Season's Greetings 2012

Pat helped me make this year's card, which is also our change of address announcement.  Hope everyone's holidays are merry and bright!

Gator Love

Got the opportunity to work on a really cool project a while back for some friends in the MBA club of the University of Florida.  I created a new logo for them to use on the web and some of their social media outlets. Go Gators! 

Happy Holidays!!

Just licked my last Christmas card envelope of the season!  Below is this year's card design.

Originally, I had wanted to screenprint the design and use some white ink, but 

my lifework got really fine and I ended up running it through my inkjet printer.  I still

like these colors though!

Monster Party

It's been a while since I last posted.  I've busy at work learning to be an artist in a corporate setting.  However, I still have found some time to do some freelance work.  I did this piece for a children's picture book a while back --- can't wait for Halloween!

Cat Pattern Crazy

Learned a new way of creating patterns today.  Thought I would try my hand at some Adobe Illustrator doodling and practice!

 

Hollywood style

 

Trying something a little different.  Trading in some pixels for a paintbrush.  I combined my line art with some watercolors in a sketch that combines some Hollywood-kid style.

Pep in my step...

I am not a fan of Winter-- too many layers of clothes plus I always seem to still be cold!  But one of the things I look forward to each day is my cup of warm coffee that perks me up and starts my day off right.  I did a little doodle of my cup 'o joe de jour, my Trader Joe's brand Peppermint coffee.  The kick of peppermint gives me an extra jolt on those cold winter a.m.'s.

Taking a look in the mirror - 2011

Just did a quick sketch of a young girl as a sample for a potential client.  While working, I was thinking about the beginning of 2011.  Things are extremely busy right now, and today has turned out to be a very productive day.  I hope this trend continues too.  I like being busy drawing pictures and developing new designs!  I look forward to all the good things to come with this new year!

It's the Elephants' Picnic - Available Now!

The children's picture book I recently illustrated, It's the Elephants' Picnic by Ronit Elk, has just been published and is now available at the AuthorHouse Bookstore.  It's a beautiful story about a young boy, Cyrus, as he gets an up-close view when the circus comes to town and learns about how elephants eat.  It will also be available on Amazon.com sometime in the new year.

Here is a sneak peak at a few of the illustrations...

Needless to say, I am very excited to see the book in print!

Blackbird Pie

May your holidays be merry and bright!

To all you Zom-boys and Ghouls...

Candy

I love the bright colors of candy! 

SCBWI wik'10 Conference

Just got back from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Southern Breeze chapter's Writing and Illustrating for Kids conference held every year in Birmingham, Alabama.  I attended last year, and was so excited about some of the tips and people I met at the last conference, that I was anxiously awaiting this year's event.

Darcy Pattison was the keynote speaker for the event, and she kicked off the day of learning and fun with an inspiration speech about her career in kid lit.  One things she mentioned that really stuck with me was "Don't become addicted to mediocrity."  This is a tough business, and as an artist (or writer), one has to keep shooting for the stars.  I thought she put this very well.

I attended three different workshops at the conference, the first being with illustrator Elizabeth Dulemba, one of my favorite illustrators and one who is always so giving with her knowledge of the biz.  She spoke about online marketing, and what she does.  "You only have to be one page ahead in the manual to be an expert," she reminded us.  Again, she stressed the importance of keeping up with technology and talked about her ideas on promotion and how they have worked for her.  I took three pages of notes; my head was spinning when I left!

Kerry Martin from Clarion held the next two workshops I attended.  She spoke more about marketing, and what makes good portfolios and promo mailers.  There was a pre-conference assignment that most of the illustrators at the conference participated in.  The task was to thumbnail the story of the Blue Corn Maiden for a 32-page picture book.  We showed and spoke about our work, and Ms. Martin gave us some comments, and also shared some of the projects that Clarion was working on.  The above image was a character rendering of the title character that I did also for the workshop.   

It was another great conference, and I met a lot of great writers and artists who I hope to keep in touch with!  Thanks for SCBWI Southern Breeze for another great event!

Library of the Early Mind

I just got back from a SCBWI conference, so thought this would be an appropriate find!

"Library of the Early Mind" is a documentary exploring children's literature and featuring interviews with authors and illustrators like Chris Van Allsburg, R.L. Stine, Mo Willems, etc. It doesn't seem to be showing at a lot of venues yet, and all mostly around the New England area. Can we get this in Georgia please?

Tiny Tooth Designs is now on Etsy!

Order custom Cross Stitch Tooth Fairy Pillows online at:

www.etsy.com/shop/TinyToothDesigns

Tiny Tooth Business Cards

Just finished these really cute square business cards for Tiny Tooth Designs. The back of the business card features a picture of the products that will soon be in their Etsy store. They are going to be printed 2" square with UV coating on the back. The design used for the front of the business card will also be used as a sticker for bags.

Always in Season!

Illustrators' Day 2010: Something to Sing About

On Friday, September 3rd was a workshop I had been looking forward to for a while-- the annual Illustrators' Day in Decatur, GA held at the Decatur Public Library and hosted by the regional chapter of SCBWI, Southern Breeze. I attended last year and got a lot out of the event, but I was really excited to learn that this year's event was extended to include a whole day's worth of activities centered around the craft and business of illustrating for kids!

The event kicked off with a discussion with two amazing, award-winning illustrators, Rick Lovell (a professor of mine at SCAD!) and Bill Mayer. They spoke about their experiences working within the children's book market, tips for navigating freelance business, pros and cons of working with an agent, tips for promotion, and copyright issues. These illustrators have so much experience between them, and every time I hear them speak I gain some new piece of knowledge about the illustration business.

Loraine Joyner, Art Director for Peachtree Publishers, spoke next about the grabbing an Art Director's attention with promotional material. She brought in a flood of mailers she had received over the past month, which ranged from the amazing to the not so amazing. It was interesting to hear about what grabbed her eye. She also gave some suggestions for resources to help develop our craft. Lastly, she went through a manuscript and discussed how an illustrator could interpret text and turn it into intriguing and memorable pictures.

New South Books' Brian Seidman spoke about book cover design and the opportunities for artists within that avenue. They hire both a designer and an illustrator to work on their books. New South had some really outstanding cover illustrations, and it was interesting to hear about the process of how they are developed.

Published illustrator Shandra Stickland, whose new picture book A Place Where Hurricanes Happen was recently released attended the event and reviewed portfolios and spoke a little about her work. Elizabeth Dulemba, organized the event, and also had some great tips about putting together a print portfolio.

Mark Braught was awesome enough to help the first 25 people who signed up for the workshop, and act as an Art Director/mentor while developing an image for the topic "Something to Sing About". This assignment was great fun -- I thoroughly enjoyed playing (and singing along to) my favorite musicals while I worked in the studio. Mark was extremely generous with his time in reviewing my work every step of the way. He had some great tips that I will use when developing my work in the future. Below are some of my developmental sketches that Mark helped me with.

Sketch #2/Color Comp

Sketch #1

Initial thumbnail

Having just finished the art for my first picture book, this was a great event to attend and get me pumped for getting back to producing some new work. All of these illustrators in one place was very inspiring, and it is always wonderful meeting new artists and see their amazing work. It also set a great tone for the Decatur Book Festival the next day! I feel refreshed going forward, and now I can't wait for the Wik '10 conference in Birmingham, AL next month...

The elephants are coming...

Been kinda quiet these last couple months as I've been working on a picture book entitled It's the Elephant Picnic. I am really close to being done, and looking at the dynamic, colorful pages all together has been very exciting. Can't wait to see it in print!