Play N Worship Samples

Last August, I wrote this post about submitting a sample for a bible story assignment and not getting the job. But something good came out of it: a few months later, I got an assignment from another publisher to do this Play n Worship: Play-Along Bible Stories for Toddlers & twos. I got a box of samples of it last week. (In case you were wondering, I did not do the pink character that is on the front.)

Here is the back of the box, with samples of spreads I did the illustrations for.

Inside of the kit, it comes with a CD, DVD, and 10 storytime teaching trifolds.

Here is Noah's Ark!

I had fun AND learned alot from this one!

The Big Move

I have some big personal news: I will be moving from New York City to Ann Arbor, Michigan in August!

Why the move? My significant other got a post-doctorate position at the University of Michigan...which we've known since March. Even though it will only be for three years, it will be a big change for the both of us. It is much wanted. But scary. Yet exciting.

So for the next two months, you'll be hearing about our adventures. It is the reason I haven't been posting as much art as I've used to. This year has been jam packed for me- getting married, exhibiting in a big trade show, and now moving!

Goodies from Argentina!

I'm always amazed and happy when blog friends send me goodies in the mail. Here is a package from Zime when I was one of the lucky ones to participate in her RegalARTE giveaway. Its a pay-it-forward program in which I now will send handmade gifts to three of my blog readers. I better figure out what I am going to make!
Guess who lives in the houses?
ADORABLE!! Hand painted just for me...with a little chicken!! Ahhh! Thank you, Zime- I feel so special! Zime just recently opened an etsy shop where you will find many of her painted dolls. I promise to pay it forward and have a giveaway here soon!

Stuff I got for Inspiration

Its been a while since I posted! Wow, it was really interesting to hear everyone's situation in this economy from the last post. A positive outlook is the way to go. I hope each and everyone of you out there is surviving in this economy.

Thought I would share some of the goodies I got for inspiration. I finally got around to framing a few prints I got...here is what is on my dresser at the moment.
Above from left to right: Many faces of Mook by I love Grey Skies (etsy seller), Robot by Allan Sanders, and The Host by Ana Galvan (from Thumbtack Press.)

I also bought this book:
Ricehead's Revenge by YiYing Wang. Honestly I did not buy it for the art but for the fun story, and I like the fact that there is a list of characters in the beginning of the book:
Plus, they have a really cute website: www.Noodoll.com!

And last but not least, I went nuts over this card when I saw it over at Stickers and Stuff:
I bought it over at Ginko Papers (sorry, I believe it is sold out). It is from Hallmark Japan, illustrated by Yukiko Hatano.
This card has been sitting on my desk for quite a while now, hoping it will inspire me to do some pop up cards soon. Its so cute I can't stand it....

Thats it for now, hope that was some good eye candy for you!

Effects of The Bad Economy

This post was suppose to be about this new book I illustrated and designed that was suppose to be coming out in the Fall.

But it isn't.

These are the printer copies that I received, but it won't be coming out in Fall 09. If I am lucky, it might be on the Spring 2010 list. But it is uncertain for now.

For the past few weeks, I've been hearing more layoff news than ever before. Old colleagues, friends, many people I know are getting the pink slip. One of the biggest shockers is when I heard Nickelodeon Magazine is going to close down. I use to work there as a designer and it saddens me that many of the long time staff there will be losing their jobs.

Personally, I am surviving in this economy. But of course all the news around me worries me a little. I'm generally positive though, still churning out new art, still promoting myself, still keeping hope that there are still new businesses to be had.

How is the bad economy effecting you and your attitude for your business?

Website Update-Books Section

My website is long overdue for an update, especially in the books section. I finally updated the books I've done and a few that is soon to be released, many coming out in the Fall of this year. Please take a look!

Two new books (coming this Fall) listed on Amazon:
The Great Reindeer Rebellion, written by Lisa Trumbauer and illustrated by Jannie Ho (yours truly.) It is a companion to The Haunted Ghoul Bus with a similar format and embossed pages. I also got to design this book. Woohoo!

Light the Menorah, a cute interactive book, illustrated by Jannie Ho (me!). There are small pull tabs for the kids to "light" the candles of the menorah. I haven't received copies yet but it will be fun to see the interactive part of this book.

And last but not least, I finally got my own name as a website domain name:

www.JannieHo.com

For now, it will bring you to my Chicken Girl Design site. I'm not giving up being Chicken Girl just yet, but I had to renew the domain and have been giving some thought about the name and what I want to do with it in the future. Many of you expressed to me that it is a very catchy name and clever branding, but a part of me wants to be taken "seriously" too, and wonders if it hurts me in a certain way. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. That is it for now!

Surtex-Final Thoughts

Surtex was an incredible experience! I learned about what kind of industry was interested in my work, and discovering new companies I would of never known about. And I had alot of fun! Traffic was good for me as a first time exhibitor. The number of Surtex exhibitors was low compared to past years. I'd like to think this worked to my advantage though.

Being a freelancer, I don't get out of the house much, so one of the best part was getting to meet fellow artists and illustrators, (many which I've got to know through blogs.) One of the first people I met at set up day was fellow Illustration for Kids member Holli Conger- its so great to finally "meet" after years of knowing each other online. Also so many illustrators with blogs I finally got to see: Deb Melmon, Liz Goulet Dubois, Barbara Johansen Newman, Ellen Crimi-Trent and Kristin Sorra. It was also wonderful to see illustrators Mike Moran and Chris Reed walking the show. I'm a fan of their work and I'm quite flattered that they knew my work too! Meeting some fellow first time exhibitors was great too- hello to Eric Comstock of Comstock Design- they had some super cute alphabet art! Hope I didn't miss anyone- I talked with so many talented people in the span of 3 days.

I'm still struggling personally as to what kind of industry I want to work for. My number one passion is still children's books, but I'm definitely interested in exploring other streams of income as well.

Checked the stats on my website and found alot of people are coming through the Print & Pattern blog. Thanks Bowie for featuring me in your Surtex posts!

Getting back in the swing of things is very hard after a trade show. But I've got a few deadlines so I better get back to work. This is my report and I am sticking to it. I hope to attend again next year!

Surtex-Day 1

I came into the Surtex Show this morning with my vinyl banner on the floor :-( The velcro did not hold up at all. But one of my booth partners, Doreen, came to my rescue with S hooks that actually fit, and with some double sided tape I was all ready to go. Here is my little corner of the booth! The right side is my vinyl banner from uprinting.com and my left side were 11 x 17 prints from kinkos. I'm pretty happy with both the color and quality.

I wasn't sure what to expect today but I'm happy to say I am having alot of fun so far and made some great and interesting contacts. There were 5 of us in the booth to keep each other company: Doreen Mulryan Marts, Kevin Gunning, Brook Churchill, Inga Gecas, and myself. We make up Vivid Graphics, #552- come see us in the next two days. To be continued!

Surtex-Set Up day

Set up day for the Surtex show! Picked up my badge and put up my banner...I ended up using sticky velcro and I'm praying that my art will hold up and not in a pile on the floor tomorrow. Then I found out they were giving out free S hooks that I could of used. My only concern now is that I will remove all the velcro once the show is over. They will charge me if there is any sticky residue left over on the walls.

I was quite nervous before but now that I've gone to set up, I feel calmer. And thanks to a wonderful friendly face that dropped by- Hi Holli!

Rounded Corner Business Cards = 20% More Fun!

My new business cards looking like a game of Memory.

First time printing with overnightprints.com and I'm very happy with them. Good quality paper and the shipping was fast. Never had anything done with rounded corners before- my type is a little bit close to the edge and its driving me crazy- although I'm sure I'm the only one thinking about it.

This week is all about printing my portfolio and sucking up all the inks in my printer. Surtex is this Sunday...am I ready?!?

Chicken eggs and wedding invites, oh my!

Thank you for everyone's well wishes from the last post! Things are still crazy here as I now have the Surtex show in two weeks. Doing a trade show and getting married all within a month of each other = absolute craziness!

I wanted to finally post my chicken wedding invitations though! As many of you who might be artists/designers/illustrators, the first thought after getting engaged was...not the dress, or anything else, but....oh what am I going to do in terms of the invites?!? I had so many elaborate things going through my mind: sending everyone bound books, or a box, or a poster in a big tube. In the end, I wanted to keep things simple and sophisticated. Hard to do because I realized I struggle with doing anything sophisticated.

I ended up doing a tri-fold invitation, which gave me the story book feeling but much more simple than actually doing a book. The concept was (of course, us designers had to have a concept for an invite, haha!) a path on which we went from the streets where we first met to St. Thomas for the ceremony, and back to New York for the reception. Here is a picture of my "assembly line":

To finish my theme of a chicken wedding, we had plastic egg favors filled with chocolates tied with a matching blue ribbon, thanks to my mother-in-law (again)!
It was very easy to come up with some matching thank you flat cards afterwards.
Thanks again to all the well wishes, I'm off to do some Surtex stuff and hopefully survive the next two weeks. Back again soon!

A Beachy Chicken Wedding

Last week will be forever in my heart. Starting with a trip to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, where Math boy and I married in a private ceremony at Magens Bay Beach between two palm trees. It was peaceful and serene, with only the minister and a photographer present. It was unfussy, focusing on what really matters... everything I wanted it to be.

We stayed at the Bellavista Bed and Breakfast in St Thomas. (hello, Wendy!!!) I wanted give this place a mention since Wendy the owner is a wonderful lady who took incredible care of us the whole time we were there. Highly recommended!

We came back to NYC for a reception to celebrate with friends and family....and the theme for the party? Chickens, of course! And the star of the show:
My chicken wedding cake!!! Made by my incredibly talented mother-in-law!!! I couldn't have dreamed of a better cake!!! It was so personalized (she based the chickens off of my illustrations) and I had no idea what it looked like till the reception. I was completely floored.
I'm not the type of girl who thought about their wedding day since they were little. But this chicken cake is definitely a dream come true. Words can't really express how much I appreciate the time, energy and love that was spent making it. Thank you, my new MIL!!!

Spring

This is my piece for our spring mailer at Illustration for Kids. I had a meeting with an art director once who told me that the problem with alot of vector illustrations isn't because its digital, but because it is usually very flat in terms of perspective. This is my attempt to take on that challenge and shake things up a bit.

The Licensing promos are here!

Its driving me nuts that my camera doesn't take very good pictures. But I had to post these because I'm very excited about them. I just got these postcards from the printers to promote my art for licensing.
I had a wonderful meeting last week with my Surtex partners about setting up our booth. Right now we are trying to figure out where are the best places to print vinyl banners. It will be my first time printing up something as large as 3' x 7'...if anyone has tips on that, I would appreciate it. But I guess right now, I need to figure out exactly what art I will put on there!

Work Space

I recently took this pic of my work space for a book I'm contributing to. The picture is only of my desk since I literally don't have a "real" space to work. I've been working in the corner of my living room for over 3 years now. But I'm so happy to announce that I will be getting my own room as my studio (i.e., four walls and a door!) very soon. More on that later.

The count down for my wedding is less than a month away. I'm also working on some designs for Surtex, which its so hard since I can't show everything I've been doing here. But a sneak peek...notice whats on the screen in the pic? Thats a piece for my postcard. I'm waiting for it from the printers...I'll show that here once I get it.

Illustration Friday-Intricate

Hello, Illustration Friday! Oh how I've missed participating. I've been working on a fresh piece that will fit the theme...sort of. This was an expansion to a piece I did a while back here. I could go on and on and expand the town!

I'm planning to use this for next year's Picturebook directory. A good break from all the licensing stuff I've been trying to do.

Surtex Shuffle and card ideas

There were some changes going on over at the Surtex show in which all the booth numbers had been re-assigned. Now we are in booth #552. Luckily, I haven't had any printed materials made yet. The group I am with is Vivid graphics and there are 5 of us. We'll be meeting soon to discuss the displays in our booth. Exciting!

I've been feeling very overwhelmed lately. So much so that I feel like I haven't been very productive with my time and energy. I haven't spent much time working on my licensing portfolio but instead feeling paralyzed and guilty. Last night, I finally stayed up to work on a few pieces:
I've been doing some research on licensing, and there are great resources out there such as the art of licensing yahoo group, Tara Reed's ebook on doing trade shows, and my fellow illustration for kids member Holli Conger documenting her Surtex show planning on her blog.

So far, I've had mixed feelings on licensing...such as doing art work on spec, artwork being kept in a private gallery, etc. which is very different from doing illustration. I am learning alot so far, and we'll see where this journey takes me.

And the Winners are...

The winners of the Chickengirl Design/uprinting.com giveaway are...

#41 mkdubose, who will receive the 1000 business cards

and

#44 Karen, who will receive the canvas print!

Thank you to all that dropped by and entered. I wish I could give all of you the prize. It sounds like we can all use some new fresh business cards. In case you were wondering, I decided to use a random number generator to pick my winners. (Its easy and its fair!) Congratulations to the winners! I'll be in contact with you shortly.

Thank you to Uprinting.com for sponsoring this giveaway :-)

Giveaway!!!

A while back I won a giveaway over at Vectips, and the prize was 1000 free business card printing from Uprinting.com. Now I am so thrilled to be partnering up with UPrinting to host a giveaway of my own here, to give my dear loyal readers a chance to win too! With these crazy economic times, we can all use some free promo materials.

One reader will receive 1000 free business cards printing and one reader will receive one 18" x 24" canvas printing!

If you don't remember, I ended up printing these wacky coupon/business cards, which I will be using at the Surtex show:
The quality was wonderful and I loved how I had the option to make it an unusual size (more coupon size like). I'm very happy with them and plan on printing some postcards next.

So, alright, on to the good stuff!

How to Enter

1. Leave a comment at the end of the blog post, describing what you would use the free business cards and/or prints for.

Prize

1000 free standard size business cards for one reader and 1 free 18 x 24 canvas print for one reader.

You can choose from any of their stocks for these items.

Rules

Winners in the United States and Canada qualify for free shipping. Shipping fees will apply to winners outside these areas.

I will pick 2 winners randomly on Friday, March 6th. Please make sure that I have a way to contact you if you win. Good luck, everyone!

Vector book Love

I realized if someone asked me what is the one thing I can't live without, and the answer might possibly be "Adobe Illustrator." So here is a book that gives vector art all the love, and I'm a contributor for it! Its called Vector Graphics and Illustration, A Master Class in Digital Image-Making by Jack Harris and Steven Withrow.

I'm in the pictorial narratives section, with a write up under "Chickengirl and Children's books." I was pretty amused by that.
There are also some tutorials and artist profiles (which I didn't get one, I must say I had to pick my ego off the floor from that!) But I am very honored to be with a bunch of fabulous vector artists-one of my favorites is Catalina Estrada-she is so amazing! There are very few books on vector art in comparison to books on photoshop and other programs, so this is a gem to me. Thanks to the authors Steven and Jack for letting me be a part of it!

And hey, I'm on the back of the book! There is my pirate bunny!