Mardi Gras Inspired art for 6x6

Wanted to share some new sketches I'm working on for a submission to Six by Six Gallery's February show. Being so inspired by the rich culture of New Orleans, I've had this theme in my head for quite awhile, and now with Mardi Gras right around the corner and Six by Six Gallery still taking submissions for their monthly shows, it just seemed like the perfect time to dive into this subject matter.

I love Mardi Gras masks and all kinds of costuming-making in general, so got interested in creating a representation of each of the four seasons with a girl in a mask; these are sketches for Summer and Winter. Would love to get to Spring and Fall to submit all 4 to the show as a series, but juggling a few assignments right now so will see how far I get before the Jan 15th deadline....

Final products

I've recently gotten a glimpse a few of the projects I've worked on this year in their final context.

Made's blog is up, using the fruit art I created as part of their developing identity:

http://madedrinks.com/our-drinks/

Can't wait to see some of the product display using the art!

The "Changing Body" covers I did for Fairview Press are up on Amazon-was happy to see how the design came out



And Scones and Sensibility is now on the shelves in your local Bookstore! :)

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Scones-and-Sensibility/Lindsay-Eland/e/9781606840252/?itm=1&usri=scones+and+sensibility

Music inspired art

This new piece was inspired by my recent trip to Nashville, Tennesee, and all the great music I heard in the honky-tonk bars down there. Specifically, an up-and-coming band called Jypsi (check them out here: http://www.jypsi.net/)

This band was just so fascinating to watch--it's a group of 4 young and extremely talented siblings who play traditional-style bluegrass and country music. But, they have this kind of funky-retro-high fashion look that creates this amazing juxtaposition in these small, dingy honky tonk bars of lower Broadway. They are like these wild and free spirits with the soul of old-timey country, and I kind of feel like they represented what I loved most about Nashville--that though it's best known for being a center of country music, it's more an intersection of so many types of Americana roots music that spans through history and is still very much alive and still effecting contemporary music today.

I'm also really interested in music in general--so really was inspired and had alot of fun creating this piece. I'm very interested in exploring more subjects related to the music I love. Was super excited to see "Music" happened to be Illustration Friday's theme this week, too!

I'm submitting this piece to Six By Six Gallery for their December show. The exhibit opens Friday December 4 at 531 East 13th Street (btwn Ave. A and B) in the East Village. http://www.6x6gallery.com/

new in-progress

Working on a new painting to submit to Six by Six gallery's next show. I love working in this small square format, and this one is inspired by my recent trip to Nashville. Here's the sketch...

Some new inspiration

I don't typically post a lot of personal things on this blog, but it's been a wildly inspiring and creative month, so I wanted to share a few things that have gotten my creativity bursting at the seams....

Earlier this month I took a trip to Nashville Tennessee, which was just amazing! The entire city is filled with live music--day and night, and there's a lot of history everywhere about Americana/roots music (which I am a huge fan of). There's lots of really cool memorabilia, in both museums and all the honky tonk bars--from all the greats, like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline.....some really amazing stuff! Here's a few pics of some of the things I found really visually inspiring!



In addition, Nashville is home to Hatch Show Print--one of the oldest and most well-known letterpress shops still operating today. They had a big part in creating the woodblock-type look popular for concert posters, and most concert posters in Nashville are still done by them and can be seen hanging all over town. I have always been a huge fan of their designs and fascinated with letterpress & woodblock printing, so it was especially cool to stop in the shop and see them at work (and pick up several posters of course!) Here's a link to there site, and some of my favorite posters of theirs:

http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/experience-hatch.aspx



The other very exciting and inspiring event this month was, of course, Halloween! It's by far my favorite holiday, mostly because it gets me super creatively charged. I absolutely love making a unique costume each year and always challenge myself....this year was a creepy wood-nymph/fairy with light up wings! tons of fun making this and I was pretty happy with how it turned out!



Also, my office goes all out at Halloween time too, so I get to lend a hand in transforming our office into something spooky and spectacular in addition to my own costume. Here's some photos of how we changed our work space into "Dracula's Dinner Party". we even ended up winning 2nd place! I wish work could look like this all the time!




So, you can see I always put a ton of work into Halloween, but it's all more than worth it!

I've got some exciting projects around the bend, so October has been a fantastic and timely source of inspiration! (also, insanely BUSY!!)
More details to come on those projects-in-the-works soon!

Book cover jobs

I just wrapped up an exciting job for a new client--I got the opportunity to illustrate 3 book covers for Fairview Press. The books are guides for kids going through puberty and their parents--one for boys, one for girls, and also a dictionary of terms. This was a really fun project geared toward the exact audience I've become more interested in targeting, and the art director was just great to work with. Here's how the art turned out:



Can't wait to see them working with the design/type!

Dia de los Muertos

I'm very excited to be entering a piece in an upcoming group exhibition!

There's a new gallery opening in the East Village (opened by the gallery owners of Charmingwall, a GREAT little gallery in the West Village that specializes in showing & selling illustrative fine artists' limited-edition prints)

This new gallery is called Six by Six, and the concept behind the whole gallery is to show small pieces of original art....any theme, any medium--the only guideline is for each piece to be created on a 6"x 6" canvas.

So, I got super excited about this as an outlet for a new personal piece.
I've recently come across some really amazing artist's websites who have explored the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (or "Day of the Dead"), portraying female figures in the traditional makeup and costume of the cultural celebration. I had done a Day of the Dead piece in college, as I've always been interested in the theme, but decided I wanted to revisit it and explore, in my own way, a more feminine and beautiful perspective.

This is the piece I am entering--I had SO much fun creating this!


The show opening will be on Friday, October 2nd from 6-8pm at Six by Six Gallery, 531 E. 13th Street
www.6x6gallery.com

Please come by and check it out if you can!

new sketches

Here's a peek at something new I'm working on. I'm creating a series of drawings, honing in on refining my style to fit markets with a middle-grade girl audience (like book covers!) I was inspired by the Artful Agenda drawings I did earlier this year, and just love creating little pieces like this! I plan to continue to develop these, and more like them, to apply to sellable products (notecards, greeting cards, small prints, etc.) and open up an etsy shop later on this year. These are the first few sketches I've been working on, and will be finished in full color.

New portrait

Just finished another commissioned wedding portrait--this one included the couple's baby, which was a fun challenge for me.

Artful Agenda on sale!

The Artful Agenda planners, calendars and diaries are now available on the designer's Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7221924

These are the black and white lettering projects that I had the very cool experience of working on with designer Stephanie Macdonald and a group of really wonderful contributing artists. Please stop by and check them out--and tell your friends! :)
Thanks!

Web site update!

Just added some new work to my website (finally!)

www.jeaninehenderson.com

Stop by if you have a chance--thanks!

new work

I'm going to be in the "Artist spotlight" on Altpick.com next week, and decided to use this as an opp to make some new work. This was a black and white drawing I had done for the Artful Agenda calendar--I added color traditionally and scanned in some textures that I lino-printed to create this. I'd like to continue to make work in this vein. I recently had a conversation with a co-designer who is very strong in working with illustrators on middle-grade book covers; she suggested I try to market myself a little more clearly to clients serving a middle-grade girl audience, as my style and subject matter lend to this and there is actually a good need for it in the industry (at least in books...) I am pretty excited about the idea!

If youd like to read my interview on Altpick, it will be on www.altpick.com from June 7-10.

New book cover

Just finished a YA book cover assignment for Egmont Publishing. This has to be my favorite job I have done so far--mostly becasue it's my dream: I created the concept, design, illustration and hand-lettering! Plus, I got to also design the interior, which allowed for some line art also. I really had so much creative freedom with developing the package as a whole, and I even got to do some marketing materials for it. (Plus, it's a super-cute story!) This will be published in December of this year.

more fruits!

I had a couple more pieces assigned from the advertising agency I did work for last month:




These have been really fun, and have made a nice little body of work. My fingers are crossed they may have packaging or other promotional needs down the line for this product!

Inspiration is oozing!

I just got back from my 2nd trip to New Orleans for Jazzfest--was hard to believe I could fall even more in love with that city than I did last year on my first visit-but it's true! I have never been to a more inspiring place! (though living in NYC is inspirational everyday...) The music is the best I've ever heard, the food is the best I've ever eaten, the colors the most vivid I've ever seen, and the culture-is just completely unique! My friend and I took about 400 photos over 5 days-and I have come back feeling so inspired to create! Here's a few pics that captured some of the arts and culture I found most vividly stimulating. My brain is swarming with new ideas for some personal work...so stay tuned for new projects!

Many updates!

There are so many new things to update! It's been hard to keep up...Freelance design & illustration jobs have been rolling non-stop (hooray!) but I'm learning what a hectic juggle that is with a full-time gig. (and how little time it leaves for blogging and promotion...and sleep!) But I have been working on a lot of really fun stuff, and plan to update my website soon with lots of new things.

I've wrapped up the Artful Agenda project--this was such a great opportunity to explore hand-lettering styles pretty extensively, as I ended up doing the entire 2010 planner, including days, months, numbers, holidays, quotes, and text blocks of artist bios. I have already posted most of the artwork that will be included--here's a sampling of how some of the lettering and icons turned out:




I'll be continuing on with a few other Artful Agenda projects-including an address book, and really looking forward to it as this one has been so fun!

I'm currently working on designing and illustrating a YA novel cover for Egmont. It's still in the works so I wont be posting anything until it's approved, but they've also asked me to do the art & design for some promotional items for the book-I'm very excited to have a project where I get to sink my teeth into the entire package as a whole!

Just another day on the Jersey Shore.....

Here's the final painting of the monkey & pug--I'm pretty happy with how this came out--it's such a strange image, I had a really good time painting it! I haven't done animals in my work too often, so it was fun to tackle that in my style, and at the same time try to capture some human characteristics and capture some personality. Hopefully the friend who commissioned it will like it too!

sneak peek...

I have my commissioned painting of a monkey walking a pug well in the works (I posted this assignment awhile back). Wanted to post a few pics of it in progress...having alot of fun with it so far, and hope to finish it up soon!

Fruit in color

Wrapping up my ad assignment-really had fun getting into color with these images!

Advertising/product art

I'm working on a new illustration & lettering job for an advertising campaign. The product is an organic fruit drink--so the art includes some spots of funky, fun fruit and decorative lettering. It's super exciting, as this is a bit of a new market for me--and the subject matter is right up my alley! These are a few of the initial sketches, which went over well in general with the client. I have some slight revisions-and can't wait to do these in color!

New drawing

Another image I submitted for the calendar project-I always loved this quote, and the designer allows for quote-inspired images to face the calendar pages in the Artful Agenda.

More Artful Agenda art

Here's a few more of the illos I submitted to be included in the Artful Agenda calendar. I actually used this as an opportunity to revisit some old sketches, textures, and patterns I've created previously for past projects, or just for fun, and to challenge myself to combine or use them in a different way. I've been having a great time working on this project! The calendar will be available on the designer's Etsy shop late this year.

Artful Agenda Illustration

Here's the first of a few illustrations I am submitting for the Artful Agenda/calendar project. I'm hoping the designer will use this as a spread for a spring time week, and I included the weekdays lettered in the shape of raindrops. All the art is to be greyscale for this project--but I may revisit this girl later and add some color as a personal piece.

My digits...

title lettering

Lettering in progress

So, I am working on my calendar lettering-having alot of fun with this. Here's months of the year and a few of my days of the week styles so far. Interestingly, I am simultaneously designing a big book project at Penguin, creating a book about birthdays---there's a page for everyday of the year. So I guess my brain has been completely wrapped around dates and numbers these last few weeks! Here's hoping it might help me keep better track of time! ha!

Lettering project

At the start of the year, I bought a very cool little 2009 daily planner--An Artful Agenda -- that I found on Etsy. It's filled with all kinds of fun handlettering and small b&w spot illos. I inquired about it when purchasing from the designer--and now am going to be doing some lettering and art for the 2010 planner! Plus, some other work for future projects the designer has in the works. I'll post some of my sketches as they come along.

N'Awlins

This is a small personal piece I did, inspired by my first trip to New Orleans last year. I based this off a photo I took-I loved how iconic the beads hanging over the lamp post are!


Here's the photo: