The Holidays are Here!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! The holiday card is finally done and off to the printers. This year, I wanted to get away from "cute" -- I'm really starting to feel typecast. As I've always had a fascination with winged creatures, I decided an angel would be a good project. I'm very happy with how she came out!

Tricky Treats

I'm happy to announce that "Tricky Treats" is now on Widgetbox! Tricky Treats is a Halloween candy-themed "Bejeweled" game. I had so much fun making the art for it!

OMG Kittens!

The Field of Kittens has been on my list for quite some time. Ever since I created The Field of Puppies piece, my friend Angela has wanted a kittens version. So, guess what I created for her as a shower present? I featured her two kitties, Navy (the black one), and Toast (the orange marmie/white one). I think the kitten looking straight out at the viewer is the one that looks most like Toast. Here is my process, from sketch to finish.

The Finished Invitation

Here's the finished product! I printed the invites last week and I'm getting the last of them mailed tomorrow. I added a little sparkle to the umbrella ruffle and gifts with some glitter glue.

Shower Mouse is finished!

I finished the shower mouse invitation artwork this weekend and wanted to share. It's colored pencil, watercolor, and a few highlights with pastel pencils. Now all I have to do is print out the invitations!

Fruit-Filled Fun is now live!

I'm thrilled to announce that the Strawberry Shortcake game I worked on this spring is now live! Go check it out at the American Greetings kids' website, AGKidzone!

Illustration Friday: Foggy

Here is my contribution for this Illustration Friday's theme for "foggy."

"The Fog" was an early reader assignment for Hartcourt School Publishers. It gave me the chance to create some historical pieces, and work with a story with lots of atmosphere. The little boy in the story, Tom, becomes afraid while walking in the fog, so his mother retrieves a lamp from their house.

I would love to see how the finished product turned out. Unfortunately with larger publishers, you don't always get free samples.

Looks like a shower!

My college roomie is getting married this fall, and I'm organizing a bridal shower for her. I plan to design and make the invitations. Hopefully the pun is not lost on everyone, but this is what I envisioned for "bridal shower". Isn't the bride-to-be supposed to be "showered" with presents?

I did two rough sketches, and I think I'm going with the top one. I like the mouse holding out her paw like she's checking for rain.

I'll post the final design soon!

Noah's Ark Part II

This companion piece for the Noah’s Ark series will be the last children’s portfolio piece for a little while.

After much soul-searching, I’ve decided to take a break from building my children’s illustration portfolio. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always wanted to illustrate children’s books. Now that I am published, and have been working in this field for three years, I’m afraid I just don’t enjoy creating this type of artwork anymore. At least, that’s the way I feel right now.

I’m sure that’s bound to change, because picture books will always hold a special place in my heart. Right now, though, I need a change of pace. I have some ideas for art licensing which I’ll be developing this summer. There’s personal work that’s been on the backburner, and I really need to get back to writing, at least for myself.

Stay tuned for some new stuff!

New Job, New Toy

Last month I joined Left Brain Games, an internet game company started by an old colleague of mine. I've been helping out with the art production, adding a dash of cuteness here and there. I'm back on a Mac, which I'm a little out of practice on, but I do get to use a Cintiq! We have one of the first models, which doesn't swivel, but is still very cool.

For those of you not familiar with Wacom tablets, it's basically a monitor that you draw directly on with a stylus pen. When you've been working with a traditional tablet for a few years, it's definitely something you've got to wrap your head around.

Most of the artwork I've been doing is vector, so I haven't really played all that much with the airbrush and other pressure sensitive stuff for Photoshop. There is the new version of Painter on my Mac though... :)

Noah's Ark sets sail!

I'm finally finished with a new portfolio piece! This will be my image for this coming year's Picturebook. I've included the sketch so you can see some revisions -- mainly the dragonflies that didn't make it.

It was pretty much impossible to create the sky gradient around the doves and butterflies, so I lay them in last. I wasn't sure how the stylized water was going to work, but I like the way it turned out.

Belated Valentine's Greetings

Maybe I should add a little Lincoln beard to this guy, since it is more of a President's Day bear than a Valentine's Day bear. I sketched this and painted it "quick & dirty" in Photoshop to feature on my handmade valentines.

My next post will be my Noah's Ark design that I'm working on for self-promotion.

Favorite pieces from "The Moving Carnival"

Here are my three favorites pieces from "The Moving Carnival", my latest early reader from Picture Window Books. I was asked to do these in soft pastel, so I needed to work rather big. For those of you who are familiar with soft pastels, you know how challenging it is to create fine details in chunky pastels.

The first is a tiny little spot image, and the original is about 4 by 4 inches. So, you can imagine that the other two are pretty large -- roughly 24 by 15 inches.

This was a challenging project because of the subject matter. We follow along as Rosa and Luis spend the day at a traveling carnival. Lots of rides and crazy perspective!

Hope you enjoy!

New Year, New Book!

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm happy to announce that my second illustrated book, "The Moving Carnival," will be released very soon from Picture Window Books. When I submitted the cover art, I was really curious where the design team was going to put the title. They did a really great job -- especially picking up the oranges and yellows.

Next post - my favorite pieces from the book!