I’ve been catching up on archiving my projects from the past year, and had fun looking over the 157 illustrations I completed in 2007 (clicking on the image above will bring up a bigger picture!)

Was a busy year for me, with illustrating 6 children’s books (Good-bye Baby Max, My Best Worst Sleepover Party Ever, Little Land Adventures, Spotty & Eddie Learn to Compromise, Bookie and the Scoliosis Diagnosis, and The Brotherhood of the Stinky Underpants); 10 signs/banners for Parks Canada; a brochure for the Library of Parliament of Canada; a chip bag illustration; a couple Threadless t-shirt contest entries (Kantina and Twisted Sister); 4 seashell mosaics; 10 greeting card illustrations; and several personal pieces.

I’ve focused on improving my illustration skills by experimenting with painting in acrylics, and being more attentive to the human form in my children’s books in particular (the fruit of which you’ll see in my current projects…) But most significant for me this year has been expecting our first baby, and discovering all the challenges of illustrating while pregnant :)

“Spotty and Eddie Learn to Compromise,” written by Lisa Chalifoux and illustrated by yours truly, is now available online! You can buy a copy at Trafford for US$7.82! To see more illustrations from this story, click here!

“Children and adults alike will enjoy this beautifully illustrated story of two turtle brothers who learn the value of making a compromise.” –Trafford.com

“We make toys with a twist. Toys as dark as the inside of a heifer. And they all have one thing in common. They’ve been run over. We’re calling it Squash-Plush. – Roadkilltoys.com”

A little dark, a little gross, but very funny… RoadkillToys.com had the brilliant idea of creating cute, cuddly roadkill toys! I can so see our bub chewing on the soft squishy intestines of Twitch the Racoon. Can’t wait to see how Splodge the Hedgehog and Grind the Rabbit turn out!

(pssst, I found Twitch the Racoon featured on BrandflakesforBreakfast.com, they have some pretty hilarious & geeky gifts)

Yippee, my official portfolio website, IllustrationCastle.com, has just been updated with new images in the stock & portfolio sections! My brother, Luke MacKay, came up with the original design & interface for me, I think he did a great job!

Developing concepts and thumbnailing is a step that I don’t often share with my authors, but is always the first thing I do before sketching in detail the layout of a children’s book. The first thing I do is break up the manuscript into chunks that I think would be fun to illustrate… basically dividing up the manuscript into however many pages the book will be. Then I brainstorm ideas and write notes for each spread, which gets out the cobwebs before starting to sketch! Then I sketch thumbnails (which are very small rough drawings) of each spread. By thumbnailing, I can work out where I want the text to go, what reference I’ll need to gather for the subject matter, and whether the compositions are working well. For “Tartan Meets the Queen,” by Charline Crous & Lauren Everton, I thought it might be interesting to share this earlier step with both authors to involve them earlier on in the creative process. You can see here some of my notes, thumbnails, and gathered reference materials for the story which I sent to the authors in PDF format.

This year I decided to place an ad in the Directory of Illustration… and the massive 600-page hardcover book arrived just a couple weeks ago! I took a flip through and there is some fabulous work in there… I’m feeling very inspired!

Since this is the first year I’ve listed in the DOI and the book has just launched, I can’t offer much feedback yet on how successful it is as a self-promotional piece for children’s book illustrators… I continue to find personable, old-school guerilla marketing techniques to be the best method of meeting new clients. So listing in a directory is a whole new kettle of fish for me! But thus far I’ve been impressed with the DOI website, which allows you to post your blog feed via RSS, your portfolio, and even feature your current projects.

If you want to take peak, you can Browse the Book here. My little ad wound up on page 362/600!

This has been one of the busiest holiday seasons for me EVER… from having family visiting for the last month to the usual bustle around Christmas, it’s been pretty full-on! The crazy season is quickly coming to a close though, with the last hurrah being my brother-in-law’s wedding this Saturday, can’t wait!

Next week it’s back to business as usual… which for me means opening the new year with illustrating two children’s books and a few greeting cards… so check back again, will have more work to show!

(Royalty-free wedding illustrations available at ImageZoo.com)

I was stoked yesterday to pass a calendar stand selling off stock for half price, and scored by finding Danny Seo’s new eco-daily calendar “Do Just One Thing.” Part of my daily blog intake is checking out Danny Seo’s blog, Simply Green… I just love his down-to-earth approach to greener living (and decorating!) Danny’s daily calendar is no different, with each new day sporting tips for greening your lifestyle. It’s thoughtfully printed on recycled paper & on a recyclable stand… even the backs of each page are printed with lines for Notes, so you can reuse the pages before you recycle them. So if you’re shopping for an ‘08 calendar, I’d recommend this one!