Illustrations for feature article in Cleveland Magazine

I recently had a super fun opportunity to illustrate a feature article for Cleveland Magazine. The April issue highlights the favorite hangouts of 5 local Cleveland celebrities. Everything from the hottest nightclubs, to the trendiest shops, to the city's best eats are included in "The City List". So it was also a unique opportunity for me to get the inside scoop on this cool town!

The art director, Kristen Miller, was really great to work with and had a very cool vision for the format. They photoshot each celebrity, and I created "mind maps" of all the attractions mentioned in the article. These "mind maps" were made up of icons representing the attractions and hand-lettered quotes offering up fun tidbits about what these celebrities love most about their city. So, I got to really dive into researching—which is always a part of the process I love—and was able to use a combination of drawing, lettering, and design to make these images work together, while also integrating with the photographs, to create an informative visual for the article. 

I had a lot of creative freedom with this, which always makes a project extra fun. And with 5 full-page spreads to fill, I got to draw so many different, cool things! Plus, really feel like I got to know Cleveland on a personal level—now I might just have to plan a visit! :)

You can also check out the full article & spreads in the online magazine.

Yay 2011!

Happy New Year to all!
I'm a little late catching up with my blogging—2011 has already been off to a very fast-paced, busy start!

I'm full of inspiration and exciting new ideas for this year including some plans to begin to sell some products and prints featuring my art, as well as branch out to some new markets with both my design and illustration work. But—first project in the works: relaunching my website with a brand-new look! Keep an eye out for that soon.

In the meantime, I've been working with some new publishing clients on some book cover projects. I can't share those for awhile, but it's been great to start the year with some new relationships.

I also finished up my sketchbook for the Arthouse Co-op's The Sketchbook Project. The touring national exhibit begins next month at The Brooklyn Art Library in Williamsburg, with a reception on February 19th. From there, the sketchbook collection will exhibit in 9 different US cities through July of this year, including stops in Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and more! Over 28,000 artist participated in this project so definitely keep an eye out for the exhibit in a city near you! (Schedule is on the Arthouse Co-op website)

Here are a few of my last pages from "Great hopes and Massive Failures" (a.k.a. a visual diary of my years as a single woman in New York City's sometimes vicious, sometimes hilarious, dating scene!)  I had a blast with this project, and even found myself inspired to keep some other ongoing theme-based sketchbooks...which I'll share some of soon!

Happy Holidays!

I'm very excited that I had the opportunity to illustrate and design Puffin Books' holiday card. It was a fun little piece that also allowed for some hand-lettering, and will be sent to many of the talent artists and authors who work with Penguin.

I'm off for an amazing holiday adventure to Colorado and Hawaii--so sure to have lots of inspiration to start off a new, productive year! In the meantime,   

Happy holidays to everyone, and all the best for a happy and healthy 2011!

More Sketchbook Project

Just sharing more of my progress with the Sketchbook Project.

My theme is "Great Hopes and Massive Failures" and this title is, for me, an opportunity to tell some of the funny (well, mostly funny!) stories from my past life in the NYC singles/dating world.
I'm really enjoying just getting to experiment a bit with composition & design—and lots of hand-lettering—to tell the stories and represent these characters from my life in interesting ways.

Sketchbook

Just sharing a few of my pages from the Sketchbook Project....

New piece

Today was one of the first Saturdays in a very long time that I haven't been bogged down with a looming deadline for a project or some kind of social obligation; It was also a beautiful, breezy day with a twinge of fall in the air--so was a perfect day to spend some time on personal work!

I revisited a sketch I did awhile back, that has since been pinned above my desk staring me in the face, practically begging for me to pay it some attention again. So I went to work on it--and made a little finished piece of it. This is one in a series of drawings I'd like to use to refine some digital techniques, and expand my body of work geared toward middle-grade/tween product and/or book & editorial markets. I've gotten positive response to recent illustration work in this vein--and this is also the market I've become most familiar with over the 6+ years I've spent designing young adult book covers. I had a ton of fun working on this--and really want to continue to refine this work process and style.

Great Hopes and Massive Failures

A few weeks ago, I posted about The Sketchbook Project—a nationwide art project and traveling exhibit that I am participating in, organized by Art House Gallery. I've been having a blast starting to fill up pages in my sketchbook, and will periodically post some of my progress with it as I continue over the next few months (The deadline to submit the finished book is January 15th).

Each participant was to choose one of the provided themes to base the sketchbook on. (Though these are just to be used as a starting point and completely open to interpretation.) I chose the theme “Great Hopes and Massive Failures”.

Like many single women, especially in New York City, I've racked up countless stories of bad dates over the years. And, I would guess I'm not the first of these women to hear friends repeatedly say (after living vicariously through my tales of single-dom) that all these stories would make for a great book. I don’t, however, consider myself much of a writer—so instead decided to use this opportunity to create a visual diary of some of these stories. After all, what greater hope is there than the exciting possibilities of what might come from meeting someone new? And how much more massive failure can you feel when those hopes are smashed...like, by the realization that the guy who just showed up for your first date with a half-drunken 12-pack of beer is a total loser!?

Of course, this diary isn’t meant at all to be a venue for some man-bashing rant. It’s simply meant to be complete fun for me, and just to make light of some of the ridiculous dating experiences I've had in the past. Taking a personal approach to interpreting this theme allows perfect ground for me to freely experiment with visual ways to tell a story. I really want to push myself conceptually, using metaphors and composition to create a narrative in new ways. Also—the nature of this kind of story-telling allows alot of opportunity to incorporate hand-lettering which I am always interested in exploring more of too. And the sketchbook format creates a chance to experiment with medium without the need for executing finished, polished pieces.

I'm sharing here my title/first page—I had alot of fun with this, looking to old circus-y/sideshow poster type for inspiration and weaving in hints of gold leaf accents. I'll share alot more as I continue sketching!

The Saucy Dipper!

I'm just wrapping up a really fun project--I created some illustration and lettering for a blog header. The client is a writer, and is beginning a foodie blog all about sauces and dips. Sounds like it's going to be super cool--with lots of great recipes and funny tidbits too. Plus with a tagline that reads "everything tastes better with sauce...and bacon" how could I resist?--I totally agree! The blog hasn't launched yet, but look for it soon!




In working on this project I've realized it's a bit shameful that my blog isn't better designed! I'm on it.....

Way behind on updates!

To say I'm a little behind on updating is a huge understatement--it's been a busy few months--and have had some great projects in the works...just not much time for the updating part of it!

I was involved again with the Artful Agenda project--and created lettering for the 2011 planners and Diaries. They are now on sale in the Designer's etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/anArtfulAgenda

I submitted just a few black and white illustrations this time for some calendar page spreads. I used the sketches I created for a couple of my recent 6x6 pieces and inked them. I really like how they look as small black and white line drawings, so I may revisit these and explore other ways to use them:

More music art

I've just finished the 2nd part of the promotional package for Michaela Anne--this design will be used for her show posters as well as her promo postcards. She wanted to have a large space at the bottom that can she write in info for each of her shows. I altered the girl a bit from the web banner I'd previously done for her--she ended up wanting to add the shot gun and whiskey bottle because she has a sultry sound, and she didn't want to be represented with too "sweet" of an image. I had tons of fun doing this--I've also included a detail here of the illustration of the girl. I loved doing the handlettering and creating the textures and distressing on this to give it that "old-timey" feel.






Michaela will also use some of these elements on her upcoming website--and once her album is recorded, I'll be working on the album art and design, which I can't wait for!

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/

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!

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.

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!

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.

Counting Sheep

Sketched some lettering and this little sheep about a year ago (when I was going through some stuff and feeling like a "little lost sheep" actually) Anyway, always kind of liked it, so finally dug it out of an old sketchbook, did a lino cut of the sheep & printed it on a textured board, scanned it all and have been playing with it, adding texture and color digitally. Here's 2 of them.
I'm realizing with just a couple elements I can make endless little pieces of art and have hours of fun!! So, I think I'll continue with this....maybe make a new sheep every day! (or at least week!) I'm interested also in starting to explore some new venues for my artwork. Maybe packaging/products/licensing, etc. Also playing with the idea of opening an etsy.com shop where I could sell handmade books and notecards, etc.--so I feel like this type of project can be a good segway into that realm....