Latest Work: Cover for Cobblestone Magazine, October 2013

©Cheryl Kirk Noll, Cover Illustration for October 2013 Cobblestone Magazine

My latest work just hit the newstands... the October cover for
Cobblestone Magazine: Valley Forge, The Real Story. Cobblestone is an American History magazine for young people.

©Cheryl Kirk Noll, "Black Regiment of the American Revolution."

I was pleased when the designer for Cobblestone asked me to do a cover about Valley Forge. I'd already done research about VF when I worked on "The Black Regiment of the American Revolution."

The focus for this illustration was on 17-year old Joseph Plumb Martin. He marched into Valley Forge with the Continental Army in 1777, and it is believed that he kept a journal of his experiences. At the age of 70, he wrote his memoirs, considered the best first-person account of the life of a private soldier in the Revolutionary War.

Susquehanna Sojourn

Lake Hopatcong

For over ten years now, I've been getting together annually with three friends from my college days at Lebanon Valley in Annville, PA. This year we stayed at a cottage in an old Evangelical United Brethern summer church camp near the Susquehanna River. The EUB merged with the Methodist Church in 1968, and the camp is now privately owned. Two of our group had dads who were ministers, and they stayed there as kids.

The first leg of the trip was four hours to Lake Hopatcong, the largest lake in New Jersey, where my friend reigns as Queen of the Castle, overlooking her realm. 

Lyd on the porch

We met our friends at the cottage, where it was quiet and peaceful (except for us. I'm afraid a few of us are raucous laughers, and we were all having a good time!) 

We took a trip to an overlook to see where the East and West branches of the Susquehanna converge. You can tell the East branch by it's muddy color!

Kim, Bert and Lyd in front of the cottage.

Another adorable cottage.

Bert, Kim, Lyd and me, with the Susquehanna

You can see where the east and west branches merge by the color change.