Posters for Velveteen Rabbit, Sleepy Hollow, and Little Engine

Back in May, the Arkansas Art Center (AAC) commissioned these posters (which just came out of embargo) for their traveling children's theatre season.  A big thank you to Kyle Floyd and Bradley Anderson for a fun opportunity to work on a large format and do some hand lettering.

The posters are colored pencil, acrylic, and watercolor with digital elements.

Spider Magazine

For the second year in a row I've created the illustrations for Spider Magazine's September issue.  This year's feature, "Little Coyote" by Leslie Davidson, tells the story of a young girl who sees her first coyote while camping.  A huge thank you to Sue Beck for another wonderful story. 

Brave New World

Back in January I entered the Folio Society's third annual illustration competition with three interior illustrations for Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. They just announced the winner (you can see the book here), so I thought I'd share my entry. 

New Sketchbook Pages

Just a few pages filled during some recent travels.  I mostly used pen and ink with touches of marker and watercolor pencils.  Enjoy.

 

Spider Magazine

Spider, a children’s literary magazine, features four of my latest illustrations this month.  They accompany “Happiness on a Piece of Paper,” Valerie Hunter’s short story about Garrison, a ten-year old boy living in 19^th century rural Pennsylvania.  Garrison loves to draw but worries that his family will insist he stop “fooling around with pen and paper.”  Keeping with the central theme of the story, I wanted to maintain a subtle tension between Garrison and his family.  The illustrations are mixed media: colored pencil, watercolor, and acrylic with some digital touches.  Big thank you to my art director, Suzanne Beck, for the great assignment.  

 

 

SILA 50

Happy news, I've had two pieces accepted in this year's Society of Illustrators West annual exhibit!
Virginia Hamilton (Ohio Magazine AD Lesley Blake) was accepted in the editorial category.
He Worried His Friends Only Loved Him for His Golden Scales won Gold in the gallery category.
Many thanks to the judges and congratulations to all the winners. The exhibit will be shown at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, CA sometime at the end of March. More information to come.

The Offering

I completed this drawing today. I love the feeling of longing and isolation. After finishing, I coated it with clear gesso to protect the linework from the numerous layers of paint.

The Offering will be part of a small exhibit of new pieces at Galiara, a gallery in San Francisco, sometime next year.

Sketchbooks

It's been a while since my last post, so here are a few choice pages from my sketchbook. Most are pen and ink (SKB 1000) but markers and watercolor pencils are beginning to stake a claim. Enjoy.

Also, here's a peek at my "idea book" and a few thumbnails.

New Illustrations

Two of my illustrations hit newsstands this month; both portraits: Dorothea Dix for Cobblestone, and Virginia Hamilton for Ohio Magazine.

Cobblestone wanted Dorothea Dix shown directing a crowded hospital ward. With the complicated composition and large number of figures, I decided to combine a traditional drawing with digital paint and color for more flexible editing.

Ohio Magazine wanted an image honoring Virginia Hamilton’s legacy as a pivotal figure in children’s literature. After sending several sketches, the art director and I fell in love with the concept of a field filled with book-like flowers. With the simpler composition, I created the illustration using traditional media, my preferred method.

I’m so proud of both these pieces; many thanks to my art directors, Debra Porter at Cobblestone and Lesley Blake at Ohio Magazine, for giving me the chance to create them.

Oprah Selected as Staff Pick in Breakthrough Competition

My illustration Oprah in Saudi Arabia has been selected as one of twenty staff picks in the Richard Solomon Breakthrough Competition. It can be seen here.

Be sure to also check out the grand prize winner and four finalists.

Congrats to all the artists.

New Work and Piranha Shop Parlor Show Details

He Worried His Friends Only Liked Him for His Golden Scales, 2011
Mixed Media with Gold Leaf on Board, 6"x10"

Here's my latest piece, for a show at the Piranha Shop Parlor running from Friday Sept. 23 through Saturday October 8 (1022 S. 1st Ave, in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood).

The curators asked artists to include at least one work featuring a piranha. Most people see a fearsome fish; I see a misunderstood, bejeweled creature. Piranhas appear to have gold glitter integrated among their scales, finally giving me a chance to play with gold leaf.

The floor of my studio is a lot shinier now.

Don’t Mind People Grinning in Your Face (Portrait of Jack White)

I started working on this piece for an assignment for my second Tutormill class, Realistic Portraits with Tim O’Brien and Nathan Fox. The illustration had to fit Rolling Stone’s format as a possible cover. The heart and soul of a lot of White's music comes out of the Mississippi Delta Blues tradition so I decided to show Jack as a Blues musician from the ‘30s.
The finished piece is gouache, graphite, ink and acrylic. I’m considering adding textures, grease spots and cracks digitally to create the illusion of an old photograph, but I’m still on the fence. Any feedback on this (or any aspect of the illustration) would be awesome.
In case you’re wondering, the title comes from the name of Jack White’s favorite song, a blues anthem written by Son House in the ‘30s. I think it suits the starkness of the portrait and Jack White’s independent attitude toward life.

SILA 49

Great news; My illustration of Oprah’s influence on Middle Eastern woman has been accepted into the Society of Illustrator’s West annual show. The original is currently hanging at the exhibition at Gallery Nucleus until January 31st.

Back to (online) school

Like many artists beginning their careers, I have taken a part time job. This helps pay the bills and prevents me from losing all ability to relate to the outside world.

Now that I have a part-time job, every moment for art creation become much more precious.

I’ve noticed that my productivity totally goes downhill when I don’t have a deadline. Personal deadlines don’t count for me; my inner disciplinarian voice is the same voice rationalizing why I stayed up reading instead of making art.

To raise productivity and sleep depravation, I am taking classes through Tutormill. Tutormill offers students the chance to take a class with two mentors of the student’s choice. All of these mentors are professional illustrators including Scott Bakal, Nathan Fox, Marcos Chin, Yuko Shimizu, Edel Rodrigez, Tim O’Brien, etc. My first class, The Power of the Idea, focused on improving illustration concepts (definitely one of my weaknesses). Scott and Yuko went above and beyond offering tons of great advice and feedback.

I chose the six-week format; it gives the student one week for thumbnails and an additional week for the final illustration. For the Power of the Idea the student is given a single word to illustrate. Some of them have restrictions of what imagery can appear in the final illustration to really push your creativity.

Assignment 1: Utopia

Assignment 2: Battle

Assignment 3: Peace (no doves, flowers, or hearts)

One of the biggest challenges was time management, hence the digital push but I'm happy with the work. I'd like to add more polish to these, especially the utopia and battle images, but I'm proud of how far I was able to push these.

I'm currently taking a portrait class on Tutormill that will be wrapping up soon so there will be more fun illustrations in the near future.

Likeness Cover, Final

Hi everyone,
Things have been busy. Over the past couple months I got a job at the Seattle Blick Art Supplies, I am periodically taking online classes through Tutormill, I have set up a page on theispot, and my boyfriend and I got a dog, Jefferson. Unsurprisingly, the blog was pushed to the very bottom of my to do list. I will be posting lots of new art over the next week or two as I catch up.

Now, on to the art.
The reimagined Likeness cover is finished, yay! I completed the final in Photoshop and Painter, protecting the integrity of the drawing while letting me experiment with creating a mood through a limited palette.

Likeness Cover

Lately, I have focused on creating a few book covers. This piece is a cover image for the Likeness by Tana French. The drawing began as a study in an oversized sketchbook; however the unrehearsed line work reminded me of my personal sketches (something I've wanted to bring to my illustrations) so I'm using it as a final drawing. The illustration will most likely be executed in acrylic, gouache and ink.

Oprah Final

Completing this piece has been my main focus lately. The final is mixed media--colored pencil, acrylic and wax. Yes, wax. By spreading thin layers of wax over sections of the board I was able to quickly soften the edges of the background pattern and create the illusion of a glass surface.

Sketchbook Travels

My boyfriend and I just returned from six weeks on the road; a majority of that was spent exploring Europe. Here are a few new pages from the sketchbook created during our travels.

iPhone 4 Case

Like many Apple and technology enthusiasts, my boyfriend, Chris, bought an iPhone 4 in June. While learning about the iPhone Chris discovered Grove, a small Portland-based company creating bamboo iPhone cases. Grove offers several designs but also lets people submit vector art to customize their case, like so . . .