Wedding Whatnots - Flowers!

Halloo folks,

After the glorious May weekend we had here in NY, this post seems entirely appropriate. I promised flowers in my last update, so flowers you shall have.

All of the flowers at my wedding were made out of paper - patterned paper, solid colored drawing paper, and old book pages. For months before the wedding, I spent weekends, afternoons, and evenings folding, curling, and pasting paper. A small army of friends came by on various occasions to drink tea and/or wine, to help fold and paste, and to keep me company.

We had our wedding at the Eric Carle Museum, and I thought it would be fun to incorporate actual books into the table centerpieces. I wanted the paper flowers to bloom from the center of each book. (Our amazing photographer, Seth Kaye, captured some beautiful shots of them.)

A dear friend and crazy-talented paper artist (and co-founder of Hygge Minneapolis) also created amazing paper cuts based on some of our favorite picture books, books, and comics as table labels.

Beyond the centerpieces, there were boutonnières

And bouquets

For the whole wedding party.

Over the winter, when it was still rather gray out, I put all of the centerpiece flowers together and went a little wild photographing all of them. Enjoy!

For additional photos from the wedding, check out Seth's blog post.

And once again, many many thanks to EF, MF, LJ, JL, EM, MM, LN, SP, AS, JS, and CW for hours of flower construction, wine consumption, and excellent company.

Wedding Whatnots - Invitations!

Halloo folks,

Seeing as tomorrow marks my six monthiversary, I figured it was time for a long overdue wedding post.

Those of you who've been reading the blog for a while know that I got married last October. There were a few sneaky peeks of some of the bits of illustration and art I did before (and for) the wedding, but today you get to see how all of it came together. (Well, almost all of it... stay tuned for a post positively blooming with paper flowers.)

Wedding invitation suite!

We're not very serious people, so our invitations had to be silly and entirely fun.

It was an entirely DIY endeavor. Ez and I printed, assembled, taped, stamped, and hand embossed each piece.

You have a wee sneak peak of some of the flowers here and only one of the wee mini-pins we made. Our amazing photographer, Seth Kaye, did a fun photo featuring the rest of them, though:

The whole project was so much fun. Because we were getting married at the Eric Carle museum, I hid a few little sneaky (kids-book-nerdy) details throughout.

And the Save the Date postcards. I designed these well before I started work on the invitations. I used them as a guide to inform the entire invitation suite. 

And programs. We had A LOT of people to thank.

Hope you had as much fun looking as I did making them. And stay tuned. Next up, paper flowers!

My Little Mouse

Hey there blog-folks,

I took a brief break from penguins today to finish up a commission for a friend.

Don't get me wrong, penguins are the BEST, but it was nice to mix a different palette than the one I've gotten used to seeing. When you paint penguins for days on end, a significant portion of the palette ends up black. (I will say that I do mix my own black paint, rather than using it straight out of the tube.) But this is what I end up looking at:

But today... Pinks! Yellow! Lavender!

And a little mouse.

Break!

Hey teacher-friends,

Happy Spring break!

Far off Places

Hey there folks,

It's April! It's Spring!

Sort of...

The cold weather seems to be holding on, reluctant to make way for warmer days. I don't know about you, but I have been dreaming nonstop of warmer weather and far off places.

What's it to you?

Today's color warm-up might just have an attitude problem.

Ever Onwards

Hey there blog readers,

It's been about two weeks since the conference, and I am just starting to feel settled back into normal life. Two days of jury duty didn't exactly help, but, regardless, it does alway takes a bit of time for me to readjust and remember where I left off. Since then, I've resumed work on my picture book project and have started fleshing out a few new ideas (that came out of the conference) for books.

As I've said in past posts, the conferences themselves can be both inspiring and overwhelming. When I finally board the train back to Brooklyn, I leave the conference center with my head spinning. It takes some time to filter all of the advice, the comments, and the new ideas and integrate them into my work. However, the SCBWI conferences consistently leave me wanting to keep working and striving towards making even better books and illustrations.

I showed this new piece in my portfolio, and I thought I'd share it. Thought it's a nugget of an idea for a longer story, it feels appropriate and relevant to what I'm talking about. Because now—post-conference—I'm taking the comments from the professionals with whom I spoke and from my peers, and I'm forging ahead, trying to do the thing I love best in the world. Ever onwards, ever upwards.

SCBWI Winter Conference Recap

It's that time again.

It was conference season in NY. Illustrators and writers invaded the city, taking over cafes, prowling the libraries and museums for inspiration, and swarming the Hyatt at Grand Central for three days.

And what a three days it was.

The SCBWI NY conference this year featured a jaw-dropping faculty (as usual). And when it all started, Team Double Trouble (coined by the ever-fabulous Maple Lam, pictured left) was ready to go.

Friday's Illustrator Intensive began with an incredible conversation between Tomie dePaola and Art Director Cecilia Yung that likened picture books to theater and stage setting.

They were followed by presentations on character design and setting by Brett Helquist (pictured left) and Paul Zelinsky (right).

Later, we reconvened in smaller groups for critiques. Check out the amazing faculty at the front of the room.

Highlights of the main portion of the conference on Saturday and Sunday were two mind-blowing keynotes by Jack Gantos (pictured left) and Kate Messner (right). Jack had the 1,000+ attendees in stitches, and Kate's thoughtful and heartfelt talk on failure was hands-down one of the best keynote speeches I have ever heard. Ever.

I went to two stellar breakout sessions. The first with Art Director, Lily Malcolm and the second with Jane Yolen.

Lin Oliver and Steve Mooser kept us laughing and moving.

And a panel on the art of the picture book gathered some of the most talented illustrators in the industry on one stage. (The panel, pictured below from left to right: Arthur Levine, Shadra Strickland (fellow SVA grad!), Oliver Jeffers, Marla Frazee, Raúl Colón, and Peter Brown.)

The conference itself was an amazing few weekend of inspiration and a great creative kickstart. But for me, the best thing about these conferences is my community. It's one of two times a year that I get to see my peers and friends in the field.

So in addition to all of the learning and listening and absorbing that happened, there was a whole lot of goofing off, sight seeing, talking shop over meals, and having fun. 

Old friends and new: Maple, Katie Kath, yours truly, and Brooke Boynton-Hughes. Both Katie and Booke took runners up in the conference's portfolio show. If you're not familiar with their work, head over to their websites. All three of these lovely ladies have books forthcoming.
 

Celebratory drinks and fun times with the Mentees.

Maple, Brooke, and I took a trip to the Natural History Museum. Yes, we are ridiculous.

And at dinner in Chinatown, there were table-wide pano-selfies, courtesy of the Bagleys. (Check out their work! Jessixa and Aaron Bagley are both crazy talented, and Jessixa's first book comes out next year.)

And reactions to the pano-selfies:

And finally, Maple and I did a school visit at Pat Cummings' picture book class at Pratt.

As you might imagine, it has taken the better part of a week to catch up on both sleep and work. But I do have loads of new drawings to share with you and a sketchbook chockfull of new ideas to explore. 

So, cheers to SCBWI for another fabulous weekend, and kudos to all of the talented folks who showed their work. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm already looking forward to Summer '14 in LA.