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An  illustration for Illustration Friday’s word prompt, “Stretch”. These guys are playing some sort snowman’s version of Badminton, me thinks.

… and for more Holiday fun you really should check out Marion and Laura’s HoHoDooDa doodles!

I thought this old illustration would work well for today's Illustration Friday topic and be oh-so appropriate for the upcoming holiday season:
I painted an early version of this image in art school and then re-painted it shortly after I graduated. Looking at it now I can only think how much better it would look if I re-painted it yet again. It's kind of fun (and occasionally painful) to look back at old work and see where you've improved (and where you still need some work!). This painting had a brief life some years ago as a greeting card for a charity card company and it's been more recently revived as a greeting card once again in my CafePress shop. Need Christmas cards? Get them here!

here is my APPROVED sketch for the winter 2011/2012 cover for stories for children magazine www.storiesforchildrenmagazine.com. i am so excited to have been given this opportunity to have my work showcased on the cover of such a wonderful magazine for children. the art director, rosemarie www.rosemariegillen.com, has just been so amazing to me in the last few months, allowing me to do an illustration for each issue. i absolutely love contributing and i love the challenge that each new piece brings.
this piece has a special place in my heart. as everyone who knows me knows i am CRAZY about WINTER! seriously. i love it all...snow, ice, cold air, winter sports...all of the wonders of winter. and december is my favorite month of the year. i swear i could probably live in an igloo and be ecstatically happy (yeah, i love winter THAT much)!
i wanted to convey the playfulness of childhood in winter and what better way than to illustrate a group of cute little multi-cultural kids building a snowman...and a cute snowman at that;) teamwork at it's best!
thank you again to rosemarie for being so sweet to me and for giving me all of the opportunities she has in the last few months to work with her and her team at such a great publication!

Oh little Snofolk,  I’ll take that ice cream! 

I played in the snow with my Snofolk today.  I colored hats, scarves and passed out rosy cheeks for all of them.  There is ice cream, sherbet, and snow cones for all.  What’s YOUR favorite flavor?

That's what I have been doing - a sketch a day this week as set by my mentor on the NV SCBWI program, Priscilla Burris. The goal was to keep it fast and loose ... well I got caught up in a couple of the drawings, so I worked on those a bit more. I have to work 2 of them into finished pieces. Hmm. Which ones? Which would you choose?

Every week I post a colouring/activity page for you to print out and give to children - yours, someone else's or to use in a school or library. All I ask is that it is not used for commercial purposes.

It has been busy busy busy in the studio!   The place is jammed packed with characters waiting to be famous.

Newton has had his day in the sun with a new Baby Journal out in January. 

“Yes You Can Man” wants a bit of the action for himself. He has been waiting in the wings with his REALLY BIG ideas!

Peep Squeak?.…  he is always “On the Move!“.  There will be Peepsqueak fabric out in February and a Peepsqueak‘s children’s book in the works for 2012..

Lae Dee Bugg is hoping for a July release at Christian Art Gifts for the TWEEN market.

Bitty Bot?…  she and her bot friends really wants to be on fabric. They are waiting to hear back from a recent submission.

Hen Rietta fabric is in revision mode. Hen Rietta‘s friend, Grace is serving us up some hot cocoa. She is standing near ……. Shivery the snowman!  Brrrrr!!! He has high hopes for a children’s book someday.

There is no forgetting Bea Bunny.  She is always trying to get in the picture. She will debut in the Peepsqueak book.

This is life in my studio.  Never a dull moment!

Oh NO! did you hear that?  It’s Zippy! That little hedge hog came in late and missed the photo shoot.  I will not hear the end of that!

“Zippy!  Next time try to be on time.  Remember, you snooze  you lose!”

There are also bears, clowns, birds and more. It is never boring in the studio!

0 Comments on Crazy Busy With My Cartoon Family as of 1/1/1900

Ah, the Holidays. A time for friends and family. Lots of good junk food to get fat on and vacation time. I almost always choose to stay in New York for Christmas and this year is no exception. I pick up as many shifts at work as I could so that all my co-workers could take time off. Then I'll take two weeks in January to go see the family and just have a break from waiting on ungrateful human beings.

However, this year I've been kinda bummed out cause I'm not going to get to go back to Maine to see my family. Its been a strange year with the death of a family member, his evil wife taking advantage of my grandmother, my sister selling her house... and blah blah blah.

Yesterday, New York go dumped on by almost a foot of snow and I was excited cause I had that moment where it felt like Christmas long ago. People were outside throwing snowballs, digging out parked cars, making snow angels and of course, making snowmen. Which is where the inspiration for this illustration comes from.

The people in the image from left to right are Snowman Christopher (my nephew,) Snowwoman Nana J, Snowwoman Dawn (my sister,) live John (Me,) Snowwoman Lynn (my mom,) and Snowdog Cee Cee.

This is for everyone who is away from their family this holiday! I hope that you find some way to make it bright! I'll be doing it with my "New York Family" Katz Deli style and then ice skating in Prospect Park.

Happy Holidays!

John Jennison
www.dogoodercomics.com

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I'm a little behind, sorry, this time of year gets a little nutty. But here are the B&W's for Let It Snow. I'm going to try to get the painting done in the next few days.

"Now, would that be a snow man or a snow woman you've got there?" I asked, as I strolled by.

"It's a girl!" she said (emphatic). "She's just missing her hat."

So, I like to craft. I especially like to needlefelt. I find it relaxing, and it is something I can do that is creative that for me does not involve a lot of thinking once I know what I am doing... And, I also love to create things to take with me to book readings. The idea is to get the children to interact with my books in a tactile and fun way. For the young children this really seems to work. So, I give you Mowat and his GINORMOUS snowman...

Happy 2009!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Help me quick!Is my snowman sick?His body is wasting away! He used to be fatWith a belly to pat,But now he gets slimmer each day. He doesn't work out,He just stands about.So why is he still losing weight? With temperatures higherHe seems to perspire.Let it snow before it's too late!By Donna J. Shepherd © 2005Illustration by Kevin Scott Collier. For a fun, interactive way to read Skinny Snowman,

I did this piece about 2 years ago. I was playing around with a different style, using less black line and being more painterly. I always liked how this piece turned out. Just for fun I had done a mockup of it as a cover for a kids magazine.

When I used to work in magazine publishing it was normal to plan months in advance. It gave one the sense of time passing quickly. Of course, the older I get, the faster it seems to be passing, too. So I might as well go with it and plan new illustration samples ahead of time.

I've got a whole stack of final art to work on!

Do you remember the snowman I built a few weeks back? We'll he seems to have disappeared. I went out to the yard yesterday and this is all that's left:



Let's go, all you super sleuths. Where did my snowman go???