Road Work Ahead Blog Tour

 

Road Work Ahead is going on a blog tour!

• Monday 9/19 - Fiction Notes, Everything Mom
• Tuedsay 9/20 - The Reading Tub
• Wednesday 9/21 - Great Kid Books
• Thursday 9/22 - Imagination Soup
• Friday 9/23 - Check it Out
  

 

May thanks to all the bloggers for making this happen. We appreciate it! Check out our Facebook Fan Page for news, activities, updates and more.

Buy on Penguin, Amazon, BN, or Your Local Indie Bookstore

My Process: Picture Book Dummies

Final Book, "Toddler dummy", "baby dummy"

Today is the release of Road Work Ahead!

I thought I would share more of my process in illustrating the book. I started to get in the habit of making a mini dummy of my initial sketches, which is quite helpful in seeing how the pacing and page turn works out.

The "baby dummy" is about 3" x 3" in size, and I mock this up for myself before even sending the sketches to the art director. I spend a few days flipping through it and making notes right on the dummy, before revising the sketches. I find it helps so much in making sure there is continuity between each spread.

 So after the first round of sketches to the art director, there were a few adjustments to the pagination of the story. This book has very simple text and the art does alot of heavy lifting, so it was very important my illustrations added a rich layer to the story that the text doesn't necessarily spell out or say.

After reading the notes and making revisions, I make a "toddler dummy," which is around 5" x 5". A bit bigger so I can really see the little details I might want to add, or subtract.

And now the book is out into the world! This book is perfect for little boys who loves cars and trucks and all things construction! (and I'm also hoping little girls will like it too!) 

Road Work Ahead, written by Anastasia Suen, published by Viking, illustrated by yours truly, is out now. Buy on amazon, BN, or your favorite local indie bookstore. :-)




P.S.-Thank you SO MUCH for all the lovely comments on here, Facebook and twitter about my last post. I haven't written one of these from-the-heart posts in a while, and especially with some crazy stuff thats been happening in my personal life, I know I need to stop once in a while and smell the roses. Here's to many more dreams coming true.

Dreams Coming True

Let me get sappy for a moment.

My next picture book, Road Work Ahead, will be coming out this Thursday. I'm celebrating this book in a special way because this book is my first, honest-to-goodness, 32 page hardcover trade picture book. Yes, its got a dust jacket and everything, with my name and bio on the back flap.

I think I've waited 10+ years for this.

As an aspiring illustrator, I would walk through the children's section at Barnes & Nobles, looking through all the books, wishing someday, just one day, I'll have a book with my name on it. The idea of having my name and bio on the back flap was a huge deal to me.

For the past 5 years or so, I've gotten a chance to work on some amazing projects: books, games, puzzles, apps. Time flies and I am still in disbelief of how my body of work has grown with a portfolio I can be proud of. I'm grateful for all the people who gave me a chance- art directors, editors, designers, fellow illustrators, and most of all, my rep. I'm even grateful for the naysayers- yes, they are out there but they only pushed me to work harder to prove them wrong.

I've been getting many emails these days from other illustrators asking me for advice. I'm always really flattered and still in a bit of disbelief that I'm now on the other side, to be considered knowledgeable enough to be giving out insight. After all, I'm just like most artists out there- I still struggle with creativity, have insecurities, and always looking for the next gig.

But I want to say dreams do come true. Work hard. Believe. Is there enough cheesiness in this post?

Ok, let me get off my soap box. I'll be back on Thursday with more Road Work Ahead updates!

Making of: A Picture Book Cover

My latest picture book, Road Work Ahead, is coming out in less than a week (September 15th)! So I thought I would talk a little bit more about my process here. With the cover, I wanted to show as much cool vehicles as I can, which is the stars of the book. I actually only came up with 2 versions of the cover for the publisher to look at and was pleased they picked the one that they did. 

Version 1

Version 2

Color final

I was pretty determined to use those orange work stripes as part of the design of the cover. I'm hoping with the title bar being right in the middle will be eye catching and attention grabbing.

A fun note with the back cover- woohoo, I sneaked in a chicken on there! You'll have to check out the book to see why that makes sense!

For all things Road Work Ahead related, check out the Facebook Fan Page and we'll be having a blog tour!

Halloween Fun + A Giveaway!!

I can't believe its September already, and it means back to school and one of my favorite holidays are just around the corner- Halloween! Besides my oldie but goodie, The Haunted Ghoul Bus, I illustrated a new Halloween book, Halloween Howlers: Frightfully Funny Knock-Knock Jokes written by Michael Teitelbaum, published by Harper Festival.

To celebrate, I'm excited to be hosting this giveaway with awesome prizes from Thats My Folio AND Sunshine Smile Publications! These are two new websites for artists to promote their work.

 The prizes include:

• -one year subscription to Thats My folio
• -Sunshine Smile Publications will be giving away an illustrator Showcase on the Sunshine Smile Publications website and 6 months of publicity posts (1 post per month)

 To be eligible to win, all you have to do is ONE of the following:

• Leave a comment on this blog post, telling me one of your favorite costumes for Halloween
 

• Copy this retweet on your Twitter Status RT @JannieHo enter to win a 1yr subscription to @thatsmyfolio + showcase from @S_SPublications http://tinyurl.com/3uvfrw9
  
• If you are not on Twitter, you can send a blog post to Thats My Folio with a Halloween themed or a general post of a project you are working on with an image of your work.
  
  
• You are also qualified if you become a member of Thats My Folio's Flickr Group

It also doesn't hurt if follow us on twitter, we'd appreciate it :-)
@Jannieho
@thatsmyfolio
@S_SPublications

This is a great prize for any illustrator looking to promote their work. I will pick a winner next Monday, September 12th. Good luck everyone and hope you'll spread the word!

 **Thank you everyone for entering here and on twitter! Using random.org, the winner is Lyn Martin! Congratulations Lyn! **

Transportation ABCs

While working on Road Work Ahead, I became a little bit obsessed with drawing vehicles. I was taking note of road side construction like I've never did before. So to continue my ABC series, I thought doing a set of transportation might be fun. 

You can check out ALL the ABCs I've done so far with a special page dedicated to it now on my website. And I'm happy to announce that the series are winners in the upcoming 3x3 children's show No.8!

My Sister, the Freak Pin Up Art

My Sister, the Freak is a web comic started by Dani Jones, a talented and super nice artist whom I got to meet this summer at Kids Read Comics. I am honored to do this pin up piece for My Sister, the Freak Vol.1 in paperback, which is on pre-order now. Check it out. I've always admired Dani's incredible motivation to get things done.

I took this opportunity to try out different techniques and style...so this piece looks a little different than my usual stuff. Yay or Nay?

Also I wanted to show off this original sketch card that Dani did for me (thank you, Dani-you are a good sport for humoring me with my chicken ways!)

That's My Folio

A quickie post to say that I'm on That's My Folio, a new website that showcases many talented illustrators and their artwork. Check it out!

Sneak Peek: art from Road Work Ahead

The release of my next picture book, Road Work Ahead, written by Anastasia Suen, illustrated by yours truly, is almost here! Its due out on September 15th, published by Viking. Here are some sneak peeks of the interior art.

Men working above
trim bushes and trees.

They put up lights
so you can see.

Men working below
using umbrella and hose.
How do they know
where everything goes?

Check out the Facebook fan page for activities, giveaways, news, and more. Only a month away before the book comes out :-)

Chef Kitty's top Secret recipe-as a print!

Thanks to They Draw and Cook, my chef kitty's top secret chocolate chip cookies recipe are now available as a print on canvas over at Great Big Canvas. Its also going to be in the book coming out in October!

What's Up + a New Book! Road Work Ahead

 
Wow! Has it been a month since I posted anything here? Well, I 'm still alive. This summer has a busy month with many things going on.

Along with participating in Kids Read Comics (where I met so many great comic artists,) I taught a drawing workshop at the Ann Arbor District Library, which was such a learning experience for me as well. Giving a presentation and teaching are definitely two different things. I was also invited to be on Comicsaregreat.tv with Jerzy Drozd and Ryan Estrada. You can watch the video here. We talked about networking and social media. Thanks guys. Jerzy has definitely got me a little less camera shy and somehow got me showing my real face on the internet. Ha.

And yes! A new book coming out in the fall! Its titled Road Work Ahead, written by Anastasia Suen and illustrated by yours truly, published by Viking. Its due to be released on September 15, and I'll be blogging alot more about it soon. In the meanwhile, check out:

• -The Road Work Ahead Facebook fan page (with news, updates, and related activities for the kids!)
• -This review on Publisher's Weekly

More later. Hope everyone is having a great summer. I just got back from a wonderful trip to PA and NYC visiting family and friends. Much needed. Now back to work.

Comic Jam! Exhibit

I've been a bit behind on blogging lately. Last weekend was a great time- here are some pics from the Comic Jam! Exhibit. (Courtesy of River Gallery)

I have two color pieces for the show, plus process sketches on the side.

This show really pushed me to explore one of my story ideas that were originally for a picture book. It was also nice to do a comic story in color, done in Illustrator, with a more muted color palette. Hope to continue with it and eventually have another comic book in the works!

Comic Jam! Exhibit + Kids Read Comics this weekend!

Its going to be a crazy and fun weekend! I'm honored to be part of this Comic Jam! exhibit now showing at the Chelsea River Gallery with 9 other artists, featuring:

• Dave Roman
• Raina Telgemeier
• Matt Feazell
• Kasey Van Hise
• Brandon Dayton
• Kim Holm
• Luis Escobar
• Anne & Jerzy Drozd 
• and yours truly.

The reception is this Saturday, 6/18 from 6-8pm. Thanks to Jerzy Drozd for the invitation. It was the push I needed to work on my comics in my color style, and I have two pieces in the show plus work-in-progress sketches.

What else is happening this weekend? I'm excited to be part of Kids Read Comics, a fun, free event that is happening this Saturday and Sunday, 6/18-19, in Downtown Chelsea, MI.  I'll be at the artist alley and also looking forward to doing some fun quick drawing demos with the awesome illustrator and comic artist Dani Jones. For more info, go here. See you there!

AADL Summer Reading Program

I had the honor to work with my local library, the AADL, to design and illustrate their summer reading games program. I'm a big fan of theirs. Ever since I moved to Ann Arbor 2 years ago, I had attended tons of interesting workshops and forums at the library. Not to mention, I gave my very own talk there. Check it out here.

And when they asked if I could do a Richard Scarry like town with many characters using the library in different ways- of course I'm on board! I initially did people:

And when I found out they were more interested in anthropomorphic animals- even better!

The final in color:

And speaking of libraries and anthropomorphic animals- I'm teaching a workshop! Its called Creating and Drawing Anthropomorphic Animals Characters with Jannie Ho. Its on Saturday, July 16th from 1to 2:30pm, at the Downtown Ann Arbor District Library. Its free for teens and adults to attend, so if you are in the area, hope to see you there.

Its National Donut Day!

I've been MIA but only to have this wonderful holiday to get me back to posting here, haha. Oh the things I learn from Twitter.

I've done this image for fun a while back and its perfect for today. Happy Donut Day!

Animals Crafting

Some fun illos for a local crafty place, Blue House Ann Arbor. Its hard to pass up drawing animals crafting. Nice to play with a more muted color palette to go with the distinctive blue color that they use.

Here's the back of the business card:

Blue House is a wonderful place where crafters can meet up, share their ideas, attend workshops, and more. Its been a great place where I've gotten to know many local and talented artists. And lucky me, I live very close by.

Playtime

A piece for our recent mailer over at Illustration for Kids, with a theme of "Playtime." Its been a while since I voluntarily did human kids for the mailer- anthropomorphic animals are always so much more fun. But I actually enjoyed this one and liked how it turned out.

The Sketchbook Project 2012

The Sketchbook project 2012 is here! After my amazing time with last year's book, its hard not to do it again. The theme I picked is Uncharted Waters, which fits my life so perfectly right now. A great excuse to continue with my comics. Now that this is the second time around, there are a few things I would like to do differently. Also the book is slightly smaller with fewer pages. Supposedly with better paper but its still seems a bit thin to me. Perhaps I can use another type of medium instead of microns.

Looking forward to this and hopefully I can do this with the same amount of energy and dedication as last time.

Kid's Drawings using my How-to Books!

"Octo-Monster"

"Pinball"

I think one of the most satisfying things about being a children's book illustrator is seeing kids interact with my books. I've been mentoring some fine young artists for the Ann Arbor Kid's Art Fair thats coming up in July. So I thought it was fitting that I gave them a copy of my You Can Draw Monsters and Scary Things and You can Draw Zoo Animals.

I was happy to see the step by step instructions worked! Just check out these drawings. Lookin' good!

 

Its been an interesting and also a challenging experience mentoring kids. I don't normally interact with kids on a regular basis in my normal day-to-day illustrator life, even though I do "kids' stuff" all day long. But kids' art are the BEST and I've got a talented bunch. Its an awesome dose of inspiration!

Food Icons

Some "grown-up" work! I illustrated these icons for Diabetic Living Magazine.