my world...

Teacher Appreciation Week/IF: Lesson

2011-05-03T15:02:00.008-04:00

It's Teacher Appreciation Week, and this illustration was commissioned by a friend who's daughter wanted a gift for her special 1st grade teacher. While I was working on the piece I started to think about some of my own favorite teachers and what an impact they had on me through their encouragement of my budding artistic talents. My own first grade teacher, Mrs. Flannery, is certainly one of my favorites, she knew that I had an excitement for being a new reader and let me read a book to the class one afternoon. I even got to be first in line all day on Halloween because she loved my costume so much- I was dressed as my (and her) favorite literary character, Dorothy. She continued to be a friend after I passed to other grades, coming to see a community play I was in and putting a write-up about it in the school paper.

I've had many other teachers that have touched my mind as well as my heart, and I saw one of them a few days ago when I was visiting our new public museum. Mrs. Swanson was my 4th grade teacher- and 4th grade honestly, was not my favorite. I was a shy kid at a new school and was bullied by my classmates, but my teacher was kind to me and recognized my creative ability. What surprised me when I saw her was that she was excited to see me! She remembered me, out of all the kids in all of her classrooms over many years, and that I was a quite artistic child. It really meant a lot that I stood out to her. Teachers are remarkable human beings and I am thankful for so many of mine that have literally shown me the world, as the teacher in my illustration is doing with her students.

Children's Book Week

2011-05-03T14:43:00.011-04:00

This is an illustration I've recently completed for the Sioux City Public Library, and very fitting to post today because this is Children's Book Week, an annual celebration of children's books that goes back to 1919. The Children's Book Week Posters book by Leonard Marcus was a wonderful reference to look through when I was searching out inspiration for my own book-themed illustration. Here are a few of my favorite CBW posters, I have the first two hanging in my office that I found on Ebay, and I would love to get my hands on a copy of the poster by Jan Balet (my most favorite)... have not had any luck in my searches so far.

William Penn DuBois, 1950

Garth WIlliams, 1955

Jan Balet, 1953

My other inspiration for this piece came from one of my favorite artists, Grant Wood. Whenever I have to take a drive across the state I always look out on the green, rolling hills and rows of corn and think of Grant Wood's paintings. I knew from the start that I wanted my library illustration to also represent the beauty of rural Iowa, something I am proud of because of my family's long history with farming in this state. This is Grant Wood's painting Young Corn:

And I'm not done! This is a small illustration, but over the next few months I will be recreating it twice- on a 30"x30" canvas and 4'x4' masonite board. Both with be hung at the Sioux City Library's main branch for public viewing when they are finished. Stay tuned!

Illustration Friday: Journey

2011-04-17T13:24:00.006-04:00

The word for Illustration Friday this week is Journey, which I love because it fits perfectly with a piece that I have been meaning to get posted for the last few months. The illustration is of Heidi, from the classic book by Johanna Spyri. I entered a contest last December for the Tomie dePaola Award, and in the guidelines were the first few paragraphs of the book, detailing Heidi's journey with her aunt to the top of a mountain where she would live with her grandfather. After a few weeks of sketching several ways this scene could be illustrated I decided that Heidi must have felt scared and also in awe, so I chose not to do a close-up shot but instead wanted to make her feel small in her wide open and large, completely new environment. I didn't win the contest, but it was a wonderful challenge that I put a lot of thought into, and it's a great addition to my portfolio.

Please click on the full illustration if you would like to see it larger/better detail.

From the Sketchbook...

2010-09-26T01:21:00.014-04:00

I have been a bad blogger lately... but I have lots of good excuses! I am working on revising a picturebook dummy to send back to an editor, finishing up a public works project with two more to follow, and I am moving my studio- again. This will make the sixth move in four years. I found a beautiful 1920's home that needed some tlc, and so I have been spending the past month cleaning, scraping, painting, and raking. I am hoping to stay put for a while- moving a studio and getting set up again takes so much time (time I would rather spend making new art.)

When I have a minute here and there I'm trying to do some sketching to keep my drawing muscles in good shape. I took another exercise from the book Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim, in which she suggests making a visit to the library and browsing the shelves for a few minutes until something should catch our eye. It was up to us how much time we wanted to spend sketching from the inspired book or books.

I have no trouble finding inspiration at the library. After a few minutes I came across a book on Topiary Gardens. This appealed to me immediately because (if I have failed to mention before) trees are among my favorite things to draw. I love the shapes, the branches, the negative spaces, and the variety- everything about them. I'd never studied topiaries in detail so I thought it would be fun to try drawing them.

Noah

2010-09-05T01:26:00.003-04:00

I wanted to share this photo of my nephew Noah taken at ArtSplash, an annual Labor Day festival held on the Missouri River. He'll be four years old this week and I was thinking today about the months leading up to his birth and how I was so excited to become an aunt, and I thought about all the things I wanted to eventually share with him. Encouraging him in art has been easy- drawing, painting, collage, he loves all of it. I feel very lucky to be the aunt of such a wonderful little person who is growing up so fast!

Flying Free

2010-08-29T12:49:00.011-04:00

When I took a trip to Florida from my home in Atlanta a few years ago I got to experience the ocean for the first time. I don't have the words to describe how it felt after more than 26 years of mostly living in the Midwest, but it was something I will never forget. I spent a few days taking long walks, collecting shells, jumping in the surf, and observing the wildlife on the beach. With the horrible recent event of the Gulf oil spill disaster, it's gotten me thinking more about my time on the Atlantic side. My feelings about being there inspired this illustration. I've sold prints at a local gift shop with the proceeds going to a Gulf wildlife preservation charity called Save Our Seabirds. I hope that we can all do something to make sure that this place stays beautiful for people and animals for years to come.

Initial sketches:

Illustration Friday: Star Gazing

2010-08-19T23:43:00.008-04:00

When I was a kid I did a lot of star gazing- not the ones up in the sky so much as the ones on the screen in my living room. I was in love with all of the old movie stars from a very young age. I had my little nose glued to the set whenever they were on television (this is before the hundreds of specialty cable stations) and I would check videos out from my library. Judy and Mickey were my favorite, but I also loved the comedy teams that made me giggle till I was sick- The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Dean and Jerry, and Laurel and Hardy.

I've been wanting to do some kind of Laurel and Hardy drawing for a while now, and when I saw the topic for this week I had an idea. Drawing caricatures is something I find challenging and haven't taken time to do many of them, but if there ever were a pair of people who would be fun and interesting to caricature, it's these guys. And they have been, by many artists- including several from the master of caricature Al Hirschfeld. Even in one of my favorite books by Maurice Sendak, In the Night Kitchen, the three chefs are all Oliver Hardy. I was always delighted by that when I would read it as a child.

I looked up both of their bios and listened to an interview that Stan Laurel gave in the 50s. He said that he loved to be out on his boat fishing whenever he was not in the studio, which gave me the idea for him to be catching his stars with a fishing pole. He also said that he was so thankful for his fans, and he responded to every single piece of fanmail personally throughout his entire career. I love hearing things like that- a wonderful, talented human being. Both of them were, and this was a fun little drawing to pay homage to a couple of stars that I've enjoyed gazing (and laughing) at since I was a kid.

If you'd like to see a little more of the detail just click on the image to enlarge it!

Contours and Scribbles

2010-07-25T21:38:00.010-04:00

Last week I wrote about a new book that I absolutely love called Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim, which contains 52 exercises to "make drawing fun" and I posted up my first experiment with one of them, the Picasso Dog. I would like to continue to try out one or two of them a week (I would love to try them all at once, but unfortunately I have other jobs and projects that must come first.)

Today I tried lab #31, Scribble Drawings. Directions were to make random marks on your paper, adding loops or curves for interest. Then study them, perhaps turning the paper to get a different perspective, to see if you can see the beginning of something like a face or an animal. Very fun and a good challenge to see how inventive I could get. The faces were my favorite. I used a Sharpie marker (one of my favorite drawing tools) on a legal pad which I also love using, maybe because my hero Charles Schulz always sketched his Peanuts on lined paper. I've never spent money for fancy sketchbooks, cheap paper and notebooks work better because I feel free to try things out and I'm not worried about making mistakes on nice stuff. This will be a fun, easy drawing exercise to continue whenever I'm stuck in a waiting room or airport and need a good boredom buster.

Illustration Friday: Breakfast

2010-07-20T16:33:00.006-04:00

I'm in love with art on vintage products, so when I saw that the word for Illustration Friday this week was breakfast, the first thing that came to my mind were those funny and colorful (and sometimes cheesy) cereal box covers from the 50's and 60's. It was a fun challenge to come up with my own cereal brand and gimmicky lines. My dad was raised on those kinds of cereals and I remember him telling me his favorite was Boo-Berry. For me, I like drawing it more than eating it- I'm more of a peanut butter toast and banana while flying out the door and eating it on the way to work kinda girl.

Picasso Dog

2010-07-17T17:04:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago I received a book that I ordered from Amazon called Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim, containing 52 creative exercises for artists to "make drawing fun." I LOVE this book because as a working artist I get into the rut of making art that brings a paycheck (which is important) and don't make enough time for art that is just for me. And I think it's really important to do the personal stuff- to doodle, scribble, and experiment with different art mediums. It gets me out of my comfort zone and I don't worry about getting it wrong and I don't worry about it's outcome. It's a reminder that creating art is supposed to be enjoyable. I see things in a new way and in the end all of the playing around makes me a better artist. And my commissioned work benefits.

For the first one I decided to try lab #19, the "Picasso Dog." I thought it would be fun because I love how Picasso had a sense of playfulness and humor with his animals. And it was lots of fun. I used Sharpie and Copic markers. I'm going to set aside time every week and try more of them out, and of course I will post them up on my blog (and maybe it will make me a better blogger, too... I've been horrible lately!)

Okoboji Home

2010-07-16T13:40:00.004-04:00

This is a commissioned piece I did as a gift for a couple who own a lake home in Okoboji, Iowa. I've been up there a few times and it's a gorgeous place. When deciding the color scheme of the illustration, I thought back to a few special 4th of July's I spent there, one with my friend Heidi and a couple of fishing poles on a quiet dock, and the other with my dad on the pier watching the best fireworks I've ever seen. In my memory the area was most beautiful when the orange color from the setting sun was reflected on the water so that's the mood I wanted to convey, that "magic hour" time of day. The woman who commissioned it didn't want any people, but I added life with the gulls and little birds and showed signs that people were nearby with the picnic basket and lantern and cups of tea on the porch. I thought that by adding details like that it made it a home, something personal, and not just another house.

If you'd like to see more of the detail please click on the image to enlarge!

"One Cat Leads to Another." - Ernest Hemmingway

2010-06-05T21:18:00.007-04:00

Or the unofficial title of this piece, What happens to your furniture when you own cats. I did a finished illustration of this scene about five years ago, and even though a lot of people thought it was great I never really cared for how it turned out. Recently I was organizing my storage unit (a monstrous task) when I came across the original sketch. It caught my eye at once- there was so much energy in it! Energy that I felt was lacking from the final piece. The reason I am guessing, is from a technique I no longer use of tracing over the sketch with a light box onto the final paper. I was afraid that if I drew it over from scratch I would lose the expressions or it might not turn out as well. Ever since the day I stopped doing that my work has improved greatly. I realized that what I was losing was the life and energy of the drawing by tracing over it- proof in this sketch I found after five years.

I spent a few hours this afternoon reworking it- adding a few more cats (because there weren't enough already), taking things away, adding some shading, enhancing the expressions, etc. My style has changed and improved since I started that drawing so I'm glad I found it after all this time and was able to give it some new life!

The Sketchbook: Dutch Inspiration

2010-05-18T01:53:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I took a trip across the state of Iowa to attend the IA-SCBWI conference in the Quad Cities. Along the way I planned a few sightseeing stops, one of those being the town of Pella (I made it a week before hundreds came for their annual tulip festival.) The tulips were absolutely stunning, lining every street and the town square. What I was even more surprised by was the beauty of the Dutch buildings and homes (and the trees, I loved those trees!) The entire downtown area looks like it could be a village in Holland (and having always wanted to see Europe, I got to pretend for a few hours.) The rain didn't bother me as I walked around in awe with my camera (although it IS difficult to hold an umbrella and take photos at the same time!) and then did some sketches later (in a warmer, drier place.) I'd been inspired by the colors, dress, and the architecture of the Dutch and would love to do a finished illustration featuring them. Next weekend I'll be at an SCBWI illustrator get-together in Orange City, another Dutch town a little closer to home, and hoping to do some more sketching!

Photos from Pella:

Jade's Chair

2010-05-17T21:27:00.011-04:00

My niece Jade celebrated her second birthday with a party yesterday and I presented her with a hand-painted rocking chair, just as I did for my older nephew Noah. When I painted his chair a few years ago I wanted to have some lettering on it but I didn't want to do his name or monogram in case he wanted to pass it down to his kids someday, so his chair says "sit" and Jade's chair says "rock."

And here is Jade testing hers out as my sister helps her open her presents and Noah looks on and wonders where his present is...

The Teddy Bear's Picnic

2010-04-18T22:52:00.006-04:00

There was a song that I liked when I was a child called The Teddy Bear's Picnic by James Kennedy and when trying to find a sequence to illustrate, I thought there was a lot I could add to the story through the art that isn't in the words. I made a couple of storyboards and I'm in the process of a book dummy, but here is a sequence of the first three images from the story (the detail gets a little lost so click on the image to see it bigger!)

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise,

If you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise...

Jade's Party

2010-04-13T18:44:00.005-04:00

Since my nephew and niece have been born I've enjoyed working on all kinds of projects for them- custom birth announcements, wall mural, painted dollhouse and rocking chair, several cd covers with music I chose for them, and birthday invitations. Am I vying to be their favorite auntie? Maybe. But I also love it because the pressure is off to please tough critics like art buyers and editors- they're happy as punch with a coloring book and a cookie, and they also think everything I make for them is great. And my heart is in every project because I love them both so much. The latest is my niece Jade's 2nd birthday invite (I cannot believe it, honestly!) Her theme is flowers and my sister needed the invite done early because she's got someone making the cake to match the colors and style of the invitation- I'm excited to see that!

Sneaky Dog

2010-04-07T01:19:00.003-04:00

Playing around a little more with this story I've made up about a sneaky dog who tries to swipe some birthday cake. This is the part where he's making sure the coast is clear before he carries out his plan.

My Bed is a Boat, Part Two

2010-03-27T23:12:00.002-04:00

This is a companion piece to the My Bed is a Boat illustration that I posted previously. I'm planning on having postcards printed with that illustration on the front and I needed a black and white image for the back. I wanted to use the same children but it took several sketches because I was trying to decide how I could continue this "story" on the back of the postcard. I decided to put them safely back in their room, but there are details to suggest why they might be dreaming such a dream- a toy train and sailboat, a pet fish, and curtains in the same polka dot pattern that they use for the sails.

Dog/Cake Story

2010-03-26T18:18:00.004-04:00

This is one finished illustration I've done from a picturebook storyboard/book dummy (still untitled) that I've been working on for several months. I read author/illustrator Uri Shulevitz's book Writing in Pictures last summer and he talked about how in the beginning he did not consider himself a writer so he created his stories through the pictures and then added the words where images alone could not tell the story. I also consider myself an illustrator more than a writer so it didn't occur to me until I read about his method that I could create my own original story. My story idea was inspired by an incident that happened a few July 4th's ago when I baked a patriotic themed cake (and everyone should know, my baking anything is a rarity) and left it sitting on the kitchen table. My stepmother's sneaky little dog Dotty waited patiently till I left the room, found a way to climb up on the table and ate the entire cake in 3 minutes flat. Licked the pan clean, didn't even leave a crumb. Her stomach hung to the ground and we had to keep sticking her in the pool the rest of the day to work off all those extra pounds. I wanted to go a different direction with the dog in my story so I went through several storyboards before I was satisfied and went on to create the mock-up book (book dummy.) The story is told completely through pictures except for two words. I wanted to have one finished illustration done to accompany the book dummy and will take it with me to the Iowa SCBWI conference next month for feedback. Please click on the image if you'd like a more detailed view.

My Bed is a Boat

2010-03-01T19:59:00.013-05:00

During one of my exhibits in 2005 I received a message that a children's musician from Minneapolis had looked at my work and really liked a painting titled My Bed is a Boat, inspired by a Robert Louis Stevenson poem. Fast forward to 2009, when I received an email from him saying that he was ready to work on the lullaby album and hadn't gotten the image out of his head of that painting. The size of that painting would not have worked well for a cd format, and I figured it could use a good update anyway, as I have grown a lot as an artist in the last six years. I still wanted to give the mood of serenity and wonder, but I wanted to add a sense of place. In my original painting there are only bare hills in the distance.

In the new version, it's a warm and exotic locale- palm trees, a tropical bird and turtle, and mountains in the distance. As I have said in previous blogs, music has a strong impact on the creation of my work and with this illustration I found myself listening to Stan Getz- that smooth 50s jazz that you'd expect to be playing in some sleepy little club in the wee hours of the morning somewhere in South America. I added two children instead of just one in the beginning simply because it made the composition more dynamic, but it really gave the illustration less of a lonely feeling and became more about two children sharing the wonder of a new, adventurous experience together.

Dress-Up Time

2010-03-01T02:17:00.004-05:00

This is a quick little illustration I did as a birthday gift for the mother of the children I nanny a few days a week. I've spent many hours observing these two little girls, and I decided to go with one of their most popular activities, dress-up. The three year old likes to pretend she is a princess and dance around while the baby enjoys examining all of her pretty accessories.

Alice in Wonderland

2010-02-27T20:07:00.014-05:00

When I was eight years old my family took a trip to California- and the mother of all amusement parks, Disneyland. Oh, what a magical place for a child. My sister and I were each allowed one souvenir to remember our visit, and I chose an Alice in Wonderland tea set. I think it was the box with it's colors that excited me more than the actual tea set, though. I grew up loving all of the Disney films including that one, but it wasn't the main character that drew me to the story- I sort of thought Alice to be a bit of a whiner and she asked too many questions (I much preferred the heroine Dorothy of the Oz book series who was resourceful, independent, and courageous). It was Wonderland itself that I found to be the most intriguing character, and I was absolutely fascinated by all of the strange and unusual shapes and colors in that curious land.

It wasn't till I got a little older that I discovered the woman behind all of those wonderful colors that I loved, and she quickly became one of my favorite artists. Her name was Mary Blair and she was a color stylist and concept artist for Disney in the 40's and 50's, contributing to Alice and other classics like Peter Pan and Cinderella. The colors she used were completely unrealistic... I loved that. No one before had ever used color the way she did. A green moon, purple grass, red trees. It's no wonder her use of color and unique style was a perfect match for Wonderland, a place where nothing is as it seems. Here are a few examples of Blair's work and a photo of the artist:

When I found out that my local theater was putting on a youth production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I jumped at the chance to use a "Mary Blair" palette, which meant blue-greens, yellow-greens, red-violets, blue-violets, pinkish-lavenders, and so on. Shades of purple played a big role in my designing a color scheme for the set- it's a color that has the ability to evoke a sense of mystery, magic, and whimsy, and that was the mood that I wanted for this setting. One of the other elements of Mary's work that I wanted to bring in was her use of black- in combination with the other brighter colors she used, she gave Wonderland a dark and curious atmosphere without it being scary enough to frighten small viewers.

Designing a set, I have found out, is a huge undertaking and I broke it down into steps early on so I wouldn't get overwhelmed. I had my inspiration, a list of the scene changes, and I spent a few days creating a small model out of a shoebox and models of the moving set pieces (I hope to have that to post up someday, but it was lost somewhere in the theatre during the process). Afterwards I took my model to the paint store where I collected about a hundred of those paint chip cards (the employees must have thought either I had a really big house or I was extremely indecisive!) and I spent about a week getting it narrowed down from 100 to about 12. Here's the color charts and a couple of my little set piece models that didn't get lost:

Another thing I have learned about set design- you have to work fast. There isn't much time between productions, and time to prepare for the Alice production was cut even shorter due to the many blizzards this winter. But the other thing I've learned- it always gets done, the show always goes on. With a set. Here are some photos of the finished design:

Believe it or not, I actually painted the forest scene on that sliding door curtain in about three hours. I don't think I have ever painted anything that fast- it was still drying an hour before the opening show.

If you are interested in seeing more of Mary Blair's work, there is a wonderful book called The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. Also, a few years ago someone had the genius idea of putting her concept work from Cinderella, Alice, and Peter Pan into children's books with retellings by well-known children's authors... I drool over every single page. They're all available on Amazon.com.

The Green Gables

2010-02-13T01:25:00.011-05:00

The Green Gables is the oldest restaurant in Sioux City, Iowa- it opened in September of 1929 and recently celebrated it's 80th anniversary. The restaurant is a landmark here in town and is known for it's "world famous" hot fudge sundaes (they really are good!) and matzo ball soup (also really good!) There have been thousands of fond memories made and stories told from the servers and loyal customers over the years about their experiences at the Gables. I got to hear many of them when I worked there as a waitress my summer after college, and last spring I came to live with the Seff family (who owns the establishment) and heard many more. I'd been wanting to do some sort of illustration of the restaurant, partly because it's such a well-known and loved place, and partly as a gift to the Seff family. Last fall I got ahold of a photograph of the restaurant taken around the time that it opened- there have been additions made to the building since, but this is how it looked originally:

I inquired with the family as to the original color of the building, so I could make things as accurate as possible, but I was just told "It's always been some shade of green." I suppose that makes sense! So, it was really left up to my imagination.I purposely chose the girl and her father as my characters, because I remember being a child and what a treat it was to have a "date" with dad, to go somewhere special with a parent and have them all to yourself (siblings at home) for an hour or two.

Today is the birthday of my friend Nancy Giles- it was her father Albert Seff who opened the Gables over 80 years ago, and I really kept her in mind during my work on this.

New York City!

2010-02-05T14:29:00.012-05:00

All the years I dreamed about going to New York City and last week actually being there- I had to pinch myself. I don't know if it's my love for Art Deco architecture, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, movies like Miracle on 34th Street or Breakfast at Tiffany's, or books like James and the Giant Peach that brought on my fascination with this place, but it seemed like this almost mythical city until I was actually standing there in the middle of it all.

And then it still seemed unreal. My hotel was sandwiched in between the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station (!!) and I wasted no time the second I got there throwing my bags in my room and running as fast as I could across the street and through the doors of the iconic Grand Central. And then I couldn't move for about ten minutes... it's called grand for a reason. I've seen it in movies and famous photographs a million times, but to stand there in person... WOW.

I came back through the next evening after a day of illustrator intensive workshops and sat on the steps with a little sketchbook and started doing some gesture drawings of the characters walking in and out. I love to people watch- and there is one of the best places for it. A big sign was posted that said sitting on the stairs was strictly prohibited- I sat anyway, and figured I would draw what I could until somebody told me I had to move... which turned out to be about ten minutes later. Still, I got these:

A side note: the guy in this last one I had to sketch out of the corner of my eye. He seemed like the type of dude who might pummel me if he caught me trying to draw him.

I was very busy with the conference but made time on Sunday night to go back to Grand Central. It wasn't nearly as busy as it had been on Friday evening, and no police officer came and told me to move so I stayed for over an hour and got this down:

I could've spent an entire day there and done a dozen drawings, and there were a hundred more places and people I saw during my short stay that I would have loved to have captured in my sketchbook... there just wasn't enough time. I really did love it there, and I'm glad I had at least enough time to bring a little piece of it home with me in these drawings.

The Big Sneeze

2010-01-23T23:51:00.019-05:00

A birthday party with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs... this was the theme that was assigned for a workshop at the SCBWI conference in New York City this coming Friday. Each illustrator was asked to decide who the party would be for (Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, etc.) and our illustrations would all have a different emotional tone, depending on the character we chose.

I wanted it to be an original idea and present it in a unique way, and I wanted it to be... extremely impressive! But my mind was a blank. Luckily I had about four days of being snowed in during the Christmas Blizzard 09' to think about it- and since one of my gifts was a new sketchbook, I put it to use right away jotting down any ideas that came to mind. I watched the animated classic once, and only once- I wanted to find inspiration, but I also did not want to copy what Disney did so brilliantly in 1937.

I went through each character and imagined what their party would look like, and wanted to choose the one that I thought had the most interesting scenario. I knew that I also wanted my illustration to have action (the words from Walt Stanchfield's book Drawn to Life were ringing in my ears- "Draw Verbs".) I landed on Sneezy, and once the little light bulb popped on over my head and I had my "idea", I grabbed my sketchbook and jotted it down as quickly as I could. This is what it looked like... I don't know if anybody else would be able to make this out, but I knew exactly what it was and I guess that's the important part!

I'm looking forward to the conference and to see what my fellow children's illustrators have dreamed up!

More Babies

2010-01-05T16:52:00.006-05:00

In the last blog I wrote about the observances I have been making in my sketchbook of the nine month old baby I nanny a few days a week. The first few weeks of my sketching I was only interested in getting down the basic gestures of her movements before I went on to more detailed things like facial expression, clothing, etc. These are three finished illustrations I have done based on all of the observations. I usually give her a few toys to play with in her highchair as I prepare breakfast and lunch- she loves her sister's beaded necklaces. She loves to examine them, shake them, and inevitably- drop them.

"Drawning" Babies

2010-01-04T00:13:00.010-05:00

About a month ago I began reading Drawn to Life volumes I and II, which are collections of amazing notes that Walt Stanchfield gave to his animation students over the several years he was with the Walt Disney company. These books are all about giving life to your subject- movement, action, gesture... anything but stiff and posed. He talks a lot about capturing the essence of that person, a maximum amount of gesture with a minimum amount of lines. It also talks about feeling that gesture that you are drawing and understanding why your subject is feeling that way. Even though these notes were intended for animators, they work wonderfully for me because as a children's book illustrator my subjects (the actors in my story) need to appear to be in movement, full of life, and even the quietest of gestures needs to be relatable to the child reading the book.

It inspired me to get back in the habit of sticking my sketchbook and pencils in my bag everyday, and making a conscious effort to use them whenever I have the chance. I nanny a few days a week for a family with a nine month old baby and two year old- both girls, so it gives me perfect sketching subjects to start with. The two year old has proved a little difficult to sketch because every time she sees me pull out my drawing pad and pencil, she drops whatever toy she is playing with and practically comes up and sits on top of my paper. "What are you drawning? What are you drawning? Can you draw my band-aid? Can you draw Dora? Can you draw my room?.... " And so begin the questions. The baby is much easier- as long as she does not need fed, changed, or comforted, she cares not that I am observing her every move. Besides that, she is a new crawler so her movements are interesting to draw and all the chubbiness is fun, too. Not that she's easier in the sense that she stays in one place for more than a second- I am training my brain to capture and feel the gesture, and then move on to the next one.

This is just first week observation... stay tuned!

White Christmas

2010-01-01T12:14:00.011-05:00

If you live in the Midwest and haven't gotten your fill of seeing snow with the holiday blizzard of 2009, then here is some more!
Immediately after Chicago wrapped the theatre began work on the play version of White Christmas. I was excited to be a part of this production because White Christmas is one of my favorite movies and I love the music of Irving Berlin.
I was asked to create the snow scene on the very back wall that is seen at the end of the show. I had two inspirations in designing my winter wonderland, the first being a book I had with photographs of rural New England- I loved the simplicity of the neat clapboard houses and steepled white churches nestled in a valley of snow.

The second inspiration came from my love of the little 50's dime store Putz cardboard Christmas houses with the glittery snow on top- and since the play takes place in the 50's, what could be more perfect?

The final result:

A photo with my family the day they came to see the play:

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, with or without it being white, and best wishes for a new year!

He's Here!

2009-12-19T02:13:00.005-05:00

My personal holiday card design this year- and if you're on my Christmas card list, you're getting a sneak peek... this year my goal is to get them sent out BEFORE Christmas! I've got a story behind every piece I do- and this one is no different. I loved believing in Santa as a child, and I tried so hard every year to stay awake in my bed so that I might hear the reindeer's bells on my roof. And if I ever saw the big man in red himself, well... I imagined I would act very similar to the little girl in this illustration.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T22:23:00.005-05:00

Photo from the book Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade by Robert M. Grippo and Christopher Hoskins:

I did this illustration a few years ago as a tribute to my favorite part of Thanksgiving- not the turkey, or even the pumpkin pie- the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! After purchasing a book on the history of the parade I was inspired by all of the spectacular balloons to have graced the streets over the years. I am also a big fan of New Yorker cartoons, so that is the style I wanted to go with on this one- it seemed to fit with the city that hosts the parade! I used Prismacolor markers and outlined with a fine Micron pen and used colored pencil for shading- and a little watercolor wash (a medium I rarely work in but seemed right for this piece).

As for why the parade personally means so much to me, I don't remember when I started paying attention to it, it's just sort of always been there- like an old friend that visits once a year. I remember my dad telling me when I was little that Christmas season doesn't officially begin until you see Santa at the end of the Macy's Parade, so I would watch for him (with my face an inch from the screen) and then jump up and down in celebration when he arrived. It's funny how some things that parents say to their children seem to stick, because here I am a full grown adult- and I still watch for Santa Claus every year. Even during times when I was in the kitchen helping prepare the holiday feast, the sound of the parade coming from the t.v. in the other room was a comforting, familiar sound (of course we'd all rush out whenever a really good part came on, like the Rockettes). The past two Thanksgivings I spent alone and far from home, friends, and family- it was this little parade that comforted me and helped me feel connected with all the other people in America who were also enjoying this tradition that started all the way back in 1924.

I am so thankful this year for all of the new friends I have made, for this wonderful talent I've been given and am able to share with others, and for being able to watch the parade this year not alone, but surrounded by family (and turkey and pumpkin pie!) Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sanford Children's Hospital Holiday Card

2009-11-25T01:50:00.006-05:00

As an illustrator it is very hard for me to create wonderful art pieces if they do not come from my heart- and in the case of working on another assignment for Sanford, my heart was most definitely filled with inspiration and enthusiasm for this project. For those who are unfamiliar with Sanford Children's Hospital, it opened last spring in Sioux Falls, SD and the building is an actual castle. I took a tour of it over the summer and was blown away- everything is state of the art, every comfort is provided for families with sick children, and custom artwork is everywhere- each floor is a different "land" of the kingdom, with anthromorphic animals being the theme. Of course it's hard on any family who has a sick child, but if they have to be in a hospital- this one is amazing. I created "I Spy" images for the exam rooms a year ago, and had the idea after taking the tour to do an illustration of the hospital covered in snow with the animals having some winter fun. I proposed it to the hospital as an illustration that could be used on their holiday cards and they were on board- and here is the result, just in time for the season!

Oh, and P.S. in case you were wondering, the answer is yes- it took me a very long time to draw all those little animals!

Illustration Friday: Music

2009-11-21T15:29:00.004-05:00

The topic for Illustration Friday this week was an easy one for me- I love music, all kinds. Music has so much to do with how I am inspired as an artist, and I have several pieces with musical instruments and dancing finding themselves a main subject. Music and art for me go hand in hand- I will usually listen to music that fits the mood and it completely wraps me up in that world I am creating. On this piece I listened to a lot of Strauss waltzes and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, and as I was listening and working the little dancing ladybugs seemed to come alive, as if they could almost waltz right off of my paper and into my studio- music is amazing that way.

CHICAGO

2009-11-01T21:31:00.041-05:00

A few months ago I had the opportunity to work on a project unlike anything I had ever done before. Over the summer I was interested in finding a place to volunteer my time and talents and also wanted a way to meet new people, and a friend suggested that I might be useful in designing sets at The Sioux City Community Theater. This interested me at once, for a couple of reasons. The first being that SCCT has always held a special place with me- I was in productions there as a child and it was such a wonderful experience. I made a lot of friends and I remembered that everyone on the set always treated each other as family, and I liked that. The second reason I was interested was that I had never done set design before, and it was a challenge I wanted to try. Then I found out that the next production SCCT was putting on was Chicago! Although I'd never seen the Broadway version, I loved the movie (that won the Best Picture Oscar, btw) and being a huge fan of art deco and prairie school style of architecture my head started to buzz with all the possibilities that a set for this kind of story could have.

Linda Boettger applying my make-up before a performance of The Pied Piper on the SCCT stage, 1990.
I have done large mural work before but designing a set is completely different- there is so much more that is involved... and it can be quite overwhelming if not taken one step at a time! The first step was analyzing everything- the mood of the story, the characters, etc. It really helped me figure out the direction that I wanted to go, so that I could move on to the fun part- research! I poured over books on art deco and Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright also as guides for the colors and style I wanted to use... old photographs of the city helped as well.

The Chicago Board of Trade building... beautiful.

Another big inspiration was this painting by one of my favorite artists, Tamara de Lempicka. The painting is of New York- but the shapes, the shadows, the lines, the mood of this painting... that was the mood I wanted for Chicago.
So I got a big piece of paper and taped all of my inspirations- photographs, paint colors that I played around with, and some small thumbnails with my initial thoughts about the set. The directors Dan and Dave Washburn gave me the green light, and I spent the next few days at the paint store narrowing down about 100 color sample cards to about ten, paint that had to cover every single surface of that set... and then I just prayed that the colors would all work together once they were on the stage under some very bright lights.

This is what the set looked like when I came into the project. All the credit for the building of the set goes to the directors and crew members. I loved the rounded stage and the stairs winding around it- very art deco. The green side walls and orange floor were from the previous production of High School Musical 2.
For my first day working on the set, I started with the back wall (30ft.long x11ft. high), which was to be the city skyline. I have learned from previous murals to use chalk- easy to erase mistakes and easy to paint over when the time comes. I used the photographs as references, but I didn't want to get too detailed. I didn't want the audience sitting there saying, "oh, that is that famous building"... "what is that one supposed to be?" I wasn't going for historical accuracy. The audience needed to focus on the actors, I just wanted to create a skyline that would give them the feeling of being in that city, in that time period.
After I chalked in the entire back wall, the crew members installed a shorter wall in front (that was attached to the stage) for the L train. I thought that having the train somewhere in the setting was vital for the audience having that feeling of being in the city. I have been to downtown Chicago a few times and the L train, with it's large steel girders, is something that surrounds the city and can't be missed.
Starting to paint in the 30 ft. skyline- the buildings were eventually shaded and the yellow chalk lines were covered with a light blue line instead.
This is me being kicked off the set! Well, not really- getting down to the final few weeks before opening night I spent days there from 9am to 10pm and enjoyed working the most while the cast was rehearsing their numbers. On this particular night there was no way for the cast members to dance around me, unless they wanted to (literally) be black and blue. All the photos from here on I have to credit Dale Hartshorn, who was a crew member and did an amazing job of photographing the cast and sets before and during the performances.
These are photos of the cast rehearsing- you can see the progress being made on the set. I couldn't wait to get that orange floor covered up- it just wasn't going to feel like Chicago to me until all of that bright orange was gone! Mike Skaff, who played Amos, enjoyed teasing me on my obsession to be rid of the orange.

The stairs were a big focal point being in the center of the set and I had a reason behind why I wanted it to look like a curtain- even though the play deals with some dark subject matter, it's also like a circus- the show these people are putting on for the press, and also for the main character Roxie who wants nothing more than to be a star on the vaudeville stage. I wanted it to be a little glitzier than the rest of the set- in the middle I added a little art deco design and even though it's not noticeable in the photo there is clear glitter to make it sparkle when the lights hit it. I lined the edge of the stairs and the stage with silver paint- really made it pop and broke up the darkness of the floor/stage colors.
The previous green side walls I painted to look like the run down part of Chicago. The city that the L train surrounds is beautiful and glamourous; the city outside the L... are the slums. Drugs, clubs, motels, crime, dark, damp and shady streets, smoke billowing out from the run down tenements and factories. The characters want to be in that part of the city way in the distance, at the top.... but the reality is they are at the bottom, in the slums.

These are one side of the turntables that were on the edge of either side of the stage. Both sides were used for multiple scenes during the play, so I had to keep them generic but they still had to work with the rest of the design. I created an abstract design that gives the illusion of buildings.
Ta-Dah! No more orange! I finished the set the day of the their first performance in front of an audience. This is the cast warming up before showtime.
Photos of the performance, also courtesy of Dale. Notice the skyline- we ran a blue rope light all the way across the back of the L train to make the skyline really pop.

This is the wonderful and hilarious cast I had the pleasure of working with...
Not even two hours after the final performance, the cast and crew tore apart the set that I had spent weeks painting. That's part of theater, though- I couldn't convince the director that this set would work for their next production of White Christmas. After strike, when everything is torn down and cleaned up, there is a wall that everyone who has worked on their first production gets to sign. It's a big deal and the whole cast and crew gather around and clap for each person that signs the wall... really nice.
The reason I had loved the theater so much as a child and wanted to come back to SCCT was because I got to be part of another family. And even though twenty years later there are new people, that feeling of being part of a family was the same. I can't say enough about how wonderful everyone was who worked on this play- I feel so lucky that I got to share my time with them!

A Friend Loveth at All Times

2009-09-22T16:08:00.006-04:00

I have a friend who has unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment, and she asked if I could design a little note card so that she could send thank you's for all of the wonderful support she's received from loved ones. She left the creative part up to me, and just asked that somewhere on the card I use her favorite verse from the Bible, "A friend loveth at all times". I thought that verse said so much in such a simple way, and I wanted the art to reflect that as well.

Rivers Know This...

2009-08-26T14:55:00.002-04:00

There are two kinds of illustrations for me- the first kind is where I have the idea in my head and then I have to work out the composition on paper to get everything just the way I want it (which could take two sketches or twenty, depending). And then there is the second kind, which usually comes out of doodling with minimal ease when I am not feeling forced with any particular pre-conceived ideas. That was the case with this illustration. The quick sketch was done as I was reading A.A. Milne and came across the line "Rivers know this: there is no hurry, we shall get there someday." I loved that quote, and I just drew the first thing that came to mind, which was this...

... and then it sat in my sketchbook for five years. But I liked that little gesture drawing and kept coming back to it, and I finally decided to do something with it. In the finished illustration I pulled some of my own memories of childhood- that feeling that I always wanted to set out on a great adventure and maybe take an unfamiliar road to see where it would lead, but I also wanted to be safe and back in my own home by the end of the day. That's the reason for the bluffs- growing up in Iowa, they've been a familiar surrounding. So these kids, even though they are surrounded by something familiar and safe, are still excited to go off to explore something new within it.

Dog and Bear

2009-08-26T14:46:00.009-04:00

In recent doodles I came up with a dog and a bear character and sketched several of the things they do while their owner is away. I re-drew a few of them and added color, and here's the result...

The Sketchbook...

2009-08-18T19:25:00.004-04:00

Haven't posted anything from the sketchbook for a while... this is a character study of a little dog I named Peanut for a story that I am working on about a dog that tries to eat a cake that his owner has made (based on personal experience!)

Lemonade Stand

2009-08-18T19:11:00.007-04:00

During my summer vacations growing up, my sister and I must have had about a bazillion lemonade stands. Other than a little help from my parents carrying out the table and a trip to the grocery store to buy the needed supplies, I did the rest. I loved making the extra money and took my business quite seriously! My younger sister was the hired help, and most times she would (literally) eat the profits. I did the illustration completely from memory and then when I was finished came across the bottom photo.

Noah's Room

2009-04-01T19:49:00.007-04:00

I love painting murals- I did my first one about four years ago for a daycare center. When I create my illustrations, I am bent over a drafting table, squinting my eyes for hours to get every little detail. I love that, too- but murals let me draw BIG for the first time. It almost felt a little wrong at first, after all we are taught from a young age not to color on the walls! And there I was with a giant blank canvas, and started slowly to draw out my design and color it in.

My most recent mural was a labor of love for my two year old nephew Noah, who loves cars. Here are the before photos:

And after (I think my client was quite pleased!)

Thinking of You

2009-02-14T01:53:00.008-05:00

This isn't a brand new illustration but it fit the mood for today!

This illustration of the girl surrounded by tokens of affection from her admirer was truly a work of my imagination, because I certainly have never spent a Valentine's Day that way... I would be happy with just one flower or card! This was such a fun, indulgent piece to illustrate- all of the playful colors and shapes (hearts, lots of hearts!) I added a little humor with the cat and the dog... they just don't understand what the big deal is!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Etsy

2009-02-03T05:35:00.004-05:00

My store is open for business! Yay! This has been a goal of mine for a long, long time and I'm so excited that it's finally happening. Etsy is such a wonderful community of artists and I am sure I will fit in just fine. I am officially an "Etsyian" and even though I have only been open one day I have already been "hearted" by four people (in Etsy language that means four people think my shop is great and added it to their favorites). I am off to a good start, I have made one sale already and hope that there will be many more to come! The site address is: erintaylorart.etsy.com.

Illustration Friday: Pale

2009-01-20T13:37:00.001-05:00

This is my first Illustration Friday posting and I'm very excited about that! I've been following the site for over a year but it seems time or circumstances prevented me from participating until now... and I hope to participate a lot more often from now on. For those unfamiliar with the site, it's a great concept- each Friday there is a new "word" and artists take whatever that is and come up with their own idea of what it means. It's amazing how one word can spark so many different visions.

This week the word is Pale. Immediately I thought of me, at the beach with my sunscreen, surrounded by lots of people with nice tans... it's happened several times! I try to remember that in twenty years I'll still have nice, cancer-free, non-saddlebag skin and then I feel better. Of course I really don't look much like the woman in the illustration, but she's got the right idea... so does her dog!

The Sketchbook...

2009-01-20T13:15:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I posted anything from my sketchbook! Here is one of my favorite animals and favorite things to draw, the dog. This particular breed of dog is a basset hound... it was interesting not just to study and draw their big floppy ears and wrinkly folds in their skin, but to also learn about their unique personalities. This is only my first attempt but I'm hoping to use them in an illustration, and possibly make this into a series with other breeds as well.

Sanford Project

2009-01-16T03:18:00.012-05:00

Here finally are the other three images from the Sanford Children's Hospital project! This really was the coolest assignment that I've ever gotten to work on and knowing there will be kids in that hospital enjoying my work for years to come makes it that much more satisfying. Even though it was a huge undertaking and overwhelming at times, I'm so glad I was chosen to be a part of the project... I wish there were more like it.

I decided to do a "before" shot with this royal court image before I started in on color... always fun to look back and see how far you've come! When I took that photo I was at the stage of having all of the composition laid out and inked in with a very fine micron pen (my favorite!) and the pencil marks cleaned up. Normally I spend a lot longer on the composition portion of the illustration by using layers of tissue paper to plan it all out and move characters, etc. around until I have them just the way I want... and only then will I put an actual pencil to the paper. But with the time constraints of the project I basically had to just start drawing and cross my fingers that I wouldn't have to do too much erasing! It was a challenge but I did it, and I couldn't wait to dive into the color. Out of all four pieces this one was probably my favorite as far as color... it's just a fun, playful piece. The idea with these was the "hidden picture" element and in this one it's ten pipes that are to be found (from Old King Cole if you remember your nursery rhymes!) This one was also so much fun to do because besides the hidden object, most of the characters in the scene are from different nursery rhymes and fairy tales... I believe there are about 13 or 14 of them, but you can try for yourself to see how many you can name!

This piece was a nice change of pace after working on the forest for so long with all of it's dark greens and grays and browns. I suppose it's like actors when they switch back and forth between comedies and dramas... a change of color scheme is nice, too! For this illustration it was a change to blues and violets... I always plan out my color scheme before starting a piece because the color really does set the mood for what you what the viewer to feel when they're looking at it. Very, very important to me. And in this one was meant to be calming and romantic and a little bit "magical". There aren't as many references in this one as with the nursery rhymes piece, but for anyone who knows their children's songs or literature I did throw a few in... I've got the "Owl and the Pussycat" and the "Froggie Went a Courtin". It's always fun to throw things like that in and see if anyone notices. I also have to point out the border, which I am very proud of... the inspiration for that came from a book about Alphonse Mucha and the Art Nouveau period. I had been wanting to do something with that for a while and this piece gave me the perfect opportunity.

Other than that I have to say that buying a very thick illustrated dictionary on every kind of animal (alive or extinct) certainly helped with this project.. There are lots of creatures like alligators and otters, etc that I don't draw all the time... and even though I was not going for realistic, it was one of the best investments to be able to look up the animals and pick up on any detail that I might have forgotten in my own recollection.

This was the last piece I worked on and even though I am very pleased with the results, I would've liked to have added in a little more detail... time would not allow it! But even before the idea for the scene was thought up, I knew that I wanted to do something with an elephant in a little petite princess cap and dress.... and I found the idea humorous to give her an unlikely companion. There are ten hidden tea cups and ten hidden mice... that was on purpose as well, for anyone who knows the myth about elephants being afraid of mice.

All four of the images have been blown up into wall covering and placed in different exam rooms throughout the hospital and the originals will be framed and hung in other rooms as well. There will be an open house for all who worked on the project February 4th, and since I will not be able to make it I am hoping that someone will take some nice photos so that I can see (and share) the final results!

New Art, Just to Say Hello!

2009-01-14T21:45:00.013-05:00

The First One is Done...

2008-12-02T21:21:00.004-05:00

Yay, it's finally done! Well, here's the first one anyway! This is one of the four pieces that I was commissioned to do for the Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD. It is a "hidden picture" illustration and will provide a distraction for children in the exam rooms, also known as "high stress areas". The piece itself is only about 12x20 but it will be blown up into a wall covering... it will be very exciting to see how that turns out!

I had done a much simpler "I Spy" illustration a few years back, but nothing compared to this. I don't know in my career up to this point I have ever done anything with such intricate detail throughout. I also had a challenge here of deciding what to hide, how many things, etc... and how would the children know what to look for if there was no key to look off of? I also wanted whatever they had to find to make sense. I love to tell stories through my illustrations, and this is a story of two bears who have come across a treasure chest and are trying to figure out how to open it. So, the logical thing to hide was keys. I put one in each corner of the border so that the children know that is what they need to find. In the illustration there are ten hidden keys. I was worried that I might not have made this challenging enough, but now that I've had four different grown-ups find them with somewhat difficulty, I think I'll be okay!

Baby Shower

2008-09-17T22:27:00.003-04:00

This is the rest of the artwork that I did for the baby shower, the invitation and also designs for name tags that will be worn by guests at the shower. The theme idea came from the new Pottery Barn Kids catalog, with one of the decorated rooms being "circus friends". I tried to incorporate the same feel and the same color scheme, but of course I added my own take on it! This was a lot of fun to design (I hope that shows!) and I am hoping that it might lead to similar jobs in the future, too.

2008-09-08T19:54:00.003-04:00

I recently received my first freelance job in Atlanta, and although it is small, I am super excited about it and I think maybe it will lead to other things here. I was hired to design a custom baby shower invitation for a woman who is throwing her friend (the mother to be) a shower that is built around a circus animal theme, which will also be the theme for the nursery. I was also asked to come up with a few other ideas for things that I might be able to do for the shower. After a phone call to my sister, who has more experience with these things (I have never had a baby nor have I ever been to a baby shower) she told me about something she did at hers. They were index size cards that were passed out during the shower, and each person was to write a little piece of advice for the new mother... they were called "parent advice cards".

I thought it was an awesome idea, and I looked online to see some examples of what was already out there. Awful stuff... really generic and plain. Of course I thought I could do better! I really have to thank my sister on this one, when I was trying to decide what to draw on them she said "Why don't you draw a picture of a mom who looks really stressed out with hair sticking up, etc". I definitely liked that idea better than all the examples I saw of a silly baby face. I decided that I wanted to keep with the theme and colors of the other things I'll be designing, so I made the stressed out parent into an elephant, with a screaming elephant baby... the new parent is on the telephone, probably begging for help from someone who has a little more experience and knows exactly what to do! I might not be a mom, but I have worked in child care enough years to know that I have done that myself more than once!

Noah's Card

2008-09-08T19:27:00.009-04:00

Today is my only nephew Noah's second birthday. I was there to watch him being born, and last year I happened to be visiting home on his first birthday. I miss the little guy, and I don't have a lot of money for an elaborate gift, but I do know one thing that he likes... cars. He's obsessed, actually, from what my sister tells me. He likes the "Cars" movie, she says it is the only thing he will watch. And he's starting to talk a little on the phone to me now. Our conversation usually starts with me saying hi, and then he'll say hi, and then I will ask him if he watched "Cars" today or if he's having fun playing with his cars. Then he'll say "Cars? ... Cars??". It is usually around this time that he drops the phone and the conversation ends... I think he goes off to find his cars (like I reminded him) but never comes back to the phone.

I got a reference book that shows pictures of different cars over the last 100 years and so I was up pretty late last night practicing my car drawing skills. I especially liked the old corvettes... I have never seen the movie "Cars" but I think that some of them in the film are similar. So here is Noah flying down the road in his flashy little corvette, with his worried baby sister Jade in the backseat (I would be worried too if a two year old was behind the wheel!)

The Sketchbook...

2008-09-03T14:02:00.004-04:00

More from the sketchbook... after my fashion drawing from studying medieval attire, I had the itch to get out and do some actual drawing from life. There is nothing like studying the real thing! I had inspiration and motivation again from the Sioux Falls submission, one of their "kingdoms" in the hospital that they needed art for was an underwater land, which would of course mean that if I got the job to do some pieces for them, I would need to draw... fish! And there is NO better place in Atlanta to view underwater life than at the Georgia Aquarium (I believe it is the largest one in the United States right now). The place is absolutely incredible... so I packed up my sketchbook and pencils and erasers and headed down.

Being a little shy about people watching me while I work, I was a little hesitant as first to jump in... there are lots of tourists at the aquarium, especially during summer months. However, I managed to find little nooks and (fake) rocks to sit on and get to work. Once I got started I was too interested in studying the shapes and movements of the fish to really worry about if someone was looking over my shoulder. My favorite had to be the sea dragons... they were amazing and beautiful! Every once in a while they would light up, too, like a firefly. I will do more with them should I get hired to do any art for the hospital, with their theme being medieval kingdoms, a sea "dragon" would fit perfectly! I also was surprised at how much I enjoyed sketching all of the non-moving things... the different shapes of all the coral and rock formations were all fascinatinating to me.

Although getting into the aquarium is not a cheap visit, I could not have gotten the same results from looking at fish in a book... it was definitely worth it to me to study these magnificent creatures up close!

2008-09-03T13:44:00.003-04:00

My sketchbook... I have to admit that it hasn't gotten a lot of time from me since I have moved to Atlanta. Of course I have drawn quite a bit, usually on a particular idea that I had in mind. But sketching just for the sake of sketching, that is something that I have realized lately that I need to do more of. I missed the practice of really studying and observing something, without the intention of turning into a finished illustration. All of that sketching on a daily basis really does make me a better artist, and it is something I am trying to do a lot more of. For these sketches, my inspiration was a project that I was submitting to Sioux Falls, where the theme of a children's hospital there is castles and kingdoms... Robin Hood type stuff. I thought it would be fun to study the dress from that period, so I went to Borders and got myself a book with small black and white ink pen, realistic looking illustrations of fashions from the era. I was particularly drawn to all the different kinds of hats. The shapes, the sizes... all very interesting to draw! I drew inspiration from studying the book and designed some of my own hats, keeping with the same shapes and styles from that time period. Believe it or not, some of these I really did not elaborate on too much... it's hard to believe that people actually wore those big, uncomfortable things on their heads all day long!

Well, anyway, they were a lot of fun to sketch and here are the results!

Noah's Chair

2008-09-03T13:09:00.007-04:00

These are photos of a chair that I painted for my nephew as a Christmas gift. The chair I found at a Goodwill for five dollars, and I have been scouring flea markets and yard sales since, looking for similar little old, sturdy chairs. I found a few more last weekend and I'm excited to see what possibilities my imagination will think up for them!

2008-08-27T00:27:00.007-04:00

"Midnight Symphony"... this is one of those illustration ideas that got stuck in my big file folder of sketches for a long time. I took my inspiration from old Disney "Silly Symphony" cartoons... I love them, the creativity and artistry in them is amazing. A lot of those old cartoons, like one called "Flowers and Trees" (which was the first color cartoon ever, if you want a little trivia!) takes inanimate objects and gives them life and personality. I'd done a sketch previous to this with trees and flowers playing more "rock and roll" type instruments in a daytime setting, and I have enjoyed Sioux City's "Saturday in the Park" concert that takes place every summer and thought about approaching them with my drawing to see if it could be used somehow. I never did, but a year later it was their committee that approached me, asking if I could possibly do some kind of large mural for the event. I already had my idea! That ended up being a five foot by eight foot painting on canvas and I was so satisfied with the results that I began to imagine the same concept, only at night. Instead of an Elvis type tree jamming out, I decided to make the characters in this new scene a little more classical... big boufant hairstyles and white wigs, that sort of thing. A little more elegant.

I listened to a LOT of Strauss and Tchaikovsky during the two weeks I spent working on this piece... something that has always worked to get me into the "mood" of the illustration is to listen to the right kind of music. While listening to compostions like "Tales from the Vienna Woods" I colored my trees playing their instruments and pictured elegant ladies and gentleman waltzing nearby. I really believe that having that music on helped me to achieve the "mood" of the piece.

Welcome, Jade Rosalie!

2008-06-23T22:02:00.005-04:00

I haven't posted any new work for a while... events that have happened in my life over the last few months have slowed me down a little made being able to create whimsical, light-hearted and inspiring pieces very hard to do. In fact, just being able to think artistically and creatively has been a struggle. However, one happy event caused me to forget about my own troubles for a bit and focus on the birth of my new baby niece, Jade Rosalie Reynolds. I wanted to continue the tradition that I started with the birth of my nephew almost two years ago by designing the baby announcements. I was forced to get into that creative, whimsical, child-like mindset again... and I have to say that I was happy to be there! With Noah I had a jungle theme with brighter, more vivid colors... so I was excited with this one being a girl, to get to try something a little more soft and pretty. My sister was pleased and so was I...here it is posted along with the announcement that I designed for Noah in 2006.

Showing at San Francisco Coffee

2008-04-07T10:09:00.003-04:00

Yay! My first "showing" in Atlanta after being here almost a year... it went up last week at the San Francisco Coffee Shop in the Virginia Highlands. It's a great coffee house in a great area of town, a high-traffic place, so hopefully I will do well. I have about 35 pieces up now and will have about seven to eight more in the next few weeks (the cost of extra frames/mats for this starving artist is holding me back!) I am hoping to sell a few pieces but even if I don't, the exposure is wonderful. If you're in the Atlanta area and would like to check it out, it runs the whole month of April, and it's located at 1192 N. Highland Ave.

Come to Mama

2008-04-01T12:48:00.003-04:00

The story on this one is fairly simple... a few years ago when looking for a book or a poem to illustrate, I remembered a song that I liked as a child called "The Teddy Bear's Picnic". I decided that it would make an excellent children's book (and I still do, whenever I get the time to develop it more) so I filled up several pages of my sketchbook with teddy bear studies. When looking back over them last weekend, this one popped out at me... I decided that it was sweet enough to deserve an illustration by itself! Wanting to keep with the "worn out old teddy" look, I wanted to keep away from all bright colors. I colored the background in marker with different shades of light browns and then used subtle color with pencils over the top... and this is the result!

The Tinman and the Butterflies

2008-04-01T12:10:00.005-04:00

It's no big surprise where I got my inspiration for this one... my favorite stories are the ones written by L. Frank Baum about the Land of Oz. There were fourteen books in all, and I checked them out one by one from the library as soon as I was old enough to read on my own. I loved the characters so much and I greatly admired the illustrator of the books, Jon R. Neill. I spent hours studying his drawings and trying to draw just like him in my notebooks and on half finished homework assignments.

I've had the idea several times as an adult to do "my take" on the classic story and characters in an illustration, but I just couldn't get it right. Jon R. Neill did it so perfectly already... that made it more of a challenge for me, to use my own style instead of copying his drawing like I did as a child. So instead of trying to draw all four characters in a scene from the story (the Lion always gives me trouble!) I decided to take one, the Tinman, and make him the star of this drawing. This isn't a scene from anywhere in the book, but I always remembered the part of the book where Frank Baum wrote that the Tinman would walk so carefully down the yellow brick road and would cry at stepping on even the tiniest of creatures. Even without a heart he was kind to every living thing, and I guess that struck a chord in me. I also loved adding the poppies- I don't know if it's because they played a part in this story or because they're just beautiful, but they have always been one of my favorite flowers (so I always enjoy putting them in my art!) Lastly, this was just one more piece that allowed me to play around with color. Green has always been my favorite color (guess why!) and so it was fun to combine the yellow greens and blue greens and emeralds in this piece. It turned out better than I had planned in my head... and it gave me a little more inspiration to do an illustration with all of them in it!

My Studio

2008-03-31T14:22:00.003-04:00

My studio... a cheery place surrounded by lots of color and all the things I love (notice the polka dot mugs I use for my pencils, a gift from my sister... she knows me well!)

This is a very clean version of my studio... it only looks this way when I am in between projects, which isn't often anymore!

Surprise Lunch Guests

2008-03-31T14:00:00.004-04:00

Another 920's inspired piece (surprised?!) I found myself fascinated over the past summer with the bathing suits of that period when I was decorating my bathroom in a 20's beach style. I found several vintage photos from that time on Ebay and looked in old books... and I thought them to be quite humorous. Perfect for a new illustration. This one gave me a chance to experiment working with some textured paper (something I had wanted to do for a while). I tried coffee staining the already yellow-ish paper but it was not the effect I had wanted, so I ended up taking watercolors over the top. The actual drawing of the woman is done with markers and colored pencils.

The humor of those old bathing suits was how unflattering they were... over sized and baggy. I wanted to exaggerate that by drawing a woman with little arms and legs in a very large suit. The part with the birds is just my own sense of humor... sharing her picnic lunch with one little bird, unaware that there are several more digging in behind her. I ended up getting to spend some time at the Atlantic Ocean after this piece was finished, and having never spent any real time by the ocean before, I found out just how agressive those birds on the sand are when they know someone has food! So now this illustration makes me laugh a little more just because I know now how true it is!

Charleston Lady

2008-03-31T13:38:00.005-04:00

Wow, it has been a while since I posted anything! I guess it had to do with moving (again!) and getting my studio set up (again!) I plan on staying put for a while, so at last I've been able to get to some of the sketches that have been adding up in my "work-in-progress" folder. Basically over the last two or three years, every time I have a sketch or a doodle that I think might have potential as a finished illustration, I put it in this folder... which has become quite thick!

There are some sketches that I was really itching to do something with... like this one. I did a little drawing about two and a half years ago of this 1920's lady. I wasn't sure what kind of background to give her, and I ended up moving around quite a bit shortly after, so she sat in my folder just waiting.

She was also the first piece I decided to do when I finally got everything set up again. I love studying color and thinking about the colors I am going to use before I get started. It's fun for me to play around and put different combinations together before I ever put any color down on the final piece. I was inspired by the fashions of the 1920's of course, and when I sifted through an art deco book I noticed lots of jades and ambers and deep purples in the designs. As far as the background, I decided to keep it simple so that the spotlight would be on the dancing lady. Having the phonograph player on the stairs not only helped the balance of the piece, but the repetitive design worked well for the 20's deco look.

It turned out beautifully... for the first piece I've done in a long time, I'm quite pleased with the results!

Adopt a Pumpkin at the Art Barn

2007-10-09T10:10:00.002-04:00

I Finally Did It!

I have been meaning to start a blog for my artwork for a long time, and for one reason or another (oh, like moving halfway across the country!) I have put it off until now. This is a blog for those who have seen my art, and for those who I would LIKE to see my art! In the (hopefully) near future, I would like to have some links on this blog to ebay or my own (not yet created) website, where my originals or greeting cards can be purchased. But, one thing at a time!

The move to Atlanta has been very artistically motivating for me, especially in the last month or so. I have started to search out places to display my work, such as coffee shops and small galleries, and this month I am back to my pumpkin painting! I have painted these little guys just about every year since I was thirteen... and it's a wonderful way for a new artist to get some attention in Atlanta. I will be out at Morning Glory Farm in Canton, GA on October 21 to sell them. It's an absolutely wonderful and creative place (theartbarn.com) so I think I will do quite well there!