Fast Forward to Fall

It was a super busy summer between traveling and illustration work. Back in August I attended the 42nd Annual Summer SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles. This was my first time attending the LA Conference. I had an amazing week in CA, meeting other SCBWI volunteers from all over the world, as well as agents, editors and art directors.  I also received a new project to illustrate three game-boards during the portfolio showcase portion of the conference!

Last week I attended the Rutgers One on One Plus Conference in New Jersey. I submitted a new picture book dummy and had a wonderful day with the mentoring editors, art directors and agents. My mentor wants to take another look at my picture book dummy, after I make some revisions ...  which was very exciting news!! The conference is sponsored by the Rutgers University Council on Children's Literature. It was a inspiring day!

After a week of summer-like weather in NJ, I returned home to rain, cold, and a little snow!  Reminding me, the holidays are just around the corner and it's time to create ornaments for my  co-op- Art IN Hand - Gallery in Zionsville, IN.

The gallery's holiday tree will be up November 14, displaying ornaments from many of our artists. My 2013 ornaments are made of porcelain clay. Pictured below are two designs, Catching Snowflake Kids and Santa by the Moon. I'm working on more designs today.

Happy (fast-forward) Fall!

Vist to Padua Academy

Today I visited the 1st and 3rd grade art classes at the Padua Academy Charter School in the Haughville neighborhood of Indianapolis. http://www.paduaacademyindy.org

After we talked about my job as an illustrator  … I gave the students an assignment to create a character.  We worked on rough sketches and some students had time to color in their finished drawing.  The Padua Academy has awesome artists!!!

Thanks you Hanna C., a 3rd grader, who gave me her super-snail drawing.

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring!  My spring promo illustrates the poem “Map to Spring” written by my talented friend Rebecca Kai Dotlich.  "Map to Spring" was first published in in Sharing the Seasons : a book of poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Rebecca is a poet and picture book author. Her work is featured widely in poetry anthologies and textbooks. She can be reached at rebeccakaidotlich.com.

The illustration for “Map to Spring” was drawn on Strathmore 400 Series Drawing paper and subsequently painted in Photoshop.  The promo postcards will be in the mail soon. 
Thanks for stopping by to see my new spring art. 

Valentine's Day Art

Sweet-tweets! I created this promo-greeting traditionally and in Photoshop.
I am also collaging textures into the art by scanning tree-bark, fabrics, and little feathers I created in colored pencil.  I have also included a close-up of the red bird from the Sweet-tweets art below.
You can click-on the bird (if you like : ) to link to my Picture Book Directory page.
I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day xxx

Holiday Postcard

Happy Holidays!  My holiday art this year illustrates the poem “Little Village” written by my talented friend Terry Webb Harshman. It was first published in The Poetry Friday Anthology compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Terry is a published poet, children’s book author, and the editor of Turtle Magazine for Preschool Kids and Humpty Dumpty Magazine.

The illustration for “Little Village” was drawn on Strathmore 400 Series Drawing Paper
and subsequently painted in Photoshop.

 It's great fun for me to feature real pets in my illustrations. Bailey Jean Devansky is a local beagle who visits my studio while on a perpetual quest for a treat. I thought of her while sketching a dog peeking in the window.

The tiny cat in the village (standing in the alley next to the bakery) was inspired by the real life Mac Vargo. Mac and his sister, Tosh Vargo, are regularly featured in my art.

Currently the elves in my studio are busy putting the final touches on my annual holiday postcard and hope to get them delivered before Valentine's Day. Thanks for stopping by to see my new holiday art!

Baby Letter N

One of the many hidden picture master artists for Highlights Magazine, Tim Davis, recently celebrated the birth of his grandson. To join in the celebration, a group of Highlights for Children Magazine illustrators each depicted a letter of the baby's name with a hidden picture drawing. My letter was N, so I decided to feature a young artist (like his Grandpa) sporting three sticks of chalk to form the letter N and a chalk board background.

Like my other work, I started with a simple thumbnail sketch...

and then did line drawings of the images to scale. In the sketching process, my ideas always evolve and the original idea grows into something new. The pencil sometimes leads me in an entirely different direction than my starting point. For example, my original idea was to hide the words (that begin with N) on the baby’s shirt, but after finishing a thumbnail sketch, I decided a chalkboard would be best for the hidden words.
 

After sketching, my next step is to scan the drawings individually and place them in a Photoshop document. This becomes my final sketch which is then painted in Photoshop using the Cintiq. The fun part of this project was to paint and play with new brushes in Photoshop, trying to create the 'look' of chalk dust on the blackboard.

Congratulations to Tim and the Davis family on your new grandchild!
I hope you like the letter N.

New Gallery Art

My travel sketches are becoming a new series of paintings titled "Sketch Boxes". The art featured in this blog post is one of the painting I created after visiting the Italian Market in Philadelphia.

My 'Sketch Boxes' are wooden boxes with images rendered in acrylic paint.
I'm looking forward to posting more of my newest artwork and information about the gallery, where all the pieces will be displayed. Stay tuned!