My business cards came! Notice its slightly different than what I had shown. Its from all the over thinking and now I am STILL unsure about it. Yes, I've definitely got some control issues.
Is it too late to post new year's resolutions? I've noticed while blog surfing that many people come up with a theme for the new year. I thought it was a great idea, and the word for me would be Structure. On the illustration front I am sailing along, but I've been struggling with work/life balance as a freelancer working from home. I never thought that would be such an issue, since how great is it to work from home? In a lot of ways, it is. But there are alot of downsides that I would like to address this year, and also other little things:
A few things going on professionally this year as I will finally be attending the SCBWI (Society of Children's Books Writers & Illustrators) winter conference in February. What took me so long? After all, I live in NY and can conveniently attend, without worrying about hotels and traveling. To be honest, I was worried if I was "good enough" to attend. But, this January marks the beginning of my third year as a working freelance illustrator. That counts for something, right? I'm excited to meet those of you who are attending. Come up to me and say "cluck cluck!"
I wasn't crazy about the old design. I wanted to take the emphasis off of the big text that read Chickengirl Design, and more of my actual name and style. I won't abandon the chicken branding anytime soon, it has worked well for me. But as I get older, I wonder, is it too immature for me to be "chickengirl?" Anyways, the new design suits me, for now!
I really don't have an explanation for this other than that I had a need to draw some fur balls. And I don't even have any cats. What a great topic this week though, I can think of tons of things to draw. This is just one of them.
I got this for Christmas from my mom...They are little bowling pin shaped people (and dog) on little clothespins clips. The best part is the little labels they have on them, like "Sister," "brother," "dog":
There is something about labeling things that I love, which is probably one of the reasons why I love those Richard Scarry books so much.
I love cello sleeves. Its so much fun making your own little packaging.
And fruity notebooks made from an Illustration friday entry.
Just poppin in to post this last piece of the year for IF- a nice, cute-sy sugary illo :-) Hope you all had a nice holiday, see you in 2008!
I participated in a secret santa Christmas swap, I can't wait to show some of the stuff I made here but I don't want to spoil it for the recipients. So I will wait till after Christmas. But above is a sneak peek of some Christmas tree plushies work-in-progress.
Anyways, its time for me to take a break from the blog and enjoy the holiday goodness, but also really to catch up on some work. Have a good holiday, everyone! Chickeny wishes to all.
Its been a while since I've participated in IF! Put a face on a vegetable or fruit on anything and I'll buy it in a heartbeat. If only this was a piece of fabric made into an apron....
A chicken chucker! Just what I wanted for Christmas!
And a cute little brown chicken timer from a thoughtful friend. Cluck cluck!
This is a piece I did for a cover contest over at Think.Jot.Draw. I've had this in progress for sometime now. Initially the deadline was in October and that came and went, I never finished it. But I found out the deadline was extended till the end of the year. So head over and see what its all about and enter!
I finally got a chance to touch my sewing machine again! Inspired by Shim and Sons' pencil cups, I decided to sew up fabric sleeves to go over empty coffee cans. My first attempt- circle appliques over dotted fabric over a round can- hmm, not sure if its a bit over board. But these were very easy to make and very fast, just the little fix I needed.
Yay, the cards are here from the printers!
I finally got a pro account over at Flickr and got some free Moo mini cards along with it! (Terrible photo though, struggling with my camera at the moment.)
So have you worked on your holiday card yet? This is the new design for this year's card, it should be coming from the printers next week.
Too busy to work on any personal projects at the moment but its important to fill the creative well. I've been enjoying my new subscription to Giant Robot I received for my birthday. Just the dose of inspiration I need.
On the crafty front, I finally tackled the zipper using this tutorial to make a pouch. I did not use a zipper foot because my hello kitty sewing machine doesn't have one. But it turned out alright!
Above is a piece from a little educational book called Funny Bunny Hats for Houghton Mifflin. It was tough coming up with alot of different hats, but of course, I had to have a chicken hat in there!
