The groundhog proclaimed that winter would last for the foreseeable future and now we have back to back blizzards. Despite the snowstorms and icy winds, I was able to set up my first official bookstore display at Books of Wonder for Mungo on His Own! This display was months of planning, paint, cardboard, and duck tape in the making and I’m excited to show you how it came together! Unfortunately, the display is not up anymore but the pictures and videos I have are more than enough to capture the experience I hope!

Before the post, I would love to share some photos from the Roxborough library event last Friday. It was a rowdy, adorable crowd who really enjoyed when Mungo found his berry bush. I got to speak to some lovely parents and see some genius coloring. Thank you Alisa for setting this up!

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I know it’s been a while since my last Sketchbud post, so thank you for your patience. I am in the middle of preparing for my 30th birthday and trying to rest before Mungo On His Own promo frenzy so I thought I’d shake things up and make a post about my editorial work. Specifically, I wanted to highlight the work I did for the Washington Post’s Best Books of 2025 Lists earlier this month, featuring 2 covers and 4 pieces relating to different genres. In order to thank you all for your support, I will also be featuring other editorial illustrations I did this year as well. So sit tight, and enjoy my ramblings!

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Apologies for the delay in special posts. Now that August is almost done, I wanted to share my process for creating the character designs in Tove Under the Tree, an early reader chapter book written by Larissa Theule and published by Candlewick (In stores October 14, 2025).

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As I mentioned before in my Tove Cover Art Post, I had never illustrated a chapter book before so this was a new challenge for me in terms of planning out each image and figuring out how the characters would take up space on the page. But before I could get started thumbnailing the whole book, I needed to figure out what Tove and the people who inhabit her world would look like. I ended up using Yoshitomo Nara’s painting Under the Tree for artistic inspiration, as Larissa mentioned that the painting had inspired her to write the book. I liked how almost nonchalant the painting was and I tried to pair that with the whimsical yet grounded sweetness that Tove showed in the writing.

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I am furiously working on a deadline while juggling commissions and trying to stay sane regarding the country’s future. There’s also the strange social media events happening all over different platforms (Meta is really dropping the ball). All in all, it’s been a rough start to the year for all of us and I wanted to give some art back to our community of 16 (and a peek for all the Sketchbugs out there who might want to become a Sketchbud)!

This is a collection of pages from a Moleskine sketchbook (5x8) that I used from mid 2023 to April 2024. I have been favoring Handbook sketchbooks for most of my personal work, but this moleskine was from my old RISD inventory so I knew it was time to use it. This little guy accompanied me through several books, illustrator events. preparing for my move to King of Prussia, , several award winning editorial illustrations, an eclipse, and reconnecting with my love of media exploration. You might even recognize some pages from other substack posts!

The cover and backcover are decorated with stickers from illustrators Lillian Xie and Josh Cochran respectively. And as mentioned in my previous sketchbook post, I’m left handed, so I always start my sketchbooks from the other side, upside down to ensure the paper side is still correct.

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Happy Winter Solstice and Hanukkah/ Christmas Eve! (Yes they are on the same day this year!) To welcome the upcoming, ever warming days of Winter, I once again have some holiday postcards to send out. This is a time honored tradition I’ve been doing for the 5 years I’ve been working as an illustrator. I see them as a wonderful way to celebrate the art directors, friends, and you lovely sketchbuds, who make my job possible. And who doesn’t like receiving things in the mail? If you want to read about how I created the 2024 postcard, check out it out HERE

If you want a postcard mailed to you, access to my more in depth process posts, and sketchbook scans, consider becoming a Sketchbud today!

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Each year, I try to incorporate different birds/ flying creatures and seasons into the themes of the illustration. I had already done ones for Summer, Fall and Winter so Spring obviously came up as a theme. But this postcard felt a little different, just as this year felt a little different. Spring is a season known for rebirth, renewal and beauty, but it’s hard looking at this year and the anxiety for what 2025 will bring, and think of those qualities.

While pondering these thoughts, I was continuously inspired by this local heron who comes to my apartment’s man-made lake. The heron (it’s too far away to tell the gender but if a bird expert could let me know that would be cool) always stands alone, calmly watching the water. Occasionally it glides across the lake to somewhere beyond our window, solemn but graceful. And on the days where the rain is torrential, it can be seen meditatively sitting near the water, unbothered by nature’s trials. I found the creature’s resilience evocative and decided that it would be the bird subject for this year’s card. If it can withstand the worst rainstorms, then so can we.

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A kind little guy named Mo the Moonpie. He’s an 18 month tuxedo cat that keeps us both on our toes. I have never thought I’d be up at 6am throwing toy fish around but here we are. In honor of Mr. Mo’s arrival, please enjoy this slice of life comic.

Sketchbugs will have access to the full comic next month, so if you want to see the rest, think of becoming part of the Sketchbud club.

Thank you for reading! Mo is giving you a little blep! (Mo blepping) Please let me know if you want to see more Mo comics! On that note, here are some real life pictures of him to fulfill the cat tax.

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I wanted to get the ball rolling with some bonus posts I’ve been promising you all. I have a surplus of sketchbooks I’ve been meaning to share and what better place to do it then here?

This is a collection of pages from my small blue Handbook Sketchbook: a 3.5 x5.5 hardcover sketchbook with soft yet durable cream colored paper that takes paint pretty well. I personally love using this brand as the pages feel a little less daunting than stark white moleskine paper and the cover has such a wonderful handmade feel. The one big downside is that the texture of the paper makes it easy for graphite to smudge, so pencillers be wary and inkers rejoice.

If by any chance one of you readers works for a sketchbook company, I would love to review your products. *Wink*

Because I’m a leftie, I like to start start my sketchbook backwards to make it easier for my hand to not smudge everything. This book in particular starts backwards and is adorned with one of my Mermay stickers and a sticker from my good friend and show stopping tattoo artist, Becki Shu, whose old cat Pebble is in one of these pages. The book begins in 2021 and officially ends in 2023.

Like many sketchbook keepers, I kept coming in and out of this sketchbook, escaping to other books or just taking breaks from drawing all together between weeks. Many of you know me for my sketches. I love to sketch, but even I go through humps where I didn’t want to draw anything. I credit this sketchbook for getting me out of my rut post pandemic.If you want to hear my little sketchbook rant, see some high quality scans with some fun context, and the full sketchbook pdf, become a Sketchbud!

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I hope you enjoyed the Sketchbug Newsletter Birthday Post! To commemorate the occasion, I made a little illustration for you all that also comes as a print free of charge with a paid subscription.

If you’re interested in small print drops like this or want to just see some cool upcoming stuff, think about signing up and becoming a paid subscriber!

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Hello Sketchbuds,

With the New Year comes a new Holiday card! I am not the best at sending these during the holiday season but I always make it a point to send these out to the friends, family and art directors who have made the past year memorable. I know some might consider this a waste of time now that we live in the digital world, but I find there is something precious and intimate in receiving art in the mail.

Also, since this is the Sketchbug’s First Paid Post, if you become a Sketchbud (paid subscriber) I will mail one of these postcards to you too!

In continuing with the postcard tradition of fantasy seasonal bird people, I wanted the main focus of this card to be turkeys and winter. I love turkeys, specifically the wild ones I see roaming around the NJ and PA woods in the late fall, early winter. I have been ruminating on some ideas of a turkey queen trouncing through the snow and thought it would be nice to try my hands at making that idea real . Plus it’s been snowing in Philadelphia the last few weeks and felt right to go with that type of mood.

I started off with a base idea. A little girl with a few wild turkeys looking into a lake in the winter and seeing a turkey queen and her entourage in the reflection. I wanted it to feel like that scene in the C.S Lewis’ Magician’s Nephew where the main characters come to an area full of puddles surrounded by greenery. Each puddle has a world inside of it that you can travel to if you jump in. I wanted that feeling but with a wintery, fowl twist of sorts. (Did I like how C.S. Lewis finished off the Narnia series? No. That is a post for another time)

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We’re heading into the holidays with a post about how I illustrated this piece for the New Republic. You can find the article HERE.

A lot of people think that artists use the first drawings they make for the final product, and for some geniuses that is true. However, more often than not, the process to the…

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