School challenges:

 I am going to various schools giving presentations and workshops on illustrating. I have issued to each school an illustrating challenge. I read an excerpt from Orion’s Sword (my yet-to-be published fantasy) that describes a creature in the story. The students then illustrate the creature based either on my idea of what it might look like or their ideas. I give them the freedom to do whatever they want and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with both their imagination and skill. Have a look for yourself!


 Sacchora Challenge
The first challenge illustrations come from Davidson Road Elementary in Winfield. Many thanks go to Darylene Godkin, their wonderful librarian, who invited me for the whole day on January 22, 2015. The day consisted of workshops and presentations to grades 1 – 6.

Their challenge was to draw a sacchora from the below excerpt from my yet-to-be-published novel, Orion’s Sword.

Loraine-sacchoraFour orange eyes with black vertical slits stared at me from a heavily jawed face. The adult sacchora was only a few yards away. Its hairless body was similar to an Earth lion, but three times the size and its head resembled a pazion serpent’s. Plus it looked as if it had eaten a year’s worth of mom’s muscle-growth powder. It stood, brown-and-green-striped head lowered, with all four legs spread wide in a ready-stance, lashing its tail.