Little Women

It's wintertime, and that can only mean more snow-inspired work.  I picked a prompt from Little Women to illustrate, and I really wanted to capture Teddy and Amy as he carries her home after she fell through the ice.  I hope you like it.

May your holidays be merry and bright.  And filled with lots of good food and family!

Mother Monster

Mother Monster

I can finally share the full illustration I recently did of Lady Gaga for Light Grey Art Lab's GIRLS: Fact + Fiction show opening this month.  A print of this piece is available through their gallery shop here.  There is also a book with all of the pieces from the show that features mine on a full page spread available here.

 I scored a full page spread in the book!

As some of you might or might not know, I'm a very big fan of Lady Gaga, so getting to illustrate her was a privilege.   Lady Gaga's relationship with her fans is a personal one and many of them refer to her as "Mother Monster".  I wanted to highlight her status as a pop icon to not only them, but to the rest of the world.

I'm so thankful to have been involved with a show that supports such strong women in both stories and real life :)

Sneak Peak: Lady Gaga

I recently had the pleasure to be included in Light Grey Art Lab's upcoming GIRLS: Fact + Fiction show that opens in a few weeks.  Here's a sneak preview of my piece I did of Lady Gaga.

For all the details on the exhibition, check out their blogpost here.  They're also putting a compilation book together that has crazy amounts of good art and strong female women throughout history and fantasy that you should totally check out. It makes a pretty sweet Christmas gift in anyone's life.

More blogposts incoming of other happenings. (Artcast interview, CTN, etc), so expect multiple updates in the next few days!

First Day

Here's a sample I recently did for a major publisher.  It was kind of fun to channel the joy and sheer terror of the first day of school.  I was the nerd carrying around Harry Potter and my notebooks were filled with Sailor Moon doodles.  To be truthful, not much has changed since then!

My family gets into town for the weekend come tomorrow, so I'll be spending time with them before I start gearing up for CTN.  My postcards and business cards just came in, and I can't wait to share them with everyone at the expo!

Spirit Animal

I whipped out this painting last night of a Native American girl with her spirit animal. I also did a doodle of Shane as I watched him do some drawovers of this piece to help make it better. He's my best critic and a pretty great model too!

I'm loving the fall weather. My pumpkin scented candle has already seen quite a bit of use this past week :)

Sketchy Pastels

I went to Dr. Sketchy's yesterday for the first time in months and I was definitely rusty, but it felt good to be back at drawing the figure.  I decided to try using pastels again after not using them for a couple of years, so my results were interesting; sometimes successful, others not so much. The model was lovely, so that was a real treat.

These were taken with my iPhone, so they're a bit speckle-y.  The last one, Shane swears is his favorite even though I got frustrated and smeared it all, so here it is anyways!  Enjoy!

Book Cover: Nightingale

So I realized I haven't posted the Nightingale final yet on my blog! It was a real pleasure working with Dawn again and with our lovely agent Kathleen.  The sequel to Larkstorm will surely be seriously epic from what I know about it and I can't wait to read it.  I'll post more details when Nightingale is officially released! Thanks for looking!

Elinor Smith Sketch

Our theme for the Friday Sketch at work was female aviation pilots from old days. I drew Elinor Smith! Just a quick sketch.  Check out my co-worker Erin's great sketch for the theme today!

Sartorialist Sketch

Just a small warm-down sketch from the Sartorialist. Annnnd good night.

Naptime

I don't get to sleep nearly as much as I wish I could. That is all :)

Doodle Time

Just a few more random sketches as I work on bigger projects.

Doodle Boyfriend

In between my current projects I decided to do a doodle of my boyfriend and me looking all puppy dog eyes at each other. We met in college, and he really is my better half (you can check out his work here). The rest of my work wouldn't get finished without his encouragement, critique and motivation. Working hard is important, but having someone to help you along the way even more so. I'll stop being sappy now, I swear!

Apparition

This painting was a complete joy to work on. My wonderful agent Kathleen is having me create a series of new self promotional work and this is the first of many.

I don't really have much else to say about it. I hope you like it!

Two New Friends

Here is my finished piece for the Pokemon Battle Royale show being held in April at the Light Gray Art Gallery in St. Paul, Minnesota. I selected Venomoth and decided to illustrate the moment a young trainer might meet her new companion on a rainy night.

Big things are happening now! I am so thrilled to announce that I am officially represented by Kathleen Ortiz at Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation. My profile is set up on their website here. I'm looking forward to the exciting new venture Kathleen and I are beginning together as an agent/illustrator team and the exciting new things to come!

Hope everyone is loving the springtime weather just as much as I am these days!

Doodley Self Portrait

Just a quick self portrait. Gearing up for CTN in a few weeks! I've never been to California (or west of Texas, for that matter), so I'm so excited for this trip! It'll be so great to see friends from college too :)

Larkstorm

It has been too long since I last updated on my blog. I could give an array of excuses. The truth is, graduating from college and the resulting years after has been one of the most difficult experiences of my life. I and so many others graduated in a time when jobs were sparse, hopes were low and the drive to keep going was quickly hindered by the constant rejection after rejection that we have all faced.

It hasn't been easy, and at times downright terrifying. But I do firmly believe that if you somehow keep going, surround yourself with people that want you to succeed and above all believe that you simply can, that anything is possible.

I was contacted by Kathleen Ortiz to work on a possible freelance opportunity last month. I was thrilled at even the consideration and was quickly thrown into one of the best experiences of my life. I was introduced to Dawn Rae Miller and her wonderful world of LARKSTORM, and given the opportunity to do what I could to make her beautiful story shine.

It was most certainly a test in faith, for they took a chance on picking me. While I might have a decent portfolio, I don't have a wealth of experience like so many others. I am humbled by their trust, and forever grateful for their friendship. I know this is just the beginning for me on my quest to make it in this world as an artist, and I am so honored and truly excited to share with you my first book cover for the upcoming YA novel LARKSTORM by the brilliant Dawn Rae Miller.

Quick Sketchy's update

Quick update. Caught a really bad cold at the beginning of the month, had an even worse cold front move in that resulted in hours without power, and then a week later my iMac decided it wanted to fail. I don't really have anything backed up (long story), so it's currently at a data recovery shop. Hopefully I won't lose most of my work from the past year, but you live and you learn.

I have my windows open today: 76° and sunny. I'll take it. Things are looking up for the rest of this month (but they really couldn't have gotten much worse). Hopefully I'll have some more work to show soon once I get my iMac back. Hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day!

Ringmaster

Here's a character design I came up with, partially inspired by reading Water for Elephants recently for the book club Erin and I started with some friends. I had an image of a sleazy old circus ringmaster pop into my head and had to draw him. His teeth are disgusting and I love it!



I've dubbed him Big Louie Curbludgeon, mostly because my friend loved how curmudgeonly and sordid he looked and I wanted to be subtle. But not really, because I can't imagine Big Louie being subtle at all.

Can't wait to explore more of this seamy circus world.

Exploring with some brush and ink

At the weekly figure drawing we have going on, we started experimenting with some sumi ink. It was a lot of fun getting used to using a brush and ink again. These are all around 5-7 minute sketches that were started in a diluted ink and water combo, with the final drawing opaque. Should have more coming over the next couple of weeks!

A new year for more Dr. Sketchy's

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and new years! Last week, we had an awesome model at Dr. Sketchy's, so here's some of the drawings from that. Enjoy!