Winter Chickadee

I am not yet ready to call myself an illustrator. It still feels dishonest to me. But perhaps I've come one step closer.  I have been a member of 'Drawing Tutorials Online' for a couple of years now, it's a fantastic site and if you are looking for an online art class it's absolutely the place to be.  In January I entered a DTO contest. The theme was "Winter" and the only rule was that the image had to be a black and white image drawn in graphite or col-erase pencil.  I participated simply for the experience, with no expectation at all of winning.  

The winners were announced a few weeks ago and the three finalists' work was AMAZING! I wish I could share them on my blog, but alas they are on a private site for the students at DTO and I don't think I'm allowed to snag them.

The most amazing thing about the contest for me was that I received an honorable mention!! I am still on a high from Matt's comments about my image - so complementary and encouraging. Best of all he thought this image/style really fit children's book illustration.

So thank you Matt Archambault for your encouragement and making me feel like I might just have it in me to be a children's book illustrator one day...