Sketches

New Character Design

Website Move!

After lots of packing and unpacking, my website has a new home at:

 www.aliciaschwab.com

Trudi Tribute

If only our pets could live longer than they do. Our English Springer Spaniel, Trudi lost her bounce and passed away last Friday after a grueling battle with a mysterious disease. Trudi was a great dog, I miss her a lot. She has provided me with much impetus to create art and enjoy life. She was at my side in the studio reassuring me with sighs and snoring.

An eternal optimist, Trudi never met a person she didn't like. And if you didn't, she'd try her best to change your mind with sweet doggie kisses. She thought everyone would feel better with some kisses.

When she was healthy, Trudi was a lean-running machine tearing a permanent rut into the sod during her numerous hairpin turns around the circumference of our yard that she could circuit for hours. She held the bunnies and squirrels in check. And so, our signal for taking her out became, "Bunnies-n-Squirrels!" Even if she was sound asleep, hearing that phrase would make her jump up with enthusiasm. Being outside was awesome. Winter. Spring. Summer. Fall. Each season offered it's own pleasures.

Winter. A happy day, was a day with a fresh blanket of snow in the backyard. Trudi loved snow. She would happily run around making new tracks. And when she got hot from all that, she'd roll around in it and eat some. -Snow tasted so good.

Spring. Mud and Springers. Need I say more? Even better, the bunnies wake up from their winter nap. What joy! Bunnies tasted good too.

Summer. Countless hours in the warm breezes and taking numerous dips in the baby pool. Nothing quenched her thirst like doggie-pool water. yum...

Fall. Crunchy leaves that smelled so good. Those squirrels sure looked tasty if only Trudi could have climb trees.

Sid Korpi (author of Good Grief-Finding Peace After Pet Loss was kind enough to post about my pet's passing on her blog: http://goodgriefpetloss.wordpress.com/.

Rest in peace, Trudi. My studio is an empty hollow without you.

My hero is gone, but his legacy remains.

I was part of the "Where the Wild Things Are" generation. Benefiting from the creator, author/illustrator Maurice Sendak's life long contributions to the Children's Literature.

I love this quote from the New York Times article.

“Dear Mr. Sendak,” read one, from an 8-year-old boy. “How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive, my sister and I would like to spend the summer there.”

Thank you, Maurice Sendak for making our world a little brighter. We will miss you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/books/maurice-sendak-childrens-author-dies-at-83.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

It's growing on me!

Spring has sprung here in Minnesota. And my new website (www.aliciaschwab.com) is growing! If only it was as easy as planing a seed, watering, clearing the weeds and watching it grow. But it takes a lot more work than that to write, design and develop a website in CSS. My goal is to have it published by June, 2012. I am in do-or-die mode, now as the weeks are flying by. In the meantime, you can still review my work over at the old site: www.aliciaschwab-online.com. I am planning to leave it up for awhile in order to redirect people to the new URL.

Website Design

And now for something completely different.
http://www.phyllisalsdurf.com/



My friend, Phyllis Alsdurf's picture book, It's Milking Time is soon to be released by Random House Children's Book later this month. I am very excited for her. She asked me to design and develop a website for her.

It was a lot of fun, I was so grateful to have such a nice selection of rich, beautiful photography taken by her daughter, Lydia Alsdurf for the website. Almost all the photos featured are from the family farm where Phyllis grew up. It's a nice way to pay homage to the Midwestern dairy farm. She has many happy memories from her youth which influences her writing.

It's Milking Time, by Phyllis Alsdurf 

Be sure to check out her new book, It's Milking Time, by Phyllis Alsdurf and illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. ©2012 Random House Children's Books.

School Visit

 Today I was invited to speak to the art and writing classes at Mound Westonka High School. What a great group! They were very eager to get started on the next phase of writing and illustrating their children's book story. The two classes are working together in a collaborative effort to write children's stories and then illustrate them. Later in the year, they will exhibit their their works together.