My Baby Brother

For the first time, I participated in the SCBWI's Tomie dePaola Award contest this past year. The prompt was autobiographical - to illustrate a scene from your own childhood, with you as the main character, without using words and clearly expressing an emotion of some kind. After some brainstorming and doodling, I decided upon the moment I found out I had a new baby brother. I was 3 and half years old when my parent's had their second child, and I've been told time and time again that when I found out Adam had arrived, instead of the baby sister I was so desperately wishing for, my response was "But I wanted an Anne".... as Adam's name would have been if he was a girl. Full disclosure: I don't actually remember this happening, though I do remember my mom being pregnant. I have since forgiven my brother for not being a girl.

For this illustration, I started out doodling in my sketchbook, playing with composition and characters

I then moved on to larger pencil sketches, before finalizing the scale and composition of all elements in photoshop.

The final art is watercolor on 300# Strathmore paper.

The winner of the contest has been announced, and it wasn't me, but I'm quite happy with my piece and will be sending out promotional postcards of it this week.