Sophie the Snoop

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Laura Tallardy

I think this book cover won the popular choice award for Tiptoe’s little hat and pipe! He really steals the spotlight, no matter how cute I tried to make Sophie. Kittens always win.

After solving the mystery of her stolen life savings in the previous book, Sophie decides she would be an excellent detective.


She hunts for mysteries to solve all day at school, real or imagined…

But her sassy shenanigans land her in the principal’s office- sigh.

SIGH.

After a particularly frustrating art class,

Sophie decides to make a hand-made amends for the trouble she caused.

But things never end so easily.

You can pick up a copy of this fun story for $5 on Amazon.

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Laura Tallardy

Happy New Year web surfers!
Also, happy 17th birthday to my website! It launched officially Jan. 1, 1995- if it were a teenager, it could drive by now. Mazel tov! In celebration, I’m moving from my old web design to be 100% on illobook. Super cool.

I’ve been hard at work this fall on a new set of illustrations, painted completely digitally instead of halfsies. I’ve been working extensively on the ipad app Brushes ($8, itunes store) and it’s a wonderful painting program. I’ve fiddled with lots of styluses (styli?) and settled on the Boxwave stylus ($10, amazon). It does wear out after about a month of heavy use and I need to order frequent replacements, but it’s the best as far as response and feel. The NOMAD brush ($25, website) is pretty cool and surprisingly responsive, but it’s very fluffy- take a clean dry sumo brush and run it across a pane of glass- no friction at all. I prefer scrubbing at the canvas with the little boxwave.

Here are some paintings zapped from the ipad:

Thanks as always for reading and checking out my art!
Hope you all have a wonderful, healthy and prosperous new year.
xo,
Laura

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Sophie Sophie Everywhere

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Laura Tallardy

Hey everyone!  Sorry for the summer vacation radio silence.  So far I got married and then there was an earthquake and hurricane.  The tornado warning got called off, so we’re almost back to normal.

I’ve got some great stuff to share in the upcoming weeks, including some new books and really cool digital paintings.

For now though, check out this awesome Sophie the Daredevil photo snapped by my sister from her grocery store- next to Nancy Drew even!

Thanks Erin! :)

Back soon with more!

xo, Laura

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iPad paintings part 2: dramatic lighting!

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Laura Tallardy

Hey everyone! I’ve been buried under this spring’s Artageddon- 4 projects all came together to be due in April, so I’m on the tail end of a 124-picture drawing marathon (8 more to go!!)

I can’t show any of the stuff until this summer and beyond, so please enjoy these ipad paintings in the meantime :) I really enjoy using the Brushes app- it forces you to use color in a way I’m not really used to, but it’s fun planning out pictures in a different way.

Fun with dark colors:

Looking down fire escapes at night

I got some stuff in my eye the other night and my computer screen looked all fuzzy and cool.

Someone's staying up late

One more doodle with a bonus video!

Bonus video!

Back soon with more art! :)

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Sophie the Zillionaire

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Laura Tallardy

Lucky number four in the Sophie Series is Sophie the Zillionaire! Sophie reminds me of me in this book… I had some businesses when I was a kid to raise money for who knows what- but I clearly remember my business cards, briefcase from my brother’s room, and extensive advertising campaigns. It’s hard being a kid sometimes.


So check this out- Sophie decides she’s going to be fabulously rich after finding a $50 bill on the street.


She tries out all sorts of ways to make money, including selling deliciously expensive cookies, working the classroom coat check, and doing homework-for-hire.


Of course things don’t go all to plan- when do they ever? In the end, there’s just too much mystery and intrigue… this calls for the one and only…


SOPHIE THE SNOOP! stay tuned for the next installment!

PS to the Sophie fans: I just finished designing the Sophie Series author Lara Bergen’s website! It’s super cool- you can find out more about Lara and her awesome books :) here’s the link: http://www.larabergen.com

PPS: Did I link to the Sophie game on Scholastic’s website yet? Here it is if I missed it!

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Art Tech Review: Bento

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Laura Tallardy
Welcome to the first in a new series of articles: Art Tech!  With Art Tech, I’ll share reviews for software and other computer goodies I use as an illustrator that you might find helpful in your own digital conquests.
First up in time for freelancers’ tax prep time: Bento!
Bento is a wonderful piece of software from the same company that produces the heavy-duty database software Filemaker.  Bento is a light on its feet, easy to use little piece of software that should be on every artist’s computer.  It isn’t tax software- but it’ll help you get and stay organized throughout the year, so tallying up at the end of the year is a snap.  If you have piles of receipts to go through at the end of the year, you’re gonna love this.
Even if you’re not computer savvy, Bento makes it easy to create, modify and maintain databases for illustration jobs, client information, income, expenses, invoices, and anything else you would need.  The design is very intuitive- it’s what-you-see-is-what-you-get, and it takes no time to get up and running.
My main job database stores all the information I need to know about any given project- due dates, publish dates, fees, job numbers, client information, notes- and here’s the great part- images and files too.  Every entry can also store a copy of the final art, the contract, and the invoice PDFs, and it’s all in one spot for easy referencing later- no digging through notes and emails trying to find old information.
I also have databases to keep track my income and expenses.  My expenses database is great- for each expense entry, I can store the date, the price, how I paid for it, what kind of expense it was, the vendor and a description.  I can’t believe I used to write this all out in a notebook and computerize it at the end of the year.

click to enlarge

My mailing list database is the most mammoth of them all.  I’m able to store tons of information about regular and potential clients- their companies, the type of company, their contact information, special submission requirements, correspondence, and which promotions I’ve sent them.  It would be utterly impossible to keep this kind of thing on paper, and the search function is lightening fast so finding things is a breeze.
Exporting to spreadsheets and csv files are a snap, so you can open and work with the data in Excel or Google Docs.  You can also import spreadsheets or even old Filemaker data. Bento also has apps for the iPhone and iPad that will sync with your main computer’s databases- you can Bento on the go.
Bento 3 costs a modest $50, and is well worth the price- it paid for itself for me within the first week.  When I first set up my jobs database on Bento, I realized I was missing some information- like the dates I was paid on several jobs.  It turned out I had never gotten paid.  Thankfully I was able to get the checks in the end, but I would have completely overlooked them if it weren’t for Bento <3  Needless to say I haven’t missed an invoice since.
Bento 3 is available from Filemaker.com or whatever you buy software in a store, if you’re the type who buys software in stores.  You can also download a free trial here to try it out.
I’ve uploaded the Bento database templates above (with a couple others in there for good luck) so you can try them out on your own.  You can download them by clicking here (2mb download).
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iPad paintings- Skyscapes

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Laura Tallardy

I came across a how-to-paint watercolor book recently and it’s got me preoccupied with one of my weaknesses, skyscapes. Usually I just throw some white puffy clouds in a teal blue sky, but sometimes I want realism! Depth! Grandeur!

This is basically what I'm going for here.

I’m just plain awful with actual, real watercolors, so please enjoy my skyscape studies courtesy of the iPad’s Brushes app (website).



The book, if you’re interested, is called “The Watercolor Painter’s Solution Book” and you can get it from your local library for free, or from Amazon for a penny. It’s got a lot of great general painting pointers, and is a great refresher on value, color harmony, and staging techniques.

BONUS VIDEOS! Brushes is so cool- they save how you painted your painting <3 I've watched these like a thousand times.

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Sophie the Chatterbox

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Laura Tallardy

This is the third charming installment of the Sophie Series chapter books from Scholastic written by the amazingly talented Lara Bergen and designed by the one and only Tim Hall. I’d say it was my favorite book so far, but I say that about all of them!

Sophie, in a change of heart from her shenanigans in the previous book (Sophie the Hero), decides she’s going to be totally, really, 100% honest-to-gosh honest, 100% of the time. I won’t lie, I feel for Soph in this book- she has a rough time of things. Here’s a quick sampling of SOME- not even all- of the anguish:

Of course I had a wonderful time illustrating Sophie the Chatterbox- the stories are a joy to read, and Sophie gets into lots of trouble that’s always fun to draw.


This is my favorite full page for the book, in which the gift-laden Great-Aunt Maggie gifts a ladybug brooch to Sophie, while little brother Max is delightedly eating dirt. I got the kitten Tiptoe in on the action, because if there’s that much going on I’m sure the cat would be around to add to the mess.


Here’s another full-page illustration that I colored in for a postcard- I couldn’t stand that bright yellow schoolbus being in grayscale! Plus I love it when Sophie gets all sassy ;)


One more cute story: I love one of the sketches for this book so much I used it for my biography on the website. Sure enough, on an upcoming Sophie book’s back page I see it on the author’s biography :)

OK- less talk, more art.





Here’s the Amazon link to buy the book, a link to my blog post on Sophie the Hero, and one on Sophie the Awesome.

Stay tuned for Sophie 4: the Zillionaire!

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Laura Tallardy

Here’s to 2011- I hope it’s a wonderful year full of fun, health and prosperity for everyone. Cheers!

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Inspiration Chart

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Laura Tallardy

I found this neat illustration-inspiration-chart idea over at Kate Beaton’s hysterically funny comics blog, Hark A Vagrant (website, her influences).
I’ve been going through a lot of my art books and illustration files lately and figured it would be fun to put one together. It took about three times longer than I thought, but it was fun researching my favorite artists and learning a bit about them- for the most part I had only seen their images.

Enough talk, more pictures!

 

RUMIKO TAKAHASHI
Japanese artist who created Urusei Yatsura and a slew of other comics and tv shows, but UY was where it was at. Electric tiger bikini girls.
Wikipedia
Google images

 
FRITZ KREDEL
Created beautiful linework illustrations for an old copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, passed down from my mom to my big sister then stolen by me. Sorry, Erin!
Wikipedia
Google images

 
LEO ESPINOSA
The cutest work on the block- bright and colorful and atmospheric and adorable. I had a hard time picking just one image.
Website

 
FRED MOORE
One of the older-school animators for Disney. They were all amazing, but his girls were just so saucy!
Wikipedia
Image Gallery

 
DAN DECARLO
Archie comics, heck yes! They even had a Betty & Veronica line for us girls who didn’t really care about Archie’s adventures and were more concerned with what to wear.
Wikipedia

 
SULAMITH WULFING
I found this German artist at a hippie bookstore in the art section. The figures are always wonderfully silent and composed, if a bit over the top at times.
Wikipedia
Google images

 
HAYAO MIYAZAKI
Master of Japanese animation- the only thing lovelier than his films are his production drawings. I would buy and frame every one of them if I was a zillionaire.
Wikipedia
Google images

 
JAMES KOCHALKA
American comic book artist- by far his greatest work is Peanutbutter & Jeremy, about a hard-working kitty and a hat-stealing crow. His linework is great- he gets across so much cuteness with so little fuss.
Website

 
NAOKO TAKEUCHI
The artist that started it all. I loved her show “Sailor Moon” when I was a kid, and the first drawings I remember being any good were copied from her work. Plus, look at those boots!
Wikipedia
Google images

 
MARY BLAIR
Another Disney production artist, she worked on Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Cinderella and a few others. Her illustrations are much more fabulous than the movies themselves.
Website
Google images

 
EDMUND DULAC
French illustrator who painted lots of fairy tale illustrations. Lush and beautiful, every one of them.
Wikipedia
Nice gallery of images

 
WARWICK GOBLE
Similar dreamy fairy tale style to Dulac- I actively confuse them all the time. I love them both though.
Wikipedia
Nice gallery of images

 
JC LEYENDECKER
I feel trite adding JC, I might as well add Michelangelo and Rembrandt to the list. Nevertheless, the poise! the colors! the lighting! the jazz age! Beautiful.
Wikipedia
Gallery of images

 
YUKO SHIMIZU
I am super proud to live in the same city as this amazing illustrator. She consistently turns out great illustrations, but her Neiman Marcus ad is my favorite by a long shot.
Website

 
MARGUERITE SAUVAGE
French illustrator who’s got femininity pinned down better than any gal I know. If I could trade skillz with any one artist, I’d draw like Marguerite in a heartbeat.
Website

 

all images are, of course, copyright their respective creators.

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