moving day

Hi guys, you've probably noticed that I haven't been around much. I post pictures of my daily illustrator life on Instagram, and I will keep you posted of bigger projects and exciting developments over on my new tumblr sketchblog. Come and visit!

bon voyage

Hello little blog, how've you been? I just wanted to pop in and tell you I've packed up my things and will be traveling for a while. I'm still drawing and exploring, but very excited to be on the move again. If you want to see glimpses of my adventures, look me up on Instagram.

 

reindeer

Hi guys, I know I haven't been around much, I hope you're all doing well!

 I wanted to pop in and show you some pictures of this year's Christmas parade. 

This is the fourth time we participated and I think it may have been the most fun for the people involved. The idea was to build a herd of reindeer to walk (and sing and dance - however the mood strikes) in the parade. 

We came up with a template and a patient friend cut out a whole bunch of them from recycled cardboard. Most of the the decorations came from thrift shops, although there was also paint and duct tape involved. We had a fun time and won the city prize for "most creative entry, so we were doing something right! And then there was pizza, of course.

reindeer cards

I've been practicing my printmaking skills, and although I'm playing around with screenprints, a linocut still works best for me. Here is what my holiday card looks like this year:

I'm bringing a few to the local art sale at The Arts Center, so here is a little herd all packed up and waiting to go.

fancy mail

Today's package is a bit intimidating, and not only because of it's size.

Voila: my page in this year's Directory of Illustration!!!!!!!

TaDa!

I submitted this last spring, and while there are things I would do differently today, (you know how it is) I'm pretty proud of it. It's a nice big book, I wonder where all the other copies are heading out to today...

Here is what the page looks like laid flat:

sweetness

I received a package in the mail this week, and now I can finally show you a sweet assignment that dropped in my lap this summer. If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen the whole thing in excruciating detail, but it always takes me a bit longer to come over here. Well, here goes:

Here I am on the table of contents, mine is the seal juggling Oreo truffles - of course.

 I got to do a feature for allrecipe magazine, and although I'm playing it cool, it was pretty exciting.

For this holiday candy recipe layout, the Art Director chose to photograph the confections in a watercolor Candyland landscape. The candies would become part of the picture, and turn into something else. I got to invent a storyline, paint the scenes and come up with ways to "disguise" the candy, which was a lot of fun.

 

These are a few of my favorites.

Happy Halloween

I guess this is officially the end of "#inktober" - sniff

Lola

This is the time of year where things get  little stretched and a bit schizophrenic as the different categories of making collide. I'll just check in for some show and tell.

This birdie is going into the Holiday Sale, I'm kind of attached to her...

ink

since it's still October, I'm going to stick to the black and white theme and show you a few more of my "inktober" drawings. I'm enjoying the ink wash and line practice, straight without any pencils first. Find more of these over on Instagram, if you like.

pigeons and doves

raccoons

I'm also doing a lot of sketching for assignments in progress. I think the November challenge will have to be about drawing people, possibly an emphasis on grownups...

In other news; I'm preparing to put a few things in the local holiday sale, working on family Halloween projects, and continuing my personal quest for computer skills (yay Skillshare)

starred review

Happy Monday all! I'm going to  start the week with a couple of black and white Illustrations from my upcoming (first!) chapter book Audrey (Cow)

We're celebrating a starred review in Publishers weekly, hurray!

inky

I'm working on a couple of things these days, but warming up in my sketchbook has become a good habit. I have a 30 min painting a day booklet, and a different one where I've been experimenting with wash and line for "Inktober".

Here are a couple of my favorites. If you want to see more daily sketches, you can follow me on Instagram

Have a nice weekend friends, I'm off to clean up my studio and frost a cake, my parents are coming to town!

getting busy

My new business cards have arrived, I'm so excited! Take a look at these babies:

Did I really need to order 500(!) ? Um, no.

But they look great, and I'm sure I will use them. You may notice that I did not include a phone #. My other exciting news is that my family is getting ready to spend six months in France, so I need to be as portable (and mysterious) as possible.

I haven't really had anything printed before, so these are part of an experiment with different services. I will order postcards (and maybe bookmarks?) from a different service to compare. Do you have a favorite printing place to work with?

sneeze

Welcome fall! I'm enjoying the cooler weather, but it's making me sneeze. 20 times in a row yesterday - my record

Have a nice weekend!

in the mail...

Today's mail brought the current issue of Ladybug magazine, with two of my illustrations. It looks nice and was a lot of fun to do. I'm also happy to be in such good company, the other art looks great!

Here's a peek:

who doesn't want to dress up like their pet ? Do you know what you'll be for Halloween this year?

all thumbs...

is how I feel when I'm playing around with my computer, but now the elephant's on a shirt...

Magic, sigh.

 

playing around

 I'm having fun playing with watercolor and collage on the side. Here's my favorite so far:

 I like the combination of loose watercolor, playful pencils and precise papercutting, so I think I'm going to keep working on this idea some more.

By the way, this is the last day to vote on the GTS round two designs (see earlier post). If you haven't voted yet, check out the gallery here.

The elephant is out of the bag...

The gallery for round two of the "Global Talent Search" (GTS for short) is up over on the Lilla Rogers Studio blog, and it's amazing! The assignment was to create an animal character "with personality" for a kids t-shirt.

This little guy is my submission. I've never been to India, but I love color and pattern and animals, and these painted elephants have caught my eye for a while. My kids have always loved to dress up and paint their faces, so I thought that a young elephant might also have fun decorating himself.

To vote for your favorites and check out the rest of the gallery head over here, you'll find some fabulous characters. Have fun, and happy Monday!

over the moon...

and down to work. 

AUDREY (COW)

I'm getting serious here, but I wanted to give you a link to all the other terrariums, go check it out here, you'll find some amazing work.

OMG

Hi Friends.

So I entered this contest, and I had a good time and I MADE IT INTO THE NEXT ROUND!!!!! (sorry, I was really not expecting to get anywhere with this, so I'm all caps this morning)

The theme was "tiny terrariums", here's my piece:

watercolor, gouache, collage

Head over to the gallery for a look at the other 998 amazing entries. I'm going to go walk the dog and think about my assignment for round 2. (eek)

Have a nice day!

words

It seems like a good time to practice my handlettering.  It's an ongoing project, but here's a peek at one design I made in full color.

 

 

Maybe a bit of a goodbye to summer.