Hindsight

Last week I was on the road, in good old PA, for both business and leisure.

First there was the Annual Convention of the National Council of Teacher of English, my favorite show, which was in Philly. This is the first year that Candlewick has sent me officially, which was pretty sweet in that everything was paid for and I got some fancy dinners. However, I kind of missed being on the show floor all weekend as I have in the past. Even though that’s exhausting, it’s just fabulous to meet so many teachers, almost all of whom are excited about my books! I still got a lot of that excitement, but I didn’t have a chance to meet quite as many teachers this year.

During our day off from the show, we went to see Eastern State Penitentiary, which is awesome, and then to the Philly Zoo, which is aging but quite cool. We didn’t have much time at the zoo before they closed, so we mostly just saw primates. And lions. Drawings below.

After the show, we stayed in the area and had Thanksgiving with Alison’s parents. Now I’m back, and trying to finally finalize the Odyssey cover.

LOTS more drawings below the cut:

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I believe I’ve mentioned that Mount Auburn Cemetery is awesome, and that I love to draw there. And that there’s a great blue heron. Alison’s parents were in town last weekend, and we made a visit to Mt Auburn for some spring scenery.

So as I was sitting by the Halcion Pond, the heron showed up. He was walking slowly and methodically around the edge of the pond, occasionally darting his head down to catch a small fish — completely unconcerned by me sitting on the bank or the crowd of photographers with giant lenses who were following him around. He walked right in front of me, about 6-8 feet away.

Alison got this shot from the other side of the pond:

I just returned from a fantastic week of vacation in San Franisco. Lots of cable cars, parks, gorgeous weather, and expeditions down to Santa Cruz and Monterey, plus visits to many good friends we hadn’t seen in quite a while. Here’s the trip according to my sketchbook (which seems to favor mainly animals).

The plane:

The Japanese Tea Garden and Golden Gate Park:

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I recently met, and sketched, some very adorable and well-behaved dogs.