December check in
And a cheerful wintry wallpaper for your phone ☃️
👋🏻Welcome to my new subscribers and to everyone a warm hello from my little chilly corner of the French Jura alps!
It’s almost the end of the year so I thought I would do a quick recap of my 2023 and see what it has taught me:
At the beginning of the year I was busy getting ready for Bologna Children’s book fair, working on the dummy of my first author-illustrator picture book, Goodbye, House. From other, more seasoned Bologna visitors, I learned all about preparing my portfolio, printing my business cards and other materials, where to go and what to see. The only thing I didn’t prepare for was for my bag to get stolen on the way to the fair… but thanks to the magic of iCloud and some amazing fellow artists the Bologna fair was still a positive experience and it even had a surprise ending (you can read all about it here)
As my first picture book went on submission, I took some more online classes with MATS - through those another book idea, the one with the dog as a main character, started gaining momentum - first as a non fiction illustrated book on dos and don’ts of training a puppy and then as a baby board book.
Finally the story turned into a picture book and I modelled the main character, Moxie, after my own dog, Lisa, a Jack Russell mix. At the moment the dummy for this book is in its final stage - here are some character sketches and I will soon be able to show you more:
This year Illoguild, our fantastic group of illustrators, started monthly live Zoom sessions and some of you have already joined our free chat - I am looking forward to meeting even more of you in the next, January edition!
This newsletter is also a part of Illoguild’s question of the month so if you want to see what other illustrators took from this past year, check their answers at
!I would like to end this recap with a little gift - here’s a cheerful wallpaper for your phone you can download from the link below ☃️.
Wishing you all a joyful and peaceful holiday season,
x Damjana
The Goodbye, House looks great!