Up early working and listening to...

...some old PJ Harvey. One of my all-time favorite musical talents. Wow she's awesome:



(But why does Blogger crop YouTube clips? What the heck?!) (***Update: Thanks to "Somebody" for leaving a comment for me showing me how to fix the vid-squish. Much appreciated!***)

Art snippit

Messing about searching for the look of a project that might be forthcoming (how's that for ridiculously -- probably unnecessary -- vagueness?).

WIP - pt. 2

So I decided to make the next step be some oil paints. It felt gooooood. Here are a couple of pics after about 90 minutes of wet-in-wet. Not the best pictures, and although you can still see some of the watermedia and charcoal in the piece, the camera didn't really pick it up. I'll save some of that underpainting stuff along the way and hopefully the final scan (once dry!) will pick it up for the blog.

Work in Progress - post 1

I'll try to scan this as I go to keep track of the progress for the ol' blog and post the same zoomed-in snippit along the way...

Sketchbook

Sketchbookin' once again

...with juuuust a touch of Photoshop at the end.

Goth Girl Follies (3rd installment)

GGF part 3!!


Again, go here to Barry Lyga's site for a collection of the strips (with higher-rez versions too).

The sketchbookin' continues

Sketchbookin'

I'm loving this sketchbook by "Global Arts." Great paper texture for drawing and it takes watercolor, gouache, and charcoal beautifully. Now I just wish we were headed on a long overseas trip so I could do some travel sketch pieces. Sigh...

Goth Girl Follies (2nd installment)

Another strip from collaborating with the prolific and super-talented Barry Lyga:

And a link to his site that has a collection of the strips (with higher-rez versions too).

Sketchbookin'

And now, Barry Lyga and I take over...THE WORLD!!...

...or we at least release the fun collaborative strip we worked on for his AWESOME novel "Goth Girl Rising" (which is the sequel to the AMAZING novel "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl"). Barry was nice enough to hire me to do a few of these strips, and working with him was nothing short of an honor and a pleasure -- I mean, I was a fan before we met and now I get to work with him? How cool is that? Anyhow, I hope we get to work together again. For now, here's the first strip in the series, as well as a link to his site to keep track of the upcoming installments. (Oh! And buy his books! They're all fanTAStic!)

Our PBS-Plus Television interview (yikes!) for LIPS TOUCH

We're just happy that we didn't freeze up too much on camera and sweat all over the place! Thanks to the WONDERFUL host of "Back Page" Jody Seay, the director Eric Gleske, and their awesome crew and staff! We had a wonderful time!

Birthday art gifts for friends

Two of my best friends had a co-birthday party over the weekend, so I whipped up a couple of pieces of silly art for them and figured I'd show them here because (1) I haven't posted near enough art on here lately, and (2) I can't really show any of the art I've been working on lately so this will have to do for now.

As you can see, one friend is into boxing and the other is into punching old-timey criminals. OK, not really (the latter), but it was an image that just came to me. The "We're From Japan" word balloon is referencing the AWESOME band he's in. Super talented group of guys.

Reading Neil Gaiman to your baby will get you noticed!

I was contacted by a representative of the Frisco (Texas) Public Library after my interview with the AWESOME Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog, asking if they could use the picture of me reading to Clementine on their promotional brochure for their "Books for Babies" program. I couldn't say "YES!" fast enough! What an honor! They have this fanTAStic program that's a partnership between the library and other organizations that provides a board book and information on nurturing readers for new parents for EVERY baby born at the Centennial Medical Center in Frisco, Texas. We have a similar program here in Multnomah County and we LOVE it!

Anyhow, thanks to the organization for contacting me (and Clementine!) and whether it's a Neil Gaiman picture book or not, read to your kids! And use (and appreciate!) your public library!

(Ooh, and in other Neil Gaiman-ish news, Laini's second DREAMDARK novel, SILKSINGER won one of the same awards that the former's Graveyard Book won last year! Namely the Middle Grade Fantasy/Sci Fi 2009 CYBILS Award! Congrats to Laini!)

Quick catch-up and Happy Holidays!

So while LIPS TOUCH didn't win the NBA for Y.A. fiction (see previous post), Laini, Clementine, and I (and Laini's mother who accompanied to sight-see and help with baby-sitting) had a FABulous time visiting NY once again and the awards banquet and show were amazing. We were truly honored just to have our book as a finalist among other such wonderful works of literature and art. A HUGE thanks to our Publisher, Arthur A. Levine (and everyone at his imprint!) for bringing us out and showing us a such a great time. Here we are upon entering the event (we haven't been this dressed up since our wedding!):


Congrats to all of the other finalists and even bigger congrats to the 4 winners! It was a pleasure to meet them all and also to get to meet all of the judges. If you're interested, here's Laini reading an excerpt from LIPS TOUCH the night before the banquet at another event for the finalists (click over to YouTube to avoid the screwy cropping of my art slideshow that Blogger does...)


Recently I've been working on art for several projects. One of them is a small but VERY fun project was with the incredibly talented Barry Lyga (of "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" fame, as well as "Boy Toy," the newly released title "Goth Girl Rising," and other books out and in the works). More on that to come in early 2010.

Laini and I also collaborated on a short sequential story for an upcoming Image Comics fairy tale anthology (out sometime in mid to late 2010). Our talented writer/artist/publisher friend Jim Valentino (he was Image's publisher at the time when THE DROWNED was acquired. Thanks Jim!!) asked us to contribute and it was a BLAST working on it. It'll be published by Image under one of Jim's imprints -- Silverline Books -- to be exact. Anyhow, some of the other contributors to the anthology include Mike Allred, Doug TenNapel, and Ted McKeever (and a BUNCH of others). Here's a panel from our story (written by Laini & art by me):


I was honored to be interviewed by Jules over at the how-do-they-have-time-to-put-this-all-together too cool for school blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast Thanks Jules and to everyone for their kind comments!

Lastly, one of the other projects I've been working on is hinted at in the (7-Imp) interview and I hope to have some news to share sometime in the coming weeks or months. I'll only say that I'm SO excited about it and I can't wait to get to work on the project as a whole!

Happy New Year!

LIPS TOUCH named as 1 of 5 Y.A. finalists for the National Book Award!

We are SO honored and excited! And I'm SO proud of my wife and her beautiful writing!

Go here for a list of all of the nominees.

Booklist Starred Review for LIPS TOUCH that compares Laini's writing to Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint!

*Lips Touch: Three Times*
Taylor, Laini (Author) , Di Bartolo, Jim (Illustrator)
Oct 2009. 272 p. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine, hardcover, $16.99. (9780545055857).
"...Taylor’s three novellas form a triptych of beautiful fantasy writing reminiscent of Charles de Lint and Neil Gaiman. Kisses are the unifying theme, with each story offering a different sort of locking lips, from giddy seduction to harsh power play. In “Goblin Fruit,” misfit Kizzy meets a fascinating new student, an unbelievably gorgeous young man who ignores the popular girls to seek her out. Taylor tantalizingly foreshadows the ambiguous ending, teasing and enticing the reader much as Jack Husk entices Kizzy. “Spicy Little Curses Such as These” is set in India and offers intriguing and culturally respectful glimpses of both Indian religion and British colonialism. “Hatchling” reveals a fully- realized world of sometimes malevolent immortals who steal and raise human babies as their pets. Present-day teen sensibilities blend with artful allusions to mythology and magic, pulling the reader into rich fantasy realms. The cover’s close-up of a lovely woman’s red lips, with red-orange flames licking at the super-imposed title, lacks the powerful, delicately structured, and subtle poetry of Taylor’s stories. But Di Bartolo, Taylor’s husband, provides skillfully detailed pen-and-ink illustrations that are a fine match for the lyrical, romantic text."

— Debbie Carton

Congrats Laini (and LIPS TOUCH!! (well, OK, and to me too) That makes TWO starred reviews so far!!

So in honor of the comparison (or "honour" as Mr. Gaiman might write) this morning I read Clementine one of Mr. Gaiman's more age-appropriate books. Plus it's a great early introduction to the amazing work of Dave McKean for her!! You can see that she enjoyed it! (Now I'll need to see if Mr. de Lint also has picture books, or if she'll need to wait until she's older to delve into his creations).

Messin' about with art

I'm working on some projects I can't show here for a while, but here are a couple of non-project-related cartoony portraits I screwed around with for fun recently. Thanks for stopping by!

LIPS TOUCH starred review in Publisher's Weekly and book trailer!

From Publisher's Weekly today:

Lips Touch: Three Times Laini Taylor, illus. by Jim Di Bartolo. Scholastic/Levine, $17.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-545-05585-7
Taylor offers a powerful trio of tales, each founded upon the consequences of a kiss. She explores the potentially awkward conceit in three dramatically different fantasies, each featuring a young female protagonist out of place in the world she inhabits: contemporary Kizzy, who so yearns to be a normal, popular teenager that she forgets the rules of her Old Country upbringing and is seduced by a goblin in disguise; Anamique, living in British colonial India, silenced forever due to a spell cast upon her at birth; and Esmé, who at 14 discovers she is host to another—nonhuman—being. The stories build in complexity and intensity, culminating in the breathtaking “Hatchling,” which opens with a spectacularly gripping prologue (“Esmé swayed on her feet. These weren't her memories. This wasn't her eye”). Each is, in vividly distinctive fashion, a mesmerizing love story that comes to a satisfying but never predictable conclusion. Di Bartolo's illustrations provide tantalizing visual preludes to each tale, which are revealed as the stories unfold. Even nonfantasy lovers will find themselves absorbed by Taylor's masterful, elegant work.

WOW! Thanks Publisher's Weekly! (And congrats Laini for the glowing comments on your writing!) More reviews are pending and I'll try to remember to post them here. Also, here's some of the interior art from the book:




And a trailer for the book that the Marketing people at Scholastic put together! How cool of them to do this?!!