2023 CBIG Directories

I'm really honored that this year, both my cover art submissions were voted in by my peers to be on the covers. As I'm on the CBIG Directory design team, I always submit cover images along with my promo page for both books. But it's been awhile since my art actually made any of the covers never mind both.  YAY 2023!

Yuko Torii, Diana Ting Delosh, Navina Chhabria, Leeza Hernandez

Here's my Color Promo on page 13.

Ann D. Koffsky, Yuko Torii, Paulette Bogan, Diana Ting Delosh

Here's my B&W Promo on page 4.

Finally a shout out to my CBIG Directory Team members: Deb Cuneo for all the image collection and dealing with all sorts of minutiae and Vicky Rubin for proof reading and checking for inconsistencies.

The CBIG 2023 Illustration Directories are now Live! Do go and check out ALL the wonderful illustration Promo Pages that make up Both Directories at: cbig-nyc.com/portfolio

Find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Illustration Blog: dtdelosh.blospot.com

Instagram & Threads: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Bluesky: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

August 2023 Holidays and Special Events

 Friendship Day - International: July 30th & in the US: August 6

See ALL my Friendship Day Cards HERE 

 

Twins Day - August 5

See ALL my Twins Day Cards HERE

 

Sister Day - August 6

See ALL my Sister Day Cards HERE

BIRTHDAY

see ALL my Birthday cards Here

There are Year specific  birthday cards, Holiday birthday cards, cards with cute animals 

and all sorts of other types of birthday cards.

BABIES

See ALL my Baby occasion cards: NEW BABY, Parents-to-Be ,

Baby Shower , Baby Announcements , Adoption 

You can find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

 
 

Website Revamp Alert!

 

Screen shot of the new "Home Page" to my website: dianadelosh.com

Tah Dah - I finally re-vamped my website, dianadelosh.com. Now I've done mini revamps and updates but this one's a biggie!

Recently, I had a ZOOM group portfolio review where the Creative Director loved my friend's portfolio. Unfortunately, she didn't love mine. She liked my illustration and my hand lettering but she found my website navigation cumbersome and the thumbnails were way to small and didn't show off my actual art. A big wake- up call that it's time to really re-do my website. PLUS, I could analyze what made my friend, Patricia Keeler's website a hit with her.

Previously my website opened to my ABOUT page. Then you clicked on Illustrations and you saw thumbnails fo ALL my illustrations, then my books etc.

So what's New:

1. Home/Landing Page with BIG ICONS for each of my 4 Portfolio Sections Picture Book Art, Middle Grade Art, Published Books, Surface Design
2. BIGGER THUMBNAILS!
3. Dividing the art into 3 sections allowed for Bigger Thumbnails with less scrolling/clicking. Yup you can still click on each individual piece to see it really big. BUT for the really busy Art Director they don't have to unless they want to.
4. Moved the ABOUT page to after the portfolio sections.
5. Added a direct link to my Instagram in my navigation bar. A lot of Art Directors have mentioned how they liked to look at illustrator social media to see other art that may not be in their formal website portfolio.

YAY! My improved website is up, just in time for #KidLitArtPostcard day, tomorrow June 1!

You can find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

KidLitArtPostcard 2023, Jan - April

 The first trimester of 2023 is behind us and so far I've kept my promise to myself to have a "New" #KidLitArtPostcard for each month.  Although I must say the first Thursday of each month keeps coming by faster and faster and I have almost been caught short.  Here they are in order:

January: A Panda Panda illustration from my picture book dummy that I had not used for a previous KidLitArtPostcard. Whew!

February: My spread from Elinor Glad to be Together Family by Susan Layne. Coming out later this year. Thankfully, I had asked the publisher if it would be OK to share some of the art ahead of the actual publication date and they agreed.

March: An illustration sparked by the February SCBWI #DrawThis prompt, Worm's View. I didn't finish this illustration for February 20, BUT I finished it in time to Post as my March KidLitArtPostcard.

April: This one was a doozy as my brain was on other things and I found myself a few days before KidLitArtPostcard day without anything. EEEK! But I was able to come up with something and squeak it in to post on the day! When in doubt put wings on it: A Winged Lion and his Boy. But it was nerve wracking!

So what's the fuss you ask? It keeps me on my toes as far as always creating goes. It gives me something new to feed the social media beasts. Another benefit is that I have a selection of digital postcards that I can send out to prospective art directors/editors. If they're looking for greyscale chapter book fantasy art - got it. Whimsical bug world art -got that too. And the arts ready to send - it already has all my details on them.

Hm-m-m Thursday May 4 is coming up. I better start thinking about my next KidLitArt Postcard.

You can find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

 

  

Productive Procrastination

Concept is like that rare elusive bird you've finally glimpsed  but of course it's gone into the dark forest. Do you dare go after it? Turning that concept into a tangible thing is like stepping into a forest, full of shadows and possibilities. There are no clear paths BUT if you thrash about you may find your way through. 

Where middles are where you've got your bearings. You may even see your path out of the forest to where that rare elusive bird is posing waiting for you to take it's picture. It's just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other until finally, Snap!

If you're like me, you prefer the phase after most of the messy explorations been done. Which is why I did not dive back into my BIG Project or start this other idea, both of which I'd been itching to do while I was trying to finish the important MUST DO NOW life thingy.

Big Project - rough rough roughs - thinking and sketching.

NEW PB Concept - EEEK! All those blank boxes. (See ThumbNailer in side bar)

Instead I worked on something that I put aside a few years ago. This piece just needed some hand lettering and then I could add it to my budding Surface Design Portfolio. But why now? Because it had a clear next step and the end was in sight. Plus I was lured by the idea that it will only take a second and then we'll begin one of the other projects, maybe even do a bit of both. A warm up project. HA! Needless to say it took more than half a day as I needed to change the size, tweak the art and do a bunch of loose hand lettering, to get just the right balance of carefree and legible. Well, at least it was productive procrastination.

Beware the rabbit hole: It'll be quick - just takes a few seconds.

Sip Breathe Repeat, 2 Chawans, Japanese Tea Cups  - © Diana Ting Delosh, Ink,watercolor, pencil, digital - this piece is available for licensing.

You can find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

March 2023 Holidays

Welcome to the first of the spring holidays. Do you celebrate any of these March holidays? I don't. But I think a New Year that begins on the first day of spring rather than the middle of winter makes a lot of sense.

St Patrick's Day - March 17 

See all my St. Pat's cards HERE

This design is also available on T-SHIRTS  and other gifty things in my Zazzle shop

Persian New Year - March 21

See all my Persian New Year greeting cards

Wheat Grass is also available as an Art Print in various sizes with/without custom framing in my ImageKind shop

The month of Ramadan begins on March 22, 2023

See All my Ramadan Greeting Cards

Arabian Night is also available as an Art Print in various sizes with/without custom framing in my ImageKind shop 

You can find me at:

Website: dianadelosh.com

Illustration Blog: dtdelosh.blospot.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my illustrations on products at:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

The 2022 CBIG Illustration Directories are LIVE!

Just go to cbig-nyc.com and click on the ART TAB. Then Click on the covers and voila, you can flip through the PDFs. Ahem. Yes, I know it's now 2023, but I'm still proud of the work I put into both the directories and the gorgeous illustration promo pages created by the participating CBIG members that make up the 2 books. Kudos to Debbie Cuneo for all the image collection and dealing with all sorts of minutiae. Special Thanks to Vicky Rubin for proof reading when I was getting too bleary eyed. 

By the way my illustration promo-pages are on page 19 in the COLOR Directory and on page 5 in the BLACK & WHITE Directory.

Web: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Post: @dtdelosh

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

Art vs Artist 2022, My Illustration Year in Review

 I've been admiring ALL my illustrator friends' #artvsartist posts on social media. I have always been of two minds about it: 

1- I want to do this!

2- EEK! I am not posting my image and do I even have enough work that I'm proud of etc... self-doubt and imposter syndrome showing up here. Balance that with I've created all this work but I can't show any of it until it's published and... Sigh.

Anyhow this year I decided to kick my uninvited guests self-doubt and imposter syndrome out the door and do it. TAH DAH!!! here's my #artvsartist2022.

It's actually a lovely way to review the year as an illustrator and to celebrate it. My 2022 illustration year started with a focus on my black and white illustrations in hopes of picking up middle grade/chapter book type projects. I also worked on my humans with hopes that they will play nice with my animal illustrations. I even tried some limited palette art which really appealed to my graphic designer side. I have also renewed my interest in Art Licensing and plan to build up a portfolio for that field in 2023.

Here's a fond farewell to 2022. I didn't manage to accomplish everything I wanted to do but there's always the coming year! 

Bye Bye 2022 and Hello 2023! Wishing everyone a creative, productive and prosperous New Year!

Web: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

 

The Original Art Show 2022 Part 1

 I finally went to see The Society of Illustrators, Original Art Show 42nd Annual Exhibition in person. It has been awhile. Up until the Pandemic, seeing this show was one of my fave holiday traditions. The last two years I viewed it vicariously through the show catalog. I’m glad I went. It was an amazing smorgasbord of illustration. There was about 200 pieces a lot more than what they usually accept. Below are a few pictures of the show but they definitely don’t do it justice. While final digital art may look the same as the printed version, the originals for collage and traditional media has a tactile quality that must be seen in person.

As usual I bought the catalog as a gift to myself. It's a bonus for children's book illustrators as it lists along with the winning illustrator and book title, the medium, publisher, imprint, art director/designer, editor and author. Great for doing research as to who or where your illustrations might be appreciated.

Hope you get the chance to see the show before it closes on December 24 or maybe just buy the show catalog. Happy Holidays

Web: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

also  @dtdelosh at Hive

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

Happy #KidLitArtPostcard Day!

 

 Here's a melange of my illustrations for the December KidLitArtPostcard. I'm an illustrator and I'm in the process of wrapping up one project and on the hunt for something fun, full of sweet animals and maybe even a touch of magic.

 

If this was a normal day I'd be posting this on Twitter, Instagram and Hive  -but it is not. And apparently there is something wrong with my key board because all the lower case "Ys" are missing. HA! I also managed to somehow anger the Chief Twitterer cause my account got suspended for???? And I just tried posting on Hive but that site seems to be quite problematic and I can't post an image right now. So I'm down to one working social media site. sigh.

 

Just discovered that it must be just a blogger problem because when I go to preview this post there are too many lower case y's all over the place. Think I caught all the errant y's. So please excuse the whining. Now I'm going to do some sketching at my drawing board and away from the computer.

So how's your December 1st going? Hope it's less problematic then mine.

Web: dianadelosh.com

Instagram: @dtdelosh

also  @dtdelosh at Hive

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

Happy Mother' Day!

Happy Mother's day to all the mom's, and mother figures. We are who we are because of you.

Web: dianadelosh.com

twitter: @dtdelosh

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

April: KidLitArtPostcard: Kazu

Kazu, Fox girl character © Diana Ting Delosh

One of my  goals for 2022 is to post a #KitLitArtPostcard post every month on Twitter.  Here's my April digital postcard. That means designing 12 different digital postcards for 2022. Which will give me a range of designs to send out to Art Directors and editors when I do an e- mailing.

Rules for myself are: 

• Preferably fresh, recent illustration.

• Has to be an illustration I've never used for a KitLitArtPostcard.

• Post on the Day, the earlier the better.

The pros of creating digital postcards are many.  It's free and you can tailor your design to the recipient. No Printing costs. No stamps. No address labels. No waste. 

The cons: It's harder to get email addresses for art directors and  editors. Hence why #KidLitArtPostcard is such a genius idea for kidlit artists.

#KidLitArtPostcard created by Gina Perry, @ginamarieperry, last spring for illustrators to promote their art on Twitter since the pandemic made snail mailing postcards problematic. Illustrators create a digital postcard and post it on the 1st Thursday of the month on Twitter and now even on Instagram.

My Feb #KidLitArtPostcard Twitter post

Dragon Egg, Mandrake Root © Diana Ting Delosh

Web: dianadelosh.com

twitter: @dtdelosh

Instagram: @dtdelosh

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

SCBWI Long Island March Newsletter Art

Winter Friends © Diana Ting Delosh
Colored Art and digital

Back at the end of 2018 I was honored to be invited to create cover art for the SCBWI Long Island newsletter, Kid LIt News . The only directive was to include a kite. As it was to be a winter/spring issue I decided on animal friends having some winter fun. It was bit tricky figuring out how to get the kite to work as logical part of the illustration but I think I came up with an interesting solution.

Winter/Spring 2019 Kid LIT News Cover

There is even a lovely interview by fellow illustrator, Stephen Ingram about my art process and more for an article in the Kid Lit News Winter/Spring 2019 issue, which I'm happy to announce went live, March 14, 2019.

If you don't live on Long Island, NY and want to find out more about the SCBWI click here: scbwi.org

Web: dianadelosh.com

Illustration blog: dtdelosh.blogspot.com

Product Blog: arthareswares.blogspot.com

twitter: @dtdelosh

Group Blog: drawntopicturebooks.blogspot.com

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

Check out my ThumbNailer

Of Life and Dreams - MATS Boot Camp February

Of Life and Dreams © Diana Ting Delosh
Mixed media: Ink, Pencil, Digital
 Mock Journal or Book Cover

It's been awhile since I blogged, either I had nothing to blog about or something but no time to do it. At any rate, here I am. Not promising that I'll be blogging on any regular basis but hopefully more often then not. At the end of 2018 I signed up for a bunch of thing and one of them included Lilla Roger's MATS Boot Camp 2019. This is my second go round with Bootcamp. The first time was in 2014, during the months of Feb, March, May. June and July. If you're wondering, yes, you can read about my experiences in this blog's archive. I signed up this time because I felt like I wanted some assignments that would stretch me. A peek at other markets out there aside from children's book publishing. Similar to why I did it last time. Except this time around I'm at a different place with my art and I thought it might be a good time to revisit the course.

Lilla teaches by giving us a mini assignment before she gives us the brief for the main assignment. This way we get to explore a subject without being limited by the scope of the final product/project. This time around the mini was to do florals and use a specific media. My group was assigned lily of the valley and colored pencils. I hunted around my studio and found an unopened box of Derwent Inktense 12. These are colored pencils that are meant for you to wash over with water. Honestly wasn't sure about the pencils until I threw the water on it - Then I really liked working with them.

Here's one of my minis, Bunny Amongst the Lily of the Valley
© Diana Ting Delosh
Derwent Inktense Color Pencil Sketch 

February's Brief:  Journal Cover with some hand lettering as that's very trendy right now. I loved the idea of doing florals but had a hang up about type on a journal. I never buy journals with type as I always felt like they were telling me what to put in my journal. But I really wanted to do some Hand Lettering. Plus that was part of the brief. I decided to think of it more as a book cover to get over my mental block.

Of Life and Dreams © Diana Ting Delosh
Rough Pencil Sketch layout of journal / book cover. 

Here finally is my finished mock book, ahem, journal cover in the MATS BootCamp February Gallery amongst all the other lovely designs. Click on the thumbnails to see them bigger.

I had a lot of fun drawing florals for this assignment. There will be more florals in my future.

For more samples of my art check out my web portfolio at dianadelosh.com
Follow me on Twitter @dtdelosh

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards
Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Process Experiments 4 - 6

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been experimenting with my art process. Hoping to shake things up a bit in 2018. SEE Art Process Experiment 1- 3 

Experiment No. 4A and 4B - Squirrel with Snowdrop: Semi Reverse Process
4A: Sketch. Watercolor. lines added with brush Scan. Add digital details. 
4B: Sketch. Watercolor. Scan. Add all the lines and details digitally. 

Results 4A: Similar to my usual style. But there's less black line, a Limited Palette and the squirrel looks younger because overall he's rounder. I love his Buffalo plaid jacket.

Results 4B: Felt my digital brush lacked the accuracy, smoothness and expressiveness of a real brush. At least at this point my brush skills are light years ahead of my Wacom pen skills. Frustrating. Trashed this effort hence: Art not shown.

Squirrel wrapping his scarf around an early bloomer -Posted this on Twitter for my #colour_collective illustration for the prompt, Cinnabar Green. Not sure if this counts for much, BUT it is my most popular illustration to date on Twitter.

Experiment No. 5 - Sleeping Giraffe: All digital with sketch.

Results:  Did this late at night and perhaps my judgement, focus, and coordination had gone to bed without me but I found the process clunky and frustrating. IF given many more hours of practice, perhaps I could come up with something more satisfying.

Sleeping Giraffe - Hate the colors. Had problems picking colors amongst other snafus.

Experiment No. 6- Sleeping Giraffe: Semi reverse Process Plus Digital Flourish: Sketch, Paint with watercolors. Scan. Added some additional digital flourishes. Note: Giraffe, Weedy Bits and Night Sky are are created separately. scanned and put together digitally. 

Results: Felt happy with the final art. The loose digital weedy flourishes seem to tie it all together in a new, for me, way. I want to explore this direction.

Sleeping Giraffe - Note, I used the same sketch for both Sleeping Giraffe  illustrations. Yes, I know, I should've done ALL the experiments using the same sketch BUT I didn't think of it earlier.  Posted this on Twitter for my #colour_collective for the prompt Delft Blue.

CONCLUSION: To be honest, there were times that I felt the last few weeks were an exercise in procrastination. I was afraid that I was going to just go back to my same old process but with only a few minor tweaks, experiment 4. Which would not have been the worst thing except for the time lost. Luckily experiment 6 came along.

Web: dianadelosh.com

Illustration blog: dtdelosh.blogspot.com

Product Blog: arthareswares.blogspot.com

Group Blog: drawntopicturebooks.blogspot.com

twitter: @dtdelosh

Check out my shops:

Greeting Cards: greetingcarduniverse.com/dianascards

Gifts: zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*

Art Prints: wingedrabbit.imagekind.com

Gifts: society6.com/dianadelosh

Check out my ThumbNailer