Oh, Brenda! Don't leave me!

We had our final picture book illustration class last night and I wish it would never end. There were so many different kinds of baked chocolate goodness I swooned. And even Pina Colada licorice!

Everyone made great strides in their work. I laughed out loud at the hilarious and quirky dummy of Jaime Patneaude, daughter of super writer Dave Patneaude.

I am still working on my bunnies. Laboring over the first double page spread and working out how to paint and finish the art. I made a ghastly version with pink and purple bunnies that looked sort of like Seuss Vomit. And the drawing kept getting farther and farther away. I can't even show you because my scanner thinks it is too ugly to scan.

So now, the bunnies are natural bunny colors according to my loose color sketch and I've cropped in on them for this double page spread (at top of post -- yes, that is a straw up the baby bunny's nose, I promise it all makes sense in the book dummy.)

Finding the last version of the manuscript I made is on my list of things to do (maybe it didn't save in stupid Word?) in addition to redoing the dummy and a piece of finished art. All by next Wednesday (!) in order to have something exciting and new to take to LA. I have one more trick up my portfolio sleeve, but who knows if it will be ready in time. Wish me luck.