In a few hours I am leaving for a trip down to New York for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators annual conference, but before heading out the door I wanted to squeeze in a quick blog entry to share some recent work. Here are two illustrations I created for the current (January 2012) issue of “The Little Lutheran” and “The Little Christian” magazines. The assignment was to illustrate an article about Dan West, the founder of Heifer International, which, in my opinion, is one of the best charity organizations that exists today. Learning more about Dan’s life was such a treat; he was an inspiring and compassionate man, and his life’s work has made a profound and lasting positive impact on many of the poorest parts of the world.
The next time you’re feeling charitable, head on over to the Heifer website and give someone the gift of a goat, or some bees, or a flock of geese! There’s a whole menagerie to choose from. Many thanks to my art director Amber for such a wonderful assignment.
New work, new work! Well, actually: these are illustrations that I did over the holidays back in December, but they are newly published in the March 2011 issue of The Little Lutheran and The Little Christian magazines.
It’s always a joy to see an assignment for this magazine show up in my inbox, and I love the chance to blend fun and colorful images with historical costuming – it makes for some really great research. Many thanks again to the wonderful art director at the L.L./L.C. for this assignment!
Spring is approaching! Here in San Francisco I may not be burdened by the snow that the rest of the country has received this winter, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t spend the tail-end of winter longing for the color and life that spring brings. This past year was especially rough in terms of weather: we had winter instead of summer, two weeks of summer in the fall, and now winter again in the winter. It’s pretty weird here. In any case, in an effort to bring some spring color into my studio, I looked back into my sketchbook this winter and brought one of my previous sketches to life as a painting.
Amy is the second painting that I have made of the girls from Little Women. Jo was the first, and not long after finishing her I started working out the subject and composition for a painting of my favorite of the March girls: Amy.
She is the delicate, feminine counterpart to her sister Jo. Of the four March sisters these two are both the most passionate artists, but their personalities are on opposite ends of the spectrum, especially in the beginning of Alcott’s novel. In contrast to Jo’s tomboy nature is Amy, who is very much a proper Lady (with a capital L!). As a child Miss Amy dreams of romance and a glamorous life full of all things beautiful, but she’s also not afraid to set her own beauty aside and get a little dirty for her art. The character is based on Louisa May Alcott’s youngest sister May, who did the illustrations for the first publication of Little Women. She studied painting at home and in Europe, and even had one of her works accepted into the Salon in Paris.
I can relate to many aspects of both characters, but Amy, being a painter and the youngest of the sisters, always struck a special chord with me. Her personality reflects the spring, a time when romance and creation abound, and she helped to bring some bright springtime color into my studio over the past few weeks.
Well, the Holidays sure were a wild time this year! I found myself working on many things all at once, from painting to a tight deadline, to doing some digital work for a client, to knitting gifts for my family. Everything got done in time… except for the knitting, but fortunately my dad and my boyfriend are very understanding in the face of work-related deadlines.
Here are a few pieces from earlier this year that I haven’t yet had the chance to share here. They were for a sweet magazine called The Little Lutheran/ The Little Christian, who I have mentioned in a previous post here. This was actually the first job I did for them after they initially contacted me all the way back in January of 2010. Both of these illustrations were published in their September issue, and the first one of them made it to the cover!
The story is a well known one from the Bible: when Jesus turns water into wine. Here it is told from a little girl’s perspective; she happens to be a guest at the wedding where the story takes place.
It was such a pleasure to work for The Little Lutheran – not only that first time, but in the assignments they have given me since then. Some of the work I was doing over the holidays will be published in a future issue of theirs, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you in the coming months!
Happy Holidays to you all! I’m posting this a little after my whirl-wind busy Christmas (more on that in future posts), so it’s just a bit late for that particular holiday. However, seeing as it is not yet New Year’s, I feel that it is still the holiday season and I can still wish you all well.
I want to say a great big thank you to everyone who I have worked with over the past year. You have helped to make this my best year yet, and I am so grateful for your direction and support, both artistic and personal. I truly hope that we can work together again in the coming year, and that 2011 is a wonderful year for all of you. I know I’ve got a good feeling about it. Enjoy tomorrow night’s celebrations!
