On the right path {illustration}

Here is a recent illustration that ran in our Passages section - see story here. It was about the retirement of the director of operations at the San Diego Zoo. Paths are always a great way to show people moving on or going in a different direction, but turning the path into an elephant made this illustration sing for me. Hope you enjoy it too.

Brain Series {illustration}

Brain Games - illustration by Cristina Byvik

Imagination - illustration by Cristina Byvik

Brain Injuries - illustration by Cristina Byvik

Brain Studies - illustration by Cristina Byvik

This was a series of four illustrations I did for our special "Wonders of the Brain" section. The package was a big group effort by many talented staffers at U-T San Diego. Check it out here. The section was designed by Gloria Orbegozo.

Winning! {illustration}

It is unbelievable, but I have won an SND (Society of News Design) Award of Excellence in the category of Illustration Portfolio, a very hard category to win. The portfolio above is what we entered. The "Twist of Fate" and "A Different Direction" illustrations also won on their own for single illustrations and again for page design - they were both designed by Gloria Orbegozo. The U-T San Diego won a total of 15 awards this year. First of all, I would like to thank the cast and crew...just kidding, but, in truth, I could not have won without the awesome crew of designers, art directors and co-workers that help me brainstorm and fine-tune my work. You know who you are! As a newspaper illustrator, this was the highest award I could have reached for. My work is done! My bragging session is over too!

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

August Work {illustration}

designed by Ani Arambula

designed by Greg Schmidt

designed by Greg Schmidt

designed by Greg Schmidt

designed by Ani Arambula

August was a really colorful month. I especially loved working on the watercolor greens. I must have painted 20 different leaves, but we only needed three of them. Who knew lettuce was so interesting!

July Work {illustration}

designed by Ani Arambula

designed by Gloria Orbegozo

designed by Greg Schmidt

designed by Greg Schmidt

designed by Gloria Orbegozo

designed by Greg Schmidt

 Better late than never - my work from July! From worm composting to gourmet camping, it was a busy month. August work coming soon!

For the Washington Post

{designed by Heather Barber}

{designed by Heather Barber}

With all the news around the sale of the Washington Post this week to the founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, I thought is was nice timing to share the illustrations I did that ran today in the Post. The display illustration was on diet books and the inside spot was for science books. This was very fun job! Thanks, Heather!

June Work {illustration}

 I know June is way over, but here is a look at what I was up to during June Gloom. Not that I was gloomy—June Gloom is what San Diegans call the cloud covered month along the coast here. You really think it is summer and inland it is sunny, then you drive to the beach and have to wear a sweater because the clouds sitting off the coast just won't go away! Anyway, June Gloom is over and I am over it too! Have a great weekend!

April Work {illustration}

(designed by Ani Arambula)

(designed by Rebecca Metta)

(designed by Rebecca Metta)

(designed by Greg Schmidt)

(designed by Greg Schmidt)

(designed by Rebecca Metta)

(designed by Rebecca Metta)

 Here are all the illustrations I did in April. My favorite ones are the container gardening one and the apartment building cigarette. The other ones were, what I call, quick and dirty! Thanks for looking.

March Work {illustration}

(designed by Rebecca Metta)

(designed by Gloria Orbegozo)

(designed by Ani Arambula)

Here are the illustrations I worked on in March. It seemed like a slow month, but I was really working ahead on the next month which was twice as busy. I got to experiment with paint this month, too. Watercolor with the Home and Garden illustration and gouache with the Spring Arts Cover. I am loving the unpredictability of watercolor. It always looks different after it dries. More watercolor to come...Happy weekend!

Information Illustrations {illustration}

Here are some Illustration/Graphics that ran last year. I thought that they all fit nicely together as a group because they are not just pretty pictures or conceptual illustrations. These types of informational illustrations take extra time because of the proofing process that goes into them—not just for typos, but for accuracy too.  In the end, the result makes it all worth it.  Enjoy.

February Work {illustration}

Yes, it's already the middle of March, but here is a grouping of illustrations from February. The watercolor work in the Garden Craft page was so much fun, you will see much more of it in the coming month. It is so nice to pick up a paintbrush again! Enjoy.

January Work {illustration}

Here are some of my illustrations that ran in January. It was a pretty slow month, with a lot more planning than doing. But I had some exciting things happen...

 

First, the art for depression, based on this sketch I did, turned into a really nice page. The great Charles Apple even wrote a whole post about it here! He said it was "charmingly clever," which my husband later borrowed to describe me. If my husband pulls that one out again on Valentine's Day he is set for life!

    This illustrated map, that appeared with one of our first features on Balboa Park and the changes they are making for their centennial celebration in 2015, was a bittersweet project. I worked so hard getting the colors just right, then in a rookie mistake, I botched the job! These are the colors how they should have appeared - see the version above on the page to see how it actually printed. (For the Illustrator using crew: I modified colors that were pantone colors but did not rename the colors. When you go to print, the pantone name of the color over-rides any changes you may have made to the formula of the color. I am very lucky, though—it could have been much worse!)     

This was one of my favorite jobs of the month. I got to make pretty art of a whale! I was definitely influenced by David Weidman. I did a post on him a while back as well. I had to do 2 versions of the art to fit the different proportions of our two covers. I still don't know which one I like better.

Hope you enjoyed this months run down of illustrations! Have a fantastic weekend!