Take your photo with me!

So, I really wanted to go to the "Spectrum" show at the Society of Illustrators in New York. Doesn't look like it's going to happen. I'm kinda bummed. That means I'm not going to meet all the cool people I wanted to meet. You know, take a few photos with all of you illustrators I admire. Anyway, even though I can't go, I thought it would still be cool to get my picture taken with you. Come on, you're illustrators, you all know how to run Photoshop. Right? So, here are a few photos of me with my arm on your shoulder. Go ahead and put yourself in there. Make me feel like I was at the show too. Heck, this goes for anybody who read this. I'd love to have my picture with you too. This is the same way I met Oprah (thanks to Stacy Curtis). We've been friends ever since.






If you are going to the show, I hope you have a great time.

Send your photo of us to me at guy@guyfrancis.com and I'll post it.

Spectrum Show

The Society of Illustrators is having a fantasy art show called "Spectrum". I was thrilled when they contacted me and said that one of my pieces was selected. The show opens today and goes through Oct. 17th. So if you are in New York in the next few months, and you want to see a bunch of great fantasy themed art, this is the place to be. They are having an opening reception on the 11th. I'm still trying to figure out if I can go or not. Here's hoping.


Here is the info from the Society of Illustrators website

The Museum of American Illustration is proud to announce an exhibit featuring the top fantastic artists from around the world as seen in the annual Spectrum. Created in 1993 by Cathy and Arnie Fenner to showcase fantastic-themed art work, Spectrum is now the leading resource for art directors, art buyers, and fans of the genre. Selected pieces are chosen by top jurors in the field and images are produced in the full color book printed annually.

The Spectrum exhibit features a selection of over 120 works from both legendary artists and talented newcomers from the last four annuals. Divided into seven categories, the exhibit showcases multi-media works including original art in both traditional and digital medium, video, 3D, comics and graphic novels. Artists include Julie Bell, Kinuko Y. Craft, Eric Fortune, William Basso, Brom, James Gurney, Tony DiTerlizzi, Terese Nielsen, Yuko Shimizu, Michael Whelan, Donato Giancola, John Jude Palencar, Phil Hale and many more. The artwork will be on display from September 1 through October 17, 2009. In conjunction with the exhibit the Society will hold an Opening Reception on Friday, September 11, 2009. Tickets are $40 for non-members and $35 for members, and are limited.

Speedy sketchy painting

Just a little something.

Illustration Friday: impatience

Bonnie impatiently waited...


Warm up sketch with a bit of color added. Kinda lame. I didn't even bother cleaning it up.

Illustration Friday: modify

Dread Barry made a few modifications for his part time job at the mall.

Today's sketch

My friend Mel Milton challenged himself to post a sketch everyday of August. It is a great idea, great practice and a good challenge. I remember a time when I would do a page of sketches every day whether I wanted to or not. I could see a lot of growth and improvement in my sketches. Now days I don't do much drawing just for the sake of drawing. It's usually work related. Not as much fun. So Mel, I'm gonna try to sketch more. I might not post everything, but I'm going to draw something everyday. Here is something from today. Who knows what it is, but whatever.

page O sketches

Here is today's warm up page. Enjoy.

Road trip to ALA

I drove to Chicago for the ALA (American Librarian Association) conference with the fabulous author, Rick Walton, and the amazing illustrator Will Terry.

We drove for a very long time.

And ate very good food on the way.

On the first night we stayed with our good friends Eric Rohman and Candace Fleming.

Eric even let me hold his Caldcott shaped hunk of metal. Cool.

At the conference we met up with my friend and local Chicago artist, Stacy Curtis. Very funny guy.


Met some cool people.

Loren Long

Kadir Nelson and one of my excellent editors, Stephanie Lurie. (Hyperion)

Donna Bray, another one of my wonderful editors. (Balzer & Bray)

My friend Laura Vaccaro Seeger.

Lane Smith liked my book. What a nice guy.

Will Terry signing books.

Will next to some sleeping girl at the park.


Tried to find Oprah, but she totally avoided us. So typical of her.

Stacy. Not pulling a face, this is how he always looked. Can you see why people didn't want to talk with us?

Stacy with Chicago garbage. We can't take him anywhere.

Beth Krommes and Neil Gaiman, right after receiving the 2009 Caldcott and Newbery awards.


More great food.

We wore Will out.


Overall, it was a great trip. Lots of fun.

Doodles

I've been a blog slacker lately. I need to do better. Here is a few recent sketches to show you that I have actually been drawing stuff.

P is for Present!

My best friend is a graphic designer living in Sydney Australia. He often calls me to help brainstorm ideas for whatever project he might be working on. The other day he was working on some Christmas stuff and asked me to draw him a koala. I wasn't in the mood and didn't really have time, so this is what I sent him. We are talking to each other online so this was extremely quick. Anyway, later that day he sends me the fished product. I was amazed he was able to pull that out of my sketch. A bit disappointed that he didn't follow it closer. I your not even going to use my idea, why even ask? He also asked me for a quick sketch of his coworker who likes pirates...no ninjas...no pirates. The sketch was done before they made up their mind. I wonder what it'll look like finished.

Illustration Friday: Unfold

Duane unfolds the mysteries of paper aerodynamics.

Sketch Paintings

Here are a few little sketch doodles I did during a slow time in class. Just fiddling around in gouache.

Cat and Mouse Painted

Here it is all painted.

Cat and Mouse

This Is what I built yesterday. I've wanted to build an automaton for a while, so I did. It's for my daughter. We are going to paint it later. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday: Poise

Brooke was poised to become a great entomologist.

This was a little demo I did for my class. Trying to teach them a little bit about painting in acrylics.

Girl sitting

Just something to post so that you all don't think that I'm a slacker.

Random stuff

Here are a few doodlie-oodlies. Nothing exciting, but it is something to post. The color one was a very quick, unfinished coloring demo I did to show my class.

Eye Find

Here is something I can finally post. I worked on this book for Klutz a long time ago, but I had never seen it in print yet. Then a little while ago I saw this little kid looking at one of my paintings in a little book and I said "hey, let me see that". I might have freaked him out a little bit, but it was cool to see that somebody had it. Originally, they asked me to do a "hidden picture" for one of the interior pages. Then they asked if I would design the little tools that come with the book, which was cool. And then they asked if I'd do the cover too. Nice. Turned out to be a really fun project. The hidden picture was supposed to have 25 hidden things in it, but I got a little carried away. There are 45 now. See if you can find them. (the cover also had a bunch of hidden things.) Here is is on Amazon if you want one of your own.

Monsters

Man, I've been slacking on the ole blog. I figured I'd post this just to have something new to show. An old friend gave my kids and I a scroll saw. He thought my kids could have a lot of fun making stuff with it. This is my first attempt at making something. I just started cutting, and these guys are what came out. It's not an illustration, but it's kind of artsy. Ether way it was fun to do.

Poe

Happy 200th Birthday Edgar! This is an old image I did of Mr. Poe, and I thought I'd post it in honor of his special day.

The amazing Alina Chau gave me a blog award. Thanks Alina, you are too kind.. I've never won a blog award. I'm honored. Here are the rules:
1. Put the award logo on your blog
2. Tell who has nominated you
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Give links to that blogs
5. Inform the nominated ones that they got this award :)

It's tough to pick favorites, but here are a few that deserve the award:

Paige Kaiser
James Gurney
Stacy Curtis
Mel Milton
Will Terry
Ryan Wood
Maryn Roos