Dennis Goes to Venice

Hey everyone

Here are some pieces I made recently as ideas for another picture book. A walrus named Dennis dreams of going to Venice. He has to make quite a journey and goes through a lot of places before he ends up there.

Illustration Friday: Suspense

Howdy!
This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Suspense." I'm sure that today being the Super Bowl holds suspense for a lot of people, but this is my kind of suspense.

Or rather, can I eat all this ice cream? THAT would be suspenseful.

Illustration Friday: Forward

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Forward." I think about when you are a kid and you are staring at someone or something in class and your teacher says "eyes forward." In this instance this class of wolves sees the new student in the class. I'm not sure if the narrative works better with one of the desks empty or not. Any thoughts?

Version 1:

 

version 2:

Illustration Friday: Twirl

Howdy there!
Here is my latest entry for Illustration Friday. I actually made two images for "twirl." I tried to not do someone twirling because that was my first instinct. Let me know what you think!

Illustration Friday: Prepare

Howdy!
This week's illustration Friday theme is "Prepare."

I tried to think of just preparing something rather than for something. So naturally cooking comes to mind. Now I think I'll make some cupcakes!

Enjoy!

Expecting a package?

Hey everyone!
I wanted to share my latest illustration I completed for my picture book portfolio. This is an image from a picture book idea that I am currently working on.

I like how it turned out. Let me know what you think!Stay tuned for more.

Some new pieces

Hey all
So I had my first portfolio crit the other day at my first local SCBWI meeting! It went well, considering that I just honed in on my style that I'd like to do for picture books. I got a lot of good feedback and encouragement! It's been a lot of exploring and a lot of fails since the conference in LA, but it's all been very good. AND with the help of my awesome husband pushing me to realize that I've had my "style" there all along, but I just haven't been applying to picture books- out our house we call that "not thinking fourth dimensionally." I look forward to doing more in this style for Illustration Friday work as well, to help build up a continuity with all my work. So here are some samples of what I've worked up. Enjoy! And please let me know what you think!

Winter Slow Down vs. 2012 ramp up!

Hey everyone!
Just wanted to quickly check in! It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. The holidays were in full effect and I went out of town. I did in fact get a chance to do some drawing over the break which is good, but I hadn't gotten to upload anything while I was gone. I did keep up with my Illustration Friday work but did not post it.That said, as the new year is upon up, there will be more to come this week! For the time being, here is a piece that I was commissioned to do for a Christmas present:

The gentleman saw some work of mine from our yeti show at work and commissioned me to draw his family at Yetis, something he said he always wanted to see. After some recent experience doing some portraits, I decided that the best thing to do if you are going to draw someone, is to meet them in person. It's so hard to hone in on the essence of someone that you've never met through a stiff photograph. So I went to the house of the family pretending that I was there working on a photography project about families- so the portrait was a surprise to everyone. The family was a hoot and I feel like I captured their essence and likeness pretty well!

I've also made a lot of headway with my graphic novel. I finished the first section. Now onto edits and part 2. I'll post some more pages soon so you can see another vignette from the book. Now I'm off to work on some illustrations for my first portfolio crit with the local chapter of SCBWI this coming week.
Thanks for looking! 

Illustration Friday: Separated

Hello all!
It's late in the week, but I wanted to post for this week's theme. "Separated." When i hear this word I think about things wanting to be separated by they can't be. I was very into the topic of conjoined twins for a long time. I think there is something very fascinating about two being fused together, sharing, loving, experiencing things always together, but they are still separate beings. Anyhoo, enjoy:

Illustration Friday: Brigade

Howdy all!
So this week's theme for Illustration Friday is "Brigade." Normally I wouldn't post a piece I hadn't done specifically for I.F. or that I hadn't done recently, but this is one of my favorite pieces I've done. It's called "Redcoat Pizza" and it is a part of my "Explore and Conquer" series. It fit the theme so well, I just wanted to share it with everyone.

Thanks for looking!
jx

Illustration Friday: Round

Hello!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know that after spending a holiday where all you do is eat, it wasn't hard coming up with an idea for this week's topic of "Round."

 Among many things, I love food, olde tyme stuff, and old men waving their canes in anger. Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: Vanity

Hey everyone!
After a couple of weeks of Illustration Friday silence due to getting ready for the Artache Art Flea Market, I'm back in full effect. A lot of time too I at least do the drawings even without posting them, usually because they are still in sketch form. Here is a fun contribution for this week's theme, vanity.

 

I love the idea that this boogery little guy is vain. He's gross, but I do think he's kind of cute. I used watercolor and pencil on this. I really like my treatment of the watercolor. I've been trying to use pencil more in this way, almost like pen, but with a little enhancement of shading.

Anyways, enjoy and more to come! Thanks for viewing!

My first digital picture book!

Hey picture book enthusiasts!

I wanted to let everyone know of a website that just launched today that I am a part of called uTales.com. uTales is a brand new website where you can access digital pictures books for kids of all ages. You can purchase the books individually for download or subscribe monthly to the site to have access to all of the books on the site. All of the books contributed are written and illustrated from people all over the world too, which is really cool. The books can be read on your computer, iPad and iPhone. uTales contributes portions of each book downloaded to the charity Pencils of Promise, a wonderful organization that builds schools in developing countries.

I have one picture book currently up for download called “What Are You?”  

The book is about when two unlike things meet, one wants to know what the other is. But "what" something is doesn't necessarily tell you "who" they are.

You can find it in the Learn section.

So check it out! It supports a great cause and there are some amazing books in there!

Thanks!

Jessixa

www.utales.com

www.pencilsofpromise.org