Sally got a haircut

My puppy just got her first haircut. How pretty is she! We are just about to head out on a run before I dig into some grading and art stuff. Had to share. She is the happiest dog I've ever met. Dogs are so dang awesome...

LA Times Kids Reading Room

My Mothers Day piece printed in the LA Times on Sunday. Happy Mothers Day, all you mommies! I can't imagine how different my life would be without my son. Having a child gave me such an increased capacity for love, and a vulnerability, that I don't think I could have understood without. A little tiny bit of how God must feel...

Anyway, the piece printed a bit washed out in the paper, but perhaps that was my fault for wanting to use superduper spring pastel colors!

Semester's wrapping up, I'm walking in the cap, gown and MFA hood on May 21st. Lots of endings mean lots of beginnings...

Upwelling

This is the chapter heading for Surfside Girls' first act, Upwelling. I wanted the viewer to be underwater, looking up at the kelp. It's a metaphor for possibilities. Stuff is surfacing- in the ocean upwelling is where the nutrient rich cold water hits the shelf and comes to the surface. All kinds of little things start feeding on it, and it provides a start for the food chain. When you're surfing, it's a sudden cold spot in otherwise warm water. In the book, it's where everything is setting up.

I kind of feel like that's life right now too. I'm graduating with my MFA, I have students graduating into the Wide World, taking their toolboxes of skills and trying to make it. We talked extensively about that today in my Cartooning and Caricature class. What the state of things is, and where can you fit into it. Publishing is changing, print is changing, there are simultaneously less and more opportunities. I think the best we can do as artists is to keep learning, keep the skills sharp, be kind, and say yes to opportunities. And enjoy the ride. It is the best job in the world.

my visit with Kelly Light

SCBWI is such a cool organization. A couple of years ago, Kelly Light popped up on my blog. She is an illustrator from the East Coast who had grabbed my card from the Summer Conference, and we began to correspond. Turns out we have a similar background in animation, are moms and love lines. Plus, she reminds me a ton of my cousin Patty. We totally hit it off, and talked in person at last year's summer conference. We spent Easter with my Aunt in Massachusetts (just got back) and I thought while I was back there I'd give her a call. Kelly was kind enough to make time for me, even though she's on a deadline, and we went to the Eric Carle museum and then had a cuppa coffee. Talked shop. Totally fun! Kelly's got this great little house they've remodeled that's a little retreat- I had been following its progress on her blog. Darling place. I'm so glad we got to get together- being an illustrator can be a bit isolated. SCBWI did its job, and introduced us. Thanks for a fun visit, Kelly!

You can see her amazing work at kellylight.com, or follow her blog at prettygoodforagirl.blogspot.com

Yay surf

Sunday was a good day!

collaboration 2 and Leilani

My illustrator group is breaking up. I'm devastated. So many amazing people, and I know I'll stay in touch with all of them, but there is just something reassuring about knowing that a group meets at a certain time and place every month, and without that regularity I know it will be a lot harder to keep in touch. Marilyn (the Toymaker) and Veronica have hosted for five years. Sheesh. That's a big commitment. I don't know how I would have found my way without them.

I'm graduating with my MFA in May, just bought my cap and gown (I could really find a much more attractive outfit for $100) and that means that that group is breaking up too. Waa. Ten of us are graduating this semester from CSUF. All of the artists are amazing, and it, too, has been a great group to be part of. If you aren't doing anything for the next eight Saturday nights, you should head over to campus and check out the art. Katy Betz and Frans Kusuma are this weekend. Great stuff. Plus, they're always catered, so it's a cheap date night.

So I guess I'm really fortunate to have my writers group. I am groupy, if you haven't gotten that already, and being a Marine Corps Brat, I hate hate hate endings and goodbyes because my childhood was so full of them. I just got back, got great feedback on my latest page, inspiration for a new Surfside Girls cover for SCBWI's Agents Day, and support for plan B. I am posting the finished Leilani painting I did as a demo for class yesterday, as well as an anatomy handout I did, just because anatomy is so darn cool.

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.