Classes starting tomorrow

Hard to believe that October is here already. It seems like just yesterday we were in August, but I guess the fall colors are on there way and I will have to enjoy that before the color is all gone. The good thing though about the cooler weather is there isn't as much of an urge to go outside and waste the beautiful evenings. So, in the long run, I will get more done as the weather slowly goes Kaput outside and the night gets darker earlier and earlier. WIth that, I am excited that tomorrow I will be starting a class that I am teaching at the Elk River Arts Alliance. The great thing is it is only about two miles from where I live, compared to all of the other activities that are more in the downtown Minneapolis area. I just won't know what to do with such a short commute! The class itself was supposed to start on the 23rd of Sept., but we needed to postpone it a couple of weeks and am anxious to get going. The class is going to be on the art of creating children's books, so it should be a lot of fun and a productive 10 weeks. We only meet every other tues. but am hopeful that the students will use the time wisely in between classes and come out excited and energized to continue the pursuit of creating for the children's market.

PS, The book at the top is one that I recently added to my collection on Friday from the MEMO conference in Minneapolis. It is called Storm Codes and was illustrated by my good friend Christina Rodriquez. I would definitely recommend the book as it is such a wonderful read and the illustrations are amazing! Congrats to both Christina and Tracy for such a great book

Interview on Streetpainting.tv

Happy Thursday everyone. If you are looking for a fix on street painting, you should check out my interview on StreetPainting.tv Hope you like!


As for other news, am excited that Susie and I will be at the Minnesota Educational Media Organization's fall conference with our new book The Sick Bug tomorrow. It should be a fun event and am looking forward to seeing fellow blogger Christina Rodriguez there as well.

Coloring Page Tuesday

Joining in on the fun, I have decided to join fellow bloggers Nina Crittenden and Christina Rodriguez for "Coloring Page Tuesday" My submission to the days coloring page is one from my newly released children's book The Sick Bug. This is an image of all the bugs with their name tags on. I have also added a second bonus coloring page with the bugs. Hope you like!

Launch Party Photos

Happy Sunday to everyone. I hope your weekends have been going well. I know mine has been really busy with the big ArtPerchance event at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts on Friday night and then Yesterday with the "Launch Party" for the sick bug over at The Bookcase in Wayzata. We had such a great crowd over there and the books were flying off the shelf so fast that the bookstore ran out of the books within the first hour. Good thing Susie came prepared with a number of extra cases in the back of her vehicle that we were able to keep the fun rolling. It was nice that a number of friends stopped by as well including Nina from CBIG and also Nicole from the MIA. One of the things that was really cool to see was the bug t-shirts that Susie had made. They really were a big hit with the kids as you can see below. Thanks to all that stopped by and am looking forward to showcasing the book at the Minnesota Educational Media Organizations conference this Friday. PS. that is Dara Moore in the last photo. She is one of the editors over at Beavers Pond Press and was the one that got Susie and I hooked up for this great project!

"The Sick Bug" Launch Party

Well, hard to believe, but the big launch party for "The Sick Bug" has finally arrived. The book itself came out a few weeks ago, but this is the time to have fun celebrate the books release. Along with a lot of fun activities for the kids, there is going to be a signing by both myself and the author Susie Bazil and am really looking forward to a fun time. The launch party is going to be held at The Bookcase in Wayzata from 1-3pm tomorrow. If you are looking for a good time for the kiddies and want to come and help celebrate the book, we would love to see you there!

In other news, another little article was released today in the LakeShore Weekly about Susie and the book. I think it is a fun little read. You can check out the article here.

Well off to the big ArtPerchance event at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I have a piece in the fundraiser and am off to go party and network! Have a great start to the weekend!

"The Sick Bug" has hit the airwaves

Just a quick post as I am out of state for my sisters wedding but wanted to post this cool link from the Fox 9 morning show from Yesterday. They had a really great spot about the book with the author Susie. Hope you like "The Sick Bug" ON Fox 9 morning show

Some GREAT news

Hello everybody. I know that sometimes I can seem to be excited by everything that is going on whether it is something to be excited by or not, but I promise that this is really cool. The news involves the recent release of "The Sick Bug" that was written by Susie Bazil and of course illustrated by myself. The book officially came out last Friday and was one of the books featured at the Boston Book Festival last Sat. It has also been included in a number of articles that were in newspapers around the metro. Well, I just received an email from Susie and she is going to be appearing on the Fox 9 Morning show next Wed. the 17th with the book. How great is that! I am totally psyched and wish I could be in the Twin Cities to check it out, but will have to rely on someone to tape it as I will be out of state for my sister Megan's wedding. This has really been a great experience working with Susie and also Dara over at Beavers Pond and am so happy that the book is finally out on the market and starting to make some waves. Hopefully the momentum is just beginning!

"Catch the Wind" has arrived!

Hello everyone. Another exciting day has arrived as I finally received copies of a children's educational book I illustrated titled "Catch the Wind". Mortenson Construction company which is a major player in the construction of renewable energy projects like wind turbines and such was the driving force behind this non profit venture to use the book as an educational resource. They are also the ones working on the new Twins stadium in downtown Minneapolis, so there was a natural bond of course :) With the book they also created an area on their website called Discover Renewables where you can download coloring pages, crossword puzzles and things such as vocabulary words associated with the wind turbines. If you know of any kids that are interested in learning more about how those big wind turbines are made or work, this is definitely a book for them!



One another note, it has been a really good week so far with another children's book project that I have been working on and am getting close to getting the characters all finished with their development. It will be fun to tell you more about this book as soon as I am able to, but until then, know that I am not slacking too much and am still working in the studio. This weekend though will be a different case as I am getting anxious to go to the opening of "A Child's Hope" at the Owatonna Art Center. It is a show that features the work of illustrators from The Children's Book Illustrators Guild (CBIG) of Minnesota and one in which I have two pieces that are displayed. The show itself opened yesterday but will have the reception on Sat the 13th from 1-4pm at the Owatonna Art Center. So if you happen to be in the area or are near the Owatonna Art center between now and Nov. 1st you should stop by and check it out!

Illustration Friday: Clutter

Do I need to look any further than my studio for this one?

Streetpainting.tv and more

My "Mill City" street Mural 2005


Image copyright Jonette Novak


Image copyright Jonette Novak


My finished Street Mural for the International Children's Festival in St. Paul

An element of being an artist that I really enjoy is when I get to create street murals. Over the last 5 years or so I have been able to work on murals for various events ranging from mall openings, children's festivals and for museums. It is always a blast to interact with the audience and show them what can be accomplished with chalk on the sidewalk or street. What really peaked my interest though was when I was fortunate enough to work alongside a number of the top sidewalk chalk artists in the country a couple of years ago at the St. Paul International Children's Festival. From Rod Tyron, Tracy Lee Stum, and Joel Yau, It really opened my eyes to the type and quality of work that can be done on the street. I also had the privilege to meet Wendy Stum and Anthony Cappetto who own Art for After Hours which is a company that brings these talented artists around the world for events and festivals. Their insight was great in looking at what was possible with street painting. Now they have upped the push for the genre of street painting by creating Streetpainting.tv and the blog Blog Now on streetpainting.tv. These are two great resources for anyone interested in street painting. It will be a lot of fun to see the new videos and posts that are to come from some of their great artists. So Best of luck with the sites Wendy and Anthony, you guys definitely have done a great job with creating an inspiration and resource for street painters.


From L to R: Tracy, Wendy, Anthony, myself and Rod

In other fun news, I was surprised late last week when I got an call from Christina Rodriguez who is the Illustration Coordinator for the Minnesota Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. With her call, I was asked to be the 2008-2009 Illustration Mentor for MNSCBWI. I was honored that they thought highly enough of my work to ask me to take on this important task of guiding another illustrator through the process of what it takes to get published, marketing and all of the nuances of being a children's book illustrator. Over the course of the next year, there will be lots to do and am anxious to see who I will be paired up. I know it will be a lot of hard work, but that is the course that as an artist one must get used to. For you will not go anywhere unless you are willing to put in your dues and keep at it. So I will be sure to keep you posted when the winner is announced and will be introducing them in due time.

Backing up your files

As I listen to the coverage of Hurricane Gustav, I am reminded that in an instance, things can be changed drastically. When it comes to that instance, you won't have a chance to save those all important files that you have been working on for the last week, month, or a number of months without backing them up. I know it is not something that always crosses your mind when working on digitizing your images, scans, or even photoshop files, but it is something that you must think of in case of that natural disaster. Whether it be a flood, tornado, fire or whatever, you must look at a system that works for you in making sure that you do not lose your life's work and files. For myself, I have found that keeping a backup of all files is not only necessary in my studio, but also by keeping a complete set of the backup files outside of my location, which just happens to be at my parents house. That way if everything were to get damaged here, at last I would be able to access the files from a hard drive that is kept there. I know you may think that seems redundant, but how much are your files worth to you? How about all of those images you took of your paintings that have been sold and have no clue where they are at? A few hours to back up your archive now can make all those headaches non existent in the case that something were to happen.

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!