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?!

new stuff

hey, now that all the hullabaloo of surtex is over, I can share some of my new stuff I took. Well, I guess it wasn't exactly a state secret before, but, everyone always seems to keep surtex stuff all hush hush, beforehand, so what do I know? Anyhow, here's some of what I took and no, you can never make enough stuff. Check out my site for lots more... (ok, that may be an exaggeration... some more?!)

cinco de mayo surtex silliness

yeah, you know when you have a crap load of stuff that you know you should/need/must be doing and then you get some stupid idea that you just have to see through? Well, that's what happened today. Because sometimes, you just can't resist the stupid. oh and happy cinco de mayo!

And as long as we're talking surtex, here are my other two more "official" flyers...

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.

samples, samples samples!

one of the funnest (yes, that's right, I have the vocabulary of a 6 year old..) things for an illustrator is when a package arrives in the mail with your samples! I've had the pleasure of working with Peaceable Kingdom Press over the past year and these are a few of the projects I have completed for them. The colors turned out great (much cleaner than my crappy iPhone camera can show) with die cuts and the pink kitties are actually flocked! 

sandwich boxes

ok, so this is one of those things that is geeky cool to me...I've never seen my stuff on actual (non-paper) product, and to see it on something that will be sold in one of my favorite shops, makes it all the more fun. I had the opportunity to design some sandwich boxes for the awesome dutch shop, Psikhouvanjou. I had redesigned their header/logo, last fall and they requested that the little apple fellow be used on this product along with some other characters to fill out the set. These will be available in April (alongside another set by some artist named Helen Dardik, who ever that is.... KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!)

trying to keep it springy...

...as another foot of snow falls on top of 50 plus inches that have fallen over the last few weeks. Oh and just so you know, shoveling with 2 bickering teenagers is loads of fun!

Anyway, I did this card for Peaceable Kingdom, available as part of a nice boxed set :)

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.

happy new year!!

can you believe that it's 2015 already? wowsers. I'm not one for new years resolutions, too easy to forget, break, realize they were completely unrealistic... all by February. But I guess everyone has a few things they hope to work on and improve at. Last year I said I wanted to use traditional media, and I kinda started using it again (thanks inktober!), just not in any real jobs, but that's a start, right? For Christmas, my husband surprised me with a cintiq! Quite the surprise and needless to say a big leap for someone who has only ever used a laptop and mouse. Soooooooo, I definitely have to resolve to learn how to use it. It's kinda intimidating at the moment, so if anyone has any tips or advice on getting started with it, particularly in illustrator, I'd love to hear from you! Seems like the opposite of last years traditional media goal, but I'm really hoping it will speed up my pace. The pen tool may be precise, but it's a real mind number.

Anyway, here's to a happy and healthy 2015 to all...make it a good one! cheers!

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!

at long last… DAY 40 of 40 DAYS OF LETTERING!

This was one of those projects where maybe I should have made it more like 30 days or even 20. I'm embarrassed to say how long this thing has gone on! And by the end, I felt like the last one should be some sort of momentous grand finale of sorts, making me procrastinate all the more, which was hardly the intent of the whole thing in the first place! Instead, I've just settled for an ending… grand or not. Anyway, I'm glad I did it, but more glad that I finished it (finally….)

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…)

announcing 24 days of FREE happy happy holiday printables!

The artists of happy happy art collective will be having a free daily download, starting tomorrow December 1st! (crap… tomorrow is december 1st. how the heck did that happen?!) Anyway, make sure you bookmark our blog and like our Facebook page so you can be sure to keep up with the goodies!

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...

christmas gift wrap competition

ok, a post or so ago, I promised that I was laying off contests and also would not become a spoon flower junkie, stumping for weekly votes. This time I really mean it.* I only intended to enter the annual tea towel contest. Seriously. But then I saw the next one was for Christmas gift wrap, based on ornaments. Being the Christmas addict I am, I couldn't resist, so I adapted some ornaments I had from an old card design and here ya go. If you feel so inclined, toss me a vote! And I hereby resolve to stop entering these things! 

*Unless they are really a super cute or fun idea and I can't resist.