Illustration Friday: Chicken vs Penguin

 This spring chicken says this winter penguin has overstayed his welcome. 

I already submitted some chicken sketches to Illustration Friday this week, but my contempt for this cold winter weather helped inspire another idea. Also, the extra inspiration came since thanks to Jannie Ho it's chicken week! Who wouldn't be inspired by chickens!

I'm thinking I might want to do more Chicken vs. Penguin illustrations. These arch enemies might make good adversaries.

There's also still time to put your name in for the Will Terry 'How To Illustrate Children's Books' Giveaway! Leave your comment on the Giveaway post to enter for your chance to win his 7 helpful video tutorials!

Will Terry 'How To Illustrate Children's Books' Giveaway!

GIVEAWAY!

When Will Terry contacted me about holding a giveaway of his video series on my blog I jumped with excitement! I had already viewed his sample video on Character Development, and found so many useful tips. I found myself wishing I had an instructor explain these concepts as clearly as Will does back in my college days.

Will Terry's "How to Illustrate Children's Books" video series includes 7 videos:

Lecture #1: Book Design
Lecture #2: Storytelling with Pictures
Lecture #3: Character Design
Lecture #4: Illustration Design
Lecture #5: Rendering
Lecture #6: Working with Color
Lecture #7: Success in the Marketplace

For a chance to win the entire series leave a comment on THIS post between now and midnight of Jan. 24th, 2011 and a winner will be chosen randomly on Jan. 25th. Please make sure I can link back to your site to find your email contact info.

Good luck and please help spread the word!

Illustration Friday: Chicken

I had to be sure to participate in this week's Illustration Friday since the super-chick-tastic Jannie Ho, aka, 'Chickengirl' suggested this week's topic, 'chicken'!!! It didn't take long to discover that chicks and chickens are really fun to draw. I noticed my chickens tend to stay egg-shaped, and I couldn't resist outfitting some in turtlenecks and pants. That fella on the top right is an especially big Chickengirl fan.

As I've had picture book writing on the brain and have been busy reading tons of children's books and books about how to write books for kids, some of these guys jumped right into my stacks of books and helped themselves to their favorite stories. I've decided to take on the Kidlitart Picture Book Dummy Challenge. So far, I have 1 very very rough draft finished, and the beginnings of a second story. Since I'm not interested in writing just any picture book, but an amazing spectacular one, it is an extreme challenge to study all the aspects of a great book. All the writing stuff is a bit overwhelming, so it was quite refreshing to pick up my sketchbook again to draw these chicks.

In other news, I'm hosting an exciting giveaway! See details on how to enter in the next post.

Blueberry Muffins for They Draw & Cook

My blueberry muffin recipe has been posted on They Draw & Cook! Or, I should say, my mom's recipe which was clipped from the newspaper years ago. My mom often makes these after we go blueberry picking.They're not your ordinary blueberry muffins. The batter is super dry and crumbly so when they bake the bottom turns cake-like while the top turns into a type of streusel. I attempted to make these over the summer, but messed them up by trying to use Splenda. You really need to go with the real sugar in order for them to turn out as perfect as my mom's muffins. I mounted this illustration on a wood painted plaque as a christmas present for my mom, as she is a cat lover and these blueberry kitties are a tribute to her.

I sort of lucked out in the parents department. (In actually more ways than fit in this blog post.) My mom taught me the skills of following a recipe, and I have my dad's love for experimenting in coming up with my own recipes, like my They Draw & Cook holiday entry, Cinnamon Mango Frappé.

Many thanks again to Nate & Salli for creating and continuing to maintain a great site for us creatives to be inspired. Go check out all the wonderful illustrated recipes posted daily!

IF: Mail, Merry Christmas! & 5 year blogoversary!

happy winter solstice! 

I wanted to get my christmas card printed and in the mail this year, but since I just finished coloring it last night it became an e-card. (I have to admit I like not worrying about my cards being held up at the printer, or lost in the holiday snail mail.)

I want to thank everyone for your wonderful support. 5 years ago on Christmas Eve I decided to start up this here blog to begin sharing my creative endeavors. I never could have imagined all the wonderful connections I would make, and this year I was especially lucky to be able to meet even more bloggers out in the real world. Looking back, this has been an incredible journey, and it feels like it's still just beginning.

edit: Oops! I almost forgot I wanted to share my color palette choosing method this time. I had these colors picked out a while back, and in order to stay true to it I scanned them in. I had to alter a bit from the scan, but it was a good stepping off point.

Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled holiday wishes~~~

I wish everyone a Christmas filled with merriment and a prosperous and creative 2011!

For a little creative inspiration, watch this amazing 2D animation.

I noticed this reflection in one of my tiny ornaments the other day:

Don't forget to take time to appreciate the little things

See you in 2011!

Illustration Friday: Phenomenon

Finding a cottage made of sweets and candy in the middle of the forest was quite a delightful phenomenon for these lost children.

 I did this for Will Terry's Hansel and Gretel class assignment which he was kind enough to open up for anyone to play along. It was rather generous of him to offer critiques of each piece submitted. Check out all the entries on Will's wonderful blog . Thanks to Will for the inspiration!

The first thing that came to mind when I read that this week's topic was 'phenomenon' was an old Muppet Show song which I knew wasn't the exact word in the song, but had a similar sound. I was able to find it on that handy youtube, and found it's actually, 'Mahna Mahna', which is a catchy little tune that I remember a littler me bopping along to back in the day.

They Draw & Cook Holiday Recipe

Now, we see what secret recipe prompted the other reindeer to ask Rudolph to join in all their reindeer games!

They Draw and Cook is an amazing project put together by Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell where artists illustrate their favorite recipes. I had done a recipe earlier which hasn't posted yet on their site, and when I heard they were holding a holiday contest teamed Food Network I couldn't miss the fun of entering.

This Mango Frappé is something I invented a few weeks ago. I had enjoyed some pumpkin ice cream, and thought mango and cinnamon might make a nice orange-colored combo, and it quickly became one of my favorite treats. I usually just throw these kinds of things together, so it was good that I did an actual test with measuring cups and spoons since my first guestimates were way off.

I'm so excited to see that my recipe was just featured on the Food Network blog!

2010 OAL Thumb Box Exhibition

While everyone was eating turkey last weekend I was enjoying a 4 day painting marathon to complete the last 2 paintings for this year's OAL Thumb Box Show. Participating in last year's exhibition marked  a new painting technique for me as started painting with Atelier Interactive Acrylics on wood panels. I ended up loving the process, and I love working with the woodgrain.

Tonight, I found out my 'Piggie with his Kiddie Bank' already sold!

*Update: 'A Boy and His Duck' & ' Carrot Donut Thief' sold the day of the opening!

I'll be making these available in my print shoppe soon.

Annual Thumb Box Exhibition
Location: OAL Gallery & The OSU Arts Initiative
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 2, 6 - 9 p.m.
On view: December 2 - 29, 2010

Illustration Friday: Sneaky

 I was trying to ignore Illustration Friday this week, so I can fully focus on 3 other projects all due Nov. 30th, but when I saw the topic was 'sneaky' I looked over, and saw my squirrel apple thief sketch. I did this a few weeks ago while I was drawing my piggies in the orchard below. I had my Carrot Donut Thief painting sitting nearby & looked at my squirrel in my header & decided to do a mashup of squirrel boy in motion.

After posting the first autumn piggie piece here, and receiving some very helpful critiques, (thank you blog friends!) I made the adjustments to the pig in the foreground, so he's now sneaking a bite of apple. I'm eager to color these, but I won't be able to get back to them until December. So, next month it will still be fall for me.

Busy Bee Teacher illustrations

I'm now hard at work on 2 paintings, and my They Draw & Cook holiday entry, all due at the end of November here. In the meantime, I wanted to share the illustrations for this web design project for Natalie Rompella's online lesson planner, Busy Bee Teacher.

 Natalie, who I met through SCBWI was wonderful to work with, and her program will help so many busy teachers simplify their planning all from home.

 A subscription to the program makes a great useful gift for your child's teacher. It's great for a teacher who hates writing lesson plans, sub plans, or plans for an absent student.

Illustration Friday: Spent - Afterwards

Well, this is a very late post done specifically for Illustration Friday's topic, spent. I wanted to do a literal interpretation and not one of my typical stretch the topic deals. But, now I'm posting after the deadline and the new topic is afterwards, so here we are doing a new stretch.

I plan to color this, (or perhaps it should be just a line drawing), and add it too my promotional packet of piggies and such. I think I need to decrease the size of the piggie bank. Critiques are welcome.

Happy Halloween!

I found this mummyboy in my Moleskine sketchbook, and thought sharing him would be an excellent way to wrap up the Halloween season. Hope you've had some spooky fun!

This year I added 3 wonderful Halloween books to my picture book collection. I've been a J. Otto Seibold fan since years ago when he spoke at my college about his gorilla marketing techniques such as putting his promo stickers next to the octane ratings at the gas station. His Vunce Upon a Time is a clever story, and I have a lot to learn from his varying viewpoint page layout compostions.

Both The Halloween Kid by Rhode Montijo and Welcome to Monster Town by Ryan Heshka are 2010 releases, but they each have that classic retro vibe that I love. The Halloween Kid has quickly become one of my all-time favorites with it's limited color palette and fun character designs.

This is a touch of my autumn decor. Interestingly, the colors here are similar to my book purchases.

When the sun comes in and hits this gourd I painted last year the glitter reflects and creates these stars on my wall. For me happiness often is noticing the beauty in the little things.