kind of an inside joke with this one - but for quite a few years now I’ve enjoyed riffing on the “lingo” of the JRH kids in particular. About the time of this classes middle school experience, “Gucci” was a thing that they would say. I suggested that “Gucci fire” would be even better, and I’ve been a strong advocate of that fact ever since :)

And then there is last week’s final anticipation of ALL of the time and opportunity that summer bring… It’s like 9 weeks of time and it will disappear in a heartbeat!

As I sit here this morning, however, 900+ miles away from home, it feels like the summer is getting off to a very productive start :)

Summer on!

A BOOK!

 

School is coming to a close, and LAST summer I was excited to be illustrating a brand new board book in the If I Were... series by Shelley Gill. THIS is the official cover and a few weeks back I also received an official printed copy of the book. I was still illustrating this project through the fall and sharing the progress with my students at school, so it was really fun to show them the final result.

It looks great, you can pre-order it now, and its release date is September 2nd. Stay tuned for more info as the summer wanders, and I'll be sharing some downloadable coloring book pages and a how-to-draw a fox video at some point later in July :)

PS Just a few of the cover development sketches shared below. I always love the sketching and discovering phase - and that includes thinking about color options as compared to the other books when you are working in a series. Thanks for reading!