I recently took a trip to Tokyo to attend Design Festa, an art event held in a huge space where artists got to show off their work. I've blogged about it here. And there were lots of things I got for inspiration, take a look: part 1 & part 2!
I just got my copies of the last book I illustrated. It's called "En, to - støvel og sko" (One, Two - boot and shoe), and it's published by Norwegian GAN Aschehoug.
The book, written by Else H. Devold, is about how to teach the youngest kids in kindergarten the basic principles of mathematics. It has a lot of fun games and songs that I've illustrated.
I painted about 50 illustrations for this book, all with acrylic paints.
One thing you can't see in this photo is that the green cover is a bit shiny, and there's a bright red spiral binding the book together. It looks so playful!
In case anyone is interested, I have put a few new Photoshop tutorials on my personal blog over the past couple of weeks. These came out of my presentation at the NESCBWI conference earlier this month.
Creating Texture Brushes in Photoshop
Quickly Creating Patterns in Photoshop
Creating Half-Drop Repeats in Photoshop
I'm not happy unless I have several projects going on at once. It seems to be the only way I can keep my motivation going. Here are a few things I'm working on right now.
I have a very busy weekend that I'm getting ready for. I have two presentations that I'm giving on Sunday. One is for the New England Society of Children's book Writer's and Illustrators. I'll be giving a presentation on photoshop techniques for illustrators at the annual conference here in Fitchburg, MA. For a sneak peek, check out this blog post about how to create a texture brush in Photoshop.
After I give that presentation Sunday morning, it's off to Weston Mass to the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History for Letter Writing Day. There I will be doing a drawing demonstration and reading my new book Please Write Back!
Some of the things that inspired my in April:
1. Nature. One by one the flowers are popping up and the trees are turning greener for each day. I love that the world has colors again!
2. The illustration book Norwegian Illustrators No.03 (features my work).
3. Meeting lots of other illustrators at an open portfolio day. I was so inspiring to see all those portfolios in the same room!
My friend Anissa and her family got back from Washington DC last week and while they were there they visited the National Postal Museum. Even though you might think a postal museum would be a big snooze she said it was a lot of fun and very interesting. What made it even better was that her son Josh spotted my new book Please Write Back! in the museum's gift shop. They even took this picture to show me. Thanks Josh! And thanks National Postal Museum!
And speaking of postal museums, there is also a postal museum here in Massachusetts, called the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History. I will be at the Spellman Museum May 16th along with adult author Lois Barry for the museum's "Letter Writing Day" event. Click here for more info.
