Stream of Consciousness Sketches

I just added a page featuring my Stream of Consciousness sketches until I put together a more robust site for them.

http://christinawald.blogspot.com/p/stream-of-consciousness-sketches.html

Happy Holidays!

This has been my busiest year ever as an illustrator and that is saying something because I was not sure that was possible.

I feel so happy and lucky to do what I love to do all the time. I have had so many great projects and books to work on this year and have some amazing stuff lined up in 2017.

It has been a difficult year in so many other ways; I am grateful to find solace in my work and wonderful clients and friends.

Book Signing at Sharon Woods

I will be signing books with my pals Vanessa Sorensen and Jeffrey Ebbeler This Friday at Sharon Woods from 6 to 9pm as part of their Holiday in Lights event.

Details here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1048826188560862/

Hope to see you there!!

San Diego Zoo and Safari Park Book Signing

Just got back from our book signing in San Diego! What an incredible time! The zoo team has been so good to us!

While we signed books, I did live art. I painting a picture of one of the three adorable tiger cubs at the Safari Park.

Kids were fascinated by the tiger painting. Many said they loved to draw!

Christina and Shari by the statue of King Tut who is in the book!

With the Finish

Final demo

After the zoo, I stole an hour to sketch in Balboa park.

Books By the Banks 2016

Happy rolling bison from Camas and Sage

I look forward to seeing everyone at Books By the Banks tomorrow! I will be there signing Cash Kat, Camas and Sage, and several others, but there is a galaxy of awesome illustrators and authors that will be there! I do all my Christmas shopping!

http://booksbythebanks.org/authors-confirmed.php

From Cash Kat

Show Opening at The Flats Art Gallery

Christina Wald, C.F. Payne, Jerry Dowling, Jeffrey Ebbeler

We had a great opening at The Flats Art Gallery Saturday. What a GREAT turnout!

If you missed it, we are having a closing event September 2nd.

The awesome crowd!

Me signing Animal Atlas next to some amazing C.F. Payne art!

The Illustrators Art Show at The Flats Gallery

Check out the Illustrators Art Show at The Flats Gallery on July 30th. Jeffrey Ebbeler and I will be signing books 5-7 and C. F. Payne and Jerry Dowling will be signing 7-9!

Check out the interview Channel 12 did with Jeffrey Ebbeler about the opening!

http://local12.com/news/good-morning-cincinnati/flats-art-gallery-hosts-the-illustrators-art-show-on-july-30

3028 Price Ave. in the Incline District.

Here are the details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1121858164501732/

I just dropped off my art today.

Some of my pieces...

Skipping Stones 2016 Book Award for Camas and Sage!

My book Camas and Sage (written by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent) got a Skipping Stones 2016 book award in Nature and Ecology.

It also was featured on HuffPost Books: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-cobb/where-the-buffalo-roam_b_9659668.html

Stream the Segment on CET

The crew out sketching

 The segment about my illustration and process mentioned in the last post is up! CET did a great job and were wonderful to work with.


http://watch.cetconnect.org/video/2365767897

arts Bridge This Weekend on CET

I will be featured in a segment of arts Bridge this weekend. I hope I  do not seem too tongue-tied. 

Episode Schedule

Saturday May 28:  6PM on Channel 48

Sunday May 29: 5:30PM on Channel 16 and 8PMon Channel 48.3 (CET Arts)

Monday May 30: 8AM, 1PM, and 5 PM on Channel 48.3 (CET Arts)

Tuesday May 31: 10AM, 3PM, and 10PM on Channel 48.3 (CET Arts)

It should be available to stream after. I will post a link when it is available.

May the Fourth Be With You Star Wars Tribute Show

Tortured Dreams

Right before The Force Awakens came out, Kevin Necessary and I talked about doing a Star Wars tribute show. We knew at the time, we were too crazy busy to do it but the topic kept coming up and Kevin suggested having his good friends at Brew House host the show.

Fortunately for us, they were up for it! Next, we had to cajole our many busy artist friends to participate. We are overwhelmed with the results!

See the total artist list here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1055581011181549/

Also, Anthony "Tank" Mansfield, Jaimie Filer, Justin Stewart and I will be making live art during the show.

The show is at Brew House on 1047 East McMillan from 6-1l.

I will be auctioning off my live art to Force for Change and BH will also be donating a portion of food and drink sales plus any other donations.

Most of the art on the wall is for sale too. I have five new Star Wars pieces up.

Finn from The Force Awakens

Fabrication

West End Star Wars Game Books with my art

It is fun to dip my toes into the Star Wars universe once again. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I did quite a bit of illustration for the Star Wars RPG for West End Games. Interior art and card inserts for 13 books to be exact. I only show 12 here because that makes a nice block and I cannot remember the last.

Hope to see everyone on the 4th!

A piece from Operation: Elrood; one of my favorites done all old school in marker, ink, pencil and airbrush

Nice coverage by WCPO here on their site!

http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/may-the-fourth-be-with-you-local-artists-unite-for-star-wars-tribute-show

Finally, every artist wrote a blurb about what Star Wars meant to them and a favorite quote. Here is mine:

Camas and Sage on Huffpost Books!!

How cool is that?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-cobb/where-the-buffalo-roam_b_9659668.html

Happy Easter!

I am way behind on blog posts here. I tend to post way more to Tumblr, not sure why...

Anyway, Happy Easter!

Perhaps this is a sequel to last year? Part on me thinks I may have been one of those bunny drawing monks in a past life…

By the way, Cash Kat is out! I will do a more formal post soon!

The San Diego Zoo Centennial Book is Out!!!

Book Cover

The book I illustrated for the San Diego Zoo for their Centennial Celebration is out! It was an amazing project to work on and the author, Shari Lyon is wonderful.

Here are a couple spreads:

It is about a Galapagos turtle named Speed and a baby orangutan named Pongo who travel through the zoo at night reminiscing about the first animals brought there.

Here it is on display at the zoo. I hope to do a signing there soon. You can buy it here: http://shopsandiegozoo.com/collections/centennial/products/childrens-book-cd-paws-hoofs-and-wings

Surrounded by hero plushes!

Shari with a couple fans...

Holiday Wishes!

2015 has been a crazy year; wonderful in so many ways! The biggest is I have my hearing back thanks to Dr. CaJacob's skilled hands! I also have tiny titanium implants in my ears, which is way cool! I have otosclerosis, a hereditary hearing loss which causes the ear bones to calcify and preventing the sound waves from getting to the cochleas. Now I can hear normally; it is amazing and no more hearing aids!


It looks like it will be another crazy year in 2016. I have a lot of great things lined up and am kicking things off with a trip to Costa Rica with some friends and a university group.

I plan to do a lot of sketching and painting while there.

Here is a sketch from recent trip to the Krohn Conservatory with a group of fabulous ladies. Their holiday display is extraordinary and they add to it every year.

Final sketch...

On location

Sarah, me, Amy, Anisha, and Vanessa

Camus and Sage is Available!

Bison in winter...

Camus and Sage is out! Order it signed from the link to the left.

It was written by amazing non-fiction writer Dorothy Hinshaw Patent.

Here is a nice mention from the CBC website in their Hot off the Press feature:  http://www.cbcbooks.org/cbc_book/camas-sage-a-story-of-bison-life-on-the-prairie/#.VmnWcL-odWV

Live Art at AASL

Final Painting

Arbordale Publishing asked me to do a signing at their booth at AASL in November.

I did a little live painting in the booth. It was a fun day!

I am currently sinking my teeth into another book for them out next fall. Details soon!

The Arbordale Crew

Travel Fever and Zoo Sketches

Adorable, shell shocked baby fox

I went to the Cincinnati Zoo with Amy Bogard and Robin Ewers Carnes Friday to get some live sketching in on a beautiful day!

The animals were delightfully active and it was a good day to be out in peak fall color.

I was particularly obsessed with the baby gray fox above. He looked so new and vulnerable. He eventually curled up and had the pose my cat has when he is settling down with his ears in the owl position.

Our other favorites were the merekats, the lions, the African painted dogs and the Visayan warty pigs.

A composite of my sketches from my mini-sketchbook

We also saw the Sumatran Rhino before he leaves this Thursday for Indonesia.

He was pretty chill and enjoying a spa day in his mud bath...

Farewell Harry!

See all of our artwork here on the Cincinnati Illustrators Blog!

Wrestling lion cubs-too cute!

In other news, I am planning to go to Costa Rica the beginning of January. I am still playing the airfare chess game, so hopefully I can get a good deal. It would better be described as a shell game. I think the artificial intelligence that puts together these flight legs is some kind of sadist. It is a system designed to give you kind of what you are looking for but deliberately not.

I look forward to sketching there!

Cincinnati SCBWI Lecture

 

From Cash Kat out in 2016!

 I am going to be speaking about my experience illustrating for children's books at the Cincinnati SCBWI meeting, 7pm Tuesday, Oct 13th at the Sharonville Library.

It is free and open to the public. I hope to see you there!

From the newsletter:

The next meeting for the Cincinnati SCBWI group is Tuesday, October 13 at the Sharonville Library from 7 pm - 8:45 pm.

Our speaker is Christina Wald, a local children’s book illustrator who specializes in animal and science work. She’s a prolific artist with over 20 years’ experience in the field and has worked with numerous major publishers including Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Hachette, Penguin, and National Geographic, as well as on smaller-scale projects directly with authors.

Christina will talk about how she became a children’s book illustrator and what it’s like to work on a picture book from start to finish, including how she works with writers and publishers.

If you would like to have Christina sign one of her books, please feel free to buy it ahead of time and bring it to the meeting. We’ll leave time at the end for her to sign.

To learn more about Christina and the amazing books she’s illustrated, please visit her website: http://www. christinawald.com/ or her blog: http://christinawald.blogspot.com/