This was a rough year for many of us, crazy election, many beloved famous people gone, and I think it is fair to say we are all ready to wave 2016 good-bye. For me, personally, this has been a pivotal year in terms of my illustration work. I am currently illustrating my third children's book in a row and have discovered that I love the entire process of both writing and illustrating children's books. The story telling aspect is so challenging and rich and exciting whether through words or art or both. Here is another sneaky peeky into my illustration process for Hidden City which I believe is going to be released Spring '17. I thought it would be appropriate to post this tiny wintry scene which is cropped from a much larger illustration. Here was my sketch idea and my color version.
My Christmas stamps this year.
Saw this photo on Instagram. So cute!! The pouf is sewn with my Jump into Fun hippo fabric. Love it!
Also found this diaper clutch on
Etsy
Check out my super star interview. Thanks Jane!
It's a good news day! My artwork for this past July cover for Cricket Magazine was chosen for their 2017 calendar! Woo hoo! #grateful
I received a "flood" of books this week. Flood Warning published by Harper Collins.
And here are a couple of peeks inside the book.
I mentioned recently that I had been wrapping up illustrations for a children's book which I have been working on most of this past year. This project has been a labor of love and one of my favorite projects to date. It is published by Eerdman's Books for Young Readers and the title is Hidden City. A release date is yet to be determined as the book is being finalized.
This is the first of a series of sneak peeks and posts about the process I used in illustrating this book leading up to it's release. Eerdman's is a dream publishing house to work with. At every turn they are so supportive to the illustrator's process and have come back with thoughtful and intelligent feedback. It has been a true creative collaboration. The book is a collection of image rich poems written by Sarah Tuttle about nature hidden in urban environments. To tell you this has been fun to illustrate would be an understatement!
Here are a couple of sketches and the progress to full color. I am just showing cropped illustrations, not the full page illustrations yet.
This first illustration is a poem about bats hunting moths at night under a streetlamp. Here are my pencil sketches that I scanned into my computer.
In the past I would not have described myself as a big sketcher. I would typically dive into the color illustrations and work things out intuitively as I proceed. With this book I sketched a lot and tried out different ideas, layouts, characters, etc. Once I had things worked out in pencil, I stuck fairly closely to my sketches for the color work. I wanted to focus on character, story, and atmosphere in each spread. I like to pose a question at the beginning of each book project that gets to the heart of what I am trying to say. For this book, I asked myself.... "Do you want to live in this illustration?" And of course, if the answer was not yes, it was back to the drawing board, literally.
I also spent a lot of time collecting...references, materials, papers, textures. I made a folder for each poem. I also kept a notebook with all of my ideas regarding colors, textures, and perspectives that would best illustrate the feelings that each poem evoked. I also tried to tap into our shared childlike curiosity,enthusiasm, and wonder when we are surrounded by natural beauty, especially in urban settings.
Another poem is about a mother raccoon teaching its young to hunt. This wound up being one of my favorite illustrations in the book, both to draw and also seeing how it turned out when I was done.
Here are a couple of little fellas in pencil and full color.
We wound up changing the scene from a city park to a back alley behind a restaurant. It worked out so much better than the original vision I had which I had strong feelings for. There is a lot to be said about letting go and staying open as I mentioned, it has become one of my favorite illustrations in the book. And it stretched me as an illustrator. I can't wait to show you the full spread!
Stay tuned for more posts about Hidden City as we get closer to a release date.
Love seeing my fabrics turned into a variety of products. Here is an inspiring page of photos with all kinds of sewing projects....
Jump Into Fun
Animal Party Too
Fly Away
Jungle Creatures
Jungle Creatures
Shannon Fabrics has a new line of fleece fabrics featuring my designs from several collections, Creatures and Critters 2, Jungle Creatures, and Jump into Spring.
Here are a couple of designs that were purchased by Blueberry Diapers - I am showing the original design and photos of the end product. Always fun to see. Some changes were made for the final product.
Here is another link for the article in Wine & Spirits Magazine.
Thank you so much to the team at Cricket for choosing my artwork for this month's Cricket Magazine cover. Here is a pic and also a peek inside with a kid reader friendly bio.
Here is a new product I designed for Demdaco - two cutting boards in one, shipping to stores soon.
Saw this cute pillowcase sewn with my Forest Fun fabric:
A sneaky peek at what I am working on at the moment. Juggling a few projects, a growth chart, a children's book, and some prehistoric animals including a dire wolf (ala #Game of Thrones). Lots of blue and gold textures.
Thank you Kathy Temean for featuring me on your Illustrator Saturday blog feature today. It was fun recapping my journey as a children's illustrator.
Here is an illustration from my recent book, "Flood Warning", published by Harper Collins.
I worked on a book recently for Harper Collins called Flood Warning. It is available on Amazon for pre-order. It is part of their Level 2 Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science title. According to Harper Collins these books " explore more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades and supports the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards".
Happy Early Easter! A bicycling Easter Bunny bag I illustrated for Papyrus.
It is a little late (or early) for Christmas but I just got these samples from Papyrus.
I recently licensed my artwork for these cutting boards by Demdaco.
Been busy working on illustrating two children's books, but managed to do these illustrations for Babybug Magazine, out now.
My holiday stamps this year -
