Gung Hay Fat Choy y'all! Happy Year of the Dragon!

I know I'm a day late, but Happy Chinese New Year!

I sketched this guy a few weeks ago and decided he needed to come to life...a little late. This weekend I learned about the fun traditions to celebrate from my funny friend, Cindy (seriously funny, check out her blog!). We didn't pass out any red envelopes with money(maybe next year!), but we did enjoy the evening with some friends eating some delicious Chinese food and thinking about the rest of the year. Here's hoping for the BEST DRAGON YEAR EVER!

Finally! The ipad app is out there!

 

I'm so excited that I'm finally allowed to share what I've been working on for the past year! The Dressup Day with Misa Mouse and Friends, ipad app game is launching today! It was a lot of work and a lot of learning, but so fun to do. 

So the in the game, you unlock each costume treasure box to "win" or unlock each costume. Then you can dress up each character however you like and take them to the "puppet stage" to pretend play.  I think Pickles the Pup is my favorite character to dress. It was like a game itself coming up with the costume pieces for each character. It made me think about my Fashion Plates that I was obsessed with as a kid, but only way better! I always felt limited with those things. Man, if there were only iPads around back then.

My son really loves it. He only dresses Camo Cat up as a Cowboy though and takes him to the desert to stand on a cactus and giggle. It so cute to watch him make the characters talk to each other in their funny voices. He always makes me be a princess. I love dressing them up in different goofy outfits and that drives my 3 year old nuts, "NO! That princess dress doesn't go with the cowboy hat!" and then proceeds with the face palm.

It's now available on itunes, if you want to check it out (or buy it!). I really hope it does well. I really like it. Quacking Frog Productions put the game out and I'm so grateful that they chose me to help create such a fun project.

Tomie de Paola Award Update

*UPDATE!*

Check out the awesome winners of the contest here.
You can also see a lot of the submissions put together by Diandra Mae.  (So great that she took that on!) I love seeing them all together.

SCBWI Tomie dePaola Art Contest

So at the last minute after all of my final school projects were done, and only one freelance assignment to do, I threw together a submission to the Tomie dePaola Art contest a few days ago and turned it in yesterday. I hope it's not too obvious how much I rushed it.  Now that I'm done, I see all kinds of stuff I'd like to change. That's what I get for being a "Last Minute Sally".

Here is the scene we were to illustrate:

So they went along and went along until they met Turkey Lurkey

“Good morning, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Daddles, Cocky Locky, Henny Penny,
and Chicken Licken,” said Turkey Lurkey, “where are you going?”
“Oh, Turkey Lurkey, the sky is falling and we are going to tell the King!”
“How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Turkey Lurkey.
“Ducky Daddles told me,” said Goosey Loosey.
“Cocky Locky told me,” said Ducky Daddles.
“Henny Penny told me,” said Cocky Locky.
“Chicken Licken told me,” said Henny Penny
“I saw it with my own eyes, I heard it with my own ears,
and a piece of it fell on my tail!” said Chicken Licken.
“Then I will go with you,” said Turkey Lurkey, “and we will tell the King!”

Is my turkey "Lurky" enough? My Goose "Loosey" enough? Ducky Daddles makes me laugh, though in his big goofy glasses. Watchout for "Squirrely Whirly...he's a punk.

Now that I've seen a few other entries, I'm wishing I had spent more time on it. At least I have a new portfolio piece out of it! 

Hey! I hope you bunnies and squirrels have a warm and wonderful Holiday season! I'm working on getting back to the swing of this illustration gig after this school semester is over.

Light at the end of the tunnel!

I can see it! It's getting brighter!...the end of the school semester is almost here. After so much web design and coding, I can't wait to dive back into drawing again...oh and then there is Christmas!. Phew!

I'll be back soon!

Flashback style

Yesterday I was dropping of lil' Ro at his daycare and saw one of my old books from my old gig as a staff illustrator laying slightly tattered on the floor. It made me flash back to a time when I was happily drawing in my little cubicle, with my knick knacks in place, and money funneling weekly into my 401k and the stability of it all made me feel panicky. I miss having a full-time job sometimes. Just showing up and ticking down a list of fun projects was nice, clock out at 4:30...done. I didn't have to market myself, or pound the pavement for new work, it just showed up on my desk. This freelance stuff is fun, and exciting, but the unknown sometimes creeps in and scares the heck out of me. I also miss having co-workers to chat with or ask questions or advice.

I also noticed how differently I draw now. I still love the soft look of the watercolors in Painter. Maybe I'll do some experimenting again when my deadlines slow down some.

On a side note, I mentioned to Ro's teacher that I illustrated that book (I didn't mention the 5 others on the bookshelf..) This morning, Ro's teacher gave me a sharpie to sign her book. I felt like a total dork, a very flattered dork though. :)