illustration Friday, Theme: Heroes

Here he comes to save the day - Mighty Ugh!

i used to believe

Have some time to waste? Check out this adorable site of things we believed as kids:
i used to believe
Too funny.

Illustration Friday, Theme: Black and White

Interesting theme this week. Of course, it could be interpreted as "black and white art," of which I have plenty. But I'll use it as an opportunity to show this piece. This is colored pencil on matt board from a photo we took on our honeymoon in Africa. This is a young Masai boy with his puppy. The first thing to know is, all animals love my husband. He has a catnip and rawhide aura or something. All animals love him, except for this puppy . . . who had never seen a white person before. He barked at my husband like he'd seen a ghost.

Barry Cunningham

     The editor who discovered Harry Potter.
     He was recently interviewed in an article for Fortune Magazine, "How I Make Decisions." Anastasia Suen turned me onto this in her mighty fine blog. The quote so entirely nails the purpose of children's literature, I want it somewhere where I can find it easily:

     "I choose books purely based on what I believe children will react to. If you carry the child within you, that's what works. You need a real ability to feel the hope, wonder, burning sense of injustice, fear, or rage of childhood—an unfettered mind that still dreams, that goes with the truth of story. I absolutely bet on my confidence in what children will like." - Barry Cunningham

Illustration Friday, Theme: Summer

     Well, we had a wedding this past weekend, and I'm only just now catching up. So Illustration Friday is now Illustration Tuesday for me.
     This is a banner I created for downtown Chattanooga, TN several years ago. I believe they still use them. So if you're ever there and see my flags hanging all over town, let me know!

I am a Digital Artist

Well, too funny. Shortly after writing my last entry about digital art - a call for articles for/from illustrators was announced at SCBWI. So, I've combined my feelings with a bit of the history of digital art and my method (which is in my FAQs section of my website) into an article for "The Bulletin: Painting with Pixels." I've just heard that they will be bumping another article to fit mine into the next issue because it is exactly the kind of information they had in mind. Very cool.

illustration Friday, Theme: Digital

Okay, this may seem like a loose interpretation of "digital" at first glance, but this is one of the first pieces I did completely digitally. For decades I tried to find my medium: watercolors, colored pencils, markers, acrylics, you name it. How could I have known it just hadn't been invented yet? Yes, Painter came out probably ten years ago - but it wasn't until my Mac G5 that I felt I had a system that could truly handle that behemoth. So, once I started to get the hang of it, I swear to you, wings sprouted out of my back. Can I tell you what a relief it is to finally be able to express myself and get close to what I actually have in my head? I can finally achieve the translucency, saturation, and texture I've been striving for. Digital IS my medium - what a relief. Now I can just create.

Oh, btw, this is Fugel Nugel.