Raj has Found A Home!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the Raj the Bookstore Tiger giveaway!   Risky the Studio Assistant dipped her paw into the hat and picked...

 YAY ERIC!  Congratulations!!  Please send your mailing address to: paige dot keiser @ gmail dot com (wrote it that way to keep the spamming down).  :)

Illustration Friday: Toy

Child At Heart Gallery

As someone who loves to study the illustrations of my favorite illustrators, there is nothing like getting your hands on an original piece of art.  I've been buying art from the Child At Heart Gallery for the last couple of years and have found some real treasures.  It's neat to see what kind of paper the illustrator painted on, and get an even closer look at how they created the art (reproductions are nice but there is always something 'lost in translation' - such as color differences and tone etc).  I recently bought a small David McPhail illustration for 25 dollars, and that included shipping!  I got it only a few days later too, you just can't beat that. 

Anyways, I wanted to post about this for other children's book lovers, not only to promote a great site run by some very kind people,  but to also help keep our favorite illustrators in business by buying their art work.  That way they can continue to produce beautiful books to feed our souls and inspire us :0)

A Giveaway For My Loyal Readers :)

This Contest is officially closed.  Thank you for your participation and good luck! 

It's Here! It's Here!

I recently put together a book dummy using Blurb.com to print it in softcover, and it finally arrived today (after five long days of tracking it from state to state, starting in WA)!  I'll be sending this off to my agents at Cornell & McCarthy to pass around to different publishing companies--YAY!  This is the first dummy book I've really seen through to the end; the first book that I didn't scrap half-way through due to a weak story line, or because it wasn't working overall.  Even if no one picks this book up, it's still one step closer to my dream of becoming an author since I learned so much creating it.  

Illustration Friday: Warning

 

Then, without warning, the tears began to fall. 

Cover Idea

Haha I Redid this Picture..Again

Ok this is my fourth (and final) version and definitely my favorite.  This was done in carbon pencil-- very similar to charcoal, and watercolors.

Illustration Friday: Swarm

I'm very drawn to French themes in my art sometimes.  Probably because I lived in Belgium for two years when I was little.  I knew important french words like frites (french fries) and gaufre (waffle--they used to sell delicious Belgian waffles from street vendors--YUM!).

Alligator Book Sample Page

 

*Edit* I was a little unhappy with the paleness of the colors, so I added some more watercolor layers to make them richer.  I also added some pink flowers to the bushes on the left.

Piggy Band

Baby Moose Visits/Illustration Friday: Layer

This is a spread for "Baby Moose Visits" that won't be used, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it.    Though this would be perfect for Illustration Friday since they are layered in mud!

And Meanwhile...

The new Baby Moose character sketches have been emailed to the art director at Dutton, so now while I wait for their response I'm going to work on my super-secret alligator story/book dummy over the weekend.   I'm also snowed in, so guess I'll just have to stay in my house and draw.  What a bummer right? :)

Thank You!

Thanks so much to my wonderful fellow artists who left feedback on the Baby Moose sketches!  When working so closely to something, a fresh eye and perspective is needed - your thoughts and opinions have definitely made a big impact on the book.

Friends of mine have asked how competitive the children's illustration world is - I tell them it's VERY competitive in terms of the talent out there- but you won't meet a kinder group of people.

Final Decision

After much trial and error (and worry) I think I've arrived at the final character designs for "Baby Moose Visits" :-))

Illustration Friday: Dusty

A sudden gust of wind kicked up dust, leaves and sprigs of grass. There was something strange in the air.

Characater Sketches Color

I painted these right in my sketch book, which is definitely the world's worst paper for watercolors. 

Sketches

Getting a little closer to my goal with these characters. :)

'Moore Moose'

Character Sketches/Style Test/Pencil

 

Many thanks for the comments and opinions on these character sketches.  It's VERY helpful!