Archive for January, 2008

I just finished this illustration for my mom’s birthday card. She loves sheep! Click here to rate this illustration.

Yay! Kathy Weller over at Wellerwishes just awarded me the ‘You Make My Day‘ award and I couldn’t be more flattered! Thanks Kathy - you’ve just made MY day… corny but true! :o)

So to continue the trend, here are the details:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make my Day Award” logo
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

I follow so many wonderful blogs that it was hard to choose only 5 recipients! I pass on this wonderful award to the following uber-talented, inspiring illustrators that always make my day:

Jannie Ho | Paige Keiser | Kathleen Rietz | Penelope Dullagnan | Anette Heiberg

I’m so happy to announce that my online store is now officially open for business! I am currently selling 7 prints through ImageKind. I decided to sell through ImageKind because each print is printed with archival inks on archival paper. These prints will last upwards of 100 years. It’s important to me that each print is of top quality and this seemed like the best way to do it! ImageKind also takes great care in their shipping and will send you a new print for free if any damage occurs during transit. They also offer framing and matting which you can preview right on the site. I have set up my prints with the frame and mat that I recommend but you can also choose your own in order to compliment your personal home decor. If you don’t want the frame, you can buy the print on its own. There are a variety of sizes and paper types to choose from. All the necessary details are linked from my store.

I am SOOO excited to finally have some of my prints available for sale! My next task is greeting cards. I am sourcing a printer and high quality paper right now and will keep you posted when my cards will be available. Stay tuned!

I just recently discovered the work of Il Sung Na and fell absolutely in love with it! Il Sung Na is a Korean children’s illustrator. With intricate detailing, beautiful but subdued use of colour, and charming characters, this illustrator has become a true inspiration! Na is a mixed media artist who has recently illustrated the book ‘ZZzzz’ A Book of Sleep.

Click here to view more samples of their work.

I’m excited to announce that you can now purchase the rubber stamp collection I designed for Sugar Nellie at Funky Kits! These cute designs are hot out of the oven and waiting for a good home :) I can’t wait to see what all the stampers out there will create! Feel free to send me a photo of your creation and I’ll post it on my blog.

Lucy and Puff enjoy listening to grandma read many ‘tales and legends’ before bed. Click here to rate this illustration!

Karen from Sugar Nellie approached me a couple weeks ago to create some illustrations for her rubber stamp collection. Sugar Nellie is a UK based rubber stamp company. These stamps are often used in card making but can also be used for scrap booking or other paper crafts.

There are some incredible card-makers out there, making absolutely beautiful cards with these stamps! I met a couple of wonderful artists while working on this project - check out their blogs to see some of their lovely work: Erica at Scrapalicious and Claudia at Pretty Pressings (both these ladies have also kindly asked to use one of my illustrations in their banner!)

The challenge in creating these stamps was to take my sketchy style and convert it to solid black and white lines. I made a few attempts in Photoshop but ended up having to bring my illustrations into Illustrator in order to get the type of line quality needed to make rubber stamps. I was worried about losing my style in Illustrator, as it’s vector based and doesn’t give the same light/sketchy feel that can be achieved in Photoshop. I played around with different lines and techniques and ended up with a vector version of my style that I’m really happy with!

The collection of 9 stamps is based on my characters, ‘Simon and Lola’. There are also a couple animal friends in the collection - I love illustrating animals and couldn’t leave them out! The collection should be available in a couple weeks at Funky Kits. I’ve included a sneak peak of three of the stamps (they must be watermarked rather intensely in order to prevent people from simply printing them out for their cards… tisk tisk)!

I’m so excited about this collection and hope the stampers out there love it as much as I do :)

Teddy is feeling a little plain next to his girlfriend! Click here to rate this illustration.

I have tons of spot illustrations in my portfolio but definitely lack full page spreads. I want to incorporate more spreads in my portfolio in order to demonstrate my ability to work an illustration into a layout with text. I had a bit of fun in Photoshop and tried to make it look a bit like a real book :) Let me know what you think!

Click here to rate this illustration!

Sophie Griotto is an incredible artist from France. I have always admired and been inspired by her work. She’s a fashion illustrator who has an incredibly unique and beautiful style. She works digitally, as well as with natural materials. With light washes of colour, intricate line work/detailing, and beautiful silhouettes, Sophie is one of my favorite current artists. I hope you are as inspired by her as I am! Take a look at Sophie Griotto’s website for more samples of her work.