14th Orange Open Juried Exhibition

This last week one of my drawings has been showing at the 14th Orange open Juried Exhibition at the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University. Unfortunately, due to my busyness and forgetfulness, I missed the opening award ceremony! So I went to see the show today, so I could at least see and enjoy the other art that had been selected. To my pleasant surprise, I discovered I had won 1st Place in the Drawing/Illustration category!! I apologize for not announcing this show very well, and I wish I had been to the opening, so I could invite people to go! Next time I wont be so forgetful! If you have time and want to go see the show, it will remain open until August 21st. Just a few more days!

Anniversary Graphite Drawing

I was recently commissioned to do a drawing based on a photo of two of my friends, who are dating, for their one year anniversary. It was good practicing drawing more realistically for a change.

SCBWI Conference!

As many of you already know, last weekend I went to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Summer Conference. Oh my goodness!...I'm still recovering and processing everything I learned!! It was my first time going and I can't wait until next year!

Some highlights and lessons learned from the Conference:

1. Meeting Loren Long!! He is one of my favorite illustrators and a big influence on my art and inspiration to me. I bought his illustrated version of The Little Engine That Could and he signed it for me! He was also a Keynote Speaker and I also went to one of his break-out sessions. It was great seeing part of his process.(Loren Long and some of the OC Illustrators)

2. Spending time with the OC Illustrators ladies! I was so glad to spend some time with them and get to know them better. We spent a lot of time stalking people we wanted to meet and then not knowing what to say to them. It was great. (Some of the OC Illustrators!)

3. Hearing many, many times: Don't follow trends, follow your heart. Draw what YOU love to draw, because that comes from deep in your heart, and when it comes from deep inside of you, it will be genuine and real, and that's when you will make your best work.

4. Learned some tips on writing, which I am not as interested in pursuing at the moment, but eventually I would like to have a book published that I wrote AND illustrated. Rhythm and prose is important in picture books, pay attention to page turns and payoffs, and don't tell the story with text, tell it with image, and let the text "complete" the narrative.

5. For portfolios include sequential pieces, classic tales in your own style, show your strengths and range of ability, and make sure your weakest image is still strong because your portfolio is only as good as your weakest image.

Of course there is SO much more, but those were the biggest things for me. Now I have a lot of work to do, a whole list of books to look up, following up on contacts that I made, submit my work to publishers and agents, and start on some new art pieces to make my portfolio better and more refined. There's LOTS to do before next years Conference, so I'd better get to work!!

...But first, a few more pictures!

(E.B. Lewis in the middle and Ashley Bryan on the far left. Some awesome illustrators/writers)(Arthur Levine at the Heart and Soul party on Saturday night, so fun!)

Until next year....

Interview

Mark Boliek, Author of "The Mahogany Door" interviewed me the other day about my work on the book. (My first interview!) Check it out on his facebook page.

Final Drawings for "The Mahogany Door"

It's been a busy month, but all of the spot Illustrations are FINALLY done for "The Mahogany Door"! PHEW! Here are a few that you can look forward to seeing in the book when it comes out. See my earlier post to see them in the sketch stage. Now I can move on to the cover, which will be done in full color. After that the printing process will begin and fingers are crossed for it to be ready for release by October! Stay updated on the progress of the whole project on the Author's Facebok Page. You can also see a few more of my finished drawings on his page!

Side Projects

As you probably know, I have had my hands full illustrating a children's chapter book for the past few months. Well I'm happy to say it's coming to the end and this fall the book will be released! I am finishing up the spot illustrations and still need to do the cover illustration. It'll probably be about another month and then I'm done!

With much thankfulness, I've had some small jobs during this time. Some easier than others, and some more fun than others. But all good growing opportunities! One project (just finished today!) was a T-Shirt design for a men's Fellowship. I got to make a graphic illustration of a big truck as vector art. I haven't done vector art in a long time, so I was happy to refresh myself with it! The final design for the back side of the shirt is above.

I've also been working on a logo design for a woman who runs her own Photography business (still in progress). And recently, I was asked to be a part of a rather large project to design signage for school cafeterias around the nation. This job is still being worked out, but I'm really excited about it! More on that later.... ;)

Drug and Violence Free

I was looking through some of my old drawings from High School and found this drawing I did Junior Year. I won second place in a drug and violence prevention contest in Orange County. One of the first awards I ever won!

This drawing makes me laugh...Thank goodness for college art classes!