Babybug Magazine

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

I worked on these illustrations for Babybug magazine a while ago. I believe this was for the March 2013 issue, but only until now I was able to see them in person.

 © copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

Sorry about the not so great pictures, hehe. I had to illustrate different ethnic families on each page and had to make sure the sun was at different times of the day.

 © copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

I had fun with these! :o)

Judy Blume

This wonderful lady needs no introduction. :o)

I really enjoyed listening to her. Hope you do too!

How to Put a Children’s Illustrator Portfolio Together by Illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal

Today I wanted to share a wonderful link that I am sure will be really helpful to all illustrators out there.

The very talented and lovely Juana Martinez-Neal did a post on how to put a kids' portfolio together. She covers different brands of portfolios, what art to include, even how the sequence of the illustrations should go! It's just wonderful.

I confess I don't have a physical portfolio at the moment. Everything I have is online. The only time I had to make one was for a SCBWI winter conference several years ago. But I plan on putting together a really nice one at some point and when that time comes, I will definitely be following Juana's advice. :o)

Children's Illustration with Lisa Brown

I love looking for interesting videos on YouTube. Today I found this great one that I wanted to share with you.

We can see the talented Lisa Brown talking about all the books she has written and illustrated and I believe this is a class at The Academy Of Art University. She also shares her studio, her likes and dislikes in kids' books and explains how she works from thumbnails to finish art.

It's very interesting to see what she liked as a child and the books she creates now. What truly fascinates me is the fact that she really has a long line of varied work. Amazing, I love that. That's a talent not every artist has.

Oh and by the way, she is so right about the coffee mug and watercolor water. Has happened to me, for real! Hehe.. You'll know what I mean when you watch the video.

Enjoy! :o)

PW- BEA 2013: Booksellers Tour Artists' Studios: A Photo Essay

I came across this great post on PW and thought I would share it with you today. I love peeking into other artists' studios, don't you? :o)

These are a few pics of mine. It's tiny and dark. Has a small rectangular window that doesn't face the outdoors, only the terrace, so almost no natural light comes in. But we have to work with what we have right?

I painted the studio white with a satin paint so the light from my 6 lamps, LOL, would reflect and it does the trick I have to say. I also have a little lamp that simulates day light, I always work with that lamp very close to my watercolors and paper.

This is Lucy, my shadow. She is usually on her bed, sleeping under my desk, like on this pic or sleeping on my lap while I work. Sometimes she likes to sit on my lap and watch closely how I paint, sneaks a kiss here and there.

Someday I hope to have a big, open and airy studio that faces the garden and that is filled with natural light... but this one will do for now. Despite how small it is and how dark it is, I still love it because its mine. :o)

How To Price Illustration for Children's Books, Editorial, etc.

The wonderful Will Terry gives great advice on how to price illustration work. Really worth while watching!

While you are at it, make sure to check out Will's gorgeous work and books. :o)

It's Bath Time- Highlights Hello

I received these tiny books! They are the smallest format I have ever illustrated and so darn cute! Pages are really sturdy and since they are so small these books will fit wonderfully in toddlers' hands.

This is my favorite spread. I thought at brushing time, bunny should be brushing ducky too. :o)

Sometimes with board books there is not so much room to tell a parallel story with the illustrations as there is with Picture Books for example. Board books are very straight forward, usually with a few simple and easy to read images that little ones can really recognize. But I find there is always a way to make things interesting for little ones reading the book. I decided to give baby bunny a favorite toy, rubber ducky. So kids can look for ducky on every page, find him and look forward to the next page where they will look for him again.

Another great thing about illustrating books is that sometimes the power of an image can make the text change. For example, on this page, the text initially was "dry everywhere".

I decided instead of have dad dry bunny with a towel like on the left, it would be fun to have bunny shaking his little tail. I mean, what a better way to dry all over and fast right? Hehe.. Plus I just knew kids would really like that page. Luckily Highlights agreed with me, they really loved that illustration and decided to work the text around it.

So, never doubt sending your initial ideas of how you think a book should go. Send them your best possible interpretation of the book. These are sketches and they will go through a lot of eyes in the publishing house and a lot of revisions. People can't really guess what you have in mind. The best way to tell them is to show them your vision.

There is something so especial about creating books for babies. It's a book in it's simplest form. The thought of catching babies' attention and just thinking of baby snuggling with mom/dad looking with wonder at the book... It's a privilege to do this.

It's Bath Time is a delightful little book part of a set of books published by Highlights and goes along beautifully with their new magazine Highlights Hello. :o)

It's Bath Time- Just released!

I worked on this cute little board book a while back and it's out and available now!

It features a very young bunny and his family and it's the perfect book to read with your baby or toddler. :o)

This book is part of a set published by Highlights for Children and it's along the lines of their new Hello Magazine for little ones. You can learn more about these books and order some if you like by clicking here.

From the sketchbook

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

Here is a little sketch I drew this morning. It's my warm up exercise for the day and my #Twoodle for this week using the words Ballet and Turtle, suggested by @soelver and @JerseyGirlDraws.

If you want to learn about Twoodle and how you can participate too, click here. :o)

Stopping to smell the flowers

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

A quick sketch I doodled this morning.

Well.. quick meaning:

Drawing time: 5 min

Scan/Coloring in Photoshop: 10 min

Uploading work to blogger with awful internet connection: 35 min. 

Sigh.

Fairies

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

 I recently painted these. 

I just love fairies.

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

Nothing like a fairy to really touch the inner child in all of us, don't you think?

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2013

From the sketchbook

© copyright Alicia Padron 2013

This is a little sketch I drew this morning for something I made up just for fun: #Twoodle.

The words I chose to create this are Panda and Rain. 

If you want to participate too, click here to learn how! :o)

Mo and more Mo.

Found these wonderful interviews with Mo Willems, I thought I would share them with you.

"that's the sort of effort that goes into a book.. if you noticed it, you failed."

"While I'm working on a book with one set of characters, I'm thinking and doodling about another set"

Illustration Friday: Wool

© copyright Alicia Padron 2013

Nothing like wooly sweater and scarves. 

I wouldn't mind the itching if I could play in the snow right now! :o)

A quick sketch for this week's Illustration Friday. 

Illustration Friday: Wheel

© copyright Alicia Padron 2013

This is a little warm up sketch I did earlier this morning on this week's Illustration Friday's topic wheel.

I'm sure most of you artists out there are familiar with Illustration Friday. If you are not, make sure you check it out. It's a great way to keep your creative juices flowing, helps you come up with wonderful portfolio pieces, connects you with other artists around the world, gives you exposure and can even spark an idea for a book!

So what are you waiting for? Click here to learn more. :o)

What I've been working on

© copyright Alicia Padron

Hello There!

This is an illustration I worked on at the end of last year. I usually do book work but this project was a little different. They contacted me asking if I wanted to create a logo for a non-profit organization. It was for such a beautiful cause.. I just couldn't say no. :o) 

I can't say which organization just yet but I'll post about it once I have green light.

It was important for me to convey warmth, coziness, love and security in this illustration and I wanted it to be appealing to kids at the same time. I love drawing bunnies and they seemed appropriate for this.So bunnies it is!

I've also been working on several different magazine projects which is new to me and I have to say a lot of fun! I love how fast paced they are compared to a book for example. I will share some of that as we get closer to publishing dates.

Also I recently finished a new board book for babies, one of my favorite types of books to illustrate. :o)

For this year I hope to have time to work on one of my dummies and to create new work for my portfolio. Published illustrations work for the portfolio too but I think is important to create new artwork specifically for the portfolio. Sometimes what a particular house wants in a book is great for the book but not enough for a portfolio. You know what I mean? Portfolio images have to have tons of story telling and have to grab you immediately.

Working on dummies is time consuming and hard work. I don't know why but I am always so insecure with my dummies. Maybe is because I have so many alternatives that can change that is hard to make up my mind? I am the writer, illustrator and art director in a sense.. too many people in my head! Haha.. Sometimes I think I have to go ahead with the best idea I can and just go for it.. even though I'm such a scary cat.

How about you? It is hard to work on dummies too or just a breeze? If it's the second one, please share your secret.. I need help. ;o)

Great Links- Picture Book Construction

Graphic by Tara Lazar

Here is a very useful post by the wonderful Tara Lazar that explains all the possible layouts on a typical 32 pg Picture Book.

Really worth checking it out! :o)

An inspiring talk from an inspiring man

Of all the TED talks I've seen this is definitely one of my favorites.

Maybe is because I feel like I know Jarret thanks to Twitter and the blog world. He is really a wonderful and super nice guy, and so very talented. Or maybe is because in this talk he truly puts his heart out there in front of a room full of people and out for the world to hear. Could be because everything he says will stay with you for a long time or maybe is because of all those reasons put together.

If you haven't seen the video by now, I recommend you do. It's a beautiful talk and makes me so incredibly happy to know "you ARE successful in your work" Jarret. I can't think of anyone else who deserves it more... :o)

from the sketchbook..

© copyright Alicia Padrón

Hi there, just a quick post for today. I'm busy working on several deadlines while battling the flu... hehe.. not ideal but what can you do, huh? Deadlines are deadlines.

Here is a pic of a page of one of my sketchbooks. It's filled with little characters that appear out of nowhere for no particular reason. Most of my skecthes are like that. :o)

How about you, how is your sketchbook?

At Home..

© copyright Alicia Padrón 2012

This is a little sketch from a project I recently worked on. It's for a lovely cause and I can't wait to share it with you. Hopefully soon. :o)