Happy holidays to everyone!
I just finished up the last deadline before Christmas, and I will be taking a bit of time off from “waking up at 6AM and working till late at night” schedule.
Hope you will have a very merry Christmas, or just a nice long weekend off. Studio will be closed till December 26.
Multiversity Comics just announced 2012 in Review: Best Cover Artists.
Thank you for giving me an honor of the No.1 in this year’s slot. And thank you David Harper, whom I don’t know personally, for always being so supportive since I started working for Vertigo about five years ago. (and thank you Auturo Torres for letting me know this great news on my Facebook Page. )
Read the whole article here.
Studio renovation had started when my studio-mate moved out at the end of September . It took about two months on and off, but it is finally here. We are still working on some minor details to be exact, but it is pretty much in working order now.
So, look! here it is! The new and improved studio!
Well, I guess it is more of news for me than to you or to anyone else, but I got so excited I needed to share.
If you want to see what my space looked like before, I still have an old photo on my bio page (new photo on bio page) which will be replaced soon.
Woo hoo, I just received the first copy of my kids book. I took bunch of photos, along with some process photos and posted the details on my blog. Please check out the result of my blood, sweat and tears.
I posted about my MTA New York City Arts for Transit poster. And now, they are also available as room rugs, in four different sizes according to your needs. They would make fun decoration for kids rooms.
For t(w)eens, how about giving good books? May I suggest Nahoko Uehashi’s Moribito series (book 1 & book 2)? Not just they have illustrated wrap around covers, they also have chapter opener illustrations. (you can see illustrations here and here). Also, Newbery Award winning author Margi Preus’ masterpiece Shadow On The Mountain, also with my wrap around cover, has just gotten published.
I read books I illustrate, and I can guarantee they are great books for young readers.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend (if you are in the US).
A great news right before the holiday season. T-shirts line I collaborated with Slovakian brand GoodSon (previous post here), is now officially shipping outside of Europe. They had built English web page and figured out foreign shipping because we have received so many inquiries about them.
T-shirts are proudly made and printed in Slovakia.There are four designs for my line.
I love the small details like color thread (especially loving red threads on white shirts. So cute.) Men’s size only, but small may look cute on girls too.
So, please spread the word, and if you are looking for stocking stuffers, don’t forget to check them out.
UPDATES
November 27: GoodSon online store has found some bug in shipping destination options, and they are working to fix the issue.
November 28: Good news is that now the online store is ready to ship pretty much all around North America, Europe and Asia (working on Australia and New Zealand now). However, now they are looking into payment options, which currently only accept wire transfers. I am asking to see if they can change that to accept either or both credit cards and PayPal.
November 29: GoodSon web store is currently working to make PayPal and/or credit card payment options available. This is GoodSon’s first time shipping items outside of Slovakia, and there have been working hard to make the T shirts available to everyone.
December 7: Paypal payment option is in set up stage and it should be up and running by mid-December.
December 11: Great news! Online store now accepts PayPal and ships world-wide.
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Fab.com has put my monograph up on their site for sale.
Get the book with discounted price. I think this will make a great stocking stuffer!
UPDATES (November 21): Fab’s stock may have sold out. There was no more ‘buy now’ button as of this morning.
You can still purchase this from publisher site as well as from Amazon and other online/offline booksellers.
I just got a call from The Society of Illustrators with fantastic news: TWO of my illustrations were granted medals from their 55th annual illustration competition! Beyond belief, SO excited!
Silver medal in book category was given to DC Comics Vertigo‘s ongoing series The Unwritten issue #43 cover. This happened to be one of my favorites out of close to 50 covers I have created so far in last four years.
Gold medal was for a collaboration with JW T Hong Kong for Tame Your Hair advertising campaign for female unwanted hair removal service.
Big thank you to the Society, all the judges, and editors and creators of The Unwritten (Mike Carey + Peter Gross, creators and Karen Berger, Shelly Bond and Gregory Rockard, editors) and Jimmy Lee, creative director from JWT Hong Kong for believing in my work!!
Winning works will be exhibited at their Museum of American Illustration during the month of February. Opening reception will be on Friday, February 1, 2013
…and using this opportunity, two other works that got accepted into another of great illustration annual: American Illustration 31, which just came out. Another Unwritten cover as well as a spread for PLABOY (AD: Rob Wilson) Four other accepted works from my upcoming kids book can be seen here.
Over the weekend, my art director at Abrams Books, Chad Beckerman, posted this photo on his Instagram. And I had to steal it.
the first sighting of my kids book Barbed Wire Baseball cover! On the left is the dust cover, and on the right is inside hard-bound cover when you take off the dust cover. I love that he designed it so it has two different covers.
For sneak peek of interior pages, please check my previous post.
the book is coming out next spring. Abrams website and Amazon are both taking pre-orders.
I got a new press in Japan, for Pouch, a news and entertainment site for women. And, thank god, it looks like this time it is not so controversial (as far as I had checked the article and comments).
My guess is that Japanese women love to show their powerful side? What do you think?
Thank you Ms. Anji Tabata for a really nice article including interview. (sorry press is only in Japanese, but you may want to try that “translate” button and see what you get!)
