uni the unicorn

Today is a very important day.  Today, Uni the Unicorn comes out!

I know I've mentioned this before, but one the big bummers of working in publishing is that you have to wait a loooooooooong time before you can really spill the beans and share a project.  I finished the art for this book last November, and since then I've been going crazy because honestly, I love this book. And that's not the babbling of an ego-maniac, either!  A book is a group effort, with the illustrator, writer, art director, designer, editor, and MANY others working together.  It's just very rare and special when everyone is on the same exact page throughout the process.  So, so, SO very rare and special!

I knew I wanted to illustrate this book as soon as I read the text.  This is kinda (usually) how it works: my agent will send me a text, that's just the words of the book, and I'll read through it and think about it, and talk to her about it, and try and decide if it's something that's right for me to illustrate.  This process did not happen on Uni.  I got an email with the text attached to it, I read it, and I immediately called my agent and said "GET ME THAT BOOK!  GET IT! I WANT IT!!!"  That was in December of 2012.  Feels like a billion years ago!

The process usually continues like this: I get in touch with the editor and receive art notes (written notes about what image should be on what page) and then start sketches.  For Uni, I got to make the art notes myself, which was so fun and awesome, and I almost can't believe that a total kid's book rock star super pro like Amy would trust me enough to do that, but she did!  

So much of the book is about Uni's wishing, and thinking, and dreaming about having a little girl for a friend.  I tried to show those ideas, but the way a child would experience them.  Like when you are 6 years old and obsessed with having a bunny and all you draw is bunnies for months on end.

You know that feeling.  That's the feeling that Uni has!

I'd also like to point out that Uni is not specifically a boy or a girl...there is no pronoun ever used to describe how Uni is feeling or what Uni is doing!  I've read a few reviews that describe Uni as a "she" and I find it odd...I was always thinking of Uni as this magical, genderless creature!  

Thinking of Uni as just Uni was helpful to the book overall I think, because let's be honest: a book about a unicorn?  That could have ended up completey pink and fluffy and rainbow sprinkles and cotton candy looking (which I have nothing against, by the by).  I think it's much more interesting as is though, since it never quite veers into completely "girl" territory.  It could have easilly been a story about a little boy and a velociraptor, if you switched out a few words.  

But yeah, there are some rainbows in there too, because c'mon, how could you NOT have rainbows in a book about unicorns?!

a smart girl's guide to money

I'm going to be doing more posts like this one soon.  That is, posts where I get to reveal a project that has been done for what feels like an eternity!  

I illustrated this book, A Smart Girls' Guide to Money, and it's partner, Making Money, almost a year ago.  I just got a big old box of them on my doorstep a few days ago, and I have to admit, no matter how many times it happens, it's always exciting to see your work in print and bound together as a book.

These books in particular are very, VERY dense with illustration.  There was at a least an illustration per page, and sometimes multiple illustrations or images that spread across more than one page.  A lot of work, in other words!

Things I had to learn while working on these books:

-how to design stacks of money in an appealing way

-how to design a box of receipts in an appealing way

-how to draw girls of every body type and ethnicity between the ages of 8 and 12 (it was easy to go to young and too old and I did both at times...the tweenage years are tough to draw!)

-how to design an illustration that packs many, many ideas into itself at once (the art notes for this book were DETAILED)

-how to have fun with an idea that could otherwise be very dry, like illustrating some credit cards, or a bank building. I had to make it fun for myself.  

Anyway, the books are published by American Girl (yes, THAT American Girl!) and they'll be available next month.  I have to admit, even though I'm supposed to be a grown up lady, I actually did learn a lot about money from reading the text as I worked on it.  It's VERY smart, and yet very easy to understand, and if you know a young girl with an entrepreneurial spirit, I'd say you've found yourself a birthday/Xmas/whatever gift if there ever was one.   Here's your sneak peak at what's inside!

stage and play pricesses + give away!

Long time no see!

I thought it was about time I had another give-away, not just because I have a whole box of Stage and Play Princesses, but also to breath some life into this crusty, neglected old blog!

Stage and Play Princesses is based on my book, Twelve Dancing Princesses, the simplest way to describe it is to say that it's a kind of toy theater, but more toy than anything else.  It's made out of heavy, thick cardboard, and the box has a drawer on the front so that all the pieces can get tucked away when play is done.  

Pretty cool, huh??  I remember having toys sorta like this as a kid, like paper dolls and a cardboard castle, but nothing as nicely made or inviting as this.  My inner child is freaking out over this thing.  

There are a LOT of pieces, including four different back drops, a horse drawn carriage, 15 different princesses, a king and queen, a cat, a tree, a bunny, a chair a dog, a pig, a tea party...tons of stuff!!

OK OK, here's the give away part!

 GIVE AWAY!!! 

The rules: 

• Leave your e-mail address in a comment to this post.
• I'll use an random number generator to pick a winner!
• US residents only please.  Yes I know, but these things are kinda heavy so int'l shipping is not an option...this time around, at least.  International folks, don't worry...I'll have a less hefty giveaway soon.
• I'll pick a winner on March 29!!
• Yayayayayayay!

PS: Please don't be alarmed or confused when your comment doesn't appear immediately after you post it.  I have comments moderation turned on, to keep my blog free of robot spam and haters! There's no need to repost, and your comment ought to appear within a few hours. :)

OR, if you're not a risk-taker, you can get a set the old fashioned way: buy it on the internet!

They are available at the Chronicle Books website 

and on Amazon, because everything is on Amazon.

Please notice my dog is in this set.  Yep, that's Lila!

(Cat for scale.) (Also, she just wouldn't go away.)

(Cat drawings below for fun.)

hey where can I get a print of that???

I get a lot of e-mails asking me exactly this, and I end up sending back identical replies, so I thought I'd save us all some time and effort and just give it to you straight, all at once!

I think I've been getting more and more of these emails lately because people are quickly getting into holiday gift-giving mode.  I have to admit, the idea of someone giving another someone some of my art as a present is preeeeeeettttttttyyyy awesome.  If you are one of those people, then let me just say: thank you ever so!!!

Places you can buy prints of my work:

WWA Gallery has prints of Rose Red and Snow White 1 & 2, and In the Pomegranate Forest.

These are limited edition prints, so if you want one then you'd best hop on it!

Gallery Nucleus has a prints of my Beatles piece, Fab Four. 

Nucleus also has several pieces of original artwork of mine from past shows that are still available, if you're a big spender and you feel like making my day.  

If you are searching for my princess goodies, you can get those either on AMAZON or from the CHRONICLE BOOKS website. 

I know my Chronicle Books goodies are available at lots of other places as well, but I don't honestly know where!  They don't tell me that stuff.  It's sorta fun, because I'll see my book or matching game pop up randomly at a gift store  or something from time to time (I found it in the gift store at the Getty Center!).  But it's also a little annoying because I feel like I should have known it was there already.  In any case: it makes little to no difference to me personally WHERE you choose to buy them, and I usually tell people to just go to Amazon because it's always a couple bucks cheaper.  

I know there are lots you reading this right now saying 

"HEY, I WANTED A PRINT OF THAT OTHER THING THAT'S NOT HERE!"

Well, sorry dudes!

I don't make or sell prints of my work anymore.  I used to have an etsy shop, but I simply became waaaay too busy to run an online store all by myself, and be a children's book illustrator, and teach at CalArts, and have an actual life with a husband and dog and cat and friends and all that.  As prints become available here and there, I will surely let you all know about it!  

In the meantime, happy shopping!

princess abc flash cards + GIVEAWAY!

I've been working with Chronicle Books on some new Twelve Dancing Princesses themed goodies.   Wanna see??

Here they are: Princess ABC Flash Cards!  Illustrated by yours truly.

You can get them from the Chronicle Books website, 

or from Amazon (of course, everything is on Amazon).

OR 

...you can enter the GIVEAWAY to win one!!

The rules: 

• Leave your e-mail address in a comment to this post.
• I'll use an random number generator to pick a winner!
• US residents only please.  Yes I know, but these things are kinda heavy so int'l shipping is not an option...this time around, at least.  
• I'll pick a winner on October 21!
• Yayayayayayay!

The giveaway is closed!  Thank you to everyone who entered!

Let's take a look at these things!

A little info: the characters are based on my book Twelve Dancing Princesses, and artwork from my Princess Matching Game.

They come in this neat little box, so when you're not learning your ABC's you can stow them away!

They are made of heavy, cat-proof cardboard so they won't bend or rip unless you try REALLy hard!

They also have round edges so little hands won't poke them into little eyes.

Here's a few of my favorite cards!  There are 26, naturally, but it would make this post very verrrryyyyy long to post all 26 of them.

If you have the previously mentioned Princess Matching Game, you're probably having deja-vu right now.  That's because a good portion of artwork for these cards was up-cycled from the matching game. 

 Why did I use a dorky word like up-cycle?  Because a funny thing happens when you take artwork from a 2" card and blow it up to 6":  it needs to be adjusted, and spruced up, and man, does it ever look different when it's bigger!  And three years have gone by!

I had to do a lot of adjusting and composing and photoshop magic to make the old artwork useable.  Fortunately for me, I tend to keep EVERYTHING on separate layers in photoshop and label each layer meticulously, so opening up the old files was not too bad.  But it WAS still a lot of work.

Here's the king and queen from the matching game.  The biggest differences are little things: the king's medals got more refined, and so did the queen's pearls.  They looked so blobby when I resized them!  I also had to adjust her dress shape and re-do all the details in her hair.  It was like they both got make-overs!

...and then some of the cards are just entirely new artwork, like this horse draw carriage! H is for Horse drawn carriage!

R is for Princess Rose:  Princess Rose got a make-over, and like all the princesses on these cards she also got her name-sake flower put in her hand.  

J is for Jewels!  I loved working on this card.   

N is for Nighttime: I like this one a lot.  It's a friendly kinda nighttime.

Y is for Yawn:  This is straight out of the book!

M is for Marigold.  Marigold made the cover of the box.

S is for Shoes...I love this card.

And I is for Iris.  I like this one because Iris sort of looks like she's pretending her iris is a microphone.  

It was definitely a unique experience re-visiting my own artwork.  Usually you put something out there and that's it, it's done, no do-overs.  I never imagined I'd get the chance to go back and fix/tweak/refine these gals.  

Stay tuned for a winner to be announced next week!!

...and PS: did you notice that cute little black doggy on the front of the box??

That's my cute little black doggy!

Her name is Lila!

That's a little fun-fact trivia nugget for you.