MAKE Illustration Workshop with Light Grey Art Lab!

Big news! Are you ready to get creative in 2013?? I am! And I am so excited to announce that I will be leading a 2.5 day intensive illustration workshop at Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis, January 4-6! The wonderful Lindsay Nohl (of Light Grey Art Lab & Paper Bicycle) contacted me about putting this workshop together. Lindsay has a lot of great resources around Minneapolis and at LGAL to draw on (and had previously set up an illustration bootcamp with Meg Hunt), and it's great to be partnering with her & the LGAL crew!

We'll be covering a lot of ground in a lot of different ways, including group discussions, one-on-one creative sessions with me, talks with other industry professionals, and a big fun illustration meet 'n greet party! We'll be talking about creativity and idea generation, the business and practice of illustration, illustration process, and more! Plus we'll have an exciting in-studio project which will be featured in the gallery. This will be a collaborative experience, and whether you're a current creative professional or just want to kick-start your art in 2013, we'll be working together to help & inspire each other!
Space is limited to 18 participants, so reserve your spot now!
You can see Light Grey Art Lab's writeup on their blog, and check out the sign-up page for the full schedule, specifics, and prices!
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Bastille Day with Anne Fontaine!

Over the summer, I designed a postcard image for french fashion designer Anne Fontaine! The company was looking for an illustration for their Bastille Day event mailer and I was happy to oblige.
Chic ladies in Paris? Yes please.
 They wanted an image that incorporated the Eiffel tower and the french flag, as well as showcasing one of their signature bags & all-white outfits. (it was fun getting a sneak-peek of the new clothing they were introducing!)

They chose the walking sketch on the right, but requested that I add a shopping bag & some Bastille Day fireworks as well.

After a last minute costume-change, voila! A chic Anne Fontaine woman, running off to a Bastille Day party after shopping at her favorite store!

Thanks to my contact Christina Ramirez-Madisson and Anne Fontaine for the lovely job! (and thanks to fellow MICAn Haniya Rae!)

Post-SPX!

QUITE the belated post here, but I just wanted to say a giant THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by and said hello (or bought something!) during SPX. It was lovely meeting you all face to face! I had such an amazing time that weekend and every single person I met—both exhibitors & attendees— was so kind, welcoming, and excited! It was a giant hotel full of talented awesome people! I feel lucky that my first exhibiting experience was so positive, I know Sam and I are definitely going to do it again.

I’ve been inside a maelstrom of work ever since I got back, (sorry about the lack of updates), but I have some posts on the horizon & will be putting the remaining samurai shirts up for sale soon!

I was so caught-up in SPX fun that I totally forgot to take any photos (nooooo!) So big thanks to Burton Durand for the lovely shot of Sam & I’s table, & Russ Creech for the full-length photo!

I need your help!

Hey guys! This year my friends and I have 2 tables at SPX— Sam & I are sharing one, and our talented pals Andrea & Jimmy are sharing the one right next to us!

 I’m going to primarily be selling prints this year, and I need your help to figure out which prints I should bring!
Of the prints above, please let me know what your top 5 favorites are. Which would you wanna buy? (and for those of you who have already given me your picks on tumblr or twitter, thanks so much for your help!)

 Also, for anyone who won’t be attending SPX, these prints are also available from my inPRNT shop, and there’s a Labor Day sale today!

Star Gazer

Many months back I started and neeeeearly finished this piece, for fun, between work. I have been (and am currently) in a long busy stretch, so I didn't get the chance to put the finishing touches on it until last week!

This all started as a composition exercise. I was reading the wonderful Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis (out of print, but free pdfs available online) and he has a great section about informal subdivision as a compositional tool. Informal subdivision is a process Loomis created, where you divide your image space unequally (and somewhat randomly!) by drawing a series of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines. As he shows it in the book:

Once you create this dynamic linear plan for your image, you let it suggest your composition for whatever subject you have in mind. Here's the subdivision I made:

I didn't have a particular subject in mind, I just wanted to draw a lady. So I kind of just let myself meander a bit with the drawing.

I settled on the lady in the chair, who I made into a space lady (one of the best kinds of lady) who maybe got herself into some sort of a sticky situation.

Here's the final lined up with my informal subdivision.

It's a pretty fun exercise! It might be a little tricky to use if you need to have a specific sort of layout, but it's great for suggesting ideas. Try your own! Composition for all!

The Power of Mom!

Right on the heels of my last piece are two more illustrations for this past weekend's Boston Globe magazine! This time I was honored to be illustrating the cover again, as well as an accompanying page inside.

The theme of both illustrations was the power that moms wield through online networking (the cover is focused on the power, and the inside illo is focused on the connectivity). It's easier than ever for moms to connect and share tips, info, advice, and warnings on a variety of sites, blogs, and forums that are catered to them. From the article, "While a mom’s opinions once only stretched so far — to her local play group or over the backyard fence — now they are amplified and shot around the world with a keystroke. And if you make a mom mad, the power of her network is a force to be reckoned with." You can read the rest of the article here!

The cover I made is a deliberate riff on Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People. I remembered the painting from my college art history class partly because it was the first time I learned about triangular compositions!

The revolutionary spirit also seemed to fit the article, though the editorial staff didn't want any moms with mean faces, so my ladies are a little more lighthearted instead of murderous.

There was limited time for both illustrations so the inside illo is more simplified out of necessity, but because the colors for both are all in the same families I think they fit together, and I enjoyed working in both styles.
Thanks again to my great AD Ryan Huddle for the assignment, and the fun layout he created inside!

Sketches for the cover:

Sketches for the inside illo:

Swifter, Higher, Stronger...Sexier?

An illustration in this past weekend's Boston Globe Magazine about the uniforms for female Olympians. Some sport leaders want to create "a more female aesthetic", i.e. sex appeal, to draw in more crowds and attention for female sports--but this can come at the cost of athlete practicality and performance. This year boxing and badminton started requiring all female competitors to wear skirts, but later dropped the rule after bad press and complaints from athletes. Female beach volleyball players have always been required to wear bikinis (and some feel most comfortable in them), but the association recently changed their dress code to allow for shorts and t-shirts too.

Yes, aesthetics can have a powerful effect--drawing a bikini'd butt will almost certainly direct attention to the article-- but I think the article's writer, Shira Springer, sums up the issue nicely "The Games should showcase the world’s best athletes at the peak of their abilities, and that means team uniforms should be about practicality and performance, not eye candy."
Hear hear!

Sketches:

Thanks again to AD Ryan Huddle! You can read the rest of Shira's article here.