New Website! New News Blog!

It’s been a few years since I redesigned my website, and with a couple of new books coming out in early 2016, it seemed like a good time to spruce things up.

Ever since I launched my illustration career around six years ago, my news blog has been located at a separate url. Well, no longer. In an effort to enter the 21st century, I’ve now integrated a news section into my main site.

So when you’re wondering what in the world I might be up to, I hope you’ll redirect your attention there. Thanks for following me here over the years, and thanks for checking out my new site!

Miss Marple’s Musings and Author Turf Interviews

It’s always nice when people take interest in your work, especially when commitments have you isolated and chained to the drawing board, as I have been over the past few months. Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a few very fun interviews, by some terrific bloggers. Here are two I forgot to mention on this page.

If you are a fan of #kidlit, no doubt you are aware of Miss Marple’s Musings and Author Turf. Both were a hoot for me, and provide a little insight into my illustration practice—if you are so inclined.

Miss Marple’s Musings
Author Turf

Thanks Joanna and Brittney!

The 600 (with apologies to Lord Tennyson)

The 600 followers of my bird blog Ornithoblogical might have noticed a big milestone approaching — I was about to paint my 600th bird! And then there was a long pause....

My apologies for the delay; brainstorming takes time, and so does execution, but I’m hoping I’ve come up with something worthy of the occasion. 

Speaking of execution, if you’re not familiar with the refrain from Lord Tennyson’s epic poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” here’s some historical background and a link to the poem. Perhaps it’s not the most uplifting subject matter, but it certainly is epic. And at the very least, a challenge for my mostly minimalist illustration style on the blog.

A BIG THANK YOU for all the support to my 600! In celebration, I’m hoping to get my etsy shop back up an running this week, with offerings of prints and other stuff. And there are more birds to come. Meanwhile, below are some details from The 600—Charge of the Egg Brigade.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
    All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
    Noble six hundred.

duck week! (February 9–16)

It’s official: I’m proclaiming February 9–16 “Duck Week” on Ornithoblogical. That’s right, seven ducks in a row. Look for an original duck illustration to post on the blog each day at noon. I really hope it gooses your gander.

the ornitholympics!

It’s the Ornitholympics! That’s right, for the remainder of the 2012 Summer Games in London, fresh-faced-yet-fierce, sporting birds will be strutting their stuff each day on Ornithoblogical. Glory was cut short for today’s competitors, due to that controversy of Olympic proportions earlier this week. I present to you, “Angry Birdies.”

And if that’s not enough for you, I’ll also be featuring some feathered competitors from bird days past on the Ornithoblogical Facebook page, such as “Foils”—seen below—a favorite of my brother’s, who was once a fencing coach. 

So take a gander. I hope you have as much fun viewing these as I did making them.

another peak @ sylvia’s spinach + bird 500 + more

 Happy Friday! Also Happy Birthday to Theodor Geisel, one of my idols.

This week, I’ve been finishing up the final art for “Sylvia’s Spinach”, and finally met my delightful editor/publisher Philip Lee of Readers to Eaters in person. Another teaser from the book is pictured above.

In other news, Ornithoblogical reached a big milestone yesterday with the posting of bird #500. There’s been lots of heavy-lifting going on in my studio this week. Not the least of which has been trying to find a place to store all of that art.

Also, I’ve got series of spots in the current issue of Kiwi Magazine, another installment in their cooking with kids series. This time we wash and trim mushrooms! Living the dream...

a more mobile-friendly ornithoblogical

Ornithoblogical is now even easier to follow while you are on the go. With a new mobile-friendly interface, you can quickly scroll through the latest birds on your phone, as well as read or add to the comments section.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the latest installment of Thanksgiving-inspired birds. Looking over the comments, I see no one has yet cried fowl. ;v)

national day on writing - nytimes.com

Thursday, October 20th was the official National Day on Writing, and the Twittersphere was abuzz with writers, educators, journalists, students, and poets (to name just a few) answering the question #whyiwrite. Above is my illustrated contribution, as featured on Ornithoblogical and The New York Times Learning Network blog. You can learn more about the day, and read some fantastic quotes here.

the new york times: magnetic poetry

T. S. Eliot had it wrong. April was not the cruelest month—at least not for me—unless you count the weather in NYC. In addition to getting into some illustration competitions and being selected “Pick of the Week” by Illustration Friday, April was National Poetry Month and brought with it a new collaboration with The Learning Network blog at The New York Times. For the second year running, editors Katherine Schulten and Holly Epstein Ojalvo held their Found Poem Challenge. And what you see above is my illustration for the announcement of the winners this week. A reinterpretation of the old novelty gift magnetic poetry, the hand-lettered words represent the wide range of subjects submitted by student poets. Many thanks to Katherine and Holly, and congratulations to the 10 poets whose work will be featured on the blog.

Ornitho-Blog-of-Note-ical

One day last week in the Twitter-sphere, Blogger, the blog-publishing service that is brings you this post and all of my birds, chose Ornithoblogical as a “Blog of Note.” What exactly does that mean, you ask? Well, in less than a week, subscribers, followers, and (let’s not forget) kind commentary on the site has tripled. And guess what that means for me? Yep...I have to make more birds! So back to the drawing board I go for some analog tweeting. And thank you!

nytimes.com—the learning network

Yesterday’s posting on The New York Times’ The Learning Network blog featured “100 Ways to Celebrate the 100th Day of School” with oodles of creative ideas for teachers, students and schools to mark the occasion.

Unbeknownst to me—while I was marking the occasion with a 100+ fever—Ornithoblogical got a great mention in #9. Now that sure made me feel better!

While the power of social networking sites like Twitter can more dramatically (and importantly) be measured by the events currently taking place in the Middle East, I have to acknowledge my own little learning network experience here. Through Noah Scalin’s 365 blog nod to my birds on Twitter, Katherine Schulten, one of the authors of The Learning Network, and I were virtually introduced. It just goes to show that “tweeting” is not just for the birds...or is it? Thanks Noah and Katherine!

the last day of ornithoblogical (almost)!

A little over a year ago, I created a project for myself that I wasn’t certain I could finish. 366 birds later, today’s image marks the last posting of Ornithoblogical on a daily basis. At noon, resolution (seen here at left) will go live along with a heartfelt missive to fans.
It has been a great journey, and a lot of fun for me. Until further tweetings, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

365 write up

The birds of Ornithoblogical got a nice mention yesterday in the blogosphere. Artist Noah Scalin, creator of his own 365 project Skull-A-Day, and author of “365: A Daily Creative Journal” posted a nice selection of my bird images. You can see his blog, and explore other projects by people as crazy as me here.

ornithoblogical day 300: bird call for entries WINNERS!

Day 300 of Ornithoblogical is upon us! At noon EST today, the winners of the Bird Call for Entries were announced. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated.

Entries were received from four continents, and as you can see below, that global scope is reflected in the winners. It has been very inspiring to me, especially as I enter the latter part of this year-long, bird illustration marathon.

I’d especially like to thank my distinguished jury—Matteo Bologna, Alex Mathers, Martha Rago, Stephen Savage, and Larry Smith—without whom the Bird Call for Entries would have been as flightless as an emu.

Enjoy the rest of the year!

1ST PRIZE  Winner of a portfolio of ten signed, digital prints of her choice from Ornithoblogical.

“Re-tail Featherpy”—Elaine Hurford, Prince Albert, South Africa

5 RUNNERS UP  Winners of an official Ornithoblogical button.

“Sacs in the City”—Anne Louise Tate, Cleethorpes, England

“Tweet Street”—Richard Harrison, Montmirail, France

“Birds of a Ferragamo”—Monica Mayper, New York City, USA

“Carrier Pigeons”—Mark Rosenblum, Temple City, CA, USA

“Chickin’ Out the Competition”—Anne Louise Tate, Cleethorpes, England

the bird call for entries!

In celebration of fast-approaching day 300 of my year-long daily bird illustration marathon, I’m holding a competition for the best title to accompany the image posted above.

HOW TO ENTER:
Go to the contest page here to read about rules and what you can win.

JURORS:
MATTEO BOLOGNA is the founder and principal of Mucca Design, a multidisciplinary branding and design firm based in New York City. He is a board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and is the treasurer of the Type Salons for the Type Directors Club.

ALEX MATHERS is an illustrator and designer based in London, and regular contributor to Design Taxi, the 99%, and Mashable. He is also the creator of the contemporary illustration blog Ape on the Moon and the Red Lemon Club, a blog about online promotional methods for creatives.

MARTHA RAGO is Associate Creative Director of HarperCollins Children’s Books where she oversees the development and design of picture books, including those in the Rayo and Katherine Tegen imprints, the estate programs of C. S. Lewis and Shel Silverstein, and the Balzer & Bray imprint. Prior to her position at HarperCollins, which Martha has held for seven years, she was the Creative Director at Henry Holt.

STEPHEN SAVAGE is the award-winning illustrator of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Polar Bear Night and The Fathers Are Coming Home. His editorial work regularly appears in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and The New Republic among others. In 2008, he was the recipient of a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.

LARRY SMITH is founder and editor of the personal storytelling community SMITH Magazine (smithmag.net), creators of the Six-Word Memoir project and bestselling book series. He is a contributing editor of ESPN the Magazine, former executive editor of Yahoo Internet Life,and has written for numerous publications including Men's Journal, The New York Times, Popular Science, and Salon.

ornithoblogical news

The birds of Ornithoblogical are pleased to announce the publication of Ornithoblogical: Selections from the Showcase of 365 Birdies on My Brain. Featured in this 7" square paperback are 22 illustrations from the first part of this year (hence “volume one”) including such favorites as “Swami,” “Scribe,” and on the cover, “Dot the Chicken.” Take a look at a preview of the book by clicking here.

Also this week, birds-watchers have been flocking to the new Ornithoblogical Facebook page to share the love. If you are on Facebook, and would like to get highlights from the blog in your news feed, click here. Select the “Like” button next to the heading.

You can also subscribe to receive a bird each day by clicking the orange RSS feed button located on the upper left-hand corner of my bird blog home page.

I’ll be hatching more bird-related events in the coming weeks, including the “Bird Call for Entries,” a contest to celebrate the fast-approaching day 300 of this year-long project. And there will be prizes! Details coming soon...

illustrationmundo editor's favorite

For a little over a year, I have posted to illustrationmundo, a great online resource for illustrators and art directors for all things illustration. The other day, I was selected as an “Editor’s Favorite” by the site’s creator, illustrator Nate Williams. Needless to say, as a huge fan of Nate’s, I’m very pleased. You can share the love by going to the IM home page here, scrolling down the right hand column until you see my “Henna” image under my name and clicking on the heart. There is an incredible wealth of talent to peruse on illustrationmundo, so be sure to take a look around the site. Thanks Nate!

ripple blog

Occasionally, I participate in IllustrationFriday, a website where illustrators share images on a given topic. This week is very special—we are doing our part to raise money to benefit wildlife effected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Ripple Blog was created by illustrator Kelly Light, as a place where artists can post images on the subject for sale as 2.5" x 3.5" “sketchcards.” Here’s what she says...

“[The sketchcards] will be made available for a small donation of $10.00 to either  The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center. I have no affiliation with them. Every penny will go. When the cards sell, We ask for a donation confirmation and [artists] will be asked to sign the back with a thank you...If we all do small acts together—we can cause a ripple—and it can grow. We can DO SOMETHING. Thank you, thank you for checking this out and thinking about it.”

I’m contributing one of my illustrations from “Ornithoblogical,” (titled, “Tastes Like Chicken”) that I posted the day before learning about Ripple.

subtraction.com by khoi vinh

The birds at Ornithoblogical are all a-flutter with their write up on Subtraction.com yesterday, May 22nd. Subtraction is the blog of nytimes.com Design Director Khoi Vinh. Here’s a direct quote from the three-star rating:

“Every day this year, illustrator Anna Raff is posting a completely charming illustration of a bird to this blog. It’s 22 May already, so there a 144 drawings for you to peruse right now.”

Tweet!

featured on pikaland

Here’s a big shout out to one of my favorite blogs, Pikaland for featuring me and my bird blog, Ornithoblogical in a posting today!

In the words of editor/curator Amy Ng, “Pikaland is a blog about living the illustrated life.” If you’ve never visited it before, check it out. I’m thrilled to be in such great company!