Dancing Kangaroo

AG Valentine

2012-01-18T18:18:00.001-05:00

The first of a bunch of Valentine's Day cards I have done for American Greetings this year. This one is in stores now. Its really cute and very tactile with flocking and foil everywhere. Still to come: a series of 6 musical cards. Cant wait to see how they came out

Monkey and Elephant

2012-01-09T16:47:00.001-05:00

This book will be out in 2 months but I just got a very early copy. It is the first in a series of 4 books for reading beginners and is really sweet and charming I'm very proud of it. It is published by Candlewick, you can pre-order it here if you are interested. You can see more pictures of it on my Facebook page or on Flickr (links on the right)

winners!

2012-01-05T23:17:00.002-05:00

Hi, sorry I kept you waiting for so long - really busy time for me.
The winner of a tea towel and tote bag in my giveaway is...
"Two Hands Designs"!
The 3 winners of a signed digital print are "Rosie Maddocks", "Reptile Fan Girl" and "Mel Williams".
Congratulations to all of you!
If you won please email me your shipping address and I will send you your prize asap. Your comments were so sweet I really wish you could all win, thanks again to everyone
xxG

a very birdy end-of-year giveaway!

2011-12-23T23:45:00.005-05:00

It's that time of year again! Post your comment here from now until January 1st at midnight and enter to win a tote and a tea towel calendar. Both are designed by me and are on sale on Etsy.
There are some consolation prizes as well.
Happy Holidays!

mini home studio test with mini home model

2011-12-22T20:42:00.000-05:00

just a little setup so I can take better pics for this blog and other places
(end-of year-giveaway tomorrow - stay tuned!)

Eep Cocoa

2011-12-17T20:00:00.001-05:00

is the name of the design of the fabric I bought from the wonderful Skinny Laminx. It came in so wonderfully wrapped that I had a hard time opening it. Im going to make curtains out of it. Never made curtains before but how hard can it be right? ...right?

how great is this sofa?

Tea towel - day 3

2011-11-30T23:41:00.000-05:00

I am exhausted and splattered with turquoise ink from head to toe but second color is down! Few little misses here and there (adds character) but the transparency works and over all looks great. Only 2 classes left so Ill try and come in to do the last color this week. Can't wait to see it done!

Tote bag!

2011-11-29T23:43:00.003-05:00

I wanted to try this for a while - a trial run of 15 tote bags by myself available now on etsy. Free shipping anywhere in the world for a limited time. If this will work out I will have more bags and designs soon.
Have a look here

15 available

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T11:11:00.004-05:00

Two Thanksgiving illos of a traditional meal and a (rather hungry looking) girl and turkey. They are part of the American Girl book Take the Challenge (coming out very soon). Have a very happy holiday if you are American and if youre not - back to work!
Its the middle of the week for crying out loud.

Happy Holimaze!

2011-11-17T20:12:00.004-05:00

This is one of my favorite projects of the last few years. Its a maze for the special Holiday Issue of American Girl Magazine. It shows a forest in winter full of woodland creatures and a little hint of Christmas. It is very detailed and took a whole week to draw. I really love the way it came out, hope you do too.

P.S. can you help the squirrel find the acorn?

Tea towel - day 2

2011-11-16T23:26:00.004-05:00

Printed first color tonight. It looks perfect. Super hard
work though my back is killing me! Here is a picture of the towels drying on the rack. No class next week because of Thanksgiving so can't do anything till the 30th. Very frustrating I'm dying to see
them finished...

2012 Calendar Towel

2011-11-11T19:40:00.006-05:00

My new 3 colors + transparency design for a screen printed tea towel. It is inspired by the time honored tradition of calendar towels during the golden era 1950s-1970s.
I'm starting to print a small edition of 20 towels on Wednesday. Very exciting!

some examples of tea towel calendars on ebay right now

ETSY store open for business!

2011-11-04T00:55:00.005-04:00

Huzzah! it only took me a year :)
My Etsy print shop is open! Right now I only have a few digital prints. All high quality archival prints, signed and numbered by myself for (what I hope is) reasonable prices. Im starting with really small first editions of 15 prints or less (because I don't have enough faith in my selling power yet) so this is your chance to own a low numbered first edition print.
8 prints are there right now and more coming soon. Hand printed silk screens coming in December
Hope you'll like them.

2-colors transparency

2011-10-31T19:48:00.035-04:00

This was hard! I got a lot of prints wrong. The point is to print with 2 transparent colors and where they overlap they create a third color. Here is the original design:

I've tried 2 color combinations: magenta and cyan and bright orange and turquoise. the second option is more successful i think

If the 2 colors don't align slightly it looks charming and hand made but some of them came out completely misaligned which looks like this:

I've got some good prints out of it but not a lot...
might have to try again later

More mermaids

2011-10-25T21:33:00.004-04:00

These cheeky mermaids are my project 2 in silk screen class: 2-color print (in black and gold). they are based on my more-simple block print design earlier this year. After trying silk screen I may never block print again... Its just SO much more fun not to mention easier and with better results. I'm still glad I got that amazing German press though. This original hand-made print will be up for sale in my etsy shop in December. My next project is a 2 color print with overlapping transparency. Yay! cant wait

Sherlock Holmes

2011-10-10T09:35:00.003-04:00

New promotional illo for my agent's 2012 calendar.
The subject this year is London. Mine is of Holmes, Watson and Baker Street. Lots of cool new Holmes around lately but I decided to go classic.

Screen Printing

2011-10-05T23:17:00.003-04:00

Today was our first actually-printing silk screen class and it was really fun! we started with the most simple - one color prints. Mine is of a design I made of birds in a tree. It came out really well in dark olive green on really nice heavy rag paper. Next week I will start my 2 color print - It's of my second favorite motif - mermaids! I cant wait. At the end of the semester I will put them all on etsy all signed and numbered and very reasonably priced. I might also have a little giveaway before Christmas again so stay tuned.

The Judgement of Paris

2011-09-25T21:25:00.003-04:00

It has been AGES! I know I know I'm sorry. I have been super busy working on projects I can't share with you yet unfortunately. As I write this I am on a mini holiday in Philadelphia relaxing on my own after a couple of intense months. When Im back in NYC Im starting a silk screen class. I can't wait! I wanted to do this for a while my flat graphic style is ideal for silk screen and I can finally open my etsy store.
More about that soon, meanwhile, here is a new addition to my long neglected series of Greek Mythology illos. You can see the previous ones here, here and here. I really want to try and silk screen them. I usually quote from the original text but I'm too lazy to scan the entire Iliad for it so here in a nut shell is the story of the judgement of Paris:
So all the gods are invited to a big wedding except Eris the goddess of discord. Offended she shows up anyway and rolls in a golden apple with the inscription "to the fairest of all" Obviously all the goddesses want it but the three finalists are Athena, Hera and Aphrodite (Minerva, Juno and Venus to you Romans). After Zeus (cleverly) refuses to be the judge he sends them to the Trojan mortal Paris who proved himself in the past to be a fair judge. The goddesses, who feel no need to play fair themselves, all try to bribe him. Athena promises him wisdom, Hera promises power and Aphrodite the love of the most beautiful mortal woman in the world. Paris (of course) chooses Aphrodite and claims his prize. His prize is Helen of Troy and she is already married to another. Yadda yadda yadda the Trojan War starts. Another war starts by vanity. Nothing changes.

Cinderella

2011-07-18T17:45:00.006-04:00

Some illustrated spreads from "Traditional tales: Cinderella" From Oxford University Press' Reading Tree series.
Out in September

Swedish birds

2011-07-09T09:29:00.001-04:00

If you know me, you know that when it comes to design, my favorite things are: Mid-Century Modern, textile, Scandinavia and birds. So when I find on ebay such a perfect combination of all four naturally I have to buy it. Look at these lovely 2.5 yards of fabric!
Its by Stobo of Sweden, around 1955, very rare and in perfect never-been-used condition. Not sure what I will do with it yet but I think its absolutely fabulous. I stretched it on my couch this morning and my usual model Oliver immediately hopped on, ready for his close up. Look at the birdie, Ollie!

3 color peacock

2011-06-20T16:04:00.005-04:00

I carved these plates when I was in school and they were in storage for at least 8 years. They are not in the best condition and the print is not perfect but I'm pretty pleased with the results. Cant wait to finish my new 3 color print.

gold plate

turquoise plate

black plate

Little mermaid

2011-06-17T22:17:00.003-04:00

the best print

This Scandinavian style mermaid is my first print using the (really good!) new press. She is going to Germany as a thank you card. She is a small 4"x 6" in black and gold.

the first print

The German press

2011-06-15T19:51:00.003-04:00

This morning I got a very exciting package from Germany. As you might have noticed I am into block printing lately and I have been looking for a good manual press for a while. Its slim pickings in the US unless you want to spend $300-$2,000 on a roller press. Unexpected salvation came from the land of Gutenberg. Konrad from ABIG was kind enough to mail me this beautiful industrial-looking A4 hand lever press! love it.
Vielen Dank!

This weekend I will test print my old peacock print. I am also working on a new 3 color print. If all will go well I will put some original prints for sale on Etsy so stay tuned if you are interested. Here is a sneak preview of my new print still in the carving stage:

Fired birds

2011-06-04T18:40:00.000-04:00

My recent work out of the kiln. They were not glazed because of the interesting yellowish speckled clay I used. We used black oxide on the bird plaque to enhance the texture and the big baby bird joined some older friends for a rather dramatic photoshoot.

More Rockin' Babies

2011-05-25T20:28:00.008-04:00

This book has been out for 2 months now. If you are new parents or know new parents this is a great gift - a funny and edgy board book for cool babies and adults. The books website is rockinbabiesbook.com. Here are some pages:

And here is a little video about the book staring the writers Dr. Jenn Berman, Cynthia Weil (and my illustrations).

More metal clay

2011-05-11T08:14:00.004-04:00

I'm back home today and back to work but here is something else I was working on on my time off. 2 more bird pendants made from silver clay. This time I tried adding semi precious stones to add some bling. The bird with the flower was a birthday gift for my sister.
for more about silver clay read my last post about it

Baby Bird

2011-05-09T08:36:00.002-04:00

I made this Emu/kiwi chick for my mother by special request. Im leaving tomorrow so thats it for ceramics for a while. sniff.

New bird plaque

2011-05-08T13:29:00.002-04:00

Girl on Horse 3

2011-05-06T06:34:00.001-04:00

While Im on vacation I make some time for ceramics. Here is a new addition to my girl-on-horse series. This time Im using a dark grey grainy clay. I never used it before I like its stoney look. great for sculptures.

Back home

2011-04-30T08:36:00.002-04:00

In Israel for 2 weeks. lots to do and see. Yesterday we went to the beach near Ceasarea by the old Roman aqueduct with my lovely lovely baby niece Sheera. In the evening we had a birthday party for her mother - my sister. We baked a cake and I attempted to decorate it... Even tho I have never done it before, I had a very strong feeling that I am a brilliant cake decorator. I watch the Food Channel. Its easy.

It wasnt. I messed it up twice and had to wipe it of. I had a nice elegant sketch and the actual cake looked nothing like it. The piping process was frustrating and nerve wracking and the three of us working on it ended up screaming at each other and at least one of us stormed out during it. That being said, it didn't come out too bad and I now have a new found appreciation of cake people.

The main thing is that we had a great party and the cake was delicious. Happy birthday sis.

HAD GADYA

2011-04-19T16:24:00.006-04:00

My little spot illustrations for the old Aramaic song that ends the Passover dinner. Had Gadya - Little Kid (as in baby goat) - is an ancient, ever so slightly more morbid version of the lady who swallowed the fly. Its all about the circle of life and the power of God.
Happy Passover!

p.s. zuzim is some form of currency

Little Kid, little kid. Our father bought a kid for 2 zuzim.

Little kid little kid

Came the cat and ate the kid. Came the dog and bit the cat

came the stick and hit the dog. Came the fire and burned the stick

Came the water and put out the fire. Came the ox and drank the water

Came the butcher and slaughtered the ox.

Came the angel of death and slaughtered the butcher

Came God and destroyed the angel of death who slaughtered the butcher,

who slaughtered the ox, who drank the water, which put out the fire,

which burned the stick, which hit the dog, who bit the cat, who ate the kid

Little kid, little kid, that our father bought for 2 zuzim. Little kid, little kid

The Wish Fish

2011-04-15T00:48:00.003-04:00

New book for little ones from
Leap Frog's Tadpole series.
My First time drawing otters.
Find it here

Lisa Larson poodle

2011-03-23T15:56:00.002-04:00

I am absolutely NOT turning into a crazy poodle lady just because I have a poodle now but I had my eye on this 50's Lisa Larson earthware ceramic poodle for a while and I just got it on eBay! Lisa Larson is a Swedish ceramic artist and one of my main sources of inspiration (and Oliver is my toy poodle and one of my main sources of joy)

The peacock and the dove

2011-03-21T14:57:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I was looking for something in my old school stuff and found 3 linoleum blocks I carved for a 3 color separation print. I carved them about 8 years ago when I was in school and even built a wood frame for them to keep them in place while printing. The image was of a peacock. It got me in the mood for some carving and I made this dove block. I think it came out pretty good but my inks are old and not great. I'm going to buy ink and try and reprint the peacock. The dove might look nice in white ink on a black t-shirt... I will post again when Ill get ink.

the dove block

dove test prints

the peacock blocks

Help Japan

2011-03-20T00:12:00.014-04:00

I got a touching email today from my best most wonderful friend in Japan Ai Miki. She is volunteering to send packages of basic every day needs to the north. Everybody is afraid and in immediate danger. You might feel that a strong country like Japan doesn't need your help but people are going without food power or heat, the old and the sick without medication and babies without diapers. This is a real crisis and it might get worst. If you can help please do. You can donate to any kind of global crisis organization but if you want to be sure your money will get there you can give it directly to the Japanese Red Cross (like I did). Ai wrote "I'm carrying "emergency backpack" that I packed Koushirou's milk and diapers and water, and things to make a fire, all the survival kit...everywhere to go now everyday because we still have strong earthquakes 3 times in a day somewhere in Japan lately... How crazy is that! Sooo heavy..LOL" Stay strong Ai and Kuni and baby Koushiro and everybody in Japan!

We are thinking about you every day.

(please help)

Ted Hughes

2011-02-28T20:59:00.000-05:00

Illustrations of a selection of Ted Hughes Poems. a Pearson Education text book for children about poets.

Friendship Pixies

2011-02-05T19:53:00.005-05:00

Cute little craft book from Klutz about how to make little friendship pixies and how to build a matchbox gift box for them. I did all the illustration, the patterns for the matchboxes and some stickers. It was a fun project. Great gift if you know a crafty little girl...

Happy Birthday!

2011-02-05T19:37:00.004-05:00

Two babies had their birth announced on this blog and both of them turned a year old within the last month. Happy first birthday Sheera in Israel and Koushiro and Japan! You are worlds apart but surprisingly the same in the way you discover the world. I hope one day you will meet each other. Happy life.

metal clay bird

2011-01-09T12:10:00.007-05:00

quick sketch

I only found out about metal clay very recently. Its brilliant! It is clay made of very small particles of precious metals mixed with an organic binder and water. This week I tried PMC pro which is the silver clay. You shape it like any kind of modelling clay and when its fired the binder burns away and you are left with o.999 pure silver!
As my first project I made a bird and flower pendant. You can fire PMC pro on a gas burner at home so it was super easy. I would definitely want to do more but 25 grams of silver clay costs $58 so its quite an expensive hobby. Bronze and copper clays cost about the same but need to be fired in a kiln. 10 grams of gold cost 600 Dollars! Ouch. I still have more left from the pack I bought so I will post more soon but here is my first try. What do you think?

Bird drying in clay form


All fired and polished

Sneak peek: Rockin' Babies

2011-01-01T19:24:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year! These are illos from Rokin' Babies - a new book by Jenn Bermann and Cynthia Weil about everything babies and rock stars have in common - Its not going to be out until May so this is a little peak at 2 double spreads from it. Below is a photo I shot as a reference of the quintessential Brooklyn street (which in this picture happens to be Union Street in Park Slope) I love the Brooklyn look.

Winners!

2010-12-26T21:56:00.011-05:00

Thanks again to everybody who entered.
The 2 first prizes go to SakuraDreams and Fin Langman. The 3 second prizes - 3 single cards of their choice - go to Tonja, Fifi and steviewren. Congratulations to every- body who won! I wish I could send cards to all of you who didn't. Maybe next time. Thank you all for your lovely comments They made me very happy.

Thank you!

2010-12-24T16:21:00.001-05:00

Thank you so much for the amazing response everybody! And thank you Print and Pattern for featuring my giveaway. You can still join till the end of Christmas day (New York Time) and I will post the winners' names on Sunday. Seasons greetings to all!

The last minute Christmas giveaway!!!

2010-12-17T20:01:00.003-05:00

So its too late for this Christmas but there is always next year. I got this huge box from Woodmansterne full of samples of cards and advent calendars I have made for them this year. Its a big big box so I would be happy to share some of it with you.

the big box of cards

Please leave a comment on this post from now till the end of Christmas day when I will be choosing two people to receive a five pack of each of 5 card designs - 25 cards all together. And possibly will add some runner up prizes like 2 -3 cards of your choice depending on how many people participate so please ad your name to the list. I will ship globally so everybody is invited. good luck!

first prize - 5 packs of each card

OLIVER!

2010-12-16T19:46:00.005-05:00

I know I havent been posting for a while but given the chance between that and playing with a puppy I chose the latter. Sorry. No hard feelings I hope. I have a new toy poodle puppy! His name is Oliver isnt he gorgeous? My little drawing does not do him justice. Look into those big black eyes and tell me you dont forgive me for ignoring you for so long...

Never mind, Im back. And Oliver reminds me of this ceramic sculpture I made this summer but never showed you. Its a woman with a puppy (how prophetic!) Originally she was nude but I was watching a Jane Austen movie while making her and almost without thinking gave her this Regency look. Here she is in progress and finished.

I promise to post more often from now on. AND If you like my card designs, please stay tuned for a - very last minute - big Christmas giveaway this weekend! See you soon

Bollywood

2010-11-14T20:38:00.004-05:00

My contribution to the annual NB Illustration promotional calendar. The theme this year was cinema.

Christmas Cards

2010-11-06T11:28:00.007-04:00

Apparently its that time of year again.
Here's a bunch of UK Christmas cards Ive done for Wodmansterne
Some are on sale at John Lewis and are featured here on Print and Pattern. Some may come to North America via Paperchase - I'll keep you posted.

Happy beginning of the season

Zeus and Deadalus

2010-10-19T17:57:00.002-04:00

Illustrations for Usborne Publication

Project Planter - final day!

2010-09-26T16:40:00.011-04:00

Its finally here! Took forever to find place for it in the kiln and then another forever for me to drag it home but its here. Nice right? I used brushing on glaze technique so its nice soft colors (see also elephants and bird little plaques below). I really like it, its definitely a one of a kind. And the plants look happy and when the plants are happy I'm happy too.
Hope you are as well.

Birds plauqe

2010-09-22T23:35:00.002-04:00

Its been a while. I'm super busy but that just means that I will have lots of new illustrations to show soon. Ceramics season is almost over and today I finished sculpting my last large project. Its a wall plaque with lots of birds and flowers - my largest plaque to date. It took 3 weeks of rather tedious work but I'm very pleased with it. Here are my sketch and the final result:

The planter, in case you are interested, is finished and lovely.
The pictures will be posted this weekend.

La petit bell

2010-08-26T09:31:00.035-04:00

When I took my first ceramics class, when I was about ten, we made a lot of bells and whistles. Literally. Making a clay whistle was apparently a complicated and secret process shrouded in mystery. We would make the body of the whistle with a little spout and our teacher would then take it to another room to preform the magic of making sound. She refused to tell us how she did it, old family secret I supposed, passed from mother to daughter... I am now planning to enter this secret society of whistle makers (by googling it) and give it a try.

Bells, on the other hand, are easy. Here is one just out of the kiln: Her dress was made by stamping real pieces of lace on the clay. Only the dress and hair are glazed so her skin has a matte finish. Here she is all glazed up and waiting to be fired:

and here is what she looks like now:

and here is what she sounds like now:

And in case you are wondering what ever happened to the planter - it is alive and well and glazed but not fired yet. Because of its (frankly ridiculous) size it keeps loosing its spot in the queue but it now has an "urgent" sign on it and I have been told it will go into the kiln today. Fingers crossed and I will keep you posted

American Girl mag quiz

2010-08-22T20:57:00.003-04:00

Illustrations for a Halloween quiz in the new American Girl issue

Calpol Ad

2010-07-29T20:43:00.022-04:00

More behind the scenes revelations on the wonderful world of professional illustration. I have been working on this British ad campaign for Johnson and Johnson. Its for Calpol - a baby fever reducer - and its a pretty clever idea. It shows babies sleeping like.. well, babies on illustrated quilts showing backgrounds of fluffy tranquil environments. Unfortunately under pressure of time and due to the complexity of actually making a real quilt out of an illustration, my work was simplified and simplified until very little was left of the original design.
Since this is the only place were you can see them, here are my original concepts:

and here is the final result:

Too bad but still pretty cute and the money was really good
so I'm just fine ;)

Project planter - day three

2010-07-15T13:38:00.004-04:00

Yesterday all the parts came together and I LOVE it. It came out better then I thought and bigger (21 Inches/ 53cm long). The back panel was attached in no time but then I had a mini freak out when part of the front panel stuck to the table and tore off when I picked it up, so I had a big hole on the side but it was patched up quickly and looks fine. Next week bisque firing and then we enter the wonderful world of glazing.

Project Planter - day two

2010-07-12T22:28:00.005-04:00

The back panel of the planter is finished.
Everything comes together on Wednesday

Cycling in London competition - the conclusion

2010-07-08T10:38:00.018-04:00

So I didnt win anything... But! Before the judging even begun The London Transit Museum chose my illo to advertise the show so it was EVERYWHERE. That was very cool and is (as I now convinced myself) much better then winning! Come see the show if you're in London its opened till August 22nd. You can see the first 3 places and some other works here.

Project Planter - day one

2010-07-03T00:57:00.005-04:00

Ok so as I mentioned before this is my new ceramics project - its a window sill planter with a relief design all around. Here are my sketches:

So as you can see it is oval shape. I am going to decorate 2 elongated flat panels - front and back - and when they are finished curve them around an oval base. That could be tricky hope it works. Today I have made 2 long panels on the slub machine and almost finished decorating the front one. Took almost 5 hours - complicated work. day 2 is going to be Wednesday. See you then

Back to ceramics

2010-07-01T00:10:00.003-04:00

off the computer for a while to get my hands dirty. FUN! Not to mention extremely therapeutic. Here is a new Lady Godiva - Fat women on fat horses - oh how I love you so. On Friday I am starting work on a large planter with a birds and flowers design all around in relief. More pics coming soon.

More cards!

2010-06-24T13:40:00.004-04:00

4 new any-occasion cards from Cardmix

Sheepdog trials

2010-06-11T23:04:00.011-04:00

Self promotion for NB illustration's annual calendar
puts me in mind of the world cup.
US vs. England tomorrow. That should be interesting...

Cycling in London competition update

2010-06-10T17:59:00.003-04:00

I'm in the top 50! That means that I am in the museum show.

The award ceremony/ show opening is July 5th when the top 3 places will be announced. Keep those fingers crossed (good job crossing them so far) and come see the show starting July 6th if you're in London. More info in my former post here

ATT Magazine

2010-05-20T23:05:00.004-04:00

Editorial illo for an ATT Magazine's opinion piece about killer tigers in Bangladesh. Love drawing tigers. They are so patterny

Cycling in London competition

2010-05-17T13:51:00.011-04:00

Here is my entry to the London Transport Museum's Cycling in London Illustration competition. It will be launching their new campaign about the benefits of cycling in the city. The top 50 will take part in an exhibition in the Museum. Probably my only chance to have work in a museum of any kind so fingers crossed!

My Flickr page

2010-05-02T17:40:00.007-04:00

Ok so I took the entire month of April off. I'm a bad bad blogger. Especially since last Sunday was this blog's 1st birthday and I didn't even bother to mention it. Terrible.
I was super super busy working on 5 projects at a time sometimes but that of course is not a valid excuse. It just means that I will have more to blog about soon. I promise to try harder from now on.
For now please take a look at my updated Flickr collection: I uploaded all of the pictures I took of my published illustrations that never made it to my blog here, Some of my ceramic work and other things I've made by hand here and picture of my lovely Brooklyn apartment that I am slowly trying to transform into my dream apartment (as much as you can in a rented place) here

illustrations from "When A Cat Ruled the world" from my Flicker set

Lost project

2010-03-26T21:18:00.006-04:00

Hello. It's been a while. Sorry.
Sometimes really cool projects get canceled right when you get really into them. Usually it's about money because in anything outside the definition of a book is very expensive to produce. In a Dark Dark Wood was supposed to be a play book that opens to a 3D spooky Gothic house. Here are the pictures of the blank model I received as part of my illustration brief:

Naturally I was excited but I only managed to finish the exterior of the house when the project was canceled due to lack of funds. This is sad. I was really looking forward to have my own 3D book but I'm sure there will be more opportunities in the future. Oh well, here is the finished art:

Socks!

2010-03-08T22:16:00.006-05:00

The Sock it to Me sock design competition is over and i didn't win anything. Looking at the winners mine was definitely not what they were looking for. Too illustrationy and not graphic enough. I still like them tho. Here they are. One is of dancing kangaroos in honor of this blog. You can see the winners and more here.

Springtime Surprise

2010-03-05T21:39:00.020-05:00

New baby book for Leapfrog. This is an interactive book from the Tag Junior series. You touch a special sensor to different areas on the page and it reads it to you or sings or makes animal sounds (see movie). It was sent to me at work where, although its intended for 2-4 year olds, it got some people in their late 20's and some in their late 30's giggling like toddlers. Now we can all count to 5. Yay!

Print & Pattern

2010-03-03T20:41:00.002-05:00

The Print and Pattern book is out*! I entered a call for entries more then a year ago and got in. Looks great with some of the biggest print design names working today and a lot of the smaller ones too. The Print and Pattern blog is a must for anyone who loves patterns and Bowie Style did such a great job here as usual. More about my pattern in the book in the original post here.

*on amazon.co.uk now and amazon.com later this month

WEBSITE 2.0

2010-03-03T09:45:00.001-05:00

Check it out check it out! My new and improved website! Been neglecting it for a while - since I started the blog actually - The truth is that blogs are fun and website maintenance is boring. But there is no pleasure without business so there it is, all shiny and updated. Hope you like it (and thank you Russell)

Illustrations for Hare Takes A Wife

2010-02-16T15:06:00.004-05:00

From the book Animal Tricksters in the Oxford Reading Tree series

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-12T10:56:00.008-05:00

Special edition Valentine card all embossed and sparkly by CardMix. everywhere Paperchase cards are sold. That means that for the first time I got a chance to see a card I illustrated in a store in NY since all Borders book stores sell Paperchase cards. Got to go to the store and see it for myself. fun!
Happy Valentine's day all you lovebirds out there

Card for Sheera

2010-02-11T09:17:00.004-05:00

I'm an auntie!

2010-02-10T17:36:00.008-05:00

Little baby Sheera was born last week to my sister Dafna and husband Danny. I'm an aunt for the first time how exciting!
Let the shallow material spoiling begin!
p.s. Isn't she a cutey?

New Ceramic Art

2010-01-25T21:34:00.006-05:00

This is a prototype for a birds wall hanging.
Needs some tweaking but I'm very pleased.
I am starting to work on a Mid-Century Scandinavian inspired collection for sale. Should take at least a year to complete but I will post some work in progress along the way.

American Girl Valentine

2010-01-19T09:38:00.006-05:00

Two posters I made for the American Girl Magazine Valentines Day issue. Out in stores now.
One was printed in layers and shot as a 3D image. Nice touch

The Ark Project II

2010-01-11T01:13:00.004-05:00

I posted about this book before but it just arrived this week. Its a really cool projects about extinct animals all over the world illustrated by artists from all over the world. You can get it here and give some for a worthy cause. You can also see my older post and my contribution to the book here.

Hello Koushi!

2010-01-08T14:23:00.005-05:00

The absolutely gorgeous baby Koushiro was born last night to my dearest friends Ai and Kuni.
Lots and lots and AND LOTS of love to all three of them.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-20T17:35:00.013-05:00

My Christmas card for 2009 and home made ceramic dog menorah. Happy Chrismecha? Whatever works for you. Make it happy anyway.

Thank you!

2009-12-14T20:53:00.003-05:00

New thank you cards from Cardmix

Bluebird and Coyote

2009-12-13T20:56:00.010-05:00

Sneak peek from a new book by Malachy Doyle, out this March but already on Amazon.co.uk for pre-orders. Its a retelling of a really beautiful Native American folk tale about how a coyote and a bird turned blue but only the bird stayed that way.Poor Coyote...

A&B Illustration

2009-12-11T01:04:00.004-05:00

Editorial for Accounting and Business Magazine about new economic growth. This will be spread over four pages (click to enlarge)

70's flower pots and fish

2009-12-01T19:21:00.007-05:00

This Scandinavian style card design was rejected for being a little too retro. They might have a point there... The fish might be developed into something but I'm not sure yet. They will make nice prints anyway. Maybe for my (future) Etsy store?

LISA LARSON CAT

2009-11-05T22:38:00.009-05:00

My version of the famous Lisa Larson cat from the 50's.
Mine looks more like a kitten. I love it.
My lovely ceramics vacation has ended. back to the computer screen... sigh

The original:

The Birds Floor

2009-10-25T12:26:00.005-04:00

I went to see this beautiful mosaic floor near Cesarea today. It's in the center of a late Byzantine palace (early 7th Century) that was opened to the public very recently.
there are 120 medallions with pictures of local birds in the center and fruit trees and other animals along the edges.

Ceramic horses

2009-10-25T12:05:00.004-04:00

My favorites. Both are inspired by 50's Scandinavian style but the big one is a tribute to Stig Lindberg

Work I do when I'm on vacation

2009-10-21T14:54:00.005-04:00

I'm home in Israel for 2 weeks so I finally have some time for ceramics which I LOVE. Here is some of the stuff I made this week so far.

VALENTINE CARDS

2009-10-02T09:10:00.009-04:00

New Valentine's Day card samples arrived from Cardmix.
Available anywhere Cardmix is sold (in the UK)

My design in Kmart

2009-09-24T09:27:00.003-04:00

My unicorn textile design on a little girl's top in Kmart

The ArtBook 2010

2009-08-27T19:56:00.003-04:00

Promotional piece for the next ArtBook. Its also the opening page for my agent's - NB Illustration - section of the catalog

DAPHNE and APOLLO

2009-08-19T00:45:00.008-04:00

So ran the god and girl, he sped by hope and she by fear. But he, borne on the wings of love, ran faster, gave her no respite, hot on her flying heels and breathing close upon her shoulders and her tumbling hair. Her strength was gone; the travail of her flight vanquished her, and her face was deathly pale. And then she was at the river, swift Peneus, and called; `Help, father, help! (...) her tender bosom was wrapped in thin smooth bark, her slender arms were changed to branches and her hair to leaves; her feet but now so swift were anchored fast in numb stiff roots, her face and had became the crown of a green tree; all that remained of Daphne was her shining loveliness. And still Phoebus loved her; on the trunk he placed his hand and felt beneath the bark her heart still beating, held in his embrace her branches, pressed his kisses on the wood; yet from his kisses the wood recoiled. `My bride’, he said, `since you can never be, at least, sweet laurel, you shall be my tree. My lure, my locks, my quiver you shall wreathe.' . . . Thus spoke the god; the laurel in assent inclined her new-made branches and bent down, or seemed to bend, her head, her leafy crown."
Ovid, Heroides 15. 23 ff

STUDIO SHOOT

2009-08-18T20:41:00.006-04:00

Originally made this doll for the kids section of the Tom Cody Design (my day job) website but we ended up not using it. I took her picture in the studio. She is also wearing one of my prints.

4 PILLOW DESIGNS

2009-08-13T23:39:00.009-04:00

These were part of my sister's wedding present last year. They are now part of her brand new house. The birds design was based on my little kitchen mural.

PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA

2009-08-10T16:51:00.003-04:00

Part yet untold, the seas began to roar, And mounting billows tumbled to the shore. Above the waves a monster rais'd his head, His body o'er the deep was widely spread: (...) Too long you vent your sorrows, Perseus said, Short is the hour, and swift the time of aid, In me the son of thund'ring Jove behold, Got in a kindly show'r of fruitful gold. Medusa's snaky head is now my prey, And thro' the clouds I boldly wing my way. If such desert be worthy of esteem, And, if your daughter I from death redeem, Shall she be mine? Shall it not then be thought, A bride, so lovely, was too cheaply bought? For her my arms I willingly employ, If I may beauties, which I save, enjoy.
Metamorphoses book V By Ovid

Some Greek Myth lovers for lovers of Greek Myth

2009-07-30T01:44:00.019-04:00

Been really busy lately but I'm hoping to get enough Greek Mythology illos done for a show in Israel in October.
It's a lot of work and there's not much time left but something I always wanted to do. we'll see how it goes.
These are missing some decorative elements but almost finished.

Peter and the Wolf

2009-07-28T21:00:00.014-04:00

Promotion for a series of concerts that ended earlier this year: The Family Series - Peter and the Wolf by the Cleveland Orchestra. Always loved the music and the story (mine is read by David Bowie )

Even now those violins still give me chills...

label: RCA VICTOR Originally released: 1992

HORSE CRAZY is out!

2009-07-25T14:25:00.022-04:00

It looks great!
I was nervous because I worked on it for so long but I'm very happy.
I love the 2 color illustrations.
Here is a little sample.
I couldn't possibly post all the illustrations i did for this 376 page books. I'm afraid you'll just have to buy it and see for yourselves.

KATE CANN BOOKS

2009-07-15T13:55:00.004-04:00

The three Kate Cann books arrived last week looking very nice in foil embossed covers.
I really like the way they are designed.

NEW BOOKS PREVIEW

2009-06-25T01:34:00.012-04:00

Just finished 2 animal folk tales books for Oxford University Press:

illustration for Hare Takes A Wife from Animal tricksters

illustration for Samson and the Scaredy Cats
from When A Cat Ruled The World

ZODIAC POSTER - part2

2009-06-09T01:00:00.001-04:00

ZODIAC POSTER - part 1

2009-05-31T01:56:00.004-04:00

Hades And Persephone

2009-05-18T01:21:00.008-04:00

"...you must go back again beneath the secret places of the earth, there to dwell a third part of the seasons every year: yet for the two parts you shall be with me and the other deathless gods. But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring in every kind, then from the realm of darkness and gloom thou shalt come up once more to be a wonder for gods and mortals"