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Yay! Alfie has arrived! My friend Monique works in a kindergarten class and told me she saw "Please Write Back!" in the Scholastic book club flier this month. I don't think it will be officially released until April. But it looks like you can order it now through the book clubs this month (at half price even!) It's in the Firefly brochure.

My friend Jannie Ho's books are also available through the book clubs this month. Her books are in the same Firefly brochure on the exact same page. We are both at the bottom of page 4.



Wow, I just noticed that the first Alfie book is in the SeeSaw brochure this month (page 4 again)...

I was so excited when a friend said my new book, "Please Write Back!" was in the Scholastic Firefly book club flier this month, I didn't think the book was suppose to be released until April. Yay! I ordered myself a copy so I didn't have to wait to see it. Okay, I ordered 12 but whose counting.

But what's even more cool was when I started looking at the rest of the page I noticed right on the other side of "Biscuit" were Jannie Ho's emergent readers. It's so funny, not only did they put us in the same flier they put us practically right next each other.

Besides a greeting card, holiday crafts are fun to do! December is going by way faster than I would like, but I did manage to make these fun little gift tags using old art I had...now its fresh again! I bought those circular craft punches from an art/craft store, which is proven to be super addictive. Everything I make from now on will be on 2" circles :-) Happy Holidays! -Jannie

I'm fortunate to live within a few blocks of one of the few (maybe ONLY) independent children's book stores on the Island of Montreal, Babar Books/Livres. This morning I was braving my way to the village post office (we just had our first big snow of the season so...treacherous!), and passed by Babar, glancing up to see their window display of books. Smack dab in front was Light the Menorah, a book illustrated by our own IFKer, Jannie Ho! Fortunately I had my iPhone with me and snapped a few pictures. Look how it stands out even from across the street! Eye-catching, indeed! Congrats, Jannie! Loved seeing your art work so prominently displayed!

Below: "Light the Menorah" close-up.



Below: Further out. That yellow just shines!



Below: Babar's window display from across the street. Go Jannie!

Every year I design a holiday card to send out to clients (and also to friends and family!) This year I decided to design 4 different ones that went together. And monsters as as theme is fun to do-I have endless ideas with them! I have some at my Chicken Girl Design Shop if you are interested. Monster holiday greetings are the best! -Jannie

I usually like the strange assignments. Here is one I did about a worm that wants to eat a honey sandwich.
I love the world of anthropomorphic animals. Its the only place where a bear waitress serves a worm patron. No big deal.
And why give him a fork and a knife when he HAS NO HANDS?!? Just because. I love the world of children's books!

-Jannie

Like all of the ladies here have said, it really depends. Besides size and complexity, another big factor is familiarity of the subject matter. It will go alot faster if I have done the subject before.
Small personal projects, like ones I do just for Illustration Friday, or this promo I did recently, it goes fairly quickly. Because I work straight on the computer (without a pencil sketch) and I can essentially choose my own subject matter, the time ranges from 3-6 hours. I can spend alot of time tweaking since I work digitally though.
But for clients like book projects, a sketch is a must and that is where alot of time is spent. For example, here is one of the interior page sketch for The Haunted Ghoul Bus. I don't have an idea of how long this took me, since I like to sketch the whole book at the same time and tweak each page as I go along.

For the colored art, it takes me roughly 2-3 days to finish one spread. Now that I'm into adding textures in my work, it also adds to the time. If I had made some color decisions early on (such as already done another page in the book), it will go by faster.

And last, I think it depends if I am "in the groove." Web surfing and other distractions can really make me take longer than it should! If that happens, I believe in stepping away from the project for a while, and when I come back to it, I 'm refreshed and things go way smoother and faster.

-Jannie

I have been professionally illustrating for almost 4 years now. My major was in illustration at school, but after graduation, I worked as a graphic designer and an art director at various children's publishers for many years. I still had my dreams of being an illustrator, which motivated me to build my illustration portfolio on the side and eventually landing an agent. After a while, I started getting illustration jobs while I still had my day job. It was getting to be too much, I had to choose one or the other. I chose illustration, and quit my day job in December of 2005 and haven't looked back since. It is amazing how that one important (yet very scary!) decision I made four years ago would lead me to where I am today. I've done so many wonderful projects since then. Being an illustrator is definitely my dream job! :-)

Painting on your phone:



Plus check out the illustrations that the talented Jannie Ho did on her phone!!

A month ago, I received these Play n Worship: Play-Along Bible Stories for Toddlers & twos samples in the mail in which I did artwork for.
Inside of the kit, it comes with a CD, DVD, and 10 storytime teaching trifolds.
Here is one of the spreads-Noah's Ark!

My website is long overdue for an update, especially in the books section. I finally updated the books I've done and a few that is soon to be released, many coming out in the Fall of this year. Please take a look!

My piece for our spring promo. I had a meeting with an art director once who told me that the problem with alot of vector illustrations isn't because its digital, but because it is usually very flat in terms of perspective. This is my attempt to take on that challenge and shake things up a bit.

I forgot to tell you about the February issue of Highlights. I picked it up as research, but was pleasantly surprised to find so many blog "friends" in it. On the cover is Karen Lee, inside are Paula Becker, Elizabeth Dulemba, and Jannie Ho. What a pleasant surprise!

Last week I received Studios magazine. What amazing inspiration! More "friends", too! Claudine Helmuth, Kelly Rae Roberts, and Betz White.

I've been "enjoying" a drawing block. I've started several things, but just wasn't interested in them. The passion was missing. I know all artists experience this from time to time, so I decided not to fight it, but to stay creative. I've been Modge Podging. Here you can see some of the results. Every time I go to Michaels, I walk out with more wood or paper mache things to paint, so I've got quite a collection. With my newly freshened studio, I've been enjoying my time in here. It's nice to create things that have no business purpose. It doesn't matter if they work out or not. It's just for fun.

In these economic times, we could all use some free promo materials! I'm hosting a giveaway over at my blog with a prize of free business cards and a free canvas print from uprinting.com. Please visit my blog here for more details. Good luck, everyone!

Happy lunar new year, everyone! This is a piece I did for Time for Kids Magazine. Gung hay fat choy!

Last week, I got some comp copies of these graphic novels for kids I illustrated for Stone Arch Books.
T-Ball Trouble and Lily's Lucky Leotard, written by Carl Meister, Illustrated by Jannie Ho (Me!) They are now available on amazon.
Here are some shots of the interior pages. They are simple in style and layout, perfect for teaching kids to read in a comic/graphic novel form.
There has been a trend with the graphic novel format in children's publishing. Hopefully it is something here to stay!

This is one of those quotes that I found while I was doing some wedding planning...of all things!

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”-Dr. Seuss

I recently received an advance copy of my latest picture book, The Haunted Ghoul Bus, written by Lisa Trumbauer, illustrated by Jannie Ho (me!). Published by Sterling, available in bookstores and amazon in October 2008.

Here is a sneak peek of whats inside!

I illustrated this series for Scholastic called I'm Reading Now! There are 4 sets to be published throughout the year, with the first set (shown here) coming out in September. Available through Scholastic Book Clubs.
Each set comes with 8 books, about the adventures of a 5 and 4 year old named Ben and Ruby.
I just recently finished the last set; it was sad to see Ben and Ruby go. But it was very rewarding to see the printed books for these- I'm happy with the way it turned out.

My piece for our summer mailer!

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:

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