Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
Happy Roald Dahl Day!
Hi Friends, as soon as I found out that Roald Dahl Day was a "thing" I knew I had to create something to celebrate. For me, Roald Dahl is the quintessential writer for children. Not only was his imagination astonishingly keen and mischevious, but he wrote TO children, not AT them. His child heroes were clever and kind, and his adult heroes emulated a childlike purity that allowed them into our secret club even though they were grown-ups. I believe Dahl's works hold a special place in all of our hearts for these reasons.
Please enjoy this little moment from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from me to you. I hope you all get everything you wanted, and of course, live happily ever after!
Josh
Please enjoy this little moment from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from me to you. I hope you all get everything you wanted, and of course, live happily ever after!
Josh
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Getting Lost in Maps from Children's Literature
If there is one thing I am a fan of, it is a children's book with a map. Nothing complements a children's story like a beautifully illustrated map. A map in children's literature can literally take you along on the adventure. Think of Tony DiTerlizzi's wonderfully inked map which adorns his and Holly Black's The Spiderwick Chronicles. A map can also serve to bring to life the stomping grounds of the different inhabitants of an imaginary location. Ernest Shepard's "collaboration" with Christopher Robin in The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne is a perfect example. And sometimes a map just makes the book more beautiful to look at such as the lovely vintage map of Paris covering the end pages of Adele & Simon by Barbara McClintock.
Whether the cartography is of an imaginary realm or 1907 Paris, I can pour over them for hours, inserting myself into the tantalizing topography. Please enjoy getting lost in some images of brilliant chlidren's literature maps I have taken from my own personal library, below. If you prefer to browse on a convenient Pinterest board, I've got one for you right HERE!
Enjoy!
Josh
From The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Map by J. R.R. Tolkien. George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1937.
Whether the cartography is of an imaginary realm or 1907 Paris, I can pour over them for hours, inserting myself into the tantalizing topography. Please enjoy getting lost in some images of brilliant chlidren's literature maps I have taken from my own personal library, below. If you prefer to browse on a convenient Pinterest board, I've got one for you right HERE!
Enjoy!
Josh
From Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales. Map by Beatrix Potter. Penguin, 2012.
From The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. Map by Ernest Shepard. Dutton, 1992.
From The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. Map by Tony DiTerlizzi. Simon and Schuster, 2003.
From The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. Map by Evaline Ness. Holt, Rinehart & Co., 1964.
From The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Map by Jules Feiffer. Random House, 1961.
From The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy. Map by Carson Ellis. Balzer + Bray, 2001.
From "Adele & Simon" by Barbara McClintock. Map from from 1907 edition of Paris and Environs by Karl Baedeker and incorporated into book design by Iren Metaxatos. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
From "Chasing Vermeer" by Blue Balliett. Map by Brett Helquist. Scholastic Press, 2004.
From "Chasing Vermeer" by Blue Balliett. Map by Brett Helquist. Scholastic Press, 2004.
Monday, July 15, 2013
And The Winner Is...
Well, it is the moment we have all been waiting for (or is it just me?)! With eyes squeezed shut, I drew a deep breath to steady my hand, reached deep into the twisted bramble of hopeful names, pinched ever so randomly upon the chosen tag, lifted it from my trusty herringbone hat to reveal the winner...
And the winner is my Twitter pal and brilliant illustrator, Blythe Russo! Congratulations, Blythe! I know you will give Guy Fox a happy home!
Thank you to everybody who participated, and made this give-away so fun and such a giant success! So many of you commented, liked, shared, retweeted and I truly appreciate every one of you for your support.
If you are among the folks who unfortunately did not win and would still like to have "A Fox for all Seasons" in your home, please visit my Etsy shop.
Joshua Nash Illustrations on Etsy.com
THANK YOU!!
Josh
And the winner is my Twitter pal and brilliant illustrator, Blythe Russo! Congratulations, Blythe! I know you will give Guy Fox a happy home!
Thank you to everybody who participated, and made this give-away so fun and such a giant success! So many of you commented, liked, shared, retweeted and I truly appreciate every one of you for your support.
If you are among the folks who unfortunately did not win and would still like to have "A Fox for all Seasons" in your home, please visit my Etsy shop.
Joshua Nash Illustrations on Etsy.com
THANK YOU!!
Josh
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Place of Work
I have always been fascinated when offered a peek into another artist's workspace. I imagine the space to be an extension of that artist's creative self and that it might even offer clues into understanding their creative process. For example, a cluttered studio might suggest a busy mind which finds inspiration in chaos, while a tidy space could suggest a laser-focused creative energy. I am not sure what my workspace says about my own creative process, but I am sharing it with you nonetheless. If it appears uncluttered, please note I cleaned it up before taking any pictures. Regardless, you get the basic idea!
My workspace occupies an office in my home. There is plenty of sunshine during the day which is wonderful on the weekends but not so handy on weekdays when I am working as a graphic artist for an ad agency in an entirely different location! I spend most evenings here, however, sketching, drawing, painting, googling for reference & snickering at Facebook posts and Youtube videos. I listen to music while I work, shuffling tunes by my favorite artists. My wife and I share the office and she keeps me company between catching up on her work emails. She has a brilliant eye for color and even advises me on my palette from time to time.
The tools of my trade are very basic. I sketch and draw with Primacolor Turquoise HB pencils (I prefer a hard lead for crisp, non-smudging lines!) on a Canson 65 lb 9 x 12 sketch pad. I use a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet for any digital coloring, usually for my color studies before I actually paint with water colors.
I paint using water color from Windsor & Newton tubes and wet my brushes in an old spaghetti sauce jar I've been using for 15 years. I use round sable brushes, also by Windsor & Newton, mixing my colors in a Japanese-style flower-shaped palette. I paint on Bainbridge 2200 cold-press illustration boards and I finish my illustrations with black Prismacolor Verithin colored pencils.
For reference, I rely heavily on the wonderful world of Google Images. Once I have a few thumbnails and have an idea of what sorts of characters, animals and environments I will be drawing, I go to the Google machine and search for relevant images and squirrel them away in folders on my iMac. I also find endless inspiration in my beloved library of picture books and children's literature. These books are my art school and I learn so much from studying past and present masters of the picture book genre. The middle grade books, as well as containing some amazing illustrations themselves, are full of characters and stories that keep my imagination firing on all cylinders.
All these features aside, I suppose what makes my work space special to me is that it is a comfortable and familiar sanctuary where I can retreat to and fully inhabit the most important area for an artist: that creative space that resides inside of them.
Thank you for reading and allowing me to share my work space with you, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in the comments!
Josh
My workspace occupies an office in my home. There is plenty of sunshine during the day which is wonderful on the weekends but not so handy on weekdays when I am working as a graphic artist for an ad agency in an entirely different location! I spend most evenings here, however, sketching, drawing, painting, googling for reference & snickering at Facebook posts and Youtube videos. I listen to music while I work, shuffling tunes by my favorite artists. My wife and I share the office and she keeps me company between catching up on her work emails. She has a brilliant eye for color and even advises me on my palette from time to time.
The tools of my trade are very basic. I sketch and draw with Primacolor Turquoise HB pencils (I prefer a hard lead for crisp, non-smudging lines!) on a Canson 65 lb 9 x 12 sketch pad. I use a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet for any digital coloring, usually for my color studies before I actually paint with water colors.
I paint using water color from Windsor & Newton tubes and wet my brushes in an old spaghetti sauce jar I've been using for 15 years. I use round sable brushes, also by Windsor & Newton, mixing my colors in a Japanese-style flower-shaped palette. I paint on Bainbridge 2200 cold-press illustration boards and I finish my illustrations with black Prismacolor Verithin colored pencils.
For reference, I rely heavily on the wonderful world of Google Images. Once I have a few thumbnails and have an idea of what sorts of characters, animals and environments I will be drawing, I go to the Google machine and search for relevant images and squirrel them away in folders on my iMac. I also find endless inspiration in my beloved library of picture books and children's literature. These books are my art school and I learn so much from studying past and present masters of the picture book genre. The middle grade books, as well as containing some amazing illustrations themselves, are full of characters and stories that keep my imagination firing on all cylinders.
All these features aside, I suppose what makes my work space special to me is that it is a comfortable and familiar sanctuary where I can retreat to and fully inhabit the most important area for an artist: that creative space that resides inside of them.
Thank you for reading and allowing me to share my work space with you, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in the comments!
Josh
Friday, June 21, 2013
Summer Solstice Foxtravaganza
Friends, I would like to celebrate the first day of summer by kicking off a giveaway! Having recently listed my brand-new limited edition print series titled "A Fox for all Seasons"on Etsy.com, I could think of no better way to ring in the summer season! So, I will be giving away one set of prints to one lucky winner!
"A Fox for all Seasons" is a set of four 8 x 10 Giclée prints professionally printed on Hahnemühle Photo-rag®. This is a limited edition of 200 prints, signed and numbered by me!
Click here to see the Etsy.com listing!
All you have to do to enter the drawing is comment on this blog post and when my Facebook page reaches 300 likes, I'll select a winner!
So get commenting, liking, retweeting and sharing because the sooner we reach 300 likes, the sooner "A Fox for all Seasons" could be yours!
Good luck!
Josh
"A Fox for all Seasons" is a set of four 8 x 10 Giclée prints professionally printed on Hahnemühle Photo-rag®. This is a limited edition of 200 prints, signed and numbered by me!
Click here to see the Etsy.com listing!
All you have to do to enter the drawing is comment on this blog post and when my Facebook page reaches 300 likes, I'll select a winner!
So get commenting, liking, retweeting and sharing because the sooner we reach 300 likes, the sooner "A Fox for all Seasons" could be yours!
Good luck!
Josh
Sunday, April 14, 2013
April Showers
When it rains, it pours, as the old adage goes, and this April's showers have doused me with plenty of activity which is sure to bring May flowers!
First of all, on April 6th, I attended the SCBWI Northern/Central California Spring Conference. Here I had the wonderful opportunity to hear from authors, editors, agents, art directors and illustrators from the publishing business. I attended workshops with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers' amazing art director Laurent Linn and incredible picture book illustrator/author, John Hendrix. John talked about the importance of illustrating to one's strengths and shared with us the grueling saga of publishing his picture book "John Brown: His Fight for Freedom", a book which he described as "unpublishable". John was also kind enough to spend a few minutes with me to review my portfolio and give me some pointers on where my work was strong and where it could be stronger. Laurent's workshop spoke to the character's role in storytelling. We were asked to bring in a series of character design sketches and Laurent reviewed each illustrator's work and with his comments helped explain how "what's on the outside of a character can describe what is on the inside." My character design for The Mad Hatter is below!
April also finds me preparing for my book signing this Thursday, April 18th at Beatnik Books in Roseville! I will be signing copies of my latest book, "Moose n' Me" written by Kenny Loggins. I will be there from 6 to 8pm and to all the local readers, please stop by and say hello! I will be giving away bookmarks and even copies of Moose n' Me! I really look forward to seeing some friendly faces and hopefully making some new friends this Thursday!
Between all of that madness, I also continue work on a series of illustrations I will eventually be selling as prints. The series is based on the four seasons, and features a character I have come to call Guy Fox. All four illustrations have been sketched and I will be coloring the final pieces in the coming weeks. Seen below are all four sketches in seasonal order, beginning with Autumn. I'll be sure to share my progress with you and you'll certainly be the first to know when they are available for purchase!
Needless to say, my April showers have been of the refreshing and sustaining kind. I look forward to reporting on all of the new growth to sprout in May! Until then, thank you for reading!
Josh
First of all, on April 6th, I attended the SCBWI Northern/Central California Spring Conference. Here I had the wonderful opportunity to hear from authors, editors, agents, art directors and illustrators from the publishing business. I attended workshops with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers' amazing art director Laurent Linn and incredible picture book illustrator/author, John Hendrix. John talked about the importance of illustrating to one's strengths and shared with us the grueling saga of publishing his picture book "John Brown: His Fight for Freedom", a book which he described as "unpublishable". John was also kind enough to spend a few minutes with me to review my portfolio and give me some pointers on where my work was strong and where it could be stronger. Laurent's workshop spoke to the character's role in storytelling. We were asked to bring in a series of character design sketches and Laurent reviewed each illustrator's work and with his comments helped explain how "what's on the outside of a character can describe what is on the inside." My character design for The Mad Hatter is below!
Between all of that madness, I also continue work on a series of illustrations I will eventually be selling as prints. The series is based on the four seasons, and features a character I have come to call Guy Fox. All four illustrations have been sketched and I will be coloring the final pieces in the coming weeks. Seen below are all four sketches in seasonal order, beginning with Autumn. I'll be sure to share my progress with you and you'll certainly be the first to know when they are available for purchase!
Needless to say, my April showers have been of the refreshing and sustaining kind. I look forward to reporting on all of the new growth to sprout in May! Until then, thank you for reading!
Josh
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Taking it Outside!
I am currently querying literary agents and hoping to find a happy home for the book! In the meantime, enjoy a couple samples of the work...
While "Take it Outside" is looking for representation, I plan to shift gears a little and produce a series of illustrations for sale as prints. I'll be opening an online store when the time comes and you can be sure you'll be the first to hear about it! Until then, thank you for reading!
Josh
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