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A Classroom scene from The Mixed-Up Alphabet by Steve Metzger and illustrated by me!

This is one of my favorite color palettes recently. I've been using these colors alot for my 21 Day Creative Challenge:

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
-Joseph Chilton Pearce

For this week's topic, flowers-Here is a piece I did for TIME Magazine for Kids.

Whenever I need some inspiration, one of the first places I go to is my bookshelf. Here is a sneak peek. There are always a mixture of art, design, and children's books to go through.
My manga collection is also growing, here are my two favorites: Banana Fish by Akimi Yoshida and Monster by Naoki Urasawa.

I also always make a quick loop around the children's section whenever I am at the bookstore. Does every children's illustrator do this?

Instead of talking about my process in illustrating, I thought I would talk more about the process of an illustration job. For this particular job, it was a map for a kindergarten book.

Sometimes clients send me quick sketches of what they want, and half the time it throws me off. Do they want it exactly like this or is there some room for me to make it my own? It also takes a bit of fun out for me, but other times it just makes the job go smoother. In this case, I get a quick sketch from the client and it works, because I now get an idea of how the layout of the map is like:
With additional info I get, I use my illustrating power to turn that into this:
I still do pencil sketches. I scan the sketch and place it into Illustrator, where I use to pen tool to draw on top of my sketch. And here is the final:
When there is text in the illustration, alot of times the type will need to be on a separate layer. Voila! Time for another job!

To see the process behind this illustration, check it out here. Happy Friday to all!

This week's topic, animals, gives me an opportunity to share some rather random illustrations I get to do. Here's one from a math workbook. (By the way, they are thinking, "We would rather have some euros!")

My holiday card design for this year- Have a great one, all!

Here is my piece for our Halloween mailer. I love how we get to use a different , darker palette than the usual bright colors for children's work. -Jannie

Hello SFG...its been a while since I've posted here! Hope you guys enjoy some fine pantry goods boxing. -Jannie

When thinking about creative blocks, I like to think of them as part of the creative process. Sometimes you just need to walk away and let whatever is stuck "marinade" a little in your head, I find it most of the time it works itself out.

I'd like to share some great resources though. I love books on creativity, and here are two that I love:

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
I got this book as a gift from a friend and it resonated with me very much. It talks about the "P" word (Procrastination) - a huge creative block alot of the time!

The Dip By Seth Godin
This is a new book that just came out recently. The tag line is "A little book that teaches you when to quit and when to stick." Its an interesting concept and I like his fresh approach to creative blocks or whatever you face in life.

Both of these authors are interviewed over at the Accidental Creative, one of my favorite podcasts to listen to while working. Very inspirational, I reccommend checking it out! -Jannie

I thought I would show EVEN OLDER work. I found these sitting in my closet. They are from my art school days when I was still working in gouache and collage. On the left is a self portrait (as you can see, the chicken-obsession was already there) and on the right one of my better pieces in gouache from an illustration concepts class.

I've never quite felt like I've mastered painting. I have an image in my mind and when I try to translate it in paint, it never quite works out the way I want it to. With the computer, its alot easier. Although I do miss collaging alot. I suppose I can collage in photoshop but I don't think it would be the same.

Digging around my old computer, I came across this illo back from 2003. Yes, your first question might be, "why are the people in weird colors?" And I answer, "Who knows what the heck I was thinking?" I didn't think much of it then but now looking back, its a good laugh. I had this in my portfolio! Good rule of thumb for work in the children's market: they like to see diversity but usually "normal" skin colors are preferable. Unless you are Gary Baseman. Then you can do whatever color kids you want and its still awesome.
So here is a recent piece. Finally, real skin colors! I am making a huge conscious effort to limit my color palette and pick less primary and pastel colors. Also, there are more shadows and depth than my old piece. Although I am still striving for more of that.

I've come a long way since 4 years ago!

Us ladies here at Illustration for Kids thought we should show a sneak peek into our sketch books this week. Above is a spread from my molskines, when I was thinking about doing this illustration for Illustration Friday's topic, "Cars."

This is a good opportunity to show what I had originally sketched and what the final piece turned out. Usually, my process is to sketch by hand, scan it, then redrawing it in Illustrator. But as of lately, I've been working straight on the computer, especially personal and promotional pieces (where I don't have to show a clean sketch to a client). I do, however, have an idea of what I like to do...and its scribbles and sometimes even writings in my sketch book.

This piece is perfect for this week's challenge. Yay!
-Jannie

A random few of my favorites:
Colourlovers.com
I noticed I used the same palette all the time. To change things up a bit I go to this site for inspiration. The best thing is that you can download Adobe illustrator file with the swatches straight to your computer. Presto!

Flickr.com
I didnt know I could be addicted to photo sharing. Plenty of stuff to keep you busy for hours. Also a nice sneak peak into other people's lives.

clipart.com
Okay, okay- you might be wondering why I would even visit a clip art site. But this is actually a great place for a quick reference besides stock photo sites.

-Jannie