LFT Galore

LFT now available at Narnia Children's Books in Richmond, Va and Friendly Gift Shop in Wilmington, Del.

Had my first interview with Landenberg Today on Friday.  It went extremely well!  My interviewer, Nancy, was extremely friendly and easy to talk to.  It hardly even felt like an interview, but more of just a conversation!  The issue doesn't come out til the end of April, but I still can't wait to see it!

Lots Going On!

Hey there! I'm sorry I've been really bad at updating. Here's what's been going on in the exciting life of Stevie French!

1. I've been working on some projects, including a redraft of the Drunken Boat logo, a series of painted, jungle-themed panels for a baby's room, and illustrations for an out-of-publication book from the 1800s.
2. Contacting bookstores! In addition to the 6 copies that Bookplace in Oxford is carrying, I've spoken with the wonderful manager at Friendly Gifts in North Wilmington, who has agreed to carry 12 copies of LFT, and I am visiting a children's books store in Richmond, VA this weekend, because they are considering possibly carrying it. I also have a lead in Maryland.
3. Getting psyched for an interview on Friday with Landenberg Today! This is exciting because it's more exposure, will look good on the website and press kits, and as a stepping stone for additional publications to feature my work. The journalist I have been talking with so far seems very cool. I'm really looking forward to it.  Sure hope I can think of interesting things to say...

On top of all this, I also got a day job substitute teaching for the Brandywine, Christina, and Colonial school districts in Del. We'll see how that goes--it may warrant a whole new blog unto itself (just kidding!)

drunken boat logo

jungle painting sketch

Book Release Party: A Smashing Success!

Hello hello
Everyone ready for the holidays? Sounds like lots of people will be giving Lizzie Fox-Top to the kids in their lives! That makes me pretty happy. The book release party was amazing, by the way. 45 people showed up and the books sold out very quickly. The 2nd shipment was already claimed by the time it came in last week! I have a new batch though, all ready to go, and there are still a few left for any interested buyers. But more about the book release party: 45 of my closest friends and family descended upon little Bookplace in Oxford, PA on Nov. 21st to enjoy food, drinks, and the culmination of 1.5 years of work by me. I was floored by the outpouring of love and support that everyone showed; and to have so many people in that room who cared about me was just about the most surreal and amazing thing I've ever experienced. I even sold some original art: all of the ink drawings from LFT are available for $15-$75 each, with three already sold. I also sold my favorite piece, Mothman, and his cousin, the Domesticated Jackalope, as well as a couple prints of my Snowflake Catchers (frogs). The night was a success.

Currently I am in negotiations with a few area independent bookstores to carry my books, and they are selling nicely on Amazon and Createspace too. Who do you know that would like Lizzie Fox-Top for the holidays?

Update

Hello everyone! Looking forward to my book release party which is happening in exactly one week! So far I have a lot of people who said they're coming. In addition to hopefully selling a lot though, I'm just really excited to see all these people I love at once, and it's so cool they will be there to support me. I just hope I ordered enough copies (well...it would be nice to run out!)

Success!

Well the lectures went swimmingly. It helped that, although it makes me nervous at first, I very much enjoy public speaking. It also helped enormously that the students were extremely nice and attentive. I was asked some very good questions, and overall they seemed to enjoy it. Even though most of them are in more humanities type majors, I hope they got something out of it--I think it's always interesting to hear things from another perspective. I hope I can do this sort of thing again sometime!

Ordering yet another round of proofs of the book. I keep finding mistakes; it is very frustrating. I hope I get everything fixed and ordered in time for my book release party (TBA).

Lecture at Temple University

Exciting news! Tomorrow (this morning really) I am giving my first-ever lecture on children's books. I will be speaking about a brief history of children's illustration, picture book creation, and my own work, to 2 children's literature classes at Temple University in Philadelphia. Of course I am extremely excited as this really makes me feel validated as an illustrator, however I do grapple (as I'm sure many artists do, no matter how experienced) with feelings of horrible under-qualification. I keep thinking if only I had just one more book published, just one more award, even one more sketch to show of an upcoming book, that I will feel more like I deserve this. I can only hope I have enough to talk about given my extremely brief time in the field thus far!

But the truth is, I don't think I would be invited if I didn't deserve it in some way! I have to look at my achievements: I am a well-appreciated freelancer with loyal clients, and although the assignments are sporadic I get steady praise. And to top it off, I have a picture book on the verge of being available on Amazon, and I do happen to be extremely proud of it. As I was told in a conversation at a gallery opening the other night, lots of people can have the ideas or even make a few drawings, but it's really tough to make it as far as I just have, all the way to the press (and the internets!) So I keep reminding myself.

Enough tooting my own horn though. I still have to prove I can sell this thing to really make it happen. That will definitely be the biggest hurdle yet. But til then.....

I'm giving a lecture at a university! Yay!

Book Printed! Stay tuned for purchasing info.

I am pleased to announce the printing of the first edition of my book! It will arrive to my doorstep within a few days, hopefully. After going thru 2 proofs I think it's finally up to standards. I have to say, Createspace does do a good job. It looks pretty professional, not too shabby at all, I must say. I have a whole marketing plan for it now which includes doing signings, readings, getting it into local bookstores, and hopefully getting it reviewed.

In other news, I've been working on a logo for an online lit/arts blog. Design above.

98 percent there!

So I finally got Lizzie Fox-Top finished and it's printing as I write this, so hopefully I'll see a proof sometime the end of this week/early next week and then.....it'll be available for mass consumption!! So excited this is finally happening. I am just nervous it'll turn out bad. I heard that the company I went with, Createspace (a subsidiary of Amazon that offers POD service with no upfront cost, which I find extremely appealing) doesn't use glossy paper for its color pages. We'll see.

Above is the logo I have designed for the publishing company I am starting to call my titles under. Ogopogo is a Canadian sea monster (who also happens to have a really fun name for your favorite whimsical yet slightly edgy children's book author/illustrator)! The colors are off on this jpeg though--the turquoise is actually a golden yellow, the orange is blue, the blue is red, the pink is purple, and the green is a more muted yellow-green. Oh well.

Allan/Allen/Alan

Workin' workin' workin' as you may or may not have assumed. Here is a logo I am developing for an Easter Seals camp in Maryland.

The Red Balloon

Another graphic for the programs for that DC children's theater I posted about earlier. This is the one where I took the most artistic license from what was sent to me. I basically did something completely different. I felt that because The Red Balloon was originally a live action film, it was more open to artistic interpretation than something already beloved and famously illustrated, like Go, Dog. Go!

Announcement!

So I have decided to release an old favorite of mine, a project I did a few years ago. I've updated and improved it, of course. It's called The Remarkable Encounter of the Mystical Jellyfish. A brief overview:

The Remarkable Encounter of the Mystical Jellyfish is an epic comic of undersea fantasy. Its surreal ink drawings and whimsical poetry will be sure to delight, disturb, and entertain people of all ages.

All that and much, much more! can be yours for $3.50 (plus shipping if I mail it to you). To get your copy, email me at stevie@steviefrench.com and I'll hook you up.

Banjo Sky

Decided to stay in tonight and draw. This is what I produced. I was listening to The Avett Brothers, a folk band that features the banjo, and I decided I just really needed to do a stream-of-consciousness featuring a banjo. I had a lot of fun uploading and then playing around in Photoshop. I really like the filter effect here ("film grain"), and even though the craziness and inconsistency of it was not planned it looks pretty cool. I might try to do this again on purpose at some point. It was applied after many layers of cutting, copying, pasting and redrawing. I didn't do much to the color of the drawing because I liked how it turned out to begin with. Just upped the saturation, esp. in the green ink. Good night, moon-banjo!

Skullz n Treez

Here's some wrapping paper I designed for promotional purposes. The pattern is smaller and there's more of it on the actual piece but it's easier to see the detail here when I crop it. This took many hours of labor as I needed to retrace everything in Illustrator after doing it in Photoshop--it just kept getting too pixelated. At least I got more practice at Illust., a program I dread. It's not such a horrible monster anymore.

ALMOST DONE!

Part of the Final Page of this story. Well, not last in the story, but last that I have to finish. I've been going out of order, obviously. I have been moving my efforts now on perfecting my cover letter and fine tuning a list of agents and publishers to send this all to!

Children's Theater!

Right now I'm working on some stuff for a children's theater in Maryland. They want their play programs to be kid-friendly so they asked me to convert some drawings into vector black and white outlines like a coloring book. It's kind of fun to be working with some of these old favorites! More to come.

Europalooza 2009

Wow, it's been awhile. That's because I've been away for a few weeks now: I went on a much-anticipated backpacking trip with my sister through Europe. I have been wanting to do a backpacking trip for a few years but things kept falling through, but things finally fell in place this year and before either of us knew it we were whisked to far-off places on low-budget planes!

We first stopped in Dublin, Ireland where we visited the Guinness Brewery and visited local pubs with traditional musicians playing (I wanted to see the Book of Kells but kept missing the tours--oh well, guess I'll have to go back!) and took an evening trip to Howth, a beautiful marina outside the city.

Then we hopped a Ryanair flight to Paris--a lifelong dream for me (well, minus Ryanair). We climbed the stairs--yes the stairs--up the Eiffel Tower, visited the gardens of Versailles, and I finally got to see the Mona Lisa herself at the Louvre. I even got to taste one of my most favorite foods, escargots, in their home country (they're better there!).

Then on to Amsterdam, where I visited the Rijksmuseum (a great experience since I am a fan of Dutch painting). We took a beautiful bicycle ride through the countryside past windmills, canals and bucolic cow pastures. The night life there was something to remember as well.

After that came my (unexpectedly) favorite city of the trip: Berlin, Germany. What a unique city! So gritty and deconstructed, yet so vibrant and youthful! Everywhere we turned there was a building covered in awesome graffiti and street art. We visited a beer garden in a warehouse district that had two floors of clubs where everyone danced. The Berlin Wall too was unexpected in its artistic weight: each section had a mural painted on it by artists all over the world depicting their thoughts on the Wall and its history and future.

Finally, Prague, which was indeed fairytale-like in its architecture. The castle was very pretty and the buildings could give you hours' worth of photo-taking and scrutinizing with their ornate details and decorations. We visited the Alfons Mucha museum too, which was cool to see as an illustrator. The last day we spent in a little town about 1/2 hour away called Kutna Hora, where there is something called the Sedlec Ossuary--essentially a small church filled with the bones of 40,000 people, arranged in various ways such as garlands, crypts, and chandeliers. It was one of my favorite stops on the trip, very weird place (top picture).

I was sad to leave but now that I'm back I'm ready more than ever to get started on some new projects and finally see through to the end the old. I will be sending my children's book to some publishers and beginning the first stages of my next book, a modern fairy tale. I will also be stepping up my game in applying for some full-time jobs in the arts.

Stay tuned for more art, coming soon!

Why Hello There

So here's the mural in the kitchen at the Powhatan Community Center in Richmond, Virginia. Some college interns and kids from the center did the actual painting. Yours truly designed the whole thing though (and then came in for free pizza at the end). It was fun! Hopefully I get to be involved with more murals in the future.

Mmm...Cake Castle

Here's a sketch for the mural I'm painting next week. It's going in a community center's kitchen. A lot of baking happens in said kitchen, so I went with a baked-goods fantasy/surreal kind of image. I hope it's not too young-looking for the kids who use this room -- 5th thru 8th graders--but I just don't know what those darned kids are into anymore these days.

Murals: Quite a Different Experience for an Illustrator!

I haven't written in a few days so here's some words.
I went to Richmond this weekend. It felt so good to be back, like I was back home. My friends and me did all the things I wanted to: went to some of my favorite Fan bars, jogged through Byrd Park, visited the stores in Carytown, and attended a street festival. There was even time for some good old R & R in between.

I can't wait til I go back on the 26th, when I'll be volunteering my design for a mural to go up in (I think) a health club or gym. I've only done one mural before, which was a realistically-styled Colorado mountain in a classroom. Unfortunately, that was only made about 4 years ago and the school is now being torn down as the school's attendance (well really the Brandywine School District's demographics) has brought the need for the numbers of schools in the district down. I had so much fun making that mural, though. It'll be nice to get to experience that again. (I'll post pics when I find them, they're around here somewhere).

Wow This Took Forever

But it was worth it. Page 16 (I think) of Lizzie and the Fox (I'd love to think of a more interesting title still!) Ended up going digital for the trees' bark. That would've used up an unnecessary amount of Microns. Plus, gotta love copy & paste.

It Must Be Difficult...

...dressing with a fox on your head.

Something Pretty

Hello everyone! I just want to let you know, I am still here. I am currently working on a freelance assignment that I unfortunately cannot post due to privacy reasons for the client. I can say that it involves car racing, which is funny because I just attended my very first (and perhaps only) NASCAR event down in Richmond, VA a few weeks ago. Let me just say it was....interesting. I'll see if it inspires me for this assignment.

And above, a little psychadelic "Bird Sampler" to keep you entertained til next time. I swear the "adjust hue" function in Photoshop is my best friend. We have so much fun experimenting together.

Suddenly, two big eyes and a bushy tail appeared!

Here is page 2 from Lizzie and the Fox--I think it's my favorite. Dried up about 8 pens with the shading, but I think it was worth it! Next time I'll probably do large swathes of shading like that on the Wacom, though.

Bulls.

Bulls.

Buy My Stuff!!! ...please

After writing that last post (wow double post today; I'm productive) I decided to go ahead and etsy 3 of the totebag designs. Unfortunately the photography's not the greatest because I didn't realize at the time I'd be posting them for sale, but the details look kinda nice and I did what I could in Photoshop. Anyway, cute, eco-friendly (custom-made) bags available at my new etsy store! More to come I hope...

Save the Earth!

(Detail)
(Detail)

Wait, what's that ? I never posted the rest of my Xmas presents from last year? So sorry! Here they are, Christmas 2008's Eco-Friendly Re-Usable Shopping Bags. They were made with paint, sequins and the text was done in embroidery.


The hardest part here was finding a glue that would work to attach sequins to canvas. Hopefully they are holding up. I'm thinking about going Etsy on these bad boys. I mean, I'd buy em. I mean to make one for myself one of these days....

Introducing...

This is a page from my book that I thought might make a cool cover. All the white space is intentional; I am a fan of some old books which really play with the white of the page as it relates to the composition. I think it makes the book more dramatic as the vibrant colors and linework juxtapose with the stark flat white. Not sure I'm quite there yet but I gotta start somewhere! I have about 3 1/2 page-spreads completely done so far but I still have a long way to go!

Sidenote: I'm now wondering if Lizzie's position here is too much like her cousin in the preceding entry's illustration. Might have to work on that.

Sneak Peek at a W.I.P.

I've been working like a dog on this children's book that's been in progress for about a year now. Here's a little smidge of 1/2 of a spread. This scene happens towards the end, which I've just re-written as of last week. The girl is Lizzie's cousin, Sarah. Behind her on the opposite page will be Lizzie running from the woods, joyfully carrying her pet fox, Rennie, on her head (his favorite spot).

Fake Concert Tour Announcement!

Wow this thing was NOT FUN to scan in, as it had to be done in 5 different parts and still my scanner broke during the last few. Some sections I had to re-do with the Wacom. I like it though. Used a bunch textures on my computer to add a little pizzaz to it. Will add to the site some other time.

Arcade Fire poster

Idea for a poster that just popped into my head the other night. I am in the process of scanning/digitally coloring the finished piece at the moment. This piece was not commissioned by the band, but a girl can dream right?

NEW WEBSITE GOES LIVE!

Hi everybody!!
I am pleased to announce that after many strenuous yet enlightening hours of trial and error, the new website is now live! I began working from the old one and eventually got good enough to type my own html. I am pretty pleased with this.

I decided to change the website for a few reasons. One being that I am just a very indecisive person and my tastes change hourly. Also because after viewing so many other artists' sites I felt that a more streamlined approach (i.e. more focused on the pieces and less on the site design/colors) would be better. I wanted more neutral colors and a bit more serious yet playful look. The other reason (about 50 percent of the reason!) is that I really just wanted to see if I could do it. I needed someone to do the last one for me and always hated relying on others for any little change or update. Now I feel confident I can maintain this site with very little reliance on anyone else. (Although major thanks to Paul for building the first one and Sachin for always helping me update it!)

And with that, I believe it is time for me to watch some Monday night shows and have a snack before bed. Early day repairing some stained glass windows (my other current job) tomorrow!

Freaky City

Howdy from Pennsylvania.
Moving has forced me to really clean out some stuff and I came across an old portfolio. Here is a pair of paintings (acrylic and ink on paper) I did a few years ago with the concept of a landscape in color & the same in black and white. It's supposed to look sort of alienesque and futuristic. I thought it might be one of the first instances of my work evolving to where it is today and believe it fits in nicely with the rest of my online portfolio. It also reminded me I'd like to go back to experimenting with paint on paper more in my imagery.

Whether I'll actually add it to my website is still up for debate.

Now that I'm more settled in at my new residence, I have a lot of new projects in store and a few old ones that I'd like to resurrect and rework. Some upcoming:

1. Finishing my children's book Lizzie and the Fox (working title)
2. Playing with more hypothetical indie band paraphernalia (like posters)
3. Revisiting a fractured fairy tale I wrote a few years ago and perhaps turning that into a book
4. I'd like to redesign/update the design of my website and make it more modern looking, perhaps filter my portfolio into categories as it's getting rather big all in one clump like that.

So there you have it. Hopefully I can overcome this writer's block and think of a better ending for #1 and get moving on some color illustration spreads. I'm looking into self-publishing that one. If so, I will definitely be blogging about my experiences with self-publishing as I'm sure it will prove to be a very rewarding learning experience at least, and hopefully a successful one too. But first, to finish writing it!

Moving, Broken.

Hello one and all,
I apologize for not having updated in so long! I have been entirely involved in relocating from Richmond, VA where I have lived for 5 1/2 years, to my hometown in Pennsylvania. Hopefully I will still find people who are looking for my type of art up here!

In other news, I broke my foot not 48 hours after arriving in PA and am now getting around with a super fashionable velcro shoe and a pair of shiny new crutches. That has also put a damper on things (namely, job searches) but the plus side is I will have endless time to sit around drawing. Now where did I put the boxes with my art supplies?

More to come once I find a pen and paper.

Sketches!: Animals...

The first one's something I did while bored at work.
The second one's my first attempt at drawing Dexter from life, and this is all I got before he walked away. He's actually a terrible model. Who knew?

In-Progress (Mother Earth)

You lucky reader, you. Here's another update for today. I figure I oughta post some work-in-progress to satiate your artistic appetite. This began as an ink drawing and now I am working on coloring it in Photoshop. Final image will be up as soon as it's done, but it's taking some time what with all the winding, detailed foliage she's got going on in her skirt-leg-roots. I feel like this would be good as a poster design of some sort, maybe for some folksy indie band....anyone got a folksy indie band that needs a design?

UPDATE:



finished! Real band, fake tour. This is going on the website.

Eco-Friendly Shopping Bags!

One of my Xmas presents to the chicks in my family. This is for my sister in Spain (hence the Spanish). The rhinestones did not want to stay on, however. More bags to come.

Late-Night Drawing Time!

Acrylic, gouache, and digital on printed paper.



Here's a little late-night experimentation for you! I have had this idea in my head--well more of a loose theme-- for years now, and I'm still trying to work it out. Here's just the bare-bones beginning of it trying to push outta my head. I do NOT take credit for the underlying design--out of laziness/curiosity/convenience I painted on top of some leftover [copyrighted, I'm sure] Christmas wrapping paper that I really like. So this is more of an unusable study if anything.

I saved all these process pics of it but now I am having trouble loading them without them ending up one on top of the other, rather than in order as I write about them in this post. Oh well. I am too tired to deal with the inevitable frustration that will come of trying to figure this problem out. So enjoy just the finished piece and the mystery of how I created it, and I'm going to sleep. Good night!

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone had a good holiday season and a happy New Year! I know I did. Now to get back to work. Images of the Christmas presents I made for family and friends will be posted soon (Hint: It involves sewing, cute animals, and eco-friendliness)!