"I love your book muc."

About a week ago I received what may be the best thank you card ever. In an earlier post, I wrote about my visit to a kindergarten class in Brooklyn late last year for some coloring and a presentation of Sylvia’s Spinach. It’s such a delight to have this gorgeous, oversized card full of creative portraits of me and scenes from the book, now prominently displayed in my living room. I wish I could share all the drawings here—see below for a selection. 

Some kids chose to draw me in the middle of my opening anecdote. I told them about how much I loved to draw at their age, but had a hard time remembering where mustaches should be placed on a face—above the nose, below the mouth? Interpretations of my confusion can be seen in their drawings.

A reciprocal thank you goes out to my buddy Cooper’s teachers, and to his parents Matthew and Lori for organizing the event with this great group of kids, and for buying each of them a copy of the book!

k-1, p.s. 372 – brooklyn

I had a great time last week, taking Sylvia’s Spinach on the road to the K-1 class at P.S. 372 in Brooklyn. This being my first appearance at a kindergarten since the Nixon administration, I was a little bit nervous. The kids were terrific and very enthusiastic, sharing their thoughts on favorite vegetables, gardening and showing off some creative coloring.

I want to extend a huge thanks to Lori and Matthew Richmond for organizing the visit and for buying every student in the class a copy of the book! Also a very special thanks to their son Cooper, who introduced me and showed great restraint in not giving away the end of the book—which he’d already read a few times. 

(photos by Matthew Richmond :^)

a review and a school visit preview

The Sylvia’s Spinach road show has thus far been concentrated on the West Coast featuring its author, the wonderful Katherine Pryor. Next week, I head to Brooklyn for my very first school visit to a  kindergarten class, armed with markers, coloring pages and a lot of nerves. But more on that in a future post.

In the meantime, today I received one of the best reviews I think I’ll ever see in my career. Here’s what Cooper, age 5 3/4 had to say after a first reading:

“Mommy, I want another Anna Raff book now!”

With a little luck, he’s got a future at Kirkus. Thanks Coop and Lori!

your holiday prep...rescued!

If you’re like me, you sometimes get so caught up in holiday hype, you forget how to do even the simplest of things. Thankfully, the folks at Kiwi Magazine and I are here to help. 

Yes, now you’ll never have to stress about remembering how to shape a cookie. Available on newstands—if not now, soon—here it is in print, complete with step-by-step illustrations. So even if you forget how to read, your holidays table won’t be ruined by square cookies. And anyway, if I were you, I’d be more worried about that bossy walnut with the ruler.

of potstickers and sleep apnea

A changing of the guard always brings with it the potential for growing pains, but I’m pleased to report my delight with the tear sheets that arrived in my mailbox today. The current issue of Kiwi Magazine on newsstands marks my first collaboration with their new creative director, Ridge Carpenter. 

As usual, my illustrations are featured in two sections: accompanying the essay on the last page, and in a series of spots for their “Cooking with Kids” section (above). The latter is now much more cleanly designed and, lucky me, my images are larger.  

So for the latest techniques on how to fold a potsticker, and to learn how a dad copes with the dangerous mix of parenting and sleep apnea...Well...you know the drill.

of rats, sloths and other notable creatures...

In case you’ve been wondering why you’ve been seeing fewer birds and other such imagery up in my slice of the blogosphere of late, it’s because I’ve been hard at work on an exciting new project.

A few months ago, I was approached
by Candlewick Press to illustrate a collection of animal poems by the hilarious and prolific J. Patrick Lewis, the current U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate. As you might imagine, I jumped at the chance. The book, due to be released in Spring 2013, allows me to immerse myself into the minds of rats, bulldogs, sloths, and mata-mata turtles, to name just a few. While I can’t share much about the illustrations until publication, I will occasionally throw a little detail at you here and there...like here, in the sketch at left.

Meanwhile, I’ve also been working on two pieces for the November issue of the South African magazine Migrate. Since we’re almost halfway through October, I’ll be able to share those in just a few weeks. In the meantime, here’s a detail from one, titled Above. Happy Autumn!

kiwi magazine - august issue

We’re all told not to play with our food when we’re little. But when it comes to the Cooking Class section of Kiwi Magazine, I can’t seem to restrain myself. This month is no exception, so in the off chance you need to teach a little one how to properly empty a muffin pan, you know where to go...

And as usual, you can also find one of my illustrations on the last page of the magazine, accompanying this month's essay on homeschooling.

the bathers

What exactly is going on here? You’ll have to pick up the April/May issue of Kiwi Magazine and find out...

(Apologies aux Messieurs Cézanne, Renoir et Seurat.)

cabin fever and other adventures in illustration

When I was asked to illustrate a 4-page special section for the March issue of Kiwi Magazine called “Beat Cabin Fever,” little did I suspect I would come down with a serious case myself! 

This plum assignment—in addition to the regular cooking class spots and end-of-the-book essay pieces (see Measuring Up, above) that I’ve been illustrating for over a year—kept me furiously busy at my drawing board for a few weeks.

The feature includes games, puzzles, a recipe, and a pull-out fortune teller (above) to help kids decide what to do when the weather (or illustration assignments) forces them indoors.

Unfortunately, one of my favorite spots wound up on the cutting room floor, but I’m showing it here in all its glory. It was to go with a piece on recycling household materials into cool craft projects.

And finally, that athletic troupe of dried beans you see is part of this month’s cooking class: How to Measure Ingredients. It’s always a challenge to find an adventurous twist in what can be a pretty mundane subject. Speaking of which, this month we’re washing spinach!

a little process blogging...

With the latest Kiwi Magazine hitting newsstands this week, it seemed an ample time to describe a bit of my my illustration process for this issue’s essay piece:

In “My Special Boy,” a mother navigates a labyrinth of special needs education schools to help ease her socially-challenged son through nursery school. I was excited about the opportunity to illustrate this subject because it allowed me to explore a more serious tone in my drawing.

 

Primarily, the mother’s frustration lay in a system with limited resources that assumed the worst in her son. I submitted three sketches (two of which you see here). In the sketch on the right, the super-imposed words—those used to describe the boy—would loom ominously over an otherwise innocent looking child. Yet it seemed to me, the way to express the emotion of the piece was through gesture rather than expression. Luckily, the art director agreed, and we went with the idea on the left. Here is the finished piece—not far from the original sketch:

not just for the birds...

By the look of this blog over the last month or so, you’d think all I’ve been up to was corralling a loony menagerie of birds. Today, I’m happy to share several recent projects that involved nary a winged creature.

My work for Kiwi Magazine continues. Pictured above is the essay piece for their October-November issue about an unreligious family who find value in saying grace, and below, two spots from their Cooking Class section which I turned into a cookie crust construction site. (Yes, the workers are building a pie crust out the pieces of their brethren.)

This month I designed my first app—a game developed by Little, Brown and Company to promote a young adult novel they will be publishing this winter. More details to come once the app is released.

I was also hired by my pals at Vibrant Design to create a logo for their new offshoot company, GreenGripGear.com, promoting more environmentally-friendly, theatrical lighting equipment. I’m hoping to score some pretty photos of their shiny, black “trucklette” sporting both the GreenGripGear and Vibrant logos soon. As far as I recall, my work has never before appeared on a moving vehicle.

And last but not least, my newest client is Lake Isle Press, “Publishers of Books for Cooks.” They will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary at the Rubin Museum of Art here in New York City in November, so I was thrilled to be asked to illustrate and design their invitation to the big event, a detail of which is seen above.

That’s all for now. Happy Halloween!

annaraff.com version 3.0 is live!

After a few fits and starts, I’ve finally completed the relaunch of my new html-based website. Earlier this year, I decided the time had come to let go of my old, animated flash site, to speed up the experience and make it readable for people with mobile devices.

The new site showcases my portfolio with cleaner navigation, and the help of thumbnails and slideshows.

Also featured, is a new books section (see below) which allows viewers to page through portions of my books and links to places where they can purchased.

If you miss the little animations, never fear. No doubt, I will be making more of those in the future. In case you’ve never seen one,  here’s a little something I made for National Pencil Day back in March.

kiwi magazine - august/september 2010

The people at Kiwi, the magazine of organic parenting, have been keeping me busy with another back page essay piece (above), and five spots for their cooking section (below) in the latest issue. Their recipe for “chicken fingers minus the chicken” looks delicious. I had a great time working on these—it’s not often one gets to draw a block of tofu shimmying in a bowl of eggs, or wearing a winter coat.

kiwi magazine - june/july 2010

Ever wondered how to corral a lime into submission? Hmmm....or maybe to instruct your child in the proper way to zest said lime? Well, look no further than the current issue of Kiwi Magazine (June/July 2010). Once again I’ve illustrated a series of spots for their “Cooking Class” section, in addition to the image for their back page essay (detail seen below).

And this week, I’m working on pieces for August/September, so it’s feeling a bit like fall here at annaraff.com these days. Published by the May Media Group, Kiwi can be found at Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

kiwi magazine - april/may 2010

Next time you’re in Whole Foods or Barnes & Noble, check out the current issue of Kiwi Magazine. In addition to the illustration for the back page essay, I did another series of spots for their “cooking class” section. This month, they’re teaching kids how to roll out pizza dough.

And just a few moments ago, I finished the cooking spots for their next issue—but more on that in a later posting.

illustration friday: clumsy

This week’s word is “clumsy,” and yes, it’s only Tuesday. I’m getting a jump on things in preparation for the SCBWI conference here in NYC on Friday. Until then, I’m steering clear of toy cars.

the big sibling book

The Big Sibling Book, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal hit stores this month, and I just got my copies in the mail. While finishing up my thesis at SVA this Spring, I created a series of over 100 spot and sticker illustrations for the interior. Published by Potter Style (a division of Random House) Big Sibling is a write-in album for a child to record milestones in the life of his or her newborn sibling. (FamilyCorner.com gave it a very nice review this week.)

All the sales materials were released before I was brought in, so you won't see my work on Amazon or the other online vendors, but the images here give you a pretty good sense of my part. The palette was changed sometime after I turned in my final art, so while not exactly what I'd intended, the overall packaging of the book is very nice. Maybe next time, I'll get a stab at a cover.

extreme secrecy no longer!

At long last, the broadcast date for that home makeover show featuring my artwork has been revealed! Tune into your local ABC station on the evening of Sunday, November 8th, at 8 PM EST. My contact tells me they spent more time in "my" room than the other kids' rooms...which probably means a few seconds, so watch carefully! I created a wall mural, and several smaller framed animal portraits for a one-year-old's nursery.

fish fetish

a (very short) collaboration

My 13 year-old nephew and I collaborated on our first animated short (very short) last evening. While he was director, producer and screenwriter, my primary role was facilitator/key grip. You can view it here. Be sure to have your sound on. Enjoy!