on my desk monday

I have a drawing board for my desk-- a real one that slants and everything. I don't know why I never had one before. But my back and neck are thanking me.

What am I drawing on my brand-new boards? Well, it's art that will be for my pre-order goody which I will tell you about soon...stay tuned!

the necessity of a new studio

One of the reasons we are moving is that we've outgrown the condo. What used to be the studio is now overrun with baby things--now I work in the living room.

This has become problematic because at night, when the baby is sleeping, I like to keep/start working and the Sasquatch wants to unwind by watching a movie. He likes to watch in the dark. I like to work in the light. After many nights of a well-exercised light switch, the Sasquatch came up with this solution:

Yes, it's a light for me to attach to my head!

I did try it:

But in the end, the head lamp was a bust (I do use it to sneak in to the room to cut the baby's fingernails, though).  And the light negotiations continue. Can't wait until I get into the new studio!!

revision

So, I have a lot of work to do. I have "Dumpling Days" to revise, a new picturebook to sketch...sounds like the perfect time to clean the studio, don't you think? Strange how squalor doesn't bother me until I have a deadline for something else...procrastination techniques at its best!

I have to admit one of the things that inspired this cleaning frenzy was seeing posts on where other fellow author and illustrators work. Check out Jenny B Harris's and Liz Dubois's studios. Finish it off with where Laura Resau works, and I have some serious workplace envy!

My studio, which used to look like this has had to change since the arrival of my Sasquatch. Making my mess of a studio into more of an oasis has been a work in process. But at least now it is a clean one!

Because after a good 24 hours of organizing, decluttering, dusting and vacuuming, the studio looks like this:

You can see the floors! You can see the tables!

It does still look a little cluttered though:

(but you should have seen it before)

My favorite studio revision is that I now have a little reading corner:

with our wedding cranes hanging overhead:

One of which is watching over my Newbery award!

So my clean studio will probably last...a week? maybe two? I guess it depends on how much more work I have to procrastinate do.

on my desk monday

I'm cleaning out the studio and purging all the printed drafts I went through for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. They stack higher than the book!