deadline deadline deadline

Well, of course, everyone is posting cool posts and I have no time to read them!!!
I checked my email and ended up scrolling through some blogs I follow only to wish I had a couple hours to catch up!!
However, I must paint!!!!
Sorry there isn't anything interesting to post up here but once I am done with this title, I am on to the next!!
The end of the month is also the only time to move Josh down to CA so I will be pretty busy...
hope all is well with you?
:)

Examined Life of an Illustrator

So Josh, my fiance, announced just yesterday a solo podcast he has decided to start... I haven't heard it yet, as I cannot download to this computer, but plan to listen once I am at my work computer.

So, for those of you that are interested in checking it out, feel free to check the Blog (I'm sure there's a link there to download) by clicking on this post title.
I also went ahead and added a link on my link list.

YAY for Josh!
Sorry about BIPT but I guess that can happen sometimes.
Hope you all like what you hear and keep coming back!

I forgot...

check out this cute littl' Easter wind-up toy my mom got me.

Chevelle and children's books...

I don't know why but I find that listening to Chevelle while I paint helps me keep pace with things... if I paint sometimes I find myself sitting there spacing out.... heh...
Right now I am in the middle of trying to get through a couple pages that sort of look similar which will leave me with a couple more complicated pages... sometimes grouping these together helps me feel like I am closer to being done! HAHA... ah, I love to trick myself.
And then of course, once I am done, I think... "now what? I wanna do more!"

I think maybe there's a bit of a sicko in all of us, isn't there?

This band makes me think of .. weird imagery and gets the creative juices flowing though. I think that the anger and frustration and sense of urgency in the music makes me sort of dive into painting. Even though I prefer to paint happy images... :)

Sometimes I forget how much I love music... how much I love painting. It's weird... I had a long span of time where I could not stand listening to anything while I worked. I also had a long span of time where I would play a movie in the background on repeat... (my two favorites to play were the Burbs and Father of the Bride). I would still do that except that I am sharing space in my sister's room at the moment and can only access her computer once in a while and both of those movies are VHS... (hehe, that's right! good ol' VHS!!!)

Anyway, love Chevelle... miss the ol' punk days and all the crazy teen angsty feelings... aw... how cute.

Which reminds me of Keegan (like everything does)... as soon as he could walk he would make a little one-man/baby mosh pit in our living room while he listened to Cursive... now what is more cute than that? Did I tell you he can do nun chaku ("nunchucks") now?

Ok, enough procrastinating... must go paint.

So I have a plan in the works to get my fiance and my stuff down from Portland toward the end of April! that's exciting for me... I miss him a lot.

meanwhile... I of course, need to try and really kick some butt on these illustrations and finish up one of the books!! Yikes!

I listened to Beck's Seachange at work today and remembered one of the first dates that Josh and I went on... back when we lived in Long Beach... it was one of the times I remember that I knew he was the one for me... we were sharing his I-pod, sitting on the metro on our way up to LA to window shop. Well, that was the first time I heard Seachange. Funny, that an album based on someone's heartache made me feel totally at peace with the world... I felt like the person next to me and the music and the scenery passing by in the window were like those moments when everything feels pretty darn good. That was a good day :)

I drew this little sketch a while ago... but forgot to post it. I was watching the Mummy one of the days that I was still feeling pretty ill and trying to sort of get back into the swing of feeling normal and drawing... but I always liked the costume in that movie- as cheesey as it was and possibly, totally inaccurate??? I don't know??? I really love the Mummy movies. ;) Anyway, I also think about one of my favorite novels The Hero and the Crown
(or) The Blue Sword (both written by the ever-wonderful Robin McKinley)... but I imagine a little baby girl princess of ancient Damaar and sort of drew this with those stories in mind as well.

I know that there are people who are sort of ... drawn toward the desert and those that are drawn to the ocean... etc etc... I guess that's how I feel about Japan. I will have to see when I visit again if it is as strong of a feeling as I remember. Does that happen to everyone? I've often wondered...whether "home" is something that you find in another person or in a place or in yourself?? Or maybe it's all those things... I know that I feel at home in different ways with different people and different places. I suppose I'm lucky. I guess it might be for all the places and people I always feel so out-of-place.... :P

Anyone else jealous of all the rad children's clothing at Target right now? I sometimes peruse through there to get ideas for what to draw on my characters and also because I have nephews and nieces... My mom dragged out a box full of old dresses we wore when we were little girls- all hand sewn by my cousin!! She is SUPER talented and when I finally get a camera or am near a camera, I promise to photograph them all before she gives them to my nieces... these were ... the kind of thing you find and just oooh and aaaahhh over the detail and the pattern and the pleates and the buttons ... it's very, very, very hard to not want to keep them all so I can just pull them out and hug them every so often.... but they deserve to have them. :)

(to think I hated wearing dresses when I was a pre-teen/teenager... now all I want are boots and dresses... wish I had more).

Anyway!!!
enough about me...
hope you are all doing fantastic!

Penguin & Fish

I saw this the other day...
apparently I was featured on this blog!

:)

Click on the title of this post for the link!!

Thank you!!!

I just scanned and pieced together a PDF of some revised pages as well as some ideas for a book jacket... but I also managed to scan a very simple painting I did while waiting to use the computer... I hadn't painted anything of my own in so long I thought, what the hey?
Although I really don't have the time...

Here is my moment of guilt...


I will also post a couple of things that show I have been working a lot, too!

:)



Anyway, I am tired!!!! It feels like a good tired, though... like the kind you get after you work out.
And now... I will go to sleep!

Fascination

So today was "80s" themed day at ASW (http://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/) and my twin and I decided to participate... she dressed as Robert Smith and I dressed as Siouxie. We will have to take a picture and post one later... unless they have one up on the ASW Facebook page (??? Mark our general manager did take one).

Meanwhile, I got a lot of stares from customers as almost NO ONE on the floor dressed up.... bummer. My old co-worker, Jason, in Oregon would have been sad, too... he was the only Office manager that would get into the Halloween costumes (well, him and Sasha :* ) Anyway, I eventually had to get out of the two belts, bracelet, and crazy eye make-up...

But I pulled a bunch of stuff from the top stock (backstock) which involves a ladder three times my size and heavy boxes heaved down by twiggy girl... needless to say my back hurts and now I am wondering how our bodies work!!

I was talking it over and all of us were pretty amazed at how our bodies function and are held together and the crazy design of it all... thus the title of this post: fascination... and maybe a little ode to the Cure's Fascination Street ;) for the 80s theme!

ok, look at this pug:

Feeling a bit prickly? Feeling a bit snuggly? Can't decide?

I am listening to the fan in the window pumping out hot air and sucking in cool air... and remembering a funny realization that I made when I came back to California.
The sky is different by the ocean. It may sound strange, but I never realized this until I came back after a year in beautiful Oregon and looked up... to see something so wide and wonderful in the sky I had been staring at since I was a baby. It is totally different... you can almost TELL that a few miles and boom! there has to be an ocean in that direction!

Anyway, the heat also reminded me how HOT it is here... yikes! I don't deal too well in heat. I also don't really like showing skin (??? maybe it's related to the shyness) so this makes it worse. HAHA. I used to walk around in white undershirt/tank-tops and "shants" (like pirate pants) when I was 17 and didn't care if a shoulder strap or two was hanging out... now... not at all. Why? I don't know.

So today was St. Patrick's Day! Keegan has tacked to the kitchen pantry door a 12" Leprechaun which he colored-- the head is held to the body by a tack so it can move... and he said:
"Mai, Mai, you know, today, when we were in uh, class, Mrs.T said... for us to uh, pick up our papers, and there under it was a gold coin!!"
"WOW! Can I see it?"
"Yea, it's right there. It's because it's St. Patrick Day. And I got pinched."
"Why? You were wearing green?"
"Yea but they had these other shirts so I changed to that and I got pinched."
Anyway, I saw The Gold Coin and it is very shiny. I'm very jealous... I wish my money was that shiny. Well, at least my ATM card is gold. Oooh fancy...
So I'm sure all the people up in the Northwest are enjoying their green beer!
Well, back to work. This coming weekend will be more painting and storyboard revisions!

a crazy post with lots of pictures!

Painting away on my book... I finally received notes back on the other manuscript and have some small re-working to do on the storyboards before I can start painting that one. Phew. It's a crazy world we live in!I am sure every illustrator is familiar with the crazy juggling act we must do with our personal life vs. our careers... Having a day job as well makes it hard too! But I won't complain too much about that...
I am wanting to post more of these paintings, but I also don't want to show too much yet!Here is a snippet of one of the pages... sketch-phase... just to give a little more to look at.... it's funny how different every character I have worked on has been so far... I wonder what it would be like if little did we know, but they were all in the same class!! Could they all be friends? Hmm, some are a little more out-going than others... some a little more girly than others ;) but for the most part, I think they could?
I keep trying to tell myself that all of this will pay off... I tend to trust the world to send me where I need to go, although I know you have to do your part to get there, too... Isn't life nerve-wracking and wonderful at the same time? Wouldn't it be nice if I made any sense and my thoughts actually connected?
Anyway, it's getting warmer and warmer! I also know that last night around 4 am there was an earthquake that woke up many of my co-workers last night. The odd thing is that I was awake and felt nothing? I keep waking up around this time (as I have tweeted) and can't seem to fall back sleep until around 5 am.... so these past few mornings, I have been a zombie!

I keep fantasizing about Japan... I should post a picture of Japan so we can all be jealous of my twin who was able to visit a few years ago with my bestest buddy, Christine...Here is a picture of my two cousins (my mom's sister's girls) and their children. In the middle with a hat and green shirt is my twin, Mei, next to her is my mom, next to her (the only caucasian) is my best friend Chris. (from the left: Kaori, Chieko, Satoka, Mei, Shinji, Mom/Keiko, Yuuki, Chris, Shintaro)This is a typical scene from the train in Shizuoka/Mieken (near my aunt's home)-- pretty rural but beautiful!! Rice fields- whoohoo!
Here is the street leading up to my aunt's house (the gray brick wall is just in front of her home on the right there).This would be the view leaving...

And this would be the view toward sundown...

Anyway I miss it quite a bit... it's very beautiful there.

Just felt like sharing those pics.
Meanwhile, this is what me, Mei, and Chris normally do to make up for not being there:

Up late

I just scanned and emailed a couple paintings to my publisher to be used in some meetings... but I thought I should post the painted version of the sketch I posted earlier.
Its been a crazy night.

We also started our Annual Arty Gras Sale at Art Supply Warehouse (Westminster, CA) so I am recovering from Friday's mayhem. You can click on the title of this post to see the website. I work here during the weekdays. Oh and one of my fellow CSULB graduates is doing a watercolor demo tomorrow (Sunday) too!! Click on his link: Sketchboy (or Chris Kawagiwa) which you can find down on the right side of my blog.
Anyway, I ran around like CRAZY during the sale on Friday and am very sore... I hardly ever nap and I passed out earlier this afternoon before painting and scanning a bunch of paintings. Tomorrow should be more of the same.

I think the computer stuff takes the longest and is the most aggravating for me...

Although I would love to write more and more and more interesting silly tidbits, I am TOO tired...

Hope you like it so far... not much and there is certainly more to show, but I think I will have to wait for another time.

For some reason tonight I think of the last line in Anne of Green Gables... which I think goes something like "God is in his Heaven. All is right with the world."

I am glad to be going to bed now! :)

This is Rad

Thank you Josh for this Video!!
(If it doesn't work, you can click on the title of this blog to view the music video).

Some Character Images

Well I got the ok to paint and also to post some work-in-progress images from my publisher, Downtown Bookworks, Inc. I decided to crop some scenes from the book that I recently did the storyboards for that show a bit of this little girl's personality-- she's the tomboyish looking girl.
I ended up doing a couple revisions for this story but I think that it should end up being something I can be proud of... I really like this little girl's character... I was a tomboy growing up and didn't feel really girly until I was much older-- and even now I don't think I'm super girly either.
I remember when I was younger wishing I had grown up as a boy or a cat. The cat because I knew that if I were a cat I wouldn't have to go to school. Well, I say I was a tomboy, but I wasn't really a "jock" either... more like a girl that dressed like a boy and read and drew a lot of comics... I think I was just a bit shy... although I haven't really grown out of that much. For example, my now best friend, told me when she first saw me/met me thought I was scary. It's hard to imagine when you're the person... but it took a while for the wall of defense to come down... I think the fact that my twin and I literally stayed indoors and drew for about 16 years straight (at least whenever we could we were drawing... we'd roll up from bed, draw, and then sleep) kind of didn't help the whole shyness factor... HAH. Although I shouldn't paint such a negative picture of myself... :P
Well, I guess I'll go back to work and listening to Paramore and maybe some more J-rock... (I'm seriously obsessed with Japanese J-rockers... I think it stems from being a huge The Cure fan and Robert Smith). I guess your interests in art don't dictate the type of music you like... I used to be afraid to post anything remotely personal on these blogs until I realized that illustrators- even those that do kids books- are adults and probably like things that aren't all G-rated.... funny, huh? So I figured why not let some of myself show?
:)

Well... I sure hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!
Cheers!


PS:Anyway, I hope you like the drawings. I can't wait to show more-- especially paintings!

Coffee Talks To Me

I don't really have any images to post as of yet... but I finally sent my second storyboards to my publisher for review..... crossing fingers that she likes them!

If she does, I might have to cut and paste a small portion to post here as a sneak preview!

Anyway, I've been waking up with headaches.... which could account for the fact that I've been sleeping in a toddler's bed for a month now (there is no room here), have old glasses that were bent somehow (don't ask), and have a few cavaties (I have to wait until April for benefits to kick in again)... not to mention stress.... har har. And yet, I am not daunted! I still feel like kicking some a$$ and taking some names- as my Dad likes to tell me to do whenever he can.

Meanwhile, I miss Josh like mad... and hope to see him soon but have to wait for a flood of money that should really be going toward my insane amount of credit card debt. Is this post too personal? :D Well, just pretend it's the coffee talking.

I am excited everytime I have a moment to scroll through and look at all the blogs though... It's nice to see all the art and stories that people tell... loving the new look of The Cinnamon Rabbit (Julia Denos), Josh's t-shirt designs (Josh Kemble Illustrations), and Eric Orchard's drawings.... :) All linked here... and of course, there are plenty more interesting posts and blogs of the like. I really wish that Amy June Bates had a blog I could follow as well, for I am a huge fan and would love to see more of her "work in progress" stages of art... If they ever released an "art of Amy Bates" I would have to buy it.

I am currently at my day job wanting to keep writing and reading, but I must work!

:)

To all who read this, thank you and I will try to put something more productive up soon!

Cheers!

Preliminary Works and a Migraine from "You know where"

Here is snippet of some preliminary character sketches I have done for one of the books I am working on... I approached this story differently from ones I have done in the past... mainly that I have taken a bit more time on the sketches and the storyboards. I am pretty happy with it so far.
The other story is still not fleshed out enough for me to really show much...
I do have a cover image but I can't really show that yet....

However, I did want to post something since it's been so long.
I just haven't done much personal work to show since I have been busy.

Today was a strange day though. I woke up with a splitting headache that just never went away until about ten minutes ago (it is now 9:52 pm).... with the help of Excedrin Migraine medicine that my friend happened to have on her. So finally relief! Although I am so exhausted I may have to crash early. This weekend should be interesting working on storyboards for the second book and then maybe I can get some time in for new painting. I feel like I haven't painted in ages!

Josh has been posting t-shirt design after t-shirt design on his website and they are really interesting. I like his last one... click on the link to his website (it's under his NEWS section) if you like... :)

I feel like there is tons to write about but I'm just too tired to get into it all...
Waiting for a weekend... and my paycheck.

Tax time will be interesting...

But hey! Spring will be here soon... I read a good book called The Shadow Thieves (Young Adult Fiction/Fantasy) by Anne Ursu - it's the first of a series... but it was very charming.
OK, I'm starting to ramble now...
I do hope everyone else is doing well and I hope that this blog doesn't become totally boring with nothing to show!! Gotta keep it together! :)
Wish me luck!

On Hiatus...

I realize I haven't posted in quite a while... but I became extremely ill toward the end of November, beginning of December and actually am now in California with family recovering. However, during this time, I managed to get my storyboards fleshed out to send to Charlesbridge and also land another contract with Downtown Bookworks, Inc. for another picture book. Unfortunately, my budget is not quite yet at a point where I could give up my day job, so I had to turn down another possible project with Greenleaf Book Company... a real pity. I was pretty heartbroken... I hope that I am able to work with them in the future though. Word of advice: do not use credit cards if you can go without.... When I was younger I managed to rake up a LOT of debt and now struggle with bills. But enough of that! Who wants to know?
Anyway!
More interesting stuff... I am enjoying my new projects though and recovering... so that is good!
The holiday passed and now it's a New Year!! I wish you all the best... and thank you so very much for reading my blog.
I hope to post images soon but I am not sure yet how much I am allowed to show here... ;)

A Nice Weekend

Well, this weekend was fantastic!

After plotting out my painting, I went with Josh to spend a work-day with David Chelsea at his home. What a lovely time! David Chelsea has wonderful taste in music and a lovely home... :) His wife Eve is sweet, too! I managed to paint my painting there and also spend some time with some very talented people... it was a blast!

I also managed to get a lot done today (more personal things, like laundry and grocery shopping) but it's always nice when Monday comes along and you know you accomplished a lot over the weekend. I'm sure when I am able to take on freelancing or children's books more fulltime, there may not really be a "weekend" per say, but I still enjoy the feeling of it.

In any case, I hope you all like the painting... It's not perfect, but it was fun to do... and I like these two characters quite a bit. Maybe someday I can get something written for them... who knows! :)

A Painting in Progress...

Well, I was doodling along this night and couldn't shake how much I enjoyed sketching that bear from my previous post... so I made up this girl and recently read a little from Winnie-the-Pooh and missed that kind of relationship Pooh had with Christopher... from there I started thinking of Toot & Puddle... I wanted to draw something with a child/young adult who has a special friendship. I imagined this little girl, much like Eloise, with too much money, who be-friends this bear that maybe never went to Paris... and so Charlotte should take Rue there and go shopping... and maybe have some adventures?

Anyway, that's where I am so far...

I am posting the sketches that inspired me and then the drawing so far on the watercolor paper... there's a lot of work still to do!

But ... I am happy to do it!

A happy reminder...

I have been sketching over the past couple days some character roughs for a new manuscript... and also just sketches for fun...

I was going to post some life drawing sketches that I did one night when Josh and I went to Starbucks to draw people, but I think I may do that at a later date.

I have also been battling a major slump so I'm happy that I was able to get some fun sketches in that I really enjoyed drawing.

It's always so relieving when you find your "art hand" back in play and I just remember how there is nothing quite like drawing for fun. I am hoping to have a special spark fly so I can make some time to do a last personal painting before I get too busy with this book.

Speaking of the book I am working on, I so far have only just signed and returned the contract, as well as read and studied the manuscript... Ususally I'll have a pretty strong first impression and idea of how I want the illustrations to look, but this time, I feel open to a bit of experimentation and therefore, I don't have one set idea yet... but too many!

In any case, it will get reeled in until I feel something is right... :)

Anyway, hope you all enjoy the sketches... :)

Happy drawing!

Interesting!

Well, I read Chad Beckerman's interview he posted and am impressed... Nice view on how to approach your illustration career... it's true... maybe we need to drop the "dream" and make it a "job"!!! :P
Silly artists! ;)
No, but seriously, I think sometimes that's a big crutch for people- even those that hire illustrators that don't have experience dealing with artists. I think that's why Josh has to deal with so many clients not intentionally treating him like he ought to do his work for free because it involves art. If everyone adopted and accepted the fact that illustration is WORK then maybe we'd have less problems (ie spec work and the like).
Anyway, I just love when art directors share their views and thoughts... give a little insight to their responsibilities as well. It always helps! Even though there are the a lot of the same messages, there's ALWAYS a little bit of the person in there and it ALWAYS helps to hear what they think and feel... For instance, he talked a bit of how he feels illustrators trying to break into the field ought to really see doing this like an athlete-- you have to work out everyday (as in draw everyday)! Approach it like your life depends upon it.

Please click on the link to Mishaps and Adventures and read the interview if you are an aspiring illustrator, or someone that maybe needs a little motivation. :)
I was delighted to read it!
I should have sketches posted soon!