Penguin Parade

Hey there blog readers,

The crazy jobs are just about quieting down... juuuust about. As far as I can tell, there actually is a light at the end of the tunnel. Huzzah! Because I'm starting to find a handful of minutes between jobs, I'm finally, finally starting to get back to half-finished projects (and, I swear, the dear, patient folks in my critique groups... I'll have things for you soon!).

One of my recent projects, a silly sort of make-me-giggle-over-my-drawing-table painting features a few of my fave characters - a passel of penguins and one goofy, pink fellow.

As always I started with a whole bunch of sketches,

 that I composited into one ginormous sketch parade. (Click to get a closer view.)

And finally, with a bunch of stolen minutes over a handful of weeks, paint! 

 

Panthers and Flamingos

I know it's been forever. The summer has been zipping by with a speed and ferocity only matched by my cat (who thinks he's a panther, but in fact much more closely resembles the Cowardly Lion).

Yes, this cat...

It has been eons since my last update. Eons. Yes, you heard me, eons. Since graduation, I've been interning at Penguin in an imprint of their Young Readers division. It has been an incredible learning experience; my projects have ranged from design based (book based merchandise for Christmas, end-paper design, picture book layouts, scanning and placing artwork) to daily support of the art department (archiving old work, mucking my way through the slush pile, packing up artwork (this is MUCH cooler than it sounds... the other day I got to - very carefully - handle original artwork by Dave Catrow, Sophie Blackall, Patricia Polacco, Tomie dePaola... I mean, Tomie dePaola!!!!)). Not to mention, the people I work with are fantastic - the art director is brilliant, the two designers are incredible at what they do, and the assistant to the department is always super helpful and is an artist/designer in her own right.

That being said, with the full-time gig and summer rolling in full tilt, there has been little time for much else... like updating the blog. That being said, I haven't stopped working on artsy things. So here's a little something for all of you fab blog readers out there.

I made a "Get Well Soon" card for a dear friend/mentor who just had knee surgery.