This week, I started the final illustrations for Lisa Comb's next book "Completely Different Just the Same." Lisa is my partner for our new venture, Best Friends Books, LLC and both of us are extremely excited about it! The subject of this book is particularly compelling and empowering considering the current political climate.

We are planning on releasing this book in October. Here's the synopsis, Lisa has written for the book:

"We are all completely different up close but the farther you get away from us, the more we look the same, until far enough away we all look like the same tiny ants.

Similarly, we all look totally different until you go deep enough inside and then we all look the same again."

Sounds simple, but as adults we are constantly reminded how difficult it is, every day, to remember that we have more in common then meets the eye. It is our hope that all of our books empower children and adults to love themselves, and others, more.

As with most creative projects, I procrastinate wildly. Lisa had the completed manuscript to me two months ago. I find my procrastination valuable. During this time, I never stop thinking about how I'll illustrate Lisa's beautiful words appropriately and inclusively. Learning how to respect our differences and be inclusive has been a priority in my work for many years. I credit my position as a graphic designer at Marion County Health Department for this, and truly believe that experience has led me to the work I currently produce. That job, like no other, opened my eyes to experiences much different than my own.

Because, of this, we decided that characters in our books would be modeled after animals with human qualities. The characters I draw, are based on real creatures, but most take on wildly made-up details.

This first creature was roughly suggested in my planning sketches as a "chicken hawk." When I sat down at my computer to illustrate the final page, I found that I couldn't get the Warner Brothers' chicken hawk out of my head. After looking up actual photos of chicken hawks, I was at a loss of what this "athletic" character would look like. So, changing tack, I googled "birds with athletic abilities." After looking through those, I was struck by the personalities and markings of parrots. The finished character is a black-belt in karate. That part simply sprung up from no where and the finished drawing took less than an hour. Those of you that were paying attention know that's actually two months and one hour. Strange how that works.

There are many drawings to go before this book goes through editing and preparation for printing. I will be featuring more insights as they happen. In the meantime, read more about Best Friend Books.