Happiness is...

Hey there blog readers,

I know it's been ages since I posted new work. It's been a busy fall... and winter. Right, it's December. Yeep! When did that happen?

I say busy, but I also mean excellent. Life has been completely and totally swell of late. After the wedding (currently working on a post about that...), there was a trip to New Orleans for illustrator fun times, the holiday mishmash that was Thanksgivukkah (I'm sad I won't get to use this word again for several decades), prepping for and moderating the SCBWI illustrator panel last week, jobs (right, work), family whatnot, holiday things, and a whoooole lot of drawing and painting (including two new dummies!). Yep, all in all, it has been pretty grand.

Since things have been so happy and excellent of late, I wanted to share a little piece that makes me grin like a fool from dummy #1. For those of you who are illustrators, if you're like me, you mimic the faces of your characters as you draw them. Frequently when working I take photobooth pictures and keep a mirror handy, not just to check out my ridiculous mug, but to really nail the emotion of the character. Making this piece was an incredibly fun and joyful experience. I couldn't help smiling.

Happiness is...

California Bound

And I'm off... wish me luck, folks.

See you in a few weeks, NY. LA, here I come!

Doubt and Inspiration

Hey there blog readers,

I had a bit of inspiration tonight. After a long day, during which I went through approximately a ream of paper making completely unusable sketches--yes, unusable--I finally had a breakthrough on a story I've been working on. The manuscript clicked and the sketches started to make sense.

It felt a little like this:

And then, after a day of not getting things done and a long evening of productive work, I took a break to scan facebook (grooooan, I know) and listened to this:

 

It really struck a chord. 

It's Ira Glass (of This American Life fame, and if you've never heard of Ira or This American Life, stop right now and get thee to the website, browse the vault, and subscribe to the free podcast in the iTunes store this instant... I promise you won't regret it)... ahem, Ira Glass talking about people who tell stories and who do creative things. It really struck a chord. We all experience doubt about our choices, our careers, and the things we make, and in the  process of learning, we all make things that fall short and disappoint us. But, as Ira says so well, the best thing to do is to keep working, to keep at it, and to fight through it.

It feels good to look back at the day knowing that though the first stack of sketches wasn't what I had hoped for, I couldn't have produced tonight's drawings without all of that work. 

New work for April

Hey blog-readers,

Happy Spring! NY is finally starting to warm up... it's still a touch chilly, but there's an undercurrent of Spring in the air. Apologies for the slow updates. Between design work, freelance gigs, wedding planning (gasp!), and maintaining some semblance of life outside the studio, the days are just packed.

Rather than bore you with  my crazy days, how about some new work, eh?

I've been having so much fun with the character I developed for the $5 Promo, she's shown up all over the place, including in a new painting. I imagined Rosie careening all around her house; she's not much of a sit-still kind of kid. In any case, I had such a good time making this impromptu piece that I decided to use it for my Spring promotional card.

Until next time!

Process

Hey there blog readers,

I was invited to do a process post over at the KidLit Artists blog and thought I'd also share it here and show you more of the painted progression.

I think best with a pencil in hand, and my process begins with doodling. I actually get to know my characters through the sketching itself. Eventually I get hooked on an idea or image, and I draw it over and over again. In this series, what started as a single character became three, penguins eventually turned into puffins, and a narrative began to emerge.

Once I've found an image that I like, I do an extremely loose transfer on a light box. And by loose, I do mean only a handful of lines.

 I then redraw the sketch entirely, fleshing it out and adding details.

Next, I do a quick value study and an even quicker color study, filling the large areas in photoshop. I've recently added this step to my process and have found it extremely helpful; it ultimately makes the painting much easier.

At this point, if it's a piece that requires large washes, I stretch my paper and staple it to a waterproof board. For a small spot illustration like this one, I just tape it to a small cutting mat. I use Holbein Acryla Gouache and these lovely little brushes from Princeton Artist Brush Co. 

And then I paint, usually starting with skin tones,

slowly moving on to small details,

and then to larger areas,

 continually adding detail...

Until I've finished.

$5 Promo!

Hey there blog readers,

I have an amazingly fun project to share with you.

Last fall when I went out to California for Lost Weekend with the other KidLit Artists, our mentor David Diaz, gave us a wee homework assignment. Create a limited run promotional piece--beyond a simple postcard--for $5 or less. The piece should showcase your work in a unique way and get art directors and editors interested.

I thought for a while. I wanted to make something fun, but I was worried that my ideas didn't really showcase my portfolio. Finally, I gave up trying to showcase my entire body of work and decided to create something that would highlight a few of the things that I'm good at-- like lively characters, lots of fun details, and even a short narrative--and would later entice folks to check out more of my work on my website.

Speaking of website, I'm also in the process of planning a major website overhaul. Let's be honest... it's long overdue. Sooo, I decided to tie my promo into rebuilding the website. When I first started planning this website overhaul, I wanted to create a new character... a sort of avatar, if you will. Leafing back through an old sketchbook, I found this:

The penguins became puffins, and I began to figure out who this little girl was.

When it came time to settle on a format for the promo, I finally decided on a "paper-doll" magnet with a limited edition mini-sketchbook. I started by creating a wardrobe for my little pilot--let's call her Rosie.

I printed Rosie, her little puffin buddy, and her wardrobe out on paper, pasted it onto adhesive magnetic sheets, and then cut them out with a scissor and an x-acto knife.

I'm also a sucker for tiny, miniature things, and I wanted Rosie to come in a neat little package. The prototype for the promo is actually an old Altoid tin that I painted, but I found a supplier online that sells tiny white metal tins for less than a dollar a piece. Later I'll paint and decorate the boxes with enamel.

When you open the tin, the little girl and her puffin friend sit neatly on the left side, and on the right is the Limited Edition Sketchbook.

After removing the sketchbook, you see all of her little magnetic clothing.

And then the fun begins...

Seriously, I could do this for hours...

Her dress even has tiny little airplanes on it. (I want one!)

The Limited Edition Sketchbook has all of the prep sketches that I did for the website and Rosie's cardboard box airplane.

Ta da! Such a fun project.

I'll be printing a small, limited edition run of 100 to be sent out when I relaunch my website, this Spring.

(If you want to see more of the projects, check out our tumblr page: http://5dollarpromo.tumblr.com/)