Illustration Friday-car

I can go on and on with rows and rows of this...maybe repeat it to make it into a gift wrap design? Currently, one of my favorite blogs is Print & Pattern- a few months back Doodlegirl kindly sent me a note on all the cute kids stuff that was happening there (go to the archives for March 2007). Go and get inspired! I was drooling over everything.

And the winner is...

The winner of the penguin book giveaway is Ken Chandler! To nerd up the whole process, I went to random.org where it can generate a random number and that was how I picked the winner. I wish I could give away a book to everyone who wanted one. Thank you for all who left comments and I promise to have more giveaways soon!

I make bag, bag makes me happy

My new favorite bag! More projects from Amy Butler's In stitches....I was finally confident to tackle this bag and it wasn't that hard. Plus, this fabric is the most expensive fabric I've worked with yet...can't mess it up! Although I haven't bought the very expensive yet very cute Japanese fabric I've been oogling over just yet. This fabric is from The City Quilters, very easy for me to get to. Or maybe too easy....I've already got the farbic hording syndrome....

Book Giveaway!

Oops! Its been quite a while since I popped in, huh? I'd like to make it up to all the lovely people who drop by- by hosting a book giveaway. I just received copies of my Penguins' Perfect Picnic book, complete with bingo cards. Please leave a comment and let me know if you like to be in the drawing and I will randomly pick one winner next Monday, 5/28, who will receive a copy of this. (Its nicer than this, my picture taking skills is to blame!)

On other news, there is a nice interview with me over at Monday Artday. Please go and take a look! Thank you so much for the folks who left such nice comments over there.

Random creative distractions

Sometimes its just nice getting off the computer and do some creative things with my hands. Maybe thats why I've been so drawn to crafting and sewing in the past few months. I made this fabric basket (from Amy Butler's In Stitches, excellent book!!):

I'm also a secret anime/manga fan, I don't talk about it too much here but I can see it influencing my work more and more. This past saturday was free comic day so it was off to the comic shop. Besides the free comics, Mathboy and I wanted to pick up a plastic model to build, just for the fun of it:

Ok, we thought we would get a small one just to get our feet wet. This little guy is only about 2.5 inches tall and was super easy to put together. Thought it might be harder since the instructions were in Japanese. The gun actually shoots! How cute!

I think after taking these little creative breaks, I can go back to my illustration with a fresh eye and perspective. So I guess I am off to draw some robots...!

3-D Cardboard creations Samples

I wanted share with you some samples I got yesterday for 2 art and craft book kits I did for Walter Foster publishing. Its quite unique in that there is a foldout story book and also art materials to make the characters from the story.

I had to base my illustrations on the cardboard characters that already existed. But It was a good challenge to make the characters my own as much as I can. I am so happy with the design and it never gets old to see my work on nice glossy paper in a product like this.

The back of the foldout is an illustration of a "stage" where you can play in front of with your cardboard creations.

They are available here and here on amazon. I wonder if they are in stores. If you see them, please let me know! Have a good weekend!

Spring Promo mailer

Over at Illustration for Kids, we just did a spring themed mailer. It amazes me how the seven of us from all different parts of the world can get together and come up with this. Thank goodness for the internet!

Here is my piece up close:
My piece turned out a little bit more on the sugary side than I would of liked...but overall I am happy with it. The weather here in NY is gorgeous today, hope everyone gets a chance to get some fresh spring air.