The Neighborhood Party printed

I finally got this block carved and printed! It's for my dummy of The Rest of the World. I have to let the ink dry for a few days and then I can paint it. It might be hard to see the details, but the two main characters in the second house from the right are throwing a winter holiday party. There is cake, dancing and a snowball fight!

New Cards

I have a new line of cards! Some of these images started out life a few years ago as cards but they didn't really get off the ground. I have taken lots of new photos for this set. They look great in the display at Lyon's Drugstore here in Steamboat. I'll post a photo later.

Starting a linocut

It's not very glamorous but there are a lot of steps to starting a new print. I cut a piece of masonite and a piece of linoleum to size and glue them together.
Then I use a large piece of tracing paper and redraw the whole image.

I flip the tracing paper upside down on the mounted linoleum and rub the back with a metal tool or bone folder. This transfers the pencil lines onto the block backwards.

I usually draw over the transfered lines again because they are light and can start to vanish if you rub your arm across them while carving.

Then I get to start carving!

I want to get this print done ASAP so I can use the image to make postcards to take with me to the LA SCBWI conference- in 6 weeks! I need to get this and another print done so I can include them in my dummy to bring also. Oh boy :)

Ripple

One of my favorite things to draw is water- maybe you can tell by the way the ocean is rippling through this print. I'm going to try to make a piece for Kelly Light's fundraiser Ripple next week to raise money to help animals affected by the oil spill. 

This print of North America is part of a series I've been working on a long time. In a couple months I'll be ready to start an edition of artist books based on different views of the Earth called Home.

I got to print on my friend Laura's Takach press today and yesterday. Boy howdy, it sure is faster than printing by hand!

One of Us Exhibit

I wrote earlier about my friend Penny Weber's new book One of Us. For the book launch party in New York the publisher, Tilbury House also collected 4x6 illustrated self portraits from lots of artists. They were on sale to benefit Powered by Girl. There's a neat site with the exhibited artwork here. You can see my piece in this photo. Penny's is also in this photo- 4th from the left in the bottom row.

There are lots of photos and other stuff on the One of Us facebook page.

New Interview Series

I'm one of the founders and moderators of this great group of illustrators, The Visual Storytellers Studio. Just a couple of weeks ago we started a new page with interviews of our members. Tonight I posted an interview with Amal, one of the wonderful women in my critique group.
The previous interview is with Alison Lyne and you can read it when you get to the bottom of Amal's interview.

The Rest of the World is drawn!

I finished drawing all of the pages for my picture book dummy The Rest of the World. The story is about two brothers who live in a small valley all alone. They decide to climb a mountain to see the rest of the world and find some friends. (Those of you who know me may realize this has some ties to my own life!)

I need to have my fabulous art critique group look over the drawings before I work on finishing a couple of the illustrations. And I'll submit it to my writing group for their final opinions of the text. If it wasn't for my great artist and writing friends I'd feel like I lived in a small mountain valley all alone :)