Sketching at the golf course.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to draw at the Scarsdale Country Club. It was an event sponsored by FIT. I love to get out of the studio and draw but usually it just never happens, I'm too busy with "paying the bills" stuff or I find a million reasons not to. Being back in school has forced me to rethink that and get my drawing chops back in shape. Little by little I feel myself getting more confident with pen and ink. 

The Peculiar Zebra

I've been making some headway on some sample art for a manuscript I wrote a few years ago. "The Peculiar Zebra" is kind of a labor of love. It's message is about self acceptance even when you feel like you don't quite fit in. I showed my dummy and sample spreads to my rep and she had some really good feedback in general. She felt the story needed more work before she could show it to publishers. So I put it on the side for now. I still love this story and hope to one day revisit it. The feedback form friends (and my teacher Rudy G.) has really made me feel like I should continue with it. It's been very important for me to explore writing and illustrating stories that resonate deeply to me. Writing is a lot like drawing, you have to grab it when it presents it's self. Sometimes an idea can sit with me for a while but eventually, if it's really strong, it will get written. Sometimes I write a story and it's simple and fun, other times it's more poetic and spiritually driven. The Peculiar Zebra started out poetic but somehow feels like a bit of both now. Here's the samples I have so far...who knows what's next.

Behind the scenes stuff

A few months ago I was working on a bunch of card images. As I was creating the art I thought I would take a few photos "in progress". The original sketch is quite flat and boring. I had to do the art in separate pieces to get the composition to work. I tend to work this way...in many layers so I can adjust the elements. You can see how the cat's faced changed, the more I worked on it. I felt like it needed to be softer so I changed the eyes. Then I also had to brighten the art as well. I usually work in more muted colors and then have to force myself to get brighter. Finally, I tried adding type, to propose a box set cover. The client ended up doing journal covers with the art in the end. 

Making a Barn Yard.

My "Barn Yard" quilt for Land of Nod came out last week! I love doing projects with Land of Nod, they do such creative products. I'm also glad that my designs are included among such fantastic designers who's work I really respect. Anyway, I thought it would be neat to show a bit of the process behind the of making a quilt. You can see the original sketches (I did three options), plus the digital color version. In the end the colors came out much brighter and the composition changed a bit, which is always to be expected so you have to be open to how things get interpreted. On this project I learned that I tend to make my palettes kind of pale/neutral. I'm working on getting bolder and brighter. My "take" on the barn yard idea was to incorporate the sounds of the barnyard. Originally, LON asked me to do something with the number of animals but as I got into it I realized it would be more fun to "hear" the sounds of the animals. What baby doesn't love to hear a moo moo here and moo moo there?
Here's the link: http://www.landofnod.com/with-a-moo-moo-here-crib-bedding/f11933