my first!

a new baby board book series

I’m so excited to share my latest project, which officially hits shelves today!

My First Pickleball Paddle and My First Cowboy Boots were written by Daria Harper, illustrated by me, and published by Ten Speed Young Readers.

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, I’m currently working on the next books in the series!

This project was especially fun for two reasons:

1. Anthropomorphic characters. (so much fun to draw!)

2. Each book is uniquely shaped, which meant the interior illustrations had to creatively fit within the format.

Challenging, yes, but I love projects that give my creative muscles a workout!

Let’s take a peek behind the scenes!

These were some of my earliest cover sketches. At this stage, I wasn’t entirely sure what the final titles would be, so I played around with different book titles, positions of the paddle and ball, cowboy boot styles, and compositions. (Trust me when I say there were way more sketches. I spared you some time, you’re welcome!)

The second round was where I really started leaning into the actual shape of the books. Figuring out how the illustrations could create the shapes of the book. It was one of my favorite parts of the process.

After a few more rounds of sketching, I moved onto trying out different color palettes…

until the final covers magically appeared! Ta-da!

A huge thank you to the fabulous Kelly Barrales-Saylor for bringing me onto this delightful series, and to Meggie for the incredible design work and helpful feedback throughout the project.

If you’d like to support my work, you can find My First Pickleball Paddle and My First Cowboy Boots wherever books are sold, including your local bookstore, Bookshop.org, and online retailers. It truly means so much whenever someone picks up one of the books I’ve helped create, especially these playful little board books that I love bringing to life!

Thanks for following along with my work, I’m so happy to share these books with you!

#1 New Release in Children’s Racket Sports Books! :)