Thursday, September 12, 2013

where does kitty go in the rain?




It's been a looooooooong summer, guys.  
It started out great with trips and anticipation, but it ended in the most bummer-est way possible.  Without getting into too, too much detail, there was a death in my husband's immediate family and any of you out there who have lost someone close to you know how that goes...it SUCKS. 

But sucky times seem to be drawing to a close now, and we're moving forward into fall!

School is starting!  It's my third year teaching at CalArts in the Character Animation department, and it is pretty fantastic. 

Me and Sean have an anniversary/birthday trip to look forward to in October!

It will no longer be one-billion-million-jillion degrees outside!  (Those of you in Los Angeles know what I mean: it's been freaking HOT.)

I have a couple big, important, awesome projects that I get to dive into head first!

It's all good stuff!


These illustrations are from a book I illustrated for Blue Apple LAST summer.  That's one of the toughest things about working in publishing.  You have to wait THIS LONG to share stuff!

It's an e-book, for the iPad and such, but I understand that it's going to be printed eventually as well.  I didn't actually know that while I was illustrating it, however, so there's a lot of things resting in the "gutter" on these pages.  Gutter is the fancy word for 'middle of the page where the crease in the book usually is'.  A good rule of thumb for all you would-be illustrators: don't put things in the gutter.  




The story is very cute and simple: a little girl wonders where her cat hangs out when it's raining outside, and she goes out to find him, and sees bugs and worms and stuff.

This is the title page.  I really like how that cloud turned out.  


I played with color a LOOOOOT on this project.  It would have been easy, but super dreary, to make every page gray and blue and rainy looking.  Instead I decided to try making the background colors different shades of desaturated, soft color, so it feels cool and rainy but not out and out sad.


And then yeah...the sun breaks out at the end and girlfriend finds her kitty!  I think this is my favorite spread, probably because I can very accurately remember squeezing my own cat in this exact fashion.  



17 comments:

Missy said...

I looked at this with my four year old, and she LOVED It.
You have such great style!

Ms. Dee said...

Ahhh I love these so much! I'm very sorry to hear about the bummer times though. :(

thenewwittys said...

aw, i am sorry about your hubby's loss! i didn't know you worked at CalArts--that has to be SUPER cool. Also, I want this book SO much. Your pretty much nailed the colors and as always, the characters. Love it so much.
ps, i also have a annv coming in oct
and pss. you don't know what hot is until you come to texas.

MemedForChidren said...

I really LOVED it :)
so inspiring me so much♥

Unknown said...

Lovely illustrations! I hope the next few months are better : ) Thank you for sharing your awesome work!

Ashley Perez said...

These are adorable and beautiful!I love your style.

Jeca Martinez said...

I love this!!! Where can i download the storybook app? :)

mélanie daigle said...

Lovely, beautiful stuff. Those cute wormies are the best! :)

Anonymous said...

I Love this... inspiring

Anonymous said...

thumbs up... good job

Unknown said...

lovely

Michaele Razi said...

Fantastic!

Amanda Del Rei said...

Loved it!!! You're very talented!

Bethany Rose said...

Crying cos I want to live in your artwork :')

The picture of the girl hugging the cat is so wonderful. And it's so awesome that you studied and teach at Calarts! I went to CSM but I always thought Calarts was the coolest :)))

I'm so sorry you had a sucky summer, sending good vibes your way <3

love Bethany

xox

Karoeza said...

It's beautiful. I would buy it if it comes out in print :)

Anonymous said...

I don't know why but i love the last picture... the color of sky and sun

Aaron Ludwig said...

Sorry for your loss. Thanks for continuing to make others happy with your art!