Estate sale find!

Hey everyone!
Today while doing about a million errands, my husband and I took a very successful detour to an estate sale in Capitol Hill. There was so much to look at- insane amounts of magazines and books! Where I found this gold mine! He entire 16 volume set of the Golden Book Encyclopedia from 1960! And we paid $10 for them! These are so neat! They are fully illustrated and have an insane range of topics. One titled "From Chalk to Czechoslovakia" wow. They make me want to be a kid in the 60's, or better an artist for Golden Books in the 60's.

Illustration Friday: Heights

Hey everyone!
I've been off for a few weeks but I am back to do this week's IF topic "Heights." I am playing around with this weird little world where my animals live and I think I stumbled upon a suburb of their town. What do you think? Is this working? Any suggestions? I'm trying out a new background, so let me know your thoughts!

Jessixa.com is Alive!

Hey All!
I wanted to announce that my website is back! It's been undergoing some retooling for the past six months or so, and now it is complete! It's been beautifully redesigned by my wonderful husband, Aaron Bagley- for whom I am sooooo grateful for all of his hard work to get it running. I'm also very proud of my little animations (made by moi) that are non-flash so they are friendly for all viewing platforms!

So enough jibba jabba- Check out my website!

jessixa.com

ALSO- just a little reminder that I am still doing my daily hot dog journal website "Diary of a Wiener"-so if you want a daily dose of hot dog and waxing the philosophic, start following me!
diaryofawiener.com


Thanks happy viewing!
-Jessixa

Conference weekend=awesome

Phew! My first annual Western Washington SCBWI conference was great! I'll keep my synopsis short because I have a lot of drawing to get to already- but it was packed. These conferences have been so inspiring and encouraging that I feel like I'll always be able to take away something awesome from them. So here are my top five highlights from this weekend:

5) Keynote speakers Bruce Hale's inspirational speech about never giving up and pushing yourself harder-culminating with him singing a variation on Desiree's song "You Gotta Be."

4) Melissa Sweet discussing her process of making picture books and seeing footage of her gorgeous studio space-I wonder if she would notice if I moved in?

3) Totally unexpectedly getting 1st runner up for my portfolio is the juried portfolio show! What the hell?! I was so stoked, especially after my very disappointing portfolio presentation at the L.A. conference last summer and my artistic evisceration by E.B. Lewis.

2) My über encouraging and complimentary art consultation with the incomparable Lisa Ruth Cummins, art director at Simon and Schuster- for whom I now have a humongous art girl crush on. I can't French braid hair but I think I could still be a great BFF if she's ever in the market for one.

1) Leaving feeling like I can really do this.

So all in all, confidence building, inspirational and motivating. If you ever get a chance to go to one of these conferences, it will be the wisest weekend you ever have. So enough blogging for one night! I'm off to draw and start again tomorrow, even more ready to kick my own ass.

Where have I been? Where am I?

Hey everyone!
Just a quick update of my whereabouts lately! I have been a bit consumed with a freelance project as well as preparations for an upcoming trip to the city of lights (yay! So excited!!!), so I haven't gotten a chance to participate in Illustration Friday for the past couple of weeks.

But I am keeping on top of all things art still. The big thing is that I am currently at the 21st Annual SCBWI Western Washington Conference this weekend! I'm just in day one, but so far it's been very interesting and helpful! So I'll update a little more over the weekend! So stay tuned and I'll be back online this week. A bientot!

Illustration Friday: Return

Hey all
This week's IF theme "Return" was a little challenging for me not to come up with something not cliche, so I just went for the obvious. But I really like! Let me know what you think!

Poor little guy. I hope it wasn't a love letter that was returned.