Poster for Swan Lake Production on Maui

One of my most recent assignments was to create a poster for my daughter's ballet and dance school. The school and the kids are working on a production of Swan Lake. As the school doesn't have many male dancers, Prince Siegfried will  be flown in from New York!
Very exciting for everybody involved.

I was really intrigued by this opportunity, as it gave me a chance to incorporate a beautiful ballet dancer into my illustration, as well as play with textures.
It was a lot of fun working on the illustration and I am quite pleased with the outcome.

Celestial Seasonings illustration

I have always dreamed about illustrating one of Celestial Seasonings tea boxes. Over the years, I have admired their illustrations and more than once stood in the tea isle at our grocery store and drooled over the beautiful illustrations on their tea boxes.
And finally I get to illustrate my first Celestial Seasonings tea box! I am very thrilled!

Celestial had asked once before, back in June, if I was available to do a box and unfortunately, at that time, I had just committed to illustrating a sticker book for a German publisher and had to decline. I was very upset and prayed I would get another chance.
And here it is!
Today I  completed three preliminary sketches. They each show the scene from a slightly different perspective. I sent them off today and am eagerly awaiting comments.

Cozy mystery jacket illustrations

It's been a busy year! Often too busy to post to my blog. I just had a little self talk and have committed myself back to blogging on a more regular basis.
I have been illustrating several cozy mystery covers in the past year. It's fun doing them, as I like using lively colors and that is exactly what they call for.

More Mail!

Wow, I can't believe it. I just found another box in front of my door. It's like Christmas. It contained fresh of the press copies of two books I finished illustrating just a few months ago: "Rain Forest Food Chains" and "Desert Food Chains". I have never had the luck of working on a book and seeing it published so quickly after I deliver finals - I like it!

What makes these two books very special to me is, one: that they are printed really nicely. They are hard cover and the outside feels velvety smooth to the touch. It's a joy just touching them.

And two: I feel over the past year I have made a huge jump in my capabilities as an illustrator. As you work and grow as an artist, one will find that for a long time, you'll just truck along and learn and try and what you do is OK, but you see so many flaws and often you just can't figure out how to fix them.
I have done many illustrations in the past, that were accepted and also liked by the people that had commissioned them and I still knew I could and should have done better.
Over the past year though, something shifted and things started clicking. All of a sudden I saw my finished illustration in my head before I even started with color, I felt more confident about color choices, as well as relying less on reference photos, my edges have become softer and I have a better understanding of where to show less and how to direct the focus.
It is funny that you get all of this taught in art school and for some of us it still takes years to sink in.

I am hoping to still go far beyond my wildest dreams in my journey as an illustrator. These two books are somehow the culmination of my efforts in the children's book market for me, for now - hurray!

At this point, I have to say a big "Thank YOU" to Will Terry, a fellow illustrator, who's is also an amazing teacher, writer and so many other things. Through one of his online classes at Folio Academy, I got turned on to using a textured brush in Photoshop. I love using my textured brush. It really helps me in giving my illustrations a more hand painted look - which I really like.

Thanks, Will!

I Got Mail!

When I recently came home from our summer vacation, I was able to find two large envelopes sticking out of the mailbox.
One of the envelopes contained samples from the Galapagos Fur Seal book, published by Soundprints and the Smithsonian.
I  worked on that one almost a year ago. Wow, time flies!
It is part of the Smithsonian's Oceanic Collection and thus delivers facts about the Galapagos Fur Seal's as well as the story of a two-year old Fur Seal, resting on the seashore, swimming in shady cave pools or hunting for food at night.
I have always liked delivering scientific facts in a way, that makes it fun for kids to read and learn.

The other one contained two booklets for a new musical (Dear Santa - A Musical "Tweet" for Christmas) . For this I only did the cover. This one had a really fast turn around - I think I did the art in February.
It was an interesting assignment, as the theme of the musical is our more and more technologized society and how we might forget about the true meaning of Christmas, while we text, e-mail, tweet etc.
The rough sketch I received didn't have much of a Christmas feel incorporated at all. I enjoyed embellishing the original sketch, giving it more warmth and a wintery feel, while at the same time having Santa sit in his office in front of his laptop and cell phone.

Eclipse Gum landscape - what a beautiful sight!

I was recently asked by Ryan Chicago to do 2 illustrations for a display to feature Eclipse gum car cups.

One was for the top portion of the display, showing the view through a car windshield  onto an imaginary landscape, where the middle line of the road was made out of pellets of gum - yum!

The other one was for the side of the display, showing another landscape with a big illustration of the car cup hovering over the road.

The side illustration was made into a lenticular (a print that appears to move when viewed from different angles) Pretty cool! 

I never saw the finished, printed display, but was told, it can be seen all over the US at different Walmart locations (it didn't make it to our local Walmart on Maui, unfortunately. I walked through every isle, but could not find it :-(   )

Working on this project for Ecplise gum was a lot of fun! 

I enjoy coming up with landscapes, with cute little houses, rolling hills, beautiful skies and puffy clouds. When I work on a project as this one, I get a feeling of wanting to be there myself, driving down that road, getting out of the car and jumping through soft pillows of grass and probably picking up some of the gum pellets to chew on while I am there.

What a beautiful sight!

I wonder if a lot of illustrators know this feeling: when working on an illustration, you somehow create a second reality for yourself. You are so focused on the project, that you feel you are there yourself. This is quite a wonderful aspect of being an illustrator.  I guess this is also part of the reason why I am not into creating illustrations for horror stories.

I got some beautiful feedback from the client:

" By the way, I would like to let you know that the illustrations were

beautiful, with everyone at the client and here at the shop oohing and ahhing over them. Anne did a great job! It's getting a lot of praise from both the Wrigley client and the Walmart folks, so well done! "  

It always feel so good to hear nice feedback!

To see larger images of the two illustrations, you can go to my portfolio at www.annewertheim.com, "Portfolio 2" and "Food and Product" gallery.

I only worked on the cup holder on this one, not the cup in it.

Ravensburger Puzzles

They are finally here!

Last year I worked on a series of different puzzles and toy boxes for Ravensburger Germany.
My samples finally arrived in the mail a few days ago. They had to travel quite a ways, across two oceans and one continent to get here.
It is certainly always delightful, to open a box and see your work printed and put to good use.

I am still waiting to receive the puzzle ball though.
I was able to find a product shot online. I love how my illustration wraps around the globe. It is looking great! It is still a mystery to me, how you can print something on a curved piece of plastic. Ravensburger did a great job!

 Here we have three puzzle kids/kittens hard at work:

Illustration Friday: Swamp

I haven't done anything in a while for Illustration Friday. 

Life has been busy with some great illustration projects, which I will be able to post here soon.

I  had fun with this weeks topic "Swamp" - creating it took longer though than anticipated. 

I have to admit, I struggled with creating the two faces. For a long time I could not figure out, if the faces should be darker, as the background is so light? or should they have a blue tint to push them more into the background and have the monster's eyes and head be the main focus? 

I had to go over the faces again and again. And I am still not sure, if they shouldn't be a bit darker?

Anyhow I just needed to move on and let it sit for now. I might go back to tweaking parts of the illustration  at a later date.

This is my "Swamp" for the week!

Illustration Friday: Prepare

I haven't been able to participate in IF for a while. I've been incredibly busy with several projects, which on it's own is great ( I  don't want to complain), but I miss having my Fridays devoted to IF.

Anyhow, I recently did this little illustration for Texas Co-Op Power Magazine.
It went along with a story titled "Dream Gardening", in which a woman dreams in the middle of winter about her garden and what to plant in summer. So, even though she isn't able to go and get her hands dirty in fresh soil at the moment, she is at least mentally preparing herself for all the wonderful things she will be able to plant in just a few months.

Illustration Friday: Stripes

This is my latest entry for "Illustration Friday"s theme for this week: stripes

My Garter Snake book is finally here!

I am so happy to announce my long awaited Garter Snake book.
It is called "Garter Snake at Willow Creek Lane".
I finished the illustrations a long time ago (almost 2 years). It's been in production for a while.
But now it is out and here is a little trailer I just produced for it.

Book copyright 2011 Palm Publishing, LLC and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560

Illustration Friday: Scary!

How could one not do an illustration about Halloween if the word of the week is "scary" 

and it is the weekend right before the scariest day of the year?

I certainly couldn't resist! 

Here is my scary illustration:

What do you think is going to happen with Pooch once Pumpkin pounces on him?

Can Vampire-Girl protect him and will Mummy-Boy join forces with her 

or will it be just too scary for him?

Since I have been participating in IF, I have started to play more with a looser style of illustration. 

My main focus in my work in the past had been mostly on the non fiction side and I felt it was time to get more playful. I am quite surprised about how much I have enjoyed the process so far.

I recently bought a video by Will Terry at Folio Academy. It was soooo good, I learned a lot from it. Especially how much fun it is to use some texture in your brush.

The video is called "Digital Painting in Photoshop 1+2"(http://folioacademy.com/). 

I wanted to mention it here, as I feel very grateful to Will to share his incredible knowledge in his videos as well as on his blogs. 

Thank's again, Will!

Illustration Friday - Fuel: Missy Moo Gone Cruising

Life on the ranch hadn't been the same for Missy Moo lately: 

All this pressure on her and her sisters to perform and give more milk! And for what? 

A roof over her head in a dark smelly place and a bushel of dry hay?

"This is not enough", she told herself. "I am ready for greener pastures!"

This said, she fueled up and went for the ride of her life in farmer Joe's top fuel dragster.

She's never been seen on the ranch again.

Occasionally rumors are heard of a cow screeching along at lightning speed, 

leaving burnt rubber tracks all across the country. 

Could that be Missy Moo?"

This is my fourth illustration for "Illustration Friday". I am absolutely loving the process of illustrating just for fun and trying out new ways in my work.
Currently I am saving Friday's to work on an illustration for IF.
Thursday night I dreamed of the next topic. In my dream it was "desert". I saw a cow and a pig sit on a wagon, which was pulled by a poor little donkey across some desert along the Oregon Trail.
I was very surprised to find out next morning, that the theme wasn't "desert", but "fuel".

So I changed a few things and had my cow race a top fuel dragster across some imaginary landscape.
The colors turned out pretty bright and colorful. I am not sure if it is a bit too bright?

But who cares? I am my own art director and I might try and do something more subdued next week.
Or may be just black and white? It feels great to be free to do whatever!
Someday soon I might take a wild ride myself ! Yippee!

An artist's muse about life drawing

I came home late last night from my life drawing class. Usually I am in bed at 8 pm ( I get up at 4 am), so a night out till 10 pm is big for me!
I had such a good time! I have been going to class for about a year now, after putting it off for many years. Always kind of wanting it and finding many excuses why not to.
Working digitally I feel so strongly, that every illustrator absolutely needs to find something to keep on working with the real thing - may it be regularly sketching or life drawing. I tried sketching, didn't work for me. Life is so full, when I am not working I am with kids, house or I just want to relax and not think about having to do anything.
My thursday life drawing afternoon has become like a retreat for me. I am looking forward to it all week long. It is my night out. I get to play in new ways as an artist and hang out with some really wonderful fellow artists. Craig Mullins usually comes to class. Check out his work. It is absolutely amazing!
He is such an inspiration! If you google him and look at his images, you'll get blown away.
Phil Sabado is in class as well. It is his studio that he is sharing with us for class. His paintings are very impressive as well! It is fun to work in his studio, which feels infused by his creativity. A lot of his paintings are hanging on the walls and I often find myself being drawn into them, into Hawaiian mythology and history.

But it hasn't always been like that. In the beginning, I took everything way too seriously. I got super upset, if my drawing didn't come together. I would actually be really mean to myself and beat myself up - at times it felt horrible.
One day though, I had a cool insight. I asked myself "Why am I paying $ 10 plus gas money, plus an afternoon away, when I could be doing some "serious" work? I don't want to spend money on something I don't enjoy, I want to have fun!"
From that moment on, something shifted for me. I am loving every class now, I am having fun and my drawings have gotten way better. Isn't that a funny coincidence?
This is my call to all illustrators (especially if you are working digitally), go and do life drawing. Not only will you improve your drawing skills, but you also might have wonderful insights about life.

I have taken that little bit of wisdom, which I got from one class into my day to day life now. Sometimes when I am bummed, things aren't going the way I like, I remind myself and ask again: "Why am I spending a whole precious day of my life being upset or sad or whatever? I don't want to do that! I really want to feel good, - all the time. It's just a choice I have to make." It is pretty simple!

If you happen to be on Maui or even live here, come and join us. Every Thursday, from 6 - 9 pm, in Wailuku at Phil Sabado's art studio (49 North Market St., Wailuku, HI 96793)

Illustration Friday - Scattered

"Scattered Pox, Doc?"

Illustration Friday - Contraption

This weeks Illustration Friday topic was "Contraption"

My son loves to build contraptions out of all kind of discarded materials. I think one day he will be a great inventor. Wouldn't it be fun if he built a dragon which came to life over night and he could take his big sister and a friend for the coolest ride of their lifes? I think he'd like that!

My First "Illustration Friday" Illustration - "Hibernate"

I have been wanting to do an "Illustration Friday" piece for a long time and it always felt, I didn't have the time.
Now I finally just did it and it was fun!
Especially because it made me work and think differently than I usually do.
The theme of this week was "Hibernate"
And here is my piece:

Busy Summer

I just returned from our annual trip to Germany. I try to go once a year with our two kids to visit family and friends. Dad gets to stay home. We had a great time.
I love summers in Germany. Berries are everywhere  - to pick yourself and on the markets. I really miss that on Maui. Everybody thinks, in the tropics you can pick your fruit fresh from the tree, every time you set your foot out the door. It is partially true. I can look out my studio window right now and see a stock of bananas ripening. During mango season, mangos drop right on top of my roof (and startle me like crazy).
But what about berries? No berries over here - only imported ones, flown thousands of miles across the world - expensive and often tasteless.
Anyhow, I don't want to complain! Germany was wonderful. I even made a trip down south to Ravensburg (we usually stay up in the northern part of Germany, near Hamburg). I met with an editor of Ravensburger publishing - Maria Krüger to show her my portfolio and talk about a possible project - a set of three puzzles.
I am glad I took the trip. It is always so nice to put faces to e-mails and meet someone in person. The meeting went very well! I enjoyed meeting Ms. Krüger, as well as sightseeing through Ravensburg. And now, back home, I have started sketching on the set of puzzles, plus I am getting ready to work on two more Ravensburger projects - a puzzle ball and a few animal illustrations for 4 different game boxes. Fun!

But what I actally wanted to post here, are my three latest illustrations, which I did right before this summer. All three were fun and interesting projects.
The first one, was an illustration for COA Youth & Family Center. It went on the ceiling of a bus, showing the view out of a submarine to feature the local aquarium.

The second one was a book cover for a mystery book by Maddy Hunter and Llewelyn Worldwide.

And the third one: an illustration for Emory Medical Magazine showing a heart shaped box of chocolates, featuring different pieces of chocolates as well as 4 different ethnic faces and specific keywords.

T-Shirt illustration for the Pacific Whale Foundation

I just finished this cute little illustration, done for the Pacific Whale Foundation and their new t-shirt line.
I am really looking forward to receiving a sample shirt.

This was my second time to have done an illustration for a shirt. A few years ago, I did this illustration of a nudibranch (a sea slug) for a local scientist, who also was going to print it on shirts. 

Spring is in the Air

I just finished my promotional postcard, inspired by hearing how hard most of the country was hit by countless winter storms. Hopefully that will be over by now, as it is officially spring and hopefully summer will be on its way shortly.

ICON 6 in LA

Just a few days ago, we returned to Maui from our trip to the mainland. We, David (hubby), Adrian (son) and me were gone for a total of 14 days.
I had left earlier than David and Adrian to attend the Illustrator's conference in LA.  This was the second time I attended the conference. My first time was about 10 years ago in Santa Fe.
I totally loved the conference. It was great connecting with a lot of  fellow illustrators and getting updated about things happening in the world of illustration.
The conference was attended by some brilliant speakers/artists and many wonderful illustrators. I also got a chance to meet, for the first time in person,  my rep Steve Munro and his wonderful wife Renee.
Living on Maui/Hawaii is for the most part great, but at times you notice how far off the grid we are over here. Smelling some LA air and having lots of time to meet with other illustrators and people connected to illustration really filled my cup.
I wish we could have an Illustrator's conference one day in Hawaii.

Another big highlight for me at the ICON was winning the Intuos 4 Wacom tablet. This is a fun story. At the beginning of the conference, we all received a raffle ticket. I have never won a thing in any raffle. This time, I somehow knew this ticket would win me something.
Throughout the conference I got nervous, when I couldn't find my ticket. When they announced on the last day of the conference, that the Wacom tablet would be raffled off, I thought to myself "I am going to win this". I announced my intentions to my friends Adam McCauley and Cynthia Wigginton as well and started walking towards the front, where I had been sitting.
I wasn't just walking, but pretending in my head, that I was walking to receive my new Wacom. When I was half way down the isle, they pulled out the ticket and it was - not mine! "Bummer" I thought to myself "All the positive, affirmative thinking for nothing" Nevertheless, I wasn't quite ready to give up believing. Sure enough, the owner of the ticket didn't show and they had to draw another one, which was my number.  WOW! I was totally ecstatic and happy! For the remaining few hours of the conference I got to sketch on my laptop with my new tablet. Fun, fun, fun!

Adam and I at the conference

After the conference had ended, I met up with David and Adrian at LAX to catch a flight to San Francisco, where we visited with David's dad, sister and his brother's family for another 10 days. The whole family went up to Tahoe for a week. We all loved being together surrounded by gorgeous nature, away from home and any business.