...for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.

Here is my entry for February's A Month of Softies. The theme was Alice in Wonderland Revisited. I combined 2 characters and did a cheshire rabbit. I'm happy with the way it came out. It may end up in someone's first Easter basket this year, although there will be no playing with it. I'm afriad it would fall apart with various tugging and chewing. So it will probably go up on her shelf.

Tine sent me an email the other day and has officially opened up her Studio Friday to the public. Next week's topic is "light." I think it would be fun to see glimpses of everyones studio. From illustrators and crafters to graphic designers and photographers. I may try an either or thing for Illustration Friday and Studio Friday but sometimes I may do both. It just depends on my workload.

Here's my interpretation of Illustration Friday's theme "sorrow."

I've happened upon some interesting blog post this week. Tine has started "Studio Friday." Each Friday we'll get a glimps into her studio. Clay birds from Tania (need I say more about my apparent obsession for birds?). Last fall I had the same exact illustration specs as Michelle did except I had to do angels instead of princesses. Weird.

Our online critique group started a blog ring just for children's illustrators. We are a group of established professional illustrators who specialize in the children's market, and our blogs reflect this.  We strive for high quality work and serious pursuit of careers in children's publishing. As there are sometimes children who access our sites, no profanity or topics unsuitable for children's eyes are acceptable. So, if you are a published children's illustrator, (books, magazines, educational market, etc.) and meet the above requirements, we'd love to have you join the ring!

Well, bonified, full-fledged crawling has begun. I'm in trouble. (luckily I have a portable studio consisting of a laptop, sketchbook, tracking pager and pencil). The Woog is beginning to get into everything. There have been a lot of "NO"'s going on in the house this week. They are usually followed by a puzzled look and then another reach at the same thing. It amazes me how many little things she can find on the floor, even after vacuuming. She has eaten little clumps of dirt (thanks to Do-Wop = the dog) on several occasions. I've tried to be creative in my working environments. Working in the office part of the day and then in the bonus room or living room the other part of the day so she won't feel so confined.

I've been working on some black and white line work lately and I have really noticed how eyes can really change the "age" of an illustration. Above are 2 examples. The first girl looks has a tween/teen/edgy feel, while the second has more like a younger/softer feel. The eyes really do make the piece.

I've been changing my style of eyes lately. My wide-eyed style just dosen't appeal to me as much as before. They are starting to look a little scary on the illustrations I've been playing around with. So, I've been changing them up a bit and I like my new eyes a little better (not so wide-eyed and little dots).

A while back Loobylu had a post about eyes that was pretty interesting.

I've got 6 promo packets ready to be mailed tomorrow. I need to get some more together this week but 6 was all I had time for. To the left is my envelope design which I printed on orange paper (to match my logo). A label was adhered above "illustration samples enclosed." I packed it with a personalized letter to the Art Director, an SASE for a reply or return of samples and 2 single illustrations and 3 pages with multiple illustrations as samples.

Ahem...I have a HUGE tip to share that I discovered about a year ago. And I pat myself on the back for thinking of it - excuse me if it wasn't an original idea after all:) I always struggle with getting high quality samples of my work without the expense of wasting my printer ink. I say waste because to print something on my color printer has to be worthy of being printed in color. Although my samples are worthy, it can just get too expensive so I thought, hey, I have this digital camera and I can touch up something a Photoshop and get it printed so why couldn't import and illustration into Photoshop and print it at Snapfish or my local Kroger (our grocery store to those who don't have them in your area). TA-DA, brilliant! It works great and they are high quality. I just printed about 160 illos at Snapfish for like $30 bucks! Just a fun and cheap tip I thought I'd share. I'm all about being cheap.

I love to see how illustrators work, so here's some links:

Theresa shows her work in progress.
Linda's work seems to be everyone.
Anette's cute style. See Feb. 17th's entry.
Jenny's sketches to finals
Elizabeth's painterly style. Scroll to the bottom, although the top is a good read.
And me!

It's almost 1am and I just finished up an illustration for a client that will be on it's way to them as soon as my husband spell checks it for me in the morning. Above is the my interpretation of Illustration Friday's "flight." I didn't have time to get this one done in clay but I plan on it, so stay tuned for the final.

Thanks to all the Picture Book Junkies for allowing me into their group! I was so excited when I got the news. It was a day of compliments for my work and learning about agents and how others promote themselves. It feels so good to belong to such a great group of girls!!!

In other "smiley news" I received an email from a girl at Brown Publishing. I had sent some samples and she loved my work and wants me to contact her next month because they had a big project starting up. Yah me :)

Good day. Very good day.

Roz has a great post about what type of promotion works for her. I think I may try postcards through USPS. I like the idea of customizing the cards to differnt publishers. Very clever.

The winter ick has finally caught up with me. Stuffy head, cough, soreness, blah. I have managed to get my illustration portfolio and design portfolio updated so I can move forward with some more self promotion things. Press releases, emails, letters and promo packs to help me build my client base (and savings account!).

I've started thinking about what I'll do for A Month of Softies and I keep coming up with these complex ideas. I can sketch it out, but actually sewing it will be a challenge. Knowing me I'll try it, get frustrated and then just come up with something simple. I hope that's not the case though. The last thing I've sewn was the Woog's crib bedding and curtains (to match my store bought quilt on the bed).

I'm in the middle of illustrating the month of September (a calendar page) for a children's magazine and September is National Chicken Month (who knew???). I'm having a lot of fun with this one. I've gotten the final sketch approved and need to do the final artwork (digital style). Hopefully I'll get that done this week and turn it in way before the deadline.

Have a good week!

Here's my interpretation of Illustration Friday's "The Year of the Rooster." The images is one I took at my grandparent's farm over Thanksgiving. I think the contrast of the old look and new bright look of the rooster turned out well.

I've posted my 8th article I did for CL if you are interested in seeing what I did last month. It's not up on the CL site yet, so it hasn't been edited for grammar, etc.

Have a good weekend. Mine will be busy with website updates, promo packet assembly, illustrating and movies!

Here is my interpretation of "friendship" for Illustration Friday. This was taken from my SCBWI contest entry I finished up on Wednesday. You can see the final piece here. The theme was a silent Valentine poster for anytime in history. This illustration is titled "Valentine Treats." Each pet is getting their appropriate heart shaped treat.

I picked up the 2005 Artist's Market (for children's writers and illustrators) tonight and as I began to flip through it, the first page I saw had Roz's illustration on it. I'm sure my husband thought I was weird with my sudden outburst of "I know her!" (thanks Roz for making me feel popular). I can't wait to dive into it and find some good advice and contacts.

While I was at the bookstore I found the book Jeff Fisher wrote. He is a whiz at self promotion and has written many good articles. As I was flipping through it I was pleasantly surprised to see some of my work in there. When I was participating in the Creative Postcard Club, one of my stamp designs was chosen for a t-shirt (the Tour De France one) featuring several designer's cards and that t-shirt design was featured in the book. Pretty cool.

I finished up my entry for the SCBWI contest just in the nick of time. Above is the state is was in late last night. I'm using a part of it for Illustration Friday's "friendship", so you will have to wait and see the finished piece then. I'm please with how it came out. I am really digging my smaller eyed creations. I think they just look much sweeter.

Since everyone seems to be in the participation mode of A Month of Softies and Illustration Friday, I'd like to share a link to The Creative Postcard Club. I did it a few years ago and it was fun.

Speaking of A Month of Softies, Claire has gotten January's entries up and announced the new theme for February. I am definitely going to do this one! There is so much you can do with Alice in Wonderland.