Tiger hidden in my soup. (Should have added more cumin.) Or how sleep is optional before a SCBWI conference.

So I am totally delighted to say that I get to attend the Midsouth's SCBWI conference in 9 days. I am not delighted to say that I am bone tired. But it seems to me that this is how things are suppose to go before a conference. As my sweet husband will attest, I get a wee bit cranky running on 5 hours of sleep. ;)                                                                                                                                                    

So the SCBWI has started to do intensives in the last few years. I LOVE intensives. It's like being back in art school again. Basically you get an assignment from a super amazing Art Director. This year we are privileged enough to work with Ms. Loraine Joyner from Peachtree Publishers. My assignment was to illustrate a spread of the story Tiger in My Soup written by Kashmira Seth and illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbler. (We were encouraged not to look at the book, so I have no idea what it the story looks like other than the cover.)

Anyway, you submit your concept art, thumbnails and a final sketch to the Art Director and they give you constructive notes on how to fix or better enhance your illustration, then you come to the intensive with your final illustration.

This was my initial complete sketch of the spread:

Ms. Joyner went above and beyond the call of duty and sent me three pages of incredibly helpful and super encouraging notes. She helped me see where I needed pump up the action or fix things here and there. She basically liked the left side of the spread, so here is a simple upgraded version of the right side of the spread:



I'm working on the painting process right now and I have basically one week to finish. Excited for next weekend. Hopefully I can have enough time to be as meticulous as I want to be. Wish me luck, will you? :)

Roll For Save...

Little Miss Medusa

Da da da da! Done!

This was fun to do. Who doesn't love Greek Mythology? I'm sure you know that Medusa was turned into the serpent-headed monster because she had "relations" with that frisky Poseidon (also pictured). But the golden donut I found when reading about Medusa was that when she was killed by Perseus , that Chrysaor was said to be born from the neck of Medusa, whereas Pegasus was born from Medusa's blood. Gooey.

Slither-Ga-De

At one point in her life, Medusa considered being a carney, but eventually she figured it wasn't glamourous enough.This is a black and white study I'm doing for a color piece. Yay for tween Medusa!

ps. Oh... and a thanks to everybody that visited my Smory. I won 3rd place. Yippee to me and to you. And cookie baths for everyone :)

'Tis the Season

So it's that time of year again... the best time of year. HOORAY FOR FALL! I feel all warm and squishy. Yay for the season packed full of delicious goodies and the best holidays ever. Yay for dressing up and giving/getting presents. Did I mention the food? Anyway... I'm excited. Pretty much.

Zombie Island

This is one of those "personal projects" that has been put on the back burner and floundering in the underpainting stage. But here it is. Zombie Island. Not really a fun place.

No. Not really at all.

"5 hours is never enough...

especially when you know pretty much everything."

So this was directly inspired by Jon and Kate Plus 8. A show that I love and that my husband and dad are disturbed by. I was watching Maddy, one of the older twins, blabbing on and on and it reminded me of my hilarious chatty niece and myself as a little girl. I remember one day being incredibly impressed that I talked on the phone for 7 hours. (Sick!)

Piggly Wiggly

So I did this quick sketch for Illustration Friday cause I'm crazy busy this week. The topic is hoard. This reminded me of a few childhood memories... When I was a kid I was the queen of manipulating sweets away from my friends. I would tell them that I hadn't eaten for days or weeks even, and that their snickers bar would be the only thing that could save me from a most certain death. I definitely snuck a lot of delicious goodies too. My parents were not as easily persuaded as my school chums so I had to resort to sneaking. I would sneak something delicious preferably way past my bedtime while watching The Twilight Zone.

The Forgotten Tales

I absolutely love folk tales. This Slavic folk tale is about a old witch who lives in the forest, who survives by eating small children. She lives in a hut that rests on dancing chicken legs surrounded by a picket fence of bones and skulls.

My dad freaked out when he saw this piece. I pointed out that folk tales are filled with stories of old ladies that eat children. Hansel and Gretel for instance. It didn't make it any less creepy for him... but I suppose that's the point.

Baby Squid

So I'm sure you can guess... but I have a thing for tentacles. They're pretty friggen awesome.

I heart Corgis

I absolutely adore corgis... so I had to post this piece of a magazine I'm working on.

ps. This dog is so fierce... he'll bite your leg off.

being Saved by an angel in celestial glory isn't so bad...

It's official! Only through divine intervention have I been able to start up shop. My website (as seen on the links to the site) is mostly up, with a few kinks to work out. I'm moving forward in the business world of illustration. (Hooray!) I'm looking forward (snicker) to the 8th time I will be moving in the past 2 years... so we'll see how I can balance it all.

Blanket 'o Snow

Here's a quick sketch I did for the Illustration Friday's theme of "blanket."

So there.

Tales and Legends

For any of you who love to read fantasy, as I've blabbed on before, "The Black Cauldron" is a must read. It's totally delightful and fantastic in all the good ways. This is Eilonwy who is pissed because her buddies are aiming their swords at her. Honestly I still need to tweak this illustration (composition and Eilonwy's face could be a little less ugly)...but it's on it's way.

Plain Jane...

...is irritated that her rat Morty is unbelievably overdressed for the occasion.

Happy Christmas!

Here's my Christmas card for you all. Hope you have a happy holiday and eat something really delicious!

Escape from the ZOO

Heinrich our dear little rhino decided that he was too good for the zoo. Nobody flosses there. Needless to say he's had some difficulties in the mean streets of San Diego. For one thing he has social anxiety...


This is a fastidious rhino character in one of my future books.

...So there you have it :)

Mo-Tab

This is a piece I did awhile ago (last years Christmas Cards). I was inspired by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and their fabulous choir outfits that really haven't changed much since the 80s.

So there you have it.

Geeky

This piece that has been on the brain for at least a year and a half is amusing to me because everybody in hind-sight was an awkward pre-teen. And we all know that if we were to see Ariel in her pre-teen years she would be the most shunned adolescent because she was a huge human-nerd.

So there you have it.

Sorry about the color quality...Watercolor is really hard to scan, which is really urksome.

Poor Ichabod

This is part of a series of images I did for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow...and as we all know, poor Ichabod kicks the bucket, but this time the Headless Horseman feels pretty bad about it. The version that my husband, Edward, wrote is quite humorous...so I had the dickens of a time trying to make Ichabod's corpse funny. I went through loads of different sketches. Most of the sketches I made ended up looking morbid.

This at least made me laugh...poor Ichabod.