Grandpa Guido

My Grandpa Guido left a wonderful gift before he passed away in April. An illustrator's dream really:

No one was aware that he took these pictures! We laughed and laughed when we found them. And now I feel like laughing and crying.... but I am in a coffee shop, so I won't.

At the SCBWI conference, Little, Brown's Senior Art Director, Patti Ann told us that when Jerry Pinkney was illustrating the Loin and the Mouse, that he would make faces in the mirror to use as a reference for the lion's expressions.

Can you see it? I wish I could find a picture of Mr. Pinkney making this face!

Thank you Grandpa, now I will always have facial expressions for all my lions, Santa Clause's, and any kind hearted old man : )

SCBWI Illustrator's Intensive

I thoroughly enjoyed my 2nd SCBWI Conference last April! I especially loved participating in the Illustrator's Intensive led by Patti Ann Harris from Little Brown, books for young readers. It was a honor to meet with a Senior Art director who has worked on books with illustrators like Jerry Pinkney!

I chose to illustrate this text from the book, If all of the Animals came Inside:
"When all of the Animals wanted to play, they'd grab all my toys, they'd take them away. Wibble, Scribble! Wipe, Swipe! Upstairs and downstairs and out in the hall, the chipmunks would draw with my paint on the wall."

This was my first quick sketch that I submitted to Patti Ann. I received the email late, so I jotted a quick sketch on paper. I knew that I wanted a kangaroo and badger running down the hall with all the toys, and I knew that I wanted the chipmunks standing on books, painting some of the text on the wall.

Patti Ann advised that the text was too overpowering and that the animals were squished into the corners. Yes, I totally agreed! She suggested that I make the animals larger and bring the kangaroo's head up into the top corner.

In revising my work I chose to make the kangaroo and badger occupy the whole left page and incorporated less of the text. I changed the "wibble scribble" into soft cursive to make it less abrasive. I also moved the wall and stairs back and to an angle to create depth and dimension.

I think one of the greatest challenges illustrators face is working around the "gutter" which is the crease where the book opens, and leaving room for text. I took these things into consideration as I put my final drawing on watercolor paper.

After I masked off "wibble scribble" I realized that my wall color could make or break the piece. That was when I learned about a "comp sketch" or as I like to call it, a "color sketch." This color sketch gave me confidence as I painted the wall a light blue grey.

After scanning in both pieces, I realized that I could have gone darker with the wall color. I think painting by dim lamp light was to blame. Here is my final art. I added the text and crease to make it look like a real book spread.

I loved working on this and imagine that working on a real book some day would be a blast! I love the deadlines and feedback! My friend Candace also participated in the intensive. You can she her amazing work here.

Catch the Wild Foxes

 I had the privilege of entering and winning a place in the West Elm wall art competition, hosted by minted.com You can see the winner's page here. Great art was submitted and I am sure it was a very difficult to select winners. I am grateful for my tech savvy friends who helped me enter : ) Look for this print coming soon to westelm.com

Australia

Here is Australia!
I recently learned what a color comp is. I think "comp" stands for "composition." But I prefer to call it a "color sketch" because that is exactly what it is! Color sketching was a useful tool for this illustration, and I am looking forward to making it a regular practice.
I made these 2 color sketches to determine the color of the sky. I originally wanted to paint a pink sky, but the color sketch revealed that the pink sky would wash out the colors. The color sketch with the blue sky gave a wonderful contrast with her red hair and added depth to the composition.

I also learned that Koalas have two thumbs! Maybe you just did too : )

Children of the World: Asia

I am working on a series of portraits for a children's curriculum. The series includes 6 children representing 6 different continents. There are several challenges that come with this assignment: Drawing children and creating the right skin tone for each nationality. All new to me!
Each child will be participating in an activity that children can relate to. "Asia" is flying a kite!

Now I am beginning sketches for "Australia." I imagine her with wild hair, snuggling a koala.

Banana Slug Bash

This is what banana slugs and snails do after the sun goes down. Tonight they are celebrating a particular slug's birthday!

I painted this for my dear friend Piper Hobbs (inspired by her wild imagination) to celebrate her birthday, which was quite a while ago! Piper was the first "stranger" to buy my artwork when it was on display in Omaha. Since then she had sold many of my prints and paintings in her delightful shop, and continues to encourage me in my pursuits. We have become good friends and I always look forward to visiting her and her husband in Shenandoah. I always leave with my sails filled and new inspiration : )

Many of my painting have a hidden snail. I decided to make an appearance at the party in snail form. Piper, which slug would you like to be?

Here is the drawing and a picture of the process.

SCBWI poster

Here is my illustration in action. I really like how Dorothia flipped the owl on the right side! He looks great! Looking forward to celebrating my 30th birthday at the SCBWI conference this April : )

You can click on the image to make it bigger.