A couple weeks ago I attended an illustrator retreat/workshop, jointly put on by the Western Washington chapter of SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and our compadres in the Portland Oregon group. Putting on an event like this is not a small feat, and the organizers did an excellent job.

We had two wonderful instructors form the world of children’s literature, Kelly Murphy and Sergio Ruzzier. I learned a bunch of great techniques, as well as some strategies for getting a story moving, which I am absolutely going to put into practice…um…really soon. The following drawing (no pandas!) was the result of one of our exercises that we completed in Sergio’s class.

I think I was trying to channel Bill Watterson’s snowman cartoons in Calvin and Hobbes when I did this one.

I don’t want to leave you without any pandas, so…

Always read the directions…

Be the Bear!
Bob T. Panda