Bye, bye!

Bye, bye sweet blog! It's been a great few years posting over here BUT I'm excited to share that my website is all new and fancy now, and I will be blogging illustration/design related posts over HERE! 

See you soon :-)

Make Art That Sells, final reviews!

I have been finished with Make Art That Sells part B for weeks now! Weeks! It was such an intense 5 week session, but in the best way possible.  I found myself more worn out this time and it took me longer to recover after.  We can blame it on age 30 settling on in (hahah).  Really, I think the reason is I understood the process and schedule better since I completed part A, so there was no more the adrenaline rush of the unknown.  Also, I didn't think it was possible to work myself harder than I did in part A but I DID! I worked 150% and it felt great to be that absorbed by something I love so much.

All in all, I can speak highly enough of the class.  Lilla reviews work in her video critiques and because of the large amount of students, she can just select some.  Susan McCabe, an agent on Lilla's team, did a guest review during week 4 and my piece was in her selection.  I was OVER THE MOON. I'm still over the moon.  I had not been chosen before, and I was ok with that.  Of course I wanted to be, but I was able to listen to the critiques and take bits and pieces and apply them to my own work.  

Above is my Week 4 piece completed.  It was an editorial assignment of a map of your town.  My town is New York City but I didn't want to go about it the traditional Empire State Building kinda way.  Instead, I logged caffeine! This piece challenged me more than any other piece.  It is the one I am most proud of accomplishing within the few day deadline, so having it be chosen to discuss made it that more special! 

Week 5 drew from Ukrainian Folk Art inspiration and at first I was like uhh..whhhhaaaaatttt? And then I was all like, OMG I LOVE THIS.  I am still shocked at how inspiring I found this form of art.  We had to complete a paper party good set and I had an absolute blast with it.  I pushed my color choices a lot.  I loved breaking down icons into simple shapes and filling them up with other shapes.  I loved scale and composition play.  I just, well, loved!!! (click to enlarge)

Lilla did choose mine in her video critique.  Her positive words about it were so so so encouraging, and she said she wanted to see more cats! I can happily share that more cats are in progress as I type.  Well not literally as I type, because my hands are busy, but you know what I mean.   I look forward to sharing them soon.  I am also working on a piece for an upcoming conference based on Snow White and I am using Ukrainian folk art as the inspiration for that piece as well. 

I also am so pleased to share that Make Art That Sells is a course about licensing artwork, and upon ending the second session I was approached to license artwork for greeting cards.  I can't wait to share that with you in 2014, when they'll be on shelves!!!!! 

A Very Sparkly Star

It's been pretty quiet around these bloggin' parts because it's been pretty busy in these real life parts! Before I share a recap of the last few weeks of the Make Art That Sells class, I want to share an awesome project I had the opportunity to work on for Swarovski. The iconic Rockefeller Center christmas tree is topped every year by a massive, beautifully, sparkly Swarovski star. At ground level during the holiday season, in Rockefellar center, stands a replica. Visitors can take their photo with it and read the informational panels around it, explaining the history of the star as well. This year, the aluminum panels holding up this star were designed by me, along with the informational panels!!

I had a great time working on it and an even greater time going to see it once it was installed. So far I've gone in the day pre-tree lightening, in the night pre-tree lightening and in the night post-tree lighting! Each time the coolness of the whole project remains. If you are in NYC this holiday season, go see it! It's right next to Anthropologie next to the Swarovski kiosk. It's hard to miss, because that star is super sparkly! Here are some photos from the various times I've stopped by:

Say Cheese! Week 3 in Make Art That Sells

Hello, hello world. I forgot how intensive this course is!!! And howwwww right about now my brain literally feels like it's at maximum capacity and needs a night (or like 20 nights) off.  Which, in fact, I gave it last night. I wanted to share my week 3 experience because it was different than my usual week because of the way I worked.  Not like a totally different style or anything drastic, but a different approach to the way I create my icons.  This involved drawing digitally, printing on transparencies, taking marker to the transparencies and giving them each more character and a hand drawn feel, scanning them in and turning them to vector.  I had a lot of fun with it. I also hated it and wanted to scrap it halfway through because it was frustrating not being able to fully visualize my result like I usually can (or come close to) BUT I stuck it out and in the end was pleased with the result.

The assignment for the first 2 days was to draw cameras and typewriters.  Then from there the project became developing a page of elements for scrapbooking.  My sister scrapbooks (Hi, Ray!) and she told me I MUST included the word "travel" so I did…and hand written words were also part of the assignment so that worked too.  

I also wanted to play with a color palette I've been wanting to work in, but hadn't ever.  That might be my favorite part about the end product here, the colors! I definitely want to do more in this process and with these colors in the future.

Week 4 is more than halfway done, so I'll be back to post about that soon!

Join The Bunny Scouts!

Click image to enlarge!!

Week 2 of Make Art That Sells was all about baby apparel and the theme of our assignment was camping.  We had to make a pattern and if you wanted, some mock up baby apparel items. I make patterns almost every day as part of my day-job as a children's accessory designer, but I do not usually use my personal style in them because I work primarily with licensed characters.  It was really fun to try one in my own technique.  I spent a lot of time on the individual icons. A loooottttt of time.  That was my biggest take-away from part A of the class, that the more effort and detail I put into those during the mini assignments, the better my finish would come together and flow.  

Due to my schedule this week, I had to finish my project by Friday in order to guarantee I would be able to make the deadline.  I'm very happy this is the only week that timing will be tight for me, because cutting 2 days off was HARD! But, that being said, I had a really great time with it and made a narrative in my head that allowed the individual icons to unite.  My sister and brother-in-law recently welcomed a baby boy and while making the mock ups I had him in mind! I would love to see him wearing any of these. 

Here's a little video of my process from sketch to finish:

And now onto week 3! 

Back to School, Week 1!

I worked on a really exciting freelance project a few weeks ago that had to do with the holiday season, so I was in the perfect mind-set for week 1 of Make Art That Sells.  We spent the first few days focusing on ornaments and candy. I found myself leaning more towards the ornaments.  I snacked on plenty of candy along the way though!! Haha!  The full assignment was to create 2 holiday cards.  I learned in part A of the class that the more I work during the mini assignment realllllllly  ends up helping me for the final assignment.  So that's what I did. I worked. And worked and worked and worked. And in the end I create this, which I am so happy with! This is the card I ended up submitting in the class flickr group. Check out my Instavideo of this piece from sketch to finish HERE! 

My second card will be used for social media purposes, and I loved the idea of playing with the term tweet.  I think I want to go back into it and play with the definition in the eyes, maybe make the thicker and adjust the color, add some lashes, etc.  But for now, here's my finish:

Ready-set-go! Week 2! 

Back to School!

It's back to school for me! It's actually 5 days in, but I am SO excited to see where Part B of Make Art That Sells leads! 

L is for Lion

I've officially started a circus themed ABC series! You'll notice a similar lion in the post below.  This is his cousin.  One fights fires and one is in the circus.  ;-) 

More to come soon on this project! 

Illustration Friday- Rescue

"Rescue" is this week's Illustration Friday topic.  It just happens to fit in perfectly with the nursery art series I just completed.  Happy Friday! 

****UMMMMM this just in. Apparently this week's topic is "Lush" and i'm losing my mind hahaha.  Sorry if you clicked this from Illustration Friday's site.  I was in England for the last 48 hours so let's blame this on a jet lagged brain.  

A Bouquet Commission

I recently took on the really fun commission of making a bridal bouquet for a wedding in North Carolina.  I had made the  bouquets for my wedding, and the bride loved the concept of something to last forever.  She wanted to keep her color palette limited to whites, grays and silvers and sent me some family heirlooms as well as a beautiful base that she thrifted.  Working on this was an absolute pleasure. I do SO much work digitally that sometimes you just wanna whip out the crazy glue and go wild.  And I did…The result is below! I hope she likes it!!

Le Owl

Lilla Rogers, my dream-agent, tweeted recently an image of this Thom Browne dress from Fashion Week. 

She wrote, "How would you make a piece of art based on this? Drawing the figure, or using the color palette of cherry red, purple-y grey, and white, or doing a pattern based on the print and the big stripes on the clothing? Show me! I'd love to see!"

So I took this assignment and gave it some thought. At first, I became really set on doing a collage illustration of a mouse in a field of flowers, obviously. 

Then i started, and just wasn't feeling it.  So I stared at the dress again for awhile, and all of a sudden it hit me- an owl with an umbrella, obviously. 

For this, the color palette was really important because I wanted to keep it inspired by the fashion.  I pulled the colors from the actual photo and scanned in some floral doodles that were a nod towards the floral pattern on the skirt and tights.

Here are some screen grabs of my progress:

And here is my final piece! (click to enlarge)

Lilla is teaching an e-course, Make Art That Sells and I can't wait! Join the waiting list to sign up for the class HERE.

I'm extremely grateful for some feedback on my ice skater, and thought I'd post the newest rendition of my piece.  If you want to see this illustration in progress, I posted it HERE!
Click to enlarge!

Frida Kahlo

I'm a big fan of Frida Kahlo. I find her life fascinating, her work moving, and her style inspiring. A little while ago I read The Secret Life of Frida Kahlo, and a lovely blog reader recommended I read The Lacuna.  I just did, and I loved it!  It inspired me to do a portrait of Frida, which is something I've been meaning to do for awhile.  

It's collaged, but not in my traditional children's style.  I had a lot of fun doing it, and think I want to further develop my portrait style.  One day I'm going to visit the Frida Kahlo Museum, which happens to be the iconically house where she grew up.  It's on my bucket list!  

And see my Society 6 shop for some products featuring this Frida Portrait!

The SCBWI Winter Conference

The SCBWI Winter Conference was this past weekend, so I packed up my portfolio and spent 3 days at the Hyatt Grand Central absorbing as much as possible and meeting some really amazing and talented people along the way. A total of 999 illustrators and writers were there, from 17 different countries.  I was lucky to only have to travel about 60 blocks and a few avenues over to get there! 

The conference is overwhelming in the way that it is so much inspiration and information packed into a very short time. Buttttt that is the best kind of overwhelming ever! Lectures from Shaun Tan, The Brothers Hilts, Meg Rosoff, Mo Willems and Barbara McClintock particularly moved me.  I have a notebook filled with incredible quotes about the power of the word and art and why creating for children is such an important job.  After this conference, I can genuinely say I want more than ever to write and illustrate for children. 

Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton spoke on the last day. Julie Andrews. JULIE ANDREWS.  I have very mixed opinions on celebrities and their children's books, as do pretty much every writer and illustrator. Julie, however, is an exception.  First of all, she's not a celebrity. She's Mary Poppins. She has been writing for ages, has respect for the craft, and even has some published under the name Julie Edwards.  She also works with her daughter, and their lecture was so filled with love and inspiration, that when I had the opportunity to speak with them I told them that they made me want to call my mother to say I love her! And Julie responded that it was "the warmest compliment a peer could give" and then I just stood there staring at her, because Julie Andrews spoke to me.  

Coming back from the conference is kinda surreal. It feels like I checked out of normal life for 3 days. All of a sudden here I am with a zillion emails to catch up, a billion postcards of peers who have sites and blogs that I can't wait to visit, and a mind overflowing with ideas I'm eager to get started on. 

If you are an aspiring Children's book writer and/or illustrator, I highly recommend joining the SCBWI and attending a conference.  It's a really fantastic, supportive organization that can help you get steps closer to reaching your career goals.  This past weekend I made a bunch of new friends that I plan on keeping in close contact with and I know we will cheer each other along the publishing path!  I am preparing posts soon to share some of their work. 

My mother-in-law adores the work of Mo Willems. Here I am with him as he signs a few books for her:

The Brothers Hilts' book, The Insomniacs, by Karina Wolf, is one of the most beautiful children's books I've ever seen.  You must, must, must watch the trailer for the book:

Watching people view my work was really fun. Here's a photo from the portfolio showcase:

And that's a wrap!  It was a creative whirlwind and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of it. 

PS thanks to my husband for going to Barnes & Noble and picking up all the books on my to-get-signed list! And for waking up early with me every day to make coffee.  He's the best. 

Amazing Site Alert: SOCIETY 6!

Society 6 is a really awesome site that allows artists from around the world to upload their work and sell it on a variety of products.  I'm uploading some of my work there, which will be available as stationery cards, iphone cases, pillows and prints.  You can visit my shop HERE! 

Along the way I've been browsing the site, and had to bring attention to some of my favorites. I put together this little guide. Enjoy! 

1*2*3*4*5

The Sketchbook Project (THIS IS MY 1000TH POST!)

Last year I participated in The Sketchbook Project and when it came up again I decided to go for it! I really liked doing it last time, and even more than that I really liked seeing it at The Brooklyn Art Library months later on a date with Tristan. :-)
I decided to treat mine as a photo sketchbook this year. Since getting my Iphone in October, I've been instagram-crazy (or KRAY-KRAY as the Kardashian's would say…yes, I just wrote that) and decided to do something with them for this.
I'm also addicted to Japanese Washi tape, and have quite an ever-growing collection. If it needs to be taped close, it should look pretty! Right??? RIGHT!!!
The mini polaroid looking images were printed through Prinstagram.
The square images as well as the aluminum print for the cover were printed through PostalPix.
Have a look at some progress photos below and for information about The Sketchbook Project & tour click HERE.