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New year, new promo postcard. Here's the back of the card, complete with all the important information that you'd need to ever get a hold of me:


Jennifer Laughran of Andrea Brown Literary Agency is my agent and she's been great. She's sitting by the phone, waiting for your call - er, well, she's sitting by her computer, waiting for your email. Yes, that's it. She's ready for anything.

The elephant is a character I've named Calico Elly. You might've seen her before. I've got a story idea for her I've been working on - a picture book idea that would involve Elly and some classmates. Looking forward to seeing where the story process takes me on that one.

Anyway, the front to the postcard is actually detail of a spread from San Francisco, Baby! - the Lombard Street one:


Fun!

Been very busy lately, working on two books at the same time (a third, even, for a short while!). There's so much I'd love to talk about and share with you, but because of papers signed and so forth, I have to keep my mouth shut until the proper moment. I promise it'll be worth the wait. The late nighters are getting to me, however. Gallons of coffee has been consumed, and I'm only halfway done. Oh, well! In the meantime, I've updated my postcards to pass out, thanks to my awesome agent, Jennifer Laughran. The front features one of my favorite illustrations, Speaking in Color. Here's the back (click on image to see a bit larger in Flickr):



Self promotion is always a tricky thing. A great deal of artists I know hate to do it, or are just too busy to figure out a decent way to do it themselves. I'll be talking about this particular subject, along with a bunch of other things having to do with freelancing, being an artist and illustrator, children's books and publishing, as well as making the transition from full-time to freelance on the blog soon. All of this will be discussed just as soon as I finish up these books and get a few nights of decent sleep. So, stay tuned!

By the way, if you have any questions in regards to what I've mentioned here, or if there's something you'd like to talk about on this blog, drop me a comment or email (see profile page or my website) and I'll bring it up in conversation. Until then, I'll just go ahead and head back down to the basement.

It's been a nice thing to say that I've been busy lately. Busy a LOT, actually. It's a good thing to be busy, yes. But I didn't plan on having several different things going on at the same time. Multiple deadlines and overlapping schedules are not my speciality. However, I've been able to manage it to a certain degree. It's just that I have to pull a few all-nighters or wake up at 4 in the morning in order to stay on top of things.

In the meantime, I'm happy to say that I've been asked to do a couple of interviews, which is always a good thing in and of itself. Shameless self-promotion, right? Never hurts. Plus, it helps when you dress up in a chicken suit.

Firstly, I was asked by Scrawl Brawl to be interviewed for their podcast Chat With a Brit. You can check out the (yes!) audio interview here: Chat With a Brit #8: Ward Jenkins. Amazing how modern technology is these days: three people conversing via Skype from two separate countries. Good guys, that Blazel (the Brit) and Victor. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for having me, guys!

Secondly, I was interviewed by the folks at Pinterest, the site where you "pin" images and things that you like, similar to an inspiration board. Not unlike a Tumblr, but not like it either, Pinterest sports great design and a clean overall look that's very appealing to me. Occasionally they'll interview some of their "pinners" on their blog, and they approached me right when I was deep in the muck of three projects going on at once. After hitting several deadlines, I finally answered their questions and now you can read the interview here: Interview with Ward Jenkins.

Actually, there'll be more. I know! How awesome is that! Seriously, I'll be interviewed by a few of my favorite blogs that I feel really encapsulate the midcentury vibe as well as the thrifting culture - definitely something that hits close to home for me. I'll be sure to let you guys know about these interviews when they're up as soon as possible.

Before I let you go, here's something I did for the Washington Post (it was one of those deadlines I had to hit last week). I had a lot of fun with this one! Always love the travel stuff. This one was about the resurgence of the travel agent:



Okay! Back into my dungeon and hit these deadlines as they're fast approaching. Will reconnect soon.

I've been working on updating the way I draw children. Here's a sketch I was finally able to finish last week.

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