NESCBWI Conference this weekend!

This weekend is the annual NESCBWI conference held once again in Springfield, Massachusetts. I always look forward to conference weekend because of all the wonderful workshops and valuable things I learn each year. But most of all I look forward to the weekend because I am excited to be around so many talented, warm and supportive people, all passionate about the world of children's literature.

This weekend I am looking forward to taking workshops from the talented writer/illustrators Kelly Light and Brian Lies and art director Giuseppe Castellano. I'm also taking a couple of writing workshops from Jess Keating and Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. I know I'll learn a lot for all of them.

For the Illustrator's Intensive workshop, Giuseppe Castellano gave us some homework. First we needed to submit sketches re-imagining a Beatrix Potter character. He reviewed the sketches and gave us feedback. Then we submitted finished illustrations and he will be giving us feedback during the day-long workshop on Sunday. Several things changed between the sketch and the illustration.

Badger sketch

Badger Sketch finished illustration