Life with a new baby, book recommendations, insights into my illustrations and sketchbook process and more. A look back at October.

Life with a new baby, book recommendations, insights into my illustrations and sketchbook process and more. A look back at September.

Of course, he bargains for that friendship, and she only agrees to get something from him (her golden ball which fell down a well)… but still, it’s something. And let’s not mention the one version where instead of kissing the frog to turn him into a prince, she throws him against the wall…
Friendship was the inspiration for this one. With the “contemporary” genre picked, I knew I could do a fun “enemies to friends” storyline.

Mona has always sen magic in the ordinary. Orphaned at nine, she remembered her parents were creative, and they shared that gift with her. She had the uncanny ability to make beautiful things out of almost nothing.
.

Many of the dragon-focused fairytales I was finding and reading placed the dragon as the antagonist—always ending in the defeat or killing of the dragon. I wasn’t inspired by this at all. So for this week, instead of focusing on a specific fairy tale, I took the story archetype of “Dragon & Princess” and spun that instead. This is what I came up with: Dragon P.D. On the Case!
.

In the fairytale “Puss in Boots,” Puss helps bring her master out of poverty (eventually he marries a princess), thorough cunning and trickery. But she’s only able to do this when gifted a pair of boots. The loyalty and dedication of Puss towards her master is what inspired this week’s synopsis and cover.

In “Snow White and Rose Red.” , two young sisters help a bear and protect him from freezing to death and they all become friends. At the end, he magically becomes a prince—which is never explained, of course—and marries one of the girls. What I took from this tale was the friendship theme, and then paired it with A.I., since it’s all the rage right now. This is what I came up with.

My word of the moment is exhausted.
Looking back at January, my word for the month is “stretched.”