Shawna JC Tenney

3x3 Directory 2012!

2012-02-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

I received my copy of 3x3's Directory 12 yesterday! I'm was excited to be intived to be a part of this directory as it is a by invitation only illustration directory. There will be an online version soon, I think...

I've been thinking about my blogging lately. It seems like in earlier years, I wrote more posts that showed my process or sketches and I did more posts with helpful hints for other illustrators. I have not been as good at blogging lately. I think this is because I have a lot less time for personal projects as my time has been filled up with more and more client projects. This is good for the fact that I need to help support our family. It seems like I am able to do my best artwork, thinking and blogging when I have a little more time for personal projects. But I won't complain, because I'm thankful for the work I have been getting. And I will make an effort to do better blogging in the future!

I also want to apologize to some people who have emailed me about illustrating their projects. It seems like with the option of Self-Publishing being a lot more accessible, many more people are trying to go that route and find their own illustrator. Sadly, quite a few people have emailed me about illustrating their self published projects, and I haven't even written them back. I am sorry for that. I am not trying to be rude! It's just that this year I have been swamped with so many deadlines from publishers, it is hard for me to finish my projects, take care of my family/church/community responsibilities and have time to answer everybody's emails. So I hope no one takes it personally. I will do my best to answer emails when I get the chance! And I wish I could help everyone with their personal projects, but I need to take the jobs I get from publishers to support my family.

I also enjoy getting emails from other illustrators or students who have questions, and I will answer those as best I can if I am not too swamped. I appreciate all the support I get for my artwork. Cheers to all!

Updated Website

2012-01-31T17:44:00.001-07:00

I updated my website. You can see it here! I tried to make it more simple and professional looking, easier to navigate and more focused on the art. I would love some feedback. Let me know what you think!

As you can see, I've been really busy trying to get all my online things updated while I've had a short break. I now have a Facebook page for my illustration updates! Click on the link and click "like" to get regular updates of what I am up to! And while you're at it, follow me on Twitter! Cheers everyone!

Beauty and the Beast

2012-01-30T10:55:00.001-07:00

Here's the cover that I did last summer for a reader of Beauty and the Beast for Compass Media. I enjoyed illustrating this classic fairy tale. It's always been one of my favorites!

One More From Rosie

2012-01-24T21:08:00.001-07:00

Here's one more from Rosie the Reindeer. It was fun to create all the different personalities for the reindeer in this story. Next I will be posting some illustrations from Beauty and the Beast. If you've seen my Behance portfolio, you've probably already seen these, but it's fun to post them here anyway!

New Behance Portfolio!

2012-01-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

This past year has been busy for me! I think I got one break from illustrations jobs for a week. I finally have another break. I have been very grateful for the work, but it's good to have a little down time to do some self promotion and maybe even some personal samples. I put a new portfolio up on the Behance Network. It's different than any other portfolio I have because the illustrations are grouped in projects- unless they are a stand alone illustration. Hop on over there and check it out. There are quite a few new projects I haven't posted anywhere before. I will post some of those illustrations here, but for now go check them out! You can "appreciate" my work to help promote it... if you want. :) There are also some illustrations that are linked to my Society 6 print shop. I have also updated my Childrensillustrators.com portfolio. I hope to post some new work soon, have a happy day!

IF: Brigade

2011-12-02T09:57:00.001-07:00

Rosie leads the brigade on to victory!
Check out my new shop on Socitey 6!

New Print and Card Shop!

2011-11-30T22:53:00.001-07:00

Some happy news! I have two new online shops where you can buy prints and cards of my work! Just in time for the Holidays. :) Go check them out!

Print Shop Link
Card Shop Link

More Reindeer!

2011-11-30T10:05:00.001-07:00

Hi friends, here's a couple more samples from Rosie the Reindeer. I had tons of fun drawing these fun characters! More coming soon!

IF: Round

2011-11-28T10:08:00.001-07:00

Hi My friends. I had a brief break from illustration jobs- enough time to clean out my office/studio, which I was grateful for! Now it's back to work!

I will be sharing some illustrations from a book I illustrated last year called Rosie the Reindeer. It was going to be a self published book but the author was unable to publish it this year- so we're hoping for next year. But I thought I would share some illustrations just for fun since it's Christmas time. It's sort of a cute Rudolph-like story- but with girl reindeer. The above illustration is a double spread spot illustration which ended up being one of my favorites. This is one of the illustrations I had to work for. It took a few sketches to get to this point. I really like the end product- that you can see all the characters and their personalities without the composition feeling crowded. I chose this illustration to go with the IF theme for this week because of Santa's nice round belly and the reindeer in round tutus looping around in a round semi-circle. It fits! More soon!

The Giving Tree- Hepsiba's Hideout!

2011-11-15T08:52:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the long absence! It's been a crazy few months! In October I finished up two big illustration projects. I started teaching a children's art class out of my home. You can see my children's art class blog here! I also participated in The Giving Tree Project. A boy named Isy is selling the trees to benefit an organization called Reach out and Read. I am finishing mine VERY late, but I hope that it can still get to Isy on time for his Bar Mitzvah! My tree is called- "Hepsiba's Hideout."

Doing this project made me realize a couple of things. First of all that I can still paint with acrylics. Second of all that I am glad that I usually don't paint with acrylics! I did have a fun time, but painting with acrylics takes so much time. Where's my layers pallettes? Where's my control+Z? Where's my textured brushes? Plus there was so much prep time every time I painted and I ran out of orange and there were no stores nearby that carried the kind I needed. Yes, this has really made me realized that I am very glad to be painting digitally now!

One other thing that I didn't anticipate in doing this project is how much time it takes to paint everything four times since it was three dimensional. I ended up eliminating a lot of details that I wanted to put in because of the time it took to do everything. But it was a fun project and I'm glad I participated!

Illustrators Utah Opening Reception

2011-09-17T13:32:00.000-06:00

Last night I went with my hubby to the Illustrators Utah! show opening reception. As mentioned in my previous post I displayed three illustrations. It was a lovely evening and I had a great time talking with other artists and seeing all the beautiful artwork. I especially enjoyed looking at the work of the old time illustrators from Paul Mann's collection.

Here I am with my good friend Manelle. She entered a beautiful watercolor piece into the show.

I was very surprised and please when they announced that my illustration "Ghost Watcher" recieved third place in the competition! There were so many beautiful pieces in the show and I felt very honored that they chose mine as one of the winners!

Come out and see the Illustrators Utah! 2011show which will run through November 4th at the Bountiful Davis Arts Center!

Illustrators Utah! 2011

2011-09-15T07:35:00.001-06:00

Come see my work at the Illustrators Utah! Show at the Bountiful Davis Art Center which runs from September 16- November 4th! I will be displaying three of my illustrations which will also be for sale. There will be other illustrations displayed by some of Utah's best illustrators. Also, work from some old hall of fame illustrators from the collection of Paul Mann will also be displayed. The opening reception will be this Friday, September 16 from 7:00-9:00 pm where winners of the show will be announced. The Bountiful Davis Art Center is located at 745 South Main Street in Bountiful Utah. Come visit me! Hope to see you there!

Girl Guides from Around the World!

2011-08-23T11:04:00.001-06:00

I had a great time illustrating these Girl Guides (in America, the equivalent of Girl Scouts) from around the world for the UK 2012 Brownie Annual. These Girl Guides are from the following countries: Antigua/Barbuda, Canada, Austraila, South Africa, Pakistan and The Republic of Ireland. I've always had a thing for paper dolls, and I really enjoyed this project! Thank you to my husband, Warren who did the outlines since I am not wise in the ways of Adobe Illustrator.

BIG!

2011-08-23T10:05:00.001-06:00

I illustrated a little poem for the September Edition of Ladybug Magazine. The top is the original and the bottom is the scanned version from the magazine. This is a perfect little illustration for today. It's the first day of school! Happy school year to all!

IF: Gesture

2011-07-18T08:37:00.000-06:00

Here are two sketches from my recent trip to Red Fish Lake in Idaho. The first one is my daughter on the beach and the second one was an interesting Hippie lady I spotted at the Blue Grass concert at the lodge. In both sketches I had draw quickly from a gesture drawing in order to capture the moment. I really love my little watercolor sketch book!

Colonial Days 2011

2011-07-05T08:03:00.000-06:00

For Independence Day, I participated once again in Colonial Days and did another chalk drawing. I did a much simplified version of George Washington crossing the Deleware. In these pictures George looks a little wimpy and squashy because of the angle the picture was taken at. My favorite part of the chalk drawing is all the kids that come and watch me. It helps me remember why I do what I do. I do it for the kids. I love the questions they ask me. As usual, it was a bit exhausting, but lots of fun to dress up and get out and share my art.

Exploring Shapes

2011-05-03T10:55:00.000-06:00

In my sketch book, I have been having a fun time exploring shape. In these drawings, I drew a random shape and then filled in the blanks. It has been fun to loosen up and see what fun characters I can create!

IF: Bottled

2011-04-08T09:33:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I do this with my emotions.

Cowgirl for Spider Magazine

2011-03-25T14:42:00.000-06:00

I illustrated a poem for the April issue of Spider Magazine: "Cowboy Saddle Song." They liked the cowgirl on my website and wanted one that was pretty similar, so here's what I came up with!

April Friend Cover

2011-03-24T20:14:00.000-06:00

Hi friends! It's been a while. I've been pretty swamped with projects, so I apologize for my lack of posts. I illustrated the cover for the April issue of The Friend magazine! The scanner didn't do a very good job so the colors aren't great, but you get the idea.

Guarding Treasure!

2011-01-31T09:12:00.001-07:00

As promised, here is the final sneak peak into "The Truth About Ogres." This spread is about where Ogres live- a lot of times in caves where they guard treasure. This image was also used for the cover. I hope you have enjoyed these ogre illustrations. It was a fun project!

Shrek

2011-01-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here's my second to last Ogre preview. Today's selection: Shrek. This one was obviously pretty challenging as there is the original book and then 4 major motion pictures about this fellow. This page mostly talked about the book. So challenge: How do I make it look different than either the book or the movie character, but make it look like the same character? Well, this is what I came up with. Shrek and his princess have similar characteristics to the characters in William Steig's original book (which if freakin' hilarious, by the way), but with my own style.

Have you ever been challenged in a similar way with your art? Tell me about it!

IF: Surrender

2011-01-28T08:31:00.001-07:00

Today's Ogre selection comes from the story of Puss in Boots when the Ogre changes into a tiny mouse... and has to surrender. This was kind of a difficult concept to illustrate...how to show an Ogre changing into a mouse...

Check out my past posts for more Ogre fun. And come back to see a couple more I'll be posting!

Ogress

2011-01-26T10:57:00.001-07:00

Today's Selection: The helpful Ogress!

Jack and the Beanstalk

2011-01-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

Here is today's selection from "The Truth About Ogres." As you might have gathered from the variety of illustrations, this book tells about what ogres are like and their stories past to present. This is, of course, Jack and the Beanstalk!

IF: Dusty

2011-01-21T08:31:00.001-07:00

Here is today's selection from "The Truth About Ogres." I thought it went well with the Illustration Friday theme for this week- dusty... or just gross and grimy? Happy Friday!

It Finally Arrived!

2011-01-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

My copies of "The Truth About Ogres" finally arrived. I think they turned out pretty nice. The good thing about doing digital art, is there is really not a lot of problems with color matching. (The Pigeon is celebrating with me.)

I think that this book turned out pretty good for the most part, and I'm happy to show it off. I am going to post a few of the illustrations here on my blog over the next few days to give you a sneak peak, just for fun! And if you aren't already, become a follower to my blog!

Here is the first selection, from the Italian tale, Ogre's Breath:

SCBWI Illustrator's Poor Man's Conference

2011-01-13T13:45:00.001-07:00

Illustration by Sherry Meidell

If you are in Salt Lake Febrary 5th, come join us for the SCBWI Illustrator's Poor Man's Conference. The cost is $30, and registration will be open to the first 30 people. It will be a fun filled day which will include speakers (including myself), drawing, yummy food and critiques. For more information and to register, please check out this website.

IF: Phenomenon

2010-12-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

You must admit that if you ever saw Three French Hens behaving like this, it would be quite a phenomenon! Join us on The Doodle Diner for The Twelve Days of Christmas! Today was my turn, you can see the post here. Joyeux Noël!

Random Sketches

2010-11-20T14:31:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple of random sketches from the ol' sketch book. I know, it's a random selection. I think the word "random" has been officially overused in this post. The end.

IF: Burning

2010-11-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

"I'm just a hunk, a hunk of burning love..." -Elvis Presley

This turkey guy reminded me of Elvis, and I automatically thought of "Burning Love." I always think it is so funny to watch male turkeys flaunt their feathers. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

IF: Spooky

2010-10-19T16:57:00.003-06:00

The Truth About Ogres on Pre-sale!

2010-09-18T15:37:00.005-06:00

Look how fun! You can now pre-order my book, The Truth About Ogres, on Amazon!

Witches Now and Then

2010-09-15T15:09:00.007-06:00

Here is the finished product of my bakery witch. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and will probably use it for a Halloween mailer!

Now to risk embarrassment. Here is my first illustration mailer ever from 7 years ago, 2003...my Senior year in College. I am displaying it to point out just a few of the things I have learned since then. I still have so much to learn and so much to work on, there is still a long way for me to go, but looking back I am pleased to say that I've improved quite a bit.

By Shawna in 2003

Composition. I have learned much about composition. I had a problem with composition in College. I didn't get it. Rule number one. Don't center everything in the middle of the composition. It's just not interesting. My teachers were trying to tell me this at the time, but I didn't listen. There have been little gems of things others have told me along the way that really caught on, such as: "You need a foreground, middle ground and backgroud." Or, "Use diagonals."

Sometimes less is more. Can you see how I carefully painted every single stone on the ground in a very OCD style? This made it very tedious to paint at times. This painting took a very very long time to finish. I have learned to work a lot faster and that sometimes leaving a few things out and not painting in every single detail actually looks a lot better.

Style. I have learned a lot about stylization and drawing simply from practicing and making an effort to learn. It's funny to think back and remember that my portfolio didn't contain one painting of a child in it when I graduated. Why? Because I didn't know how to stylize children, and I was too afraid to try.

I am slowly learning about color. That not being so bold works a lot better in many situations. I am also starting to learn more about texture and utilize it more. I think texture adds a lot to a painting.

Where have I learned all this from since I'm not in school any more? First of all, about three years ago, I started a critique group of other artist friends. I think we all help each other so much have a fresh view on our art, learn new techniques, and feel enthusiastic about creating more. To all other illustrators, I highly recommend finding your own critique groups out there. I also have learned loads from going to conferences. Other illustrators and art directors have a lot of insights on what is marketable and what is not. What I have learned is that it is important to be humble and let others tell you how you can improve your art.

IF: Dessert

2010-09-09T11:07:00.003-06:00

So I'm doing something I don't ever do. I'm posting my sketch because I don't think I will be able to finish the final on time (before Friday and the end of this topic). But I would LOVE to have some good constructive critiques on my composition. Should I add anything? Should I take away something. Click on the picture for a close up view. Any bad tangents? Mmmm....Dessert!

Sketchbook Project #1

2010-09-08T12:11:00.003-06:00

Since I am a children's illustrator, I thought it would be fun to set my whole sketch book kind of like a story. First I am introducing the characters that will participate in the Science Fair. I'm not going to worry that they are not perfect. This is a sketch book afterall. No Photoshop corrections here! I'm

Tell me if every single one of these kids didn't go to your Jr. High/Middle School. I will give you 5 seconds to guess which character is an exact replica of me in 7th grade. If you guessed the brace face girl with floods, you would be exactly right. Yes, I did have braces, glasses, and flood pants because I grew so dang fast. I was 5'6" in 7th grade. And that collar the girl is wearing, I really did wear a collar just like that over my shirts in 7th grade. It was a cutsey thing my Aunt made for me and my cousins for a family reunion. One day a popular girl told me it was cute, so then I wore it every day...until I realized she was really making fun of me. I also wore braids in my hair, which didn't go over too well either. Sad. Jr. High is a sad sad time of life. Warren told me that he was an exact replica of bad hygene boy with greesy hair. Sadly, it is true. I've seen pictures. Which one of these kids were you? Speaking of which, you all need to see "Diary of a Whimpy Kid." Loved it!!

If you have any other great Jr. Highisms, send them my way. They may just end up in the sketch book! I love this sketch book thing! It's stretching my brain!

My Sketch Book is Here!

2010-09-03T14:22:00.004-06:00

My Sketch book for the Sketchbook Project 2011 finally arrived (it took almost two weeks)!! It came with an official Brooklyn Art Library card. Cool! Anyway, now the sketch book is here, so the pressure is on! One of the reasons I am doing this is to conquer my fear of sketchbooks. Most of the time, I prefer to sketch on loose sheets of paper, because they are easier to throw away if they don't turn out looking very good. I have a fear of other people looking at my sketch book and seeing a bad drawing. So here I go. I'm going to fill up an entire sketch book and send it out into the world to be seen by anyone who cares to look. I will be posting my sketches on the blog as I go. There is about 90 pages to fill up. I can do this, I can do this!

And the theme I have chosen to draw.....drum roll..........is........Science Project Gone Wrong!
Post any fabulous ideas you have for that subject, and they may just end up in my sketch book!

Sketch Book Project

2010-08-23T08:35:00.005-06:00

I learned about this from my friend Julie's blog and I'm going to participate too! I've already ordered my sketch book! Click on the picture and go read about the project. I think it will be great for me to have a purpose to my sketching and have a good reason to get it done! It will help boost my creativity. If any of you out there want to participate, let me know and we'll support each other! ANYONE can participate!

Character Sketches

2010-08-18T16:34:00.001-06:00

Here's a couple of little character sketches for a book idea I'm working on.

Talented Banjo Pigs #1: Ballerina Banjo Pig

2010-08-06T13:42:00.003-06:00

I've been in a little bit of a rut since my last book project ended. It's mostly because I've been working non-stop since March, so it's nice to have a little break and do some home projects and spend more time with my family. But I've decided it's time to get myself back into gear! So I've started getting my creative juices flowing by making my own Banjo Pig- you should go check out the Banjo Pig blog which was started by Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis- so much fun!

I am also using this opportunity to experiment. This is a watercolor I did in Photoshop and Painter. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but I don't have the full version of Painter, I only have Painter Essentials that came with my Bamboo Wacom tablet. So there are a lot of things missing, but I use what I can. Anyway, here is what I came up with. Most of the watercolor effect was actually done in Photoshop, and I just did some touch up in Painter. I love learning new things and experimenting all the time! More banjo pigs to come soon...I hope!

New Website!!

2010-07-28T15:08:00.006-06:00

www.shawnajctenney.com

Well, I finally did it! I made my very own wix website. I loved the website that Warren made for me, but there were a few problems with it. He was never able to finish it, the site was too big, and I felt like a lot of the website images were getting old. So my friends Samantha and Manelle made fabulous websites using www.wix.com (go check theirs out, they are great!). If you don't have your own website, you need to go check wix out. You can make great websites with their templates, or start from scratch, but it is all very easy. You just drag and drop everything- no programing involved. You can make a free website, or you can pay a small amount to send it to your own domain name. I feel my new website has all the elements I've always wanted in a website, which is great! Plus it is easy for me to change and update it myself, which I love!

So here's the deal. Many of you who read my blog have seen many of my illustrations, and a lot of you are illustrators/artists yourself. So it would be great if you could go to my new website and give me an honest critique and tell me where it might need improvements- my portfolio or just the website in general. Leave your comments here or there is a place for comments on the website!

I'm very very excited to add some of my illustrations from the book I recently finished, The Truth About Ogres. They will be a great addition to my portfolio! Coming soon!

Colonial Days 2010

2010-07-05T19:11:00.004-06:00

Happy Indepence Day everybody! I'm just back from being a chalk artist at Colonial Days again this year. Here are a couple pictures.

I'm including the sketch, since it is so hard to successfully translate the drawing into a chalk drawing, especially when drawing on asphalt. When I am done with crunch time on my current book project, I will probably color this just for fun!

P.S. Chalk drawing is exhausting. The end.

Dear April

2010-07-01T15:03:00.007-06:00

I illustrated an article, Dear April, for the July issue of The Friend magazine. Here's how it turned out.

And here's a few close ups of some of the images, just for fun!

BYU Illustration 30th Anniversary Alumni Show

2010-06-19T22:54:00.003-06:00

I just enjoyed a fabulous day of art and catching up with old friends. Today was the opening reception for the BYU Illustration 30th Anniversary Alumni Show. The day started out with a figure drawing session and I decided to go! Here's what I came up with. I tried watercolors. Some of it got bit muddy, but it was fun to try out. It was nice to draw from a live model, wish I could do it more often!

I went with my husband, Warren to the Alumni dinner (my camera batteries died, so no pictures of that), and then the opening reception for the show. I had so much fun seeing old friends from school and new artist friends that I have made since. Here I am with some of my wonderful teachers that helped me become the artist I am today- Robert Barrett and Doug Fryer.

Another great teacher who taught me so much- Richard Hull.

There were many friends there from when I went to school. Here is a picture of some of them.

Here is my piece that is in the show. Everyone was allowed only one piece in the show because of the number of participants. I was excited to see that my piece was hanging next to some of my favorite children's illustrators.

If you just happen to be in Provo, Utah in the next couple of weeks, you should go check out this fabulous show in that Harris Fine Arts Center at Brigham Young University. It is hanging on three floors. The show will be hanging until July 14!

Pioneer Boots Experiment

2010-04-30T13:30:00.003-06:00

I've been busy with illustration projects, which is definitely good in this economy. Right now I'm working on a book about Ogres which has been lots of fun. But because of such quick deadlines for everything, I have doing everything digitally. I miss my paint. I've been wanting to experiment with some different things for a while, but haven't had the chance. So when a friend asked me if I could draw a picture of some pioneer boots for a church activity, I figured this was the perfect chance.

I sketched out the boots and then scanned them and printed them out on Arches 80 lb hotpress watercolor paper. I have a regular sized hp inkjet printer, so the ink will bleed if it gets wet. So first I sprayed the printout thoroughly with fixitif. After that dried, I painted over the picture with Matte Medium. This turned the drawing into a dark blue thick outline, but the ink didn't run. Next I painted the boots with watercolor, and finally I finished the whole thing up with pastel pencils.

The things I discovered: First, that I can successfully print out a drawing and paint over it without the drawing bleeding into a big blob. Second, that this technique makes dark thick outlines, so it's not as successful with watercolor unless I want this certain look. But it would work well with an opaque acrylic painting. Third, I like the blue undertones the ink gives the painting. Fourth, Matte Medium makes an awesome texture!! (Too bad you can't see it very well). I love it. I need to work more with texture. Fifth, someday I will own a large format printer with waterproof ink so I can do wicked awesome paintings tout les jours. That was long. That's all.

I'm a Diner!

2010-04-01T20:52:00.001-06:00

I've joined The Doodle Diner Blog! Check out my first post here!

Clarinet

2010-03-30T10:18:00.005-06:00

Here's another musical sketch. I decided to add a little prisma color in with this one. At one time, Prisma Color and charcoal were my two main mediums of choice. Funny. I had to dust off the old set o' Prisma Colors, it hasn't been used for so long! This guy was another one of my sketches from my sister's Folk music concert. This guy was in the Jewish music band...I know there is another name for Jewish music, but I can't think of it at the moment. I liked his big nose and body shape. He was also wearing all black, so I thought I would take the challenge and see if I could make it work with a black clarinet. I don't think I was completely successful. :)

Fun news, I will soon be joining The Doodle Diner blog. I'm excited to get to know this fun bunch of illustrators! Well, better get back to work- In the next couple weeks I have a 32 page book to sketch out and a magazine article to paint. . .and two little ones to take care of. :)

Friends Sharing The Friend

2010-03-23T16:03:00.002-06:00

Here's a little spot illo I did for The Friend Magazine, April Issue.

Musical Sketches

2010-03-19T11:45:00.005-06:00

Last week I went to my sister's Folk Music Concert. The audience wasn't in the total dark, so I was easily able to draw. It was SOOO much fun drawing to the music and capturing the musicians' energy! You should try it sometime. I decided to add some watercolor to the sketches.

This one is my sister, the pianist in the Celtic Band at BYU. So fun!!

More musician sketches to come soon! Still a lot to learn about watercolor. It's way fun!

Ogden Pallet Club

2010-03-10T09:23:00.002-07:00

Thank you to the Ogden Pallet Club for having me last night! It was lots of fun to meet other artists and tell you a little bit about my art and the world of children's book illustration. Hurray for art groups, I think you guys have a wonderful organization!

Finally, an Illustration!

2010-03-06T14:06:00.002-07:00

Well, here it is. I finally finished a sample illustration!! When I was in 5th grade, I learned that Queen Elizabeth's dresses were so heavy that her servants had to carry her (maybe "push her" would be a better description for my picture). I thought it would be a fun illustration. It turned out to be a VERY ambitious undertaking. I had no idea. All the people, all the jewels, all the fabric, even the background details. I thought I was almost done and then it took two more weeks. Well, I hope it was worth it. I'm still not sure! It's also hard to see in this small of a view with all the details.

On a side note, sadly, they are changing the format of the UVU forum on Children's Literature this year. So I am sad to report that I will no longer be speaking on the panel on March 15. But I will still be speaking at the Ogden Pallet Club this coming Tuesday, March 9th (see post below for more details). Better get started on preparing what I am going to talk about! :/

Illustration Presentations!

2010-02-18T14:50:00.005-07:00

It's lots of fun and a little nerve racking to do illustration presentations! :) Here are a couple events I will be doing presentations at. If you're in Utah, I'd love you to come join me! Click on the pictures and they will take you to the websites for more information.

I will be doing a presentation about children's book illustration at the Ogden Pallet Club. They meet every second Tuesday at the Ogden Chamber of Commerce Building located at 2444 Washington Blvd in Ogden. I will be presenting on March 9, 2010 at 7:00 pm.

At the Forum on Children's Literature which will take place at Utah Valley University on March 15 and 16, I will be participate in an illustrators panel entitled "Breaking and Entering into illustration." This is always a fun conference that I enjoy going to every year.

Class room presentations! Today I did a little presentation on illustration for my daughter's Kindergarten class. In the above picture, please ignore the very unflattering picture of moi and instead turn your gaze to that very eager looking girl wearing a raspberry colored shirt and sticking her head out of the crowd. Yes indeed, that is my sweet daughter, Cassidy. She is a budding artist herself who spends hours each day drawing in her room.

I had tons of fun doing this little presentation. I love seeing the kids reactions. They laughed at every single illustration I showed them, even if it wasn't funny. Cute! I took it as the biggest compliment I could ever get- genuine delight. That's who I really do this for- kids!

Male Dancer

2010-01-26T11:22:00.004-07:00

Here is my attempt to sketch a male dancer. I need to draw more males- I need practice! I'm having so much fun experimenting and sketching every day (or atleast more often) just for fun. It is making art fun for me again!

More dancing watercolors

2010-01-25T13:41:00.002-07:00

Watercolor, where have you been all my life? I'm just loving the loosness watercolors allow. I still have so much to learn, but I am lovin' this stuff, just absolutely lovin it!! Why did I think I hated watercolors? I am also loving doing these dancer sketches. What a great way to practice drawing anatomy! By the way, the sketch a day thing hasn't happened unfortunately, but I am trying to sketch as much as I possibly can.

A Nerd in an Art Show

2010-01-20T07:46:00.002-07:00

Here I am, my nerdy self with my husband, Warren at the Illustrators Utah Art show opening reception. I have three illustrations in the show and it was fun to see some cool illustrators and some great artwork along with some great friends who came to visit! The exhibit will be up until February 16, so go check it out!

Illustrators Utah!

2010-01-12T11:27:00.003-07:00

I have three illustrations that will be showing in the Illustrators Utah show at the Bountiful/Davis Art Center! The exhibit will be displayed January 15- February 16, 2010.

Come enjoy an evening of art featuring the current landscape of illustration in Utah at the opening reception Friday, January 15, 2010, 6:00-9:00 pm. An award ceremony will be held at 7:00 pm. The juror for this exhibit is Don Weller, nationally recognized painter, illustrator and graphic designer. Presentation by guest artist Greg Spalenka will begin at 7:15 pm.

The Bountiful Davis Art Center is located at 745 South Main Street in Bountiful, Utah.

Gallery Hours:

Tuesday-Friday 10 am-6 pm
Saturday: 2 pm-5 pm

Closed Sundays, Mondays, holidays and between exhibits.

I hope this is enough information to get some of my Utah friends up to Bountiful to see this fun art show. Hope to see some of you there at the opening!

News Flash- Magic Wagon Books for Sale!

2010-01-08T21:18:00.002-07:00

I was excited to discover today that "Peter Pan" and "The Wind in the Willows" are for sale on Amazon. You can also see links to these on my side bar.

I was also excited to see that they featured a certain cover on the Magic Wagon website. Click on the cover image and you can see an interior page. Whoo whoo! Just wanted to share my happiness. :)

I Don't Know How to Watercolor

2010-01-08T14:08:00.007-07:00

My friend Manelle is doing a sketch a day. I thought that was a good idea. So I am going to try and do the same thing. I'm not going to post every sketch I do as I am a busy mom and I'm sure some sketches will be quite quick and horrid looking. But I will post some every now and then that I think are decent. So now the word is out, and I'm committed. If any of you want to join in on the fun, please do!

Ballet was once my life, now my life is my family and my art when I can work it in. I have often thought that ballet has probably influenced the way I draw as I really enjoy drawing graceful lines. I did this sketch quickly with some watercolor. I really haven't used watercolors since high school and that is another goal of mine- to learn how to watercolor. So here I go!

I also want to learn how to draw better characters. Here was my first little character sketch.

I do like the feel of watercolors. Whenever I talk to art directors, I often get the comment that my illustrations have a "mass market" feel. I think this means they look a little more cartoony than they would like for trade books. I really really think it would be totally neato to illustrate a trade book. So I am going to experiment with a few things: watercolor, pastels, and I am going to work on making my acrylics look less mass-markety. I guess we'll see what I will come up with.

What goals do you have with your art this year? I'd love to hear from any fellow illustrator readers I may have out there. :)

Scott Gustafson and Jon Foster

2009-12-06T21:44:00.003-07:00

This past week I had the opportunity to listen to two great illustrators speak- my sweet hubby watched the kids while I went to both of them. :) I took a few notes so I'll share some thoughts and gems of wisdom with y'all.

Here I am with Scott Gustafson! He has been a favorite illustrator of mine since I first saw his work. And besides that he's such a nice guy. The things that I love about his work is the personality he gives to his characters and the ways he uses color- so many colors to make one color. I can also tell he has studied the work of and is influenced by great illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, J.C. Leyendecker and the list goes on.

He shared his process with us. He does a lot of things that I do when working out sketches, except he uses a photocopier and wax and I use photoshop- moving characters around, shrinking and enlarging etc. It was really fun to see his process of oil painting- he showed us a day by day progress of an Alice in Wonderland piece he did.

A couple words of wisdom from Scott: If something isn't working in your illustration, leave that for a while and work on another area of the piece. Give it some time and then you can come back and work on it later. If you give it time, you can usually work it out better. I also commented to him that I really like his use of color and he says that he often relies on a color wheel to show him what colors he should use next to each other. That very night, I dusted off my color wheel.

The other illustrator I was able to listen to this week was Jon Foster. He fantasy illustrator. The thing I like about his work is his amazing compositions. I like his teen novel covers. Some of his work was inspired by N.C. Wyeth and J.C. Leyendecker also.

Here are a few things I learned from Jon. Fear will keep you from fully experiencing the things that you want to experience. It's funny, and I thought about this. I think a lot of times I procrastinate starting my jobs or doing all the art I would like to do because I have a fear of not being able to do it good enough. I need to get over that fear and just make art for the joy of making art. He encouraged us all to have fun with art and experiment. It's all about enjoying the process of painting. Play with paint, value, form. Try starting with a small amount of color and see what you can come up with. Doodle and have fun. Everything doesn't have to be rendered or it won't have life and energy so let some things go. If something is too rendered, go back in and chop things up. Experiment with different color pallets.

Jon also talked about not comparing yourself to other artists. While he was in school, his teachers told him that he was only the middle of the field, and he put a lot of work into getting only meteocher artwork. It took him 8 years after he graduated to get his first illustration job.

He also talked about how you learn a lot more after you graduate- which I agree with. You get the tools you need while you're in school, and then after school you get the experiences that really help you learn how to use those tools. You meet people and see new art that influences you for good. Now that I've been out of school for 5 1/2 year, I am realizing more and more every day how true this is. When I first graduated, I thought I should be able to illustrate a trade book right off, but now looking back, I am glad things didn't happen that way, because I've learned so much from the smaller jobs I've done and other experiences I've had.

Randomly, (you can't even tell what this picture is about) here is a little glimpse of my studio while I'm working on sketches for a book. I tape all of the sketches up on the wall. That way I can come back to things and fix them later after I've worked on some other things. It also lets me see if any two pages are very similar and how well the book is going to flow. Well, that's enough of my chatter! Signing off!

SCBWI Conference 2009

2009-11-15T15:49:00.003-07:00

Sherry, Manelle, Laurent, Me, and Elise

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to the SCBWI (Society of Childrens Books Writers and Illustrators) Conference. This is a pretty fabulous conference to go to because they bring in an art director from a major publishing house! This year they invited Laurent Linn from Simon and Schuster. A portfolio critique directly from art director is definitely one of the most helpful critiques I've ever had. I love hearing the new ideas and suggestions from someone who really knows what's marketable in today's industry. Elizabeth Law, editor from Egmont U.S.A. was also there, and she also had some great things to say. It was a great weekend. I learned a ton, and I'm pumped and ready to make my work better!

Selections from The Wind in the Willows

2009-11-03T13:52:00.005-07:00

Here are a few illustrations from The Wind in the Willows, available January 2010 through Magic Wagon, a division of the ABDO Group (www.abdopublishing.com) or your educational wholesaler. I really had fun with these ones and I like how they turned out!

Selections from Peter Pan

2009-11-03T13:33:00.002-07:00

Here are a few illustrations from Peter Pan, available January 2010 through Magic Wagon, a division of the ABDO Group (www.abdopublishing.com) or your educational wholesaler.

On Grandpa's Boat

2009-11-03T13:27:00.002-07:00

Heres a few selections from the book I illustrated last winter for EECI Inc. entitled On Grandpa's Boat.

Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows available in 2010!

2009-10-15T08:31:00.002-06:00

Here are the covers for the two books I have just finished up: Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows! They will be Available January 2010 through Magic Wagon, a division of the ABDO Group (www.abdopublishing.com) or your educational wholesaler.

Ice Cream and Tap Shoes

2009-10-12T10:20:00.003-06:00

I know it's been such a long time since I've posted. Well the reason is because A. I've been swamped with illustrations jobs, which is good most of the time except for when B. I've been moving. Yes, 'tis true. We've been living in a 3 bedroom condo for the last 5 years and we were finally able to move into our very own house! I love our house, but it was quite an ordeal getting here (there was complications with the selling of our condo) and having 10 days left to finish up my sketches and finals for a book I was working on (a chapter book rewrite of Peter Pan).

So here we are and I'm posting a couple of illustrations I did for The Friend magazine that was published in this months issue from an article entitled "Ice Cream and Tap Shoes." If you have a magazine tell me if you can see the difference between the original and the published version. Laters!

Happy Fourth of July!!

2009-07-04T20:22:00.006-06:00

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I am a bit exhausted from the day have opted out of seeing fireworks this evening.

As promised, here are some more pictures from Colonial Days. Firstly, here is another picture from Thursday. It is me and my good friend Manelle in our stylin' Colonial Costumes. Check out her blog to see what she did! Doesn't she look like she could be in a Vermeer painting?

Here I am today in my not so well fitting fatty costume. This time I decided to do a drawing of Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. That cute little girl hanging out by me is my little one!

This drawing was a bit more of an ambitious undertaking, and because it has been such an exhausting week, I didn't care as much about this one and just kind of wanted to get it over with. The frustrating thing about working with chalk on asphalt is: 1. It's a black surface which is quite a bit different than the white surface I am used to working on. 2. It's a bit rough! 3. You get quite sore and exhausted from crouching on the ground. and 4. It's frustrating to not have the colors that you would really like to work with. But all that said, it was a fun experience and a great holiday!

Colonial Days

2009-07-03T09:00:00.003-06:00

I am so grateful to live in the U.S.A! And I love the Fourth of July! This year I have the fun opportunity of participating in Colonial Days in Provo Utah- part of their Freedom Day Festival- as a chalk artist! If any of you are in the area, I will be there again tomorrow on the 4th of July from 4:00-6:30 in the afternoon, so come stop by. There are a lot of other fun activities going on at the Colonial Days located at about 300 East Center Street in Provo.

Here's what I did yesterday! Yes, t'is me!

Kind of a distorted view since I couldn't get an overhead shot: Good ol' Betsy Ross working on Old Glory! It was my first time working with chalk, and I wasn't sure what I would be working with (they provided the supplies). So it was definetly an experiment, but very fun! I'll be posting more soon!

Young Annie Oakley

2009-05-29T19:49:00.004-06:00

I'm really proud of myself for finally getting a sample done. The last couple of months I've mainly been concentrating on selling my condo (fixing it up, puting it on the market, keeping it clean and looking at other houses), and somehow my creative brain went on a vacation. But I've slowly been getting illustration things done again. Hurray! Here's young Annie Oakley and her horse done in digital and pastel pencil.

Friends!

2009-05-09T14:31:00.004-06:00

Here's a couple of little images I did for the May 2009 issue of The Friend Magazine. A little "Funstuf" activity about being a good friend. I experimented with a new technique for this image. I first colored the images in photoshop- using a technique that ends up looking a bit like watercolor. Then I printed the illustrations on watercolor paper and finished them off with pastel pencils. I really like the outcome and want to experiment with this more!

Job from last year

2009-04-15T08:49:00.003-06:00

Here's another religious illustration I did last year for a Peter Li Publishing. A cover for "Prayers and Guidelines for Young Catholics." I haven't seen the published product yet, but I finished it a year ago, so I'm assuming it's published by now. Laters!

The Prodigal Son

2009-03-19T15:05:00.002-06:00

Well, good news, the book that I finished last September is now out and in print- The Parable of the Prodigal Son. This is of course one of Jesus' well known parables from the New Testament in the Bible. This version is written in a rhyming style by Erik Rottman and it's an Arch Book published by Concordia Publishing house. Above are desplayed a few images from this book that I thought turned out alright!

This was the first book I painted all digitally (Photoshop). I really didn't know much about digital painting when I first started, but I learned a lot from friends along the way. Thanks, Maryn and Manelle. Thanks to the blood, sweat and tears of this book, I am now much faster and more wise in the ways of digitalness.

For the last couple of weeks I have been taking a small break from illustrating after a long stretch of non-stop illustration work (which I was very grateful for). Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working hard on getting our condo ready to sell- painting, floors, countertops etc. I have discovered I have been feeling very stressed, and somehow it's a bad kind of stress that I don't like. With illustration I get stressed, but somehow it's a good kind of stress- because I'm doing what I love. I'll keep going at it since our little family is really ready for a house!

Forum on Children's Literature 2009

2009-03-15T22:05:00.004-06:00

This past Thursday and Friday, I was able to go to the Forum on Children's Literature, held annually at Utah Valley University. I had a fun time even though this year was a bit more quiet. Last year in the gallery of illustration there were a ton of participants- like 15. This year there were only five. So that gives you an idea of how it was. But I was inspired as always, and my favorite part was hearing from my favorite writer, Shannon Hale. She is Hillarious! She also knows what she's talking about! Other key note speakers were Abby Ranger, editor at Hyperion Books for Children and illustrator Robert Neubecker. I have written a little about things that I learned at the conference on the CBBFI blog, and hope to write a few more things soon. So stay tuned.

I even made it into the Daily Harold Newspaper. Click here to see the link. There is a large picture of Shannon Hale up on top and then you can click on the smaller picture underneath and see ME! It's a picture of me in the figure drawing session- I am the weirdo sitting up front.

Speaking of the figure drawing session, here's what I came up with. I wish I could go to figure drawing sessions all the time, because they are so helpful and I miss drawing from a live model. I learn so much every time I do!

Here's a picture of me with my BFF Shannon Hale. You can totally tell that we're BFF's right? I mean, look at that smile on her face. She was so happy to see me, and she only had to call security once.

Now no one can dispute that Shannon and I are absoluetly best friends. She even wrote it in my Goose Girl book. Do you think the knife in her back was going a bit too far? Really, it was just one of those plastic butter knifes.

Princess Moonbeam and IF: Legendary

2009-03-07T19:44:00.004-07:00

Once again, I am slightly changing my original post since it fits so well with this week's Illustration Friday theme, Legendary. Princess Moonbeam comes from a Japanese Folk Tale/ Legend. When I posted this illustration at first, I forgot that I had planned on showing a couple steps of my acrylic process. So I am now posting those below.

Here's an illustration I finished for Story Book Art's ad in the 2010 Picture Book. It's a illustration of Princess Moonbeam from the Japanese folk tale. The moon is calling her back and she is about to drink the elixir of immortality and go back to live in the moon with her moon mother once more. She is sad because she must leave her earthly parents. I painted it in acrylics all except for the the moonbeam. I did that digitally. It just seemed like too much of a bother to try and figure out how to do it in acrylics.

Step one: The first step is thumbnails. It is important to work out how your composition will look in a thumbnail. Unfortunately, my thumbnail sketches are long gone, used as scratch paper for my kids to draw on.

Step two: Get the sketch right! This saves so much trouble in later stages. Sometimes I need to draw and redraw until I feel happy about it. Sometimes I even need to stop and go back to thumbnails. I was lucky on this illustration that I only had to tweek a couple things to get the sketch right.

Step three: Color study. I do this on photoshop. I even use colors from other acrylic illustrations I have done and scanned in, picked up from the eye dropper tool.

Step four: First I transfer the sketch to a gessobord by tracing it over graphite paper. (Even though I LOVE gessobord, I am wanting to change this to a kind of paper, since I know art directors don't like illustrations on a board because they like to use drum scanners. Does anyone have a wonderful paper that they use? I would love suggestions.) Then I do an underpainting. In this painting I used purple first then quickly painted in the rest of the colors where they were supposed to go.

Step Five: Finished acrylic painting. Step six on this one was to scan in the painting and add the digital magic, which you can see in my finished piece at the top.

Just for fun, here is a couple of photos of my pallet, since a lot of my friends get a kick out of how high the paint is getting. The photos are not very clear, but it's pretty funny.

My take on "When Pigs Fly" and IF: Breezy #1

2009-02-10T23:23:00.005-07:00

I am modifying my original post slightly to be an Illustration Friday post since it goes along so well with the topic "Breezy."

Here's a piece I did for promotion. This is one of those illustrations that took lots and lots of drawing and redrawing (and frustration) to get to the final sketch. Sometimes you just have to struggle until you get it. . . .better. I got some good suggestions from my crititque groupies. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than my first drawings.

It's kind of funny, I've been doing a lot more work than I can actually show because it hasn't been published yet. It seems like most of the work I've been doing has been done on the computer. Yet most of the work on this blog is in acrylics (excluding my last two posts). I guess this is because I really like the look of acrylics so I do it for my promotional work, but computer is much quicker for fast jobs. Right now I am working on another reader about a boy and his grandpa on a boat. Hopefully I will have a couple good things to show you after the job is published. I will be spending the next few weeks trying to catch up on that job and trying to crank out another promotional piece for Picture Book- not to mention trying to be a good mom. :) So that's what I'm up to art-wise. I hope all of you are working on some great art too. Thanks for everyone who comments on this blog, I really enjoy reading them!

Another Black and White and IF: Breezy #2

2009-02-04T15:21:00.005-07:00

Like the post above, I had to modify my original post just a little bit because it fit all too well with the IF topic for this week: breezy. I must have been inspired to do two such windy (or breezy) pictures in a row!

Black and white drawings

2008-12-30T23:21:00.003-07:00

It's been almost a year, but I finally finished a few black and white drawings to go along with my Middle Grade novel cover sample. I have a couple more in mind that I want to do, but who knows when I'll have time to do that. So I'll post these for right now.

I was looking at the cabin with the moon picture and realized that it is really cliche. In fact, I realized after I finished it, that it resembles the famous scene from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" with the curly hill. I didn't even think about that when I was drawing the hill, it just ended up being curly. I really wasn't trying to copy anyone. Oh well.

I tried a new technique on these black and whites, and I really like the results. I did a pencil under drawing, shaded it digitally, printed it on Arches watercolor paper, and finished it with charcoal. This technique is much faster than doing the whole image with charcoal. I am going to try this technique with colored illustrations and pastel pencils.

IF: Rambunctious

2008-12-16T10:59:00.002-07:00

Rambunctious: noisy and lacking in restraint, boisterous, disorderly.

This is the Christmas mailer I am still hoping to get out. We'll see if that happens. Warren (my hubby) suggested the sort of horror lighting on the aunt's face. I'd love a critique!

I recently got an Epson v500 for scanning, and I'm amazed that the scanner actually scans the textures of the paint (although you can't see it in this small size). Our old hp finally died on us.

Merry Christmas to you all!

The New Website is up!

2008-11-17T00:23:00.002-07:00

My hubby, Warren, has been working diligently on getting my new website up over the last month. He learned Flash all by himself. Isn't that dang cool? He got the website up yesterday before I got home from my conference. It is actually far from being done, but he has the main parts done, and the first portfolio page is done. He needs to add a second page. Mostly every other page (links, bio, books, contact) need to be finished. Anyway, since it's not done, now is a great time for y'all to give it a couple critiques. Do you think I need to group the colored and black and white illos in seperate groups? Or do you like the black and white's mixed in with the colors? It is also a little bit big for smaller monitors, so we appologized about that. Let me know what you think. Hopefully it will all be done soon!

A Good Art Week

2008-11-16T23:26:00.004-07:00

This weekend, I was able to go to the SCBWI workshop of awesomeness- "Inside Children's Publishing." I feel so blessed that I was able to go. I learned a lot, and got a lot of good advice on my portfolio and how to break into the trade book market. Here I am with some old BIFFs and some new BIFFs (Best Illustration Friends Forever). ;) I have posted some of my notes from the conference on the CBBFI blog- check it out, check it out, check it out.

Sorry about the horrible picture, my camera decided not to work. On Wednesday, our illustration critique groupies went to the Springville Art Museum to see the exhibit "Unbound: Original Picture Book Art By Utah Illustrators." It was a fabulous exhibit! It is really fun to go to a museum with other artists, and really look closely at the artwork and discuss it with people who know what they are talking about. It was so great to see the original artwork- printing doesn't do the artwork justice. I also loved browsing and drooling over all the fabulous childrens books in the little museum store. If you live in Utah, you need to go check this exhibit out- it closes on December 28.

Finally back on childrensillustrators.com!

2008-11-04T21:16:00.002-07:00

I was finally able to renew my membership on childrensillustrators.com! I have also updated my portfolio, so check it out! Let me know what you think.

For the Birds!

2008-10-30T15:34:00.003-06:00

This last month has been really busy with trying to finish up a reader. Now I am really concentrating on getting my website done. Warren has been working on it, and it is going to be so fun! I'm so excited!

Anyway, here are a couple things I have done in between times. Janet, my agent, wanted to give a client a couple samples of a cute ducklings for a possible job. I colored it really quickly in photoshop. The bird sketches were a little something I did for a friend. All the bird drawings are reminding me of the outing we took to the Aviary (bird zoo) this month with the little mom-taught preschool group I am involved with. It was just a bit stressful since my oldest, Cassidy is quite a wanderer, and my yougest, Madeline enjoys lagging behind. I am getting anxiety just looking at these birds. :)

IF: Sugary

2008-10-03T21:03:00.004-06:00

I know this illustration is kind of simple, but anyway. . . here is my last button for my new website (view previous posts to find my other 6). And it is definetly sugary! There are some things I want to change, but I decided with my life in the state it's in right now, to just go ahead and post it as is. Hopefully the new website will be up soon!

It's been a while!

2008-09-28T18:17:00.006-06:00

Wow, I was really getting tired of looking at that not so wonderful mermaid every time I came to this blog! I finally have something else to put on my blog. The reason I haven't been posting is not because I have not been doing anything, it's because I have only been working on jobs that I have to wait until they are published to share. So here is a couple of illustrations I did for The Friend Magazine, September issue. It's for an article entitled, "It Pays to Listen."

Here's some news from the drawing board of Shawna J.C. Tenney:

I have been learning a lot about painting digitally on Photoshop- some from doing it on my own, some from friends. I decided the only way to learn the computer was to just dive in and start using it. So I was working on a little religious book of "The Prodigal Son" and decided to paint the whole thing on the computer. At first it went very slow, but things got faster as I worked and learned. I think they turned out pretty good- there are still some things I want to improve, but overall I think I made the finished products look almost like my acrylic paintings. I will post some illos from that book when it is published. By the way, this does not mean I want to go totally digital. I just thought it would be good to have a faster and cheaper way to get through those jobs that don't give me very much time and don't pay a lot of money.

I really hope to have my new website up by next month. I'm going to do this! I PROMISE!!

I went down to a lecture at BYU by illustrator Rudy Gutierrez, which was very inspiring. Here are a couple of things I wrote down in my notes.

Style is inside you- it's what you're feeding yourself (in other words, it grows from the things you look at).

When you have a gift, it's your responsibility to uplift and inspire others.

Know your value- along with that comes perseverance. Believe in yourself.

Art is therapy. Art is medicine. Respect it.

Trying out the computer

2008-06-20T14:09:00.003-06:00

So don't look to hard at this painting, I did it from sketch to finish in about 2 hours. But I am posting it because I wanted to show how I've started to explore painting with Photoshop. I am so behind the times here and only have done traditional painting. My friend Manelle showed me a few cool techniques to try out. I decided to make my daughter's birthday invitation trying some of the things Manelle taught me. So here is what I came up with. I wrote the words inside the sea shell. I could have done a lot more details on the drawing, but who wants to spend that much time on a birthday invitation? I didn't spend a ton of time on the painting and probably could have done a lot better- I didn't even finish shading her skin. I just left the sketch in the painting. And I used a couple of cheesy texture brushes like a star brush. But hey, it was an experiment.

It takes so much less time to paint on the computer. No washing out brushes and mixing colors. And if you make a mistake, you just go back in the history. I want to paint my current jobs on the computer, but I'm thinking I should probaby get a little more experience on the computer before attempting that. :)

Elementary School Visit

2008-05-29T00:06:00.005-06:00

My Aunt is a teacher down in American Fork UT, and she invited me to come and talk to the first grade at her school about being an illustrator. It wasn't a paying gig, but I wanted to do it to get some experience for some day when I have a big trade book to promote. It was so much fun!!! Talking to kids is WAY more fun than talking to adults (no offense adults).

I started my presentation talking about how you don't have to wait until you are a grown-up to be an illustrator, and how the only way to get good at drawing is to PRACTICE! I showed the kids some of the books I made when I was around first grade age. They were pretty funny. Then I showed the kids illustrations that I did when I grew up- I told them that I am still practicing. I love the reaction you get from kids- they are just so excited about everything. I read them my book Allie's Bike. That was tons of fun because kids have such great reactions when Allie is flying off her bike and when she wobbles into the garden. I told them how I like being an illustrator because I can work from home and be with my family. I showed them my paints and paint brushes and pictures of my studio. Then I drew a picture for them. I asked the kids for suggestions on what animal we should draw. We finally decided on a shark. I started drawing a shark, but it looked like a dinosaur (I forgot that sharks have pointy noses), so we made it into a dancing dinosaur with a tuxedo and a tutu. I would have liked to draw a lot more details and funny things but I ran out of time and only had about two minutes to draw. Bummer. But it was tons of fun.

A couple weeks after my presentation, I recieved some letters and drawings and books in the mail. I loved every single one of them. I had so much fun looking at the pictures and reading the letters, and afterwards my self-esteem was ten times better. :) Kids have such a sweet way of giving sincere complements. The kids drew a wide variety of pictures- I wish I could include them all. But I have decided to just include a couple of great dancing dinosaurs. Their dinosaurs are WAY better than mine. Enjoy!

ByBrian

By Brynlie

By Kristin

IF: Worry

2008-05-28T22:54:00.005-06:00

Worried about all the prank calls he had been getting lately, Orville started doing some research in his spare time.

Well, the secret's out. My 1 year old (almost 2), Madeline, does all my painting for me. :)

I did these two images for my website- the ongoing all year project. I only have one more "button" to illustrate and then I need to put the whole thing together and have someone program it. It may still be a little while before I'll finish the last illo because I have another job to work on right now. . .with deadlines.

My favorite thing about the pig picture is that it turned out looking so... so 70s. The brick wall, the green chair, the gold rag rug. I wasn't totally planning on this outcome, so the seventies-ishness of the whole thing was surprisingly fabulous.

Highlights

2008-05-15T10:50:00.003-06:00

Here's a little story I illustrated for Highlights Magazine that is in the May issue. It's one of those stories that has little pictures with the words. I included copies of the originals just for fun.

Kites and Birds

2008-04-30T22:17:00.007-06:00

I asked for a kite for my birthday last week, so we went kite flying as a family. We had a blast! The kids loved it. So I thought I would randomly post this job I did back at the beginning of the year for World Vision. These are bracelets for sponsors to give the children they are sponsoring...I hope I got that right. There are three bracelets attached to eachother- the large one for the sponsored child and two to give to friends if they want. They are holograms, and there is no way I could photograph or scan that. So here is a little video to give you an idea of what it looks like. Sorry it's really tiny.

To make the animation, I painted two versions of every kite and bird and two different views of the clouds. In the end they just used one view of the clouds and moved them across the sky.

Calling for help from ALL ARTISTS!!

2008-04-14T13:43:00.004-06:00

I posted this on the CBBFI blog, but in order to spread the word as widely as possible, I am posting this on my personal blog. Please feel free to copy and paste this post in your blog to spread the word as quickly and as widely as possible. We need help from all artists in the United States.

I have changed my original post, because in my panic to spread the word, I passed on a few things that were incorrect. But I still feel strongly that this is an important issue for all artists to be informed about.

A Bill is about to come out called The Orphaned works Bill 2008. We do not yet know exactly what this bill will say, but word is that it will be very similar to the 2006 bill which you can view here.

This is very important. Every artist needs to know about this and educate themselves. Please pass this on to any artist or anyone who works in a creative field. When it comes out, we will need help from every single artist to fight against this. Please help artists protect their livelihood! To stay updated, email illustratorspartnership@cnymail.com, and ask to be part of the email list. There will be updates about the bill on www.illustratorspartnership.org website.

I Highly recommend you listen to an interview with Illustrator Brad Holland.

Or read an article on this bill.

Book binding

2008-04-13T22:32:00.006-06:00

I took a book binding class in college, so I enjoy making books every once in a while. Yes, I know, now you want to be my friend. Anyway, in helping my dear hubby graduate, I helped him make a mini portfolio. It turns out, he wants to make another more simple one. Long story. So anyway, I'm just going to keep this one for my self. . . to use for something. Any ideas?

It's a clam shell box. It looks a lot nicer than this in real life- dark black.

This is a really bad picture. It actually look quite nice. . .I promise. Here is the inside with the little portfolio. The book is dark black and the inside paper is black with shiny sparkely things- looks kind of like asphalt. It is made to hold 5 x 8 pages with 5 x 7 images, so it's quite small. There are posts so you can change the images.

Here is my portfolio that I redid for the Children's Literature Conference. I used a sponge and painted the outside of the clamshell box (it was ugly and stained). I made this portfolio back in my Junior year at BYU.

Here's the inside of the clamshell with the portfolio. This one is bigger- holds 8 1/2 x 12 pages with 8 1/2 x 11 images.

Here is a little close up of the "S" I painted on the front. I looked at illuminated manuscript letters for my inspiration. I used gold paint which looks like gold leafing. I mainly did this to cover up an old ugly logo I had on there from my college days. Recycle and reuse! Letter "S" illustration ©2008 Shawna JC Tenney.

IF: Save

2008-04-08T16:39:00.004-06:00

Who will save me from this tower?

Here's another illustration for my new website which is still an ongoing project. I drew a sketch for this way back in October but recently revised it to make the tower coming out of the circle since all the other illustrations for my website have circles with objects coming out of the circle. I enjoy composing in a circle (if you can't tell). I had fun with the hair on this one.

Forum on Children's Literature

2008-03-31T11:52:00.004-06:00

Yes, it's the post you've all been waiting for. Well, not really. I went to a Children's Literature Conference at UVSC on March 20 and 21 (As you can see, it's taken me a while to get to this post-- it's Warren's last semester and I've been helping him with his homework). It was inspiring as usual. It was fun to see friends and hear great speakers.

Here are sketches I drew during the conference.

Here is what I drew during the figure drawing session with Perry Stewart, one of my former illustration teachers. I tried to keep everything really loose and look for angles and such. So don't look too closely, because I never really finished it. But it was fun to do some figure drawing again with a costumed figure.

Here I am with the Key Note Speaker Illustrator David Small and his wife Sarah Stewart, a writer. I asked if I could get a picture with Sarah's bear Richard. I happen to think that people who go around with their stuffed animals are really cool people.

Here are some of my coolest and bestest friends- my illustrator friends! Some are in my critique group, others I know from school and blog land. Top row: Jennifer Tolman, Julie Crews, Me, Manelle Oliphant, Sherry Meidell. Bottom row: Jennifer Gaskin, and David Wilson. All awesome people and fabulous artists.

We will be posting things from our notes and interviews with some of the speakers on the CBBFI blog. You can find a link to recent posts on the sidebar of this blog.

Lost in the Woods

2008-03-14T11:51:00.003-06:00

Here's a sample I did for my agent Janet (Story Book Arts). I guess it's kind of like a Middle Grade Novel cover. I have fun working with interesting lighting. I want to continue doing more like this. Working with lighting makes you think!

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

2008-03-14T11:21:00.006-06:00

Here's my version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" with animals. This came from a character I was working on that eventually evolved into a goat sorcerer. Random.

Manelle, is the light on the wand "lighty" enough now?

Here is the first character I did- a mean school master goat. Warren didn't like him because he was too mean. Maybe it brought back bad memories of a mean teacher Warren once had.

So he evolved into the sorcerer from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." I was stubborn and wouldn't just start from the beginning and draw the guy over because I liked him too much. That was my downfall. I tried over and over to compose a good picture without redrawing everything from the beginning. Finally Warren told me that I just needed to start over- something that none of us like hear, but something that all of us need to sometimes. He helped with the new composition by drawing a little thumbnail. Brilliant how that helps! This thumbnail helped tremedously since I had a generally good idea, but I wasn't pulling it off very well. Thanks Warren! I'd probably would be a lame artist if I didn't have friends to help me out.

I'm using this illustration for my Directory of Illustration 2009 Ad.

IF: Heavy

2008-03-14T09:46:00.007-06:00

While you IF people are here, I posted two more paintings today that are not for IF. So check those out above- critiques are welcome!

"Although I do enjoy the color of this "boa" with my dress, for some reason it seems to be a lot more heavy than my other one." Okay, okay, so that was really lame, but it works, right?

I wanted to show that sometimes you need to draw and draw before you get something right, which can be frustrating at the time. But working through things can be worth it in the end.

Here is the end product, which is far from perfect, but a lot better than what I started out with. I got a lot of help from my critique group. By the way, if you are not a part of a critique group in your area, you should start one. Not only is it so fun to have close artsy friends, it also improves your art and keeps you motivated! :) I displayed this piece in the BYU Alumni show, and I'm using it for my Picture Book ad for 2009.

Here's what I started out with. All I knew is that I wanted to make a female villain wearing a boa constrictor boa. Notice that the snake is all kind of the same thickness and not very scary. There wasn't much in the picture that told us anything about the lady's personality. What is she even doing?
Here I improved the snake and added the mirrors and perfume bottles. But YIKES! Look at that reflection!
In this sketch, the reflection is better, but still needs some work- not a very convincing angle. For the final, I made the snakes head larger and redrew the reflection-- which by the way is still not perfect (reflections are DANG hard), but better. I probably should have done something more interesting for the lighting- All well. The one thing I did like was how her skin tones turned out. I am working on making better skin tones for my Caucasian characters (I have other races down pretty well). On the Caucasians, their skin tends to come out too bright and orangy.

It's important to draw, design, draw, have a better plan, draw, draw before going to finish. Because things that are better planned can be the difference between good and great. This doesn't fall in the great category because what I should have done is just start over from the beginning.

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks to Warren, Manelle, Jeni, Julie, Sherry, Melinda etc etc etc for you're help on this one.

I've been tagged

2008-02-24T23:07:00.010-07:00

Well, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Yes indeed, I have been tagged. So here are 5 random things about me. Don't laugh- artists are supposed to be free spirits!

1. Once upon a time, I was actually seriously thinking about going into modeling. I was somehow convinced I needed to spend my life savings on a class. I actually had a great time. I however made a change of plans when I realized that to be a model 1. You have to be totally stuck on yourself, and 2. You actually have to have money to buy things like designer clothes and expensive photography to promote yourself and 3. You have to like food a little less than I do. Anyway, here's my head shot to prove my story. I can also know how to runway walk, but you're never going to see that.

2. My life's goal is to someday ride a horse. Sadly, I have never had a horse ride. True story.

3. I still sleep with my baby blanket. At this point, you are probably peeing your pants, but that's your problem. As you can see, Blonks Blanks is very faded and it's padding is all lumped together. I used to sleep with my two dolls until I had some real live dolls of my own. I guess that cured my weirdness. My dolls (the ones made out of plastic and cloth) live next to the bed now.

I love to collect puppets. Here's a sketch of one of my favorites named Griselda. Sometimes my puppets help my kids do tasks that they otherwise would be unwilling to do. Hey, you have to do what it takes.

I am a complete geek and I happen to love classical music, especially movie soundtracks. Although I have many favorites, my favorite movie composer of all time is John Williams. I want to meet that guy someday. The closest I ever got was getting to watch one of his rehearsals.

IF: Theory

2008-02-18T09:18:00.003-07:00

So, In Theory, if I kiss this frog, he should turn into a prince, right?

And in theory, if I climb this beanstalk, it should eventually take me
to some magical kingdom in the clouds?

Here are a couple more images for my new website, that I've been working on for about half a year now. I am going to get this done!! Thanks to my friends for keeping me motivated!

On the frog, I had to be careful that the the greens weren't all the same color. A little tricky, but I think it turned out okay. On the beanstalk, I was trying for a kind of morning lighting. Playing with lighting has been my new thing lately. The colors didn't turn out as nice as the originals. That white light is supposed to be more yellow. I've been having a little trouble adjusting the colors since I had to go back to my laptop. My Mac Mini's hard drive got fried. :(

Presentations and Shows

2008-02-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

This post is full (I mean FULL) of links for your enjoyment!

Here's a picture of me with my art at the reception for the BYU Illustration Alumni show last Friday February 1st. Read the Daily Herald's Review on the show. It was really fun to see some of the work, and really fun to visit with family, friends and old teachers. One of my former teachers, Robert Barrett who is an amazing person besides being an wonderful illustrator and teacher gave a great little inspirational speech. Thanks to all of you who came to support me. The show will be up until February 23, so if you ever happen to be in Provo before then, check it out. One of my blog readers was wondering if there was some way to view the show online. Unfortunately there isn't, so I'll just do the next best thing and give you some links to some of the artists' websites. Some of my favorites that I remember were Will Terry, Greg Newbold, Adam Ford, Val Paul Taylor (I am standing in front of one of his pieces) and Ben Sowards. Old teachers that are displaying their work are Robert Barrett, Richard Hull and Doug Fryer. There are quite a few of my friends from college and SCBWI including, David Dibble, Alisa Haggard, David Malan, Natalie Malan, Amber Erdmann, Julie Olson and Molly Williams. There were many others that I enjoyed, but I can't remember everyone. Anyway, it was fun and I think BYU is going to have a big 30-year anniversary show in 2010, so stay tuned!

On Wednesday, February 6th, I did a presentation for the SCBWI meeting along with my friend and fellow illustrator Manelle Oliphant. We talked about the "small jobs" in the children's illustrators market meaning non-trade books like magazines, educational/religious readers etc. I also talked about working with an art rep. As you may know, my art rep is Janet Decarlo at Story Book Arts. We will be posting some of what we talked at about on the CBBFI blog (if we can find some time!!).

New Header

2008-02-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to painting a new header!

BYU Illustration Alumni Show

2008-01-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

You're invited to the BYU Illustration Alumni Show. The show runs from January 28 to February 23, 2008 at the Utah County Art Gallery. The Gallery is located in the Health and Justic Building 151 South University Ave. in Provo, UT. There will be an Artist's Reception on Friday February 1st from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Of course, I will be there along with my artwork and many other artists and their artwork (my personal favorite being Will Terry). And if you don't want to come just for the experience of seeing this beautiful art (what's wrong with you?), there will be treats there also. I am showing a couple of pieces you have seen before, and one you haven't. And I am not showing it on my blog until after the show, so you better come see it! :) Here is the postcard they gave us to pass out. My artwork is not on this postcard. . . just incase you were wondering.