Illustration For Kids Blog

Jealous rabbit, carefree beaver

2009-12-17T09:14:00.003-06:00

This was a commissioned Christmas card I created for a friend. It's his idea, I've done a few for him, and each year it's about the beaver character getting his Christmas tree. If you click on the image you can see it larger, a last minute addition was the bunny slippers...

For the Holidays

2009-12-16T12:33:00.002-06:00

Besides a greeting card, holiday crafts are fun to do! December is going by way faster than I would like, but I did manage to make these fun little gift tags using old art I had...now its fresh again! I bought those circular craft punches from an art/craft store, which is proven to be super addictive. Everything I make from now on will be on 2" circles :-) Happy Holidays! -Jannie

Spotted!: Susan's Paula Dean's Cookbook for Kids

2009-12-11T13:23:00.008-06:00

I was back at Babar Books/Livres in the Pointe Claire Village today and came across a book that IFKer Susan Mitchell latest illustrations for Paula Deen's Cookbook for the Lunch-Box Set (Susan also illustrated Paula Dean's My First Cookbook). This book was categorized in the cooking section in the kids area. At first I thought the picture on the cover was of Paula and the kids giving a thumbs up to the fantastic illustrations Susan did for the book (Kidding!) which includes those cute little spots shown there on the cover.

Below: A spread showing Susan's illustrations for a smoothie recipe. So many drawings for just the one recipe!

You can see more illustrations from Susan and this books on her blog, "It's a Whimsical Life".

Spotted!: Jannie's "Light the Menorah"

2009-12-10T14:51:00.006-06:00

I'm fortunate to live within a few blocks of one of the few (maybe ONLY) independent children's book stores on the Island of Montreal, Babar Books/Livres. This morning I was braving my way to the village post office (we just had our first big snow of the season so...treacherous!), and passed by Babar, glancing up to see their window display of books. Smack dab in front was Light the Menorah, a book illustrated by our own IFKer, Jannie Ho! Fortunately I had my iPhone with me and snapped a few pictures. Look how it stands out even from across the street! Eye-catching, indeed! Congrats, Jannie! Loved seeing your art work so prominently displayed!

Below: "Light the Menorah" close-up.

Below: Further out. That yellow just shines!

Below: Babar's window display from across the street. Go Jannie!

You can see more of Jannie's work at her website and blog.

How I get ready for a new year - Anette

2009-12-07T06:34:00.002-06:00

Each December I do the same things to wrap up the year and get ready for a new one:

- I make a list of all the assignments I've been working on this year. Then I print thumbnails of all the assignments, so it's easy to look at what I've done later.
- I go through sketches I haven't had time to turn into final illustrations and decide which ones to work more on later.
- I go through my contact list and see if there's any address changes.
- I look at my list of goals. What did I manage to do and what do I need to either cross off the list or turn into a goal for next year.
- I make a list of goals for next year. What do I want to accomplish?

It's not the most exciting work, but it's nice to see a whole year wrapped up like this. Seeing everything I've accomplished this year makes me excited to start working towards my goals for next year. But first I take some time off to enjoy the holiday season!

Holli's Christmas Cards

2009-12-02T06:14:00.001-06:00

In my usual fashion, I am waiting until the last minute for this year's card design, mainly due to deadlines. I have the card laid out in my head for this year and it will actually be sent as an email (and printed and mailed to those who don't have email) because it will be an email to Santa from the Woog (surely Santa has email!). We usually do our Christmas cards from the Woog (and before she was born it was from the dog) so here is the first one we sent from her:

And this was last years:

New Holiday Card - Jenn

2009-12-01T19:07:00.005-06:00

Here's my card for this year. I'm sitting here with two versions because I'm not sure about the "panting" text. But I'd better hurry up and send one of them to the printer tomorrow. Any one have a preference? What I'd really like is one of those sound chips so when it opens it sounds like a big slobbery dog. Hmmmm...

Holiday Card for 2009

2009-12-01T10:58:00.005-06:00

This year's card is featuring my little needle felted characters that I have been making. I had them printed as postcards by Moo.com.

New holiday card

2009-11-30T14:51:00.004-06:00

I love making the design for my holiday cards each year! I like getting in the holiday mood sketching out different ideas, and then choosing my favorite. This year's snowman got to be the star of both my holiday cards and promo postcards. No wonder he's happy. I can't wait to send him and his big smile out in the world!

Makin' Monster Cards

2009-11-29T22:39:00.006-06:00

Every year I design a holiday card to send out to clients (and also to friends and family!) This year I decided to design 4 different ones that went together. And monsters as as theme is fun to do-I have endless ideas with them! I have some at my Chicken Girl Design Shop if you are interested. Monster holiday greetings are the best! -Jannie

When I'm not Illustrating

2009-11-11T16:06:00.005-06:00

This won't surprise anyone who knows me but I love to work on all sorts of crafts. Lately I've taken up spinning, and I also like to knit, sew and crochet.

One of my favourite things to do is combine drawing with crafts by embroidering little pictures onto the things I knit or sew. This is one of my needle books with an embroidered branch with flowers. It's my way of making my things one-of-a-kind.

What do you do when you're not working? - Jenn

2009-11-09T19:09:00.005-06:00

What a coincidence, Anette bakes chocolate chip cookies in her spare time and I eat them in mine. :)

Let's see, what do I do with my time? I have no idea. I was going to write about how I enjoy sewing and gardening but to be honest, I haven't gardened all summer. And the last time I sewed anything was about two months ago. I wonder if other mom's have this issue. It seems like I'm busy all the time, but I'm not sure what I'm doing or if I'm accomplishing anything. Take this evening for instance. I got my son off the school bus. Made dinner. Made sure my son was doing his homework on the computer. Ate dinner. Helped the other kid with her hair and got her out the door for her event. Reminded the first kid to finish his homework. Washed the dinner dishes. Again, told kid number one to focus on his homework and to stop playing with all the formatting options in MS Word. Watched 15 minutes of the news on TV. Finally ended up hovering over the computer to make sure the boy was finishing his homework and not playing with the fonts in Word. Then I took my son to the library so he could pick out some new books. While there, we played a board game. Then we went to Target to buy a b-day present for the neighbor boy. Then I came home, watched another 15 minutes of TV while the kiddos were getting their pajamas on. Then we cuddled and read a chapter of Paddington. After everyone was tucked in (for the second time) I wrote this blog post and drew the little hamster to go with it which brings us up to 10 p.m.

You know, I'm kind of glad I wrote this. I was feeling bad about not having time to garden and sew much lately. But by taking the time to list out everything I did tonight, I no longer feel like I'm just spinning my wheels.

What do you do when you're not working? - Anette

2009-11-09T07:58:00.003-06:00

- I go for walks or run in my neighborhood. I feel so lucky to live near the ocean. It's beautiful around here.
- I read books (novels, chapter books for children, picture books).
- I watch tv (it makes me relax).
- For the last year (after we moved into our house) I've had a lot of small projects going on in the house and garden. I love decorating, and there's always something to do.
- Something I've also started doing after we moved in is baking. Chocolate cookies, yum!

Where is your favorite place to go to get inspiration? - Anette

2009-11-02T03:12:00.002-06:00

My favorite place to go for inspiration is definitely the magic world of books. I've always loved all kind of books. I love reading novels, looking at picture books and flipping through design books. They all inspire me in different ways!

My very first illustration assignment - Anette

2009-10-26T05:38:00.001-06:00

After working with graphic design for a while I got my first illustration assignment about 7,5 years ago. It was this mural that I painted at a local cultural center. The text stays "Play corner." My illustration style has changed quite a bit since then...

What Have You Been Inspired By Lately?--Paula

2009-10-22T13:14:00.005-06:00

Lately, yes, I've been finding my inspiration in the social networking tools Twitter and Facebook. Most of my associations on Twitter are illustrators, authors, designers, etc., so the chit-chat is primarily about what one is working on, what inspires/interests/amuses them, and so on. It's akin to working alone in a studio, but right next to me, a group has gathered, and I can over-hear these conversations. Participate or lurk--whatever--I'm energized (though sometimes over-whelmed!) by the stimuli. Seeing these others in creative-mode makes me want to be creative, too.

My website and blog.

What have you been inspired by lately? - Anette

2009-10-19T02:42:00.002-06:00

Last weekend, during my trip to London, I got inspired by a wonderful exhibition of Beatrix Potter's work at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I got to see all the original illustrations from the book "The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies." They also had several sketches from the book, including her original book dummy! Isn't that amazing?

Postcard Mailers

2009-10-10T00:00:00.002-06:00

We just completed our 9th postcard mailer as a group. Here's a little re-cap of all we've done:

Our very first mailer for Winter '07:

We changed up the format for our Spring '07 with 5 of us on front and 2 on the back:

Summer '07:

Fall '07:

Valentine's '08:

Summer '08:

Fall '08:

Spring '09:

Fall '09 we made some changes. New logo & layout:

If you are a publishing professional that would like to be added to our mailing list, you can sign-up here (we also do an email newsletter).

Jannie's Fall Postcard Illustration

2009-10-09T08:58:00.003-06:00

For our Fall postcard mailer, I wanted to focus on the color palette in my illustration. Fall has such distinctive colors, so why not use it? Here is my little secret: I went to colourlovers.com for some inspiration-and found this palette-"Autumn feeling." It is such a great place to go to break out of the same old colors one tend to always use.
-Jannie

Susan's Fall Illustration

2009-10-09T07:16:00.005-06:00

I had two similar ideas for this promo - one with a mole and the other with a hedgehog. I painted the mole in acrylic and the hedgehog in watercolour.
I wasn't sure about the mole picture in the end, I think I over painted it and the colours were too strong...

I prefered the softness of the watercolour, so the hedgehog won...

Paula's Fall Postcard Illustration

2009-10-08T08:56:00.007-06:00

Below is my illustration for our IFK fall postcard. I have also included some earlier color versions and rough sketches and ideas working up to the final piece. I obviously decided to use a bear as the main character early on in the process. I changed the color background to blue to add more contrast when there seemed to be a lot of yellows and oranges on the other IFKer's images.

My blog & website

Holli's Fall Illustration

2009-10-07T05:38:00.001-06:00

This is my contribution to our mailer done in my clay style. I love doing little woodland animals!

Fall Postcard - Jenn

2009-10-06T06:57:00.004-06:00

Here's my image for our fall mailing. My eight-year-old son asked, "hey mom, what's up with the giant pumpkin?" When I said I wasn't really sure. He proceeded to tell me how he thought the pumpkin was going to start rocking, roll down the hill, crush the girl and then smash in the bushes behind her. He punctuated each step with an gleefully evil snigger and various crushing noises. Sigh, I had no idea I had created such a violent image.

Fall postcard - Anette

2009-10-05T08:03:00.002-06:00

This is my illustration for the fall mailer we just sent out. I love the colors of fall!

Jenn with be at Gibson's in Concord this Weekend

2009-10-05T06:28:00.001-06:00

I'll be at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH this weekend. And now that I see all the great stuff they've got going on there, I'm completely bummed that it isn't closer to my house. Check out all the happenings this month at Gibson's

I'll be there this Saturday at 10:00 am along with children's book author Marty Kelley, the author and illustrator of "The Messiest Desk" and Jean Cochran the author of the book I illustrated, "On a Dark, Dark Night." Marty and Jean will be reading their books and I will be doing a drawing demo and a craft project. So if you are in the area, please stop by with the kids.