Xavi's Pitch, Redux

Due to popular demand, I redid the images from this post, added a few more, formatted them in InDesign, and uploaded the book to Blurb.  You can buy a copy here, if you are so inclined!

Woodland Animals

Xavi's Pitch

I did this during the Euros, during the second half of Ukraine vs. France. Hopelessly dorky? Yes. But I really wish I could manage to knock off an actual dummy book in 45 minutes, as I did with this one.

Reaffirmation

When searched for as a pair, the phrases "query letter" and "panic attack" have over 7,000 results.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

-Albert Einstein (attributed)

Last Sunday, I had a lovely diner breakfast with Amber, and got to discuss all sorts of illustrator-y and picture book-ish things. It's always great to see Amber, and I got a sneak peek of some of her awesome new work as well. She also reassured me that my recently-finished dummy book is more or less ready to go out into the world. Next step, queries?!

However, at one point during our conversation, I believe I said, "Ugh, my blog." So, in the interest of keeping this sucker alive, here are some snippets of things I've been working on, plus something I hope will become a recurring feature.

My Australian roommate is getting married to her Kiwi boyfriend next January. I am so happy for Kate and Simon, and so excited that I'm invited to the wedding in New Zealand! It's one of those places I've always had on my "would REALLY like to go to" list, and now I have a perfect excuse. Here's a tiny snippet of the map I made for the invites.

Conversely, how I spent my Valentine's Day...

...illustrating bacteria and protozoa. Meet Giardia, E. Coli, and Cryptosporidium. Aren't they just dreamy?

Next up, an idea I'm still playing with. These characters hark back to a much earlier blog entry - I will honestly mail cookies to anyone who cares to find them.

And finally... What's Been Eating My Brain

Often, I don't update because my illustration projects are totally scattered (see above) and without a lot of substance or polish (again, above). But sometimes, I don't update because I'm busy indulging in something unrelated to illustration, something that I am geeking out about so hard that I want to share it with everybody. In January, it was Community. This month, it's Breaking Bad.

If you haven't seen either show, do it. Watch them. Now. Totally worth your time and energy. And seeing this news today just wrinkles my brain in the best way possible.

Community

Troy and Abed in my skeeeeetchbook...