Sneeze

A couple months ago I decided to enter the SCBWI Tomie dePaola illustrator contest.  The prompt was...

A Sneeze

A Sneeze

Is a breeze

In your nose.

I spent hours and hours on my submission, because this is Tomie dePaola we're talking about here, author of one of my favorite books growing up, Strego Nona.  But after messing up my fourth draft of the same illustration I became frustrated and decided not to enter.  

I regret this decision now.  I should have gone ahead and submitted my imperfect illustration.  At least I could have had the satisfaction of knowing my work passed before the eyes of one of my favorite children's book author/illustrator.

Now I've learned how to use photoshop and I've been able to go back and fix this illustration.  Even though I didn't enter this work into the contest I feel it was very worth the time and effort.  At least I now have another great piece to add to my portfolio!