I will finally share something with you that's been under wraps for a while...(just don't tell anybody!)

The reason I have been drawing cartoons lately is that I  was approached with a proposal to illustrate a children's book. It's not a long book, just a sweet little story.

This is something I have been thinking I would like to do for some time, ever since Isabel was born, but I am still a little worried if I can pull it off. I can't share a lot of the story here in my blog, other than it's about a little girl and a garden.

I've been trying to develop the character of the little Lucia. These are a few of the sketches.

I have a lot to inspire me, since the girl in the story is my daughter's age, and we live in a part of North Carolina where you can find cows crossing the street and it would be considered normal. So there's hills, and red barns, farm tractors and farm animals to be seen around.

I'm turning in these sketches tomorrow for a review. Wish me luck! :)

One final note... About the materials used in this sketch. If you are a watercolorist, turn away now, you may not want to know how I painted these because you may get a stroke...

I have broken every single rule of a good watercolor drawing. I have mixed watercolor with acrylics, drawn in pencil AND pen before the color, used pastel crayons and than blended the pigment adding water with a brush, I also used colored pencils for the shadows. It has been a mixed media fest for the past few days, and it's been SO MUCH FUN!