Hey y’all! I created a little something for Canada Day (July 1st) –A free downloadable 5×7″ greeting card! Just a little something by me to share in the festivities. : )
Below is a sample of the front. The inside is blank. Just click on this link to open up a printable pdf version of the card. Then download, print, fold and trim (Careful with that X-Acto knife!). Voila! A card is born!
Thanks, and have a great weekend!
Below is a recent spread I did for the June 2012 issue of Clubhouse Jr. magazine. The colors came out so vibrant on the printed page! Everything is digital. I’m always amazed at how “real” it looks in the end.
Below: Some roughs for the layout. The woman went through a lot of tweaking to get her right. Some last minute things were to add squirrels hanging off the lettering. Gotta love that you can do that when you work digitally. : )
Below is a spot illustration I did a few months back that is recently in print. It’s for a Christian magazine so this is a story about kind of letting go and not sweating the chaos that can occur if you give children some part of the church service. It’s a sweet story if you have time to read it. All the ones I do for this magazine are like that. So I feel I get a blessing each time I do the illustration to accompany it.
As for the illustration, this project gives me opportunity to stretch my illustration style. In this case, I did the characters loosely and quickly (though that actually takes a lot of time to do!) and kept the color scheme somewhat monochromatic. Below, I have the spread in the article, and then half the illustration as a closeup.
Thanks for stopping by!
I love doing spreads like this for my clients! It’s like a puzzle within a puzzle for me, to work out the fun activities for the kiddos to interact with! I took a photo this time, but have the art specs from the AD, my rough, and some pull-outs from the final to show you. The designer made a good call to drop the color background on the pavement in the end. It really made the game pop out!
Below: specs from designer.
Below: my rough.
Below: my final.
Below: some pull-outs.
(c) Owlkids
Thank you, Chirp!
Here’s another fun spread I created that’s in the May 2012 issue of Highlights’ High Five magazine (story by Marianne Mitchell)! So many other fine authors and illustrators contributed their work to this issue, too. Thanks, Highlights!
(c) Highlights For Children
Hey everybody! Illustration For Kids has put out a new spring mailer (below)!
Illustration For Kids is a group of 7 illustrator gal-pals (one of them being me : ) who together promote and encourage each other in the illustration biz.
Our theme was “Spring Rain”. Each of us went to work creating our own interpretation of this theme. An enlarged version of my spot is below.
It really took me a good while to create this final piece. It went through many variations, but even before that, I had tried multiple ideas. Some of those ideas are below. It gave me an opportunity to play with my looser, painterly style, and figure out what character I wanted to use, whether a human or animal.
And then…I thought I got to my final piece (below). I worked on various editions of this girl walking her dog in the rain, and it was all ready to go.
Then a number of days later, I decided to try another idea. And that led to the NEW final piece. Some samples of the progression of the final art is below.
In the end, the little girl ended up with a red rain outfit, and the rainbow got switched to a different position at the last minute. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and all kinds of different ideas to get the FINAL final, right? Right!
Here’s a spot I did in the recent issue of Highlights magazine (March ’12). Part of it even made the cover (speaking of, nice cover there by Tim Foley!). I’m being silly with the “Lookity!” comment, but it is cool to see it displayed on the cover.
Below is the final spread. I knew the AD planned to drop it on a color background so I had to think about that.
Below: The first round of roughs I sent of the kids with NO instruments! Not sure what I was (or wasn’t thinking) at this point. I was more concerned with how I wanted to show the kid-conductor and the orchestra. I think I thought I was doing a choir. Silly me.
Below: After the AD kindly pointed out the need for instruments and notes, I went back and reworked it. Much better, yes?
Below: The above rough was approved and I didn’t deviate much from the rough. Only a few changes to the kids and cleaned it up. But I wanted the line work to be loose and easy and not over-worked, which I think I achieved. It’s usually something I feel inside me as other people can never tell when I over-work a project. My thanks again to Cindy for the project, her patience and the fine job she does/did with the magazine!
Happy Monday, all! Just a quick posting to thank Highlights for Children for selecting me for “Illustrator of the Month”. That was the month of February, so I’m a little late in posting this. : )
Highlights is the only magazine (rather, publishing company) I know of that expresses such great appreciation like they do to illustration, illustrators, and the illustrators that they contract. These platters and letters are just a part of their way of conveying the value they have for illustrators. The party they throw each year is amazing (I attended two years ago. Wow!), not to mention the relationship they build with their contractors. It’s got a family-feel to it all.
So thank you, Christine, Cynthia, Kelley and staff, for choosing me for the month of February! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you guys, too!
And, below, is the spread that they are talking about…”The Champion Of Quiet”, a cute story written by Tracy Stewart.
Below: A pull-out of the first spot from the spread.
These guys are a snippet from a project I just finished up. I love drawing squirrels. And beavers. and birds. Those seem to be my most favored animals to draw. What are your favorite animals to draw?
Some recent editorial work for a magazine. These are a nice diversion from children’s illustration.
Hello, hello! Or I should say “Bonjour!”, given the spread I am displaying below is of the winter carnival (Carnaval de Quebec) held in Quebec City, Quebec each winter. I illustrated this for the December 2011 issue of Chirp magazine this past summer. It was a fun albeit intricate piece to pull together. And if you are familiar with the carnival, you may notice a key figure missing–Bonhomme Carnaval. This was due to copyright issues, so generic clowns took his place in the end. But I did include the beautiful Le Chateau Frontenac, in the upper right part of the spread.
So below is the original spec/sketch from the client…
…And the final spread (after shuffling and moving things around) in the magazine. For a larger view, please click on the image.
And a few random close-ups, below.
(copyright Owlkids, 2011)
My Christmas card for 2011 in print. Cards always seem to look better when grouped, yes?
I like to watch Chopped (Foodnetwork cooking show–Anybody else watch it…?), and they talk a lot about “repurposing” a (usually funky) food from the basket in a different way. Guess ya gotta watch the show to know what I’m talking about. Anyway… : )
So that works with illustrations, too. These images I did for Focus on the Family earlier this year (I will post the spread at some point), and Focus on the Family–Taiwan wanted to “repurpose” them for another article. Neat. And they were kind enough to send the spread to see. So thought I’d share.
Watch your pets this Thanksgiving!
I’m just posting the rest of the illustrations for the spread I did for this month’s Highlights magazine. Enjoy the day, whatever you do and where ever it finds you. : )
(Copyright Highlights magazine, 2011)
Here’s a spread for Highlights magazines present issue (November 2011) that I worked on a-way back in May. The theme is Thanksgiving and so I thought it time to get on the thematic bandwagon as well as put out a little self-promotional effort. There are some great illustrations and stories in this issue! My illustration buddies, Susan Mitchell and Holli Conger both have illustrations in this issue. Niiice!
Below: Full spread. Please click on illustration for a larger version.
Aaaand below: the first illustration/cartoon.
(copyright Highlights for Children 2011)
