Happy Solstice

I do not know how to draw a Siamese cat

I keep thinking I'll put a Siamese cat in my book, but then I try a to draw a Siamese cat, and realize that I had better just leave this particular cat breed out. However, should I need to draw some sort of robot cat, I think I've got a good starting point here.

Rapunzel

Jump and I'll Catch You

"Jump. Jump, my love, and I'll catch you," she said.

Taking a break from painting my book to do a little illustration for fun.

Mystery of the Mysterious Mystery

Testing out my new Blackwing pencil.

Lords and Ladies

Customizing my Lords and Ladies game with a portrait of my friend Seth.

Never Stop Reading

Just watch out for trees, traffic, open manholes, etc.

Yet another mermaid

If you know anything about me, you'll know that I love drawing mermaids and hair.

Angry squirrel

This angry squirrel inhabits the creepy woods. No one knows why he's so angry.

There are strange things afoot in the brambly woods

If you are lost in the woods, don't listen to the crows. They will almost certainly lead you astray.

Ghost boy

There's a ghost boy in the woods, at least he thinks he's a boy, it's been so long since he's been anything. He says his name is William but who knows if that's actually true; I'm sure you know how hard it is to get any real information out of a ghost. Oftentimes you'll be talking to him and then he'll just say in a dreamy voice, "I was in the apple orchard," and drift off, leaving you standing there feeling terribly lost and alone.

Sleepy kittehs

More cats.

Crazy Cat Lady

Literally.

Weird snaky cat thing - but with flowers!

So here's a weird cat doodle that I ended up painting digitally. I like cats, I like snaky things. Combine them together and BOOM! New magical cat creature.

Powers: extreme shedding (and shredding!), able to trip many people at once, can cause mild hearing loss using its purr of extraordinary loudness.

The Terrariums That No One Wanted

A couple of rejected terrarium illustrations.

House Fire

Trying a loose and messy technique.

Writing process blog tour!

I got tagged in this writing process blog tour, by the massively talented Jen Corace. I've been a fan of Jen's work for years, but have gotten to know her through the magic of Twitter. Follow her on twitter, folks. She's really funny.

(To be completely honest, I actually got tagged in this tour some time ago by the lovely Laura Zarrin, but took so long to write my post that I got tagged again.)

What am i currently working on?

I'm currently working on my debut picture book, QUACKERS, which I wrote and illustrated. It's about a cat who is rather confused about his identity.

Cat or duck: you decide

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Well, let me just lay it out here: I have a bizarre sense of humor. I fell out of a lot of trees as a child, and was raised on a steady diet of weird Japanese TV shows and terrifying picture books. All of which have combined to make me the extra special person I am now.

Why do i write what i write?

I am a very visual person, so I generally start with some odd image that pops into my head, and start wondering just what the heck is happening in this picture. How did they get here? Where are they going? How'd that bird get on that elephant's head? Etc, etc.

What's happening here? No one knows... yet.

how does my process work?

For QUACKERS, I started with an idea years ago, made the story far too complicated, and promptly misplaced the paper on which I had written out the story. Which, as it turns out, was a good thing.

Then I had a baby. This is an optional, and not necessarily recommended, part of the process. Good for the adorableness quotient of the household, bad for productivity and spare time.

Multiple years passed (due to aforementioned baby).

Eventually I emerged from the haze of sleep deprivation and remembered this story idea and wrote it out anew. Having read about 1 million picture books in the meantime (rough estimate), I ended up with a much snappier story.

I did thumbnail sketches to plot it out and make sure it fit into 32 pages, then sketched out the whole story and assembled into a dummy.

Hey, here's a sketch!

I transfer the sketches to watercolor paper, and spend way too long agonizing over it. I mean... I paint it. With my totally expert and really awesome watercolor skills. Then, when that doesn't work out, I tweak it using the wonders of Photoshop.

I work in my incredible studio space, aka a cramped desk in the playroom. Sometimes I use the Barbie dream house as a desk. 

Jealous?

Okay then! Who's next?

I'm tagging my critique group partner, Kathryn Dennis. She's an author/illustrator and a middle grade writer. Not so coincidentally, I did some illustrations for one of her middle grade novels, Camp Secret.

Polar bears and arctic fox

I'm not sure if this portfolio piece is completely done, but I am sure that arctic foxes are the cutest!

Faux Book Cover 6

It's been a while since I did one of these faux book covers. This time I gave my fake author a fake name. I think I would read this book.

Mermaid?

So here's a weird thing I drew tonight.

Lovely Little Things

Hand lettering for fun.

Miri Tee Logo

Miri Tee logo by me for Aeolidia

Here's one of the rejected roughs from the design process that didn't quite fit her business, but I still like it. It was a little too young for her business. Would have worked great for a kid's shop.

Weather Report

Such a lovely time of year in Seattle.

Happy Valentine's Day. Your dog loves you.

Your dog loves you but is also slightly creepy.

Elephant and bird

Not much to say about this one. Just drew this for fun, like 90% of everything I post here.

Mystery in the rainforest!

What's happening here? I don't know! It's a mystery!

Here's a lady in a dress.

It's a lady! In a dress!

Illustrations for King County Library System - and hey, it's also Chinese New Year! And there's a dragon!

I recently had the great pleasure of doing some illustrations for King County Library System, which I was SUPER EXCITED about, because, well, LIBRARY!!!

The theme was "Many Voices, One Land," to promote their multicultural events. I was very honored to be asked to do these illustrations.

And, luckily, I'm posting this just in time for Chinese New Year, so you get to see a little dragon parade.

Here are some little spot illustrations as well. My favorite are the Indian dancers.

Naturalist spot illustrations

Some natural science-y spot illustrations. Just for fun times.

Black cat barely tolerates your existence.

Rainforest

I felt like drawing a rainforest... and it kind of grew and grew, like rainforests do.

Spot of Tea

A little teapot spot illustration for the back of my latest promo card.

Wee Mondine Logo for Aeolidia

Here's a logo I did a while ago, just getting around to posting it now.