Hello friends!I want to say thanks again for your patience over the last several months, but I&rsquo

Hello friends!

I want to say thanks again for your patience over the last several months, but I’m so excited to say that the giant project I’ve been working on is coming to a close. If you follow my insta, you probably already know, but for the rest of y’all, I illustrated a children’s book! It’s a bilingual early-reader counting book about dinosaurs, and will be available in its final incarnation this holiday season. I’ll keep y’all updated as the release date is announced!

Full disclosure, this has been both a dream project and a seemingly-insurmountable hurdle for me. I’ve learned so much from it, not only about fun stuff like designing a book and feathered theropods, but also about the parts of being a working artist that I really genuinely hate, like writing/negotiating contracts, arguing over revisions, and generally digging my heels in the sand and fighting to be paid for the work I do.

The version I’m finishing now is actually the second version of this book- I initially illustrated it with a local children’s book company who I’ve been working with for years as part of a charitable project. But several months ago, it was picked up by a bigger publisher, which was great news because that meant I would actually get paid for it! But they wanted a lot of revisions to re-release it, and that’s been the sticking point, with the publisher requesting changes and additional work on the book outside of our original contract, and expecting me to do it for free. It put a couple of grey hairs on my head, because I really want to do a good job on this project and see it through to the end and make a product everyone is happy with, but I knew I’d have to push back to be compensated for the work I do. But I did, and I’m glad I did. The publisher and I have reached several good compromises along the way, and the new version of the book should be available soon!

Alas, this feathered cutie was cut from the final version, but trust me when I say there’s a new, cuter Trex in store for y’all.

And all y’all get ready- I’m starting to post new ink work again this weekend! Thank you again, and I hope you enjoy!