briedannaland

2009-06-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

Long time, no everything but still working and drawing and all that good stuff. MOVED TO OREGON! Random. That's been keeping me kinda busy actually but it's all coming back down to Earth. So... here are some sketches! These are the early pencils for the Far Away Friends girls, terribly cute and fun job. Thanks to Agency:Republica and check them out in action at www.FarAwayFriends.com

2009-03-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Grumpy Dump Truck is going into the Children's Book of the Month Club, yay! Be on the look out in the near future for this little book, coming soon in July 2009.

2009-02-05T08:34:00.000-08:00

The cover of Caped 6th Grader, Totally Toxic.

Working on a New Project

Yay! It's always fun doing a job that's by and large optional in this day and age, so while I enjoy illustrating immensely, it's been interesting while the economy's taken a turn for the worse. That said, I'm working on a big, new project that is so up my alley and I'm really enjoying it. I was super lucky because the Art Director really liked my stuff fought to get me on board. I'm very appreciative. Can't discuss it right now but I hope to post some sketches after it's all put to bed.

But in the meantime, I posted an old cover from a couple years ago.

2009-01-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

New Postcards!

Modern Postcard comes through with the color, yay. It printed up slightly darker than I made it on my screen but I kinda like it that way.

I got some new postcards printed up and I'm excited to send them out. If anyone wants one, please shoot me an email and I'll be happy to send one your way.

2008-12-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

THE DREADED AUTHOR PHOTO!!

Oh dear, the day finally came when someone actually wanted an author photo! Last Monday I got an email from my publicist at Random House saying a newspaper in California wanted an author photo to go along with their review in an upcoming article. Needless to say I don't exactly have one. But it just so happens, my friend Jess is moving to London and we hooked up for one last hurrah in Providence, RI.

We got all dolled up and took loads of pictures, went out dancing, and had tons of fun. One of those snaps didn't look too hideous, so I sent it in. I gave Jess the photo credit, now she can include portrait photography on her resume, hehe. But now I guess I have to go get one done for real in case this comes up in the future. I don't want to look like a total dork, just a minor one. :o)

2008-11-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

I did something, yay! And I programmed the links myself. This: www.briespangler.com is the extent of my web mastery, making links. But it's kinda cute and I finally busted out and drew something, which is good.

And can I just say how bummed I am that Teen Cosmo is shutting down? I loved looking through that magazine for all the fun looks and new hair and make-up and all that. I love magazines for reference and I enjoy my subscriptions to Vogue and Seventeen too but Teen Cosmo was good fun.

2008-10-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

Today I am working on my landing page for my future website. I bliz-zow at web design, that is my husband's game, but my plan is to make a whizbang page o'joy where I link to my other portfolio sites and my books and things. However, I'm having major drawing block! I don't know what to draw, this is such a brain freeze. It can be really simple, can be really complex, I'm just not sure what to put down. Erg... but I'll figure it out. Soon!!

2008-10-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Back again! Sometimes you get sooooo busy and this blog is certainly evidence of that. Trying to change with the new Directory of Illustration coming out soon, want to be more current.

So there is news to be had, my second picture book- The Grumpy Dump Truck is coming out from Knopf in July 2009. That is very exciting! And of course, feel free to check out my first picture book, Peg Leg Peke, at the Peke-A-Blog: www.peglegpeke.com and see how that's going.

I recently got back from a great trip to Europe, mostly Belgium and England. It was fantastic but among all the super fun events, I lucked out and got stuck in the Eurostar/Chunnel nightmare when a fire knocked out all service to and from. Luckily it was a great opportunity to get some sketching in!

Some quick sketches from Brussels Midi train station.

A man reading a newspaper at the Brussels International Airport. I got all my Belgian souvenirs from their duty-free shop. Great trip though, I had a blast.

2008-04-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

um... yeah, I guess I could be a little more timely. Suppose that would be good. But it's not like the world is beating a path to this blog's door, so I don't think being away for a few months makes much of a difference, tee-hee.

Baseball season has begun again and it's all weird because up here in the great white north, we are still smothered in mounds of muddy snow. So pretty. Did I mention I'm really-really-really-really ready for spring? Because I am. A LOT.

As for work, it's been great! Doing a lot of educational things in addition to trying to get my own projects underway. It's been fun, certainly took advantage of the long, cold winter by doing a bunch of different projects. March was very busy so I'm enjoying a tiny break until the next round of craziness begins. Most likely by next week.

2007-08-19T23:17:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to move which is fanatastic, I'm very ready to chill out for a good long while. I know as soon as I get back up to New England I'll miss NYC something awful but right now, I'm completely fried. Need break. Me and the hubby are going to telecommute all the work and if it's successful, we'll be buying a house up there in no time.

As soon as we put down our last box, I have to get to work immediately. Have a ton lined up to do. Working on two books for two separate publishers and several of my own need to be dummied up. So that will definitely keep me busy, oh yeah. No excuse for boredom, there's plenty of work to do.

Peg Leg Peke is finally put to bed, I enjoyed working on my first book immensely! Great fun to see it through from start to finish and I can't thank Erin and Marci enough for all their support and dedication. I'm grateful for all they've done and continue to do. Here's to (hopefully) many, many more books.

Sketch is from Freespirit Publishing 'Ready to Rock' series.

2007-06-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

Yay! My news of the month, I have my first written/illustrated picturebook coming out from Knopf in summer 2008. I'm very excited! More later... need coffee...

2007-03-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

Oh, this is spectacular!! My first bad review, I love it. Ready? Here it is and from the Washington Post no less:

"The book's artist can barely wrangle a recognizable likeness of any pop culture luminary from the last 15 years, (save, perhaps, Barney), but hey: That's where the magic of imagination comes into play! The decidedly not-for-kids material includes Mike Tyson biting off Evander Holyfield's ear, Sinead O'Connor ripping up a picture of the Pope on "Saturday Night Live" and Marion Barry grinning lasciviously from a jail cell."

Read the full review here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401679.html?referrer=delicious

I'm so proud!! :D

2007-01-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

So I have some news coming up that I'm very excited about. In the meantime I'll remain cryptic and let your imagination wander.

*pssst! It involves signing something...

2006-11-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd post a review from The Horn Book about 'Stinky Boys Club' in an article called 'Ordinary Joes' by Nell Beram, July/August 2005. She reviewed three series and Stinky Boys is featured right in the middle. To read it, copy/paste this link: http://www.hbook.com/publications/magazine/articles/jul05_beram.asp

"Conversely, the rivalry between the boys and the girls is the very lifeblood of the Stinky Boys Club (Grosset), a graphic-novel series that, like the Freaky Joe Club, is aimed at seven-to-ten-year-olds. In the series starter, Enough Is Enough!, MJ threatens to reveal to the whole school that her twin, Sam, spent his summer taking tap-dancing lessons. Worse: their principal announces at assembly that Sam’s dance class will be performing at the school talent show. Sam calls an emergency meeting of the Only Boys Club, after which MJ and her cohorts petition the school and neighborhood to delegitimize the club on the grounds that it’s discriminatory. The club holds a grudgingly nonexclusive meeting in the boys’ bathroom at school. The day’s activity? Making fake vomit (recipe provided). MJ and company flee, and the boys, feeling rejuvenated, set out to sabotage the talent show by a means that ultimately earns them the girls’ vengeance — and their club a new name. The Stinky Boys Club also has a new mission statement: to “stop at nothing to get even with the girls. Let no chair go without a whoopee cushion . . . no shoelaces go untied together . . .” Et cetera.

In Winner Takes All!, the series’s second offering, Sam tells the club that he dreamed he received an award for joke-telling, which forced MJ to admit that boys are better than girls. MJ overhears the recap, which she considers fightin’ words, and the twins agree that it’s time to hold a formal boys-versus-girls competition. Each team comes up with three tests: the boys decide on an eating contest, a burping contest, and a joke contest; the girls on a quiz, a knitting contest, and a dare. The gender wars culminate in both teams getting trapped in a creature-filled cave and having to help one another to safety. This leads to a predictable reconciliation followed by an even more predictable denouement: a squabbling session (“Are not.” “Are too.” “Are NOT.” Are TOO.” “ARE NOT!”).

I had my heart set on hating the Stinky Boys Club series because I thought it would amount to a peddling of stereotypes. As it turns out, the stereotypes take a beating: MJ may be neater than Sam, but she is also superior at sports; one member of the Stinky Boys Club’s greatest ambition is to get the lead in the school play; and priss Pru wins the belching contest. (A curious aside: The Stinky Boys Club’s sole black male character, Zip, and the Freaky Joe Club’s sole black male character, Jack, are distinguished by how quickly they do things. What’s that about?) And although the series is named for its male characters, who outnumber its female characters, co-authors Jodi Carse and Maria Gallagher don’t play favorites, and neither does illustrator Brie Spangler, whose concussively loud gross-out-fueled pictures ably mock both genders equally: Pru has a bedroom right out of a Barbie Dream House, but the boys’ clubhouse is a nerdboy paradise. The series may employ the who’s-better? debate, which, if you’re like me, you don’t want kids to even be having, but it mercifully doesn’t try to advance it."

I love that she presumed she'd hate it based on her own stereotype for these types of plot set-ups, that she ended up liking it is a great compliment! And regarding Zip as a fast african-american character, we envisioned him as hispanic. We didn't aim to fit our characters into little boxes, we just wanted to create a group of happy friends doing crazy things.

All in all, I think it's a great review. Always an honor to be in the Horn Book, so here's to The Stinky Boys Club!

2006-09-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially over and can I be the first to say, hooray!! I love fall, I like being slightly chilled. I feel a spark when the freeze is on, I just keel over and die in the summer. Too hot. So welcome fall, welcome September and soon October.

Working on some new projects with some new clients which is always great. Love to hear fresh ideas and different approaches to layouts and the like. These are cute, two new kids' related books- kicky stuff.

So what else is going on? Work has been great, no complaint there. I've been working on getting a few book proposals out there. One is delivered to my agent and I've been working on the other manuscript for a YA novel for over a year now and I'm so close to being done, it's killing me! I know how it's going to end and I'm enjoying the ride but I get so anxious, I worry I'm shooting myself in the foot. But it's crazy-fun to do and we'll see if I can turn it out the barn door before 2007.

Doing some educational illos for a textbook this past week and they're trying a different technique of sharing work. I'm cool with uploading and downloading work from servers but for whatever reason, their server hates me. It sees my computer and boots me off time and again, ugh. I tricked it once and it worked, now I have to keep doing it that way until it recognizes me I guess. Yay technology.

New books are out:
'Let's Paint the 90's' by Quirk, http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Paint-90s-Jason-Rekulak/dp/1594741077/sr=8-1/qid=1158994696/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-7175163-5656760?ie=UTF8&s=books
Boys' and Guide to Being a Teen: http://www.amazon.com/American-Medical-Association-Guide-Becoming/dp/0787983438/sr=1-2/qid=1158994763/ref=sr_1_2/104-7175163-5656760?ie=UTF8&s=books
AND Girls' Guide to Being a Teen: http://www.amazon.com/American-Medical-Association-Guide-Becoming/dp/0787983446/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b/104-7175163-5656760?ie=UTF8
Available September 26th, the third 'Caped Sixth Grader': http://www.amazon.com/Caped-6th-Grader-Lightning-Strikes/dp/0440420814/sr=1-1/qid=1158994912/ref=sr_1_1/104-7175163-5656760?ie=UTF8&s=books

Hopefully I won't wait another month to post a new entry! later...

2006-07-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to see 'The Caped Sixth Grader' out in the stores. This was such a fun series to work on, I was thrilled for the opportunity to create such a cute heroine. The premise may not be new, a kid with superpowers, but the story is fairly unique. It's all about her but features her relatives and ancestors and they play an important role as well. The first two are available and I just finished the interior spots for the third book. As far as I know there will be four total and I hope it does well enough to keep going, it's a kick to do.

Things are in gear with the Directory of Illustration 2007 edition. It's my first and while I'm nervous to gauge the outcome, I'm hopeful it will make a big splash. Got the proof and it looked okay, I was bummed the skintones looked a little flat . I could've gotten a new proof made after tweaking the color but they wouldn't send the new version. Time is short and getting it to and from China and back to me was cutting it too close, so it wasn't an option. If I screwed up and made them look too weird, I wouldn't know until the page was in print circulating around the country. So, I passed on the second proof and let it go. We will see! (apprehensive...)

In other news, the Homerun Derby was last night and although I was pulling for David Ortiz, I noticed that Abreau kinda had a power outage. I'm no superstitious nerd but if there is an inkling of a Derby-Curse, I want it the hell away from Ortiz.

2006-06-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

All my life I've drawn pictures. On tests, in books (my own, thankfully), on reams of paper, just about anything able to to receive ink or pencil. School was interesting here and there but while my parents were steering me towards a liberal arts eductation, Dad thought I'd be perfect in the Big Ten but I suspect he wanted a team to root for, I only had eyes for art school. When I was in the 8th grade there was a kid named Andy Ristaino who I absolutely worshipped. I thought he was the most talented kid in the whole entire world. He got into RISD and after that, that was it- I had to go too. Once I was convinced of my matching destiny (hey I was in the 8th grade, life is all id at 14) I worked hard to make it happen.

I'm in love with my job. I love drawing pictures and creating works for people. It's very satisfying to work with art directors and have an actual product in your hands when all is said and done. I still have so much to learn about illustrating books, I'm up to 12 now and still finding new tricks everytime. Ideally within the next year, I hope to have some of my own books coming out- I'm working on some projects. But I'm lucky, I enjoy what I do- I love being an illustrator.