Thursday, March 30, 2017
Saturday, November 5, 2016
NYC Holiday Windows
Here's a project I've been wanting to do for two or three years now and never got around to in November (when I've been ~inspired). I culled my list of stores from 8 to 4 when I realized several of the stores with amazing windows don't really decorate their buildings as well. I'm pretty happy with these, and could see them as holiday cards. I also have more respect for anyone who does architectural drawing without a computer - the copy function in Photoshop was a life-saver on this one!
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Monday, July 13, 2015
Grounded
I spent about seven years of my life completely obsessed with Harry Potter. This was due, in large part, to the brilliance of the characters that J.K. Rowling had created, but it was sustained by the like-minded people I met online. Only a few weeks after the events of September 11th, a group from the Sugarquill got together in New York City to watch the first Harry Potter movie. I might not have gone if I wasn't attending Pratt and living in Brooklyn at the time. But when I tell people that Harry Potter changed my life, I mean it, literally.
One of the people I met that weekend was Megan Morrison, a tall, charismatic redhead, who also happened to be an incredibly talented writer. I liked Meg instantly - we had many things in common, but I also admired the things that made her different from me. She was more vivacious and open than I was, for sure, and her gorgeously long hair inspired me to grow my own out. She was a few years older than me, out of college and attempting to balance making a living in New York with her pursuit of the arts - acting and writing especially. And as it turned out, she lived only a few blocks away from me.
The New Yorkers in our group got together frequently over the next few months. Eventually, Meg moved away to pursue a teaching degree, but she returned to the city shortly before I graduated college. I spent a few of my last days before graduation with Meg and (future New York Times bestselling author!) Melissa Anelli, at Melissa's parents' house. It was a perfect weekend - we watched 'Into the Woods' and sang along to 'Rent', caught Lindsay Lohan promoting her last good role (Mean Girls) on SNL, ate great food, star-gazed, and shared our various creative projects. Meg let us read a couple of chapters of a draft of a fairy-tale story she'd been working on and like everything I've ever read of hers, it was a total delight.
Jump to just a couple of years ago - understandably, I was thrilled to hear that Meg had secured a publishing deal with Scholastic. The tiny glimpse of 'Tyme' I'd seen back in 2004 was more than enough to convince me that this was a series that the world needed, much like the one that had brought us all together in the first place. So when Meg asked if she could hire me to do some images for her personal author website, I jumped at the chance.
We started e-mailing back and forth about what the main image should look like - Meg wanted a header or background showing Rapunzel's tower and its surroundings. She sent me a detailed description, along with links to a couple of Pinterest boards she'd created for visual inspiration. I wanted Rapunzel's tower to clearly fit in the fantasy world of Tyme, but I also wanted to draw from a variety of cultures and artistic traditions. Each area of Tyme has its own distinct geography and sensibility, and I wanted something that would look natural planted in the soil of the Redlands, amongst the tall evergreens and distant mountains. So I did a quick round of sketches and sent them to Meg for feedback.
Meg looked the pictures over with Ruth, who co-created Tyme. They agreed that the spindly, Scandinavian-inspired tower with the dark wooden shingles looked like something that Envearia, the witch in Rapunzel's story, would create. However, the balcony as I'd drawn it wouldn't fit with the description in the story. Meg also pointed out that the proportions needed to be changed a bit to make it large enough for Rapunzel to walk about. So I started my first round of revisions.
While I really liked the extra pointiness the balcony and its supports offered, it didn't fit with the story and needed to go. I revised the tower one last time before placing it in the landscape. In the end I think we came up with something that feels unique and organic while sticking to the story. It comes back to the heart of what attracted me to illustration in the first place, whether it was creating Harry Potter fan art alongside hundreds of other artists, or being the only kid at my elementary school who would check out 'Ramona Forever' repeatedly to draw all the characters in their finery for Aunt Bea's wedding.
Meg also asked me to create some little spot illos to use as buttons, and on the finished website, they move, which charms me way more than it reasonably should. 'Grounded' came out in April, and I devoured it within hours of getting the book. It's a wonderful, whimsical, adventurous read with memorable characters and an imaginative world. I can't wait to return to Tyme next year, when the second book in the series will be published. Congrats to Meg, and many thanks for including me on this wonderful journey!
One of the people I met that weekend was Megan Morrison, a tall, charismatic redhead, who also happened to be an incredibly talented writer. I liked Meg instantly - we had many things in common, but I also admired the things that made her different from me. She was more vivacious and open than I was, for sure, and her gorgeously long hair inspired me to grow my own out. She was a few years older than me, out of college and attempting to balance making a living in New York with her pursuit of the arts - acting and writing especially. And as it turned out, she lived only a few blocks away from me.
The New Yorkers in our group got together frequently over the next few months. Eventually, Meg moved away to pursue a teaching degree, but she returned to the city shortly before I graduated college. I spent a few of my last days before graduation with Meg and (future New York Times bestselling author!) Melissa Anelli, at Melissa's parents' house. It was a perfect weekend - we watched 'Into the Woods' and sang along to 'Rent', caught Lindsay Lohan promoting her last good role (Mean Girls) on SNL, ate great food, star-gazed, and shared our various creative projects. Meg let us read a couple of chapters of a draft of a fairy-tale story she'd been working on and like everything I've ever read of hers, it was a total delight.
Jump to just a couple of years ago - understandably, I was thrilled to hear that Meg had secured a publishing deal with Scholastic. The tiny glimpse of 'Tyme' I'd seen back in 2004 was more than enough to convince me that this was a series that the world needed, much like the one that had brought us all together in the first place. So when Meg asked if she could hire me to do some images for her personal author website, I jumped at the chance.
We started e-mailing back and forth about what the main image should look like - Meg wanted a header or background showing Rapunzel's tower and its surroundings. She sent me a detailed description, along with links to a couple of Pinterest boards she'd created for visual inspiration. I wanted Rapunzel's tower to clearly fit in the fantasy world of Tyme, but I also wanted to draw from a variety of cultures and artistic traditions. Each area of Tyme has its own distinct geography and sensibility, and I wanted something that would look natural planted in the soil of the Redlands, amongst the tall evergreens and distant mountains. So I did a quick round of sketches and sent them to Meg for feedback.
Meg looked the pictures over with Ruth, who co-created Tyme. They agreed that the spindly, Scandinavian-inspired tower with the dark wooden shingles looked like something that Envearia, the witch in Rapunzel's story, would create. However, the balcony as I'd drawn it wouldn't fit with the description in the story. Meg also pointed out that the proportions needed to be changed a bit to make it large enough for Rapunzel to walk about. So I started my first round of revisions.
While I really liked the extra pointiness the balcony and its supports offered, it didn't fit with the story and needed to go. I revised the tower one last time before placing it in the landscape. In the end I think we came up with something that feels unique and organic while sticking to the story. It comes back to the heart of what attracted me to illustration in the first place, whether it was creating Harry Potter fan art alongside hundreds of other artists, or being the only kid at my elementary school who would check out 'Ramona Forever' repeatedly to draw all the characters in their finery for Aunt Bea's wedding.
Meg also asked me to create some little spot illos to use as buttons, and on the finished website, they move, which charms me way more than it reasonably should. 'Grounded' came out in April, and I devoured it within hours of getting the book. It's a wonderful, whimsical, adventurous read with memorable characters and an imaginative world. I can't wait to return to Tyme next year, when the second book in the series will be published. Congrats to Meg, and many thanks for including me on this wonderful journey!
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Spicebox
Sometimes, an idea takes a number of revisions to get it right. Other times, you strike gold on the first try. When my amazingly talented roommate, Lis, hired me to create a poster for the belly dance show she was producing, I had a definite vision in mind.
We went from this...
...to this...
...in about a week. The show was a great success and a perfect treat for the holidays!
We went from this...
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Lifestraw
Scientists are amazing and do things I could never do. But there's usually a point in the process where you hire an artist to take amazingly complex ideas and inventions and dumb them down into visuals for the rest of us.
For example: from this...
For example: from this...
To this...
Monday, February 4, 2013
#ny13scbwi
1) A huge thanks to Yellow House NYC, for granting me the professional stipend to attend this year's conference.
2) I like going to SCBWI conferences - they keep giving me books! I won the last book at the illustrator's intensive again this year. This time around I received Winds ~ A Legend from the Lower Yukon. Like a lot of legends, it has more text than your typical children's book. I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to setting aside some quiet time to do so (preferably on a snowy day with a cup of tea).
2) I like going to SCBWI conferences - they keep giving me books! I won the last book at the illustrator's intensive again this year. This time around I received Winds ~ A Legend from the Lower Yukon. Like a lot of legends, it has more text than your typical children's book. I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to setting aside some quiet time to do so (preferably on a snowy day with a cup of tea).
Sunday, February 3, 2013
New Alistair Art
Before I tackle my SCBWI 2013 Winter Conference megapost, I wanted to brag a bit about how awesome my promo postcards turned out. I think I've finally figured out how to do the color in my 'Alistair' finals. I wasn't happy with the watercolor/colored pencil finals I'd done last year - one looked too soft and babyish and the other was a legitimate mess.
I'd meant to work on them again before the conference, and ... didn't. Fast forward to this past Sunday and the sort of inspiration that only last-minute panic can inspire - armed with a few new sets of Photoshop brushes, I went to work on one of the most polished sketches in the book. I finished it that evening and sent it off to Vistaprint immediately. The postcards arrived Wednesday evening (thank god). I braced myself as I opened the package, having suffered over-saturation and muddy or unbalanced colors from practically every other print shop I've ever frequented.
The color was perfect, with a nice, subtle warmth the internet version above just doesn't convey.* Four for you, Vistaprint!
But back to the actual artwork... contrary to the promo image, Alistair and his sister inhabit a kind of retro, upper-crusty version of New York City. (Think Eloise, but with sibling drama and rhyme.) For the shape of the characters, I took my inspiration from the logo of my aunt's former restaurant, La Niçoise.
(Speaking of which, I feel Pixar owes my aunt, and her late husband's business partners, royalties for the roller-skating French waiter idea. Alfredo even looks a bit like my uncle. Just saying...)
Obviously, the La Niçoise logo owes everything to John Held Jr.'s flapper illustrations. I imagine a little bit of Tintin snuck into my sketches as well. I "watched" Jeeves and Wooster to keep me company as I colored as well.
The cover still looked a little flat, even with the new brushes, so I merged it with the traditional watercolor/colored pencil version I'd completed earlier. The earlier final had looked a bit rough in places, so adding the scratchy contrast of the pencil lines to smoother digital coloring added just the right amount of texture. I'm looking forward to doing more images in this style!
*As I was apparently too lazy to convert the file to RGB before saving it for online use.
I'd meant to work on them again before the conference, and ... didn't. Fast forward to this past Sunday and the sort of inspiration that only last-minute panic can inspire - armed with a few new sets of Photoshop brushes, I went to work on one of the most polished sketches in the book. I finished it that evening and sent it off to Vistaprint immediately. The postcards arrived Wednesday evening (thank god). I braced myself as I opened the package, having suffered over-saturation and muddy or unbalanced colors from practically every other print shop I've ever frequented.
The color was perfect, with a nice, subtle warmth the internet version above just doesn't convey.* Four for you, Vistaprint!
But back to the actual artwork... contrary to the promo image, Alistair and his sister inhabit a kind of retro, upper-crusty version of New York City. (Think Eloise, but with sibling drama and rhyme.) For the shape of the characters, I took my inspiration from the logo of my aunt's former restaurant, La Niçoise.
(Speaking of which, I feel Pixar owes my aunt, and her late husband's business partners, royalties for the roller-skating French waiter idea. Alfredo even looks a bit like my uncle. Just saying...)
Obviously, the La Niçoise logo owes everything to John Held Jr.'s flapper illustrations. I imagine a little bit of Tintin snuck into my sketches as well. I "watched" Jeeves and Wooster to keep me company as I colored as well.
The cover still looked a little flat, even with the new brushes, so I merged it with the traditional watercolor/colored pencil version I'd completed earlier. The earlier final had looked a bit rough in places, so adding the scratchy contrast of the pencil lines to smoother digital coloring added just the right amount of texture. I'm looking forward to doing more images in this style!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Xavi's Pitch, Redux
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
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.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Reaffirmation
When searched for as a pair, the phrases "query letter" and "panic attack" have over 7,000 results.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
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.
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.
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