Magnolia

This is one of those journey vs. destination things.

I've always been a journey person.

The destination is important, of course,

but the road not taken, ah, the charms of that.

This painting began at one place and ended up

somewhere altogether unexpected.

There were magnolias lurking in my mind's eye

(Magnolia season is just ending here,

which always flusters me a bit.  Will I see them again next year?

Will I ever look at them long enough to satisfy me?)

I was thinking about art and healing.

I was thinking black and white.

And yet the picture was something else before.

And now it's like this.

And that's all good :)

Sophia's Journal - almost done

So, here it is!

This is pretty much the final version

of the book cover I'm illustrating for

author Najiyah Diana Helwani,

also known as Diana Maxfield.

Sophia's Journal chronicles the events in the life of Sophia,

a teen from modern-day America, who is transported

into Kansas of the 1850's, and lives

the life of a pioneer girl while she is there.

The typeface I used for the title was designed by

the very talented Guillame Seguin

You can see more of his work HERE.

The book is coming out soon!

You can see the steps this cover went through

HERE and HERE.

Leaves!

I came home today to find fall leaves

blown onto our front yard.

It's not fall. It's spring. But there they were.

Sweet and beautiful and so, so perfect.

I've painted leaves on everything.

Done them on paper as botanical drawings.

Done them on paper as abstract art.

Digitally as vector illustrations.

On pots, on walls, even on clothes with sequins added :)

But I can't seem to leave the leaves behind!!!

And now I want to do a personal project all about leaves.

All the various shapes and colors they come in.

And why they are that way for that particular tree.

I can't wait to see how that turns out.

Meanwhile, this is how it's REALLY like right now:

Yay, spring!

Adding more samples to my children's illustrations album.

Children's illustrations - I love them! I like to experiment with different looks, and these are some of my pictures.

Posted by Azra Momin on Sunday, May 11, 2014

Discover illos

Two more illustrations for Discover magazine - done :)

Sophia's Journal - ongoing

Still working on the book cover.

Another option coming soon!

Bunny with Balloon

One of these days, it will be spring...

Meanwhile, blizzard conditions prevail!

Couldn't capture the swirling snow,

but it's blowing hard!

Sophia's Journal by Najiyah Diana Helwani

Doing a book cover is not the same as illustrating a story.

You have to basically sum up the whole book in 

one picture.

And what if you haven't even read the book???

Sophia's Journal seems like a very interesting read - 

definitely one I'd like to curl up with.

Meanwhile, I do still need to submit a couple of

sketches for the cover, and here is what I did.

One is still a very bare sketch, as you can see.

The book was first published back in 2008 or thereabouts,

and it will be reprinted again,

with a fresh new cover.

The story features a time-travel adventure to Kansas, 1857,

when it was rife with issues of slavery and human rights.

What a great premise for young adult fiction!

According to the synopsis,

American teenager Sophia falls into a river and

wakes up to find herself in an era from way, way back.

And the adventures begin!

Readers on Amazon.com gave this book 5 stars across the board,

crediting the author, Najiyah Diana Helwani,

with accurate depictions and a great, well-written story.

I can't wait to read it myself, and I feel

really honored to be considered for its cover art - 

thank you, Najiyah!

Illustration in British Sign Languge

Sahera Khan, a UK writer, is creating a book for deaf children,

and she asked me to submit a sample.

The entire book will be in British Sign Language, or BSL.

BSL is two-handed, as opposed to ASL, which uses one hand.

The brief was to keep the imagery very spare,

and the colors solid. And to show various cultures.

I did these two drawings for her.

And then I developed the first sample into this:

There are several other illustrators also submitting samples,

and I may not be the one picked,

but it was lovely to explore yet another 

facet of human communication.

In between I also did a small illo for Azizah.

This was for a piece by Julie Mair,

for whom I illustrated a sweet book called 

"How I Help My Neighbors"

some time ago.

Julie writes wonderfully,

but my picture was too obscure for the mag,

and it was not picked.

The article was about how the 

whispers of our own heart sometimes

lead us astray.

Meanwhile, Azizah is doing a profile piece on me

(I still can't believe it!!!),

which should be out soon!  YAY!

Faces!

The BB kids from Discover magazine

now have...

faces!!!

This was Issue 17, and I'm already working on Issue 18,
so there's more to come :)

Feeling woodsy...

Meanwhile,

coming soon....

more pics for the book about Haneen

sample pics for a project in British Sign Language

an editorial illustration for Azizah

and of course, my monthly submission for Discover.

Whew :)

More of Haneen

And her teacher!

Haneen...taking shape.

In a previous post I mentioned Haneen,

a character I'm developing for a new book.

This is the look so far:

I'm really enjoying the process - this picture was entirely digital;

I did not begin with a paper sketch since it was a pretty simple image.

But the 'painting' part was so much fun!

Other pictures will likely have to be sketched on paper first.

If the author does not like it I still have a cute pic for my portfolio.