Two of my Favorite Things....

(Lemurs and Unicorns)
I felted these a while ago --finally getting around to posting them.

This unicorn is loosly based off "The Unicorn in Captivity" tapestry which is one of my favorite pieces of art.  I dyed the wool with tea to make it more off-white and the horn and hooves are made out of sculpey.

In other news, I'm trying to update my website......I wish I knew what I was doing....

Scribble Scrabble

Really want to get back to playing with my markers more-there's just something about drawing on real paper.....

Sketch page from this week's life drawing session at Nick,
she was a good model:

Random sketch stuff:









Red jacket boy
at the mall.

Hat Girl, from another 

life drawing session:

 meh...

A smudged old foxy drawing I never posted:

BTW, my publisher has a new pdf catalog-click to check out all the cool books:

Remember to Breathe

Seems I forget about this blog more and more-sorry to anyone who actually still visits.  Currently I'm in the thick of illustrating the next Zodiac book, Year of the Horse which is taking up much of my nights and also designing loads of props at my day job at Nickelodeon.  Definitely grateful for these opportunities but it can be tough finding a calm balance between life and work sometimes.  It's important to remember to take breaks and I felt the urge to update this blog but was struggling with finding something post-able so here's a bunch of random doodles.  Just sketching for myself seems elusive lately but I am really trying to get a doodle out whenever possible.  I often feel self-conscious about sharing some of this stuff online since alot of it doesn't really feel too "blog worthy" and is mostly just unrefined scribble scrabble (most of which is hidden away in a shoebox).  But I think doodling is like breathing-you shouldn't have to think about it too much but it's important to keep doing it...... 

 

Dogs have been on my mind lately

(I'm hoping to adopt one in the near future)

Annoyed Bobcat-think I drew this a year ago-I always forget to date my pages:

Unicorns are therapeutic, even weird ones with whiskers-
I need to draw more of them:

Rosie the donkey from the equestrian center where I was doing "research" for Year of the Horse:

Research! :

A marker zebra drawn while watching a nature show on the equines:

Live peoples drawn somewheres:

Until my next break....Doodle-on!

Figure Drawing...

From today's lunchtime session at Nick:

Suzie the Snake Feltie

She's about 3 feet long and was super fun to make:

 

Suzie had a blast sharing her story and meeting kids at the Riverside LunarFest, Bowers Museum, Kidspace Children's Museum and the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena with me recently.

Below are pics from her adventures at the Huntington, she's very photogenic!

The Year of the Dragon's Not Over Yet...

Lily and Suzie encounter a fresh cast of zodiac animals in The Year of the Snake including this She-Dragon.......is she a friend or foe?

A Scaly New Friend

Lily's grandparents at first aren't so pleased when she brings home her new friend Suzie the Snake but they'll soon find out this serpent is special. 

Rough lineup from Year of the Snake.

Happy New Year!

Suzie the Snake, her pal Lily, and her parents are excited for the new year!
Another character study from Year of the Snake.

Now Available!

Hey there everybody!
Well, this year sure flew by at dragon speed but I want to announce the release of the next installment of the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series, The Year of the Snake that I once again had the privilege to illustrate.  Just in time for the the holidays, this story stars Suzie the snake and her human pal Lily along with a new cast of animal characters.  The final cover is above and I included a few of my early development sketches below.
It was challenging to design a snake who would be both appealing and lovable (and also a girl )-since snakes lack in limbs there wasn't much to work with when designing her which was part of the challenge (I had to think up other ways to make her unique such as through color and pattern) Snakes aren't creatures I've spent much time drawing in general but I've come to appreciate them more while working on this book-they really are fascinating critters and I hope kids who read the book will discover that snakes are awesome too.  Working alongside author Oliver Chin once again I had a lot of fun illustrating this book and I'll be doing some book signing/reading events in the upcoming months of 2013.  Please head over to the Immedium website for more info here.  Thanks!

Marvelous Mythical Creatures

Dug up some more zany, weird stuff from my Flapjack days....These gals were fun though not the most attractive of creatures:

More sillyness:

Blogger sure is wonky to use lately....*sigh*

Some More Felties

Here's a couple more felted critters I made a while ago:

Corgi

Remembering An Old Friend

Just a little memory painting of the dog I used to have.
She was a sweetheart, I miss her.