Sunday, March 31, 2013

Picnics and paints!

Hey all! Happy Sunday!
It's days like this that make me love living in Seattle and living a stones throw away from the water! My husband and I celebrated our first picnic of 2013 with egg salad sandwiches and pink lemonade! I'm topping it off with a little painting and reading. Ahhhh... I could get used to doing this everyday!

Happy weekend!



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Exciting updates!

Hey folks!
So it's been about a month and a half since the NY SCBWI conference, and a lot has been happening. I had the flu right after so was knocked out of commission for a while, then I've been in the throws of some really fun freelance work which has been keeping me quite busy. The most exciting news just happened within the past week. Some of you might know, but I just signed with Upstart Crow Literary with the super awesome Alexandra Penfold! I'm so honored and thrilled that she will we representing me! I got the privilege to attend Alexandra's workshop at the NY conference and was very connected and impressed by her experience and her dedication to children's books. Alexandra has a great energy and a LOVE of picture books. I'm still pinching myself! I'm so excited about getting to take this next great step with her! Thanks again, Alexandra if you are reading this!!!

So this is a little plug for all of you who haven't:
A) joined SCBWI-do it. It will change your life if you are serious about children's books.
B) gone to the conferences before- they are right- magic can happen there

So after all that awesomeness, today is the first day where I've got a moment to breathe and do a could of short quick illustrations for fun. Here is one below that is a little painting of Tic and Tac hanging out in an abandoned boxcar.


I think they had a plan of going on an adventure on a train and got so caught up in the preparing for the adventure that by the time they got to the train, they just wanted to have lunch. And not really paying attention to the fact it was a non-moving train car, they called it a successful adventure, then went home! I told my husband this is something I've always wanted to do- well, jump on a train while it was moving with a bindle like a hobo- but I think the same thing would happen to me where I get so distracted with lunch I don't even mind that we didn't really go anywhere. All in all, it would be a good day.

Anyway, I'll post some work, if I can, about my freelance project I am doing. It's sort of a dream, so maybe I won't post until I'm finished- then I can wake up from the dream. Other than that, look for more little paintings of Tic and Tac and other picture book ideas!

Hope you are are doing well, and drawling lots!
jx

Illustration Friday: Eye Glasses

Hey all!
I've been out of the IF loop for a while. I've had SOOOO much going on lately, but I needed to get back into quick illo mode so I wanted to get back on the horse this week. Here are a couple of takes on this week's theme; one in black and white that is about eyeglasses, the other in color about glasses of lemonade-the word "glasses" inspired it even though it's about a different kind of glasses. Enjoy!




Sunday, March 10, 2013

Sunday drawing

Howdy folks!
Hope your week has been going well. I've got some exciting stuff in the works, but I'll have to keep everything under wraps for now. In normal news, today was just another Sunday drawing day for me! I'm still working on my top secret project and I can't show pictures just yet, so you'll have to just trust me that I wasn't eating Girl Scout cookies all day and watching 80's movies- even though that sounds amazing. But after my long day of drawing, I managed I decompress with...some drawing! And these I can at least share with you. Just some quick sketches of my cat sleeping. And one of him as a dog.

Oh yeah.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Sketching Sunday!

Hey all
Today was a great day! I spent the day scribbling away on my freelance project while watching Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Ideal day. I'll be working on my freelance picture book project for a while longer and if at some point I can post more images I will.

Last week I got a box of these amazing Jelly Belly jelly beans that were honoring Beatrix Potter. So cute!!! Best Easter candy I've seen. My only question is, why would they make the box of jelly beans look so much like a box of cigarettes? I guess kids have their vices too.