paint?!

Long time, no blogging! Wow, I don't even want to know when my last post was :/ 

Anyway, thought I would share some new stuff I've tried lately. You are probably aware of the #12monthsofpaint initiative started up by a super talented group of ladies, Jennifer Orkin Lewis, Courtney Cerruti, Meighan O'Toole and Erika Seers. The idea is to create at least one painting a month based on a monthly theme. Knowing that sadly I'm not really a 365 day project type (look how long it took me to do 40 days of lettering O_O  ), but I thought that I actually might follow thru on a one a month type commitment. What I did not expect was how much I would enjoy doing it. Not that I am in any way comfortable with paint, gouache in this instance, but it's a nice break from manipulating pixels.

Since I'm a big fan of people who know how to use it, I thought I would try gouache. I had bought some for an abandoned painted initial cap project (hey, I got up to 'G' anyway!) Two problems, I encountered... I never seem to mix up enough of a color, getting it the right consistency and just general lack of brush skills. Oops, that's 3! Oh yeah, and most importantly, NO COMMAND Z. Anyway, to counter those last 2 issues, I decided to collage it. Nothing like a sharp pair of scissors to clean up some blobby paint, not to mention, I could move stuff around before putting in place. A work around for command Z :D !! When I look back at the process, it's almost like I approached it from a vector POV. The scissors became my pen tool, cropping and masking out the errant marks. I tried to do some dry brush effects, which is kinda like how I use illustrator brushes, layering brush marks and colors. Nothing complex of course, but hopefully enough to give it some added detail and modeling. 

In the end, I was fairly happy with what I did and hope I can learn more and get better. I kinda like putting them on a craft background. For whatever reason, it immediately gives it a more finished look, without having to mess with painting too much in the background...something I need to work on. This month's theme was "blue" and while I didn't really adhere to that as much in the checkers piece, I had fun anyway. Hope to stick to it and improve!

Alice in Wonderland!

I recently had the great honor of illustrating the cover for a re-issue of Alice in Wonderland for Scholastic Book Clubs. This really was a dream job for me, since it combined both illustration and hand lettering, plus it was such an awesome subject. Not only am I a big Alice fan, this year marks the 150th anniversary of its first publication, making it all the more special to have the opportunity to work on.

I don't normally show my process but I thought I'd show my initial thumbnails I submitted. The parameters were pretty open other than that the book would come packaged with a mini pocket watch, so that needed to be featured alongside the white rabbit and Alice, of course. 

The bottom left option was the one that was selected, which was a favorite of mine along with the top left. I was pretty surprised that it was chosen, mainly since I had taken the typographic liberty of line breaking up "wonderland." The revisions were only to flop Alice and make her look older and more tween/teen looking. Basically, I just lengthened her torso, cinched in her waist and slimmed down her face and there you go! 

Because these titles for the book clubs are reproduced at a tiny thumbnail size, it need to be readable at a reduced size, so I went with a dark background to make the title pop. It worked pretty well, since Alice's descent is kind of mysterious anyway. The best part was adding some angry flowers!

tweens

Been trying to expand the ol' folio recently into the tween category. Oh to be 10-12 years old, living an aspiring, drama-free life, poolside in Palm Springs... why not?!

storytime magazine

I must say, over the past year, I have been extremely fortunate, having some wonderful opportunities just land in my lap. An illustration job for Storytime Magazine is no exception.  Truthfully, I had never seen this magazine before, mainly due to that fact that it's new and does not get US distribution (hopefully that will change!) It's soooo gorgeous, filled monthly with lovely illustrations from many of my favorite artists, printed on a quality matte stock, and NO ADS! It kind of reminded me of the old Ideals magazines that I remember reading with my Gramma, growing up.... full of full bleed pictures and wonderful stories and poems. Right now, there really is no other periodical like it here in the states that I know of. 

just look at that gorgeous cover illustration by Chiara Nocentini!

I was contacted by them back in January. I was super swamped at the time, but really wanted to do it, and they were kind and flexible enough to accommodate me. I have always wanted to get into editorial, so having my first job in this area being with a kid mag, really made it ideal. The story was so sweet...an ABC poem. It was just so old fashioned and cute, I knew right away that I wanted to give it a retro limited color palette. I had to hide all 26 letters of the alphabet within the 2 main illos (can you find them all?), plus design a simple alphabet that corresponded to the poem. Actually, in the back of the issue, they used to letters to make a board game. Fun! 

If you live in the UK, it's definitely worth subscribing to, whether or not you have kids. I was super honored (and completely surprised) to be included.

snowed in.

heyyyyyyy, so long no post! I could legitimately say that I have been snowed under. I mean if you are familiar with what has been going on with new england weather the last 2 and a half weeks, we have gotten over 50 inches of snow. NOT a typo. aaannndd, there is another predicted foot plus on the schedule over the weekend into Monday. I know a lot of people love snow and wish they had more, but TRUST ME. No one wants this much and no, it has not made me as happy as this little kiddo

Anyway, on the positive side, it's forced me to stay home and work and there's no shortage of that. I've been wrapping up some projects and starting new ones. The card above is one that I did for the nice folks at Peaceable Kingdom. I haven't gotten a sample yet, but it's die cut, so that's pretty cool!

More to share soon. If you are a north easterner, happy shoveling! grrrrrrrrrrr.

Pixar Times!

I was fortunate to be asked by the uber-talented Jerrod Maruyama to do the December Pixart piece. Since it happens to be the 50th anniversary of Rudolph, I thought it might be fun to do a Toy Story/Up/Rudolph mashup! There were a ton of possibilities here.

If you are a fan of Pixar (and who isn't?), it's a great site to follow to keep up on the latest Pixar news… check it out here! 

FREE merry merry memory game!

As the days get closer keep 'm occupied with a rousing memory game! Download your free printable over at happy happy art collective and merry christmas!

the power of santa... freebie download!

if you've ever been around kids with less than 2 weeks to go before Christmas, you know what I'm talking about. Sheer pandemonium, chaos, Christmas crazies… need I go on? Desperate times call for desperate measures and there is no more powerful parental behavioral tool than the big man himself. Creepy as it may sound, they all know the song..."better watch out, better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why…" Use the power of Santa! Hang the chart and keep track of all the good stuff,  reward them with stickers and watch the tree get decorated as your sanity returns! Then leave the chart out for Santa to see while he eats your milk and cookies and maybe he will even leave his autograph! Head on over to happy happy art collective where you can download the files here!

keep track of good deeds with tally marks!

for every 3 tally marks, let 'em have a present or star sticker!

hopefully, by Christmas eve, their tree will look something like this!

Santa's got quite the wardrobe these days...

Today is day 8 of 24 days of free holiday downloads over at happy happy art collective, and who doesn't need a santa paper doll to make your advent complete? Head on over to the HHAC blog to download the big man and his entire wardrobe :)

get your freebie santa fortune teller!

Here's my contribution to happy happy art collective's 24 days of free holiday downloads. 

Head over there to get your freebie and see what Santa has in store for you this Christmas! 

(here's hoping it's not fruitcake…)

finally at long last… the letter Z!

Well, if you've been following the progress of the happy happy alphabet that I have been contributing to, we finally made it to the finish line! We started this project nearly a year ago, last winter and all six of us have been plugging away at the letters, 2 artists at a time. We decided that for a grand finale, all of us would do the letter Z. You can check them all out over at happy happy! Let's just say, there was more than one zebra involved, but a few fun surprises!

holiday tunes

Have you started listening to Christmas music yet? Well, thanks to my 14 year old son, I have. Yup, I have raised him right. He's been streaming Pandora Christmas stations since the day after halloween, so when Stacey Peasley needed some art for a couple of holiday releases, I was ready. Prediction here… since Target has latched on to Marshmallow World for their holiday commercials, it's going to run through your head for the next 30 plus days. I know I can't get it out of my head...

the dreaded letter X

Anybody that decides to take on an alphabet, knows it's there…lurking at the end, the possibilities far from endless. It's just a crappy letter. Here's the laundry list of possibilities:

1. xylophone - the obvious choice… kid friendly and potentially colorful. Nobody is surprised at that choice.

2. x-ray - gives you a few more possibilities in terms of settings, characters, etc. My friend and fellow happy happy artist, Lauren (Minco) Lowen did a fabulous job with this (yup, she got stuck with this crap letter, too)…check it out here

3. somebody named Xavier - yeah.

4. Xerox machine - this may have worked better for kids back in the 80's.

So there you have it. I may have missed a few obscurities, but as far as the english language goes, that's about it. Sooooo, I decided to loosen up the interpretation of the letter and include words that have an X somewhere in them. Muuuch easier. There's a few not so hidden X's in there, can you find them? 

Check out the entire collaborative gallery of our happy happy alphabet right here!

"Cute Characters" for Tigerprint!

I decided to enter the Tigerprint competition for "cute character." I never have much luck at all in these competitions, but this one appealed to me. I mean if I call my stuff shamelessly cute, if not this contest, then what?! Anyway, if nothing else, I have a couple new birthday card ideas for the portfolio, so nothing wasted! Which one do you prefer?