Monday, August 01, 2011

CHEER!

I told you I had a lot of stuff to share, and I wasn't kidding!

About a year ago I was asked if I'd be interested in illustrating a series of books about a teenage girl.  That sounds kinda cool, right?  BUT, her primary interest in life, besides boys, and clothes, was cheerleading.  I know most of you don't know me personally, but perhaps you can tell by the overall impression of moi that you get from this blog,  that I could give a care about cheerleading, or school spirit, or anything remotely involved with liking high school at all.  I didn't enjoy high school one bit, myself, and I was about as far from a cheerleader as you could get.

It sounded like such an un-ME project that I almost said no.  But then I said yes.

And now those books exist, in the world, and my name is on them!

The first two books (in a series of five) are out now, and although they're chapter books they are riddled with illustrations.  I plucked a few of my favorites out to share with yous!




The illustrations are meant to be doodles and sketches by the narrator/star of the book series, a teenage girl named Maddy.  She wants to be a cheerleader SO BAD which I SO CAN'T relate to, but she is also an artist, and I CAN relate to doing silly drawings of things!

            Like wishing your nerdy best friend would dress cuter...



...or your best friend making faces at you...





...and getting dagger eyeballs from mean girls!




  It's a trip to see my own handwriting in a book.





 Ultimately, I'm really happy that I decided to jump into this book series.  The sketches are fun I make a point of forcing them to be interesting by inking them with a brush pen.  That way I can't noodle them forever (like in photoshop) and you get little spontaneous surprises sometimes.





  Plus they are supposed to be kind of wiggly and sketchy.  It's hard for me to avoid making them all clean and nice sometimes, tho...




So that's what I've been up to.  I wish I knew more tween-age girls, cuz I love to know what the intended audience thinks of the books.  

Now, back to work!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I remember when you were a "creative writing" student at CSSSA, and now look at you, Ms. professional Illustrator! Well done!

(plus, like you said, your writing is technically also in the book, so win-win!)

B-squared said...

cool stuff, keep up the ood work

Daron Leah Nefcy said...

great drawings! I would want to buy this book as a kid (even though I can't relate to cheer leading either) but the drawings would get me

Felipe Nascimento said...

grat style and doodles, can't wait to see more :)

aida said...

woa! very impressive and cool!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh the magic of lip-gloss...
Not that I would know!
These are fantastic Brigette :D

I especially like the "shooting-daggers" illustration.

That might make-for a great App' (especially when using public transportation).

Thanks for posting.

Andrea Fernandez said...

I'm way passed being a tween...but I like it!

Emily said...

These illustrations are really charming. Congratulations! :)

Courtney Garvin said...

love your drawings

Evealushion said...

i think i would like to read the book, love the illistrations. when does it come out?