New business cards and postcards

 

Do these piggie cards make me look fat?

My new business cards arrived from Overnight Prints. I like this new colorful packaging they arrived in. They remind me of trading cards.

 Here is the front and backs of my new promo postcards. I was going to design them to be mailable, but I couldn't resist filling up the back with art. I also like the rounded corners, and I heard the rounded doesn't mail well. I'll be handing these out at the LA SCBWI Conference next week. I'm saving a few for promotional mailings after I find some nice envelopes.

HP Fangirl- Harry Potter Tribute Exhibition

Atelier acrylic on 8" x 8" birch wood board

Here's my submission to the Harry Potter Tribute Blog hosted by Gallery Nucleus, who has a spectacular show planned for July 09 - August 01, 2011. I was notified that my piece has been selected to be on the blog, and included in the exhibition! Check out the show flyer to see see all the amazing artists contributing works.....even new paintings from Mary Grandpré herself!

When I first started this traditional style of painting acrylics on birch wood panels, I listened to the Harry Potter audiobooks read by Jim Dale to accompany me through hours and hours of late night painting. It seemed fitting to honor the series with a tribute painting. I wanted to pay homage to the magic that every Harry Potter fan has felt through this series, with a little fangirl hugging her beloved Harry doll and Hedwig plush owl.

Final sketch, a quick color study in Photoshop, and the drawing on acrylic stained wood panel.

During the process I sand down some areas to reveal the woodgrain, and then spray it down with water to pop the grain back up again. It starts to feel more real for me as the paint sets farther into the wood, and the highlights are added.

I used a half inch birch board, and distressed the edges a bit.

*edit*

This piece sold at the show opening! 

Prints, Posters, and Canvas Prints are available in my shoppe.

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Indiana SCBWI Conference 2011

A few weeks ago I attended the Indiana SCBWI Conference. I was especially excited about this conference because of the Illustrator's Intensive with Clarion Books Senior Designer, Kerry Martin, where we had an assignment to complete before the conference. We were to complete 2-3 page spreads from Goldilocks & the 3 Bears. Text was only laid in for placement as we were told to concentrate on the illustrations.

Something clicked with me during this assignment. I feel like information from past conferences, picture book illustration books, helpful blogposts, etc. all started to make a bit more sense, and it was so fun to attempt to put it into practice. I've illustrated tons of Illustration Friday words, but to tackle an actual story was exactly what I needed to work on in order to focus on the storytelling. I enjoyed taking this story into my own world with the Goldilocks piggie, and somehow she ended up with a sidekick in my sketches. I had fun with the little details in Baby Bear's room, and I enjoyed pushing the expressions in the porridge scenes.

The night before the conference there was an Open Mic night where writers read a few minutes from their manuscript and received short, anonymous, written comments from the audience. Also, illustrators were allowed to display their portfolios for anonymous, written comments. It's helpful to read an envelope full of portfolio comments to see what pieces stood out, and which may not be working.

Saturday's sessions and breakouts were excellent!  Rebecca Kai Dotlich inspired us with how she became a full-time Poet and Children's Author, and emphasized how there are no excuses to not going after your dreams. She had many obstacles, and not the most ideal writing space, but she persevered.

If you ever have a chance to hear Lisa Yoskowitz and Mary Kole speak at a conference you must attend! Their energy filled the room! They both were very clear on what works and what doesn't during the First Looks session. The competition is intense out there, so bring your A game and be professional.

Many thanks to our excellent faculty for this conference.
Lisa Yoskowitz, Editor, Disney-Hyperion Books for Children
Mary Kole, Agent, Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Kerry Martin, Senior Designer, Clarion Books
Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Poet and Children’s Author

 

This was Kristi Valiant's first year organizing the conference and she did an absolutely amazing job! She put extra care into all the details, with our personalized schedules, yummy buffets, and a great overall event line-up. I can't wait until we get to meet up again in LA in just a couple months. Man, this year is really going fast!

Illustration Friday: Toy

Next month I'm excited to be attending the Indiana SCBWI conference. I'm now working on completing 2-3 page picture book page spreads for the Illustrator's Intensive with Kerry Martin. This tiny robot toy is a small part of one of my pages. He's only 1 inch tall in my final sketch. Since he worked for the IF topic, I threw some quick colors on him which may change after I figure out the rest of the page. Since I scanned in at 720dpi to enlarge him here I left my sketch lines more au natural instead of going through my usual Photoshop Photocopy step, which seemed too heavy for this little guy. I'm liking the softer sketch lines, and may try this for the full pages.

Dueling Banjo Pigs: Leprechaun Piggie

I was quite excited when The Sketchables asked me to be one of the guest bloggers filling in while Joy tends to her new little bundle of joy. I lucked out with getting the topic of pigs!

For Halloween, I had done a Vampire Banjo Pig, so March had me thinking shamrocks and leprechauns, and I began to wonder, just how does a leprechaun piggie earn all that gold?

For more great illustrations visit:
The Sketchables
Dueling Banjo Pigs

Illustration Friday: Chicken Layers Up

Here we see Spring Chicken layering up to face the return of winter. I started these pages when the IF word was 'sweater', and it helped inspire this part of the story. I haven't quite finished coloring and didn't star the shading & highlights yet, but wanted to get these up this week. Critiques are welcome as I'm still making adjustments.

See the previous Penguin vs. Chicken page here.

Illustration Friday: Reverse - Penguin Strikes Back

When last we saw our flightless rivals, Spring Chicken had decided he had had enough of Penguin's winter, and had successfully cleared away all of Penguin's white flakes.

Penguin was not about to give up so easily though, as you can see in this reverse play.

I've been working on picture book writing, but I thought these characters offered a nice opportunity to work on storytelling sequences through images. I've recently been more interested in comics and graphic novels, and wanted to try my hand at it, albeit be a wordless variety.

I don't think we can end this story with our chicken friend down. Penguin's days are numbered as Spring will triumph eventually. I've been feeling defeated by this year's harsh winter, but sunnier days will prevail. So, there may be another mini chapter in Penguin vs. Chicken.

Until then, you should check out the real deal comics over at The Illustrated Section, where the amazing Dani Jones has brought the works of numerous talented artists under one mega site!

Also, check out Abigail Halpin's brilliant new comic, A Thousand Cups of Coffee

and Jannie Ho's super fun Sketchbook Project comic.

The winner is....

I want to thank everyone who participated in the Will Terry 'How To Illustrate Children's Books' Giveaway!
And of course, big thanks to Will Terry for offering such a wonderful prize!

All the names went into the box......

and then there was a whole lot of shaking.
(Good thing I was wearing my wrist brace. ;P)

Our winner!!!
Congratulations Debbie Meyer!

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!