Worried…

Sketchin’

More sketches.

Friday night sketchin’.

Last week there was an event organized by the Society of Children’s Writer’s and Illustrators (SCBWI) to visit the offices of Chronicle Books in San Francisco. I’ve always wanted to visit Chronicle Books so I jumped at the opportunity to see the office and talk with the people whose products I admired. If you’re not familiar with the books that are produced by Chronicle, you’re missing out. The books they make are always quirky, beautiful, and have a sense of style. I attended the event with three of my Bay Area illustrator buddies: Joy Steuerwald, Laura Zarrin, and Casey Girard. When we arrived at the location, we were all so happy with how gorgeous the area was. It’s located right by AT&T Park, home of the SF Giants (go, Giants!) and you can see the Bay Bridge near by. 

I was too busy chatting with people to take pictures of the interior but it’s just as design-y modern and stylish as their books. This meet and greet event was very well attended. It was so nice to see all of the local children’s writers and illustrators gathered in one place. My only disappointment with the event was the bookshop in the building was closed. That might have been a good thing… There were too many books I wanted to buy there. As much as I enjoyed the event itself, I think what I had the most fun doing was chatting with the ladies on the car drive to and from San Francisco.

Laura, Joy, me, and Casey (Photo by Laura Zarrin)

Today’s sketches. #wp

Some character sketches for today. #wp

Practicing while watching tv.

Practicing while watching tv.

Hello, hello!

Whew, the month of January has just flown by. I blinked and it’s the end of the month already.

Some of my new year’s resolutions has been to 1) become a early riser so I can do more work in the morning and 2) to draw in my sketchbook more.

I haven’t done well at all with my first resolution. I’m a night-owl. It’s so frustrating that no matter how hard I try all of my best drawings happen after 9pm.

But I’ve been doing well on my second goal. Here are some recent sketches.

And even a watercolor sketch process!:

And here is me being silly with my son’s broken GI Joe action figure:

Other than this, I’ve been busy with various magazine illustration, logo, and web design jobs. This year is starting with a bang!

I hope everyone has had a great start of the year too.

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Every year, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators holds a contest for illustrators. Here is what we had to illustrate for this year’s contest:

Text from Chicken Licken:

So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey

“Good morning, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Henny Penny, and Chicken Licken,” said Turkey Lurkey, “where are you going?”
“Oh, Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the King!”
“How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Turkey Lurkey.
“Ducky Daddles told me,” said Goosey Loosey.
“Cocky Locky told me,” said Ducky Daddles.
“Henny Penny told me,” said Cocky Locky.
“Chicken Licken told me,” said Henny Penny
“I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears,
and a piece of it fell on my tail!” said Chicken Licken.
“Then I will go with you,” said Turkey Lurkey, “and we will tell the King!”

I had tons of fun illustrating this story! I’m crossing my fingers that the judges at SCBWI like it too

Good luck to everyone entering this contest too!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a sketch. So here’s a new one.

Here’s my warm up doodle painting for the day.

Here’s a little photo I took of the painting when it was still in the underpainting process. Most of the work for the painting gets done here. For some reason it’s easier for me to see issues with composition and lighting once things get blocked out in this stage. It’s not the most efficient ways to approach things but it works for me.

It’s been busy here lately. I’m trying to remember to take the time to do fun warm up sketches so I can loosen up.

Last Saturday I attended the 5th Annual SCBWI SF South Illustrator’s Day. It was an amazing day and I came out of it with renewed energy to trudge forth with my career and improve my craft.

First off, the day was great from the start because I got to carpool with fellow Bay Area illustrators, Joy Steuerwald and Laura Zarrin. Once at the conference, it was such a treat to meet up with Twitter buddies, Shirley Ng-Benitez and Juana Martinez-Neal who flew in from Arizona!

What made this Illustrator’s Day a success for me even before it started was we had an illustration assignment. The first 15 people who signed up for this optional assignment  had the opportunity to have their initial sketches reviewed by Joann Hill, art director at Disney-Hyperion Books. She then critiqued the final paintings during the conference.

The assignment was to illustrate 1 spread and 2 pages from The Gingerbread Boy.

Here are my initial sketches that I sent to Joann:

And here are the final paintings with changes based on the feedback that Joann Hill sent to me. This was a really fun assignment and I’m glad I was able to participate!

I guess I’m in the mood for funny monsters. Here are some sketches.

This illustration started out as a cute sketch of a dad reading a bedtime story to his kids on a summer night. Then I thought it would be funny if it was a monster story. Then I thought it would be funnier if a real monster got scared by the monster story. I know, my brain works in weird ways when I work at night

This week’s topic at Illustration Friday is “Swept”.  The first thing that came to my mind was a witch and her cat being swept away on her broom.

I was in a creative rut the other day so I decided to clean out my workspace a little. I came across an old sketchbook that I haven’t looked at in years. After flipping through it I found a lot of nice drawings. Why did I never use any of these drawings before??? I must have thought they were all crummy and just forgot about it.

But this reminded me that I should definitely draw in my sketchbook more rather than on random pieces of paper or in the computer. It’s kind of nice to have all of my drawings in one place waiting for me to flip through again years later.

Well, I decided to play with one of the old sketches and this is how it turned out.

Original sketch:

And here’s what I ended up with. I decided to change the boy into a girl because I’ve been drawing a lot of boys lately

Here’s my new submission for this week’s Illustration Friday topic!

Happy Year of the Rabbit!, originally uploaded by Tracy Bishop Illustration.

Yay! I’m so happy that the holidays are over. Back to work and have a happy 2011!