First Book Review of Lou Lou on Amazon

Our first book review on Amazon!

Busy!

Now that Lou Lou is in full swing, as well as the Christmas-themed book, I am super busy.  Here is what I did over the weekend-  I'll have more soon!  The cover for Lou Lou #2 and hopefully a couple interior pages as well.

:)

Hope everyone is staying busy, too!

Lou Lou's World

Here is a link to the Official Website for Lou Lou (written by Safia Guerras).  Please click on the above picture and check it out!  Soon to come will be games, multi-medea, etc.  I'm super excited!!!  The storyboards for Lou Lou in England (book 2) are still in the works, but soon there will be more images as well!  Keep visiting to see more posts of sketches, etc.
;)


Lots of love!

Snow White

Here is the Snow White image I did for Fadenrot.  :)

Sleeping Beauty Revisited

So I was asked to make a few changes and I think they really improved this piece!

Another painting....

... awaiting approval- Sleeping Beauty ;)

This week should continue to be pretty productive as I wait for approvals on my Christmas story roughs, finish up thumbnails for Lou Lou then turn them into storyboards, and of course, the last fairy tale for Fadenrot- Snow White!

I've been battling feeling overwhelmed... I constantly look over my calendar and planner to make sure I'm not forgetting anything... oh, which reminds me... one more thing: another painting for the new Lou Lou website!

:)  See, I need it.

Ok, now I can go to bed at a decent hour!

YAY!

First Draft with Paint!

I did the first draft of my Cinderella painting for Fadenrot... the paint is not strong enough yet to print so back to the drawing desk!

I'm relieved to finally have this out though- my poor client was waiting patiently for this...and I still have two more to go!

On a different note, this Friday is Josh and my First Anniversary!  We are just going to take it easy and window shop around town.  :)  Should be nice!  We don't usually have a day off to ourselves... ;)

So, I expect starting this weekend to be even more busy... with finals for the Christmas story, book 2 for Lou Lou in the works, and of course, Fadenrot! ;)  Wish me luck....

a New Christmas Story...

Here are some select pages from storyboards I did for a new Christmas-themed book I am working on... I had already posted the roughs for one of the pages as well.  I had a lot of fun with these... lots of different scenery and some playful text.  :)  I was debating between illustrating a pug in this book since I had the opportunity to have a dog in the story, but I had to do a Shih tzu because my sister owned one named Otis and I adored him!!  She's moving so she had to give him away and I wanted to take him, but we can only have two dogs in our apartment.  In any case, he has a good home now, but I think about him a lot.  You can see a picture of him with me, in the background...   Anyway, I hope that I get the "go ahead" soon so I can start painting away!  Hope you all had an awesome weekend... now I can go read more of Catching Fire (the sequel to The Hunger Games)!  PS: the movie is good, too!

A Fun Little Book

I went to Barnes and Noble the other night with Josh just to perk up and get out of the house for a bit... and found this little jewel (they have an Easter theme going on in the children's book section):

I leave it on my desk next to (written by Boni Ashburn) Julia Denos' I Had A Favorite Dress - great inspiration!  :)  

Tonight was catch up on some freelance work for Fadenrot that has been long overdue.  :)

Some sketches:

The last one I had put together in Photoshop really quick.  Anyway, I hope to get the okay to start painting these soon!

Tomorrow should be focusing on some storyboards for the Christmas cookie book I had posted before. :) I'm really excited to get this project going as well.

Meanwhile, Easter is soon arriving as well!  Lots of work on the horizon... and taxes tomorrow.  YAY.

:P

For some reason, too, I can't seem to comment on blogs... I read a bunch of wonderful posts on some blogs I follow and tried to leave some comments and it will get to the point where it is about to post and then a second window opens that says "error."  Not sure why this is as this has never happened before.

As I write this, Josh is listening to more of Philip Marlow on I-Tunes... "The Medium Was Rare"... HAHAHAH.... its really awesome.  It features a Fortune Teller that is a hoax... thus the pun.  We sometimes listen to this... they're really great stories.  Nice to listen to while you work.  We tried to listen to some Sherlock Holmes but the voice that read the stories was really horrid.  It wasn't voice-acting, just straight reading, so it was a bit harder to listen to as well.  I actually have this habit of working with a movie on in the background- mostly because I like listening to the story.  I don't even watch.  Josh can't work that way though so I only do it when he isn't working in the studio at the same time.

Well, anyway, hope everyone is having a good night!

:)

Cheers!

What a Weekend

It is Sunday morning, the dogs have been out, the husband is asleep- soon to be awakened- and I am thinking about this weekend so far.
I met with one of my clients, Safia Guerras, the author of the soon-to-be-released Lou Lou, and she has the most amazing news!  Of course, I can't share it yet, but what my point is that you never know where talent lies, you never know where one project will take you... and I am really grateful for all the opportunities and all the times I was ever asked to be a part of a project.  These are people's dreams!  And its really amazing.  All the people involved.. all the hard work... and then of course, all the little readers that will see the story and hopefully love it.
We are all so lucky...whether the stories we work on are small or big.  :)

I am excited for the future!

I also wanted to post this painting I finished a while ago and never got around to putting up.  She's off for adventure, to places she's never been before!

Whatever lies ahead, we should take off running!

More...

I am up to my ears in work... the day job's been keeping me busy, I have work that is due by Monday that I have all prep work ready, I just finished a painting that was due tomorrow morning, and whilst scanning this image, managed to scan some older personal work that I had been meaning to post.  (I put them both up on my website, this is just one).

Oh, also this is the final I did for the Christmas cookie sketch I had posted a while ago... There were some changes that were requested so it is a bit different.  I will post the sketches to the final to show the changes...

To tell you the truth, I still like the first sketch the most... :)

Cinderella

Some sketches for a client... based on Cinderella.
:)

A Fun Little Sketch

Here is a little sketch I did for a potential client... its always nice when you get offered right off the bat to be paid for samples!!!  This could be the start of a beautiful relationship.... ;)

I really want to do this book though because I had a lot of fun with this sketch and want to see it painted and printed!
;)

I know the Christmas theme is either late or too early but needless to say the colors make it more fun!

Updates!

I finished painting my images of the Hedgehog and the Hare... here is one of them!  I posted the rest on my website under my Freelance Work.

I have more projects underway with Fadenrot with Fairy Tale themes, more Lou Lou soon, and of course, I need to get my Portfolio cleaned up and re-vamped as well...

Tons to do!

On a different note, I've been getting sick a LOT lately... my most recent spell was something called costochondritis- an inflamed ribcage that makes you feel like you're having a heartattack.  Fun, right?

Hope all is well with everyone else!
Now that I"m back on my feet, I hope to really take off running!
Cheers!

work in progress...The Hare and the Hedgehog, a German fairy tale

More work for Anka (in-progress)... ;)

Squirmy

I am in this weird state where I am slammed with freelance work, but not yet sure if I can make the bounce from full-time Purchasing Agent to full-time freelance Illustrator Extraordinaire!  As I've never had quite so much illustration work pouring in and therefore am feeling a bit overwhelmed but also at this point where I don't want my day-job getting in the way of my illustration work- which it seems like it is....
So, what to do?
I am praying and hoping for some clarity there soon... I think if I get some "for sure" jobs (I have two in limbo at the moment) then I might make that jump...

In the meanwhile, here is a little character study for the second installment of Lou Lou!  (She is in her U.K. School uniform garb and lookin' cute if I may say so myself...hee hee.)

V for Veritas posted this.... ;)

Maurice Sendak teaches Stephen Colbert to write a children’s book (video)http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/176536/maurice-sendak-teaches-stephen-colbert-to-write-a-childrens-book-video/

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater... and other sketches

So it's Sunday night.  I managed to do my character sketches for Fadenrot as well as do some sketches of my own.  These are a few for the Peter Pumpkin Eater poem... :)  I kind of liked it to be a bit dark... so in case its hard to see in the bottom ones, she's actually sort of being kept prisoner.  I wanted to put bars on the windows and the gate to be a bit intimidating...

I also did a little sketch of what I thought Mrs. Hudson from Sherlock Holmes might look like when she was younger... the boy was maybe a love interest?  I didn't go very far with that idea... I did kind of think she must've been a bit mischievous?  and perhaps had an interest in Mystery novels? ;)

I also did a little sketch with a girl and her Scottish terrier... My mother-in-law just put her Scottie down... and I couldn't help imagining a little girl with a matching bow on her dog... 

Anyway, I hope that I can get a final version of the Peter Pumpkin Eater painted... but a little birdie told me that starting Monday I may be a bit over my head with work!

Once I get approval on my work for Fadenrot I can then show those sketches as well.

Well, the house is clean... the dogs are sleepy... Josh is typing away at his new script... what a day!!!

Personal Work as a Means to A Better Portfolio

I have been inspired by a blog post by Amy June Bates (one of my most favorite illustrators!!!) to take up my big ol' book of collected Children's stories and just illustrate from these as a personal project.  Updating my website with personal paintings I think adds flavor, adds fun, and definitely can help show off some skill!  I can pretend I am "on assignment" to illustrate my favorite rhymes and stories... ;)
Meanwhile, my favorite client, Fadenrot, has contacted me to do some fairy tale based illustrations as well!
Fun!

Feeling Charmed

Hello all~
I finally finished my last interior page for a book that I was working on during December!  It was a crazy deadline and consisted of a week with no sleep and lots of painting, but in the end, it was totally worth it!  From what it sounds like, there is promising interest for it in the UK and this is exciting!  I am extremely grateful for the work and also am very hopeful for the book as well.  Here is an interior I did...

Once I get more info and the okay, I will post more info! I believe it will be released in March!

All of this excitement meant that I also had NO time to do any housework.... so this weekend I had bags of laundry to haul around and I'm still not done... dishes, etc... I will hopefully get this all caught up soon.  Josh also got a pretty bad cold this weekend so I had to help him out too.... Feverish and dizzy and totally congested, poor man.

:)
Cheers!