if there is I want to know
She/her. Picture book writer/illustrator. Rep: @swekstein.bsky.social 2024 Round Table Mentee, #PBParty Honorable Mention, #50PreciousWords HM. Keep posting about your books; I want to read them! sparklemarkers.com
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if there is I want to know
happy planner preorder season to those who celebrate
replacing Batman fight onomatopoeiae with old midwestern brewery names
As a bonus, Hotwheels sisyphus is named after its own genitals š·ļøš
Only 113 days until the days start getting longer again.
SO BABY
Anyone know what kind of hawk this is with the cool paint job? #hawksky?
ohhhh, thanks. heās probably just sulking.
Iām completely out of the loop on this one, what is it this time? every time I see this kind of talk it always ends up being, like, hereās a scab
btw it IS important to know the difference between straight up not enjoying stuff vs not enjoying stuff because you feel like you're not good at it. one strategy is to get good at something you hate and then it will become very clear haha. finding your groove does take time and that's okay!
Congrats! I gotta make sure I go this year, MICE is a blast!
This thread is so good!
Ooh ooh! Yoshitomo Nara, any genre as long as itās funny.
Oh! That's what we'll do! #BookSky tell us a favorite visual artist (& a book genre if you like) and we'll recommend a book!
All the retreats, and honestly being a full-time student again sounds really tempting. Also I'd do lots of physical therapy and learn how to take better care of my creaky draw-bones. #KidLitArt
I'd really like to get better at drawing detailed scenes with lots of stuff going on. I haven't cultivated the patience to do them, but I love looking at them. alt: I want to learn to sing! I also want to lift big weights. #KidLitArt
WE EVEN LITERALLY SAW A DOUBLE RAINBOW. #KidLitArt
Q3: This is super basic but THE LIBRARY because it's free and it's right there and you can get all the learnin' books! #KidLitArt
Highlights is so good in person! I am typically the kind of person who has Pretty Good I Guess experiences most places, but Highlights is real-for-real magical. #KidLitArt
I'm working on improving my focus, long-term planning, and accountability. If I can get more consistent in doing the work, I'll get better at everything else. alt: See above. š #KidLitArt
alt: Related to the above, I really want to do an illustration mentorship someday! Not in my budget right now, though. #KidLitArt
Most of my learning is done on my own through either experimenting or studying other artists' work, but working closely with a teacher is the bestāyou get personalized feedback, you learn what you didn't know you didn't know, and someone else GETS it. #KidLitArt
there's no wrong way to eat a reese's, but there IS a wrong way to pronounce it (I think I must have seen five thousand reese's commercials over the course of my childhood)
yesssssssssss
I'll let you know if I think of more! My kid's audiobook choices around that age were either The Hobbit, Captain Underpants, or nothing.
I'll be presenting creative workshops with Kids Con NE at Granite State Comicon Sept 20-21 DoubleTree, Manchester, NH! Meet Party Palace characters (Sat & Sun), creative workshops (Sat & Sun), Soul Blossom Body Arts face painting (Sun)! granitecon.com/ @kidscon.bsky.social @granitecon.bsky.social
the problem.
The Wild Robot series is great (the movie covers the same ground as the first book but is a little different voice-wise). The Dragons in a Bag series might be good as audiobooks. Upside-Down Magic. And my kid and I both got a kick out of the Ramona books when he was that ageāthey mostly hold up!
Just saw Taylor Swiftās ring and wow that is wild!! Esp bc you can get your own for only 12.99 actually and itāll be out in less than a month???? www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690564...
Found poem
I have a couple that I've been sort of idly puzzling out in the back of my head for months. I know I'll "solve" them when the time is right, and I can't force them to be fixed. #kidlitchat
I've got a couple of those and, you never know, maybe the market will change! #kidlitchat
Nothing's finished until it's published. Nothing's abandoned unless it's forgotten. Besides, writing and art are iterative. Each project gets you better for the next one. #kidlitchat
One of the myths of the web 2.0 era, of the participatory media era, is of the sacred power of reach, of the paramount force of the userās voice. But this is a mirage, as this reach is always only ever a temporary boon granted by the platform itself, which is obviously the source of that power.
This might be the best knockoff perfume label Iāve seen
Me too and I had no idea why a new truck would prevent Huey Lewis from crashing his car
without downloading any new images, where are you mentally?
(it was resources for brushing up on my French, so I'm okay if still minimally francophonic)
today's small horror: discovering a document from seven months ago titled "THINGS TO NOT FORGET" and having no idea what's in it
I live nowhere near St. Louis but hexaflexagons are SO COOL and maybe you know someone local who would love this!
My toddler mustāve turned on speech to text, but honestly a lot of posters do need to hear this.
Just reached 99 sources for this thesis. Itās a real cool one real cool. ai-sucks-actually.fyi
Itās so gross that they keep promoting this opinion piece when they shouldnāt have published it in the first place. Also, I just DO NOT understand writers who value their own work so highly while considering illustrators disposable. Weāre supposed to be on the same team!
Iāve read more books than usual this year, but I havenāt finished a single one in August. Every year I have a reading slump in mid-to-late summer and Iām not entirely sure why. It always passes, though.
yeah, no. no thanks. not clicking on anything that promotes slop.
Wily discovers that she fits perfectly in the embroidery hoop
Truly some inspired seed art
I would like the legions of woke to take the eggs out of my potato salad while theyāre at it
Another possibility is a branch getting in the way of the sensor, if there's a tree nearby and it's really windy. Or maybe there's just some crud on the sensor that's interfering with it?
was it critters? we installed a motion-detector camera and we apparently get tons of raccoons and possums passing through!
We are collecting donations for the South Bay Jail Library. You can order from their wish list here: portersquarebooks.com/wishlist/swo...
Gag 151: I think this cartoon helps define its opposite terminology, which can feel like a nebulous metaphor.
Periplus, a mentorship collective serving US-based early-career writers of color, is now accepting applications for our 2026 class of fellows! Apply by 9/20: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... You can learn more about Periplus (including fellowship eligibility requirements) here: bit.ly/periplusfaq
Itās like doodling, but it takes ten times as long
Save the date because...ā”ļøPITCHFEST IS BACK!ā”ļø KCU Pitchfest is a gallery showcase of unpublished graphic novel projects that are reviewed by a panel of top agents and editors! Learn more at: kidscomicsunite.com/kcu-pitchfest/ #kcupitchfest #kidlitgn #pitching #pitchfest
I always get really annoyed that things get dirty even if you donāt make them dirty. Dust is a mean mean trick.
i don't think there's any way to overstate how much we're going to regret this entire cultural moment in the future, for how it's destroying our creative lives, destroying respect for art, destroying respect for creativity and the creative process, destroying our ability to connect to art.
CRIME MINERVA
in the mid-00s I owned scrubs because theyāre comfy but also because everyone on Greyās Anatomy looked good in them.
Iāve learned more about being a better advocate for my son, through the questions children have been kind enough to ask. A little essay for The Huffington Post, and how I learned to shed my āitās not my job to educate everyoneā armor, for the child who needed me to. www.huffpost.com/entry/answer...
answering calls that start with my local area code because WHAT IF THEY ARE A FUTURE JOB OFFER but nah it's just the prescription ointment asking to be picked up
WIRED is looking for a new features editor! This is a literal dream jobāit was mine for three years. Work with some of the smartest, kindest editors in the business! Elevate writers and ideas you believe in! Put out a ~*~*~ PRINT MAGAZINE ~*~*~ condenast.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CondeC...
This is the best product listing copy Iāve ever read
ITS HERE! My mini zine for my strawberry milk zine! Best part: they wonāt spoil in your fridge because itās made of paper! troubledminnesotan.bigcartel.com/product/stra...
Decided to use my tote bag from the Silver Unicorn Kids Graphic Novel festival as a base for a truly chaotic embroidery sampler. Itās gonna be great
Yep. Little kids are FANTASTIC at suspending disbelief (and picking it right back up to point out that your plot doesnāt work) #kidlitchat
I write and draw picture books because my imagination is weird and PBs allow my brain to run free. #kidlitchat
Hey #kidlitart peps - some of you have asked for a Discord so you can keep chatting when itās not chat day. I wanna do an interest check - if you want a Discord, reply with a š ? #kidlit #illustration #art
š for sure!!
Red Unicorn Garden NOW UP FOR GRABS: 8x8 inch acacia wood tray good for display, holding knick knacks or rolling DnD dice. DM me if you're interested in buying this tray!
giving some serious thought to getting a deck for tarot spreads
"The Lafufu fits in the small parts cylinder," is a new sentence that you now have read.
Story about all *this* coming soon from Assigned Media. (Just need to ask Bluesky to please stop doing things we need to include in the story.)
He worked really hard on this for youā¦ Both plush and embroidery hoop made by me š
I am calling on Hachette to take the comma from Little, Brown and donate it to Farrar, Straus and Giroux
old samus comic (1/3)
While I believe vocally rejecting AI *is* a positive thing (just not in a āpositivityā way), maybe something like @bethspencer.bsky.socialās ācrafted with human intelligenceā label would do the trick.
I agree with this. I think our best defense against the things we love being slopped up by AI is explicitly, vocally, repeatedly rejecting it. I get how it would feel too confrontational for some peopleās comfort but at a certain point āavoiding negativityā just becomes avoidance.
yessss give me them watery Paleozoic invertebrates
lime cucumber is my favorite by far, otherwise Iāll just get the prettiest color (usually light blue)
there are a lot of people who just do not think about other people as people and when theyāre with someone long enough, that person will eventually feel comfortable enough to just be people around them, and they canāt handle it
all I gots is my notes app but Iām gonna #DrawABird
A drawing of "Frog Tone." A town that is also a frog. Going through some of my kid art today, this was from 1st grade. Keep-it pile.
Nah, probably not! Those kids probably havenāt even sharpened their pencils or bent their notebooks yet! (I always loved new school supplies and Iām disappointed my kid doesnāt get as excited about them)
that reminds me, I should return the ADHD centerās call from 2023
Itās definitely started in some places! (Not in MA where I live, though)
Glumdalum continues to be the CatStronauts universeās version of me
They got out the poetry font for the poetry
Spotted in Asheville, NC! @charlenedraws.bsky.social
I read ātombstoneā as ātromboneā and I think I have an answer for you
thereās just so much Thomas Kinkade by way of Disney CGI in it. just smoothe it all and and golden-light it. just mash the Pretty button a few more times.
how do you not feel like youāre just constantly lying to yourself and insulting yourself by slopping and thinking itās honoring your one strange and beautiful mind. how.
Honestly, like, as someone who resented people who were better artists than me for years (and not realizing that itās me, hi, Iām the problem itās me) I cannot fathom thinking AI is the answer because it is so obviously fakey hollow non-art
Hear me out... Dinosaur, but if they were...dog.
āSometimes You Find A Dragonā by @vivschwarz.bsky.social is a perfect #Assemblybook . Itās about spotting, thinking creatively and finding your voice and your art Itās a joyful celebration of expressing yourself and exploring the world around you. #PicturebookPage @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social
saw a sad thread from someone who's grown up believing art depends on "talent," and just wanted to reiterate that ANYONE can make comics, with ANY level of artistic skill, and it's FUN and LIFE AFFIRMING to embrace that experience.
