Sliding in to the finish

After many months of work, I am very nearly finished with the art for Gobble, Gobble--a picture book about a curious child who watches a flock of wild turkeys throughout the year.

Dawn Publications will release it in the fall.

Although the antics of frequent turkey visitors are what inspired me to make the book in the first place, they haven't been around here for a long time. This past week, however, a flock of 15 or so have congregated around our front porch every day. I like to think of them as my cheering squad---boosting me along to finish the last pages of the book.

Turkey print

Just can't resist one more! This one is from a wild turkey. There were several more around the same area, near a stand of pine and spruce. You can clearly see the tail print here, and a bit of the wing on the left.

Here's a part of one of the illustrations for Gobble, Gobble that I'm working on (Can't fit the whole thing on my scanner). This is the one I was carving in a previous post.

Snow Prints

Squirrel footprints and leaf impressions in snow

Birdie feet

Trails of wild turkey footprints lead to the pond

Carving wild turkeys roosting in a tree

I've been doing a lot of printing for the new book about wild turkeys--carving away, paying attention to positive and negative spaces. So it's a delight to find "prints" in nature.

Turkey tale

I've spent a lot of time this summer working on block print and collage illustrations for a new picture book called Gobble, Gobble which will be out in the Fall of 2011 from Dawn Publications. The idea for the book came from observing the various antics of the wild turkeys who paraded around here on a regular basis throughout the year. Once I began the actual work, however, the turkeys apparently took up another residence. No turkey sightings all summer---at least not in my backyard. Until this morning. It's good to have them back.

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UPDATE:

A long overdo trip to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, Maine was a real treat today. The park is home to many injured, orphaned, or human dependent animals. Most are now permanent residents---some are rehabilitated and released into the wild when possible. In addition to some injured wild turkeys, there are other turkey "visitors" who come to the park on their own accord to take advantage of the free food. This fellow was one of the visiting opportunists: