my workplace

The lovely graphic designer and illustrator, Christine Clemmensen, has tagged me to post some photos of my workplace. My 1st reaction was, "No way, it's a mess!", but then I thought, "It's supposed to be a mess". If it wasn't, nothing creative would be happening there! (I did do a quick clean up before I snapped the pics! I am a Virgo, after all.)

These photos are of my basement studio space, where I do my mixed media paintings. I get to share this space with the weedeater, old furniture, left over yard sale items, etc., but I mange to hide most of that stuff under tables and behind panels, so it feels more like an art studio. A lot of my illustration work is done on the computer, which is just off of this room in another part of the basement. Nothing too exciting there, just a computer on a desk, not really worthy of a photo. So, that's it...nothing fancy, but I'm happy to have it and have spent many hours in there, listening to music or NPR and getting creative. It works for me.

I'm tagging ryan, angela, kelly, harriet and the friday frog. If you guys want to play, show us pics of your workplace and tag some others to do the same!

thinkjotdraw contest results

Wooo-hooo! I got 2nd place in the thinkjotdraw book cover contest! Well, actually, I tied for 2nd place, but it's still 2nd place! The winner of the contest, was the fabulous children's illustrator Jannie Ho, and she so deserved to win! Her entry was truly inspiring and I'm thrilled to be receiving some thinkjotdraw books with her design on the cover. The contest was judged by the super talented children's book illustrator Amanda Sheperd and you can read her comments on each entry right here. How exciting for me to be part of such a talented group of illustrators!

IF - theory

"Theory - What goes up, must come down".

oops! Poor little guy...so much for that theory! My entry for Illustration Friday this week.

A Muse window - sneak peek

Thought I'd post a little sneak peek of the props I'm working on for the A Muse retail shop window. Some cotton tailed bunnies, fun flowers made from the A Muse kitchen collection notecards, some grass and polka dotted easter eggs to hang from the ceiling with ribbon. It's going to be soooo much fun! The window goes in on Friday, right after Valentine's Day. Don't forget your special someone! I sent my Mom a box filled with goodies and a book. She got it today (a day early!) but she was so thrilled, it really made her day and it makes me happy to make her happy. You know what I mean? Happy Valentine's Day to all of you, too, lovely bloggers.

IF - choose

The topic for IF this week is perfect for what my daughter is going through right now. Here in Seattle, the Public School system is set up where you get choices in where you are going to go to school. You don't always get your first choice, but usually you do. She's in 8th grade this year and is in the process of choosing a High school. We have been on the tours of the schools over the past several weeks and collected all the literature describing the programs each school has to offer. Now it's time to make one of the biggest decisions of her young life. There are pros and cons to both schools she has narrowed it down to. So, here she is, talking on her cell phone and listening to her ipod, which is a common sight around here. Wish us luck, applications have to be in by the end of the month!

IF - blanket

A real quick and real late entry for Illustration Friday this week. I did this last night, but just got around to posting it...here it is 11 pm on Thursday night! Anyway, this little girl is a rework of a stamp I designed for A Muse a couple of years ago. On the stamp design she is holding a present, so I did a little presto-chango and she's got her blankie. Added some quick textures that I used recently in my little red riding hood illo, because they were handy and worked great with the image. The stamp design is named Annabelle, after Linda's daughter, so in this illo, she is Annabelle, as well!

i *heart* a muse

I'm super busy for the next few weeks, designing stamp images for A Muse. We are currently working on products that will be part of the huge July release that we do every year. I can't post any sneek peeks, so I thought I would post these pages I put together a while back that show some of the kids stuff and animals that I have done over the years.

I have so much fun working with Linda and coming up with new images for her stamp line...I am so blessed to be a part of such an amazing company. If you don't know much about the paper crafting business (and I didn't when I first started illustrating for it), it's a huge industry, with avid stampers and paper crafters that are incredibly enthusiastic about what they do. Most of them are avid bloggers as well. It's such a fun business to be a part of.

I *heart* A Muse.