Sketchbook Project 2011- Pages 1-7

When I signed up for the Sketchbook Project, I was also taking a comics fundamentals workshop at my local library with Jerzy Drozd, (take a listen to his Art & Story podcast!) I think Jerzy's passion for comics is pretty contagious. So I was really happy to attend the workshop and meet him. I've dabbled in comics throughout the years; having a piece in an anthology, even participated in the MoCCA Artfest selling my work, but always getting distracted and going back to illustrating children's books.

I've always wanted to write and love the comic style of story telling. But writing is difficult for me. So when I was at the workshop and was told "Write what you know!" it clicked with me. I was going to write about my experiences and feelings of moving from a big city (New York) to a small town (Ann Arbor, MI), in comic form.

I'm intrigued by people who write autobiographical stories. How daring-to have the good, the bad, and the ugly out there for the world to see. I'm sort of nervous about it, afraid of offending anyone's feelings, afraid of people seeing my weak side. But here it is, page 1 to 7...

"If You Lived Here..."

(please click on the images to enlarge and read)

I have not pre-planned any storylines or layouts. I'm using this as a genuine sketchbook so to speak, and working directly on the paper (which is unfortunately, very thin, with ink showing through a little bit on the other side.). So the artwork is not "perfect" by any means and that is another side I will be exposing myself of.

I'll be posting new pages when I can and right now I plan to house all the pages in a set over at my Flickr.

And if you actually read all this rambling AND read my comic story so far, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! :-)

Arthouse Co-op + Sketchbook Project 2011

I'm probably a little late in posting this already but many people already know about the Sketchbook Project 2011 that is going on over at Arthouse Co-op (and my portfolio profile here.) There is still time to participate. $25 will get you a sketchbook, fill it with sketches, send it back by January and it will be part of The Brooklyn Art Library. The sketchbooks will be going on tour all over the world as well.

I picked the theme "If You Lived Here." Its been officially a year since my move from New York to Ann Arbor. And I've had so many feelings and new experiences that I was like to record down, so I'll be telling my story in this sketchbook. It will be a little bit different than my usual work but whats a sketchbook for but to explore new ideas, right?

Evites and e-card Designs

I've got some of my designs over at Pingg if you need to send out an ecard or evite. Thanks to the folks over there, I'm today's spotlight designer.

I took some existing art I had and it was interesting to see how it translated into invites and such.
I've also got a few Halloween designs up too- (yes, we've got to think ahead!)

August Digistamps

The August Digistamps are now available at I {heart} Papers! Thanks again to the design team for doing some great stuff with it:

Christy Loretta Lori Tammy Carlie Michele Laura Judy Kate

Art for iPhone/iPad app- ABC Song

I worked on a pretty cool project earlier this year that is now out- an iPhone/iPad app for HarperCollins Publishers called ABC Song. I did the art for it and they did an amazing job of bringing my art to life. It is pretty cool to see my art animated.

Some screen shots:

To see a preview, please check it out over at Curious Puppy!

**Its only $0.99 and you can download it over at iTunes here.** It will keep your little ones entertained. The singalong works great but I found the game part to be a little buggy, hopefully that will be fixed soon enough.

I'm thrilled to be part of something like this, and look forward to doing more interactive e-books, apps, and the like. It is definitely where the future is headed.

Painting with iPhone's Brushes App- Pig