Special thanks to my new friends at the Children’s Literature Conference at Shenandoah University in Virginia for their suggestion that I include examples of the creation process on my website.

Here are a few examples illustrating the making of my new book, WHAT IF?:

(I often see seals during my runs and walks at the beach, especially during the colder months of the year. I caught this cute little guy taking a nap on the sand one day.)

(This is a picture of my journal where the first layout for WHAT IF? was drawn. My editor, Neal Porter, found it one day while he was perusing my journal for future projects.)

(Here is an example of the first draft for WHAT IF?. It started as a lengthy narrative, but as I began painting, I slowly replaced words with pictures until finally there were only six different words, used in varying combinations, in the entire book.)

(Some rough sketches and studies for WHAT IF?.)

(WHAT IF? was painted in its entirety on canvas when I realized that it just didn’t feel like the beach! This is an example of one of those paintings.)

(Luckily, my wonderful editor, Neal, was understanding when I said I wanted to paint the entire book over again, this time on very rough watercolor paper with dryer paint on my brush, giving the art a feeling of lightness and movement. This is one of the first studies for the new art treatment.)

(Voila. The final book. Released last month.)