Back in late Summer of 2009, my friend Stephanie, a talented artist and writer, approached me about collaborating with her on a children's story she wrote. The simple message and heartwarming characters were so easy to fall in love with. After I read it, visions of Lily, the purple dragon and her squirrely friends danced in my head. For the next few weeks, I occupied my time experimenting with different mediums, drawing styles and techniques. Once I began sketching, I realized I had no idea how to draw squirrels! (They all looked like gray, pointy eared dogs with a racoon tail) While they were not the main characters of her story, they were so endearing that Stephanie and I wanted to amp up their role on each page. So I spent many hours watching, photographing, sketching and researching squirrels. Who knew squirrels were so much fun? I think their whole lives revolve around eating and playing!
I finally decided on oil pastels and linseed oil for my illustrations. Here are just a few fun excepts of my squirrels in Lily and Her Dragon Pie...and while I never witnessed any actual squirrels behaving in these manners, I'd like to think that they're certainly intelligent enough to pull it off.
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