Children’s Books

In 2019, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of writing, illustrating, and publishing my first children’s book, Ski! Ski! Ski!

But I never intended to stop at just one. I constantly have ideas for new books swirling around in my head, and make an effort to set aside time amidst all my other projects to work on them. Illustration is a great source of joy in my life. In late 2022, I published my second book, You Can’t Get My Goat. Visually and tonally, it is somewhat of a departure from Ski! Ski! Ski!, being illustrated digitally and intended to make kids laugh, but I made sure to maintain some consistency between them so that they may be the beginning of a collection. I am currently working on two other books on completely different themes and using different illustration techniques, which I can’t wait to share with the world.

A book to teach children about the joy to be found in winter

I spent about two years dabbling, and then five months intensively working on this book in every spare moment that I could find. The book was a labour of love, with each detail meticulously cut out of high quality cardstock, glued together in spreads, and photographed in order to capture the texture and detail of the paper. I spent quite some time figuring out the general layout and aesthetic. One of my key explorations ended up being how to portray variety and depth in shades in white snow. I latched onto the idea of limiting the palette to three or four main colours, and this ended up contributing to a cohesive and beautiful final product.
I remember the pride I felt when presenting my printed books to my family as a surprise. Since publishing this book in 2019, it has continued to sell itself, with sales mostly coming from the U.S. and the U.K.

The idea for this book just popped into my head one day and became a bit of an obsession. I originally thought that I’d illustrate it in paper, but once I began drawing the goat in Adobe Illustrator, this became an extremely fun way to hone my skills in that medium. Once I got on a roll, I became driven to complete the book, and it came together in a much shorter timeframe than my first book. The responses I’ve gotten so far on this book melt my heart. I have a video sent in by an early reader of their three-year-old dissolving in fits of giggles and demanding to be read the book over and over.