Happy Holidays!

Kora and Linus from the Cincinnati Zoo!

It has been a crazy but great year in many ways! Looking forward to 2019!

Fiona Ornament art

I also made ornaments, just a fun thing to do for the holidays...

Cao Chong News and Glorious Samples!

Six book series Birds on the Wing

I got a big group of samples at once. Eight Books actually... I think the first was done in 2015 and I finished up in 2017.

These are readers for Heinemann.

Several Spreads

Baby Wood Ducks!

Adorable Mango Tree Book!

This book I worked on partially while in Costa Rica. It was fun to be in a rain forest. My first time! I got a TON of reference.

The Sweet Mango Tree Spreads

Tiger Mango Love

In other news, Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant is on the 2018 Purdue University Engineering Gift Guide!

What an honor!














https://engineering.purdue.edu/INSPIRE/Reviews/books?fbclid=IwAR1ZEuxhlVFU629vqs0vIxMvW4AJpvlmRYCKnxUNE39CCrmVJq8kqPhRz9s

Team Huldra!

I am excited to announce that I will be part of Team Huldra on Light Grey Art Lab's 2019 Norway Artist Residency!

Here is the whole team: http://lightgreyartlab.com/norway-creative-residency-2019-team-huldra

Huldra is the perfect name! In Scandinavian folklore, the huldra (Norwegian, derived from a root meaning “covered,” “hidden,” or “secret”) is a very elusive and seductive creature of the forest... (According to Google)

I hope to get some family to meet me after to check out Oslo.

Coming Soon! Elin Books by Melanie Oesch

Book 1: Elin the Wood Elf Girl

I recently completed illustrations for the awesome book series about an elf girl and her owl best friend. They are written by Melanie Oesch, musician and yodeler.



I will have more art and a link to order the books soon!

Book 2: Elin Makes New Friends

I was lucky enough to go to the Eriz Valley in Switzerland where the books take place, sketch, and shoot a ton of reference photos.

Castle in Thun, Switzerland

The Eriz Valley in person!

Sketching in Thun

Final color sketch in Thun

Sneak peek of one of my favorite images from the book!

The Hidden Shoreline

The Hidden Shoreline is such an unusual and fun book to illustrate. Peter Strandwitz, the author, has written a book with poetry, adventure and heart. He said the idea came to him fully formed in a dream. He often writes poetry about his story, characters and life in almost a Tolkienesque way. He is working on an incredible sequel.

You can get a copy here: http://www.seattlebookcompany.com/the-hidden-shoreline/

My awesome web page designer, Jon from 3Verb, also did the book's page.

http://www.thehiddenshoreline.com/

Always ready to help!

3 Questions with the CBC

I recently did the Children's Book Council's 3 Questions series. They let me make up the questions so I asked around to see what people wanted to know about what I do!

So much fun! 

Here is the link: http://www.cbcbooks.org/3-questions-with-christina-wald/

Profile on Voyage Chicago

Chicago is one of my favorite cities to visit and sketch in so I was thrilled when Voyage Chicago contacted me to do a profile. They mostly write about metro artists, but occasionally cover regional ones. 

I should also mention that my awesome author Songju Ma Daemicke (Cao Chong Weighs and Elephant) lives in Chicago.

http://voyagechicago.com/interview/meet-christina-wald/

Thanks to my friend Jeb Brack for the referral!

Travel to France and Switzerland

Dijon, France

Dijon, France

Lyon, France

Marseille, France

Sketching in Marseille

Marseille, France

Marseille, France

Paris, France

Avignon, France

Albi, France

Thun, Switzerland

Me and my mom in Thun

Eriz, Switzerland

Sketching in Eriz

Here are some of the sketches from my trip to France and Switzerland in May. It has been a dream of my mother's and mine to travel for a month. This year the stars aligned and I had two cousins in France on sabbatical for a year in France.

My cousin Maria and her husband Tom were in Lyon and my cousin Gina's husband had a Fulbright Scholarship in Marseille. I even did a school visit in Marseille at their sons' school!

 I did around 35 sketches but these are some of my favorites.

Many more are on my Instagram page.

May the Fourth Festivities

This has become a Cincinnati illustrator premiere event! Art from CF Payne, David Michael Beck, Jim Effler, Carl Samson, Richard Luchek, Kevin Necessary, Christina Wald, Amy Bogard, Sarah Rocheleau, Anthony "Tank" Mansfield, Sara Leah Miller, Jaimie Filer, Tim Fuller, Michael Colbert, Chris Reiff and many more!

Hope to see you there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/210023729591325/

K + R Shipping So Hard by Christina Wald

"I'm One With The Force. The Force Is With Me." Chirrut Îmwe by Christina Wald

 We are also doing more community outreach this year and are having our first kids art show!

Allison from the Walnut Hills Library holding up one of my sketches

We kicked that off with teaching how to draw aliens and droids at the Walnut Hills Public Library. Somehow, we ended up drawing spaceships too.

How to draw an angry wookie in 6 steps...

Allison, Kevin, Tim, Christina

Drawing sheets from our event

More Ohioana

The poster art I did for the 2018 Ohioana Book Festival is also the cover for the spring issue of their quarterly magazine with a little write up. Hope to see you in Columbus next Saturday!

Ohioana Book Festival Poster

I am so excited I got to work on the Ohioana Book Festival this year!

From the website: "The Ohioana Library Association was founded in 1929 by Ohio First Lady Martha Kinney Cooper to collect, preserve, and promote the works of Ohio authors, artists, and musicians. By the early 1930s the Library had outgrown its space in the Governor’s Mansion and moved into the new State Office Building at 65 S. Front Street, where it remained until 2001. Ohioana and the State Library of Ohio then moved to the renovated Jeffrey Mining Corporate Center near downtown Columbus. Today the Library’s holdings include more than 45,000 books by or about Ohioans; 10,000 pieces of sheet music; biographical files on notable Ohioans; personal papers of Ohio authors and artists; and numerous scrapbooks created by Ohio civic and cultural organizations. The collection does not circulate, but is available for in-library use."

I saw their previous year's posters and loved how open the design requirements were.

I did five concepts:

 I flirted with two different directions. Ohio has always been very active in the space program and I thought that could be a possibility. I also came up with a couple weird animal ideas I did not think they would ever go for. I was super excited when they chose this idea.

Final concept sketch

Process gif

Final art:

Final poster art