Tales of a Checkered Man Fan Art

This is a piece of fan art I did of Tales of a Checkered Man, a webcomic by Denver Brubaker. I met Denver back at the comics fundamentals worskshop I took at my local library this summer. Now there is a comic artists forum that meets every month, and Denver gave an inspiring presentation on his work there. I loved how he was very specific and described exactly what The Checkered Man wore, so it was easy and fun for me to come up with this fan art. I was also impressed by his discipline to stick with a schedule that comes along in doing a webcomic.

It has really pushed me along with my sketchbook project. I'm not sure what my future plans are with it, but I'm determined to finish it. And also I've been exploring traditional mediums again! Who would of thought. The smell of art stores are so nostalgic.

ABC Floor Puzzle

It seems like I've been doing alot of work involving the ABCs lately. Here is a floor puzzle for Scholastic Book Clubs, now available through this month's Firefly catalog.

Sketchbook Project 2011 Pages 12-15

Missing the subways, and getting a driver's license. Pages 12-15 of my sketchbook project 2011. To read this story from the beginning, please visit here or my flickr set.

(please click to enlarge and read)

**I will be posting new pages for this project every TUESDAY**

I did it! I posted two Tuesdays in a row!

My Better World Savings Bank

Last year, I worked on a fun project called My Better World Savings Bank. It is a high quality wooden house bank that has three compartments, and it teaches kids about spending, saving, and sharing. It comes with tons of stickers to decorate the house with and a passbook to keep track of expenses.


Along with founder John Weatherley and designer Alex Knowlton, I illustrated the stickers and the art work for the site. You can buy the bank online or check out some useful links to teach children to be financially smart!

Sketchbook Project 2011- Pages 8-11

Pages 8-11 of my sketchbook project 2011. To read this story from the beginning, please visit here or my flickr set.

(please click to enlarge and read)

**I will be posting new pages for this project every TUESDAY from now on until the end of this year.**

The deadline to send the book back to Art House Co-op is January 15th. I was doing the math and if I didn't come up with something every week, it will never get done. So please come back every Tuesday to follow the story.

And thank you again for reading.

P.S.-In case you were wondering, I don't actually own a book that is entitled " How to Make Friends 101." As if I'm not pathetic enough! ;-)

German Children's Books

I just came back from a great vacation with my girlfriends to Germany. A good friend moved there a few years ago and now live in Fehmarn, a beautiful island in the Baltic Sea that is about a hour and a half from Hamburg. I'm always fascinated by children's books in other countries so here are two books I picked up.
This mini, wordless book is very cute which follows people in a town for 12 months (12 spreads). It is very fun to flip through each spread and see what happens to the various people, with lots to details to find.

(one of the spreads)

And one of the books I'm working on right now consists of transportation so I picked up the other book for inspiration. Plus, look at all the cut out little cars! (they are also magnets!)

CGD Digistamps-Sept Collection

The September Digistamps are now available at I {heart} Papers.

For ideas on how to use these digistamps, check out the design team: Christy Loretta Lori Tammy Carlie Michele Laura Judy Kate

***********
On another note, I just wanted to thank you for all the support and comments on my previous post with my Sketchbook Project. I was really touched by the response, it encouraged me to keep going, even if its a bit personal. I must say it felt good to do something that is completely fun and art for the sake of art.

And a thank you to The Sassy Pack Rat for featuring me on her blog today! Check out her blog and her etsy shop (she makes very cute penguins!)

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

Mobile Painting

I'm back from the CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) trade show and the long train ride from Chicago gave me the time (and patience) to do this painting using iphone's Brushes app.

I didn't take much photos at the CHA show but it was a great learning experience. I also got to meet some of design team members of I {heart} Papers-they are all such sweet and crafty ladies.

Some companies I didn't know about that caught my eye at the show-check them out:
Sassafras, Doodlebug Design, October Afternoon

Thats it for now!

Claymation Puppet Workshop

I took an awesome 1 day claymation puppet workshop with Brad Pattullo at my local library. In 5 hours, we were able to build a clay puppet and play around with istopMotion.

My husband came along and he made the dinosaur while I made the duck. There wasn't much time left but we managed to play around and made this.

It definitely wet my appetite for more. Now all I can think of is to build more puppets.

Printed Things

Got my latest copy of Picturebook 10 recently.

Here is my piece. I've been in Picturebook for several years now. And since it takes about a year for this book to to produce, I've always looked back at my work with a critical eye. But I actually *still* like this piece alot.
My "new-ish" business cards came in too. Overnight prints did a great job, my only wish was that I had my name and info a little bit bigger. There is always next time.

Thats it for now!

CGD Digistamps-July Collection

The July collection for The Chicken Girl Design Digistamps is now available. The design team is coming up with some fun stuff, check out:

Christy Loretta Lori Tammy Carlie Michele Laura Judy Kate

In related news, I will be off to the CHA trade show thats coming up in Chicago at the end of July, and will finally meet some of these ladies in real life. Also looking forward to educating myself in whats out there in the craft world. Its an unfamiliar world to me, and I'm hoping to know it a little bit better so I can come up with better stamps. Also a great excuse to go to Chicago!

Illustrator of the Month

I'm still here! Just doing some summer traveling and working on a few projects, especially a book with Viking that I'm excited about. Sketches are due soon so all my energy are going into it.

Some fun news- I'm illustrator of the month over at Childrensillustrators.com. Thanks to the team there for picking me, I feel very honored. I signed up with them this year, you can check out my portfolio here.

Promos and Art Styles

Promos
I'm very honored to be contributing again over at Zero2illo, with this week's focus on promotional materials. Here is a link to the post where I talk about two of my own promo pieces along with some tips and advice. Thanks to Jonathan Woodward, the creator behind Zero2illo, who is also a talented illustrator!

Art Styles
Speaking of which, Jonathan and I are part of 18 artists who share their opinions on artistic styles over at VectorTuts+. It is also part of a digital illustration "session" currently over at Tuts+, with plenty of inspirational posts. I'll be following along. Thanks to Chris Leavens for the interview and its a great article with a diverse bunch of artists. If you love vector art, you'll have to check out Chris' work; along with this fabulous link on how he does it all.

1-Sided business card

I was in need to restock my business cards when I found a great deal at overnight prints (sign up for their email list, they are great about having sales). I decided to quickly convert an old 2-sided design I had for last year's Surtex show and make it into a more general business card.

I put it up on twitter and unexpectedly got great response, so I thought I would put it up here as well. Stay tuned for more promo-related posts here very soon.

CGD Digistamps-June Collection

June is here and another Chicken Girl Design digistamps collection. Thinking about Father's day (June 20th), BBQs, and the weather is starting to get nice. Although there was a scary tornado watch here a few days ago, which is something completely new to me.

Thanks to the design team for making some pretty cool stuff out of these digi stamps:
Kate
Christy
Loretta
Lori
Tammy
Carlie
Michele
Laura
Deb

These digital stamps, 300 dpi greyscale PNG file can be downloaded for $2.50 each or the whole collection for $8.50. Happy crafting!

Duelin' Banjo Pig (+Singin' Chicken)

So...there is this duel thats been happening amongst a few illustrators' blogs. You may start seeing banjo pigs everywhere. It started over at Guy Francis' blog, go over and check out many other duelin' banjo pigs. Now I'm REALLY convinced us illustrators are...a unique bunch, heh. Rock on! Cluck on!

Inspiration from Tokyo- Part 3

One of the reasons why I love Japan is that there are illustrations everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE. It is not afraid of cute. It is a country where grown men have cute charms on their cell phones and its not a big deal.

Some fun graphics from the streets:

Even on drinks:

These toy packaging caught my eye- I love the design and illustrations on these:

and last but not least...

This is the ryokan (Japanese style inn) we stayed at in Tokyo (in Ueno.) I can not rave more about this place. We didn't want to stay in a generic western style hotel in the middle of a touristy area..so if you are a bit more adventurous, I highly recommend staying at Sawanoya Ryokan. It is family run and foreigner friendly...and possibly on the quaintest little street ever. We slept on futons and took baths in the gorgeous onsen (Japanese style bath) over looking a garden. It was inexpensive and Sawa-san and his family are great hosts.

And a few more links- through Ismoyo's blog and reading about her adventures in Tokyo a few months before mine, I found a very helpful Tokyo shopping guide link over at Asking for Trouble. The zine and guide was very helpful and I'll be using it again on my next trip back.

Thats all my posts related to my Tokyo trip. Now I'm plotting when I can go back...

Inspiration from Tokyo- Part 2

Storm Machine Graphics- Wow. I saw them at Design Festa and their table was absolutely amazing. My first thought was- "this is branding at its finest!" (My business side comes out!) They had so many merchandise but all the colors went together and I was just trying to absorb and learn from it. The ABC book is only about 3.75" x 3.75" with a cloth cover. They are probably my favorite find out of my whole trip. Check out their website!

Donut guy cup and "saucer"-those of you who may come to know my tastes probably know why I went nuts over this little guy, and only for 1000 yen! Another purchase from Design Festa but unfortunately I don't have information on the artist, I believe she was from Korea. (Lesson learned- put your name on EVERYTHING that you do!)

Cute creature in "Terrarium"-I believe the artist was there in part of a collective; there was a slight panic when they realized I didn't speak Japanese and they were trying to find someone who spoke English..it was actually quite endearing! There were a bunch of different creatures in bottles all together and it was very striking, so I had to adopt one.

Happy Birthday Pop-Up book from Sanrio Greetings- This mini book came with an envelope so you can send it out. I bought it at Itoya, a stationery store that is all over the place.

Matryoshka doll tea pot- I bought this at a store in Ginza. The bulkiest item I bought but thats why I went with a big suitcase! Look, even the box is cute with the illustrations.

There were other little things here and there but this is the majority of goodies I got. I'm going to write one more post on the trip in general, and hope to provide some tips and such, because I can't wait to go back!