Sweet illustration video...

Puts me in the mood to draw...

A step-by-step illustration by Patrick Girouard with music by is son Marc Girouard. http://www.pgirouard.com

Back To The Drawing Board

In 2004, Greg & Alex from the website design firm MyWebSpinners, (super-talented British expats who also run a gorgeous B&B in France) contacted me through an online portfolio site, asking me to draw some cartoon babies for a client.

Early sketches for baby "Harry"

The client was Katie, owner of Tiny Talk, an organization in the UK that holds classes for babies and their parents, teaching them simple sign language so that they can communicate before language skills develop.

Tiny Talk has been quite successful, and they have really grown over the years. From time to time Greg has come back to me for more artwork; little animated babies of different ethnicities, artwork for tote bags and other promotional materials.

Christmas Harry

It's been great fun. That little "green" Harry atop the spinning earth is a favorite of mine.

Toddler Harry

 

Recently Greg emailed to say that they were in the process of redesigning the Tiny Talk website and needed some illustrations of a few toys and objects to scatter around their baby "Harry".

So I dusted off my drawing board and come up with a few new images for Tiny Talk.
So far Katie approves, so it looks like these latest drawings will be added to the new site. It's been fun working with these fantastic clients whom I have never met in person. (I hope to change that someday!)

©2011 TinyTalkUK

I love how we can conduct business across the sea; Greg & Alex in France, Katie in London. (Actually, I hear she approved the images from atop a Swiss Alp after reviewing them on her iPhone while on holiday with her family.)
Ah technology. Allowing freelancers around the world to work in their pajamas.
Just amazing.

All images ©2011TinyTalkUK

LipSmackers and Me

I used to draw every day. Now my drawing table isn’t even set up in my studio. It’s stored down in my basement where I drop in and visit it occasionally.

Me in my AG cubicle ca 1988

The computer area has taken over one side of my studio, and my jewelry bench, the other. Sometimes I miss drawing.  But mostly I’d rather be metalsmithing these days, so that’s OK.

In the 1980’s I was employed as a greeting card artist at American Greetings. It was a great job. I was surrounded by talented creative interesting people and we called it “high school with a paycheck.”  My thing was drawing humorous and juvenile, and I illustrated hundreds of greeting cards, gift wrap designs, party goods and related products. It was a ball. On the side I took freelance design jobs. Usually my clients were companies that manufactured products for kids, as my drawing style was whimsical and cute.

Like the perm? Yeah, I wore acid washed denim. Give me a break! It was the 80's.

One day in 1989 I got a call from Bonne Bell, the Cleveland based cosmetics company well known for their popular 10-0-6 astringent and LipSmackers flavored lip balm.

They were looking for an artist to help them out with some new LipSmacker seasonal package designs and a fellow American Greetings employee had given them my name.

And so began my relationship with LipSmackers.

LipSmackers came out in 1975 and have been a favorite of the preteen set ever since. I remember collecting LipSmackers as a kid; the popular flavors with my friends being strawberry and Dr. Pepper. The then marketing director at Bonne Bell (now owner of a wonderful group of independent toy stores in Cleveland called Playmatters) was looking for some ideas for Christmas packaging for LipSmackers. We came up with some reindeer headed plastic candy cane packages for the product, and related Christmas packaging for the LipSmacker line.  At the time the LipSmacker logo was rather generic, and we decided it was time for an update.

That was how I came to draw the LipSmacker logo.

I continued to design packaging and point of purchase displays for LipSmackers and their related Smackers line for several years. It was fun to see the seasonal displays in stores. I befriended the cosmetics manager at my local drug store and she used to save the Easter and Christmas LipSmacker displays for me when they were done with them. I also came up with a Lydia LipSmacker character to be the president of “Club LipSmacker”. There were newsletters and giveaways. This was in the days before the internet.  We even had a cute Lydia doll.

 

Sadly, I was in a Target store recently and noticed that LipSmackers are getting a new look. It looks to me like they are marketing toward older girls now. I realize that 17 year olds aren't reading Seventeen Magazine. Thirteen and fourteen year olds are. So I get it. My logo was very cute, really aimed more toward kids than teens. You can still see my logo on a few of their LipSmacker products, but it is clear that their packaging is getting a new look.

My logo had a good run though, appearing on Bonne Bell products for more than two decades. I guess everyone needs change from time to time. I suppose it's time for LipSmackers to grow up. Just like my twin daughters who recently celebrated their 21st birthday. And with whom I was pregnant when I drew this logo.

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

My metalsmith friends are blogging about change this month. 

You can visit their blogs here:

1. http://annhartleystudio.blogspot.com/
2. http://janedeauxmetalfabrication.blogspot.com/
3. http://www.nova-designs.blogspot.com/
4. http://bellabijoujewellery.blogspot.com/
5. http://2trickponystudio.blogspot.com/
6. http://sassyglassdesigns.blogspot.com/
7. http://beadsnbanglesbykim.blogspot.com
8. http://kobrienjewelry.blogspot.com
9. http://www.artaddict.wordpress.com
10. http://www.abellablue.com/blog
11. http://luxedesignworkshop.blogspot.com
12. http://glenshire-shop.blogspot.com/
13. http://beachstonz.blogspot.com/
14. http://chrissilynn.blogspot.com/

 

scribble!

No wonder I have trouble getting any work done!
There is too much fun stuff out there to distract me!
Have you tried scribbler yet?
Very very fun.

Sign Language For Babies

Some time back a British expat web site designer living and working in France found my illustration portfolio online and asked me if I'd be interested in drawing some little animated babies for a client of his back in Britain.
What fun! Mais, oui!!
My sister-in-law is an interpreter for the hearing impaired and deaf community and I was somewhat familiar with the idea of teaching babies to sign before they could speak. Debra had done this with my nephews when they were little.

So, through the magic of the internet, I met the amazing Katie Mayne who has built a successful network of baby signing classes throughout Great Britain. You can learn more about Tiny Talk here.
Here is Harry, named for Ms. Mayne's son, who he resembles, apparently.

Click on him and you can see how he looks on a spinning globe on their website.
From the Tiny Talk website:
A right to communicate and to be understood. Our children have a right to communicate and to be understood. This then impacts on their self confidence, self esteem and happiness! At the same time it develops their language skills- both spoken and signed- and their understanding of the world around them. We also get to know our little ones much better too! It’s a win-win-win situation. Learn more about baby signing here.
The rest of the gang:

There are now TinyTalk baby signing classes all over the UK (as well as Ireland, United Arab Emirates and TinySign in Australia)- in fact, over 300!