Here's a repost of the fairy child. So you can zoom in and see the detail.

Unicorns and mustaches.

I went to an awesome art gallery yesterday. The Rothick Art Haus is on 170 S. Harbor Blvd. in Anaheim. They have a show up about..... yes you guessed it.... Unicorns! I saw a fabulous photo in the O.C. Weekly of a punked out girl with a hummingbird strapped to her forhead. She had tattoos and pink hair, and she was fabulously painted. I loved it so much that I HAD to go see the show in Anaheim. I purchased an awesome sweatshirt there with a "Mustachicorn" on the front. You can see a picture of me wearing it here:

You Yes, the unicorn has a mustache. Oh yeah, baby!

And I drew a picture of a punked out Fairy child, inspired by Glenn Arthur's piece I saw in the O.C. Weekly. See his other work here: http://glennarthurart.com/

Tis The Season to Be Busy!

I've been doing so many odd jobs, I don't know what to do with myself! The best one, though, and has been every year, is singing Christmas Carols. I get to wear a lovely scarlet bonnet, and lipstick, and a fluffy skirt, as I sing to little elves. I have a few photos up on the Christmas Belles Blog--- http://heavenlyvoicesproductions.blogspot.com/ (If this doesn't become a link, just copy and paste into browser.

Over the past month I've also been doing a lot of little drawings of wildflowers for some native plant signs in the Martha Walker garden. The artwork will actually be etched into a black marble like stone--- so I'm very excited to see how these turn out! Here are a couple drawings I did:

New books to be published soon, and new books to be commenced! I'm very excited about this new one, so keep an eye on here, and I'll be letting you all in on the excitement.

A tale of Two Dogs

The title doesn't make sense, but hey....

Here's a drawing I did today for Miss Melissa Haines. Merry Christmas, dear! But I don't think she reads this blog, so if any of my family does, go ahead and keep it a secret. She asked me to do this drawing a while ago, and I finally had some time on my hands.

Art Walk

I went to the Art Walk in Lemert Park, Los Angeles. I had a great time. Listened to the drum circle, and painted the drum circle on some bristol paper with tempra paint. This woman had set up aisles and paints for anyone who wanted to create some art, so I joined in!

All Stones

I'm in a CD exchange group, where one person makes a mixed CD for about 12 other people each month, and mails them out. I've gotten two so far, and it's introduced me to so much new music. Best part is, I know some of them, and most others, I don't know, so it's fun to receive a CD of someone's favorite music, that I've never met. Kind of like reading a story. I can imagine how the person looks and speaks based on the music they've given me.

So my CD is based on stone. I was inspired by a few songs, and ended up finding a lot more that relate to stone and the grave mood that follows it. I think of celtic stories, anger, waiting, loneliness. It should be a nice mix for the moody weather coming up, and I'm hoping it has an element of magic that will make people close their eyes when they listen--- become completely absorbed in the story of each song.

The artwork above is the ink line for the album art. I decided to have fun with it and make a little treasure of a CD. I'll post the finished artwork when it's ready. Cheers!

Progress, my dears!

Wheeze book getting closer, everybody! I've been working on the page layouts with the author, placing everything, adjusting images, and it's finally coming together. The spread above is a sketch of the last two page spread in the book. I can't wait for you all to se the finished product.

I have been working away on the new book. Since it's my second go, I've made smarter choices, and I'm labeling my pages, and drawing them on complete, full pages of paper. No more line down the middle. No more confusion of what text goes with what image. This time it's smooth sailing (for the most part), and a lot of fun!

Ricky (the author) and I are still working out how we are going to get the book out there. Do we go with this company, or the other company. I think, because we're so torn, we might just go with both. It's our first time, and we just want to get the book out there so people can read it. There are so many companies that can help you edit and print; Flutterfrogpublishing.com ...... lulu.com ....... even googling "self publish your children's book" will turn up ideas. I'm so excited that I'm going to stop here and talk about all this another time. Maybe once I have the jewel in my hands, I'll finally feel relieved. I just want this book done, y'all!

Grease poster

Go Grease Lightening.....MY alma mater- Broadway Bound Kids, is performing Grease. I was so lucky to be asked to design a poster for them. It was fun, and something different. Anyone in town interested, go see GREASE!

A Day at the FAIR!

Went to the O.C Kids book fair this past Sunday. Anyone who loves books- loves to buy books, hear people read from books, or just be around books--- should go to this fair....next year.

I bought a few new reads myself. Two YA novels (I can't help it! I love the fantasy and Sci Fi!!!) and I will be enjoying them with a cup of tea and this nice cool weather we've been having. Very moody.

The first one I bought was "Inside Out" by Maria V. Snyder.

It's new newest novel, and looks pretty cool. Think City of Ember, contained, Fallout. I'm

excited to see what the world is like.

The next book with be a guilty pleasure:

Lauren Kate's "Fallen" sounded good because there were so many fans there to hear her read,

and what she read was entertaining. Even the book sellers at the booths recommended it.

In other news, we're still working on the Wheeze story and trying to get it together to send to publishing. It is a labor of love, but it'll come together soon. We're looking at alibris.com, lulu.com, and another indi publishing place to help get the book out there. There are so many opportunities to get the work to the public, you would be surprised. I'm starting to believe that if you want to make a book, make a book. Don't think that someone has to ask you to or pay you to. just do it and use all the free tools to send it out into the world. There are no boundaries!

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT HOW TO MAKE A CHILDREN'S BOOK!

First and foremost, What I learned about making and publishing a children's book is that I wish someone would have put out instructions, because I felt blind going through all of this! Therefore, I am sharing my personal experience--- trials and errors, and tips to help anyone who needs words of encouragement.

I'll be writing in segments. And tonight I will start with the beginning (oh how fitting, you say!). I will, in fact, talk about the beginning stages--- storyboards, sketches, meetings, and how to avoid doing things over and over till you start to cry.

It all starts with words.

I do believe a book will actually start developing very well as long as it has an edited manuscript with the kinks already worked out, and as much accuracy as possible to its final counterpart.

Next, Story board!

It wasn't complicated and it shouldn't be for you. The storyboard is the easiest, most enjoyable part of the process! Just be free and loose, don't impress anybody with your drawings--- especially yourself--- and be ready to do a couple different boards. Revise and talk about your storyboard with someone to make sure your ideas are showing up on paper clearly.

Yada Yada Yada, right? Right. I'm guessing this is all pretty simple. So I'll just give a few tips to illustrators that I ran into. These issues made my life difficult toward the end of the project, so it's best to avoid them in the first place.

- Decide what your medium is and make sure you can paint, draw, whatever, on the flattest surface possible! I used watercolor, and forgot that paper warps. Tape your water color to a board, and keep the originals flat for photographing.

- Decide on the dimensions of artwork that you will need to abide by. If you are illustrating a 9 x 7 book, you do NOT want to paint your illustrations on 30 x 32. Make sure you either know you'll be cropping your image, or make the proportions similar.

- number your originals on the back with what page number or text each goes with. This will rid you of some confusion in the future.

That is all for now. I will be back for the next installment. Happy book making!

---Annie

Moonmask

Another image I've worked on. I just added some quick color, to play around with jewel tones. I was thinking of doing something similar to the "F" and using pattern for the different tones.

T Shirt design

This is an image I've done for a T-Shirt design group that I'm starting up with a couple friends. Cool work is in the making, everyone! Once a website goes up, I'll let you know.

A digi practice I did about a week ago. I did this master copy from an artist who's name I can't remember but he's awesome! I'll let you know as soon as I find it again!

By the way....

I have this blog linked to my website, but I don't have my website linked to this blog.

Make sure you check it out if you haven't seen it yet!

http://www.andrearuygt.com

OCMA Rocks!

A poster for Orange County Music Academy. I had so much fun creating this illustration. Their show is coming up, but it's sold out. That's how AWESOME the kids are.

Magic Cards, Magic Cards....

Hey all! I've still been tucking away at my magic card illustrations. Just worked on a few new ones and there's ONE more on the way! I'll be putting together a little "art of" book for class, and printing the cards out at their original size at the end of class. I'll look forward to having the cards to hand out to family as souvenirs.

WHAT TIME IS IT..... sketches!

I've been working on some prop tests and storyboards from the new show Adventure Time, and I'm really enjoying the style.  these sketches below are just rough ideas for character designs and prop designs, and other assorted doodles that came out after drawing all day.  They're just fun, and I hope you all tune into Cartoon network to watch the show on April 5th at 8pm.  I've seen what these guys do here, and I am positive the first season of A.T. will blow your minds!

LAVA FALL

Just another magic card I am working on. Need to refine the rules and put in mana cost. I'm such a nerd.

Magic the gathering

I'm working on some card illustrations for "Magic: The Gathering". There are already tons and tons of beautiful illustrations, and I was inspired to invent some new cards and draw the images for the cards so I can....... eventually play with them, too! I know, I'm quite the nerd, but it's the most fun I've had on a personal project ever!

A man! With a top hat! Who doesn't quite fit into his clothes; how delightful!

Merrrrr made

Ewwww! Just thought I would start doing some characters once a week in order to get some practice in. Maybe some sketches will evetaully lead to some finished works?