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Today I'm sharing with you a sketch of Chip riding a bus. I'm working on a new story. Unlike the previous two picture books starring Chip this one is a middle grade book with illustrations. Probably a lot of illustrations, since I'm an illustrator/writer.

I have a lot of experience with buses. I used to ride an express to and from work in Portland each day for several years. I did a lot of sketching on those 40 minute rides.

Here we see Chip, and to a lesser extent his pal Fred who is sitting next to him. I have been drawing Chip for about 11 years now. One of the many things I like about writing a different kind of book like this (middle grade as opposed to picture book) is that I can be much more subtle. In a picture book you can't get away with the main character facing away from "the camera", in a big crowd. You have to have your hero easy to spot for the little kids.

The guy coming up the stairs is a minor character, whose only job was to start the story off. But then I changed the whole beginning of the story, and this scene doesn't exist anymore. I won't tell you his name, because it was so good I'm recycling it and using it as the name of the antagonist in the new version of the story. Ha! Cliff hanger there.

As usual this drawing was done in a sketchbook, with pencil. No color on this because I don't have time to colorize a drawing I'm not going to use these days.

I hope you all are having a terrific day, take care, and God bless. --Ry

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I now do jolly pictures for everyone in the world for just five dollars!
Check me out on fiverr.com!!!

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I just filmed this! Please don't make fun of my accent or the fact that I shot this just horribly, ok? Hee hee...

It is always so wonderful to hold your book for the first time that I wanted to share it with you all. :o)
I'll share more of the inside once the book is out.

Have a lovely weekend! *hugs*

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This book will be out October 15th! I can't wait! I'll share more once it's published of course!

The publisher emailed me and I should be receiving my complimentary copies very soon, so time to stalk the UPS guy..  hee.. hee.! :o)




And here is a pic I took of my studio a while back while I was working on this book.
This part of the studio looks suspiciously very tidy... I wont tell you how the other side, or the floor for that matter, looked like. ;o)

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For the last four years I have been trying to bolster my children's illustration work by doing samples that are more and more mainstream, more cute. I have now mastered adorable. But it didn't really help my career as much as I hoped it would.

At the beginning of the year I sat down with several abandoned stories to reassess whether they were worth pursuing. I kept a few for further revisions, shelved one indefinitely. A few weeks ago I did the Zombie Tea Party piece as a parody of all the cute stuff I've been doing. I was reluctant to show it, but I did, because that's what artists do. I had no idea that it would resonate with people (and by people I mean editors at big publishing houses) the way it did, and almost instantly.

So the story I put away is now quite active. This is a sample spread that is being submitted, like now. Like for real. Was all that time pursuing cute a detour? I don't think so. I'd like to think that I have come full circle. This art is not something I could have done four years ago when I wrote the story. And I think I needed to be a bit desperate to take the risks necessary to allow myself to do this.

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I've got a bit of a cold taking hold over me today but I stuck it out and managed to finish up a couple more images from Two Years Vacation. Only four more and a few spots to go!

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meet alex and his friend andy...they are ready for a little "tricking and treating"!
i thought this piece fit illustration friday's theme of 'disguise'. it's an older piece, but it's definitely appropriate. besides...it's never too early for cute halloween art. in my opinion anyway...;)

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here is the finished illustration for the november 2011 issue of SFC magazine http://www.storiesforchildrenmagazine.com. AND it's 5 days BEFORE deadline! yay me!
to sum up the story entitled " a little helper", it's about a little boy named tanner who wants so desperately to help out his mama. he figures he might not be tall enough to reach that rye bread or those bananas, but boy is he ever going to take a shot at those yummy oranges...since they are on her shopping list. oops...;)
i'll post the link for the issue as soon as it is available!
next up....an awesome contest i discovered on a wonderful website entitled they draw and cook http://www.theydrawandcook.com/. i can't tell you how long i have been aching to pump out a recipe/illustration for these guys. super excited. have my idea all ready to go...just need to sketch it out!:)

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here is my latest illustration for stories for children magazine. it is to be featured in the november 2011 issue. the story is entitled "a little helper" and as you can see little tanner is trying his best to helpful to his mom in the grocery store...but..oops;) guess it didn't go quite as he planned....
stay tuned for the finished illustration/painting and be sure to check out the november 2011 issue www.storiesforchildrenmagazine.com (when it is available) to see if tanner turned out to be the "little helper" he so desperately wanted to be...:)

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the ultimate 'gesture' of friendship...a hug! AND a bear hug at that...;)
my contribution to this week's illustration friday theme of 'gesture'.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65807564/youre-never-too-tall-for-a-bear-hug

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Jamie tried to dress up as an invented super hero. Balancing on the fir ball she imagined herself to be The balancing hero. It was hot business being the balancing hero!I think if a super hero turned up looking like this I would be worried! This week’s theme for Illustration Friday is Layer. I had fun illustrating layer in three ways in the one illustration. The child in the illustration is

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I spent most of the day working on the Christmas card in Photoshop. I am not sure where to go now as I have been looking at it too long. I am going to put it away for a day or two then see if there is any changes I want to make. In the mean time I will finish off one that I started some time back I think or perhaps do some sketching for a book project. Feedback is welcome (I won't be offended)

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Gee what a year. I have moved and had so much change in my life. Poor blog neglected! Tonight I fiddled with my new set of Copic sketch markers, then the watercolour pencils and a little play in Photoshop. I ended up with a coloured image appropriate for this week's Illustration Friday "Savour". Next time I will use better paper when testing the Copics as you couldn't blend too well on the paper

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I've been expanding my portfolio and my skills lately. Here's another anthropomorphic animal image in the new style. It is a pencil drawing, scanned, digitally colored in Photoshop. This is just the bottom portion of the image; I'm still fooling around with the top. I love doing these though still insecure about where exactly I am going. Tim is building a new portfolio site for me - just a splash page so far but I love it: www.karenleeillustration.com

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This week's Illustration Friday theme is "Propagate".I decided to do a children's illustration dedicated to a special person in my church as a farewell gift. Scott Hawkins is a youth pastor at our church and wonderful man who is very much loved by young and old. During his time at Careforce he has impacted many lives. I personally have beeen impacted by his preaching in the past and it has

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Have you ever heard of Evaline Ness? She was an illustrator of many children’s books during the mid-20th century period. At a time when most illustration was still being done in a style of literal realism, Ness was among that group of stylistic pioneers whose work still influences the look of illustration today.

She also has the unusual distinction of having been married for a time to the famous FBI agent, Elliot Ness.

The Bloombury Auction House in New York has an upcoming auction featuring a collection of children’s books signed by Evaline Ness, her Caldecott medal for Sam, Bangs and Moonshine and some never before seen sketchbooks and dummies all of which come from her family collection.

The sale will take place at Bloomsbury Auctions New York on Wednesday, December 9th, but those who won’t be able to attend can view nearly a dozen pieces from the Ness collection in my Evaline Ness Flickr set.

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Posted by Leif Peng on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: auction, Caldecott Medal, children's books, childrens illustration, classic illustration, Evaline Ness, female illustrator

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Love the big, fun, pencil crayon illustrations of French artist, Julie Colombet. And… would love them even more if the site wasn’t made in Flash.

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Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | 2 comments
Tags: authors, childrens illustration, illustrations, julie Colombet

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Mice on the RunI am working on the first Christmas Card Illustration for 2009 this week. Using what ever came to be while sketching in Photoshop I came up with these cheeky little mice stealing the gifts. I think they must be on Santa’s bad list. This illustration is also appropriate for this week's IF theme - pattern. This is my sepia drawing. I am working on the colour version and adjusting

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Quilts for Orphans - WrappedI have had a ball testing out the Cintiq and finished off the illustration I started a few weeks ago ago for IlIustration Friday (Wrapped). The illustration was inspired by Quilts for Orphans, a group of committed quilters. Experts and novices craft quilts from donated materials and ship them to orphans in the poorest parts of India.This group of angels also create

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Hooray!My new Children’s Illustration business cards are printed. It is exciting to get printed material back after deliberating over the design. Using some of my illustrations I overlapped them like a collage for back of the card using Photoshop. I used a simple cute illustration of a bird on the front. I wanted the information to be read easily but a more descriptive impression of what I

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I am so excited! I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Cintiq 21UX interactive Monitor. It is a big purchase for me but I really feel will be a valuable piece of equipment in my journey as an illustrator and artist. Two things I have wanted for a long time is a full-sized weighted studio easel and a large interactive Wacom Monitor. I don’t have the easel yet but soon I will be the

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