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I've been having a lot of fun drawing animals lately. My favorite animal to illustrate is the giraffe. I love the long neck, the colors and the pattern. What a beautiful animal!

When I'm going to make an illustration I often start with a lot of quick sketches just get the feel for how the idea is going to work out and to figure out the composition. Last week I drew a ballerina. I made several quick pencil sketches to see different positions and dresses, and then I decided to go with one of them - and inked it so it would stand out from the rest of the sketches. I traced my sketch in Adobe illustrator and added some texture and shadows in Corel Painter to finish the illustration.

We have two Illustration for Kids members' work spotted in this month's HighFive magazine!

Check out Anette's gorgeous double spreads:
and here is mine (Jannie) a few pages after:

I found a lot of inspiration in January.

1. Working with a new medium. Starting to work digital made me want to create lots and lots of illustrations all day long.

2. The Gruffalo. I love the book, so I was excited to see the animated film. It turned out to be a great film! You can't miss this video where illustrator Axel Scheffler talks about his earliest Gruffalo sketches! Very inspiring.

3. Another film. I finally saw Mamma Mia! Beautiful location, great colors and lots of joy. It really made me look forward to springtime.

After talking to my art rep about what potential clients are looking for these days I decided that it's time to add some digital illustrations to my portfolio. Earlier I have worked with acrylic paints and ink and watercolors, mediums I both love. I have created digital illustrations too, mostly small spots to go with a logo or something like that. This time I want to create digital illustrations with a similar look to my traditional work. I experimented a bit last week, and this is what I came up with. It's a remake of an old ink and watercolor illustration, this time created with Adobe Illustrator and Corel Painter.

One of the things I love about the house we bought a year ago is that it has room for a studio! I love having my own room with plenty of space to spread my projects around. I still need storage for drawings and books, and I haven't had time to put anything up on the walls yet, but I enjoy going to work in this room. I can also see a bit of the ocean if I look outside. Lucky me!

I love making the design for my holiday cards each year! I like getting in the holiday mood sketching out different ideas, and then choosing my favorite. This year's snowman got to be the star of both my holiday cards and promo postcards. No wonder he's happy. I can't wait to send him and his big smile out in the world!

- I go for walks or run in my neighborhood. I feel so lucky to live near the ocean. It's beautiful around here.
- I read books (novels, chapter books for children, picture books).
- I watch tv (it makes me relax).
- For the last year (after we moved into our house) I've had a lot of small projects going on in the house and garden. I love decorating, and there's always something to do.
- Something I've also started doing after we moved in is baking. Chocolate cookies, yum!

My favorite place to go for inspiration is definitely the magic world of books. I've always loved all kind of books. I love reading novels, looking at picture books and flipping through design books. They all inspire me in different ways!

Last weekend, during my trip to London, I got inspired by a wonderful exhibition of Beatrix Potter's work at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I got to see all the original illustrations from the book "The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies." They also had several sketches from the book, including her original book dummy! Isn't that amazing?

This is my illustration for the fall mailer we just sent out. I love the colors of fall!

"A Smile in the Mind"
(by Beryl McAlhone)
is not a typical art reference book. I love books that combine design, illustration and ideas, and this is a book just like that. It's a collection of clever ideas that inspire me every time I look at it. I think it's a must have in the bookshelf of everybody working with or interested in creativity. It will definitely make you smile again and again!

This is a common question that's almost impossible to answer because it depends on so many things like:
- Style. Some illustrators work in a style that's pretty quick to finish while others spend a long time on painting details. This doesn't mean that an illustration who looks like it was done quickly actually was. Sometimes it can take longer to make a tiny illustration than a larger painting.
- Medium. I work with both ink and watercolors and acrylic paints - and even digital sometimes. For me it takes a lot longer to finish an illustration with acrylic paints than with ink and watercolors. (Others might be quicker with acrylics than with watercolors).
- Complexity. It takes a lot longer to paint an illustration with 8 kids than one with 2 kids. More details = more work = longer time.
- Size. It will always take longer to make a larger illustration than a small one if the illustrations have the same complexity.
- Sketches. Some illustrators like to spend a long time sketching out different ideas and planning the illustration in detail before they start working on the final, while others prefer to just make a quick sketch and go ahead.
- The illustrator. Some illustrators work fast, some work slow. It's very individual.

Here's a few examples of my work. These illustrations are about the same size and with the same complexity.
1. Ink and watercolors from the book "Kaptein Kråkes Hevn". I used about 5 hours on this.
2. Acrylic paints from "Highlights High Five Magazine". I used about 8-9 hours on this.
With ink and watercolors I can use lines to show where the legs in the pants meet or where the arm goes in the sweater, but with acrylics I have to paint subtle shadows for these kind of things, and that takes a lot of time.

I've been drawing a lot my whole life, so I just kept doing what I loved and turned it into my job. After finishing school I worked as an in house graphic designer / web designer for about 6 months. When I had to quit that job because I moved to another part of the country, I decided to start out as a freelancer. I started my business in 2001, so I've been working as a freelancer for 8 years. In the beginning I worked mostly on design projects, but I found myself gradually turning into an illustrator. I still work on design projects every now and then, but my main focus is my illustrations.

Here's an illustration I made for a math book published by Norwegian GAN Aschehoug last year.

The magical kind of sunshine - lots of lightning bugs!

Here's a tiny detail from one of the illustrations I made for the latest book I illustrated. All the artwork is finished and delivered, so now I'll just wait and see how the final book turns out. It was a fun project, perfect for my illustration style, so I'm very excited. I'll show you more once the book is published at the end of the year.

At the moment I'm painting final illustrations for a book I'm illustrating. Can't show you much at this time, but here's a sneak peak of one of the sketches. Looks happy, doesn't he?

If you know my work you have probably noticed that there's a bird in almost all of my illustrations. I used to draw a lot of characters with birds on their heads. I have no idea why these birds always pop up in my work, but I'm quite found of them.

I've just started making some animal sketches for a new book I'm going to illustrate. All I can tell you for now is that it involves a kitten and a puppy. This will be fun!

This is one of many illustrations I painted for a Norwegian book who teaches kindergarten kids maths through fun games.

Here's a little monkey I painted with acrylic paints last week. I haven't used my acrylics for a while so it was fun to sit down and work with them again - and I'm happy about how the colors in this illustration turned out.

We have received the "Kreativ Blogger Award" from our talented friend Roz. Thanks Roz!

Along with the award came a tag to name 7 things we love.
Here's my list:

* Colors. I've always been fascinated by colors, and whenever I meet a group of creative people I always wonder why most of them wear black.

* Picture books. Adults should definitely read more picture books. Not just for their kids, but to enjoy the stories and art for themselves too. There's so many amazing books out there.

* Chocolate. Yum!

* Animals. Can't go wrong with animals. They always put a smile on my face.

* The ocean. I love living in a place where I can go see and touch the ocean whenever I want to.

* The film "The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain". I love the use of colors in this film. I also love that it's about celebrating the small things in life.

* The cartoon "Rose is Rose". So cute, and another reminder of how important the small things in life can be.

This is the cover and one inside spread from the book "Be Quiet!" that I illustrated for the Korean publisher Happy House this summer. I really like how the whole book turned out.