A lot of work and a little fun

2012 has so far been a very busy year. My new venture into children's books started with a visit to NY for the SCBWI Winter Conference. It was a wonderful experience and the community of children's illustrators seemed very warm and receptive. And learning how much I didn't know is always a valuable lesson.
 I am just delighted to be working with my new agent, Chris Tugeau. She's sharp, enthusiastic and inspiring. I'm splitting my occasional free time between sample work for Chris and a book dummy for an amazing text by children's author, James Thach. More to come in later posts.
On the project front, there have been several adult book cover commissions and a few editorial jobs in the mix. I hustled to get several out the door before our trip south, and wound up hauling my large format scanner and my printer plus all my painting supplies to Florida. So the trip was a comfortable mix of work and play.

Below is a piece for Strategic Finance Magazine that was commissioned by one of my favorite art directors, Mary Zisk. It accompanied a story presenting a corporate survey on whistleblowing: what was seen, was it reported, who kept silent, and regret for acting or not acting.

Whistleblowing: to keep silent or not

The Milken Institute's story "Don't Kill the Lawyers. Deregulate them!" offered an opportunity for silliness. The art director, Joannah Ralston, her editor and I had a good time coming up with product labeling for off-the-shelf legal specialties.

Aisle 6, on the left

Of course there was the play time on Sugarloaf Key and the best fresh fish ever, thanks to our Yellowtail fisher-person experts Pat Jackson, Carol Sullivan and Ron Maier.

Cooking with Djami: Paella for ten

Yellowtail Snapper fish tacos

Back home for a week of catch-up then a quick trip to New Orleans to help with some family matters. Wise planning put us there just in time for the French Quarter Fest, an amazing local mix of fantastic music, unbelievable food and the best people watching ever.

On the way to Richard's fishing camp near Des Allemands, southwest of the city

Luck Dog, of Ignatius J. Reilly fame

One of the stages on Royal Street

Mardi Gras Indian – the real deal

She looks so much like the violinist on Treme!

Washboard man

Road trip

A stop in Savannah on the way to Florida was well worth it. We stayed in a beautiful B & B in the historic district. It was amazing to find out how much the Savannah College of Art and Design has influenced the culture in the area. The highlight of the visit was the SCAD Museum of Art. It's 26 million dollar expansion recently opened in October of 2011.

SCAD Illustration Department

Special exhibit of works by South African artist,  Jane Alexander, at the SCAD Museum of Art and Design

Izzy's breakfast

Izzy LOVES waffles in the morning. Every hole needs to be filled with syrup.
New sample in preparation for the SCBWI conference in New York.

Project for Strategic Finance

Worked with one of my favorite clients, Mary Zisk, to produce this piece for a story about the recent government crackdown on international corporate bribery.

New project for Penguin

Next in the successful Coffeehouse Mystery Series, "A Brew to Kill" features the exploding food cart/trailer business in NY. Shown here is the color rough and the gradual progression of oil washes to the final image.

SCBWI workshop with Matt Faulkner

Just got back from a great weekend on Mackinac Island for an intense workshop that served as my introduction to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. There were maybe 90 attendees at this Michigan chapter event, with a small percentage of those being illustrators. Matt Faulkner, children's book author and illustrator was our fearless leader. Matt did a very clear job of explaining the process of producing a series of images for a typical children's picture book PLUS he explained and demoed his method of warm/cool painting. Awesome weekend!
Below is the painting produced for the exercise, my first time using watercolor in 25 years!
The short story was about a little boy who's convinced his piano teacher is from another planet. She's just too NICE. He makes a case to his parents and the police; all the phenomena he observed were explained away and his theory was disproved. But in the end, we find out that Mrs. Bailey really IS an alien. In fact, she is in cahoots with the police chief, who is also an alien.

Last Hurrah

I'm savoring the memories of this past summer before heading into a major commission deadline crunch. These sketches are from a trip to the North Channel in August. Peaceful, relatively unspoiled and incredibly beautiful, the landscape is glacially carved and covered with pines, maples, birches and...wild blueberries! Lovely. Plus we passed right by a mother black bear and her two cubs, swimming across probably a 5-mile wide channel!

And then there was Bali

Beautiful, spiritual, incredibly crowded. The people of Bali were the highlight. There really must be something to the Hindu culture that dominates the country. 93% of Balinese people follow Hinduism. The downside is their population explosion and with it all the traffic plus the inadequate sanitation and sewage treatment. Construction everywhere.

Fire Dance, Uluwatu Temple

Nasty monkeys, Uluwatu Temple

Rice Farmer, Seminyak

507 steps down the gorge to the most beautiful white water rafting trip imaginable.

Small village on bike trip. The decorative hangings are call Penjors and celebrate the Balinese festival of Galungan, "when the Dharma is winning".

Mini musicians, Galungan Festival

Early morning, Bali

Oops.

Friend, Seminyak

Trip Continued..

Sunset, Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Grasshoppers (Katydids?)

Kata Tjuta

Sunrise on the perimeter, Uluru

Just savoring the summer. A few more pictures of the Australia/Bali trip.

Fooling around this summer, Take 2

From Sydney we flew to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. My idyllic image of diving there was shattered by cold temps, 25-30 knots of breeze and 6 foot waves. After an hour and a half trip to the outer reef aboard a large and comfortable dive boat with maybe 12 divers and 25 snorkelers, I would say a third were seasick (not us). The divers definitely had the better trip though. Dressed in double layer wetsuits, we were comfortable and the water below was calm. Highlights included giant clam shells that opened and closed for plankton, tons of fish, sharks, a very friendly sea turtle and a most unusual underwater landscape of coral, unlike anything we've seen in the Caribbean. A tour of the rainforest north of Port Douglas followed the next day. We had lunch at little place inside the rainforest with the best Baramundi (local fish) so far on the trip!

Divemasters gearing up with 6 foot seas

Rocking and rolling. See the pitch?

Cocodrile!

Kingfisher

Feed me!

Kangaroo with an attitude

Cassowary crossing

Fooling around this summer

Our son spent the past semester studying in Australia. In late June, my husband and I met him there, spent time in Sydney and Uluru, did some diving on the Great Barrier Reef and then flew to Bali with Ian for 5 days. It was the trip of a lifetime.

Below: Visit to the Gallery of New South Wales. Check out Australian artist, Tom Roberts who painted in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Amazing draftsman.

Drawing in the Gallery of New South Wales

Tom Roberts, Bailed Up

Tom Roberts, Darbin Creek

Tom Roberts, Breakaway

Picture highlights from Sydney:

Rainbow Lorikeets – urbanized and everywhere

Biggest bats I've ever seen – Botanical Gardens

Tuna, crack-of-dawn tour of the Sydney Fish Market, second largest in the world

Sydney harbor at dusk

Sydney Opera House

Ferries, Sydney Harbor

Archibald Fountain, Hyde Park