Picture Book Marathon Follow-up

Any of you that didn't catch the old post, I (Nate S) have been participating in the Picture Book Marathon over the month of February and it's been rough but I've been able to keep up. If you're interested, please check out the stories I've come up with as the challenge has included coming up with the story/illustrations for a children's picture book everyday of February. While I can't say that I've been able to illustrate a picture everyday, I've managed to get a story idea for everyday so far, something I'm proud of. Please check them out and leave me a comment on my blog.

Best of the Shoebox - 2010 Nominations

Announcing the 2010 Nominations for the Best of the Shoebox. Sorry for the delay but I had to do my best and extend the deadline for nominations to break some ties as best I could but for each contributor there was a clear first place submission. Announced below are the winners in alphabetical order:

Kristi G

#1 - Mermaid yoga
#2 - Girl pulling friend from the aquarium
#3 - Blue and Pink Cover

Liezl G

#1 - Eiffel Tower
#2 (Tie) - Popsicle friends AND Ballerina


Nate S

#1 - Viking Interview
#2 - No clear second or third place (it was between girl with large monster, monster in PJ's, girl with wishbone, and peacock)


Quincy G

#1 - Silly Clown
#2 (Tie) - Patsy the hairy monster AND Veggie robot


Scott W

#1 - Monster Brush (Auguste)
#2 - Bubble girl work
#3 - European background


Also included in nominations are two other contributors that received nominations. Although they didn't have 3 or more submissions throughout the year I thought it was important to include the votes and invite them to continue contributing, maybe even more than last year.

Aubrey S

#1 - Nellybug character/costume design


Becca W

#1 - Story backgrounds

Great work everyone! Thanks for all your submissions and work in 2010; and for following us into 2011. Your final objective with this exercise, should you wish to, is to take your number one, people's choice as well as one of your choosing and make a final version, a polished version that represents your best work of 2010. You may also resubmit the same piece without changing anything to it if that is what you wish but I challenge you to work a little harder on this challenge. Also should you wish you can submit up a third should you wish. My main objective with all of this work is to showcase what each person has done throughout the year and you will then have something you can save in your portfolio.

I will give a little extra time for this contest because I want you to submit your best work, really dig into this contest and work out those muscles. Originally I had in mind that I would make these available in a printed format for any interested, making it easier to save in a tangible way. I still am interested in doing just that should no one object.

Deadline for polished work:  March 31st, 2011

Doodles or Drawings

Scott left me a comment that I added to the last post towards the bottom about trying too hard. I know for myself that if I could try to subdue the perfectionist inside me I could get a lot more done and possibly be more content with the outcomes. Thanks Scott. Here's the drawing he was talking about doing. Enjoy...

Quick Draw - Character Relationships

Thank you for the pictures submitted. Great work. Here's the submissions I received for this quick draw contest.

Kristi G

Nate S


Mine I ended up not developing as far as I hoped to at this time. I’ve been working this month on a picture book marathon that has entailed coming up with the rough draft of a children’s book every day, on top of the finals I’m trying to keep up with. I appreciate the work you guys put into these contests so I knew I had to at least give you a real rough draft of my thought process. The story can be found on my blog and centers around two brothers, a big box of crayons, and a lot of imagination.

Scott W


I'm still playing around with the vegan twins. I like the personality of peace-loving, eccentric, etc. that they bring to my mine. I actually pitched animating something based on them at my school (but my mentor felt it was too complex). I would have a clearer, more polished sketch but I ran out of time...It'll come soon, no worries. So the sketch that I'm leaning most toward is the bottom left: one twin is drawn to the top secret box while the other pulls her away : The story I'm exploring of these two peace-loving-vegans who are incredibly skilled and talented, but refuse to be secret agents.

Also I wanted to share a comment that Scott sent me, I found it helpful (thanks Scott):

“Hey Nate, so I thought I'd share this too since this contest was a quick draw. I was in an online meeting and not feeling too positive, so I started sketching. I first made an interesting scribble shape and then started shaping a character out of that. I was only half concentrating in the drawing, so I was quite surprised with the quality of the character and rendering. It just reemphasized that sometimes we try too hard when we should really keep things loose and experiment.”

Just so everyone knows, I'm finishing up tallying all the results from the votes for everyone's nominations. I'll have them up this week.

Picture Book Marathon 2011

Hey fellow contributors and followers, I've signed up for something you may or may not have heard of but I'd think you'd be interested in. It's called the Picture Book Marathon and it consists of professionals and non-professionals trying their best at illustrating and/or writing a picture book for children.

Click right HERE to check out their website.

I'm going to be working on stories all this month, hopefully illustrating as well as writing as well as the contests that pertain to this website too. Please support me if you would by checking out my blog at the link below and I'll update it with my daily stories for the marathon:

MY ART BLOG

Keep up the great work everyone.