Birthday card for my Mom

My Mom's birthday was last week. My Dad's present to her is a week-long vacation to Maui. But that pales, PALES in comparison to my present to her: a card.

These are my mom's four rabbits: Sam the mini lop, Poppy the Netherland dwarf mix, Mini the rex rabbit, and Flopper the Flemish giant. Sometimes when they snuggle together they form a sort of heart shape on the ground.

My brother and I also pooled together our money to give a birthday donation to SaveABunny, an excellent non-profit that cares for abused and abandoned rabbits.

Maui. Pfffft. Next time try a little harder, Dad.

Illustration West 52

I'm very excited that four of my illustrations were accepted into Illustration West 52, the annual published by Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. (SILA)

These are all pieces that I did during my last year at the Academy of Art. I entered the "student" category because, frankly, the entry fees were much cheaper. "The Nightmare," bottom right, also won a student award from Applied Arts Magazine last year. I'm getting quite a bit of mileage out of that poor tormented kid.

Infant Insomnia e-book cover

Last year I was contacted by Leading Edge magazine, a publication run out of BYU which publishes science fiction and fantasy stories. They asked me to create some illustrations for the short story "Infant Insomnia" by Annaliese Lemmon.

The story is about a woman named Ama who can travel to multiple possible futures in her dreams. Her newborn baby girl is slowly dying of unknown causes. Desperate, Ama swims through the futures to find the reason behind her baby's demise so that she can prevent it in the present.

It's a really, really well-written story - and I'm not just saying that because I was asked to illustrate it, and I'm not getting any royalties from the book. I just honestly loved it, and it was very inspiring illustration material - pretty women, flying things, magical flowing rivers? I'm all over that!

The illustration was originally published in black-and-white in Leading Edge magazine, but a few months ago the author contacted me, asking for a color version for her e-book.

Infant Insomnia is available now as an e-book. You can purchase the Kindle version through Amazon or other formats through Smashwords. You can also read the first part of the story for free on the author's website.

Things I Like to Draw (BONUS: Things I like to eat)

Recently Noelle Stevenson wrote that a way to make an uninspiring assignment more interesting is to find a way to work in things that you enjoy drawing. So here is an uncomprehensive list of things that I like to draw, in no particular order:

1. Pretty girls
2. Cute children
3. Ribbons and other flowing fabrics
4. Water lilies
5. Swans
6. Lit paper lanterns
7. Antlers
8. Trees
9. Elegant, transparent ghosts
10. Clouds
11. Kimonos and other interesting costumes
12. Shiny, flowing hair
13. Skulls
14. Hands
15. Fairies, fireflies and other glowing things
16. Squirrels
17. Owls
18. Asian-style dragons
19. Portraits of friends
20. Masks

And now for something completely different. Here is a list of things I like to eat:

1. French toast
2. Pizza
3. Gyros
4. Cinnamon rolls
5. Pumpkin
6. Chicken noodle soup
7. Macaroni and cheese
8. Cheesecake
9. Naan
10. Garlic bread
11. Goldfish crackers
12. Coconut
13. Pirate's Booty
14. Ice cream
15. Soft pretzels

Vella from Broken Age

My husband and I have been playing Broken Age, and I'm really enjoying it. The character designs are so charming, it makes me want to change my whole art style!

Vella: Aren't you concerned about it's elitist themes?
Curtis: I would be if I had such a superficial understanding of the piece.

Personal Work: Pixies for sale

Here is a piece I just finished for Cory Godbey's The Art of Personal Work class. I will be attending Spectrum Fantasy Art Live this year, so my goal is to create some more fantasy illustrations to sell there. I really need to speed up my pace in creating personal pieces, however.

Usually the main characters in my illustrations are women, so I wanted to create an interesting male character. I liked the idea of a man selling fantasy creatures, and my first sketches were of a man selling tiny pet dragons.

However, I already have several dragon drawings, so I changed him to a seller of pixies instead. I wanted him to carry his wares on his back, like the chimney-sweep in Mary Poppins.

A guy selling pixies is interesting enough, but I wanted more storytelling. In all my illustrations I try to make them look like a moment in a bigger story, not just a pretty scene. I added in the girl character, who is obviously pining over a pixie of her own. Immediately there is more interest and interaction in the scene.

I realized that I could add even more storytelling by making the girl appear poor - she wants a pixie, but we can tell that she probably can't afford one. It adds conflict, and it (hopefully) makes viewers wonder why the girl wants a pixie and how she's going to get it.

I struggled a bit with the characters' poses, and I even had to break out some perspective grids in order to get the background right. My husband helped a lot, letting me take reference photos of him posing as the pixie seller when I couldn't get the guy's face right. Thank you Jasson! Thank you advanced perspective classes!

How to Spot an Art Scam

I received this email a few weeks ago with the subject line "employing illustrators":

Hi,
We are a publishing house situated in France “Paris”. We are specialized in the production of educational products forchildren, such as books, books with CD, puzzles, cards, posters and different other products. We have a large daily needs in terms of illustrations, since we have many projects under development.
we are looking for illustrators to illustrate for small children under the age of 9 years old.
Please try to respond as soon as possible on parisweb75@gmail.com in order to have an agreement and to start a long work relationship with us.
We are looking forward for your soon reply.
Best regards.
M.Chalal.

I recognized it as a scam and ignored it. Later, I saw other people on Deviantart and LinkedIn who had also received this email and were wondering about it. Here's how you know it's a scam:

1. They don't address me by name, meaning that this is probably a template email they've sent to many illustrators, trying to get anyone they can. Reputable publishing houses don't mass email illustrators.
2. Spelling and grammar errors. France "Paris". Products forchildren. Your soon reply.
3. If they're located in France, why are they contacting me instead of French illustrators?
4. The sender never names their company.
5. They want illustrations for small children under 9, although my style is more suited for older children.
6. Their email address uses gmail, rather than a professional address.
7. They're already talking about starting a "long work relationship."
8. They're vague about what they want.

It's just like any other spam email: poor spelling, vague wording, premature promises. None of these on their own are a proof of a scam, but altogether they raise a lot of red flags. I Googled the email address and found that they have been posting comments on various art and design blogs with this message. In another variation on their email, they quote absurdly low rates - $10 to $20 for "simple level of illustration."

I didn't respond, so I don't know what these people are trying to gather - money, personal info, who knows. It's just particularly mean to prey on the hopes of aspiring illustrators.

Professional publishers don't talk like this. They won't be vague or evasive or have questionable English skills or send emails from gmail accounts. When you get a legitimate email from a publisher, you'll know. When you get an email that feels like a scam, it's probably a scam.

When the flush of a newborn sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mold;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves: "It's pretty, but is it Art?"

-From "The Conundrum of the Workshops" by Rudyard Kipling

Some Do's and Dont's of Self-Promotion

I found this image on this tumblr. I don't know who wrote it, but it's all solid advice.