Well, Hello Again!

Why hello little blog! It's been quite a while since we've chatted. A lot has been going on in our life the last couple of months, so much that it's hard to fit it all in a post. I didn't intend to wait so long between conversations, but the busyness of life left little time for us to talk. I've missed our little chats. I've missed being able to reminisce with you, and show you what we've been up to. We've got a lot of catching up to do, so I hope you're ready for an earful. For now, I'm going to give you a little peek at one of the projects I have been working so hard on...

I'll tell you more about this exciting project tomorrow. 

Nice talking to you again, little blog!

xo

nessa dee

A Sneeze...

Making this year's Tomie dePaola Award entry was a lot of fun. The prompt was to illustrate the following poem:

A sneeze

Is a breeze

In 

Your

Nose.

I decided to go with an elephant sneezing on a cast of cute characters. This is the final entry:

The piece itself is three dimensional. The elephant's skin was created with tissue paper, and each little child was made separately and attached to the background using painter's tape. The balloon string is embroidery thread, and I love the effect it gives. 

The winner of this contest will be chosen in January by Tomie dePaola himself, and the prize is a trip to the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC. While I have my fingers crossed, I know that even if I don't win, I still have a piece for my portfolio that I'm quite fond of.

xo

nessa dee

From my sketchbook...

xo

nessa dee

from my sketchbook...

A bunch of random from my little black book...

This last one I colored in photoshop just for fun. 

xo

nessa dee

Dummy

My dummy book is almost finished! All of the illustrations are finished, text is added, and printing has begun. I just need to assemble the pages and I'll have a mini copy of my book. Then, the hard work begins...trying to find a publisher for this little project, which could take weeks...years...might never happen. But I will have the satisfaction of knowing I tried instead of the lingering echoes of "what ifs." Here's a few pages:

xo

nessa dee

Postcards

I was supposed to post these postcards yesterday, but when I say "tomorrow" on this blog, I usually mean "the day after tomorrow" or "never". At least in this case, it's the former and not the latter. So here they are:

As with the business cards, they are double sided, have a glossy finish, and are keeping with the theme of the blog/website by showcasing the little girl with her umbrella and dog. On the other side, I chose to include an illustration that had a similar color scheme and style to keep the overall look uniform. The big blank spots are the places my phone number resides.[ Forgive me, but I don't want to give my number out to the world...just a bunch of strangers I meet at a conference.]

So there are my promo cards. I am working like a mad woman to get my dummy book completed and my website up and running. Perhaps I'll have something to show for it "tomorrow."

xo

nessa dee

polar bears

I've been working on a new piece for my portfolio that goes with the children's book I've written. My goal is to finish a dummy book along with at least one more final illustration. I'm also working hard to get my website up before the conference, so a lot's going on around here much of it being done with a baby in my lap. Have you ever tried painting while holding a 5 month old? It's no easy task.

xo 

nessa dee

Work in progress

I had a little help yesterday, so I was able to work on a few projects including this little scene:

Thanks for coming over, holding the baby, and cooking us dinner, Mom! 

xo

nessa dee

IF: Shy

Can a house be shy? This little red roofed house looks shy to me.

xo

nessa dee

From my sketchbook...

xo

nessa dee

IF: Lost

This is a revamp of an older illustration, and while I still love the old one, I wanted to try a little different style for Red Riding Hood by cleaning up the lines a bit.

I'm having a problem with my scanner really over saturating and brightening my illustrations to the point that they look like neon signs. I've been trying to adjust the settings, but every scan looks the same, so I'm forced to adjust the illustrations in photoshop, but they never look quite as good as the originals.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Refresh

A day at the beach sounds like an absolutely refreshing idea.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Space

xo

nessa dee

From my sketchbook...

Just a few sketches I hashed out while Audrie was at soccer practice.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Twirl

xo

nessa dee

From my sketchbook…

and other notebooks that I drew in when I couldn’t find my sketchbook and was too lazy to go looking for it. [Ignore the ‘Albus Dumbledore’ signature. We’ve been listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on cd. I got distracted.]

Why these animals? Well, for one, I’ve never attempted to draw some of them. But really, I’m working on a personal project. I have big plans for this project, and I’m pretty excited about it, but before I can do anything with it, I have to brush up on my technique.

I’m off to LA. I’ll see you when I get back.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Scary

Younger siblings can be quite scary.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Fuel

I want to eventually paint this guy, but for now, here’s my rough sketch.

xo

nessa dee

IF: Scattered

*scattered snow*

xo

nessa dee

IF: Contraption

It’s been a looooooooong time since I’ve posted for IF, but I’m making an attempt at a comeback. I started this sketch with no real plan in mind. The “contraption” quickly got out of hand, and I have no idea what it does, hence the confused little guy at the bottom of the picture.

xo

nessa dee