Growing up, “illustrating a children’s book” was on my dream list (probably right under “workin a Disney”). I loved the work of illustrators like Jan Brett, Chris Van Allsburg, Mercer Meyer, and more. I used to write and illustrate my own stories. In fall of 2020, I got asked by Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) to create the cover illustration for a new Catholic kids magazine called OSV Kids. The January cover was to depict a family inviting home a new baby, so I had my daughters model for photos with an American Girl doll wrapped up in a blanket.

I created the cover illustration with the help of my new iPad Pro and the app Procreate. It was a dream come true. Seeing my daughters holding a copy of the physical magazine bearing their image was definitely one of the coolest experiences I’ve had as an artist.

It was such a positive and rewarding experience, so I was extra excited when I was asked to create another illustration for the centerfold of the June 2021 issue (I’ll try to share that one later when it comes out) as well as the artwork for a new book on the Jesse Tree by Colleen Pressprich (which will also be published by Our Sunday Visitor).

The cover illustration started off as a line drawing that I shaded using dark brown tones. I tried to create all of the tonal values with this brown shade to make an “under painting.” On a separate layer, I added the colors for the girls on top. You can see what the different stages looked like in the above photo (cover image copyright Our Sunday Visitor).