Marie Manley Tucker

I have always been an artist. During school, I would flip my papers over and draw flowers instead of doing the assigned work. My favorite thing was to color with crayons and hang up my works of art in my art gallery (the big closet at my gramma's). I also liked to draw Garfield a lot.

I think I have finally embraced my juvenile style. I really, really love crayons and colored pencils. Coloring is cathartic. Blending colors in every inch, the feeling of layering lightly feels like I am growing something out of nothing. Stories that are illustrated using color as a character, or that are influenced by color, are my favorite. Color always tells a story. It has so much emotion.

To help  improve my craft of storytelling, I never leave the library without an arm-load of picture books (often more than I can carry without a helping hand or a big bag). Who am I kidding. I love borrowing TONS of picture books because I LOVE reading them. It helps me by accident really. I hope the stigma of picture books being only for kids will just evaporate. I would have read more as I grew up if I felt it was okay to read picture books when a chapter book was too difficult.

I am a member of SCBWI (since 2013) and I participate in critique groups for writing and illustrating, and writing workshops in my area. I also participate in Julie Hedlund's 12x12 Picture Book Challenge. This year I am "elfing" in the 12x12 forum in the Notation Station. A section that addresses art note questions. I enjoyed taking the Storystorm challenge in 2017 as well. Thinking I might do that one again this year.