Underpants Thunderpants on the iPad

Just found out last week that one of the books that I illustrated for Parragon UK is now available on the iPhone, iPad and the iPod touch! Of course I immediately downloaded it onto my iPad. What a fun surprise! US and Canada fans can get it here.

Making Mischief - a Maurice Sendak Appreciation

I spied the coolest book in the bookstore the other day... A big book all about Maurice Sendak and his art. It is a beautiful book!

This picture is from probably my own personal favorite Sendak book, In The Night Kitchen. I love the Laurel & Hardy bakers. I always found them so creepy/cool but entrancing! I'm still entranced. This book makes an impact, a lasting one. That is success right there.

Lovely pencil drawings. I'm such a fan of pencil. Sometimes I enjoy it over a final, finished work of art. It just has that immediacy, the gesture. The moment. It's a magical quality.

A good day

© copyright Alicia Padrón

I'm so happy. A book that I thought would never come to be, will actually get to be. Kids will be able to hold it in their hands, blow out the candles and enjoy it!

I worked on this title at the beginning of last year. As soon as the book was done the publisher suddenly closed its doors. It happens. Not frequently thank God.. but it happens. I was left with this awful mixture of feelings, mostly sadness.

When you work on a book you put so much into it. Some people think they are just pretty pictures but they really are not.

You create characters that didn't exist before and you make them live in a world the author created. You think of the kids reading the book first and make the art for them. You know how important it is for kids to enjoy seeing the details and to "read" your images.

The rest is blah, unimportant business stuff. Of course work and pay matters but honestly, the most wonderful reward is knowing a kid will be in bed at night, eyes fixed on the book, dying to turn the page and see what comes next.

It's a good day today. :o)

Blob tool

This weekend I worked on a request by a publisher for vector art samples in a thick line style. It has been nearly a year since I worked in Adobe Illustrator so I spent the weekend relearning. I had heard through the grapevine of illustrators playing with the "blob tool" in AI Cs5 and looked into updating my Cs4 version. The $650.00 price changed my mind real quick. Bummed, I went to youtube to see how it worked anyway. I couldn't believe it when I found a tutorial by someone using the Cs4 version of AI.

Sure enough, I had the tool all along and never knew about it.

And it lives up to the hype. Instead of working directly with bezier curves you can draw the points (and erase them) as if you are playing in photoshop.

What a time saver. And fun!

Here is the link to where I learned about the tool.

Monday Hangover

Whew! Worked a lot this weekend on some books that have lots and lots of cute little mice in them. I always like to search the internet for reference and found this very funny picture of a

mousey that kept me laughing all weekend long.

What did we do without the internet? Remember in the olden days when we actually had to keep scrap files and dig through the library for reference books? I'm not really a cat person, (meaning that I've never owned a cat) but had to draw a cat batting around a roll of paper towels. I Googled "cat paper towels" and found some very entertaining YouTube videos for reference. Amazing how much information is at our fingertips.

Vintage Hello Kitty

True confessions! I'm a Sanrio nut, and I'm particularly fond of little miss kitty herself, Hello Kitty.

I was a first generation Sanrio addict. The year HK broke in America coincided with my early childhood full-commercial-saturation years, and we met at just the right time to form a life-long friendship! Back then, I lived in Los Angeles which was one of the major North American geographical hubs of trends in the days way before the internet. Back then, trends took on average about a year to travel from L.A. all the way to the North East (where I reside now). It was a different world back then!

Just wanted to hare some classic Hello Kitty and Sanrio fun with you today.

Hello Kitty History

House of Kitty blog

Hello Kitty Junkie blog

What I'm working on

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2011

I can't show you much of course but here is a little peek at part of an illustration from the book I'm working on at the moment.
I'm having fun with this one. All books are so different, I just love that.

This story is set outdoors. It has been a challenge because the main character of the story can't move I so had to find ways to make it visually interesting. Sketching in different angles and perspectives, varying the time of the day, adding fun details and characters to the scene even though they are not in the story are some of the things I found help me keep it visually interesting.

I like the fact that things gets tough at times with certain projects because it pushes you to be creative.

The less you have to work with, the more creative ways you find to express yourself. :o)

David & Goliath Game

Happy Tuesday all. Here is another piece I did for my portfolio. I really enjoy illustrating puzzles, crafts and games, I'm discovering.

Monday Musings

Sometimes when I work too long on a project, or I'm just gearing up on a new piece of work, I get stuck. Can't make anything happen. Nothing looks right or everything looks forced. It can be very frustrating. I'm finally learning that walking away is a good thing. Even if it's just for an hour. That can be very hard to do if you're on a tight deadline. But looking at something with fresh eyes (or rested eyes...and I'm talking naps here) really helps.

©DeborahMelmon2011

The other thing I've found that I love, is to work on my ipad (thank you Steve Jobs). I love the ArtRage app and it gives me a lot of freedom to just play around that Photoshop doesn't seem to do. Maybe it's because I can just plop myself in front of the tv and just play and let my unconscious do the work. And maybe it's because the stylus is a little thick and reminds me more of a crayon than a pencil. Makes everything look a little more childlike which is a good thing when you're a picture book illustrator. And maybe it's because the stylus actually touches the screen, like a Cintique. (I use a Wacom tablet with my iMac and Photoshop.) Whatever it is, it seems to be a good problem solving tool for me.

And, of course, if all that fails, there is always chocolate.

AlphaOops: H is for Halloween

It's that spooky time of year again, boys and girls. And what better way to celebrate than with a Halloween-themed picture book!
My son and I enjoyed Alethea Kontis & Bob Kolar's second collaboration. There are layers of fun (monsters, costumes, silliness) mixed with subtle education (letters, vocabulary, and my favorites - irony and sarcasm!).

I've been following Bob's work for years and really appreciate the attention to mood here. His style wouldn't normally strike me as the right match for 'spooky', but that's a sign of his talent - something I think f often when pondering dream (or nightmare!) assignments. Oh, and for the young fans, there's a great website for the book, loaded with games.

Baby Moses Maze

Hope everyone is having a good start to the week. Here is a simple little maze that I had fun creating for my portfolio.

Have a great week!

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Phyllis Harris, who has won an autographed copy of Labracadabra!! She is a great blogging buddy and dog lover. You can see her beautiful artwork on her website here.

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments! And thanks to my PBJ's Roz, Alicia, Gina and Kathy. It's been a very fun week!!

Labracadabra!

Labracadabra is just completely charming! It's 36-pages of great story and pictures. The text is slightly large, and well-spaced, on full pages interspersed with Deborah's fantastic art! The paper is very smooth and white, and really nice, had a substantial weight to it. I'm really impresed with the quality of the materials usd in the book, and of course, the content is the best part. The story is effortless and very entertaining. I can see peeling through this book with ease will lead to some great personal pride for young readers. It really is so well crafted. And I can't say enough about the art. Deb's is simply perfect. And her dog! Larry is just a-DOR-able! I love ALL of Deb's dogs, I mean, the woman knows how to draw a dog! And Larry is no different, and has his own special personality.

Please leave a comment by midnight tonight to be included in the drawing for a copy of Labracadabra!

Labracadabra Love: Celebration Week Continues

My first love for books (that I remember) came in the form of chapter books. There is something magical about reading something by yourself, and having just a few illustrations paint the picture, while your imagination fills in blanks. And speaking of magical, I was reminded of those qualities while reading Labracadabra.
I just love the composition Deb uses in the illustration above. Both Zach (the boy) and Larry (the dog) have the same tilt to their bodies. They are just getting to know each other. Deb captured that moment when boy meets dog so well throughout this book. Each illustration is meaningful, and charming. Just what young children need when venturing bravely into their reading world solo.
Be sure to enter the giveaway with a comment in any of this week's posts. It would be lovely to share this book with a new reader of your own (or keep all to yourself too!)

Labracadabra Celebration Week Continues!

When Deb told me she got this job I of course smiled form ear to ear, I was so ecstatic for her! But I wasn't surprised. I think the editor that chose her, knew very well what she was doing.

Not only Deb's style is perfect for this book, but Deb really knows and loves dogs. I am a dog lover as well and I know she really understands the bond between a dog and a human and is more than capable of bringing that into a book.

You don't have to be an illustrator to realize how hard it would be to come up with a dog that was part Labrador, Basset Hound, Dachshund, Terrier and Brittany? LOL.. I know!

But that wasn't a problem for Deb. She came up with the perfect pooch. Belive me, I know dogs. I used to volunteer in a shelter and I was the one who dictated the breed. Larry is part all those breeds, no doubt about that.

Deb really captured the essence of the story and I love how with the character poses she was able to say so much.

My two favorite illustrations in the book are:

and this one

Which are basically the two most important moments where boy meets the dog for the first time and then when he realizes how special this dog is and what a beautiful bond they have. But I didn't have to say all this in order for you to know it because that's why Deb is great at what she does. You already know this by looking at her illustrations.

Labracadabra is an adorable book. My daughter who is 10 loved it! I highly recommend it for boys or girls and of course

for your doggie too! :o)

Remember to comment to enter in the giveaway of a signed copy by Deb!

Labracadabra Celebration Week- Emily Fulcher Review

(Today we have a guest blogger, my daughter, Emily.

Be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for a signed copy of your very own!)

I love this book! I love the way the writing and the illustrations worked so well together. After seeing the cover, I was already tied in. From the beginning, it was a great book. I loved how the boy started off wanting a puppy so badly, but once he got him, he wasn’t what the boy was expecting at all. As the book went on, the boy found things about the puppy that absolutely amazed him. In the end, the boy and the puppy were the best of friends. The illustrations that Deborah Melmon did for the story were great! After seeing them, there was no way I could imagine the story illustrated by anyone else. The pictures complimented the story, and kept me hooked. Great job!

Labracadabra Celebration Week

©2010 Deborah Melmon

I know I've posted about Labracadabra before, the chapter book I did for Viking last year, but this week we are going to have a giveaway! It's an adorable book, beautifully printed with hardcover and a jacket, and written by the talented Jessie Nelson and Karen Leigh Hopkins. This week if you leave a comment on our posts, you will be entered into the drawing. The winner will be announced on Saturday and I will mail you your very own autographed copy!

It's funny how jobs come along. In this case, the art director at Viking had seen some of my recently mailed tear sheets (yes, old school...but it works!) that had some quirky, loose sketches of dogs. She emailed me and asked if I had any more art with dogs and boys. She had a story about a dog, with magic powers in it's tail, that she thought would be a good fit for me. "Of course!" I said, and madly set out creating a few more pieces.

©2010 Deborah Melmon

I created this piece and glad I kept it loose, because it turned out to be the exact style for the book. After a bit of back and forth, and weeks of waiting, she told me I had the job. And so I began creating "Larry" who is a mutt with about nine different breeds all mixed up together. I sketched and emailed, resketched and emailed, and resketched again. We finally came up with a version of Larry that everyone bought in to. I also had to create the human characters in the book and my favorite was cousin Seymour who is tormented by allergies, bee stings, sun burns and dogs....

© 2010 Deborah Melmon

I created the artwork with pen and ink and watercolor for the cover and then digitally enhanced it and created the "magic tail" in photoshop. The black and white interiors were done with line work which I scanned into the computer and digitally put in the half tone.

I will always remember the time I spent on this book as it was also the last months of my sweet little Airedale, Gracie, who passed away while I finished up the artwork. I dedicated the book to her.

Don't forget to leave a comment so you will be included in the giveaway!!

Get ready for a book celebration!

Start looking for you party hats because next week we'll be having a party here at the PBJ's!

We will be celebrating a pretty special book.. Labracadabra written by Jessie Nelson and Karen Leigh Hopkins, and illustrated by our very own Deb Melmon!

Make sure to visit us all week. We'll have reviews, pictures, behind the scenes, and of course a giveaway!! (we would love to give out candy and cake too but darn.. this is just a blog..) ;o)

See you all next week here, you won't want to miss this!