Happy Holidays!!

To all my Interweb friends and followers – have a happy, happy Christmas and merry New Year!!

I hope to post process images later… I was all over the place with ideas this year, so there's a lot on the "cutting room" floor that I hope to use for future cards and/or projects.

PiBoIdMo 2013 - Winner!

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed 
the

PiBoIdMo 30-ideas-in-30-days challenge,


and will, to the best of my ability, 
parlay my ideas

into picture book manuscripts.

My fourth year of participating in Picture Book Idea Month (#PiBoIdMo) is a success! I even tried a new approach which has landed me at the end of the month with even more than 30 ideas!

I can't believe it's been a whole month and PiBoIdMo is done once again. This whole year has positively flown by! I'm so thankful for all my experiences and opportunities this year has brought, and I'm especially thankful for the excuse PiBoIdMo has given me to daydream a little extra every day.

PiBoIdMo 2013 — “Ideas Taking Flight!”

It's almost November!?!! Wait… what?! Sometimes I feel like 2013 has hardly arrived, and now it's winding down. But it's harvest time for group projects and creative challenges! PiBoIdMo 2013, here I come!

Head over to Taralazar.com to find out more about PiBoIdMo. This will be my FOURTH year participating (and PiBoIdMo's 5th year). I'm still not much of a writer (gotta get over that), but I'm so thankful the month-long guest blog posts, inspiration, and support that PiBoIdMo provides.

I haven't made the best use of my PiBoIdMo challenges, but I have my lists saved and simmering. I'm working on an illustration right now that germinated from a PiBoIdMo idea I had back in 2011. Personally I think it's a great way to brainstorm and gather up project ideas for the coming new year (or future new years, if you happen to be as slow as I am to getting around to them).

I can't wait to get started!
Is it cheating if I start my list now?
LOL, ;)

IF: Entangled

Hey, what?! Two days in a row? No way…

So, this one's a bit of a cheat since it's from a book I worked on last year (The Zoo's Annual Piggyback Race, March 2013 - available from me or the author/publisher)… but it was just so perfect for this #iFri prompt, and it was definitely one of the more challenging pieces from the book.

"The snakes became tangled, around and around"

I actually tangled up two different colored stings for reference, and drew directly from that. Apparently I never took a reference photo of the tangled mess, but I think the result speaks for itself!

(I plan to do a new piece as well, continue with experimenting, etc.)

IF: Moustache

Long time… Yeah, it's just been a long time.
I've been talking about experimenting for over a year now, and I haven't really gotten around to it, so tonight I sat down and forced something out. I don't necessarily like, but I think it's a real start of something.
I'm excited I finally did an iFri too (even if I am getting in about 40 past the deadline). I've been all wrapped up in "stuff", I gotta learn to have fun doing what I do again.

Jack-MustachiO's

*anyone catch my shout-out to Little Pea? LOVE that book!

New Work: Masterworks Miniatures 2013

Once again, a new batch of miniatures are complete and submitted! Keeping my fingers crossed they are all accepted into the MasterWorks show.

After taking a year off to participate in the show as a miniatues juror last yea, I can only hope I do as well as I have in past years (2009, 2010, 2011). While I’m still inspired by my travels throughout the state of New Mexico, this year I’m focusing on it’s beautiful skies and sunsets. Like a couple years ago, I raided my own photo archives for inspiration on these pieces, but I started planning these piece for last year’s show… but I never was able to work on the finals. As usual, I left most of the work to the last minute—all pieces were completed last week, and submitted on Saturday.

Driveby Sunset

4.85" x 3" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress

(6.75" x 5" framed)

This piece is based on yet another snapshot I took while driving home from Santa Fe one evening. I just loved the light of the sunset, outside the frame of the image and unseen directly, but reflecting it’s warmth into the image—while the blues and purples of twilight hide in the shadows of the clouds. It was a surreal moment I was lucky to catch.

Ember Sky

4.75" x 4" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress

(5.5" x 5" framed)

Once again, I was inspired my the many layers and colors of the sky for this piece… the small yet intense colors of the sunset, so focused in one spot, while the sky above is still hanging onto late afternoon and dancing with frolicking wisps of clouds.

Sunset Aflame

3.65" x 2.65" On Arches, 140lb. Hotpress

(4.75" x 3.75" framed)

This one is a bit more traditional, a real flaming sunset—although maybe a bit more wildly colorful than reality. More desert silhouettes play beneath what looks like a writhing storm of fire, but I was there and I know just how peaceful it was.

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PROJECT NOTES: This year it was a little harder for me to get back into the minis. Maybe taking last year off to be a juror wasn’t such a good idea. I’m hoping I can find a new spark of inspiration to really get my head back in it next year.

Audiobooks/stories listened to while working on these pieces:

Neverware, by Neil Gaiman (BBC theatrical radio production)

The Map of the Sky, by Felix J Palma

My Book is for SALE: The Zoo's Annual Piggyback Race

The book is here, at last!

Hello, hello! It's been a pretty busy year so far, and now I get to announce that my first illustrated children's picture book is out and available to purchase, directly from me! I've been toiling away with website technicalities for weeks now, and I discovered… there's a reason I don't do web design/programing. I couldn't make it work, so I turned back to my old friend Etsy. I've added the book as my one and only listing for the time being, there are several copies available, so when the initial quantity for this listing runs out, I will re-list it ASAP. I plan to add prints from the book in the next few weeks as well — keep an eye out!

**Please note, shipping time is slow for the time being while initial orders are placed, but will speed in the next few weeks… please bare with me!

BUY THE BOOK

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In the meantime, here are some pictures from the Barnes &Noble Story Time I did this past Wednesday, March 13th.

Story Time in the fabulous Kids' section at
Barnes & Noble, Coronado Mall — ABQ, NM

There was singing, reading, and crafting galore!

On the shelf, right next to Chu's Day…
it pays to have bookseller friends!

BUY THE BOOK

My AWESOME support team,
the ABQ Tangerine Cafe Design Group
Daniel Hulsbos, Me, Lynn Platow, and Brittany Archuleta

*Extra special thanks to Lynn Platow for taking these fabulous candid photos!

Happy Blog-New-Year (#Twoodle)

four+carrot
(edited pencil sketch + digital color & texture)

I know, I know… it's the end of February. I'm just gonna say it, it's been s struggle so far this year. I'm trying to hang-in though, and here's my first post of the year, a #twoodle (learn more about twoodle here, thanks to the lovely and talented @aliciapatron).

I sent two words out into the twitterverse during the week, four and logging. It seems many twoodlers were also inspired by @johnlechner's word, carrot.

original sketch from sketch-a-day book

So, I'm going to try and sketch more and post more and just get back to being present here… and in life. Wish me luck!