Illustration services include both hand drawn and computer based artwork. Specific projects include children's book illustrations, greeting cards, wedding invitations, posters and screen print art. Illustration is also a strong component in many packaging design projects and logos we have developed.
Below are some examples of illustration focused projects.
Once again I had the opportunity to create a poster for our local roller derby team, the Blue Ridge Rollergirls. As I’ve noted before, I love creating their posters! They give me a theme and let me know what copy and partner logos are to be included and then let me at it.
When Drag’n SlayHer told me the theme was “Frosted Skates” my mind thought of punning off Frosted Flakes, but Celeste had done an excellent “Lucky Charms” poster not too long ago so it seemed a little too soon to do another. Frosty the Snowman seemed kinda clunky. Then I thought of the Hans Christian Anderson tale The Snow Queen – perfect, I thought – combined with sort of a Narnia White Witch image. I set about sketching, but it just wasn’t working. I couldn’t get the roller derby energy into an ice queen.
To make a long story short, after digging around the internet and thumbing through lots of books at the library, I came around to the X-Men character, Emma Frost. Now that is PERFECT. She is tough, icy, and well, her name is Frost so we end up with a pun after all.
The illustration came together nicely and I got to use some of my cool Alien Skin Photoshop filters to create icicles on the type.
Seems to me Emma Frost would make an excellent rollergirl. I’d get out of her way.
Hababy’s Christmas Eve second printing is available to order from Jamie Farr’s site, amazon and select bookshops. The new printing is 7″ x 8.5″ size, full-color, softbound book.
Hababy’s Christmas Eve was written by Jamie & Joy Farr and was my first published full-color children’s book. Originally published in 2003, it was reissued in 2010.
I’m often asked how the opportunity to illustrate this book came about. It was my pleasure to assist in hosting Jamie Farr when he was touring in promotion of his autobiography, Just Farr Fun. I was living in Raleigh at the time, working as the Community Relations/Events Coordinator for Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Jamie’s schedule had him staying in Raleigh overnight, so I played host outside of the scheduled signing. It was during this time that I discovered how challenging it is to be a celebrity. It was near impossible to eat out without meals being constantly interrupted. I have to say he was courteous to all, even as his meals got cold. It was wonderful to find that celebrity as Jamie is, he was really great to hang out with and easy to talk to. Throughout the day he asked about what my future dreams were and discovered that I loved to illustrate. A few months later, he called me at work to ask if I would be interested in illustrating a children’s book he and his wife had written. How cool is that!
For the second printing we changed the size of the book and I edited some of the page layout and updated a little bit of the art to fit the new size and page count.
For more on Jamie Farr, visit his website.
