New comic characters! And new kitty!

I've been scheming up a BRAND NEW YOUNG ADULT GRAPHIC NOVEL! And it's with a totally new cast of characters! I first met my new main character when I doodled this in my sketchbook ages ago...

It's taken me a year and a half to get to know her, and I only just began to work on her friends. They're all brand new and still evolving, so who knows how they will transform as I work on writing out the story.

WILLY
Short for Willemena, named after my great grandmother. She makes lamps out of found objects and has an old-fashioned steampunk tinged style. You can see I'm playing around with her hair, whether to have it looser or done more tightly braided. She represents a side of my personality just like Paige does, so there's some physical continuity with her strawberry blonde hair and freckles. Oh, and her shadows are alive.






AUTUMN
She is Willy's best friend, from an Indian-American family. She makes rad puppets.

NOAH
He completes this trio of longtime friends. He's sweet natured and into cooking.

REESE
She is Noah's little sister. She's a little tweeny hipster who idolizes Noah's friends.

Now it's time to hammer out the plot for these characters! If you have feedback on these characters, I'd love to hear it! Please comment or shoot me an email: lauraleegulledge@gmail.

And speaking of new characters...
I've adopted a kitten! His name is Rory, AKA Roary like a lion cub. (the name is also in reference to a Doctor Who character) He was found a few blocks from where I live here in Brooklyn, and we're guessing he's about 6 months old. He's a real life party cat! He sleeps on his back like this all the time, it's waaay too cute.

Currently Reading: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Paige's Art Rules

Do you need some creative encouragement? Some inspiration to keep drawing? Then print this out!

Paige's rules for being an artist:

These are some of my personal rules that I've come up with as I've figured out how to be an artist over the years. These were also the chapters in "Page by Paige." (But I tweaked the origin of the rules, so that these rules come from Paige's grandmother instead.) I found these ideas important in particular because they were lessons not only to be applied to art, but also my life! And there are a lot more lessons where these came from.

If you have a rule that guides you on your creative journey, I'd love to hear it! Please send me an email: lauraleegulledge@gmail.com

Sound Waves: Longo's music pick!

I thought It'd be fun to share new fun music that corresponds with the musical tastes of the different characters in Page by Paige. And this week it's Longo's turn!


If you are into electro-pop music like Longo is, then you should check out French Horn Rebellion. It's a Brooklyn based brother duo, David and Robert Perlick-Molinari. (Yes, one brother plays the french horn. I do love fellow former band nerds!) I saw them live recently with Kurt at Glasslands here in Brooklyn and had a blast, we danced our butts off! The brother David actually produced MGMT’s Time To Pretend, so you can see some stylistic similarities.


Their music videos are simple-silly-fun in case you feel like checking out more on their Youtube channel.

WORD drawings @ WORD Books

This weekend I held my last scheduled workshop for the summer, at WORD Books! (I'll be lining up more events in the Fall) In the spirit of the space I decided it would be appropriate to make drawings out of WORDS.


It was a very art therapy sort of lesson, and since we were a small group we were able to get more personal which was nice. First I shared different ways that I've used text in my artwork and in "Page by Paige," especially as a way to articulate inner fears.

Then we shared the negative things that we each tell ourselves, named the underlying fears, and decided what positive phrase we could ingrain in our head to override the original negative one. Then we made drawings out of the new words, because drawing it/writing it can help new ideas stick in our head.





Since these were all pretty personal I'll just share mine rather than everyone's! My inner fear was that I am a fraud, that people will discover that I'm not that cool or talented or clever and that my graphic novel was a fluke. So the positive phrase I need to "reprogram" in my head is that "I have something to offer."


And congrats Daniel and Annie for winning a copy of my "Be a Revelationary" poster!

Book Expo America: Author Speed Dating

Last week I attended BOOK EXPO AMERICA where I took part in the event "Speed Dating With Children's Authors!"



19 different authors (including myself) moved from table to table, spending time chatting at each table with over 100 librarians, book store owners, and other book professionals from across the country. It was a lot of fun, even though I had to talk my way into the event because I didn't have a badge! I was shocked to hear that many of the attendees had already read my book. Now if only I can save enough money to do a proper book tour...




Publishers Weekly posted a complete article about the event here. And I'd like to say a special thanks Kurt for passing out my stickers and such until I ran out!

In other news...
Abrams art director Chad Beckerman posted a nice blog entry about my event at BookCourt! Complete with a bunch of new photos. Thanks, Chad!

And FINALLY...
This Saturday 4-5:00 is my last event in New York for a while! At WORD Books in Greenpoint. We'll be making portraits out of WORDS. Click here for more info!