A random assortment of art I've been making since August...

Books Read in 2015

I've neglected this blog lately in favor of (a) more writing than artmaking, and (b) more sharing on Instagram and Twitter. But it's a new year, and that means it's long past time to take a look back at the books I read in 2015.

Last year, I somehow (shockingly) only read 16 books all year long, so this year I stepped up my game. As usual, my favorites are in bold:

• The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
• Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
• Pieces and Players by Blue Balliett
• The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows
• Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley
• El Deafo by Cece Bell
• Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
• Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson, and Peter D. Sieruta
• The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall
• The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Room by Emma Donoghue
• Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
• A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff
• The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm
• Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner
• Up, Up, & Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, & the Ill-Fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos by Jonah Keri
• Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
• The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makai
• Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
• The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
• The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
• The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Severn
• Veronica Mars: Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
• Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner
• The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Unmapped Sea by Maryrose Wood
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

p.s. If you're wondering about the inspiration behind the illustration above, you won't want to miss THIS.

Redleg Annual (and Happy Opening Day!)

The last two years, I've illustrated the cover of an e-book called the Redleg Annual, which previewed in eloquent and entertaining fashion the Cincinnati Reds of 2013 and 2014.

For this year's zine, which is still available for purchase as any number of e-formats HERE (seriously, it's only $5...GO HERE!)... I did two interior illustrations instead and got to step into the weird and whimsical zone a little, and it was a ton of fun.  

For an article on Reds All-Star catcher Devin Mesoraco (titled "Devin Goshdang Mesoraco") I was tasked with envisioning a Lovecraftian creature that could appropriately accompany an article containing lines like this:  

Devin Mesoraco is feared. By pitchers, sure, but also by children, beloved family pets, and young Victorian-era adventurers unjustly denied their inheritance. There is a rumbling of the earth and a black skein over the sun when Devin Mesoraco digs in. (words by Asher Kohn)

Hence:

This one's a bit experimental for me, because I used a larger variety of media than usual.  This one included gouache, Colourfix primer, pencil, permanent marker, and pastels.

And for an article introducing new Reds players, I got a little punny welcoming Mr. Marlon Byrd, because sometimes I just can't help myself:

Today is Opening Day for my Reds and most of the baseball world, so happy 2015 season to all you baseball fans out there, and happy lovely spring day to everyone else!

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...

Jabberwocky

Just scribbling around with pencil and colored pencil on a favorite poem...

Daydreaming.

I did a little digital collage work in the illustrations for that last post, piecing together bits from old pastel illustrations of mine. Exploring that more in this one by almost exclusively using collaged pastel textures to paint an old sketchbook piece.

A Day at the Zoo

I got you, my pretty!

Work in progress

From the sketchbook

Gestures

                                  

  

Sneaking in some gesture drawing practice with the speedy Billy Hamilton (or, rather, with videos of him!)

Picture Book Idea Month (checking in)

We're approaching the halfway point of Picture Book Idea Month, and I've been pleasantly surprised at the ideas that have presented themselves to me. I thought I'd be dealing with snippets-- a title here, a character there, a mildly amusing bit of wordplay there-- but several reasonably complete story ideas have come to me during this month.  Who knew?  

I won't be sharing the ideas here, because there's no better way to kill an underdeveloped idea than to share it too early, but I've been doing some exploratory sketches for some of them, and I'll share those. Happy November!

 

Congratulations, Red Sox! From your friend, the Reds Ox.

Wish it could've been my team to win the World Series last night, but I'll live vicariously with some visual wordplay and hope for good things in 2014. :)

Working on something.

A river to forge, a serpent to slay.

Another book cover illustration

I finally got around to reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn last year, and I loved it! Now working on my take on a cover illustration to do Francie Nolan proud.  Most recent sketch:

My first, quick, scribbly draft:

Kids!

I've been drawing an awful lot of adults lately, mostly for Every Reds Hall of Famer. Which is cool and all, but it's time to draw some kids.  So I took to Facebook to see what my youngest relatives had been up to lately and gave 'em the old pencil and paper treatment.

 

Happy summer!