children’s book illustration

Looking for Loons Review in Cottage Life

| kirsti

Looking for Loons review in Cottage Life

There’s a really nice review of Looking for Loons in the Winter 2007 issue of Cottage Life.

Author Jennifer Lloyd and illustrator Kirsti Anne Wakelin, both Canadians, create a sensory feast, from the sunlight on a pillow to the bang of a cast-iron pan on the stove.

-Liann Bobechko, Cottage Life, Winter 2007

The magazine is full of all things cottage as well as the 2007 photo contest winners – images of enviable times spent with family and friends, surrounded by nature.

Looking for Loons review in Cottage Life

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Book Launch ~ Looking for Loons @ The Hycroft Event

| kirsti

I will be launching Looking for Loons, written by Jennifer Lloyd, (Simply Read Books pub.) at this year’s Hycroft Event. Every year The Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable puts on the Hycroft Event, an evening of book launches by CWILL BC members. This year, the authors and illustrators from around the province will launch their books published in 2007 from 6pm-9pm on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at Hycroft Mansion (1489 Macrae – just east of Granville at 16th). This year’s special guest speaker is Nan Gregory.

There is no registration required, the event is free and light refreshments will be served after the launch. Books will be available for sale before and after the presentations.

A complete list of this year’s presenters and their books [pdf].

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Book Sneak Peek ~ Unveiling

| kirsti

I saw the published/finished/completed/totally done/hardcover form of Looking For Loons at Vancouver Kidsbooks today. (thanks for letting me know Kari!). Here’s a photo of the cover:

Looking for Loons

Details:
Jennifer Lloyd; Kirsti Anne Wakelin, illus.;
$19.95 cloth
ISBN:978-1894965-54-5
32 pp., 8-1/2 x 11
Simply Read Books, Aug.
(ages 4-7)

um. yay!

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Holgas & Paperbacks

| kirsti

Wood Burning Oven/Yellow Table

Wood Burning Oven/Yellow Table
Holga | Fuji NPZ 800

The Holga is a spontaneous sort of camera and I’m trying to get better at the whole spontaneous photography thing. I’ve just found out that my local 30 minute photo lab processes 120 (thanks for the tip Rachael). Now I don’t have to wait so long to see what new way I’ve managed to damage a roll of film.

Yesterday, while waiting for a roll of 35mm to develop, I wandered around the neigbourhood with my Holga, took some photos, dropped off the roll for developing and went to Vancouver Kidsbooks to kill the half hour until pickup time. I saw that one of the books I illustrated a few years ago is now out in paperback – they had a whole stack on a rack on the outside of a shelf – cover facing out.

As for the photographs, I managed not to destroy a single frame this time and even pulled off of a couple I’m happy with, like the one above. Not a bad day.

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Book Sneak Peek ~ Finished, Packed and Shipped

| kirsti

Finished illustrations - on stretchers
Finished canvases still on the stretcher bars.

Early in July I finished the illustrations for my latest children’s picture book project Catching Time, written by Rachna Gilmore (Red Deer Press, pub.date Spring 2008). The illustrations were finally packed up and shipped out yesterday.

IMG_2342_s.jpg
It’s been a long process. This is what my studio, and the weather, looked like at the beginning of the painting part of the project (in November ’06)…


…and this is what it looked like at the end (July ’07).

Finished illustrations
Canvas cut off the stretcher bars and ready for shipping.

I’ll post more photos of the illustrations, as well as photos of the illustration process once the book is out.

After about 2 1/2 years of book work, peppered with other projects slotted in here and there, I’m officially on my kid’s book illustration break for a while and it feels really, really good. While I’m book burnt-out, I’m not yet painting burnt-out and will be trying to find a few days here and there to get busy on some of my own work.

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