Australian Romance Award Finalist!

A book cover I art directed with illustrator Gene Mollica is up for an award in Australian Romance Readers Association.

The book is Firelight by Kristen Callihan, is fantasy, historical novel that takes place in Victorian England and the first book in The Darkest London series. I am currently working on the next upcoming cover.

Back to Work

First post of the new year, though its been about three weeks since the new year has begun. After a bit of new years reorganization its time to get back to work on my own projects once again!

To start off the new years I decided to share a drawing I have made from my commute on the PATH train to NYC.

Heraldry

Recently, as part of a private commission I was asked to recreated several English coat of arms. It was a  gift to the client's father as part of a larger research project into her family's history. There were four in total, Pyke, Jewett, Gilbert and Woodman. 

By combining written descriptions and very low res imagery of the shields or just parts of the shields I recreated each one in illustrator. Each one had its own unique challenge depending on how much information was available and then of course making sure they all still worked with each other.

The end result was a 11 x 17 poster of each coat of arms with a description beneath. I hear that both she and her father are very happy! 

Dingada

So I realized today that I have never mentioned my etsy store on my blog before. Its called Dingada. The name came from a phrase my grandmother used to use, which roughly translates from grandma-ese to a "thingamajig" or "whosie whatsit." Originally, it came from the German phrase "Das ding da" or "that thing there."

Dingada is a place for me to play with and sell some ideas, products and designs that I wouldn't really have an outlet for else where. There should be some new cool stuff come up there in the future, but as of right now I am selling several shirts and totes with some cool designs I came up with a couple years ago.

The ever popular Huginn and Munnin/Two Ravens design.
Available as a ladies' tank, men's t-shirt and as a tote.

As of right now I am have an special for the month of December. If you put in the coupon Yule2012 when checking out, you will get 10% off! So check it out!

Ullr

We are rapidly approaching ski season here in the Northeastern US. It is time to break out the wax, figure out where the cat hid the ski socks and watch the skies (and weather channel) for signs of snow. 

As a Scandinavian mythology dork as well as a girl who loves some fresh powder- I can't help but think of the god Ullr this time of year. While Scandinavian gods weren't really "gods of" anything, Ullr was known for exceptional skiing and archery. As a result he is hailed by skiers across the western world this time of year in hopes of a good snow season.

Below is a thumbnail I did last year for a drawing of the winter man himself.
Perhaps this year I will get a chance to finish it. 

Happy Thanksgiving

I think turkeys in particularly the Tom's are hilarious. Whenever I see one all puffed up like this, all I can think of are bad pick up lines.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's electric! Boogie woogie, woogie!

I have started a new project based on the "War of Currents" and its key players. I am still in the research phase but I thought it would be fun to share a couple portraits I did: George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison.

Nikolas Tesla to come!