New samples today from #Highlights! These hidden pictures assignments really satisfy my sneaky side. See the flashlight? 😏 #yellowpencilstudio #illosforkiddos #childrensillustration #hiddenpictures

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Celebrating the 😎solar eclipse today with a piece I illustrated about how the sun reflects off the moon to make the different phases we see on earth. In this month's issue of Click Magazine! #illosforkiddos #yellowpencilstudio #cricketmagazine #childrensillustration

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Goodies just came! I love getting samples and seeing how the things I draw in turn out in real life. ;) #illosforkiddos #highlights #yellowpencilstudio

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New Website!

After many months of work between assignments, I've updated my website portfolio with tons of new samples, as well as a new "For Kids Only!" section. I've made a bunch of fun printables for kiddos, including puzzles, games and more. Check it out here! :)

Swimming in Noodles!

The printed copies of Jim Cosgrove's new album have arrived! Illustration and design by yours truly again. It was a lot of fun (and more time-consuming than you'd think) to draw all those noodles! I'm very pleased with the final result.

The music is, of course, terrific, and Jim's already won an award for it.



He's having a release party at the Plaza Library tonight in Kansas City (4801 Main Street) if any of you northeast Kansas/western Missouri folks can make it. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. The album will be available beginning October 5th, here.

Drawing For a Cause

Recently, I was invited by my friend and fellow KU alum, Brad Sneed, to join Project OpenBook. Together with Phil Haussler, they make MarbleSpark. They are spearheading this collaborative effort which, in the end, will become a children's book of poems and drawings from which the proceeds will benefit Room to Read. Artists and poets of all ages and from all walks of life are invited to participate. If you would like to learn how you, too, can participate, just head on over to the Project OpenBook blog.

The ultimate goal is to raise $2,500 to free a young girl in Nepal from indentured service and pay for her education through secondary school. With a $2,500 contribution, Room to Read will intervene in a case where a young girl has been sold into indentured labor. The money will return the girl to her family and fund her education through secondary school. More information is available here.

A wiki network has been set up where the illustrators and poets can work back and forth on each piece, and constructive criticism is encouraged amongst the participants. Poems are posted by the authors and are up for grabs by illustrators, and as soon as I read Phil's delightful poem below, I called dibs on it:

I Built My Bug a Rocket Ship
by Phil Haussler

I built my bug a rocket ship
To fly him to the moon.
My little insect astronaut
Will be launching very soon.

The rocket is a loaf of bread
With a waffle cone on top.
Four fins made out of melba toast…
Held tight with syrup glops.

Ten, nine, eight, seven…
Get ready for your trip!
…six, five, four, three…
Oh no! My dog just ate the ship!



If you click on the illustration, you can see a larger version, including the bug's spacesuit nametag, which reads, "LIEUTEN-ANT." Get it? :)

You're invited to vote here on which poems and drawings make it into the final book. I hope you'll consider joining the project as well! I will leave you with a link to a video about "The Girl Effect" which describes exactly what Project OpenBook hopes to achieve.

715

A friend of ours recently started a new restaurant here in Lawrence, called 715, named after the address of the historic building in which it resides. The place is booming, but I'm not surprised. Matt and Michael are master restaurateurs, and their creation is wonderful.

Matt just happens to live down the block from me, and our children are schoolmates. He asked if I would create an image for 715 to be used on merch like t-shirts and aprons that focused on a pig, since pork is one of the main ingredients in the delicious Italian-style food at 715. Matt's idea of a pig escaping from Chef Michael on a Vespa was a delight to draw. He wanted the feel of an old poster, but the fun of a children's style illustration. It also had to be made using only flat spot colors, since the products are all silkscreened. The above was the result.

If you're in northeast Kansas, you should make a point to check out the restaurant, which is in historic downtown Lawrence, on Massachusetts Street. Here's a link to their website to get your tastebuds in a frenzy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year, when red foil hearts, pinks of every shade, and frilly white doilies are everywhere. I hope your day has been lovely, and that you got to spend it with your true love.

{This was a Valentine puzzle illustration for Clubhouse Jr.'s February issue.}

Never Fear!

I haven't forgotten about you, my poor blog! It's just been a crazy summer, and I haven't had a chance to post until now. What with a number of educational illo assignments, many happenings over at my Petite Press site, and a now second-grader (gulp!) to care for, it was just a little too much for me to handle. But I'm back into my regular routine (almost) and hope to post more regularly this fall. I do have a little bit of exciting news to share this week. The nice folks over at Children's Illustrators.com have kindly tagged me as their "Illustrator of the Week" with a link to my portfolio on their homepage. I'm tickled pink!

{The piece above was from a song book I worked on for Scholastic last year. This was for the tune, "Looby Loo."}

Fresh Air

Spring is almost here – yay! Time to start our veggie garden for the year, open the windows all day, and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. The big winter projects are past, and it's time for new ones. I've got my fingers in a few pies at the moment, including some new items up over here and on Poppytalk Handmade, and some sketches for a new book project. Here's to spring, and to fresh starts!

{This illustration was for an educational assignment from a while back.}

Peep

I'm still here. Just unbelievably swamped. I only have time to draw, sleep, hug my family, and eat something now and then. I'll be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Back to work...

Night Owl

I can't help it — I've always been a night owl. About 8 or 9 o'clock at night, my brain suddenly kicks into gear, and I'm at my most creative and productive after dark. I make up for the sleep in the mornings (when I can), and that's how I survive. It flummoxed my parents (both VERY early risers) while I was growing up, and my daughter also seems to be of the bright-and-early persuasion. My husband is also a nocturnal person, though, so somewhere in those genes, I guess two earlies make a late, and vice versa. He and I stay up until the wee hours like shoemaker elves, working away, and have to remind ourselves go to sleep in order to be halfway cognisant when our child wakes up.

Anyway, tonight my husband pointed out this article to me in this month's Wired Magazine, which validates my habits, and those of many of my creative friends. It was nice to learn that my sleep tendencies might just be beneficial.

{And another thing about genetics — apparently, two quiet people also make a much louder one. :) }

Snowed Under

Yix! It's been quite awhile since I've posted here, but I've been snowed under with work, and I'm still digging myself out. I'm fortunate to be working on lots of illustration work for textbooks and the like at the moment. I'm looking forward to a little break over the holidays to allow my brain to recharge.

{this piece was from last winter, for a Spanish vocabulary textbook — it seemed fitting for not only the season, but my whole life right now!}

Pssst...

New stuff over here...

After another heavy workload for the last couple of months, I'm back to whipping up some holiday cheer before the season hits full force. My break is short, but I hope to add a number of new things to the Petite Press shop before I'm back to illustration work. We'll see how much I can get done... :)

It's a bird... it's a plane... it's Vita-Kid!

I've been asked by fellow Lawrence illustrator and friend Barry Fitzgerald to submit a piece of "food-themed" art for a show at Blue Plate Dinners (yum). So I whipped up a little piece which I'm calling Vita-Kid. (Super food for super kids.) The fun element about this show (besides all the fantastic artists who are participating) is that we've all been asked to create art that will fit inside a gallon-size zipper-top plastic bag. I can't wait to see how they will all be displayed in the store.

This piece also has a little bit to do with the efforts some fellow moms and I put forth during the last school year, campaigning for better school meals for kids in our district. I truly believe that our children will be healthier, fare better in school, and in turn, life, if they are fed better food.

P.S. Posts will continue to be slim for a while, as work is crazy here right now. I'll try to check in now and then, though.

P.P.S. The birthday party mentioned in my last post? Tons of fun. And the rainbow unicorn now has a just-as-colorful reclining fairy for a shelf-mate. :)

Time to Make the Cupcakes

A little person I know will be having another birthday soon. She has chosen to paint-her-own who-knows-what at Sunfire Ceramics for the celebration. I wonder if we'll be bringing home another ceramic unicorn figurine to be friends with the one she made last time?

Do Not Leave Unattended

This weekend, I had the privilege of participating in the Do Not Leave Unattended collaborative journal project. A series of journals are making their way around the world, being filled with writings, artwork and photographs from all sorts of people. It was so fun to peruse what the other people had done in the pages before me (Yasmine and Aimee). Here was my entry (click to enlarge):

It's off to Heather next, and then Amanda. I can't wait to see what they do!

I ♥ Being Busy

I'm a list person. It's how I keep track of every aspect of my life. (I should really start a list to keep track of all my lists.) A few of the things on my "to do" list this week:

• Final illustrations for a children's publishing client in the UK
• Finish printing letterpress stationery for a friend in Kansas City
• Help E learn her spelling words for Friday's test
• Sketches for a children's publishing client in California
• Entry for the "Do Not Leave Unattended" journal project

What do I like most about lists? Making check marks. :)

Logo Project

One of the projects I worked on lately is a new logo for my rep, Maggie. I sketched out six ideas, and from those, she chose the one that she felt would represent her diverse group of children's illustrators the best. This is the final version.

Talented Neighbors

I am fortunate to live in a neighborhood full of very talented people. There are painters, designers, illustrators, musicians, writers, craftsmen — this place just oozes creativity. One of them is Deb Stavin, a wonderful designer and photographer, who just received news that eight of her recent photographs have been awarded honorable mentions in this year’s International Photo Awards competition. She has traveled to Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Vietnam, Ghana, Guatemala, and India, getting to know the intriguing people of those places and capturing them and their environment in compelling photographs. Here is one of the award-winners (a tea shop in Varanasi, India):

So, congratulations, Deb! I can't wait to see where you go next.