Supah Mash Up Art Party

I have been collaborating with my friend

Jerrod Maruyama for a show at the always wonderful

Leanna Lin's Wonderland. It is a "celebration of

cute collaborative art." After big huge lofty

plans we decided on doing a tribute to Studio Ghibli.

We collaborated on pieces based on Ponyo, 

each taking a character and a background.

 This is a Spirited Away piece I did on my own.

Gotta love the Radish Spirit!

Jerrod also did a Princess Mononoke piece that is spectacular!

We also collaborated on a big Totoro piece that I will

show you after the show goes up, which is Saturday May 11th

from 6 - 10. I will be there and as usual square.  

I also did a collaboration with Susie Ghahremani!!

She will be there signing her awesome book What Will Hatch?

Sounds like a good night! See you there.

Doctor Dolittle's Wall Of Friends

Here is a piece that I did of Doctor Dolittle

for a show about movies at Susanita's Little Gallery.

The show starts Monday and has tons of amazing 

artists involved doing all your favorite movies.

Ebony - Relationship Milestones

I had the great opportunity to work on some illustrations

for Ebony magazine about relationship milestones.

I did the title image along with four other spots.

I really like the colors in the title page. 

All the elements work separately but also as a whole.

I tried to work those colors into the spots in the next spread.

I think this is a pretty good looking spread! 

There is a ton of information but the 

spots really help to break it all up.

A million billion thanks to Lynn Galloway for the

wonderful art direction! She is awesome!! 

Twice Upon A Marigold

As I was doing Once Upon A Marigold

I was also designing and cutting the other two.

Twice Upon A Marigold is just as fun as

the first with a lot charm and great detail.

The first sketch I had doesn't work for obvious reasons.

But I went back and made the title more prominent.

 It was getting closer. 

I just needed to switch some elements around

We were happy with this sketch so I started to cut it.

I always tweak little things here and there

while i'm cutting so I can get the composition I want.

I like it but some of the colors needed to be changed

and a few letters were hard to read.

So I fixed those. Here a few details:

I like how the water looks going to the back of the book.

It's a nice little touch that I wanted on all three covers. 

I really like how the colors on this one turned out

and I think it goes really well with the first book as well.

The book is available here and at your local bookseller.

You can glimpse an image of the third Marigold

cover on the back of Twice. That book comes April 16th.

I'll tell you about it then. Thanks again to 

Elizabeth Tardiff for the amazing art direction!

Once Upon A Marigold

Last year I got to work on the covers for

reissues of the Marigold series by Jean Ferris.

They are wonderful fairy tale/ fantasy books for

pre-teens with lots of great characters and details.

For the cover, they wanted those details to
interact with the title of the book. I drew elements as

I read the book. Here was the sketch I  

came up with as I read the book.

They liked the dogs but wanted me to show more castle. 

I went back to the drawing board and refined it.

I tightened up a few elements and went to finish.

Here are a few details: 

 

And here it is in book form. I love it!

The book is available here and at you local book seller. 

I'm really happy with how it came out. 

Especially with how it works alongside

the other two. But i'll show you those later.

Thanks to Elizabeth Tardiff for the absolutely 

wonderful art direction!

Oz - Behind The Curtain

Here is a piece I did for the new show at Gallery Nucleus, 

Not In Kansas Anymore: A Tribute to The Wizard Of Oz.

My favorite thing about The Wizard of Oz has always been

the wizard. There's this huge build up about him and he 

turns out to be such a groveling, sweaty, little man. 

But I mostly liked him because I thought it was really 

funny that he thought he could hide behind a curtain. 

It's so silly!! So here is Toto finding the Wizard. 

I wanted to make something that looked simple

but was intricate and complex.

And because I am equally silly, I actually cut out all of

the wizard and his machine back there, even though

you only see a little sliver of it.

I'm excited to see Oz The Great and Powerful and i'm 

excited about this show. See you there!!

Children's Wallet Cards Kickstarter

I am going to take part in an awesome Kickstarter

It's perfect for little kids, especially ones who love putting

everything in their mouth!
I will be illustrating wallet sized plastic learning cards
all about people on the GO!

It is a great project with two other artists also doing

different themed decks. There are lots of extras 

for donating. There's even the option of buying one and

donating one!! I'm excited about this.

Check out the page and please spread the word

to everyone who you think would like this project. 

  

Mega Man's Best Friend

Tonight I have a piece in the Press Paws 

show at Gallery Nucleus. It's a one

night only show to benefit What's Up Dog? 

and it's all about video games and pets.

This bear piece will also be auctioned off.

It's very shiny and gold in real life. =) 

This is a great show benefiting a great cause

so get there if you can. 

The New Yorker

I got an early Christmas present this year.

The New Yorker asked me to do a smattering

of snow and holiday cheer for a Christmas poem.

Here it is in the magazine:

It was a very fun job.

I love cutting snowflakes!!

Everyone have a Happy Holiday!!

Edutopia - How To Thank A Teacher

I had the great opportunity to create a 

 third guide for Edutopia this year.

This one is about a great subject:

How To Thank ATeacher!

Just in time for the holidays!

As it was with the other guides, I did the 

border, cover, and spots on the inside. 

I even cut that Edutopia logo up on top! 

This guide has tons of useful information about 

gift giving and ways of showing appreciation for

the remarkable people that are teachers.

I wasn't sure about my idea of the apple peel 

looking like it said "thank you" but I think it 

turned out pretty nice. Here are a few other spots.

 There were even a couple that didn't make the cut.

No pun intended. 

An appreciation sticker and the ugliest sweater ever!

These guides have been really fun to illustrate.

It's everything I love to draw and an amazing client.

You can get the whole guide here at their site where

you can get the other two guides I did as well. 

I feel like me and Edutopia are a match made in heaven.  

Giant Robot Post It Show 8

I have the awesome honor of being in 

Giant Robot's Eighth Post It Show!

The show starts Saturday December 8th at 6 PM.

There are soo many amazing artist, so get there early.

More details here.

Halloween!

Here are some Halloween wallpapers just for you.

All together now!

Have a good halloween everybody!!