Caricatures, Silhouettes and Illustrations by Leona Hosack

The cover art for Jamilla Does Not Want A Bat In Her House soon to be available from www.bahaibookstore.com So excited that soon (hopefully in time for the Baha'i winter holiday called Ayyam-i-ha, in February) the picture book Jamilla Does Not Want A Bat In Her House, written by Phyllis Ring and illustrated by me, will be released by Bellwood Press! This is the first sketch I came up with for page 3 of the book. I ended up changing the format when I learned more of what the editors wanted in terms of size and shape. Jamila watching her parents trying to catch the bat! In the text it mentions Jamila getting dizzy watching the bat fly, so I decided to add some lines and stars to show the dizziness! The color version of page 3! And h ow do you go about developing a character for a children's book anyway?  Below is a great video by my favorite illustration teacher Will Terry on how to do just that!   Happy Drawing!

Here are the finals in color for the book I've been working on for the US Baha'i Publishing Trust (Bellwood Press) Jamilla Does Not Want A Bat In Her House! So happy to be done, but also sad!  I had so much fun developing these drawing for Phyllis Ring's wonderful book about a girl dealing with her fears of a bat that's invaded her home! I love how Jamilla deals with her fears and I love how Phyllis resolves the issue of how to take care of the bat. That's a hint"take care"! I won't give away the ending!  Please buy the book to find out! A great gift for any child in your life who has ever had to deal with a fear!  Bellwood Press will be releasing this hopefully sometime later this year! It will be available on www.bahaibooks.com so keep a watch out for it! 

Drawings for a possible upcoming book project. I have had many opportunities lately to do drawings of people and animals which show various emotions and I have had a lot of fun experimenting with what different emotions might look like! A sad elephant- a submission for Illustration Friday I did a couple of years ago! A page from the upcoming book I'm illustration for Bellwood Press, Jamila Does Not Want A Bat In Her House, written by Phyllis Ring Here are some sketches I've done over the years of children showing various emotions! And a great video by well-know Illustrator and Teacher Will Terry on drawing emotions!

A few years ago I came up with a picture book idea that shows a Baha'i child progressing through his day, and incorporating spiritual concepts into his activities. I was lucky to have had an opportunity to show the idea to an editor at Bellwood Press/US Baha'i Publishing Trust and my book Kamal's Day was published last year and is now available at www.baha'ibookstore.com Click here for a direct link: http://www.bahaibookstore.com/Search.aspx?k=kamal%27s%20day Here are three ideas that I used in creating this picture book! Happy Writing!   1.Choose what concept or story you want to share with your readers.  In this book which is a concept book, there's not an actual story with a conflict, and a beginning, middle and end, during which the conflict gets resolved. But there is the story or concept of  what Kamal does during his day and how he practices Baha'i ideals supported by his family.  I wanted to help Baha'i children, and others to bette...