This title kind of sounds like a Curious George book, eh? Well, the Girllustrators is not my next book idea—it is actually an illustration critique group. Being new in Austin, I really wanted to connect with some other female illustrators for feedback, group-imposed deadlines, and, well, just to get to know some local gals in my profession! So I contacted a few that I met at the last (my first) Austin SCBWI conference and we formed the Girllustrators. And we’ve picked up one or two other Girllustrators since then. It’s been great fun, and I’ve learned a ton from them already.

Marsha Riti, Amy Farrier and I took our first Girllustrators field trip to the San Antonio Zoo for some drawing, followed by some yummy Tex-Mex and margs. What a great day! I’ve really missed location drawing–it was one of my favorite things to do back in my grad school days when I had time for it (and rollerblading)–so I am very grateful to have some new buds to do it with. I can’t wait till we do it again. Here’s a couple of quick sketches from our day:

I love using toned paper to give you a middle ground. Then I work with pigma pens of varying sizes, some sepia grease pencils and some white colored pencil for heightening. My daughter Harper also joined us, so she loaned me a green crayon to add some algae to the cayman’s face, below.

On October 8, some of the Girllustrators and I are presenting a panel discussion on Children’s Book Illustrators and Technology for the Austin SCBWI Storytelling in the Digital Age: Embrace the Change technology symposium. We’re going to talk about how we use technology in our own work. And there are lots of other great presenters scheduled, too!

Left to Right: Amy Farrier, Marsha Riti & me!