Category Archives: Illustration Projects

Tattly has released another one of my designs this week: The Bauble, pictured above. Like it? You can get it here.

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Also, for those of you who enjoy visiting far away places from your desk chair, I’d like to introduce you to an awesome site: Global Yodel. Globel Yodel is a website that explores the places and cultures of our globe, from the perspective of someone who really knows their spot: the local. Global Yodel is a place-specific gallery, travel guide and artist showcase, all in one. I’ve got a “postcard” on Global Yodel this week called Abandoned Icon. Check it.

I have been so lucky in the past couple of years to get dream project after dream project. The latest one with Chronicle Books. I can’t say much about it until it’s released, except tell you it’s a book with 42 of my illustrations and the writing of someone very famous (sneak peek of one of the illustrations, above). The thing I love most about this job is that they have given me so much creative bandwidth (and, yes, there will be neon throughout). The final illustrations are due in early June, so I have been working my fanny off. But it’s the kind of job where I wake up in the morning and can’t wait to get to work, and my partner has to pry me away from it at night. I love working with Chronicle. I’ve been working with them on various projects since 2007, and they are some of my favorite people in the industry.

As if this project wasn’t enough, I’m also working right now with Hygge and West on some wallpaper designs which will be released later this year. Another dream client, another fantastic collaboration with smart, kind and generous people.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I did not come into this career until late in life (more about my story here), and I feel enormously lucky that it has been so awesome so far.

Photo  © Bettmann/CORBIS // Illustrations by me // design by Anna Dorfman

People, I have not been this excited to share something in a very long time.

Let me start from the beginning. Back in October, my dear friend and talented book cover designer (and talented everything designer), Anna Dorfman (aka Door Sixteen), emailed me and asked me if I was interested in illustrating a book cover for her (she works for big publishing house Simon and Schuster). It took me like .2 seconds to say, UM YES!!!! I was especially excited when I found out the cover was for a book about Frida Kahlo, called The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo. The project was to be a photo montage. Essentially, I’d paint, draw and hand letter elements that would be placed inside a famous photo of Frida taken in 1944.

Anna and I began working on the cover that month and this past January we finished it. It was truly a collaborative effort, and I cannot take full credit for the beauty of this cover. Anna is a brilliant, visionary mind and her art direction was absolutely perfect.  As an illustrator, it is a great honor to work with an art director or designer who brings out the very best in you + your work. That is what Anna did for me. She is also patient and kind, which I value as much as genius design skills.

The book (the paperback version of a work of fiction by acclaimed Mexican novelist F. G. Haghenbeck), is not due out until September, but you can pre-order on it on Amazon.

Thank you for letting me gush. Have a great day.

I’m super excited to announce the release of four more new Tattly designs! You can get them all here!

I’m SUPER excited to announce the release of my newest Tattly design: Good Bunny! This cute little guy is wearing a SWEATER!!! You can purchase the design here.

Also, you may notice there is no 365 Days of Hand Lettering post today, and that’s because it’s February 29. This year is a leap year and so the year technically has 366 days. So I’m skipping today since I really want my project to have 365 days and not 366. When you invent your own creative project, you get to make the rules.

Have a great Wednesday, friends.

I am SO excited to be part of Kelly Lynn Jones’ new book Little Paper Planes: 20 Artists Reinvent the Childhood Classic. The book comes out in April and I feel super lucky to have an advanced copy. It’s chock FULL of amazing illustrations by 20 artists. A sneak peek into my pages pictured above! Kelly (who started her company Little Paper Planes in 2004) is always up to something really good, and I feel so lucky to be part of this project. Artists include Julia Rothman, Christopher David Ryan, Michael Hsiung, Elizabeth Dunker, Alyson Fox and so many others.

I’ve designed a new Tattly and you can purchase it here! Several more of my designs will be released over the next few months. Stay tuned!