Kawaii Style

Ever since my husband and I visited Canada’s Museum of Civilization and saw the Japanese Design exhibit, I can’t help but remember my favorite part of the installation, kawaii.  Kawaii is one of the fundamentals in Japanese design and literally means, ‘cute’. I love paying attention to cultural differences and it was very cool to see the…

Wacom’s Cintiq Drawing Tablet

I need one of these. Nay….MUST…have one these. The Wacom Cintiq is a dream gadget for any digital artist. Ever since my husband and I saw it at the Comic-Con, we were in absolute love.  Not only is it pressure sensitive, it looks as though their new model allows for pinching of the screen which is…

Writers who Illustrate

Writers Illustrated: Q&A With Jeff VanderMeer, Author Of ‘Wonderbook’ by COLIN DWYER October 31, 2013 6:00 PM  Wonderbook The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandermeer and Jeremy Zerfoss Paperback, 323 pages purchase nonfiction More on this book: NPR reviews, interviews and more Read an excerpt When you hear the phrase, “writing guide,” unpleasant things may spring to mind:…

Inspiration: Reading With Pictures

Kickstarter is this amazing website that allows people to pitch in and help fund grassroots artists, businesses, and projects that might otherwise have a tough time getting sponsors.  While I was sifting one day on their site, I came across Reading with Pictures, a not-for-profit that is looking to get comics into the hands of school…

Creating Text Boxes for your comic Illustrations Using Adobe Illustrator

Since my illustrated text is being created in Adobe Illustrator in “comic” format, I am going to be using text and thought bubbles a lot.  There are some pretty easy tutorials on Youtube that helped me out and I thought that I would write a post that showed my process to make one.  Once I…

Inspiration: Nick Sousanis

The best place to get inspired is to see who is the best in the business.   I am inspired by the possibilities of writing a textbook for my students in illustrated format. Daunting, I know.  But what better type of textbook to write one for than a geography course? My husband has two art degrees…