Another fun family portrait commissioned by a beautiful family. I loved that they had a vision for this portrait. This scene is inspired by their beautiful 2 year old daughters love for duckies. I love duckies too! Which made this such a fun project to work on.

This baby’s ready to be shipped off to its permanent home in Ohio!

Hope you like your new print Tobias Family!

Hugs & Kisses, Nina

The money raised will go towards construction and maintenance of  Missoula’s MOBASH skatepark. The art decks will be displayed on May 4th, at the Brink Gallery in Missoula, MT where they will also begin the silent/online auction. So lookout for that come May! Visit the MSA website for more information.

Anything that keeps us active and off the streets is A-OK with me! 

I was super psyched to be given the opportunity to create work on a skate deck since I’ve never worked on a surface like this before. Prior to receiving the skate deck I had a few ideas in mind but nothing sounded as fun as creating a tree house and possibly a place where Animal Chin lives! (Special thanks to the BF, for telling me the Legend of Animal Chin.)

Here’s the fun process of finding Animal Chins House:

Step 1:  I started out with a quick sketch of the tree and a faint mapping of where I’d like to see the leaves.

Step 2:  I painted a thin layer of gesso on top of the sketch.
Step 3:  Laid out some color for the grass and painted layer of green as an underpainting for the tree.

Step 4:  Started to lay in some actual color for the tree trunk..There goes my boss…micromanaging.

Step 5:  Once I got the trunk texture down, I worked on the house, and added a thin layer of gesso on the stairs for later.

Step 6:  I started to work on the stairs, and the little look out point on the middle left making sure to use a slightly different wood tones for the stairs so the tree and wood wouldn’t blend.

Step 7:  I was really planning to keep the natural wood exposed for the finish but it was looking too brown and very monochromatic. (Boo.) So I placed some contact paper on the tree house and began working on covering the wood with a lighter background and adding in some leaves in the process.

Step 8:  Once I covered the whole deck and added in enough tree leaves for the background I peeled off the contact paper. Some of the paint actually peeled off in some places so I had to touch those up and re work on some places where the background colors seeped through.

Step 9:  After touching up everything that I needed to address when I peeled off the contact paper I started working on the leaves, adding subtle hints of shadow and light. Then finished the whole deck with a light satin glaze.

This baby’s ready to be reshipped to Montana and ready for its new home!

If you happen to be in the Missoula, Montana area during the art walk make sure to stop by and check out the Brink Gallery for ON DECK 7.  Bidding begins on  May 4th. I believe each piece begins at $75.  I hope you mark your calendars!

Happy Creating!

As a freelancer, trying to establish yourself can be quite draining.There are a few words and situations that can be traumatizing enough to threaten the livelihood of ones career. “Send me your KILL FEE” has been by far my worst and biggest fear come true.

A couple of years ago I was approached by a widely known establishment to illustrate something to go with a copy they were planning on releasing. I really wasnt clear on why I was chosen to do this commission since they wanted me to illustrate something loose and abstract. I wasn’t sure I would be able to meet their vision but I had to try. After all, this client was on top of the list of companies I’d always wanted to work with.

I spent a few days trying to create something engaging and abstract. When I sent in my inital sketches for the said artwork I got feedback to REWORK, EXPLORE, REVISE. So i did as I was suggested, days later I sent in my revisions and got the most devestating reply I had ever read:

“This isn’t working. Send me your kill fee” 

(For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, a “kill fee” is otherwise known as a cancellation fee. It’s a percentage of the originally agreed upon payment that the client is required to pay should the project be terminated.)

My heart sank to my stomach. I read the message over and over again trying to wrap my brain around this horrifc sentence. I wanted to reply, no, call them to give me another chance. But I knew that pleading wouldn’t be the most professional thing to do. So I took a deep breath, ignored my quivering fingers and replied with an invoice graciously.

The days that followed were pretty bad. It felt like a really bad break up. I went through the first four stages of grief within the following weeks. At
first I denied the whole thing ever happened by deleting any evidence of correspondence. I even deleted the invoice and contract out of my records.

Afterwards I completely broke down. I cried. I cried for days (my eyes hadn’t been this puffy since they cancelled Punky Brewster) and I drowned myself in massive amounts of self pitty. After a couple of weeks, I learned to accept the loss but I wasn’t completely over the whole scenario. I took a one month break from everything. I closed the door to my studio and replaced productivity with a full days worth of sitcoms and reality shows. Fun.

If it weren’t for my family and friends, getting out of this funk would’ve been ten times harder. Having a support system helps. It was a devestating blow in my efforts to establish myself as an illustrator. But I started to realize and accept that this all apart of the territory.

Putting yourself and your work out there can put you in very vunerable position especially when you’re just starting out. Being able to take the good with the bad…well thats the facts of life..the facts of life... Seriously.

This experience has taught me to accept that rejection, cancellations, and the chance that your project can be put on hold indefinately is all apart of this business. You have the able to keep your head up and move on Martha move on..

In time I took this experience as a compliment in disguise. If a company like that was interested enough to contact me as I was just starting out, I knew I  was headed in the right direction.

I hope this helps someone out there. You’re not alone. The greatest success stories begin with failures.

Remember, its better to have been kill feed, than to not have been kill feed at all…in the world of freelancing of course..Being kill feed in any other situation sounds kind of gross.

Happy Creating!

I wasn’t planning on putting anything up for this weeks IF, but this seemed to fit the theme. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do! The line work of this super awesome submarine was done by my nephew, Ralph Allen.

3 or so weeks ago, I came home to find this envelope in our kitchen table. Inside this thick envelope were awesome drawings of dinosaurs and other doodles from my 7 yr old nephew.

Tucked inside all these crazy dino sketches was this amazing looking contraption that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of.

His line work was so great and detailed and I thought how great would this be colored!? So I traced Ralph Allens line work, added some details and a background… It came out great!
This idea was inspired by Dave Devries‘s Monster Engine.

 It is such a rewarding feeling knowing I’ve made an impact in his creative explorations. I wasn’t going to let his work go unnoticed as this definitely deserved more than a simple “Thank You“. This was a perfect way to thank him for sharing his work with me!

Got a special package from the UK over the weekend! I’m honored to be taking part in contributing artwork for The Willow Foundation‘s “Stars on Canvas” charity event taking place some time this winter of 2012. Stars on Canvas is an online auction that raises money to support and provide psychological and emotional support for the seriously ill from age 16 to 40 years of age.

I don’t think I can tell you how much pleasure I get out of knowing that I’m able to contribute to causes like these, I really do feel grateful that I’m able to help out others the best possible way I know how! I can’t wait to get started.

This blank canvas is pretty intimidating. Not only is it smaller than how I usually work, it also takes me out of my digital comfort zone! There also seems to be no theme which I find quite challenging. Totally excited!! Hopefully I’ll come up with an idea soon! Will post updates.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in participating in this years Stars on Canvas do contact Hannah Doogan at Hannah{DOT}Doogan{AT}willowfoundation.org.uk. She’d be happy to provide you more information on this great cause!

An oldie but still one of my faves.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ONE AND ALL. 

xoxox,
Nina

The thing(s) I enjoy most about private commissions, is that there’s a bit more freedom in terms of what I add to each piece, whether it be playing around with new textures or brushes or a new technique etc. Private commissions allow me to grow which is just about the most rewarding experiences one can receive as an artist.

Yayers. Hope the family enjoys this as much as I do!

preparing a meal for two of his toughest critics is definitely nerve wrecking.

One of my most favorite works so far this year. This was a lot of fun to work on. Preping up for the upcoming conference which is in two weeks has me working like that chef right now. Hopefully I’ll be finished on time and have a lot more work in my arsenal. Updates soon.

in the meantime HAPPY FRIDAY!

The highlight of their trip to the city wasn’t the city. It was Balloons!

A work in progress. I feel like its not quite there yet, but I can’t figure out what’s missing. Somethings off, somethings missing, but what? Any suggestions?

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

and hope everyone has a very safe and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

See you all in 2012.

It’s going to be a great year.

It’s fun to separate a gang of pigeons and watch them fly off to different corners..

as long as they don’t poop on you on their way up.

Busy month and year ahead. Doing a series of these two kids and their adventure around New York City. Where will they end up next? Your guess is as good as mine. Preparing for next years SCBWI Winter Conference (which is less than 2 months away). Working on new art to show my agent, new promo pieces, new art for the portfolio showcase…busy busy busy. I’ve a slightly different style than what I started out with this year and a slightly different method of (digital) painting. I like it! Hope everyone does too.

I haven’t done a time-lapse video in a while…maybe I should for the next one. In the meantime, I’ve been posting work in progress captures on the Facebook page!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

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