Welcome

Welcome to my blog , The Hare Illustratère. I'll be posting about my art process and journey as an illustrator/author here.

Pages

Monday, December 31, 2012

2013 New Year - new possibilities

Here I sit with my brand new wall and weekly  calendars, happily anticipating the future that the pages represent. The possibilities of what's to come and what I can accomplish in 2013. Which brings me to that annual tradition of making goals and resolutions. And yes there is a difference between goals and resolutions. Goals are where you want to be by the end of the year. Resolutions are HOW you plan to achieve your goals. 
2013 Animal Fair Calendar
2013 Animal Fair Calendar by deloshdesigns
Look at other Animals Calendars at zazzle.com

The problem with goals is that if your's are like mine: make gazillion dollars or get a big fat contract with dream client, unfortunately reaching said goal is not 100% within your control. You can not wish it to come true. Sadly other parties have a big say in whether you get that dream assignment so you make mucho bucks etc. Goals are only your north star. Something to focus on so you don't get lost.

Resolutions on the other hand, are something you have control over. Here are mine for 2013:
• Create 10 pitch-ready projects
• Pitch/Submit to 10 different places
• Send out 6 promo-postcard mailings
• Create Seasonal products for my POD stores 2 - 3 months ahead
• Series of Grimm's fairytale inspired illos
• Illustrated type -perhaps a series of sayings or famous quotes
I could go on and on but I think that's plenty to work on as well as plenty of fodder for future blog posts.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

IF GLOW & Mother Goose Re-imagined Exhibit

This is going to be a dual purpose post. Firstly - here's my illo for this weeks IllustrationFriday prompt - GLOW. Secondly - I am currently in a CBIG group show - Mother Goose Re-Imagined at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich CT. The show runs from December 6th to January 16th 2013. Twinkle Twinkle Elephant Star also happens to be one of the 3 illos I have on exhibit.

Twinkle Twinkle Elephant Star
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor

Elephant and bird stroll on the savanna at night. Guided only by the glow of their candles and one twinkling little star. The ideal of this illustration was inspired by the Mother Goose rhyme, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and my desire to do an elephant. It was created from sketch to finish during the 13 day power outage caused by Super Storm Sandy.

3 Bold Mice
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor
Three bold mice see how they sing! This illo was created inspite of the original Mother Goose rhyme, Three Blind Mice wherein the poor mice are blinded by brambles, driven crazy by their misfortunes, and had their tails cut off by the farmer's wife. By the way, notice how bright this piece is? Well this was the first piece I painted after the power came back. Tah Dah... and behold there was light and much rejoicing! 

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor
And finally my third piece, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater was created last spring. I had previously blogged about the work in progress.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Hoppy Holidays!

Ugly Christmas sweater Bunny
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink & Watercolor illustration
Wishing All Much Hoppiness!

Friday, November 30, 2012

PiBoIdMo 2012 - better late then never

YUP I'm a PIBOIDMO-er again. 30 picture book Ideas in the 30 days of November. As this is my third year doing this challenge begun by Tara Lazar I had been looking forward to it since October. In fact I signed-up for it almost as soon as you could this year. And then didn't do much about it assuming I had time to gather my index cards and write a blog post on it etc. Then Sandy hit on monday, Oct 29th and I lost power for 13 days which taught me a few things about my creative process.

Ok OK  - I know you don't need electricity to think or write down your ideas on index cards etc. And sure I even got to read an inspirational post or 2 on PIBOIDMO when I was at a lucky friend 's home with a generator. So why couldn't I even gather my index cards and a pen and just begin? I mean I wasn't one of the unfortunates that was totally displaced. I was just inconvenienced and uncomfortable for 13 days.

Apparently my muse decided to go on vacation to a more convenient and warmer locale. It seems I needed to not be worried to be creative. Whether it be about my cat's meds going bad along with the food Or if I could gas up so I could get to my friend's. We won't even get into my fear of not meeting deadlines. There was also the shortage of available daylight hours.  Showed me how much my strategy for getting things done depended on electricity. This is not to say I got nothing done. I was able to do the traditional watercoloring part of an illustration job and a new piece from sketch to finished art for an upcoming group show.  However the difference is that both these concepts had been thought out before and PIBOIDMO was challenging me to come up with concepts. Apparently until I got my power back, I couldn't relax enough to let my mind wander off and come back with good or bad ideas. I was stuck in the here and now with no time leftover for daydreaming.


Glad to report that on the last and 30th day of PIBOIDMO I finally caught up and completed the challenge. YAY - I have 31 ideas and who knows how many more I'll have before the day is up. True most of them are plain silly but they all still count. By the way, I'm already looking forward to next year.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Published - Farmer's Field of Gold

  
Cover and Page 9 illustrations by Diana Ting Delosh
- The Farmer's Field of Gold

© Farfaria
I'm happy to announce that another of my illustration project from last spring has now been published. THE FARMER'S FIELD OF GOLD, written by Brett Hendricks and illustrated by yours truly, has been released by Farfaria as a book app for the I-Pad.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Once Upon a Midnight - Illustrated Title Type Process

One of my hush hush projects is in the final stages and with permission from the author, Kelly Morrison Handerhan, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek by showing you how I designed the illustrated title type.

I could've used type that's available on my computer for commercial usage But the title of this project is very evocative, ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT. OOH this title is begging for some special treatment. So I begin to doodle and refine. And Hem and haw. Type Style - small caps, all caps, upper and lower case?  Should I add crows? Will they read as crows or just look like blobs?
Decided against crows - too busy. Went with All Caps as I felt the small caps had too much white space between the lines and lowercase letters didn't seem to work as well.  Refined the sketch. Enlarged sketch, transferred to paper via my lightbox and then the inking begins. I use a rapidiograph pen for inking and scan.
Voila - here it is in place on the wrap-around cover art. Once Upon a Midnight is about Andy the Pug on a midnight romp. We just loaded this book project to CreateSpace.com and we can't wait until it's in the marketplace.
Once Upon A Midnight Book Cover art for a story by Kelly Morrison Handerhan
 with cover and interior pages illustrated by Diana Ting Delosh.
Copyrighted material!!!!

For info about Andy please see www.facebook.com/andy.pug.9
You may Now order Once Upon A Midnight on Amazon

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Moon Dancing Bunnies win Design of the Day!


Turned on the computer this morning to the lovely news that my latest design, Mid Autumn Moon Festival Dancing Bunnies card was awarded the Design of the Day by Greeting Card Universe. YAY! I think I'll do a hoppy dance myself. Thanks GCU!

For this design, I have a group of rabbits doing a hoppy dance under a very full autumnal moon. The moon is a pale yellow to balance against the pale to medium browns of the hares. The art is created with ink, watercolor and Photoshop.  I don't know if real rabbits dance in the moonlight but I do see more of them on moon lit nights.

The Harvest Moon Festival is a Chinese holiday celebrated on the fullest moon of the year in September or October. Sometimes the moon even has a golden autumn glow to it. Rabbits in Chinese mythology are associated with the moon. Sometimes the hare is is said to be living on the moon under a tree, where he must make medicine for the princess that also lives on the moon. Sometimes he is shown pounding medicine with his mortar and pestle. In other stories the hare lives on the earth and gazes up at the moon where the princess lives. It is celebrated today by eating moon cakes and visiting family.

FYI - the Autumn Moon Festival or just Harvest Moon festival is celebrated this year on September 30th on the full moon of course. If you want to see the inside of the card or to purchase please just click on the card image. If you want to see my other card designs go to gcuniverse.com/DianasCards

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Children's Literary Salon in Retrospect: Illustration on June 2, 2012 | The New York Public Library

Earlier this summer I and my fellow CBIG officers were panelists at the New York Public Library, speaking about what we love: illustration and the Childrens' Book Illustrators Group. Read all about it in this nifty article!

Children's Literary Salon in Retrospect: Illustration on June 2, 2012 | The New York Public Library

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Ghost of a Wedding Cake

A Ghost of a Wedding Cake
© Diana Ting Delosh
Black Medium Point Bic® Pen
 
Miss Havisham's wedding cake has been standing as it was the day she was jilted. Over the years the frosting has hardened and now the cake is inhabited by spiders, centipedes, noseeums, rats, ants and is festooned in cobwebs and dead roses. A ghost of a wedding cake for a ghost of  bride. This illustration is inspired by the Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations.

Something about Dickens made me think of doing a black and white illo. Originally I thought of using my trusty double zero rapidiograph pen to ink and brush on a wash but then I thought how well a ball point pen could do whisper thin lines -great for cobwebs. That clinched it. I decided to use a Black Medium Point Bic® Pen as my medium. I frequently use ball point pens to sketch with as they're just so handy and flexible. Depending on your pressure and the tooth of the paper you can get a variety of strokes from barely there to bold black. However using this as my medium on a Finished piece of art required me to shift my perspective on this everyday tool. I mean was it really OK? Sure it was fine for impromptu sketches but serious, planned, finished art? Sure, I mean why not? What do you think?

The above illo is in the CBIG Illustration Exhibit, A Celebration of Dickens in Pictures at the Yonkers Riverfront Library Gallery. The show will run from August 25th to October 31st, 2012.  The artists reception will be on September 13th. For a complete schedule of events for this show please visit cbig-nycexhibits.blogspot.com/ .

If you can't make it to the show my fellow exhibitors and I  will also be posting the art over on cbig-nyc.blogspot.com during the run of the show.


Sunday, August 5, 2012

IF: BOUNCE!

Dancing Bunnies
ink and watercolor
© Diana Ting Delosh
Dancing bunnies don't just hop
They stand on their toes and twirl, twirl, twirl.
And If they fall they Bounce right back.

Here's my entry for the illustrationfriday.com weekly illo prompt.

Here's to bouncing back from all the missteps and mishaps that life throws at us.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

PumpkinEater Promo Postcard

July2012 Postcard front & Back
Art on Front is © Diana Ting Delosh
Art on Back is from An Armful of Acorns © Farfaria
NOTE: I've smudged out some info out of privacy concerns
  
Opted to try the BIG postcard size for my latest postcard campaign. From what I have read on various sites and have heard from other illustrators/art directors and editors - the Big size stands out amongst all the postcards they receive. At almost double the size of the standard size postcard it had better.  They're just shy of 5.5 x 8.5 inches.

I had these printed via VistaPrint.com and as they were running a sale - even printing in color on both sides did not bust my budget. I must say I'm really pleased with how bright and vivid the colors are. Now postage of course is the 1st class rate so that did tack a bit more to the price. Is it worth it? I hope so, however as I just mailed these out it's too early to say. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they get noticed and pinned to that coveted bulletin board. I can even dream that they lead to an actual assignment.

Any other news? Well lots but unfortunately it's all still hush hush.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Mr & Mrs. Pumpkineater

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Pumpkineater,
© Diana Ting Delosh, Ink & Watercolor
Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater
had a wife  and couldn't keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell
and there he kept her very well.

Tah Dah! Here's the finished painting for Mr. & Mrs. Pumpkineater. Please view the previous post if you'd like to see the Work-In-Progress steps.

This painting will be part of a CBIG Mother Goose Exhibit, Dec 2012 - Jan 2013. Where all the original art will be for sale. Which sounds lovely except as I was watercoloring, I realized this meant I had to be extra careful as I didn't have Photoshop to fall back on to clean up any slips or drips. While the "hand of the artist" and slight human imperfections are fine - This would be it. What you see is what you get...But matted and framed of course.

I will still clean up the original art file in PS so I can make this image available as giclée art prints, cards  and possibly other  products.  It's a bit horrifying what imperfections appear when you blow up the 600 dpi scan to 200 percent. Splotches and stray marks appear that aren't seen by the naked eye on the original but somehow are there on the file and need to be cleaned up while leaving the human brushstrokes and quirky line and marks that gives it the charm of hand drawn and painted art.

In case you were wondering - the original physical art may be sold etc. BUT the COPYRIGHT still remains the property of the CREATOR unless it is specifically and formally transferred or licensed or sold.

Details about the CBIG Mother Goose show will be posted closer to the show date.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

W-I-P: Mr & Mrs. P. Pumpkin Eater

It's been awhile since I last posted on this blog. I've been busy with commissioned illustrations this spring (YAY!) but of course that means I can't blog about it - yet (Sigh). However I can share the Work-in-Progress of some personal work. I'm working on a series of Mother Goose images for an upcoming CBIG Group show.
Sketch for the 1st illo - for the Mother Goose nursery rhyme: Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater. 
Here's the ink for Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater.
Yup - I'm depicting Peter and wife as mice. What else eats pumpkins and can live very well in one? I know: chipmunks, snails, perhaps a small bird or even a toad, etc. but this is my illo so I'm doing Mice.  Next question - to dress or not dress the mice? Well if they can get married and set-up house in a  pumpkin shell they can wear clothes. 

 ... And the finished watercolored version will be coming soon.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Spring Cleaning - Website

Been busy spiffing up my DianaDelosh.com website. Added BOOKS, FOOD and TYPE to my Portfolio sections. As well as put the links to my online shops at the top of each page. Still deciding if I should have a FAQ page. Hoping these changes make my illustration website more user friendly. Please take a gander at my New and Improved site.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Garden Fresh Grilled Cheese- TDAC/KRAFT illustrated Recipe contest

Garden Fresh Grilled Cheese - TDAC Kraft Contest entry
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink, watercolor and photoshop
You can See this image BIG at TDAC site

I've been eyeing  theydrawandcook.com for about a year now, drooling over the gorgeous ingenious recipe illustrations and telling myself one day I'll do one. When along came the Kraft recipe contest. Which meant I didn't have to come up with a recipe to illustrate - I just had to illustrate 1 of the recipes from the Kraft collection. After all while I'll admit I cook, I'd much rather draw.

I had a lot of fun creating my entry for the TDAC KRAFT Contest.  Coming up with the story behind the layout: Bunny Dreams of Garden Fresh Grilled Cheese. Drawing the ingredients and having fun with the hand lettered title. Even putting together all the ink & watercolored elements in Photoshop. I wanted my illo, including the type to be light hearted and springy.

Creating this illo reminded me that I used to do B&W spot art for Food & Wine and Cuisine Magazines. I'd love to get a freelance project illustrating food or doing some organic hand lettering. Food for thought as to new applications for my style.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be one of the 6 winners but I'm not holding my breath. There are 175 illustrated recipe entries. Just take a gander at the mouth watering competition at kraftcontest.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Seasons - Gallery Connect March Show

Seasons © Diana Ting Delosh, Ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.
art size aprox 13.5 x 8.25
Original art - Price $200
Giclée Art Print - HERE
Seasons is inspired by the Bible passage, "For every season there is a purpose under heaven...", Ecclesiastes 3:1 This piece was created specifically for the Gallery Connect Children's Book Illustrators Show.  We were allowed to exhibit up to three pieces. One of the 3 must be Bible related. Below are my two other pieces.
Big Bear Little Bunny © Diana Ting Delosh
Ink and Watercolor
Original Art -Not for Sale
Giclée Art Prints* are available HERE
Bird & Mouse © Diana Ting Delosh Ink & Watercolor
Original art -Not for Sale
Giclée Art Prints* - HERE 
This show, organized by Deborah Cuneo, features the work of 14 illustrators. They are, in random order:  Deborah Cuneo, DianaTing Delosh, Leeza Hernandez,  Teresa Tyler, Diane Allison, Penny Weber, Laura Goetz, Maxine Lu, Donna Miskend, Beth Bogert, Cheryl Taborsky, Barbara Mason Rast, Roberta M. Rivera, Amal.   The show will run for the month of March.

Gallery Connect is run by the C3 Church and is in the Rainbow Chimes building.
320 Broadway/Greenlawn Rd., Huntington, NY 11743
631-271-0272
- see http://www.c3churchli.com/events/ for more info.

*Giclée Art Prints are available at my Winged Rabbit Gallery. They come in a various sizes from Petite to humongous - paper choices... Prices vary according to your selections. Custom framing is also available. 

NOTE: As 12 of the above illustrators are members of CBIG some of the work will be posted on the CBIG Blogzine: cbig-nyc.blogspot.com.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Squirrel & Anteater Are Out of the Bag!

HOORAH! Farfaria is now LIVE... and has published the 2 ebooks that I illustrated. Finally -  the gags been lifted. So without further ado I can now show you what I've been mum about. Between mid September and early February I illustrated, An Armful of Acorns by Adrian Riding and The Greedy Ant Eater by Christine Sawinsky.

 Both books were illustrated using my traditional ink and watercolor technique but with a digital twist. As these were going to be for an ebook app or is it just a book app, each page illustration was constructed of layers of individual illos. For example:  P 7 from An Armful of Acorns, the blue sky is the base layer. The tree is a separate illo and another layer. As is the squirrel and the nuts and the leaves. Each page element is individually inked, painted, scanned, cleaned up in Photoshop and than finally combined into one layered Photoshop file. This way the app developer can make the leaves flutter or the squirrel twirl or acorns spin. These 2 are my first ebook projects. They were a fun creative challenge and it helped that Farfaria was very easy to work with.

Below are my favorite illustration from each book. Both now available on the App Store. 
P-7 from An Armful of Acorns © Farfaria
Filbert is nuts about acorns which lands him in all sorts of predicaments.
To view the cover art or to find out more - click HERE
P-10 from The Greedy Ant Eater © Farfaria
Ambrose clowns around with his nose hose to amuse his friends.
To view my cover art or to find out more - click HERE

Yikes - I don't have an i-Pad!!!!  Yup it's on my to buy list. Needless to say if anyone downloads any of my books, I'd really appreciate it if you would let me know if the squirrel twirls or if the anteater rocks and of course if your kids liked the art etc? Just leave a comment. Thanks!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Illustration Friday: TWIRL

Long Tailed Dragon - © Diana Ting Delosh - Ink, watercolor, photoshop
A long curlicue tail is fun to TWIRL
Twirl for Illustration Friday

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Dragons - 1 Sketch to Several Dragons

Dragon  Sketch - © Diana Ting Delosh

I doodled this  dragon with my trusty ball point pen during a TV commercial. The commercials and time limit provide enough distraction so I can ignore any inner critic. I find that I can get started on a few of my back burner projects this way. Helps me get more done without the burnout. This sketch then had to wait it's turn until I had time between assigned work to transfer to paper, ink and paint, but at least the sketch stage was done.

As this Dragon illustration usage was for my Year of the Dragon/Chinese New Year cards as well as a decorative motif on various products I chose not to draw/paint in a back ground. I could add these on with Photoshop, giving me more design options. Leave it plain for a decorative look -great on a T-shirt or a card. Add to the tail to make it longer to wrap around a mug for example. Plop it on a solid background for a card or even my painted starry moonlit scene for a more narrative look. 


Asian Dragon- © Diana Ting Delosh


Long Curlicue Tailed Dragon - © diana Ting Delosh

Starry Night Dragon - © Diana Ting Delosh
You can find my dragons inhabiting my shops at:

HAPPY YEAR OF THE DRAGON!
FYI the Dragon  is supposed to be the luckiest of all the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. The Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days. 2 weeks plus 1 day for good luck. The 2012 Dragon Year is celebrated from Jan 23rd to Feb 5th.

Monday, January 2, 2012

My Chicken Licken Illo entry for the SCBWI TDP Illo Award

Chicken Licken (Chicken Little)
© Diana Ting Delosh
Ink and Watercolor

TA DAH! Here is my entry for the 2012 SCBWI Tomie dePaolo Illustration Contest. The winners will be announced very very soon. Keeping my fingers crossed but I'm not holding my breath as the competition is an amazingly talented bunch!

If you'd like to see some of the other entries please go to http://scbwicontest.blogspot.com/. Fellow contestant, SCBWI Houston Illustrator Coordinator, Diandra Mae, has put up an unofficial showcase of the entries. This gallery was created to show off more of the art as the official SCBWI announcement will only show off the winners.

Winners announced on January 9, 2012.
And the winner isn't moi -sigh- back to the drawing board,
The winners can be viewed here