In fall of 2012, two electronic versions of Hababy’s Christmas Eve: An illustrated holiday story were created. The first, a standard fixed layout eBook and the second an enhanced version for iBooks including a full audio recording for a read-to-me option when viewing the book. Yes, read by author Jamie Farr, who best known for portraying Klinger on the hit television show M*A*S*H. His reading is of course wonderfully expressive and is accompanied by original music by Tim Clott.

We worked with eBook partnership for file conversion and distribution and their expertise was invaluable! Adjusting layout, page sizing and creating a base file was handled on our end, as well as preparing the audio track with page breaks. Knowing exactly what was needed, that is the trick, and having a knowledgable partner in that process made for a positive experience.

Purchase the electronic formats by following the links below:

Apple Products (with audio) $6.99  •  Kindle $4.99  •  Kobo $4.99

The bike diva illustration is close cropped on these labels to show just her head and shoulders vs. the full length image on the lotion labels. Also the background image is mostly solid with a few floral elements rather then a full vine pattern.

Another key change was using the sun ray pattern along the top, where as on the lotion labels the tonal leaf pattern is shown along the top.

Like the lotion labels, the idea was to create a template style that could easily be updated by swapping out colors to fit with new scents as Essential Journey’s expands their line of liquid soaps.

Order online at www.essentialjourneys.com.

Banana bike illustration on t-shirt. Photo courtesy Roly Poly Crafts.

I just competed a series of line drawings for Roly Poly Crafts to screen print on garments: t-shirts, baby one-pieces, diaper covers and the like. Roly Poly owner, Ruth, has a wonderful sense of hip nostalgia in the selection of images she asked me to draw for her. The illustration style is line art, with no shading, designed to be printed in one color.

Illustrations include a banana seat bicycle, high top sneakers, a prancing unicorn, a folk/country singer, iconic trees, and “Mixed Tape” cassette.

View more images and shop Roly Poly Crafts at Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/rolypolycrafts

Seasonal Wreath, starting from 12 o'clock position, clockwise: Violet (faithfulness), Dogwood (love undiminished), Dandelion (wishes come true), Lily of the Valley (happiness), Baby's Breath (festivity), Azalea (romance), Gardenia (peace, joy), Sunflower (loyalty), Oregano (creativity), Rosemary (wisdom), Tiger Lily (wealth), Goldenrod (good fortune), Oak (longevity), Ivy (wedding love), Pine (fertility), Honeysuckle (bonds of love).

I love working with pen & ink and ink wash. Something about dipping a pen in ink and setting it to paper, watching as you draw a line how subtle changes in pressure and angle manipulate the flow of ink, puts Zen in my day like nothing else. Weird since it is an irreversible process and one error can mean reworking an entire piece. Unfortunately, I don’t get to create with pen & ink very often, so when I do it is a special treat.

The Seasonal Wreath (actually I have created three similar images each with unique fauna) is a large scale illustration measuring approximately 16 inches across. It represents many hours of work, from pencil sketching and refining, to inking the lines and adding the tonal wash.

Each wreath represents the seasons as you move clockwise around the illustration – spring, summer, fall, winter. The piece shown here is focused on Eastern US flowers and plants. The selection of plants illustrated was a combination of requests from a bride-to-be, some of my personal favorite flowers and a book which lists the historic meanings associated with certain plants. The final image was reproduced as a wedding invitation with the wreath image on the front and the traditional meanings listed on the back.

I love to illustrate and don’t get to do enough of it in my daily work, so sometimes I create projects for myself. Such was the case with the series of tropical butterflies I illustrated.

Each is illustrated full size using a mixed media technique I’ve perfected over the years that I thought would be especially effective in trying to capture the luminous colors in butterfly wings. It involves using both sides of a high quality velum, markers, colored pencils and inks.

The five butterflies illustrated are: Morpho anaxibia, Morpho hecuba, Ornithoptera chimaera, Papilio blumei, and Caligo placidianus.

Why those? Mostly aesthetic reasons. I loved how they looked together with their various colors and shapes, however I did try to find ones that were all of similar size.

Four of the five butterflies are drawn showing the top of the butterfly. Caligo placidianus is the exception where the underside of the butterfly is shown.

A limited edition run of prints was created and a set of greeting cards produced. The cards are blank on the inside and contain information on the butterfly pictured on the back.

30 Cards for $30

While supplies last you can order 30 assorted butterfly cards for $30.
Cards are packaged in sets of 5, containing 1 of each of the butterflies shown to the left. Each card is 5.75 x 5.75 inches square with matching envelope. (Please check with your post office for square envelope mailing rates.) Interiors are blank. For $30 you get 6 sets for a total of 30 cards. Shipping within continental US included.

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.

On first load, the stars in the header and footer twinkle.

How could I not have a great time designing for a business called PLANET ART!?!

An illustrated logo with influences from pulp SciFi covers – fun – owners, Brandy and Dave – double fun – getting to also design a rack card, car graphic, t-shirts, event posters and a WordPress site – okay, you get the idea, fun.

Planet Art is a different kind of frame shop and gallery located in the River Arts Galaxy in Asheville, NC. They have an Art Exchange where you can buy and sell (for cash or store credit) gently used art, a gallery wall to feature local artists, and of course do an excellent job framing.

Brandy is one of our star WordPress clients. She dove right in and mucked about with pages and post almost immediately after getting the login for her site. She has used photos well and included lots of relevant info. She has also been savvy about cross-linking to her Chair Repair website and included some of the basics on chair caning on the Planet Art site. We touch base with her every few months to see if questions have come up, and to tweak css here and there as needed and to add items to the sidebar which requires some html knowledge. My bet is she’ll soon master that as well.

Discover PLANET ART online at http://discoverplanetart.com/

Here in Asheville the book is available from Spellbound Children’s Bookshop and will soon be available at many other locations.

The book is published by Back of a Mouse Books, a division of Blue Throat Publishing.

Some pages from the book are shown below.

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One of my favorite items to work on has been the labels for her lotions. Bold colors + illustration focus = happy design time.

I love finding the colors that speak to the lotion flavor, be it Lavender Morning, Almond Spa, Zinnia & Gardenia, or White Tea & Ginger. Added to these initial four are Chai Tea,

Thai Lemongrass, Purely Naked (unscented), and my favorite Grapefruit Splash.

All lotions are available in 8 oz. and 16 oz. sizes, with a select few also available in a 2 oz. travel size.

Check our the Essential Journeys website for ordering lotions, Soap By the Slice, Lube for the Lips and more.