To Where the Wild Things Are

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's storybook Where the Wild Things Are. I've loved this book for a long time, and perhaps my love for it has only grown over the years. The monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are" serve as an embodiment of the imagination. For me, it's a visual reminder to the magical worlds I created in my own home while growing up. I made my own dinosaur costumes out of printer paper and crayons, exploring the vast wilderness of my hastily constructed blanket forts from the comfort of my own living room. He was a boy in a wolf suit, King of the Wild Things. I was a girl in a paper T-Rex suit, Queen of the Three House Cats and a Lab/Rottweiler Mix. (Coming to a child's bookshelf near you, Spring 2015)

This book has been analyzed in many different ways, and it's no secret that Sendak had dark overtones in many of his books. On a simpler level, Max is just a wild little boy with a vivid imagination. Perhaps he'll grow up to write his own books. Maybe he'll be an inventor or a storyboard artist. (Or some sort of terrifying masochist, but hey, who's to say?!) Imagination is a powerful thing, and I think Sendak himself sums it up quite nicely:

“Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.” ― Maurice Sendak

"Woodland Creatures" - Pt. 2

The second part of my "Woodland Creatures" series is complete! This one features a cute little forest owl. I am currently working on an illustration for the back of this bookmark, as well as one for "Little Fox", as shown in my previous post. I am also looking into various printing companies and I hope to have these two in production shortly. Enjoy!

Little Foxes

I'm currently creating a handful of products to sell locally and online. These "Little Foxes" will be offered as bookmarks. This particular set consists of an Arctic Fox, a Red Fox and a Fennec Fox. The Red Fox will also be featured in a "Woodland Creatures" set. Additionally, "Little Foxes" will be offered as a print, along with the rest of the "Woodland Creatures" series. I'm excited to share the remaining illustrations!

Jep: Photoshop Lines vs. Illustrator Lines

HEY GUYS! LOOK, A PUPPY! This is Jep, our Shepherd/Chow mix. I have been searching for new line art techniques, so I decided to try converting Photoshop lines to vector in Illustrator. Adobe Photoshop and I have been in a pretty committed relationship ever since I switched over from Jasc Paint Shop Pro back in the early 2000's, but Illustrator has a lot of great qualities that I am really growing to love for traditional art, like the Blob Brush tool. These are great options when you want to resize your graphics at a later date.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of my Photoshop line art vs. Illustrator line art. In this particular case I used Live Trace to convert my lines, and after some tweaking I was pretty happy with the results. I've created smooth, scalable lines with minimal quality loss. That is a success in my book! You have no idea how many hours I wasted scaling my recently vectorized lines up and down, completely in awe of their beauty. (Roughly .003 seconds, but in my mind it was a lot longer.)

A Study of Canine Anatomy

It's no secret that I love animals. If you've spent any time on this blog, that is quite obvious. Dogs hold a special place in my heart. I've always had a dog present in my life in one way or another. I spent much of my childhood exploring the woods behind my house with my childhood dog and best four-legged friend, Bo. He, along with a vast array of other furry creatures instilled within me a deep love for animals that I will never shake.

I've started a personal project to illustrate an assortment of dog breeds. This project is primarily so that I can study anatomy. It's amazing that although they are all canines, the anatomy of a Great Dane is extraordinarily different from that of a Chihuahua. Don't even get me started on facial variations! On one hand, we can have the proud, wolf-life face of the German Shepherd, and then we have the Pug, a comical little dog that looks like he didn't put the breaks on soon enough before plowing into a wall.

Below is the first draft in a series I will be continuing. By the end of this project I hope to have a greater understanding of canine at anatomy and overall physical appearance. Enjoy!

From Doodle to Drawing - Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER! I hope that by now you all have jellybeans spilling out of your eyeballs. If not, locate the nearest vehicle and get to the store. What you are waiting for? There is discount candy to be had, GET ON IT!

There, now that I've gotten that very important public service announcement out of the way, let's get to the point of this post. Have you ever sketched something and liked it so much that you had to take it to the next level? Sometimes a doodle can turn into a lot more than originally anticipated.

The other day I was messing around in Flash for the sake of practice. I ended up just doodling a few things, playing with layers and messing with line weights, but one of my early doodles stuck with me for some reason.

The sketch is very crude and I never intended for it to be anything but a doodle that never saw the light of day after I closed out of Flash. But... by the time I was done, I kind of liked the pose. I saved the little bun, and a few days later I re-sketched it. This is what I ended up with:

Voilà! A fully-fledged, sickeningly adorable rabbit, just in time for Easter.
The moral of the story is that at times it can prove beneficial to keep all of your sketches. One day you might just look at them and find inspiration where you didn't see it before.

Notably Neurotic

Banner design and illustration for Notably Neurotic. If you love puppies, baking and running, but detest giant squids, I think you might want give this blog a peek!

The Daily Zoo

I was on Amazon the other night browsing the endless pages of books I wish to buy but do not have the cash to purchase, nor space to store them. From time to time I come across a book that I absolutely must have. I experienced this very phenomenon the other night, and I watch the resident moths fly out of my wallet as I cracked it open to place my order. A few days later I found myself yanking the door off of my mailbox to reveal my new copy of "The Daily Zoo", by Chris Ayers. Chris is a concept artist residing in California. Not only is he an incredible artist, he is a cancer survivor. Chris was diagnosed with leukemia on April Fool's Day in 2005. One year following his diagnosis and fortunately his recovery, he embarked on a sketch journey that stretched over the course of on year. The creation of this book provided Chris the opportunity to push his imagination to the limits and celebrate each new day of good health.








This book is visual candy. Page after page is overflowing with beautifully rendered sketches, caricatures, and doodles. Much like Chris, I too have an affinity for both animals and art. This book pays tribute to his own fascination with the animal kingdom and luckily, after a random online purchase, I am lucky enough to view it. "The Daily Zoo" also boasts the lesson that life is short and you should do what you love and feed your soul. You never know what life will throw your way, so make the best of every situation and enrich your life with all the things you love most. I highly recommend this book as a source of inspiration for any artist. It is also quite inspirational to read about his fight against cancer. The perseverance and optimism he maintained throughout is admirable to say the least.

If you purchase Chris' book, not only will you receive 160 pages of delicious artwork, a portion of the proceeds go to support cancer-related charities and research. A win/win situation!


My cat checking out the centerfold.

For more information, go here!