space

What could these pigships from outer space want with our pigs and chickens?  You'll have to find out when Attack of the Space Chickens is available in my Etsy shop.  Coming soon!

Speaking of Etsy shop, you can now purchase a signed copy of "A Moment in Time", illustrated by me and written by the lovely Jennifer Butenas.  I've got to say, it turned out very nicely, and the book would be a perfect gift for any kid, especially those future photographers!  Click on the photo below to get your own copy . . limited supplies available:

This book would look great on your shelf!

Look!  It also comes with a doodle, hand-drawn by yours truly :).

Best Graphic Novel!

"Attack of the Space Chickens" Winner:
Best of the The Graphic Novel at the 2012 San Mateo County Fair- Award
Sponsored by Peninsula Arts Council

 

Woo Hoo!  Looks like my Space Chickens are going to get an award this weekend at the San Mateo Fair.  It even includes a one year membership to the Peninsula Arts Council :)

I want to thank everyone who made this possible (including the pigships).  I think Captain Cluck would definitely be proud!

suspense

oooh. . the suspense must be killing you.  What is the pigship waiting for?  What is it doing at the farm?  All will be revealed in our Illopond Space Anthology. .coming soon!

I had so much fun painting this story and am a little sad to let it go.  However, I've got plenty more to work on now.  This includes a story about Taiwanese night markets and the picture book I've been hired to illustrate.  I hope to be able to share bits of both next month.

Until then. . for you picture book writers/illustrators out there: 

If you're feeling stuck/stressed, be kind to your muse and let things marinate. Amazing things can happen when you leave your stories alone for awhile, and then come back to them with a fresh eye/new perspective.  

For more advice, check out Sean Ashby's (aka Ingvard the Terrible) series about the creative process.

prepare

Here's a quick Illustration Friday: studying is definitely necessary when preparing for a test. . or a project. . .or anything in life actually.  You must absorb knowledge before you can apply it :)

I apologize for the long hiatus and have really missed blogging!  I've been swamped trying to meet two different deadlines. 

One, I can talk about. . it's Attack of the Space Chickens in short comic form for Illopond's Space Anthology.  The above illustration was actually a sketch from the story that I ended up having to cut out.

As for the other project, I won't be able to show art from it until the book is published (hopefully by the end of this year).  Until then, I leave you with picture book tips from Eric Carle himself as he works on his latest book The Artist Who Painted a Horse:

sink

Let's continue with the holiday theme with this poor little penguin.  It's hard to sing well when you're sinking into snow :(

And oh, looky here, another coloring page for you guys:

It's in a weird size but that's part of the fun!

As for picture book tips, we had our last day in class and it was amazing seeing all of my classmate's final projects.  Along with two finalized illustrations, we submitted a manuscript, cover letter, and dummy for our picture books.

If you're wondering, a dummy is a very rough mockup of your entire picture book.  Yellapalooza has a great site that goes into detail about making a proper dummy book.  This is what mine ended up looking like:

I spent a little extra money to get it stapled and printed professionally, but some dummies can be as simple as black and white print outs taped back to back.  A dummy is basically there to help you get a sense of your book's overall pacing and rhythm (for both the words and the illustrations).  I found the process very helpful!

I probably won't be updating until next year, so I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.  See you on the other side folks :)

brigade

This is the final scene from a story I'm working on for the picture book class.  Here, Captain Cluck's brigade of pigships brings back their farm animal captors and sets them loose on their own version of paradise.  Check out the corn river and mud fountains. . sweeeet.

During the past few weeks, this illustration went through several iterations:

I first roughly mapped out the composition in pencil.

Here was my color study.  This basically helped me figure out my palette and saturation levels for the piece.

This was my first painted draft.  With feedback, I ended up taking away the sun and moving the background scene lower because they were pulling focus away from the middle and foreground.  Also, the monitor screen and font were in an awkward position and style, so that was also changed.

I can't emphasize how important it was to have my classmates' feedback throughout this process.  They really helped me tighten up the composition.  My friends at the Illopond helped me many times as well.  I'm still not sure if it's quite finished, but I definitely think the illustration has come a long way.

So I guess that's my picture book tip for the week: revise revise revise. . and in between, get feedback from people you respect and trust!

silent

I feel like silence definitely plays a huge role in a mime's performance. . it makes you focus more on his/her actions.  This is probably going to be a popular topic for Illustration Friday's "silent", but hey. . .I've always wanted to draw a mime :)

In other news, I've been working on my story "Attack of the Space Chickens" for the picture book class and have pretty much figured out the layout.  Through the process of planning out my pages, I learned so much about the design of a picture book.  Some of these lessons include:

--You can use the gutter (that's the fold in the center of the book) to your advantage by emphasizing the division of two groups.  Here's a great example from Wave by Suzy Lee

Notice how the girl and the waves are separated by the gutter, acting as a natural divide.

--Avoid having two full page illustrations side by side, because they end up competing for attention.  Instead, make one illustration the primary focus (i.e. the full page image) and break down the other into  "spot" illustrations (i.e. smaller drawings on white space).  See if you can spot where I use this principle in my "Attack of the Space Chickens" layout.

 

Next step: turn two spreads into full illustrations *gulp*  Wish me luck ;)

ferocious

Captain Cluck is one ferocious space chicken, and his fleet of Eggsilon pigships is heading towards Earth with a very top secret mission.  Who knows what they want or what they're after!

This is a new story I'm working on for Illopond's upcoming anthology: "8 in Spaaace!"  I'm pretty excited about where it's heading and will be trying out this painterly style for the illustrations.

Speaking of Illopond, we'll be debuting our anthology "Boo!" at the Alternative Press Expo this weekend:

Please stop by table 515 to say hi!  I'll be there promoting our new anthology and selling some Pudgy Puppy goodies, as well as commissions.  Mention this blog and I'll even give you a special treat :)