New site design

I just uploaded a completely new website for The Rots (http://www.the-rots.com), and I’m planning on using the same styles and layout for my kid’s illustration site when I get there. I’ll be changing the colors to go with the branding I’ve already designed, but the fonts and layout of the new site will be very similar to The Rots’. I’ll …

Double-spaces after periods

Stop it! Just stop it! http://www.good.is/post/good-design-daily-do-you-double-space-after-periods/ fig. 1 For those of us (meaning: you) who don’t know yet, back in the day when we (meaning: us old people) were learning to type, we were learning on that antiquated mechanism called a “typewriter” (see fig. 1). Typewriters used monotype lettering, meaning, no matter what the letter, every single letter took up the same …

Hand Lettering in Gettysburg

I can’t help it. When I see lettering or graphic design that I like, I have to take a photo. I found some hand lettering at a place called The Pub & Restaurant right in the middle of Gettysburg on Lincoln Square. (If you take a look at their website, you’ll see these lettering examples aren’t carried through the rest of their …

Like I said, NO SPEC!

So as I’ve posted a couple of times before here and here, spec work for designers and artists shouldn’t even be something we’re discussing now that we have minimum wage and the robber barons have long since disappeared and all. For those people who still aren’t “getting” what the problem is, here’s a little video I ran across that might …

Won: Two Purple Dragonflies!

Twisted: Tales to Rot Your Brain Vol. 1 is the proud recipient of two Purple Dragonfly Book Awards! The first one is a First Place award for Fiction: Collection of Short Stories, and the second is a Second Place award for Interior Design. Here’s a link to all the winners: http://www.fivestarpublications.com/bookcontest/book-award-winners.html#2012pdbawin

In response to VistaPrint (and now 99designs)

Where do I start? I guess I could start by saying this blog post has been sitting around as a draft since Feb. 6, 2012. I started it, took a few deep breaths and slowly lost the fight in my belly that got me started on it in the first place. So lets begin there. I’m sure most everyone has seen the …

Draw Me a Story: A Century of Children’s Book Illustration

I’m excited to be part of a three-woman panel at the Frick Art & Historical Center on March 28 which will coincide with their exhibit Draw Me a Story: A Century of Children’s Book Illustration. Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard and Elizabeth Perry will be the other two panelists. I will play the part of “The Person Who Is Not Elizabeth.” Our panel …

More Vlad Hot Cocoa

In May I finished an illustration for a drink mix directory that was published by the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators in August. I called it Dancing in the Moonlight, and I had that old King Harvest song in my head the entire time. (As an aside, just try and listen to that song and then get it out of your head. Not gonna happen. I had to …

This should make me a happy camper

I have to admit, I haven’t been creating much in the world of illustration lately. I’ve been focused pretty intently on getting my book out (in a few weeks, my pretties), painting a few Rots (just finished Buster on Wednesday) and getting organized for the fall SCBWI conference coming up next month in Gettysburg. Yeah. About that conference. This year I decided to …