KATE & NATE ARE RUNNING LATE!

KATE & NATE ARE RUNNING LATE!

My new picture book Kate & Nate Are Running Late! was just released a few weeks ago. I had a wonderful time creating the illustrations for this book. I'm not sure if she was spying on me but, the author Kate Egan really captured the harried atmosphere of a weekday morning in my house.

Whenever I visit a school, I talk about my books and make sure to tell the students how important the cover is to me. "Because if you like the cover of a book, you're going to pick it up, and if you pick it up, you'll open it, and if you open it, you'll look at the pictures and if you like the pictures, you'll READ IT!"

This was my original sketch for the cover, which I thought was pretty good, until the designer made it beautiful!

Here's a sketch of an interior piece with the main characters trying (or not trying) to get ready for the day. As you can see, sister Maddie is clearly above it all.

And here's the painting.

If you know my work, you know that I love reflective images.

It makes more sense in color, of course.

I'm a MAJOR fan of end pages and I like them to help tell the story or enhance the book in some way, rather than just be decorative. In the end pages for Kate & Nate, I wanted to show the little family in different situations in order to reveal their personalities and lifestyle.

As you can see, there were revisions, but I still think they're fun and enhanced the book in a small way.