Entering the Tomie Depaola Award 2013

By in Children's, Other Challenges, SCBWI, Work

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I just turned in my submission for the SCBWI Tomie DePaola Award).

As much as my final result looks to me like a bit of a scribble, this was actually a pretty hard challenge for me. I can only equate it to writing a short story or maybe logo design (which is not my strong suit). I’m glad I did this as it put me outside my comfort zone and pushed me a bit. Wow, I should do this more often. And yes, my brain hurts a little.

I really wanted to try out a few more iterations of design for this but I plum ran out of time as I have a lot of other things kicking around in my skull that need to be worked on. So here it is.

The challenge this year was to illustrate a poem for a book intended for babies up to two years old. I should be an expert on this target audience by now!

Media: Adobe Flash with a bit of help from Illustrator and Photoshop. Google Fonts’ “Oregano”.

Edit: 1/12/2014
Well… I didn’t even come CLOSE to winning the DePaola competition. In fact, I seem to have been in the group he specifically DIDN’T like. Hnh.

“The entries were all over the place. Here I am going to get a little critical. Some pictures were way too busy. Some bordered on the grotesque. I really worried that some images might have frightened little ones. There were a bunch of “up the nostrils” point of view. Really? But the thing that bothered me the most was the apparent need many of you had to illustrate an actual sneeze with all kinds of “stuff” flying out of noses. Hey, this is FLU season. Another note: Quite a few elephants intriguing, maybe? Enough said.”

I’m not sure if I’m bristling or flattered considering I’ve been spending time with the target audience for a while now and dislike a lot of art in her board books. Why would a 2 year old be either frightened or grossed-out when most of them are digging about their own noses and some are eating their boogers at this age? Ah well, he did say to surprise him.

Like on Project Runway, you can please the judges and head for a commercial success, or you can please yourself and hope somebody “gets” it… or you can try and run the middle and somehow make what pleases you a commercial success. Somewhere, there’s a happy medium. This was a good thing for me to attempt.

Of the top picks, my personal favorite is Alice Ratterree‘s because I love her style of classic illustration.

PiBoIdMo 2013: It’s that time again!

By in General, PiBoIdMo

piboidmo2013-participant-214x131 Here we go again! And I can’t think of a better way to kick this off than the Mid-Atlantic SCBWI conference beginning tonight. Hooray! And sorry JaegerThing#2, you are going to be stuck with your daddy all day and bottles. I know that’s going to be a little weird but it will be fine. Maybe I’ll actually write something this year. I’m going to have three years worth of ideas by the end of November. Ok to be fair, I have already started writing one of them. Or maybe JaegerThing#1 has. I’m not sure which of us started it but I’ve been documenting it on my smartphone. Because that is the only computer or notepad that is permanently attached to my body these days. We’ll see where that goes. Meantime… … time to churn up some more ideas.

So I made a Thanksgivukkah Card…

By in Cards, General

Little Jaeger 2.0 is now 5 months old. It’s time for me to get back to work. Or as my friend, Lexi, said, “Next year you’ll make fewer babies and more art.”

This is pretty much the only year ever that Hanukkah is falling on Thanksgiving day. So that Thursday evening will begin the second night of Hanukkah. That makes Hanukkah a bit of a fad this year.

That Hanukkah and Thanksgiving are aligning this year for pretty much the only time ever is amusing to me because my extended family has always celebrated Hanukkah on Thanksgiving. My brother even called our Hanukkah gift exchange “Thanksgiving presents,” which he usually wrapped on Thanksgiving day in the playroom of my parent’s house using construction paper he’d “borrowed” from me.

So at last, why not Thanksgivukkah? I made this card the other day though this is probably the only year anyone would ever consider buying it. Perhaps I’ll add candles to all the pumpkins for next year in case anyone else’s family also celebrates Hanukkah on Thanksgiving.

And because it’s a rainy day and my husband lost his job this week care of the government being shut down, it was really great to see that my design was picked as the Greeting Card Universe card design of the day. This is my second card to receive that honor.

The Hebrew on the table cloth reads, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” And the pumpkins have the letters from the dreidel (outside of Israel, of course). There are 9 pumpkins in the menorah but only 2 candles are lit as Thanksgiving night is the second night of Hanukkah.

Mr. Moon

By in Children's

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Somehow I seem to have forgotten to post that the first children’s book that I illustrated, Mr. Moon, is finally in print!

It is available in a couple of places but most easily at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

And I got a really nice first review on Kirkusreviews.com!

Jaeger’s illustrations give the night a soft, beautiful glow, complementing Cobb’s text and simultaneously convincing both Mr. Moon and the reader that nighttime is a magical time. Her personifications of Mr. Moon and Mr. Sun are utterly delightful; perhaps the most amusing page in the book features a sad-faced Mr. Moon attempting to fruitlessly blow a dangling kite as the children are tucked in their beds.
I’ve added a listing for Mr. Moon on my new Books page.

I suspect it will be the only occupant of that page for a little while as we are expecting our next time consuming project in May.

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