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Hi Everyone!

Well, for all of you keeping an eye out for my Bookcrossing releases I have officially released all 8 copies of Laura and the Leprechauns out into the wild. I hope they will be caught by interested readers even if people don’t have an opportunity to journal their adventures online. They have been released throughout Orange and Los Angeles County and I am sure that I will have more releases in the future. So be sure to check out bookcrossing.com and lookup “Laura and the Leprechauns” to find the book running in the wild nearest you! And if your lucky, it you’ll be the first to catch it!

I am also happy to say that the response to my video book trailer has been very positive. So, thank you to all of you who took the time to view it. And if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, there’s always still time. Just check Google.com or Youtube.com for Laura and the Leprechauns and you’ll be able to see the video. I posted one on Youtube.com under amberkingston so you can learn a little more about me on my channel page. Well, that’s all for now. Take care!

Sincerely,

Amber
www.chrysalispress.com

Our theme this week for our blog is "Flower/Flowers". The above is an adult greeting card design I did for Ronnie Sellers/RSVP cards a number of months ago. Not in my usual style, is it? I've been focusing on line work this last year but previous to that, I had done a lot of jobs with collage and mixed media. Over the last decade-plus, I experimented around for a style that would be enjoyable, creative and marketable, and ultimately (or at this point in time), I'm back to my initial style of humorous line work.

I still get jobs for collage and mixed-media, and this card is one of them. I do enjoy working in collage and pushing paint around (in this case, digital paint), so jobs like this are a nice break from my primary style.

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, you can be sure I’m excited and already getting ready for my favorite day of the year! This year St. Paddy’s day will be celebrated on March 15th, rather than the usual date of March 17th. This is to avoid it falling on the Holy Week of the Catholic Church. The last time this happened was in 1940 to avoid it falling on Palm Sunday. So the year 2008 is a special year, indeed! And even if you’re not Irish, it’s a wonderful excuse to let go and have some fun! So put on your green and dance your own Irish jig, if you like. There’s no better time than St. Patrick’s Day to infuse your day with some good old fashion fun! Soon I’ll be out and about creating my own mischief, leaving copies of Laura and the Leprechauns hidden throughout Orange and Los Angeles County—so be on the lookout! Just check at www.bookcrossing.com for where I’ve left my clues.
All my best,

Amber

www.chrysalispress.com

I’ve just discovered the neatest idea in a website, so I just had to share my findings with you. The website is called www.bookcrossing.com and it’s all about sharing books on a worldwide scale in the form of a treasure hunt! Maybe its concept is what had me hooked from the beginning—appealing to the little kid in me who used to send messages wrapped in taped-up envelopes and wrapped in plastic sandwich bags to be released into the ocean in hope that one day someone would find my message. Never happened—that I’m aware of ;). Anyway, Bookcrossing works much in the same way but on a far more successful scale. People around the world register their books, release them into “the wild,” and wait for them to be “caught” and read (and registered online) by someone new. They, in turn, will make a journal entry about where the book was found, and then release the book into “the wild” once again after they’ve finished reading it. Books have made incredible journeys throughout the world through this program and it’s just getting started. So far I have registered 8 copies of Laura and the Leprechauns to be released—and hopefully each will be “caught” by an interested reader. It will be exciting to check back periodically and see where my books have ended up. If you have any books that you think you’d like to share with others on a global-scale book hunt, just take a moment to register at www.bookcrossing.com. It’s totally free, and completely safe. Even if you don’t have the opportunity to travel the world right now, maybe your favorite book does! In any case, it’s one way to bring about a little excitement and happiness into someone else’s life and a wonderful opportunity to share. So as I eagerly await my book release kit—a totally voluntary purchase I made to support a fun cause I believe in—go check and see if there are any books running free around your neighborhood. And within a few weeks—I’ll let you know—be sure to check back to find the clues to where I released my 8 copies of Laura and the Leprechauns. Who knows—maybe you’ll be the person to catch one! I hope you’ll check it out!

Happy hunting!

Amber
www.chrysalispress.com

When I was first starting out in the illustration business, the above Van Dyke quote was one that I looked to often during the (many) times I felt my work was too inferior to compete with the many other very talented illustrators out there. This proverb reminded me that it's not ultimately a competition or about being the best in my chosen field, but simply doing my best with the talent I have. Van Dyke's quotation didn't instantly cure my inferiority issues, but it steered me towards a more optimistic perspective. And from that branch in the forest, I was able to sing/draw/illustrate with a more balanced, realistic expectation of my artistic value and worth in the scheme of things.

This week we're blogging about our process or how we go about creating our illustrations/art. Usually, I do all my work--from the sketches to the final piece--digitally in Painter X (though sometimes I'll do thumbs on paper, if I decide to work outside my studio). Below is the process I went through to create the illustration for our recent IFK winter/Valentine group promo. The image on the lower, left is a grouping of thumbnail sketches. I did at least twice the amount that's shown as I try to encourage myself to come up with many ideas before I pick something to go with. In this case, after considering many concepts, I decided to go with a group of kids making a Valentine poster (rough sketch, lower, right)


Then, on to creating the final art. Below, left is most of the inking for the piece. I do all the elements in layer (e.g. each child, the poster, and the background objects are all separate layers) so I can move them, resize them, or even ditch them if I need to. Once the inking is done, I move on to coloring, which I also do in multiple layers. The background color, the kids' color, the poster, and the objects all are on their own layer. The color layers will be underneath the ink layers so they don't cover the ink layer. I have several favored brushes I use for colorizing, like oil brushes, chalks, and acrylic brushes. Once I've completed the piece, I clone it so it's flattened. And that clone is my finished illustation (bottom, right).

Maybe you're liking the look of your fate as it is, but if you think it could use improving upon, the above could be a great motto for you in 2008. Ah, I'm just kidding. Holli took the best word to rhyme with 2008 for her "resolution" motto, so I just grabbed something else--ANYthing else! But seriously, whatever your perspective is on fate or destiny, we can all agree that most of us can do many things to move our careers along. We agreed that this week on our blog, we'd tackle the topic of "resolutions". So, though I haven't made a classic list of resolutions for 2008, there are things I'd like to accomplish this year in my business, and they are:

-Managing my own website. Presently my husband is my website's keeper so I'd like to learn our website building software and build and manage it myself. For me, that's a pretty steep learning curve, but I hope to accomplish that as the year progresses.

-Become familiar with classical artists/illustrators. I actually started this in December by checking out a book on the Wyeths, but I'd like to spend more time reading about the lives of other artists to broaden my familiarity and knowledge of what others have done.

-Join a local art group or take a class. I'll probably hold this off until the summer because I usually relocate for part of the winter season, but since I live close to a community art center, I should take advantage of things like this. You know...Get out and hang out with other artists. It's not something I ever do.

As for moving forward in my medium of drawing and illustration, I'd like to:

-Keep-a sketching. That's one of the best new things that I'd taken up in the last year or so and I don't want to let that go dormant again. I want to keep working and pushing myself to draw out of my comfort zone by using mediums I wouldn't normally use as well as tackle subject matter that I'm not comfortable with. I can only get better if I keep drawing/sketching.

-Keep-a cartooning. It's my first discipline and my dominant one. I'd like to do more with this and/or take in a bigger direction. I still have to think about this one, but it's on my list.

-Keep-a illustrating. One thing I thought about here was to experiment with some diverse color schemes. I was never much of a colorist and I so love seeing the palettes others choose in their art. I want to experiment more in this respect.

I have other ideas I'm brewing over in my mind. Executing these ideas and 'resolutions' is another matter, so I'm leaving it at just sharing some of my thoughts per what I'd LIKE to see happen in my business and art this coming year.

Sketching has been so much fun. Why didn't I start this sooner? The secret for me is to let myself off the "perfection" hook. I'm using a small freebie notebook from my husband. It's not at all precious. Also, I've given myself permission to draw a French fry if I want. My hubby's at CES (Consumer Electronics Show), so I took the kids out for lunch. As usual, I finished first and had to wait for them. This time, I had my trusty sketchbook and started to draw their lunch. It was fun and they loved it. They've each started their own book. Yippee!

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One of my favorite blogs is DaniDraws. She's compiled a list of her favorite blogs. I'm really excited about quite a few blogs. It's very addicting. I enjoy seeing what others are up to. It's a wonderful thing for one with a solo career.

Here's my list:
Holli Conger, DaniDraws, Genine's Art Blog, Claudine Helmuth, Paige Keiser, Elizabeth Dulemba, Scott Franson, Paula Becker,and last but not least, Paula Pertile. I add more all the time. Check these out and enjoy!

A bright new day and a bright new year ahead. Here you see one of my New Year's resolutions--to sketch from life everyday. I'm not a big fan of this and have avoided it like the plague. Yes, I know it's good for me. I love seeing other people's sketches. I really admire it. It's just not something I feel comfortable with. So, anyway, I'm starting out small. I have Creative License by Danny Gregory (which I've never finished) and I was browsing Keri Smith's website and felt I should finally jump in. I visit Paula Becker's blog regularly and really enjoy her landscapes. Maybe I'll do that someday, for now just small things. Baby steps. I'm also inspired by Paula Pertile's intimate close-ups. I won't post my efforts often. It's too scary now.

We've been enjoying this vacation time more than ever before. As I've said in a previous post, fifth grade is tough on all of us. It's so nice to have a break from, "Do Your Homework!!!!" We've all been sick and sticking close to home. My husband even had 11 days off. What a treat to have him around so much! We're so relaxed, I don't know how we'll get back into the swing when this is over. Luckily, the kids have only 2 1/2 days of school then a 4 day weekend! Teacher's in-service--I love those!

We here at IFK are posting the images we created for our summer mailer and discussing them a bit. I work digitally so everything below was created in Painter X using a Wacom tablet. I use the tools and brushes in the program in a 'traditional' sense. Another way to look at it is, if I was creating this image without a computer, it would still look the same.

Our theme was "Make A Splash with Illustration for Kids!", and we all agreed that a beach or water scene would compliment the slogan. I took note of the the image that I was next to (in this case, Jenn, who did a 'water' piece, mostly in blue) so I decided to do a beach scene--having the primary color a yellow hue--so our pieces would compliment each other. I enjoy doing scenes where there are groups of people or animals with lots of things going on so that's the direction I took this. Below is the finished art:



Below: My rough for the idea and the initial inking. I wasn't sure if this was going to be in pen & ink, thinking I might go more painterly with it. But I thought this piece more naturally asked to be drawn in a cartoon-ish style in line & wash. I had completed the piece with the first boy looking down at where my name would be, but I changed it out to a boy splashing water with his foot to, again, tie in with theme ("Make a splash...". Get it? Heh.).



I must have had too much time on my hands or something because, at some point I decided to try another idea and make an image where the characters weren't so small and intricate. The mermaids came to mind so I worked this up. In the end, I chose the beach scene. Now...What to do with the mermaids...

By: Paula J. Becker
For: Moi

By: Paula J. Becker
For: Innovative Kids

It's nursery rhyme time here at the IFK blog and we gals here have selected a random rhyme to illustrate. I'm lacking time so I did a relatively quick piece in a less-worked, forgiving style. I imagine Mousy is using clocks as one of his work-out apparatuses. If he can make it to the top by the time it bongs, he knows he's making good time.

By Paula J. Becker
Juvenile Greeting Card