Date Nut Cake

Trying out a vertical format for my illustrated recipe -- see the original on They Draw & Cook!

Desserts

I think a new They Draw and Cook illustrated recipe is in the works... guess the theme!

Teeny tiny art

I've decided to miniaturize my daily paintings for the 30 day challenge I started yesterday. Oddly it's much more difficult to produce something good that's 2.5" x 3". I thought the ease of making good art would be directly proportional to its size, but apparently that's not the case. This took me a good two hours of fiddling around to get something moderately decent!

Here's my first attempt. It may soon end up stuck on the wall of my daughter's Barbie sized dollhouse, but in the meantime it looks nice on my bulletin board.

30 paintings in 30 days? or until I can't take it any more and need to glue some stuff to other stuff.

Today I'm starting a painting a day challenge for the month of September. I know of artists doing 365 day challenges but that seems a little ambitious for me at this point in my life. Maybe in a couple years when all day school for all children in my house becomes a reality.

In the meantime I'm painting 30 garden related (floral? but not limiting myself) watercolors this month just to see if I can do it without getting completely bored. Here's the first.

UPPERCASE!

Just a short post to share a quick preview of the upcoming issue of UPPERCASE magazine. I'm one of 30 illustrators profiled in it... what an honor! Also, I thought I should point out that I don't really have pink hair at this time in real life, though I did for a short time in college. I just like the color.

New Illustration Talent section underway for the fall issue. Subscribe today!

A video posted by Janine Vangool (@uppercasemag) on Aug 17, 2015 at 2:59pm PDT

Blooming

Two times in the past few years I've been lucky enough to be able to work on some of my dream projects. One was the fiberglass bulldog that I painted all over with Illinois wildflowers. Working on it in our family room with my newly-crawling son afoot should make it pretty obvious that I really wanted to do it... or that I'm certifiably nuts.

The other was this: a Project Life core kit that's being released today. I am amazed and quite proud of myself that I created this in only about a month and a half: dozens and dozens of individual patterns, textures and designs; a little hand painting, a little sketching, some collage, even bits of my children's artwork.

I love its name, Bloom, because of the obvious reference to flowers and gardens -- I'm a bit of a plant hoarder and this kit is full of bright, happy blooms -- and because of the metaphor: the strong roots and love of a family helps children bloom and grow.

I was so thrilled to be asked to work on this project and am even happier to finally have it out in the world. Can't wait to see what you do with it!

Contests, hound dogs, and the end of the winter of my discontent

When I was a kid, we lived near ski areas, ice skating rinks and open fields where we'd cross country ski on weekend afternoons. I was never too keen on winter in general, but having things to do helped.

Now I have small children and a dog, I have to drive and walk in the nasty slushy ickiness, and I have to say, winter has really lost its luster. I also now live in a fairly flat and suburban area (meaning, no skiing, no long solo walks in the woods, no ice skating on the frozen creek across from the school), and we've been cooped up in this house for what seems like ten years, bickering and screaming and throwing plastic bricks at one another. I am SO ready for you, warm temperatures that bring peace and quiet to the inside of homes across the land.

To make myself feel better, I've been doing some personal work lately. Fun things like drawing beagles and splooshy watercolor amoebas as I sit in the TV room waiting for my son's preschool class to end. The beagles ended up in this week's Spoonflower contest and the watercolors ended up as a semifinalist in the Pattern Observer/P&B Textiles contest.

I have a bunch of other stuff in the works... tons of Surtex prep (my work will be there with my fabulous agent, Painted Planet), a giant (and secret until July) mega-project that is done and currently in production, a logo design, new Silhouette diecut designs and the usual sketchbook and collage nonsense.

Tonight they say we're going to get about two inches of snow. I think I am slowly losing my mind. Maybe I should send the kids upstairs to look for my lost marbles? (That actually kept them busy for about 20 minutes once!!!)