doors opening and closing

I'm having a little bit of a pity party. Surfside Girls has spent a bit of time at a publishing house, and I had all of my fingers and toes crossed it would go. I just got word that while the editor I was working with loved it, he couldn't rally the support needed to invest in it. Bummer. I totally believe you end up where you're supposed to, totally totally. And in a way this frees me up; I would love to print a bit of it and go sit some cons like APE in San Francisco with my writers group. But I'm still a little sad. I do have a couple of publishing houses in mind that I really want to send it to, maybe it will strike the right chord there.

I just finished another LA Times Kid's Reading Room illustration, and am quite happy with it. It prints Mother's Day, so I got to use Easter eggy colors. I used my beautiful neighbor Juana and her daughter Gabriella for inspiration- Juana is one of those people who is always beautiful, and keep her home and garden amazingly. Oh, if I had a little of that! I wish I could post the painting, but I certainly will after it prints.

I'm working on an upcoming character in the book, Leilani. Her haunting knowledge of hula and Hawaiian culture help Sam start to figure out what the heck is going on in her life. I'm going to do a watercolor demo for my Cartooning and Caricature class with her, so I'll post that result as well. Here's the drawing.

Wow. This has been the wackiest week. I feel like I used to after finishing a film. Getting an MFA is like throwing a wedding and giving birth. I have lived through both things, but never at the same time! I took the show down Thursday after I taught figure drawing, and was a little sad. I felt like a princess all week, holding court in my gallery of artwork, and answering questions when professors brought classes in. Thank you to all of you who helped paint the gallery and who came to celebrate with me. Special thanks to Melissa (Jade) who came out from Colorado, and Anders Swanson, awesome on the ukelele. I feel very blessed to have all of these awesome friends! Oh, and not to be forgotten, Penelope the Wahine Wienie, pet dog of Laura. She had asked if she could bring her dog, and I replied certainly not, unless it was in appropriate Hawaiian attire. We got a good laugh imagining the "walnut bra" covering all ten teats! I doodled it immediately in my studio, and scanned it to share. I got a really great response for Surfside Girls, fingers crossed friends, I want to see it in print. I am posting photos of the event if you weren't able to make it. Find more in my facebook album.

re: Robert

I had to come up with some theory on how to paint the ghosts on the cliff in my book. If they're totally see-through, they disappear. If they look too white they look solid. I feel like I captured Robert, the boy-pirate-ghost love interest, well in this one. I am embarking on one of the last pieces for the show; all of the ghosts on the cliff. Lots of perspective and characters and it's important to get it just right.

I was blessed enough to spend Monday morning in Bob Singer's studio. Bob was a character designer, among countless other things, for Hanna-Barbara. He was responsible for Fred Flintstone and Scooby, etc. Woo. My life is a fairytale! I showed him my struggles with the piece, and he taught me so much so quickly, explaining what he would have done and why.

Too long a discussion to have now, as I have to get back to work, but I've been telling my classes how important it is to be just like Bob: eager, enthusiastic, positive, hard-working, and most of all, willing to share. What an inspiration.

Anyhow, enjoy Robert. I adore him.

Grad show in 15 days. Eeeeek. Not in bad shape, but I keep thinking of one more way it could be more awesome. Yeah, like I need more stress. Anyhow, just inked this page and thought I'd post a little piece of it before I paint because I wish I could do this right now...

This is the grad show invite too. Woo hoo!

countdown to MFA exhibition...

Well I haven't been posting as i've been teaching and getting ready for my Grad Show (March 19!) which means postcards, frames, mats, and painting! In order to not look completely flakey, I thought I'd post my Cartooning and Caricature class demo- we took an inanimate object and gave it some personality! I showed them some quick ways of finishing, working on top of their xerox or computer printout. Crit is tomorrow, should be fun to see what they've done!

Sunday afternoon

It's been a week of summer here in the dead of winter. I dread it reverting because I've gotten used to being out gardening and sketching and running in shorts, gathering up my vitamin D. It's only a matter of time before it's 50 degrees and raining...

Anyhow, I've been neglecting my quick sketch skills as I have been doing so much comic book work. I saw the neighborhood kids going up and down the sidewalk in the wagon and had to sketch. I would have stayed and sketched the following football and then basketball games- seems like they are taking advantage of the weather as well! But it was my brother's birthday party and all I got was the wagon sketch.

surfside girls in HB

They're having the year-in-review ArtWalk in Huntington Beach tomorrow... 6-9, with a live band and a no-host bar. Sounds like a good time, and Huntington should be going off with the way the weather has been! I'll be there with my Burger Dude piece. I had a bunch of promo postcards printed up, so I thought I'd share. Come on by for a fish taco if you're in the neighborhood! PS have you checked out SurfsideGirls.com yet? I'm updating (and Sam's blogging) on Fridays.

surfsidegirls.com

It took a ton of blood, sweat, and tears, help from friends, and a definite neglect of personal hygiene, but surfsidegirls.com is live. Go, now! and check it out. I haven't posted in a while because it's all been going here! Enjoy. Maybe 2011 is the year you learn to surf? (you know you want to!)

Happy New Year

The holidays are over and my break is just beginning! Ethan is back in school, and I have no shopping/decorating/baking Christmas craziness to get after, so I have thrown myself into Surfside Girls Website Creation Mode (SSGWCM for you military brats like me.) I am itching to make art, too, so I've started on some cool things which I will post when I'm farther along. Because I've been computer-bound, I figured I'd put up the illo for our Christmas party. It's inspired me to do more black and white!

Kevin Wood of my writing group has declared 2011 The Year of Woody. I appreciate the sentiment, but actually get more behind making it The Year of Kim. It's very refreshing, and I recommend you try it. The Year of (insert your name here.) Tell people! And then accomplish it! Lot of potential energy in a new year... ride that wave!

the wave, realized

I posted this on Facebook, and forgot to post it here- Ethan as the wave, come to life! I am days away from Christmas break, and can't wait to chase some of the creative projects I haven't been able to get to because of school. The mantis with dragon armor has a destiny in Sculpey! I haven't worked in Sculpey since the Disney days, when we got to do figure sculpting in our down time, but I've heard that there's a great tutorial on Conceptart.org.

I found a mantis in the garden last week when I was cleaning up for the party, but it had gotten cold and he was dying. After a brief couple of hours trying to revive him under my desk lamp, I realized he was too far gone, and put him back to die in the fresh air as any wild thing should.

Oooh. Downer. Sorry. I hope everyone has a great holiday, whatever you celebrate. Stay tuned for Surfside Girls website, which will be appearing this break, and mantis sculpture updates...

collaboration

Collaboration. It's been the word of the day with me for about six months now, as I see the graduation light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel. In an animation studio, you get to drive to work and see a bunch of arty friends every day. The downside was I couldn't work on my own stuff. Oh, and I literally worked every day (the garden looked really bad in those days.) So, wanting my cake and to eat it too, I have decided I need to a. secure a really cool studio space, which I think I have in a really cool applied arts district in Long Beach, and b. convince my illustrator friends to stop working in various garages and coffee tables and actually help me pay for the space. The upside is we all get to hang out everyday, like in school, and the whole street has cool arty types on it. Plus, they have a rockin' street-wide Christmas party every year. The curatorial grad students on campus have figured this out already, and have formed the studio group Six Pack. They hung a great show last night on the Promenade in Long Beach.

So I have finished Surf Tip 5. These will get bound into a bitty book for my Illustration Special Studies class. Over Christmas break they will become part of the Surfside Girls website (or online experience, if I can learn Dreamweaver that well.)

magic day

It was really a cool day today. In the midst of the muddle that is thesis edits and end-of-semester wind-down, I got a scholarship, and a good one at that. There was a really cool lunch, and I got lots of hugs from my CSUF family. Happy happy day.

I finished up Surf Tip 6, though I haven't finished 5 yet. That's tomorrow's project. I had to rebel against linear thought... I think it's all that critical reasoning. After they're all done, I'm binding them into a How to Surf book for the end-of-class leave behind. The concept looks cool in my sketchpad- I can pull it off if I get thesis done (final final done.)

wish for St. Nick

I have a week and a half to finish my thesis (just got my edits,) two more Surf Tips, a sketchbook for class, and get the house ready for our massive, awesome Christmas party. So what happens? Along comes the opportunity to make Ethan another costume (for the "Walk Through California" fourth grade history thing.) Squirrel! Just like in "Up," give me something to distract me and off I go. I am making him a geographical feature of California, a wave. The drawings I made had me laughing out loud, though I know I'm easy to please. I hope you like them.

I'm also posting Surf Tip 4. I have decided that all I want for Christmas from "St. Nick" is a book deal. Keep your fingers crossed, folks.

re: artwalk

I need a nap. Last night was ArtWalk at Huntington Beach, tons of fun. Thanks to all my friends who came out, and thanks to Robin Ott, awesome cookie-providing librarian. I hope you took advantage of fish tacos and HB Brewery as well. I would have if they weren't CLOSED when I was done! I got really good feedback on Surfside Girls; I had it up next to one of the framed interior pages. It was cool to watch the little people pick it up and read it, even if it is just 20 pages. They all wanted to know what happened next... woo hoo!

It was also fun to watch people read Surf Tip 1: Goofy or Regular? and see adults do both stances and then exclaim, "I'm goofy!" Wish I had a video camera on it.

I just got done trying to teach six Cub Scouts (nine year-olds) how to draw portraits. I don't know what has me more tired- ArtWalk or Scouts. Couch, here I come.

I finished the warrior mantis and fairy piece and I called it Alliance. Wow, they both were really telling me their story as I worked! I had a fuzzy idea what was going on, but it seems to be rolling now. I don't know what I want to do with it, except I needed some story framework to produce pieces for my grad show. I want to utilize some epic storytelling devices, higher contrast than I'm used to working. I finished this piece and am very happy with it. I busted it out in 6 x 6 format for a show at Memphis Saturday night, put together by some of our curatorial grad student buddies. It already sold before it got hung! So excited!

dead flies and fairy warriors

Woo hoo! A new distraction from thesis! I've been invited into a little group show by, actually, some of the curatorial students in thesis class! And with my total commitment to collaboration with friends, how can I say no? Although, I'll have to work fast, as the whole first draft is due in two weeks... Anyway, this gives me a chance to explore my mantis warriors a little further. I had to include the dead fly sketch. In what universe does an artist need reference of a dead fly? I love this job...

Raina Telegemeier spoke at CSUF yesterday. Thanks to the Pencil Mileage Club for making that happen! She illustrated Scholastic's Babysitter's Club into graphic novel format, and has just put out "Smile Raina." She gave a great talk; really clear, entertaining and honest.

She will be at the Long Beach Comic Con this weekend, as will my awesome friend Woody, his beard, and his comic. See you there!

re: sketch day

Well, the SCBWI illustrator's group had another amazing, inspirational sketch day yesterday. Thanks, Veronica, for coordinating, and thanks Marilyn, the Toymaker, for offering your (always clean, well decorated, inspirational) home as the venue. It rained lightly, but not enough to spoil things. The costumed kiddos played with blocks on the table out back, and we sketched them in action. Quite a funny sight to have a minion playing blocks with a zombie! Love Halloween! I came away inspired by Marilyn's latest projects on wood, and Margaret's amazing lit scenes in boxes. I've been wanting to work large lately, after having been confined to graphic novel parameters and thesis brain ache, and I think that even if it has to be late nights and another cup of coffee, I must carve out some time to do so. Here a couple of my sketches. The other artists did some beautiful work; I will post them if they send them to me (hint hint!) It's so cool to see how people interpret- some are soft and delicate, some have amazing likenesses, some capture the energy and the action. So glad to know y0u all!

running and painting

Waaa. Huntington Beach Art Walk was canceled for tonight, which means I've got 15 pieces of artwork matted and framed, and nowhere to go... Well, we need the rain, so I can't be too upset. And my plumeria and most of the other potted plants are gloriously happy.

Sunday was a great day! I ran, and finished! the Long Beach Half Marathon (and I can still walk, as long as it's not down stairs,) and my illo came out in the LA Times. Not a bad day! I have used three of my neighbors in this illustration. They've been really fun projects. It's nice to get someone else's story, and not be responsible for the words too, for a change.

I will be at next month's Art Walk, and I'll post that date when I get it.

go Sam!

I just finished a piece for the LA Times Kids' Reading Room. I'm really happy with how it came out! I used all warm, Halloween themed colors, and it has put me a totally Fall-ish mood. Let's just hope the summer we never got in California doesn't come late! I'm all about the sweater and crisp, clean breeze right now! I'll post the piece after it publishes October 17th.

I thought I'd throw this up (on the blog, not actually upchucking); I particularly like this drawing of Sam, out in front of the cave, and wondering what to do. Going through will change her life. Ever feel like that? What if I go in? Will I be a different person when I come out? Life is just cool like that, huh?

Hey, I will be putting a bunch of paintings up in the Huntington Beach ArtWalk on October 20. If you're around Surf City, stop into the library and say hi! The librarian has especially requested some of the Surfside Girls pages, so I'll frame some and put them up. Preview of the grad show..!