Lilla Rogers Bootcamp May

 Here are some images from this months editorial assignment which was about beginning meditation.

Collage

                                                           Have been collage happy!

collage

woke up with the words blue star blue star chanting my mind. Perhaps it was the result of some crazy dreams I had trying to replace them with something brighter. i attempted to decode, without success. Instead I made some collages. Much more fun.

3 inspirations

I am inspired by many many artists and people. There are books I read, images, paintings, music. It is everywhere to breathe. Sometimes it is actually overwhelming, there is so much amazing creation created and being created all the time. I am in constant awe intrigue wonder and delight with artists/ writers and their devotion to their work. Once read something from the artist Annette Messenger who also has fed me visually with her mixed media. She writes:

 "Influence-I think it's a sort of nourishment you take from other artists-its like the little sparrows, they are needy like that. When you're young, you take in from a lot of sources; and afterwards, with all you've seen, you never know where it all comes from, where you stop and it begins."

One day I may make a real list of all the artists that I feel have fed me. Until then since I have been focusing on creating children's picture books I thought I would share 3 illustrators whose work definitely delights me and sends me grabbing for my pencil again.


1. Beatrice Alemagna  LOVE!  http://www.beatricealemagna.com
check out this video http://vimeo.com/86654508

2. Anne Herbaut http://www.ricochet-jeunes.org/illustrateurs/initiale/H/auteur/900-anne-herbauts
3. Isabelle Arsenault http://www.isabellearsenault.com

ok 1 more
4. Oliver Jeffers  http://www.oliverjeffers.com
just 1 more
5. Kveta Pacovska http://www.minedition.com/en/illustrator_detail.php?id=26

Mother's Day, always.

                        For my mother's birthday I made her a photo album to celebrate her 70th.
                       She is an amazing woman, full of life, light, completely stylish and always giving.
                       This is the cover for the book. I never met my mom's mom. She died when my mom
                      was a teenager. The hand in the image above is taken from a picture of the grandmother
                      I never met but feel I have some how known.
                       She is waving, as if to say, I am giving my love too.

collage

having some collage fun

here are 2 to enjoy

3 inspirations

1. Love Ted Talks. Just listened to this one.
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_success_failure_and_the_drive_to_keep_creating?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2014-04-25

2. Great Documentary. Finding Vivian Maier.
 Guy buys locker of old negatives at an auction and then goes on to discover
this amazing unknown photographer. The images are beautiful, and her story well....watch it!
  http://www.findingvivianmaier.com

3. Ceramic artist. all I can say is YUM!     http://katharinemorling.co.uk

 

Hop in.

               today I finally felt it. the air has shifted and I am ready to soak it all in---------Spring!

Silkscreen

I did a silkscreen class this weekend. This is the image I worked on.

Learned lots and lots, especially since I was the only one in the class.

One thing is silkscreen, well atleast mulitcolor silkscreen is not so easy.

No, no, no. There are all kinds of technical mishaps, alignment issues, 

things called kiss marks which sounds like something you would want but not when it

comes to ink on your beautiful paper.

I am a messy maker and not sure if silkscreen is for me or not.

Will have to ponder that for a second or two more.

hmmmmmm.

this image below is the one I worked on in photoshop before the class.

Dance today

                 This image is a color study to accompany a picture book manuscript/ smartie-dummy
                                     I recently finished thanks to the support of 12x12

.

Bolt- This smartie has been on the shelves for a bit.

Bolt- is a concept/picture book. A boy who likes to makes up stories, makes up this one of how he lost
his left BOLT (the fastest sneaker on earth) The manuscript is spare but I still like it's simplicity.
Really would like to make this one. My goal is to have a more completed smartie by this summer for the Princeton SCBWI conference which I have been attending for a few summers.
                               Here are sketches from the BOLT smartie (dummy) on my drawing table.

3 inspirations this week

1. Love this book http://www.theartoftheidea.com
     Have had it hanging around for awhile and just picked it up again. All his observations are
     both so true and funny. Also really enjoy the collages, If you are intrigued at all but ideas:
    the where, who, what, how to them, check the book out.

Read the above, I couldn't believe it either. 

showed this to my son who has trouble spelling 

and he too was amazed and maybe a bit relieved. It seems all we really need to get right is 

the first and last letter of a word for others to be able to read what it is.

2. this Ted Talk, loved not only what he had to say but how he said it. My favorite phrase from the talk
           was ROARING SILENCE. yum, going to have to use that one
http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_hadfield_what_i_learned_from_going_blind_in_space

3. This Picture Book. I heard it read this morning in my son's classroom. It's hilarious.
      By Bob Shea and Lane Smith, a great duo.
        http://geekdad.com/2014/03/kid-sheriff-terrible-toads/

   

something new

must be all this rain 

playing with this today

An old Smartie

My kids do not like to brush their hair. And I see the point, lately I have felt the same. It's like making your bed, it's just going to get messed up again. This smartie (dummy) titled HAIR I COMB AGAIN
 was perhaps inspired by me chasing my boys to brush their hair. It is something I made awhile ago and I don't think it will ever get published but it still makes me laugh. Here are a few pages from it as it is, I made it fast and never went back to refine or redo the illustrations.   It was a one draw collage deal. Kind of like a quick comb through, nothing fancy.

Happiness quote

Found this in an old notebook tonight. Before I glue it to a collage and paint, draw, scribble over it
thought I  would click click post. Don't remember where it came from, some book, magazine, or article, from Deepak Chopra.

old Coloring Book Smartie (actually it's so old that it's stored on a CD)

Lilla Rogers Boot Camp month 2

Jello Mold fabric. Here are two versions, the bottom one is what I submitted. 

Went Jello rainbow color crazy.

Jello tends to remind me of watching Love Boat

and Fantasy Island with a metal spoon

in my parents bed with a sore throat.

Had to make a new association to Jello, and Chill-o it is.

Promo

I just sent out an illustration promo postcard. There is a punched hole which was fun to do.
I held it up over my computer screen and the opening on the back fell over the word PLAY....its hard to see in the photo but it made me smile.

something about happy

I don't know how it works but something about making this brought me

closer to happy

or happy closer to me

more lettering magic