Merry Hip Critter Christmas!

Merry Hip Critter Christmas! © Jane Smith

Super Star Interview: Teagan White

Welcome to my monthly interview feature! I’m so excited to be interviewing all the fabulous artists, illustrators and designers I’ve meet over the years (both personally and virtually!) and sharing their artwork and experiences here on Bird Meets Worm. Look for a new interview on the first Tuesday of every month.

This month it is my pleasure to be chatting it up with the lovely Illustrator/Designer, Teagan White! I have long admired her dreamy artwork and am honored to be a fellow Tugeau2, Inc. artist alongside her. She is a freelance illustrator specializing in intricate drawings of floral and fauna, playful watercolors of animal characters, and illustrated typography. Her clients have included Target, Papyrus, American Greetings, Random House, Penguin Books, Nike, Wired Magazine, and the Washington Post, with projects ranging from advertising and editorial to children's books, greeting cards, and textiles. She lives in Minneapolis, where she spends her tiny amounts of free time following tangled animal paths through forest and field, squishing along reedy riverbanks, attempting to befriend gulls on rocky lakeshores, picking wildflowers, and collecting animal bones. You can view more of Teagan’s artwork here.

Isn't Teagan's picture book gorgeous?!

Q: Your first (& very lovely!) picture book, Adventures with Barefoot Critters, was released over the summer. Dish with us about how it came to be: initial dummy, working with the AD, final art and printed book, all the good stuff! (You can buy it here!)

A: Weirdly, Adventures with Barefoot Critters actually began as a class project in college! In my last year at MCAD I took a children’s book class taught by Nancy Carlson, and one of our assignments was to write a manuscript for an ABC book, and illustrate a couple of the pages. My manuscript wasn’t particularly strong and my children’s style was pretty underdeveloped at that stage, but I loved creating the characters and inventing activities for them to do, and so I included the work from that project on my website. A few months after I graduated, Samantha Swenson, my lovely editor at Tundra Books, reached out to me expressing interest in turning those pages into a complete picture book! I believe she stumbled across the images on my Behance. Our process of working together was really smooth and collaborative; Sam provided a lot of guidance on the manuscript, since writing is something very new to me, and offered helpful suggestions about activities and the details of each scene—it was incredibly easy to work with her, because from the very beginning our tastes and sense of humor and vision for the book were the same. Proofing took some back and forth, because we chose to print everything on a matte stock and getting the colors to print accurately was a challenge, but I love the matte paper and it was totally worth the extra effort!

So sweet! Is there anything more adorable than a hugging momma & her babe?

Q: Your artwork is rich in the colors and characters of the outdoors. Tell us about your relationship with nature and how it influences your work.

A: Nature has been such a powerful inspiration for me that I can’t even imagine creating work without habitually adventuring outdoors and immersing myself in natural environments. Whenever time allows, I seek out new places to explore around the Twin Cities, whether forests or fields or lakes or riversides or swamps or pockets of overgrown industrial road, and I leave each experience brimming with ideas for new work. The inspiration can be as nebulous as the feeling of the weather that day or as specific as the scrape a deer hoof left on a fallen log, as ordinary as a patch of moss or as elusive as the delicate musical tone of bits of ice clinking together at the edge of a frigid river moments before they dissolve. For years I had been channelling these types of experiences into my illustration work, but that work tended to be very serious and poetic or macabre, whereas sometimes my interactions with nature felt much more lighthearted: watching a deer nervously decide whether to cross a path, or making “bridges” out of found logs to help ourselves cross muddy patches of forest in the spring, seeing the remnants of an acorn scattered across a rock that some chipmunk or squirrel used as a little table, or listening to the ruckus of geese waking up from a bad dream. These sorts of observations inspire work that is more narrative and character-driven than my illustration work had been, and that’s sort of what drove me to develop a children’s illustration style in the first place, as an outlet for expressing my excitement about this whole other facet of nature that I find amusing and silly and fun.

This fabric would make the most adorable girlie dress!!

Q: I’m so in love with your Fort Firefly fabric collection from Birch Fabrics! Give us the scoop on your process for creating the illustrations and repeat patterns.

A: My process of assembling the illustrations for Fort Firefly was kind of laborious, because I chose to hand-illustrate the entire collection, and since each color needed to be on its own layer for production that meant that I actually drew it in color separations, lining things up by working on a light table. By the time I was starting on my more recent collection for Birch (Acorn Trail), I had pretty much decided that my previous process was insane, and did the illustrations digitally instead :)

Actually creating seamless toss patterns isn’t too difficult if you keep in mind some basic tricks to hide the repeat, such as making sure that colors are evenly distributed, designing in threes (so rather than 1 large tree, always opt for 3 large trees so that the 1 doesn’t stand out so much), and triangulating elements. I recall that the treehouse pattern in that collection broke my brain for a couple days, though, that was a very hard repeat to figure out!

Love the colors! Love the little kerchiefs! Love the little characters!

Q: As an accomplished Illustrator, who has licensed artwork across many markets, what advice would you give to an artist looking to break into art licensing?

A: I actually don’t work very much in the licensing market at all, I am primarily commissioned directly for fully custom freelance work. Even in industries that are licensing-heavy like greeting cards and textiles, I have mainly been hired for custom work. Based on what I do know of art licensing, my recommendation is to create a very consistent body of work that is accessible to a broad audience and useable for many different occasions and applications, and shop that around to the types of companies you’re interested in working with, whether in textiles, stationery, greeting cards, gift, etc. I have also heard that Surtex is an eye-opening experience, though I have never been myself!

Custom freelance work is a pretty different world, where rather than developing a self-directed licensing portfolio that aims to be multifunctional, you are creating designs based on specific art direction for a specific purpose. There are so many different markets for illustration and approaches for breaking into each of them that I couldn’t hope to cover it all here. As someone who works in virtually every area of the illustration field rather than focusing on one outlet, my strategy has been to develop a consistent style and really master that and make it unique, rather than developing work that only functions well as, say, editorial. Being consistent in my style (or, rather, two styles, since I have my children’s book style and my non-children’s work), subject matter, and color palette means that even though I do everything from advertising and book covers to giftwrap and fabric, my body of work stays cohesive and my clients know what to expect from me.

Q: What projects are you currently working on that we can look forward to seeing?

A: My next children’s book comes out in Spring 2015: Bunny Roo, I Love You, written by Melissa Marr and published by Nancy Paulsen Books. I’ll also tease you by saying I have more book projects on the way as well, but nothing I’m quite able to announce yet…

I’ve spent the past year or so working on greeting cards for Papyrus, a few of which have been released already, but you can expect to see more of those in the coming few months!

Who doesn't love spooky tales around the campfire?!

Q: Describe your most perfect Sunday.

A: If it’s a Sunday I feel that it should probably start off with a giant homemade tofu scramble, but otherwise the day of the week wouldn’t matter too much to me, and it would be filled with woodland and riverside adventures, preferably a lot of autumn leaves and animal sightings and seagull-feeding, and end in starting a fire on the edge of the Mississippi and sipping beers with friends (who magically don’t work Monday morning—you said perfect, right?!) as the night grows chilly and the stars shine brightly overhead.

Thank you so much for chatting with us today, Teagan! We can’t wait to read all your fabulous books & shop your lovely cards and fabric! Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A little fun placemat for a fun holiday table! • © Jane Smith

NEW Animal Busts from Kess InHouse

I'm SO excited to share that Kess InHouse has introduced a new product: Animal Busts! So fun, so trendy! Their line of Animal Busts include Eyan Elephant Bust Jr., Bucky Deer Bust Jr., and Fred Moose Bust Jr. And the best part is that they are available with fabulous Super Jane artwork!! Shop today!

Elephant Bust in my Indian Jewelry Floral pattern!

Deer Bust in my Vintage Playground Marbles pattern!

Moose Bust in my Garden Pods pattern!

Baby Play

How cute is baby & her kitten?! Perhaps I'll expand this fun little illo into a collection of "all about baby" patterns. What do you think? XO

© Super Jane Smith

Circus Counting Collection

Don't you just LOVE my new Circus Counting Collection?! Below is a selection of art from it, including wall art counting poster, children's birthday greeting cards and repeat patterns perfect for kids apparel, bedding and home decor! Interested in licensing it for your latest project? Drop me a line at jane@superjane.com. Cheers! XO

Circus Counting Poster • © Jane Smith

Circus Counting Greeting Cards • © Jane Smith

Circus Counting Patterns • © Jane Smith

Super Star Interview: Flora Waycott

Welcome to my monthly interview feature! I’m so excited to be interviewing all the fabulous artists, illustrators and designers I’ve meet over the years (both personally and virtually!) and sharing their artwork and experiences here on Bird Meets Worm. Look for a new interview on the first Tuesday of every month.

This month I am simply thrilled to be chatting it up with the super sweet Illustrator/Designer, Flora Waycott! She creates charming drawings and patterns inspired by her surroundings, with a fun and whimsical approach. With a love of travel and a curious mind, she is constantly inspired by new discoveries, whether it is the shape of a leaf or the contents of her kitchen cupboard. She graduated with a textile design degree in 2004 and has since worked as a textile & pattern Illustrator/Designer, with her work appearing on products from children's apparel to stationery. She currently lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand. You can view more of Flora’s artwork here.

And, oh, it is, isn't it?! Hooray!

Q: Of course, your big news of the moment is being runner-up in Lilla Roger’s Global Talent Search 2014 competition and landing a 2-year contract with her agency. Congratulations!! What are you most excited about? And how do you foresee this moment impacting your creative career going forward?

A: Thank you Jane! This is such a wonderful opportunity and I am excited about many things. I am happy to be a part of such a supportive studio and to be able to ask for help when I need it. It has come at the perfect time in my career; I was looking for representation for a while and I wanted to be promoted by my name. I feel so fortunate to have won representation with Lilla Rogers Studio as I had admired them for a very long time and hoped that one day I would be considered. I am excited about the exposure for my work - it helps immensely having an agent to promote your work for you - something I was trying really hard to do before on my own but it took time away from making art. I think this will impact my creative career by giving my work more exposure and hopefully good things will come! I spent the last year or so working really hard getting my portfolio to where I want it; showcasing my range and style and I am really pleased that it has got me here. I am looking forward to working with inspiring people and about what the future holds! 

Fantastically elegant holiday vision from Flora!

Q: You have a wonderfully eclectic background having lived in Japan, the UK and now New Zealand. How have each of these locals shaped your unique illustration/design sensibility and aesthetic?

A: I feel very lucky to have experienced living in such different parts of the world and the inspiration is different in each place for sure. I think living in different countries opens your world up; you connect with lots of different people and it gives diversity to your way of thinking. This certainly applies to my art as I can draw inspiration from many sources. In the UK I was very fortunate to study very close to London so I was able to visit there often and be inspired by the museums and markets. When I lived in London later on I had all of that on my doorstep.

It has been such a great experience living in New Zealand; I had never been to the Southern hemisphere before coming here 7 years ago and the quality of life is just excellent. I love our house by the sea, it's very calming and peaceful. I have been lucky to be able to visit Australia and the Pacific Islands as they are of course a lot more reachable from here!

I feel mostly drawn to Japan as I have such fond memories of growing up there and go back as often as I can to top up my art supplies and take lots of photos.  I certainly think the delicateness of my work and the cute characters I love to draw come from the Japanese side of me; I remember at school I would spend all of my break time drawing cute pictures with my friends and swapping stickers. I studied at a textile school for a semester in Japan when I was 21 and I remember how incredibly dextrous and patient the students were, taking so much care and pride over their work and spending many hours perfecting their skill. Every single detail had to be just right. My Mum (who is Japanese) also takes an immense amount of care in everything she does, whether it is cooking a meal or looking after her beautiful garden. It really inspired me to really care about my artwork and focus on creating pieces I am proud of.

I'd love to have tea at this sweet table with the adorable teapot!

Q: You have your own line of lovely giclee prints, cards and screen-printed towels. Dish with us about your products, how you produce them, and your journey to place them beyond Etsy into bricks-&-mortar shops. (Shop at Flora's Etsy store here!)

A: Yes, I have been producing my own little range for a few years now, it actually started off as a bit of fun as I wanted to take part in a few craft markets at Christmas time. After I sold them at some markets, local retailers became interested and starting putting orders in and now I stock a range of boutiques. I have found social media, especially my Facebook page and Instagram, to be wonderfully useful for promoting my work - I have had stockists overseas contact me through it and customers find me through there. It is sometimes hard to balance everything, as I also teach textile design at Massey University here in Wellington as well as design work, so I work on my product range when I have some quiet time.

I hand screen print all of my tea towels myself in my garage - we have a little set up in there with a tiny screen printing table we made and some shelves for the pastes. I really like offering a screen printed item as I love how the inks feel on the cloth and the vibrancy of the colours. I also screen print some cards and prints in my garage too. All of my giclee prints and cards are printed at a lovely local printers and I package everything myself at home. When I get really busy my friends come over and help me package my items, which is really helpful as it actually takes a long time to do! It has been great having an Etsy shop as anyone in the world can purchase on there and I love sending my work off to many different countries and imagining my items in people's homes. I am so grateful that people want to buy my artwork.  

Q: Describe your dream project.

A: I have so many dream projects, I feel like I want to try everything out! I am obsessed with stationery and would love the opportunity to design a stationery range for a client - memo pads, sticker sheets, notebooks etc. I was so grateful when Madison Park Greetings published an advent calendar I did last year in December as a personal project - and when they did sticker sheets and enclosure cards to go with them I almost fell off my chair! It was such a dream come true and I would love to create more stationery items. I also love drawing food and would love to illustrate a recipe book. This would be such a joy to do - I love eating and would imagine what all of the recipes would taste like as I drew the pictures! I could get really creative with this - designing the pages, adding sweet kitchen utensils, hand lettering... I would enjoy it so much.

Awww, shucks!!

Q: Tell us a bit about your creative process: how your project ideas are sparked, what does sketching look like for you and how does it all come together with color & pattern?

A: If it is piece of art for myself, for my portfolio for example, I usually go with what I am feeling at the time. For example, I may suddenly want to draw clothes. Or teapots. Or herbs. I have these ideas that come to me, sometimes in my dreams! I am also influenced by my surroundings and what is happening at the moment, for example the seasons, or what I did today. I can relate to the subject matter on a personal level that way and I really enjoy it. I always start off sketching in pencil on sheets of white A4 paper. If I am drawing teapots for example, I look up different shapes of teapots, what motifs/patterns they have on them etc. After drawing in pencil I go over everything using a fine black pen and scan in to my computer. After this I mostly play in Illustrator to bring everything together - there isn't really a formula for this. I just get a feeling when I know I am happy with it.

That is what I do most of the time, but recently I have become very excited about using paint and spend my evenings practicing painting with gouache. It feels great to actually mix the colours myself and work with a different medium. I scan the paintings in and work in Photoshop, separating the elements and bringing the design together. 

Colour palettes can be tricky and sometimes I won't figure that out until the later stages of a design, and other times it comes to me straight away.

I like looking at photos for inspiration and also just going out and about to shops and looking at what's out there. Sometimes I have an exact colour palette in my head and I know the exact shade of a colour I am looking for. It's really weird and I will sit there picking the colours with the colour picker in a hurry so the colour palette doesn't go from my mind! One colour I find really difficult is green. For some reason I find choosing the right shade of green really hard. But I rarely struggle with pinks and corals. I wonder if anyone else feels this about certain colours? I definitely have my favourite colours that I love working with, and recently I have been trying to break out of this cycle and use colours I wouldn't normally. 

Tea, anyone? XO

Q: Describe your most perfect Sunday.

A: My most perfect Sunday would be in Autumn, when the leaves are turning red, it's not too cold and the sun is out. I would get up early and have breakfast with Nick, we would have bacon, avocado and tomato on toast with tea. If we are in Japan, we would head to a flea market in one of the shrine grounds and browse through old kimonos, fabrics, teapots, wooden sculptures and old postcards. After lunch we would go for a long walk - we usually go for a Sunday walk - just strolling thorough the neighbourhoods chatting about everything. I would then curl up in a sunny spot in the house by the open fire (we don't have a fireplace anymore but always wish we had!), next to our cat Shima, with a cup of tea and my sketchbook and draw anything that takes my fancy. We would then have dinner whilst watching Midsomer Murders or Poirot or some other murder mystery I am obsessed with! Perfect day! 

Thank you so much, Flora, for chatting it up with us here at Bird Meets Worm! We simply adore you & your artwork!

Happy Halloween!

© Jane Smith

Halloween Friends: A Work-in-Progress

© Jane Smith

Process Peek: Easter Florals

I think it's always fun and interesting to see how an artist works, what their process looks like as well as their workspace. So here's a little peek into mine! I've been working on some sweet and bright Easter Florals that would a make darling addition to any spring holiday product line. Cheers! 

Tribal Owl Valentine

I'm feeling a little Valentine-y over here as I'm getting use to the rhythm of the art licensing seasons! How much do you love my sweet tribal owl valentines?! They would be SO lovely as greeting cards, party paper and holiday decor! XO

© Super Jane Smith

© Super Jane Smith

© Super Jane Smith

Super Star Interview: Erica Hite

Welcome to my monthly interview feature! I’m so excited to be interviewing all the fabulous artists, illustrators and designers I’ve meet over the years (both personally and virtually!) and sharing their artwork and experiences here on Bird Meets Worm. Look for a new interview on the first Tuesday of every month.

This month I am pleased as punch to be catching up with the lovely Illustrator/Designer, Erica Hite! Erica lives in San Diego, California (a fellow Cali girl!!). During the day, she runs after two little boys, and in the evening, enjoys working in her studio on various fun projects. Erica has about 16 years of design and illustration experience, including work for Target, Limited Too (now Justice), General Mills, SC Johnson, Kraft Foods, skateboarding apparel graphics, scrapbooking products, and more! You can view more of Erica’s artwork here.

Life is an absolutely ADORABLE circus!!

Q: You’ve been participating in Lilla Rogers’ Global Talent Search 2014 and recently submitted your totally adorable Round 2 artwork submission. Dish with us about your experiences competing in the GTS and what you hope to get out of it, top prize or no top prize.

A: Right before we were to receive the assignment, my computer decided it didn’t want to work anymore. I was torn whether I should take my computer in and wait the possible lengthy time for it, or purchase a new one. I ended up getting a new one and decided I would later fix my computer for my kids to use. It is admittedly faster and perhaps I was due. I was able to get my new one set up and ready to go just in time for the contest.

I really didn’t imagine I would make it into the top 50 in the first round. My illustration seemed quite different from what other artists submitted. I felt unsure of it as it was a complete 180 from my vector submission from last year and what I thought was a simple composition. In hindsight, I wish I had created a mixed media piece for the second round as well. If it is feasible to enter next year, I will, but there are many opportunities out there besides the competition.

I learned quite a bit during the competition and I’ll take those lessons with me to my next projects: 1) embrace doing things differently, 2) continue to get more comfortable in my recent new mixed media style, 3) go with my first ideas and don’t second guess so much, and 4) I have wonderful friends out there that believe in me and it feels incredibly good to have their support.

So sweet, so fun, so wanna going camping with mouse!

Q: You have a new fabric collection coming soon from the fabulous company Windham Fabrics. Hooray! Tell us all about it—how the partnership came to be, what the development process was like and, of course, about the collection itself!

A: I saw a post on Facebook in one of my Make Art that Sells course groups about submissions to Uppercase Magazine for the Surface Pattern Design issue. The submission deadline was that day, but I thought I’d give it a go and submit. I sent in both patterns from Lilla Rogers’ class and Sabina’s Trends Online Class Workshop. Patterns from both classes made it into the issue and Windham Fabrics contacted me soon after the magazine issue was shipped.

When I spoke to Windham on the phone, they talked about a contract and had me send some images to them. They picked out what they wanted me to work on, gave an rough outline of expanding my pieces into a set of coordinating fabrics, and I started on my Mouse Camp collection soon after. It was a learning process for me on making proper repeats and colorways, but I have to say it’s been wonderful working with Windham. They’re super friendly and easy to communicate with. I’m really grateful that they contacted me because they’ve been a dream client. I couldn’t have had a better introduction to the bolt fabric industry.

Q: As an Art Mama, in what ways do you create a balance between the duel full-time jobs of being a professional artist and being a stay-at-home mama? (Note: I love this question, because I’m an Art Mama, too!)

A: I’ve found it easier to segment my days into play with the kids and me time. Trying to work while the kids need my attention frustrates them and me. There might be opportunities I can snag a moment or two to jot down ideas, do research on the iPad, do some hand work like quick ink or watercolor sketches, but I save most of my work for when the kids are somewhat done with the day. Before bed, I also find time to decompress and read.

Fall fabulous—enough said!!!

Q: Your artwork is both light, whimsical, graphic as well as dark, watercolor washy, sophisticated. Tell us about the two sides to your artistic style and the inspiration that feeds both.

A: I feel like I have a split art-making personality. I have a love for art that is spiritual, surreal, moody, and sometimes messy, but I also love the light, joyful, graphic, and retro. I suppose just like my personality, I’m a dreamer and I like to escape in fantasy books and imagine other worlds, ponder the finiteness of life, but I also feel optimism and sometimes desire simpler things and a return to childhood. When looking at the different styles, the connection of the two isn’t obvious to me; they’re both quite different.

The watercolor and ink style is more free and less thought out, I guess more like sketching, in a sense. I find it a wonderful and carefree way of working. I like that I don’t have to make the lines perfect and in fact push the imperfection of things. The vector art style on the other hand is more planned out, more researched, more ideas jotted down, composition sketches made, and then final sketches to draw over in a vector program.

Love the ethereal watercolor & meditative sentiment!

Q: Tell us about your MOST favorite art project that you’ve created: one from the past and one from the present.

A: It isn’t really an art project but a job I think fondly of sometimes. I worked at a high-profile packaging design firm on a team sketching and presenting concepts, art directing illustrators, and putting together designs and presentations for actual consumers to give their opinions on. It was a challenging but exciting job that contributed to my work ethic and my desire to learn and experiment.

A recent project I enjoyed very much was in my Make Art that Sells Bootcamp class. The task was to use our favorite beverage to inspire a piece of art. I made a few coordinating pieces and had so much fun drawing different types of fancy tea pots and cups.

Simply lovely! Just lovely!

Q: Describe your most perfect Sunday.

A: On my perfect Sunday, I sleep in. A very long and lazy time. Someone makes me breakfast and a delicious cup of sweet tea with milk. I read for awhile (preferably by a quiet pool or lake) and then curl up to take a nap. Then read some more and maybe work on a creative project. I have no chores to do, no worries, just pure, blissful relaxation.

Thank you so much, Erica!! Everyone here at Bird Meets Worm can’t wait to see what you create next!

Night Owls

Aren't my night owls so cute?! • © Jane Smith

Night Owls Stars Coordinate • © Jane Smith

Night Owls Tree & Moon Coordinate • © Jane Smith

Retro Alphabet Poster

All thru the summer, since my kiddo was home having adventures with me and studio time was scarce, I doodled a page of letters each day. By the end of summer I had this fabulous hand lettered collection from which I cherry-picked the the most stylish letters for my Retro Alphabet Poster. Isn't it the tops?! And the best part is that not only did I make a poster, I also made a repeat pattern with 2 coordinates, corresponding alphabet flashcards and a set of greeting cards. (Psst! If you are an art buyer and want to check them out, drop me at an email at jane@superjane. All of them are currently available for licensing!!) XO

My Retro Alphabet Poster • © Jane Smith

Retro Alphabet in-progress process peek!

Beautiful Butterfly Florals

Pink Floral Dot Coordinate • © Jane Smith

Beautiful Butterfly • © Jane Smith

Purple Tulip Tower Coordinate • © Jane Smith

Alphabet Inspiration

Welcome to Bird Meets Worm! Usually, on the first Tuesday of the month I share an interview with a fabulous artist/illustrator/designer. The interview that had been slated for this month didn’t quite happen. You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? So, in lieu of my usual monthly blog interview, I’m going to share some sweet, silly, fun alphabet inspiration with you that I’ve been collecting to inspire me on a new top-secret alphabet project (of course, when it’s finished, I’ll share it, too!!) I’m sure the gorgeous eye candy that follows will inspire you, too, to create something sweet, silly, fun with hand-lettering! XO

Just For You Decals

Elissa Hudson Illustration

Sunshine Prints Co.

Kate Durkin Illustration

Artiseverything

Ink Tuitive

NeatoKeen