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... :)