Update from a crazed illustrator.

Hey there! I am being very neglectful of this blog because of deadlines and overlapping projects!
I'm sorry most of it can't be posted, since it is in the middle/sketch stages or it is under an NDA. Phew! Working away all day, and taking breaks when night time falls. Possibly Waterfire in Providence this weekend, if I get enough done! I had a brief two day mini vaca with the family in Cape Ann on Bearskin Neck (above photo courtesy of my lovely sister Shauna). So so beautiful, reminded me a lot of the spreads in good ol' Miss Rumphius by Barb Cooney.

Hope all is well out there in the blogosphere. Send positivity and good thoughts or prayers to Grace Lin and friends of the Blue Rose Girls-a very sad event has occurred. I feel Robert's Snow means something very different now to the participants, and all involved in the fight to find a cure.

Love to all.

Auguste

Here is a small piece I am working on right now. I found her in the dusty files of personal art 2007, named "Auguste". I am patching her up to send on to my agency to add to my online portfolio. I am currently in the middle of totally reorganizing and cutting my portfolio down (aka removing very old pieces, etc. in styles I have outgrown). I have dubbed it spring cleaning with my agent, but it's more like cleaning out the closet and making a big pile of the clothes that just do not fit any longer and passing them on to younger sisters or friends. Shauna, want a cardigan? Oh wait, all my little sisters have outgrown ME! So much for "oldests" being "tallests".

I am also doing this big revamp in preparation for my current workload, and the hefty amount of finishes that will be produced in the next 3-5 weeks. Working on four new book covers, a picture book and a paperback short story, and the next Sleepover Squads! woohooo art.
Glad it's a rainy day here in S-ville.

A Saami Snowflake

So the finished snowflake! I finally mailed it in to Dana Farber before I took off for Mom's 50th in CT this week (woohoo!). I thought I would join the ranks of flake posters (check out the Blue Rose Girl blog for Anna Alter's and Alissa Imre Geis'). Feels great to be finished, and I'm excited to see where this little traveler and her red bird guide will end up. I'd like to say a big thanks to all my bulletin-responding friends for their input! :) These are the front and back done on Arches watercolor hot press paper and adhered to the wooden whitewashed snowflake. Mixed media: watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, graphite.

The red bird is a bit of a symbol in my family now, since my grandmother passed away in 2004 from Leukemia, since she had her own special story as to why she loved red birds so much. Her name was "Pocca", she was one of those grandmothers who allowed her grandchildren to name her and then strongly defended this namesake despite it originally being "Mocha Pocca". Haha... she was wonderful. So there is the red bird, a bit of hope at the top of the girl's massive hood, looking ahead as a tiny guide, and woven into the tribal fabric on the back.

For her costume design: I have recently in the past few years, fallen in love with the Saami people of northern Finland and the surrounding icy regions, which connect over into the north of Asia as well. They are reindeer herders, and even today, fight for maintaining this way of life amidst modernization. Their traditional clothing is so celebratory and beautiful, even in such a bleak (to us!) landscape. They are a beautiful people.

So there, all done. This one and all Robert's Snowflakes will be on auction on the Dana Farber site, and will be able to be viewed by late August, so keep checking to see the 2007 collection! All proceeds of all snowflakes will go to cancer research. If you want to see them in person, there will be 2 special gallery showings: Child at Heart Gallery, Newburyport, MA: October 3 - 22; Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA: October 30 - December 2

New art is up!

Hey all! Hope the Fourth treated you all well (we had rain! oh well).
I am excitedly heading into some crunch time ahead, equipped with new things learned from the past weeks of experimentation and emersing myself in good art anywhere I could find it. This piece is watercolor underpainting and digital collage/paint, done for a client a few weeks back.
It will be in an inspirational magazine.

This week, my new work on Shannon Associates should be more organized, but until then, take a look at pages 6-11 on my web portfolio.

Illustration Friday: Camo

Here is my entry (click on it to enlarge!). It was a timely topic of the week, and evolved into a bit of a personal statement via character design. Here she is, "the rebel peace".

It was interesting doing this piece to answer my own question, "why do we wear the pattern of war in this country, so casually?" Her design was based on my impulse to create a character in the spirit of fearless innocence, wrapped in a flag of "camo", combative with a bugle and in attention-commanding colors, a mockery of the every day camo originally created in a palette, designed for hiding. She is on a flat backdrop of randomly placed media suggestions of violence, not only of war, but war on life within our own culture. In a way she was designed to be a herald of a sort of awakening, one that would call to question our reasons and motives for violence within our entertainment/media/culture. Thanks to my sisters for being an awesome sounding board for this project. Yeah 4 sisters!

Good news! My new work is all up now. It is in a temporary order for now, but feel free to check it out. Hope all is well on your end :) Have a good night.

New Work Up Soon!

So it's a hazy day in Somerville. I am working on getting a load of a year's worth of new art up onto my agent's site, stay tuned. Hope June is treating you well <3

p.s. I received word that the work SHOULD be up by the end of tomorrow...6/28!

Elizabeth Bennet Meets Rock Scene 2007

can you tell i'm having oodles of fun over here? working on projects, but churning out my own pieces on the side. not to fear, it's the way i learn before a new piece- my style is growwwing. oh my! i had a lot of fun researching and inventing this jane austen outfit.

Experiment

Hey ya'll. It's been busy so I am sorry for the lack of upkeep. Busy researching, learning, exploring, working on the fourth book in The Sleepover Squad series which comes out this month! I've been absorbing a bunch of new inspiration, mainly from Ilana Kohn, Hiroko Hasegawa, and Clare Turlay Newberry...such different approaches to rendering, shape, line, and control of all of these elements.

Here is an experimental costume piece I did on my own time recently. Playtime!! I did it with watercolor on taped together grey cardstock (yes, not very fancy). I love to look at ethnic dress from parts of the world, and I flipped through my favorite reference book a lot in the making of this girl. The character beside her means, "sister" in Arabic (thanks Mo-D). I imagine her coming from that awesome area in Spain where so many cultures mixed.

I am also working hard on updating my shiny new art from all this year's worth of projects into new pages on my Shannon Associates portfolio. Stay tuned. Hope you are all well.

Sketch and Paint Puddle Time

Isn't rain cozy? Here is a rain-inspired free sketch I finished. It is watercolor and pencil on 140 lb hot-press. Still wondering what her name is, maybe Cleo, or Constance or Willa Jane. I discovered I LOVE hot press paper. It just holds wash lines and bleeds where the pigment blooms so well, no fading. Anyhow, I hope everyone is enjoying the rainy days one way or another, while we wait for the new season. How do you spend a rainy day?

In the 1920's, Women Wore Socks and Heels to the Beach

Gearing up to change the process, so I'm playing with hot press paper and a lot of watercolor. Here is one old-fashioned pin-up sort of gal. Aaaahhh... a break from digi paint is so yummy.
She isn't done, but I thought you might like to meet her.