Oh wow! I realized I haven't posted in a month and a half! Goodness me. Time flies is an understatement of the century for me over the past two months. I feel like I've been SO busy I really can honestly say I haven't had time enough to do a good post. I am not sure where to begin!
Well to catch you up to what I've been up to in the art department are a couple of fun things. I've still been refining my sketches for my picture book Boats For Papa (due out Spring/summer of 2015). It's been such a fun and incredible process to be learning as I go. I've been asked several times what the process entails so I thought I'd share it (so far). Basically I've been revising my sketches and then sending them off in book dummy form to my editor (the AMAZING Neal Porter at Roaring Brook Press) and book designer/art director (the also AMAZING Jennifer Browne). They then talk about the changes they'd like to see and we have a conference call and go through the book page by page on the phone (since we all aren't in the same city). Then I make the changes and send it back and we talk again about those changes. That process happens a few times until they fully approve the dummy. Once that is approved, I'll start making the paintings. From them, we'll see, since I haven't been through that part of the process yet.
I was recently in Chicago on vacation and through an act of serendipity, got to meet Neal in person which was something I didn't know if/when that would get to happen. He was there for ALA and we got to meet and have lunch.
Also while in Chicago, there was a celebration of 75 years of the Caldecott at the Art Institute of Chicago. They had some original and digital prints of some of the winners and honorees from the last three years.
There were pieces from A Sick Day For Amos McGee Illustrated by Erin Stead, One Cool Friend illustrated by David Small, Grandpa Green illustrated by Lane Smith, pieces from Extra Yarn and This is Not My Hat illustrated by Jon Klassen, and an illustration from The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkey, just to name a few. It was so cool to get to see some of the work up close and to be in the presence of artists I admire. It was such a great bonus to get to see the exhibit while I was there! It was very inspirational.
More on the topic of art, as I've been working on my picture book, I also took a wee bit of time to finally print up some little mini-comic/art homage books I've been making for a while. I think I had posted that I'd been working on some Twin Peaks related books.
Well I finally finished the first two volumes and started selling them at a few places. Currently you can find them at Scarecrow Video and soon Sonic Boom Records in Seattle. Also while I was in Chicago my husband and I traveled to comic book Mecca, Quimbys. We brought a bunch of our mini comics and they are currently for sale there as well! Call it nerdy, but it was a bit of a dream to get to go there and sell comics. It was overwhelming almost in the quantity of comics and zines that they had, I wish we had more time to spend there, but we left with a pretty nice heap of comics so it was a pretty good success.
I am thinking of adding a way to purchase drawings and my comics on my website or perhaps set up an Etsy shop. Until then though if you are interested in my mini comics or what have you, you can always just shoot me an email at: jessixag@gmail.com
As for other art related items, as if I'm not busy already, my husband Aaron and I are starting work for a joint show that we are going to have in September at Joe Bar. It will be comics related but also have original art from the comics on display. More on that to come, so stay tuned!
Okay, that is good for Part 1. Part 2 coming next!
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