Pitchers and Catchers Report Today!

Happy spring! For this year's Pitchers and Catchers illustration, I thought I'd finally round out a collection I didn't set out to create. I've illustrated hitting, pitching, base running...

  

... so now defense! 

I love a diving catch, a pick and throw, a robbed home run. Here's to highlight reel plays in every game of 2019.

[Memory lane:  2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018]

Rally caps! (Spring training 2015)

Pitchers and catchers report today to Goodyear, Arizona, kicking off spring training (and therefore the 2015 baseball season!) for my favorite team.  Since 2008, I've marked this day by sharing a baseball illustration.  After several years spotlighting players for this annual illustration, this year I want to celebrate fans.

(I'm also using this an opportunity to play around with some character design for a picture book manuscript I have in the works.  This devoted baseball fan is named Ruby, and she's my protagonist.)

So let's hear it for the fans.  Fans who care about the game way more than is reasonable, who cheer on their team through good times (1999! 2010! 2012!) and bad (2000-2009), who follow hundreds of games over 6+ months, and who (like Ruby here) put on their rally caps in critical dramatic moments because they can't stand to not do something to influence the game they love so much.

[Memory lane:  2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014]

Previously on... The Creative Life.

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, huh?  Fall is a crazy busy time at work and that can mean my art falls by the wayside for a little bit. But my creative self hasn't been entirely dormant.  A quick round-up of creative world goings on...

My aunt has a professional organizing business called Managed Chaos, and she commissioned an illustration for a brochure she's using to advertise her business. You can see the brochure at the link above-- it was truly a family undertaking, as my sister (with a new business of her own) designed it!

I had a lot of fun with this one since it's a bit of a departure from my usual work.  Makes me want to play around with lines more and see what happens.

Also in October some friends and I busted out the old acrylic paints (seriously, these were leftovers from college... and I just got an invitation for my 10-year reunion, sooooo....) and snazzed up some papier-mache skulls for Day of the Dead.

 

 

I miss painting.

Two weekends ago I attended my second Mid-Atlantic conference for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Some notes (and sketches from the margins of my notes).  Leave it to a room full or book people to turn a phrase / speak in fun little metaphors.

• One of the agents in attendance (I didn't mark down who, shoot!) referred to the problem of starting a story in the wrong place as "throat clearing."
• Stephen Mooser quoted Sid Fleischman in describing a character's dramatic introduction into 
  
  
  the story as a "grand staircase."
• Keynoter Linda Urban refers to the essential essence of a story as its "spine," what you should hold onto.
• At one point, author/illustrator Pat Cummings said it was harder to be an artist than a lawyer, then later indicated that adventuring was even harder than art.  Which led me to pen a mini infographic: 

In general, I had a great time at my second Mid-Atlantic SCBWI conference!  I pretended I was an extrovert and talked to many people.  And between the conference planners clearly going out of their way to provide more learning and networking opportunities for illustrators (yay, thanks conference planners!) and the fact that I've been writing more since this time last year, I felt like there were more nuggets of wonderful helpfulness than ever before.

Now it's November, and I'm all in on another round of Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo, the brainchild of Tara Lazar). 

Out of last year's 30 ideas, I now have three (very, very early stage) manuscripts, another close to complete story that's still in my brain until it discovers the perfect ending, an idea that I think might be an early reader or middle grade instead, and a character just begging to feature in a series.  Here's hoping this year is just as successful!

And of course, I still draw from time to time...

Arsenic and Old Lace

Happy Halloween!

The storm clouds are gathering.

Fine art prints available at Imagekind

Every year to mark the start of the Cincinnati Reds' spring training (noted by the day pitchers and catchers are required to report to camp) I do an original baseball-themed illustration.  This year I've re-imagined an old team photo using four of the 2013 team's top hitters.  It seemed appropriate since I've been doing portraits and focusing so much on the team's history this offseason.  Here's the original:

Image courtesy of ebay. I don't know who took the original photo
but let me know if you do, so I can credit a photographer!

For those not well versed in the Cincinnati Reds, introductions are in order:

• 1961 photo: Vada Pinson, Gus Bell, Jerry Lynch, Wally Post
• 2013 illustration: Shin-Soo Choo, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce

So why do I celebrate this every year? Why do baseball fans get so excited about a day that's pretty meaningless? Why do we mark the start of over a month of practice and exhibition games?

There's a scene in an early episode of the late, great TV show Sports Night where new producer Jeremy is cutting his first highlight segment for the show, a routine review of a routine baseball game. Problem is, he can't bear to cut anything.  Every moment is important to him. So he ends up with an 8 minute highlight reel. Anchor Casey tries to help him out, and we get this scene:

Casey: Okay, this section here where the batter taps dirt off his shoe and spits four times...
Jeremy: We can't cut that!
Casey: Jeremy.
Jeremy: No! The storm clouds are gathering.
Casey: [sighs] All right.  Just out of curiosity, what voiceover would you have me write for this moment?
Jeremy: What's wrong with "the storm clouds are gathering"? 

That's spring training for me. The storm clouds are gathering. The pace of baseball is uneven. I know that. It's sometimes all about waiting. There's lots of getting ready, of settling into stances, of positioning yourself in the field, of winding up to throw.  But if you know the game, you know the value of those slow times.  You know who to watch, and what to expect, and what to wait for.  And then... something happens.

Yes, Opening Day isn't until April. But baseball is being talked about, and soon it'll be played, and then it'll be played and will count.  I'm so excited, I can't stop smiling. Happy pitchers and catchers report day, internet!

[Memory lane:  2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012]

The Old Ballgame

Fine art prints available!

"That's the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball."  
- Bill Veeck

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." - A. Bartlett Giametti

"Baseball, it is said, is only a game.  True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona."  -George F. Will

For any baseball fan, "Pitchers and Catchers Report Day," the dawn of spring training and thus a new season, is a veritable feast day. I've celebrated the last four years by creating an original baseball-themed illustration.  After highlighting the hitter last year, I thought I'd focus this year on the pitcher, for a few reasons:  (1)  they're the ones reporting to Arizona today, along with their battery mates, and (2) for the first time since I can remember, I'm excited for the Reds' pitching.  Seriously, you guys, I have a good feeling about this year.  Go Reds!

[Memory lane:  2008, 2009, 2010, 2011]

Pitchers? Check. Catchers? Check. Spring? It's here!

Like it so much you want to take it home? (Get it? Home?) Fine art prints available!

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball.  I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring.  

Rogers Hornsby

Today officially kicks off my Cincinnati Reds' quest to defend their 2010 National League Central Division title (yeah, it's still a little surreal!)  To celebrate the opening of spring training camp in Goodyear, AZ, I give you my fourth annual Pitchers and Catchers Report Day illustration.  Can't you just hear the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the sound of play-by-play on the radio (or in my case, computer)?  Baseball's back, ladies and gentlemen, and with it-- spring!  

[Memory lane:  2008, 2009, 2010]

Happy spring!

Purchase a print of this illustration.
Purchase a t-shirt or mug of this illustration.

There may be a foot of snow outside my front door right now, but it's here-comes-the-sun beautiful in Goodyear, Arizona. Today marks the official start of spring training for my beloved Cincinnati Reds, and for the third year in a row (we can call it a tradition now, right?) I've commemorated this "pitchers and catchers report" day with an illustration.
[Memory lane: 2009, 2008]

"It's a great day for baseball. Let's play two." -Ernie Banks
----
Edit: This week's Illustration Friday word is "propagate." I think this works with this illustration on a few levels. (1) It's about spring, a time for growth and new life and spreading sunshine--all propagations of one sort or another. (2) The Catholic Church uses the term "propagation of the faith," and we're all familiar with the word "propaganda." I'm nothing if not a baseball evangelist. :)

I wish you a merry Christmas!

I was excited to have the opportunity this year to design the Christmas card for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Each year, over 250 volunteers commit to spend a year working full-time in nonprofit organizations, living in community with other volunteers, and exploring JVC's four values of spirituality, social justice, community, and simple living.

This wonderful organization is very close to my heart. I was a Jesuit Volunteer for a year after I graduated from college. I taught art in an after-school program and summer camp in Washington, DC, and lived with five other volunteers. It was a wonderful and challenging year, and I'm proud to count myself among the thousands of FJV's (Former Jesuit Volunteers) around the world. Enjoy your Christmas cards, JVC supporters! Everyone else out there in blogland... happy holidays!

Illustration Friday: FLYING

It's never too early to think about Christmas cards, right?

Illustration Friday: CELEBRATE

You can keep your Valentine's Day. I'm celebrating Pitchers and Catchers Report Day. Happy spring (training)--and go Reds!

Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest
Oh, let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King...

-"Shed a Little Light," by the incomparable James Taylor

It's a big week! Martin Luther King Day of Service tomorrow, inauguration on Tuesday, Lost season premiere on Wednesday, and I'm back on my blog today. (Yes, I recognize that there are strikingly different levels of bigness in that string of events. I'm just being thorough.)

p.s. This is a re-imagining (this one in pastel on paper) of an earlier piece (that one in paint on a canvas apron.)

p.p.s. Happy 2009!

Illustration Friday: VOICES

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! Here's a little sketch that I'll consider an homage to my brother, my sister, me, and Christmas Past. When I started this little sketch, I didn't intend it to be autobiographical, and it's not exactly (I don't recall us ever caroling in front of the tree like that, nor was my brother's head that round or big.) But I was just drawing, and then all of a sudden there were two older girls and a younger brother and similar haircuts to ours circa 1993 or so. And the older girl's holding the book (and therefore she's probably the bossy mastermind of this little photo op) while the middle one looks like she's singing the nicest and enjoying the attention and the little boy is probably stealing the show by hamming it up and knowing his audience. And that was pretty much us back in the day.

So happy Christmas Eve Eve to my family and yours. See you in 2009!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas cards are here! I used an illustration from last fall, but had to make my own envelopes because I couldn't find any to fit my 4x6 cards. No matter--another opportunity to creatively recycle is always welcome.

Meanwhile, things are slooooow at work, with students gone for the break--and many faculty and staff, too! I found myself doodling some seasonally-appropriate doodles during the slowest points...



I LOVE this time of year! So here's wishing YOU (and our neighborhoods and world) a beautiful holiday season and a new year of PEACE, hope, and joy.

Now off to write on these aforementioned cards and maybe make some Chai snickerdoodles if there's time.

Edited, to add: So the minimum order of cards I could order was way more than my number of family and friends--and I actually have a rather large family. So if you'd like a little holiday greeting from an aspiring illustrator in Cincinnati, email me a mailing address. (I'd do a giveaway so you could use the cards yourself, but I doubt many of you want to send Christmas cards with the Cincinnati skyline on them...)

VOTE!

Some sketches while I waited for a certain candidate to visit Cincinnati yesterday, here in this swingin' swing state. Below is my cousin Emma studying for history.... while experiencing history.




"If our job teaches us anything, it's that we don't know what the next President's gonna face. And if we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas, who's connected to other people's lives, and cares about making them better... if we choose someone to inspire us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things... we can't imagine yet." -Toby Ziegler

Yeah, that's from my favorite TV show, which I named my blog after, which I'm just a little obsessed with. Now go VOTE!

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day, a day when millions of bloggers world-wide have made a commitment to write (or draw, in this case!) about issues related to poverty, in an effort to raise awareness, prompt action, and get a conversation started.

I've chosen to focus on fair trade. According to Co-Op America, "fair trade is a system of exchange that honors producers, communities, consumers, and the environment. It is a model for the global economy rooted in people-to-people connections, justice, and sustainability."

For more information on fair trade chocolate, including where to purchase...

For more information on fair trade coffee, including where to purchase...

For more information about what you can do to promote fair trade, visit TransFair USA. (Now's a great time, because in addition to today being Blog Action Day, October is also Fair Trade Month!)

Finally, a shout-out to Illustration Friday visitors-- the only strings I could find in this illustration are the strings that connect it to my last post, the preliminary sketch for the chocolate illustration. Thanks to Aimee for her insightful comment on that one, which led me to take my drawing a step further and ultimately inspired the coffee piece, too. Another testament to the wonders of blogging!!

Happy birthday, Finest Muffins & Bagels :)

Doodles from the margins. I just came back from a wonderful work conference in Atlanta, and all the talk there about higher education seems to have gotten me back in some of my college note-taking habits. :)

Today's my blog's first birthday, so I've been sketching lots of muffins and bagels, hoping to debut a new and more colorful blog header. It's not going to happen today, but stay tuned!!

Illustration Friday: PRIMITIVE

Primitive as in... simple shapes and lines
Primitive as in... the use of symbols to convey a thought

tulip + leaf=nature
heart + sun=love + warmth
This illustration=a primitive tribute to the outdoors

Happy spring, and happy belated Earth Day!

March forth!

I love that today is election day here in Ohio... it's just so poetic to be voting on March 4th, a day that sounds fit for revolution. Plus, I just love voting. The ever-talented Jim Borgman had this cartoon on the Enquirer's website today--that's how I feel after every election, not just this one.


So here I go, off to vote for a presidential candidate, for the school and zoo levies, and for my uncle for judge. March forth!

Illustration Friday: THEORY

Happy Pitchers-and-Catchers-Report-Day! Today is the unofficial start of spring and the official start of spring training (and therefore baseball season). Get excited!

Baseball lends itself to superstitions and theories. In 1999, the last time the Reds contended, I was 16 and completely convinced that the things I did affected my team immensely (as do all fans at one time or another, right?) That summer, I spent a disproportionate amount of time away from Cincinnati, and somehow, whenever I left town the team started doing really well. The clearest example of this was when my family went on a 3 week vacation out west. The day we left town, the Reds overtook the Astros for first place. They remained in first place, tied or alone, until the day we drove home. Coincidence? Probably, but I considered asking the team to send me to Europe... for the good of the team.

Here's hoping for a great season, one that belongs to the Reds. :)