Character Art: Little Raindrop's New Friends!

Hi There!


I've been working on new character designs this week! Little Raindrop will be meeting lots of new friends on his travels, and I've been sketching up all kinds of water drops to see what I come up with! Here is the whole gang, as I have been drawing them so far:

There will be more, and I'll keep you updated, as always! Until then, keep checking my sketchbook to see if anything new pops up!


Thanks for visiting!
~Miss Melanie

Mr. H's Class to the Rescue!

Hello, Readers!


A part of my job as illustrator is to not just draw the pictures, but to also draw them again and again! An illustrator does multiple sketches for each illustration to test out layouts and different ideas. Sometimes it is very hard to decide which idea to follow through with, and the artist will get feedback from friends, family, and other art professionals.


Lucky for me, I have Mr. H's class to help me when I need some feedback!


This happened recently, when I could not decide between three different layout designs. I sent my designs to Mr. H and he took a vote from the class:

    

The group decided which layout they liked best... and they even wrote to tell me why!

Thanks for all your help, kids!


To learn more about how a book is made, check out "How A Book is Made" by Aliki! It looks like this:

 Have a great week!
~Miss Melanie

New Activity Page: Predator Pairs and Crabby Cumulonimbus!

Hi Kids!


I've just about finished sketching up all of Chapter One in Little Raindrop's chapter book. And the cool thing about that is... at the end of each chapter is a fun Activity Page! Woo hoo!

Here is a sample of what it will look like:

Mr. H and I wanted to test out the activity pages on his class of third-graders. They are EXPERTS on activity pages! Here is some of what they did:

Mr. H also drew up an activity page to help the kids understand the water cycle a bit more. This is what it looks like:

And this is what some of the kids did with their pages:

GREAT JOB, Everybody!!! 


It looks like we're on the right track with these activities! I plan to make them less sketchy looking and more official looking, and you'll be able to view and print them from the main Activities page when they are complete! Although, I won't be able to share ALL of the activities from Little Raindrop's book... you'll have to wait and see once the book is finished!


Thanks for reading!
~Miss Melanie