Friday, April 25, 2008

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ WRINKLE


Okay, so here's the latest scoop! When you are underwater, your wrinkles disappear. Works for anyone!

Watercolor, pen and Painter. ©Ginger Nielson

Sunday, April 13, 2008

SCBWI New England Conference

This past weekend the New England Regional Chapter of S C B W I met in Nashua, New Hampshire. Along with the wonderful insights of authors and illustrators from the world of Children's Books comes the added treat of meeting other artists and authors in person ...Face to Face ...and being able reach out and actually touch and chat with them.

Speaker author / illustrator Melissa Sweet, and illustrators Kathy Weller & Nell Ma'luf are pictured on Kathy's blog. I was fortunate to meet with them and exchange views on art, our own daily lives in illustration and much more. At lunch I had the pleasure of spending time with multiple award winning author/illustrator, Lita Judge, my neighbor and friend, down the road. You can check out her books here.

The conference was highlighted by wonderful guest speakers, workshops including a fun and informative look into the world of a digital artist, Jennifer E Morris whose book "May I Please Have a Cookie?" has just topped the 500,000 mark in sales.

Tiring and fun, the conference always leaves the participants (this time over 550) ready to dive in and tackle that perfect picture book, young adult novel and grow as authors and illustrators.

Friday, April 11, 2008

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ FAIL


This is a companion piece to something I started last week. It just so happens that the bears will be awake soon...and they will be hungry and maybe a bit grumpy too.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

WORK IN PROGRESS


This is from something new I am working on...just trying out the shapes and shadows for an early morning dip.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

VISIT THE GALLERY ~


The Picture Bookies Gallery Showcase features a theme each week that is populated by the work from 50 children's illustrators.
Take a look and keep coming back each week to see how they interpret the various themes, and view their amazing 'Artist's Choice' selections on alternate weeks.
Picture Bookies Logo ©Sherry Rogers

Saturday, April 5, 2008

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ SAVE


Albert has fallen from his perch atop his grandfather's roof garden. Who will SAVE him?



©Ginger Nielson

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Finally a Website Update

For the longest time I have wanted to upgrade my web-authoring software. I began with simple HTML codes when I first attempted website creation and then I found Page Mill. That program saw me through several seasons of creating stories for children on the internet, but it had drawbacks. The next update for me was GoLive. I used that program through several upgrades until it ceased to be supported.


My goal was to acquire and LEARN Dreamweaver CS3. For some reason I resisted thinking it was :One- too expensive. and :Two - not within my learning curve. I was pleasantly surprised on at least one count. Dreamweaver isn't that hard to learn. Not master, but learn. The expense is still a factor.

The result is that I can do something I have been eager to do for a long time. I can now swap an image from the center of the page with a roll over and the little icon images at the side of the page can change the center image when you roll over each one.
The technical term for this is disjointed rollover and although it may take some of you only an instant to learn...... my progress was much slower.

Hopefully all is working well and I will continue to learn the program and find new ways to improve my web presence. We all know how important it is becoming for an illustrator to have a strong but easily navigated website.
Here is your invitation to visit my newly designed site. Comment if you wish, criticize if you find it helpful, and please enjoy your visit.