A great find.

One of the things that I really enjoy doing is searching for great books to add to my slowly growing library. Whether they are books about artists, art history, classics, or children's books, it is fun to find books that are not only printed well, but are great to read and look at. With that, I have been enjoying a new addition to my library the last week, a reprint of the 1909 Grimm's Fairy Tales with illustrations by the remarkable Arthur Rackham. The book is a wonderful recreation that is beautifully printed and bound. It even has a really great slip case. As to where I got it from, it came from a place called the Folio Society which exists to create beautiful editions of the world’s greatest books. The books are a little more expensive than a traditional version of them, but the production value just blows you away when you get to actual look through it. I definitely would recommend anyone who is a book lover to check it out.

Fall Classes and Buddy Guy

After a seemingly short summer, it is hard to believe that I am talking about the fall already. But with all that is to come in the next four months, I am actually happy that the fall has arrived. There will be the releases of a couple of new books with "Catch the Wind" and also "The Sick Bug", and a number of really fun events associated with them. Also on the fall menu is a couple of different classes that I will be teaching as well. The first of them is a 5 session class at the Elk River Arts Alliance that will be held every other Tuesday starting Sept. 23 on Creating Childrens' Books. This class will be 2 hours on Tuesdays and will be a great class for anyone who has always wanted to illustrate a children's book or is fascinated and wants to learn more about the process involved. The second class that is coming up as well is a class on "The Art of Illustration" at the Richeson School of Art in Kimberly, WI. This will be a class that will be a great overview for someone interested in being a professional illustrator. Whether it be illustrating books, magazine articles or product illustration, this class will give the participants the information about the industry as a whole. Another great aspect about the class is what to do next. They will learn how not only to put a portfolio piece together but also how to market themselves as an illustrator. So if you or someone you know in the vicinity of Wisconsin would be interested, feel free to pass along the information. The more students the merrier. For more information, feel free to click on the link to Richesons or you can look at the bottom of this post and I will list more information.



And then there was BUDDY GUY. As many of you know already, I am a HUGE fan of the blues and greats like BB King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters and the like. Having been to a number of Buddy's concerts before definitely didn't leave me satisfied and I needed to see more! So with the lineup of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Johnny Lang and Buddy Guy, a few friends and I ended up at the Minnesota State Fair and Buddy's concert. As usual, it was a great show and am already looking forward to the next one when he comes to town next. I know the pictures here are not the best, but I can attest to the great seats we had and the beautiful weather that was present for the show. I would definitely recommend to you that if you haven't seen Buddy before, you must check him out as he is an amazing performer!



Children's Book Illustration class at The Elk River Arts Alliance
716 Main Street in Elk River, MN
--Every other Tuesday---
Classes start Sept. 23 and continue on Oct. 7, 21 and Nov. 4 and 18.
6:30 to 8:30 pm
Cost $ 150 for all five classes
***Registration for class will begin soon. To reserve a spot in the class call the Arts Alliance at 763-441-4725

The Art of Illustration at Richeson School of Art
557 Marcella Street, Kimberly, WI
Oct. 17-19, 2008: Three day all day workshop
Cost $350

Two of my books showed up!

For me, one of my favorite moments of working on book illustrations is when the book that I had worked on for so long shows up. And today was one that was doubly exciting with two books showing up on the doorstep. Hopefully I will be getting more samples of the books for my portfolio and archive, but until then, I am enjoying the two new additions to the shelf. The books themselves are titled "The Bird Shaman" by Judith Moffett and "Sunny's Adventures' by Leketha Marie Johnson. Now it is waiting for the other two books that are coming out in the next couple of weeks with "Catch the Wind" and "The Sick Bug"

Joe Bonamassa

Here's to give you a little taste of Joe and what he sound like live. This is him playing a 14 1/2 minute version of
"Just Got Paid"

A crazy fall is on its way!

Hello to you all. Hope your weekends were full of excitement. I know mine was one that I will not forget for a while. A coworker and I went to see Joe Bonamassa at the Minnesota Zoo amphitheater on Saturday night and were blown away with the guitar work that Joe did. Having been to concerts with great guitarists like Derek Trucks, Buddy Guy, BB King and Joe Satriani, it was a great surprise to hear Joe and his amazing work. I definitely would recommend anyone who loves the blues and the guitar to check him out! Now it is off to see Johnny Lang and Buddy Guy at the Minnesota State fair on Sunday night. I know it seems like I am a concert junkie attending two concerts in a course of a week, but August just always works out to be the "party" month here in the cities. I think it is a much deserved release after months of hunkering down in the studio and the upcoming craziness that will be this fall.

I am looking forward though to that craziness that is about to start with the release of two more books ( "The Sick Bug" and "Catch the Wind") in the next couple of weeks. That will make 4 books being released in a matter of 2 months and the excitement of another couple in the works. The fun thing that I really enjoy with these books is when the booksignings and the visits start with the school kids. There is always a great time to be had when you get to visit with the little ones who look forward to seeing the books come to life. I will be sure to start an event section on my blog soon to list all of the places that you will be able to find me in the coming months. Until then, hope you are keeping busy yourselves and are finding fun ways to enjoy the remaining weeks of summer!

LeFranc & Bourgeois Flashe Vinyl paint

One of the things as an artist that I find exciting is when I find a new product to fill in the gap in my studio. That gap that has been missing is a paint that can produce beautiful, rich solid tones on a canvas or paper that doesn't leave it too streaked from brushstrokes. I know that oils work well for that, but as an illustrator, I sometimes don't have the time to wait for a piece to dry for two weeks. So I am left with acrylics and they often leave brush marks or indications of such when doing flat colors. So the other day when a fellow artist and co-worker came in with some new paintings on paper that he had done, I was blown away with the matteness of the color. The piece almost looked like it was a lithograph but had the subtle indications of being hand done. So I knew that that was going to be a great paint to add to the studio. The only problem was what colors to choose. I didn't want to get this new paint and get working on a piece and not have the right color, so I did the next best thing, I ordered one of every color. I know it was crazy, but the good thing is that they don't have hundreds of colors, so it wasn't to outrageous, but still will be a great investment for the studio. The paint itself is called LeFranc & Bourgeois Flashe Vinyl paint and comes in either 60 ml tubes or in a 400ml jar.

Now I know you might be a little disappointed because I don't have attached any images of works created with it yet, but don't fret, I just got the paint yesterday and am anxious to start using it. I will be sure to post some of the pieces that are my testers. Until then, you will just have to look at the photo of the paint itself. In other studio news, it has been a lot of fun lately working on another children's book. The great thing about it is I am also having to learn sign language at the same time so it has been a fun adventure in learning not only the signing but creating the images for the book itself. I am still only in the development stage but am already learning a lot. So if you see me walking down the street flashing signs, it is not a gang thing, rather an attempt at the actual sign language (learning curve will take a while :-)

Illustration Friday: Sail

The calm before the sail

Illustration Friday: "Poof"

Now I will just add a little "poof" for some magic.

"The Sick Bug" has hit the web

To say that I am excited about the launch of one of my new children's books upcoming is to put it lightly. I am actually ecstatic and can't wait for its release in the beginning of Sept. The book titled "The Sick Bug" was a great collaboration with author Susie Bazil and has continued to keep the excitement growing. With this, Susie sent a link over this week of the official "The Sick Bug" website. How cool is this. I have had pages on websites talk about a new book, but never an entire website dedicated to one book. And on top of that, there are free coloring pages for the kiddies to download and try their own hand at coloring in the book.

Please if you have a moment and are curious about the new book, check out "The Sick Bug" website and drop a line of what you think. I will be sure to fill you guys in as we get closer to launching the book and if there are any bookstores near you that you would like to see the book in or even have Susie and I come out for a booksigning, by all means pass the info on and let us know of the stores name! Hope all of you have a great start to your weekend and will be back with some new and fun news soon.

White Bear Lake ArtWatch 2008

Every year there are a few events that I really really look forward to. One of those events is the annual White Bear Arts Center Artwatch. The only thing missing this year was my good friends and bloggers Terry Stanley and Janet Nelson. This years event was a throwback to the first few years where it was a one day event with the artwork being created from 1-8pm and then auctioned off for a gala fundraiser to help supports the arts center and all it does with the community. One of the highlights from the live auction was a new fund that was setup to help support elementary arts education that raised a combined $7500 in a matter of a few minutes. With more donations yet to be counted yet, I am sure it will have a great start to the funds success.

So as usual, I have some fun pics to show you. The first one here is a look at my space that I was given to work in and all of my neighbors. The one to the left was actually not able to be at the event so I kind of spread out a little bit. Other than that, I hope you enjoy the pics and my final picture which was of the watermill at the Como Zoo. You will probably remember it from last weeks trip to the zoo. I thought I would try recreating this one and get some interest from some of the visitors for the auction.




Mike Judy in deep thought!




Michaelin Otis and friends


Nels Femrite and his great painting!



My Final Painting!

Off to ArtWatch

Happy Saturday to everybody. Hope your weekends have gotten off to a great start. Well it is hard to believe but another ArtWatch has come and am going to be leaving this morning to head over to White Bear Lake. It is going to be another great event (even though I will be missing Terry and Janet this year). If you happen to be in the area and are looking for something to do, stop on over and help support a great Art Center! More info can be found at the White Bear Arts Center website

Chalk Mural at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

What a gorgeous day it was for a chalk mural at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Too bad I am sore as all get out from 5.5 hours on the concrete! But it was a successful day at recreating the Joan Miro painting that is in the museums collection titled "The Spanish Playing Cards". Hope you like the pictures of the process!








And now the finished masterpiece! Please note that the image is not as bright as the earlier posts due to the fact it was in the shade when I finished.

Painting at Como Zoo

After an unbearable day of heat and humidity yesterday, we got an absolutely beautiful day to go on our Como Zoo field trip. As a number of people went and looked at the animals and activities that were going on, I was intent on painting the little water mill that I have walked by so many times going to the zoo. It was something that I really wanted to capture and was happy to have finally had the chance to get something going. The only bad thing is I only had a couple of hours to get to the zoo and get something on canvas so I will be having to finish this up in the studio in the coming weeks. Hope you like!



Now on to the chalk mural painting at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts tomorrow for family day. It will be a blast recreating Joan Miro's "The Spanish Playing Cards". Look for images from that event tomorrow and hope everyone is having a great weekend so far.

Calling all MNSCBWI members!

Illustration copyright Christina Rodriguez 2008

For all of you members of the Minnesota Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, I am sending out the call for you to attend this Saturdays Field Trip to Como Zoo. We are going to be spending the day (10-3pm) at the zoo creating art, writing stories or what ever else you are inspired to create. Make sure to bring a lunch and a small donation( not required) for entrance to the zoo. I especially want to thank Christina Rodriguez, the illustration coordinator for MNSCBWI for putting the zoo field trip together. Last year I was bummed because I wasn't able to make it, but am excited to go this year and create some sketches and drawings from the zoo. To download the flyer click here

Hope to see you there!!!!!

Back after a little break!

Hello everyone! Hope you had a great Fourth of July weekend. I surely did as I enjoyed the last few days out at the lake catching fish, swimming and relaxing. It was a much needed break after a couple of months of craziness with numerous book projects all going on at the same time. But don't worry, things are still going to be coming up and am working on a children's book right now that I will look forward to talking about sometime in the near future.

One of the things that I am really excited about is coming up this weekend at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Target Family Day on Sunday. I will be creating a large chalk mural of Joan Miro's "The Spanish Playing Cards" on the 3rd avenue entrance of the museum. I will be out there 11-5pm and would love to have you stop by and say hi! It should be a great day of fun activities tied to the theme of "Groovy Games" for kids of all ages. Look for images from the event on my blog early next week!



I also recently decided to pick up a new book that I had heard a lot about. It is Alyson B. Stanfield's book "I'd rather be in the studio!". I am looking forward to finally getting the time to get some reading in again. Hope you guys have a great rest of the evening and will be back soon.

Illustration Friday: "Fierce"

I don't think she wanted me sketching her. Something about the look!

A short break

Hello everyone. I have been feeling guilty lately with my absence of posts, but have been a little swamped with a tight book deadline and a few other things that have popped up. I just wanted to let you know that I will get back to posting new and exciting things on the blog come Monday the 30. Until then, I hope you all have a great rest of this weekend and next week!

Illustration Friday: "Forgotten"

The forgotten joy of urban parking!

Illustrations Friday: "Baby"

A little baby and crib from the book I illustrated titled "On the Other Side of the Ocean" by Ruth Elisabeth Schoch.

Sunny's Adventures now out!

As I have worked on more and more illustration projects, there are two great moments that really stand out in the process, the first being finished with the project and looking over all the work that was done, and then the release of a project. This week has afforded me both great feelings with the finishing of the illustrations for "The Sick Bug" and the release of a book I illustrated a number of months ago called "Sunny's Adventures: a Children's Mystery Book." And with next weeks release of "The Bird Shaman" by Judy Moffett, the excitement is sure to continue. So I will leave you with the press release of the new book that is out called "Sunny's Adventures: a Children's Mystery Book" which was written by Leketha Marie Johnson.



PRESS RELEASE


May 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Leketha Marie Johnson
(951) 565-6806
www.sunnysadventures.com


Sunny's Adventures
a Children's Mystery Book
Riverside, California - May 2008

Hello Friends and Family! This is an annoucement to let you know that the debut children's book Sunny's Adventures written by Leketha Marie Johnson and beautifully illustrated by Shawn McCann is finally here! It's a children's mystery book in which the heroine Sunny, helps solve several mysteries and kids get to help right alongside her. It's great interactive detective fun for children of all ages! It teaches them to use their thinking skills along with showing them how doing the right thing can be very rewarding!

Log onto www.sunnysadventures.com today to order your copy! Also, once you enter the site, don't forget to sign up for the free newsletter for parents. For kids, make sure they download their free coloring pages and enter the Sunny's Adventures coloring contest for a chance to win some great prizes!

Your support is much appreciated and by all means, spread the word to your own circles (friends, family, schools, etc). Look out for future Sunny's Adventures book series very soon! Thank you everyone!
Sunny's Adventures is on sale now for $12.95 at www.sunnysadventures.com!
Also, log onto Leketha's Blog for all sorts of fun, free, relevent updated information regarding children, reading, literacy programs, fun learning sites, and more. Also, take advantage and read some free excerpts posted from the book!

Illustration Friday: "Worry"

Tess was worried about when the "Sick Bugs" would leave! Illustration from the soon to be released "The Sick Bug" written by Susie Bazil and illustrated by myself, Shawn McCann!

Illustrations Friday: "Wide"

What Rabbit really wanted was long, long ears and a wide foot!

A great addition to the studio

One of the great things I enjoy is looking at work of fellow artists, especially those outside of the type of work I do. Every once in a while I come across great pieces that I know I would like to add to my collection. One of those times happened last week when I was checking out Cynthia's work at her Etsy Shop. That's when I came across a couple of pieces that looked great and had to get them. So, when they arrived yesterday I was glad to put one of them to use right away. What a perfect way to hold brushes! I would definitely recommend checking out not only her blog but the fun things you can find in her shop!

Progress, progress, progress!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there! Hope your Sunday is going well and you have some fun plans for the day. Studio time lately has been very productive and am looking forward to completing all of the illustrations for the children's book "The Sick Bug" within the next couple of days. I am really anxious to get the images to the finalized stage and see how it plays out in the book format with all the text layed into it. It is hard to believe that it has been a little under three months since I started the book, but I guess time flies when you are having fun! So with that, I will leave you with a couple of illustrations from the book.

Illustrations galore and an award for Studio McCann

Happy Sunday to you all. I hope you were able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful spring day. I have been looking out the window and wishing I was out there, but know that the fresh breeze from the windows being open is a good start anyways. The good thing to remember I guess is it will only get nicer out there, so I better get my illustrations done while I can to enjoy the weather outside later. As for illustrations, I am excited to say that I am coming down to the last week or two on the "Sick Bug" book. It has been an amazing three months and am excited to get it to a complete phase and off to the designer and to print. It's amazing how far it has come in such a short time and am anxious to share the book with you guys when it is done. Until then, here are a few pics to show you a few of the illustrations that are lined up waiting to be finished.



In other news, I am excited to say that I have been awarded a ARTE y Pico Blog award by Cynthia. Thanks very much Cynthia for the nod!



The following 5 rules are attached to this award:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and that also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte Y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.

So to award the five awards, I have chosen the following: Art Lady Confidential, A Planet Named Janet, Christina Rodriguez, Tracy Helgeson, and Michael Shane Neal

With that, I must get back into the studio and get back to work. Hope you have a great start to your week and will be back soon with more fun and exciting news!

A great find: Tim Biskup

Artwork copyright Tim Biskup

It's not too often that I come across books that totally capture my attention and blow me away. But recently I had that very experience when a co-worker showed me a book by California artist Tim Biskup. Tim's work is amazing not only for its use of color, composition and concept, but the fact that it is minute in stature. The books themselves measure only 5.25" x 5.25" but are packed with inspiring and beautiful work that goes on and on.


Artwork copyright Tim Biskup

So with the experience I had looking at my co-workers copy of the book, I knew I had to get my own copies. I was able to find 4 books of his online and an amazing deck of cards called "The Lucky Stack" in which he has illustrated every card in a poker deck with his fantastic work. Of the four books that I was able to get, there is one titled "100 paintings by Tim Biskup" which states "The 100 paintings project encompasses his bizarre world of oozing monsters, delicate birds and abstract flourishes into compact portions." What makes these books even more amazing is the fact the the illustrations within the tiny format are actually produced at actual size! The other three books are apart of a 5 book series called "The Jackson 500". These are books that "are spontaneous compositions that contain the buds of many of Biskup's recurring characters, themes, and color theories" Each volume has a collection of 100 paintings and leave you wanting to see the next set.

As an illustrator and painter, it is really nice when you can find these unexpected gems. I totally love the fact that the books are produced in a way that is of quality and of great concept and execution. There petite size and strength of content definitely make them books that I will collect and add to as the come out!