Early in 2017, while I was about halfway through the illustrations for my debut picture book, Cycle City (Chronicle Books, March 2018), I had a looming deadline and not enough time. I thought if I could get away from my regular responsibilities for a week, I might have a chance of getting back on track.

I soon learned about the Sou'wester Lodge in Seaview, WA. Sou'wester lodge is a magical, art-loving place that rents cabins, rooms in a house, camping spots, as well as a fleet of vintage trailers. They have a sauna, a massage trailer, a music studio trailer, loaner bikes, and a consignment shop trailer. They host events, retreats, and workshops. And they do artist residencies! I applied, and eventually booked a week there.

The Old Spartan, my residence for one week.

Inside the Old Spartan: compact, efficient, perfect!

At Sou'wester, I worked about 10 hours each day, mostly on linework! So so so much linework to be done! I brought my light table, used a fountain pen and some microns to trace all of my spreads onto 300lb Arches paper (snob-paper for paper snobs). I listened to the entire Harry Potter series on audiobook that week!