More Tree’s and Park Rangers Please!

My newest illustrator release “More Tree’s, Please!” and a peek into making a picture book spread!

Hi Friends!

Hope winter treated you well! As we come into spring and the flowers and trees bloom. I wanted to share and talk about my newest book release “More Trees, Please!”. written by the amazing Alastair Heim and published by Random House Kids.

Me with my Illustrator copies!

Having the chance to illustrate books is so special, but when you get to illustrate books about bringing awareness to difficult/ important topics that mean a lot to you it makes it even more special. I am very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and don’t take it lightly. I have had the chance to cover topics like housing insecurity, anxiety, and now the importance of trees not only for our climate but sharing the importance of our park rangers. It couldn’t be a more timely release with 1,000 park rangers and 3,400 new hires being terminated. You can learn more about it here; Reuters and here; NPR. I am also linking some important petitions you can sign to make your voice heard.

• Protect our National Park Service Staff

• Our Parks Are Worth Fighting For

• Support Wildlife

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I thought I would share a look into my process of creating a picture book spread featuring one of my favorite illustrations in the book.

Step One: Finding good reference images: I always start by making a Pinterest board. I’ll include bunches of things like references, other artist work that inspires me, and color palettes.

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Step Two: sketching out a thumbnail

This spreads text is “I love ALL trees. More trees, please!” I wanted to get as many trees as possible and as many different types as possible. The art director specifically mentioned pines, oaks, and maples.

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Step Three: Once I like the thumbnail I take it to the actual sketch. Something different about his book is I had to account for speech bubbles. It’s not too different than accounting for text but I feel like it takes up more compositionally.

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Step Four: Final color! I actually did this spread first even though it was the eighth page in the book because I thought it would set the tone color wise for the rest of the book. I waned a beautiful sunny day in the mountain ranges you can see some of my inspiration in the image on my Pinterest board above. I had fun added little details and things to this illustration and it’s definitely one of my favorite spread in the book.

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Thought I would share a timelapse to give you more insight into how I work!

Music: SUITE ROOM Musician: Guitar_Obsession Site: https://pixabay.com/music/suite-room-119798/

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You can grab a copy of “More Tree’s, Please!” Where ever books are sold! A great way to support me and your local bookstores is to order a copy on my Bookshop page. I receive a small 5% commission on every book sold no additional cost to you.

Thanks for reading! We’ve officially reached 100 subs! So happy you have been following along. I want to make this newsletter something fun for your inbox. Let me know anything you’d like me to cover.

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