Nate Williams + Illustration Mundo

Nate's Caderas pillow (means wide hips!)
from his company Hola Amiga

Lion and Molecules pillow

EFII podcast on Illustration Mundo site

Lucky me!! I just won a gorgeous pillow from Nate William's Give away on his blog. All his designs are so great - it was hard to decide which one to choose - but I finally settled on his Caderas design.
I have written about Nate Williams in previous posts. He is a very talented illustrator + the creator of Illustration Mundo: a wonderful site which is filled with lots of resources for illustrators plus a great search engine for art directors to find exactly the artist to fill the job.
(If there are any young illustrators out there reading this post --- I encourage you to join the site - pronto!)
Nate has a very interesting story in that he once worked crazy hours as a programmer in California before realizing he was unhappy and chucked it all to move to Buenos Aires to lead a more rich + fulfilling life.
You can hear all about his journey here in this EFII podcast.
Highly recommended listening. Very inspirational.

Inspiration! Chronicle Books Blog

Gasp! (as swiss miss would say)
Have just discovered The Chronicle Books Blog!!
Chock full of great stuff.
Really liked designer Suzanne LaGasa's recent post on Creative Projects for Rainy Days. Includes lots of suggestions for kick starting your creativity.

New Work: Indianapolis Monthly

My Illo done for Indianapolis Monthly

Inspirational piece from the CUTCO cook book published in 1961.

The top image is my illo for the Food section of Indianapolis Monthly.
The writer lamented the fact that when he tried to impress his friends by making cassolet he didn't know it took 5+ hours!
The Art director Margo Wininger requested a retro feel so I used a limited palette of black with yellow accents. This combo was used a lot in the 1950s + 1960s - have included an inspirational sample!
ps. I always find it kinda of ironic that this 1 colour technique was developed due to budget restraints with printing but we now use this limited palette by choice because it looks good!

New Work: Fitness magazine

A new piece for Fitness magazine for an article on how to sleep better.
This piece illustrates the technique of taking a bath at night. I based it on my own bathroom. :-)
Art director Tricia McGuinty Boyles.

You are not a Gadget

Very good interview on the Sunday Edition with Jaron Lanier author of You are Not a Gadget. He discussed the de-humanizing impact of social media. Argued that Facebook is very restrictive for kids - does not allow them room to reinvent themselves. Also expanded on the idea of digital Maoism: a term he has coined.
Very thought provoking (especially for people still attempting to make a living off their creativity)