Behind the Scenes: I Had a Favorite Dress

I Had a Favorite Dress hits shelves this Monday, so I thought I'd show you some studio shots and process work:

Boni Ashburn wrote a lovely story with a very fun cadence to it. Right from the get-go it made me feeling like dancing, I wanted the text to dance, and I wanted the art to dance...(I'm not gonna lie, I had a sweet summer soundtrack consisting of Animal Collective /jazz blasting, so I did a lot of dancing around). Boni's words, "SNIP SNIP, SEW SEW" helped me feel playful enough to want to cut up, collage, get messy. I thought: wouldn't it be fun to stitch the title page by hand? So I did:

It ended up a little bloody (see capital "D!") since I'm not a seamstress of any sort, but I handed it in anyhow (thanks, Photoshop). I spent my weeks in a blissful world of little dresses, buttons, city scapes, and thread...

Cover sketch on the light box:

Fall leaves to be cut out for the school scene:

Snowflakes for the winter scene:

Tree tops in the fall:

Tracing days of the week by night light:

All the little dress components, ready to be scanned:

A very SERIOUS struggle to find the right pink:

EEEE! Tiny dresses! I love my job!

Chad helped turn these thumbnails into something that made sense:

There is always that initial image you see after shutting your eyes and you've let a manuscript whisper through your mind. For this book, it was a little window on the first floor of a brownstone, with a blossoming tree nearby. As I looked in the window from the sidewalk, I watched a little girl prance to her mother in her FAVORITEST dress for an embrace. I tried my best to stay true to that glimpse for the duration of the work, and expand the world from that little window...


The characters and urban settings came right along with the story for me, right from the moment I read it. The city itself is an amalgamation of New York and Boston. My go-to painting soundtracks (supplemented by Animal Collective, and Jonsi) on this book were jazz guitar/piano albums by:

Django Reinhardt / Marian McPartland

Admiring thank yous to author Boni Ashburn, and to the excellent people at Abrams, especially Laura Mihalick in marketing, editor Maggie Lehrman, creative director+designer Chad Beckerman (for working through so many fixes and edits that our final art file came to be called "FOR CHAD_DRESS_FINAL_INFINITY")

See you again Monday for a BOOK BIRTHDAY!

Book Birthday Giveaway+ New Print!

Today is the release of I Had A Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn!

First! Let's have some cake:

Book Birthday Giveaway!

Win a copy of I Had a Favorite Dress and a print of "Little Dresses" You can enter to win by simply commenting on this blog post or on the Facebook blog post. Winner will be picked Tuesday out of a very old fashioned hat at the stroke of midnight.

NEW PRINT in The Shop:
"Little Dresses"

Available here

"Little Dresses" is a lovely archival print on velvety Arches Velin museum rag. It's an 8.5 x 11 page filled with the prettiest and tiniest dresses (and a pair of cowboy boots) from my sketchbook and the pages of I Had a Favorite Dress. Many can be spotted in the book, and of course, the favoritest dress is included too.

Birthday SALE At The Shop!
For book birthday week there is a 15% discount on all my art prints and products with the discount code: DRESS. Click here to shop.

Thank you friends for all the kind words, support and ♥!

(The book is available wherever books are sold, don't forget your indie bookstore !)

A Dress For Spring

Is it really REALLY TRULY Spring? Here in the Northeast, it's hard to let your heart be convinced lest it be quickly broken (by April snow), but I'm believing in Spring today. It's gorgeous and sunny and the perfect time to wear your favorite dress. Speaking of dresses...I heard from a bird (named Chad Beckerman) that the advances of my next book are IN:

I Had A Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn! (Fall 2011)

Deciding what THE dress of dresses would be for the little girl in this book was a dizzying task, and you can imagine how many tiny dress drawings were made (a tiny closet full). So I'm going to open up the closet for random Dress Days throughout the months leading up to the release of the book. Some dresses you will be able to spy throughout the book! I had to name them all to keep them straight so on Dress Day #1 we have:

"Lemonade Gala"

with accompanying tune: Glenn Miller's String of Pearls
More soon!

20% OFF Till Midnight!

Today I'm celebrating Cyber Monday with a 20% discount on everything in The Shop till the stroke of midnight! Use code CHEER20 at checkout. I've also opened a requests page for custom prints here too if you had something else in mind!

Some gift ideas? hmmm...let's see

For the crafty and stylish little sweetie you might know and love:

An autographed copy of I Had a Favorite Dress+archival print make a pretty pairing!

An autographed copy of Just Being Audrey with a print or boxed card set also make a special gift for a Hepburn fan:

("Audrey on the Silverscreen" is the bestseller)

...and there are two *new* mini prints!
Titled "Cédille Fille I, II" 5x7 mini prints (started from doodles after french class):

(P.S. There are a few of "Carol of the Belles" card sets still left!)

So have fun cruising around Cyber Monday storefronts (I had fun putting up a little digital garland :) Thanks for shopping handmade!

Dress Day #3: Evening With E.B.White

" Kitchen Table"

I hope you are enjoying some longggg and languid summer days. Today, I'm remembering the great literary voice, E.B. White. It was his birthday yesterday, which is funny timing for me after randomly reading Trumpet of the Swan last week after 18 years and now having begun my quest to read all things White.

"Secretary"

I recently told my friend, Emily, about how I wish I could take vacations IN his books and she directed me to his grown-up works, like this quiet essay... Anyway, aren't we overdue for a dress day? These might be good ones to wear, if you were to head over to the Boston Common to catch Louis the Trumpeter Swan at his gig, crooning for a crowd on a summery birthday evening...

"Blue Ikat"

These dresses and the rest of the book pubs next MONTH! Check out previews of I Had A Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn. Available for preorder on Indiebound.

The Original Art

Hello lads and ladies! I'm headed on a little trip to New York City...

First stop: 128 East 63rd Street this Thursday night for the opening reception of the 2011 Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators. I have two prints up: a spread from Just Being Audrey and the cover of I Had a Favorite Dress (thank you, jury!). It's always a fun & booky night if you'd like to come, details are here. The show runs through December 29th. I'm so excited for a nose-close peek at this year's exhibit. Can't wait to see fellow book makers & book lovers, hope to see you there!

Also on the itinerary despite possible drear (it looks like rainy weather will be accompanying me to the city): a long-awaited visit to Bemelman's Bar for a cocktail with Madeline, a pilgrimage to the former Maya Schaper's Cheese & Antiques building on the upper west side (for silly fangirl reasons!), Riverside Park (which I've been drawing for an upcoming book with Candlewick, but have never been to) and a little visit to Books of Wonder...rain rain stay away!

Shoes, News, Reviews!

SHOES:

Dearest Jama Rattigan has featured and reviewed Dress over on her blog. Boni and I are interviewed on our favorite wearables (mine are shoe-centric, hers are adorable!)...Click here to read.

NEWS:

Just in: I Had a Favorite Dress will be stocked at Anthropologie!

Dress has also made it into this year's Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators, along with Just Being Audrey, and more art from this year's crop of picture books. Love and thanks to the jury! If you are in the NYC area this fall, take a peek, more info here.

REVIEWS:

Publisher's Weekly called Dress "Tailor-made, so to speak, for the Etsy generation of DIY enthusiasts." I really hope readers get crafty after reading this book. Reuse, resourcefulness, and reinvention! More reviews here: Thanks, PW. And thank you, Kirkus. Merci, Wall Street Journal. Et merci beaucoup, Jana!

Facebook+Dresses

Hello on this grey little day. So I just wanted to let everyone know about my Facebook page, because I don't think I've ever made a real post about it. I'll be using it a bit more frequently than the blog, for the day-to-day wonders and news, so if you are a Facebooker, you can join me

by clicking here!

Life continues at a fast clip. See you very soon with art from the new book coming in 2011, I Had a Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn! Do you want to take a quick peek inside the closet of the little girl who lives in the book?...

Dresses

Right now, I'm working on visual concepts for a new book, I Had A Favorite Dress, by Boni Ashburn. To get in the mood, I've been doodling dressy things on hangers...Hope you are having a swell Thursday (it's so foggy here I can't even see the little hills out my window!)

Giveaway Winner

Holy cannoli! Thank you friends for the support and sweet comments! Since my old fashioned hat went missing, I picked from a colander (because it could be a hat!) at the stroke of 12:

and the winner is: Amanda Williams

(This illustrator/vintage shop lady runs her own crafty blog here) Congratulations and thank you!

And if you'd still like some little dresses, the 15% discount remains through the end of this birthday week on everything in my SHOP, with the discount code: DRESS

Much love!!

SNIP SNIP SEW SEW...

(Interior from I Had A Favorite Dress, by Boni Ashburn, published by Abrams)
(My favorite green shoes via the Artifaktori shop)

Happy New Year!

What is just as magical as the holiday season? That delicious, snow-scented, post-holiday feeling of newness, travel, possibility, creative energy bursting out in all directions. Are you feeling it?


2011 is going to be stupendous. I can feel it in my bones! In 21 days Just Being Audrey arrives on shelves...I'm putting the final touches on my new book by Boni Ashburn, I Had A Favorite Dress due out in 2011 (interior art above : Maggie Jean, The Fashion Queen) ...repackaging covers for the Alice series by Phyllis Naylor and The Casson series by Hilary KcKay for 2011...and we are working on opening my very first online boutique including collectible limited-run prints, stationery, and more!

Au revoir for now, my friends, and a creative + joyful 2011 to you ♥

Next week:

Chalk aliens...

"Easy breezy" tank tops...

...and hopscotch!

I Had a Favorite Dress, by Boni Ashburn, hits stores this coming Monday, August 1 2011!

Thank you, Kirkus, for your lovely review.