Feliz Navidad

Few things feel as Christmasy to me as the Little Women soundtrack. When we were little my mom used to put that movie on to keep us quiet while she got everything ready for guests coming over. Then when I got older she just made me peel potatoes instead.



Also, thanks for all of the response to French Ducks in Venice and to the trailer. Slowly posting up the illustrations here, but they're on my portfolio site as well. Thanks for listening me talk about books nonstop.

Looking forward to a new year, as I do every year. Looking forward to making new art and new friends and cooking more vegetables.

I hope everyone has a safe, cozy, and peaceful holiday.

French Ducks Book Trailer

French Ducks in Venice is now released! Check out the book trailer we worked on here:



In addition, we've posted more information about the book at http://frenchducks.com/

Thank you to everyone for your interest and support. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed illustrating it.

French Ducks in Venice, Tomorrow!

French Ducks in Venice is released this week!

More soon :)

-Erin

NPR Backseat Book Club

First off, good news!



Breadcrumbs is National Public Radio's December pick for their new Backseat Book Club! To sum up the new book club for kids:

"Each month we choose a book and ask young people and their parents to read along with us. And by young people, we mean all those 9- to 14-year-olds who listen to NPR programs while riding in the car or working on homework at the kitchen table."

So awesome! I love NPR, I was one of those backseat listeners for most of my life, and it's great to see Anne's book be part of a new great tradition.

Apart from that, just gearing up for French Ducks to be released in two weeks (!!!) and getting ready for the holidays in general. I designed a little invite at work for our company holiday party. Always an excuse to draw a classy lady.




Til next time, take care!

Site Redesign

Hey everyone!
Just letting you know that my portfolio website EMCGUIRE.NET has been updated with a whole new layout and new work.

So check out WWW.EMCGUIRE.NET and enjoy.

In other happy news, Breadcrumbs was picked as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2011!

October

A quick Friday sketch. Trying to stay loose. I love really a graphic quality to illustration, but I find it hard to reign myself in sometimes. Rendering is just therapeutic, but sometimes gets me nowhere.

Fall is always a busy time for me, and this year is no exception. I'm going to my ol' alma mater- Ringling College of Art and Design, to give a talk about my career, doing children's books, and how to get hired at a studio. If you're in Sarasota on October 25th say hi.

I hope all are well.

Orcs Must Die!

And now, for a break from our usually scheduled illustrations for this special announcement:


My boyfriend Drew works at Robot Entertainment, and their first original game called Orcs Must Die! comes out today on X-Box, and next week on Steam.

I've always thought it's funny that while I draw mostly innocent stuff, Drew gets to paint monsters and orcs. So to bridge the gap, I drew a lil' baby orc to say Happy Release Day, and congrats to the whole studio for a really fun and original game!

Breadcrumbs comes out TODAY!

Breadcrumbs comes out TODAY!

If you are interested, you may procure a copy via your local friendly bookstore, or there's always Amazon :)

I want to take this chance to show a few more of the interior illustrations I completed for this project. In total, there are 10 of my illustrations throughout the book, and I am excited that they're finally released into the world.






Much has been said already about Breadcrumbs throughout the blogosphere, and indeed, a blog tour starting this week will continue reveal more, all more eloquently than I could. But as the illustrator, I want to throw in my $0.o2 and say that Anne Ursu's writing was a pleasure to illustrate. Already this book is getting all kinds of buzz (starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus) and it's all completely warranted. Her writing is the star of the show, I feel like I just got to do the icing on an already tasty cake. So go try this bookcake. Thank you.

I hope all are well.

Goodbye Summer

A little summery piece. Goodbye summer.

Fall means I start to get really busy again, but I don't mind. Currently packing up everything and moving next week across town. I look forward to setting up my studio area with Drew and cranking away on some new work.

Rosie

This may or may not be pretty much exactly what I wore today. Once I moved to Texas, so many people asked me if I had cowboy boots that I finally bought some so I could wear them with pride. They may or may not have rhinestones on them.

I hope all are well.

Lucky For Good

Written by Susan Patron, Illustrated by Erin McGuire
Published by Atheneum/Simon&Schuster

At Last! Lucky for Good is released! The last in the Higher Power of Lucky trilogy comes out this week, I hope fans of the first two enjoy the last chapter in the series.


A look at the full wrap around jacket, designed by the wonderful Sonia Chaghatzbanian :)


I also thought it'd be cool to show a few of the early cover sketches. The final ended up as a variation on the right sketch, adding some other characters, a happier Lucky, and a more appropriate setting. (Someone clearly hearts her!)

I illustrated all of the black and white interiors in the book, mostly in pencil with some digital touch ups. I got to draw kids, hot dogs, donkeys, cats, and who knows what else.

They are happy the book is released as well.

This is a busy fall for me, as Breadcrumbs is released next month, and French Ducks in Venice in December. Working on some other secret-but-exciting things currently.

I hope all are well, and surviving the summer heat.

RFXU Poster and more Breadcrumbs

Recruiting poster I created at work for our Apprentice Program. I started at Reel FX as a concept art apprentice in 2008, and it was quite the learning experience. Three years later, and I'm still happily working in Texas.

And, a bit of a Breadcrumbs round up-
I posted the cover to Breadcrumbs (written by Anne Ursu) previously, but since some interiors have been showing up in reviews around the internet, I'm excited to share a few of those as well.


But she was not alone. There was a palace just ahead, sitting in the middle of the plain like a gift. It was simple— a small square with a dome framed by four minarets. It looked like it had been sculpted out of snow.
Review and illustration posted at Laurel Snyder's Blog


For the snow was not snow anymore, but a woman—tall and lithe like a sketch, in a white fur cape and a white shimmering gown that looked so thin it would melt if you touched it. Hair like spun crystal framed cream-colored skin.
Review and illustration posted at Book Rat

And now, back to work. Hope all are well.

10 o clock art p2

Using twitter's 10 o'Clock art meme to warm up for the day. Here's a quick one. Enjoy!

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs is a middle grade novel by Anne Ursu, published by HarperCollins and Walden Pond Press, and illustrated by Yours Truly. The writing in this book is just beautiful, and I know 10 year old me would have absolutely loved it. Really, the illustrations for this one were a complete pleasure to work on, and I was lucky to work with Jordan Brown and Carla Weise at Harper who just pushed me to up the emotional ante on every piece. This book comes out in September.

Breadcrumbs is already getting some buzz round the internets, so here's just a few posts if you're inclined to see more illustrations and hear more about the story-

School Library Journal

There's a Book

Novel Novice

Mundie Kids

Close up from the cover, of our heroine, Hazel

Thanks for checking it out!

10 o clock art

For twitter's "10 o'clock art" meme

Odds and Ends

A few odds and ends and quicker studies-

Creepy Hallway


Summer Field






These are all a little different in approach. Having to constantly wear different styles in the commercial world results in a bit of an identity crisis in my own work. It's hard to "see" your own style, even if it's so apparent to other people. Now that things have lightened up a bit, I'm aiming to turn back to just creating some work for myself and figure out what kind of images I really want to make.

Circle of Secrets Cover

detail

I'm happy to share the final cover art for Circle of Secrets by Kimberley Griffiths Little and published by Scholastic Inc. The book will be available this October for your reading enjoyment. Here's the blurb from Amazon- Critically acclaimed author Kimberley Griffiths Little weaves a haunting story of friendship and family and the power of faith, once again set against the lush backdrop of the Lousiana bayou.

Also, since blue bottle trees play a vital role in the story, I did a spot to include on the back cover.



And here's a shot of the wraparound.

All in all this was a fast and fun project. Not including this cover, I'll have 3 books out this fall with my illustrations in them- French Ducks in Venice, Breadcrumbs, and Lucky for Good. No doubt I'll post more about them as their publication dates grow closer.

Hope all are well.

French Ducks in Venice

FRENCH DUCKS IN VENICE
Text copyright © 2011 by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Erin McGuire
Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

I'm proud to show the cover for French Ducks in Venice, published by Candlewick Press, and written by Garret Freymann-Weyr. The book is up on Amazon already, though it won't be out until December. Lesson #1 from the publishing industry has been patience. I have 2 other books coming out this year, and a bunch next year, so hopefully blog readers won't mind being inundated with news.


I also took a screen grab from the Candlewick catalog to show all the nice things they've said about me. (I'm actually a concept artist, rather than a fine artist, but now I have something to aspire to :) )

I hope to have more news soon, but for now I'm just happy to put up some finished work! Between Reel FX and book work, I am as busy as ever, but hopefully this summer I can take some adventures and recharge a bit.

Hope all are well.

tantrums and braids

A fast entry, just a few things I've been sketching between projects.

yarr

My mornings start much like this. I will never be a morning person, but hungry kitties make efficient alarm clocks.


I also like drawing bored, ornery kids.

Did I tell you, dear blog, that I have a book club now? Coworkers Alison, Sarah, Elise, and the other ladies at Reel FX decided we should organize our reading efforts around snacks and fun times. It's a good way for me to read some new stuff and force myself to schedule in some reading time.

In between book club books, I'm trying to read or re-read as much YA and MG stuff as I can. If I'm going to draw pictures for that audience, it's nice to keep up on the industry. We all forget how hard it is to be a kid.

Working hard, enjoying spring in Dallas, and finishing some exciting stuff. Hope all are well.

Ides

I've been painting a lot of snow lately, and this sketch was almost another winter landscape. Then I realized I'd just finished a similar illustration for this book with HarperCollins, which will be out later this year. So I decided I'd save my snowy efforts for that book, and make this one thawing. It is spring, after all.

I have a lot of things coming out later this year, and the patience is killing me! I can't wait to share stuff with everyone, so this fall should be exciting for a few reasons. You can follow book releases on my Goodreads page, if you're so inclined.

Friday Sketch- Springtime

Friday Sketch at work was springtime. Us Florida girls are no strangers to rain like this. ;)

Yeah I am

This doesn't particularly look like me, but I felt like doing something self-portrait-esque. I included Ginny, my lil' buddy. She's a lil pudgy and has a crooked tail but she's still the best. I'm not a crazy cat lady :|

Real Drawrins!

Dr. Sketchy February Session. You can actually see this pose on the Dr. Sketchy Blog. As you can see, I didn't get her cane in there, but I thought it looked fine without it. (Though, it might just look like she's doing The Creep)





The model, Hollis Wakefield, was probably one of my favorite models we've had at Dr. Sketchy. She reminded me of old 50's and 60's fashion illustrations, so I had a lot of fun hanging out with Sarah and Elise and getting some drawrins done.

I think I have a different outlook on figure drawing compared to most. To me, it's like jogging to get ready for a race. The training is important, but the race is the point. Though, that being said, I sorely miss having time to sketch for fun. I guess that's the equivalent of skipping, in my running metaphor ;)

Hope all are well, I think Spring's just around the corner.

Signs of life

Bored girl and a scottie for good measure.

After a week of crazy weather for Dallas (before we hosted the Super Bowl, no less), I'm finally feeling back in the zone of making more art.

Drew and I had a great (but cold) time in New York City for the big SCBWI conference. I feel focused and inspired, and excited to tackle the projects on my plate. It's good to remember that you can't let the well run dry, and time spent getting inspired can be more worthwhile than hours drawing in circles and getting nowhere.


Me at the Met, checkin out Joan of Arc

We also got to spend time with our friend Chase, a former Reel FX'er who showed us the ropes a bit. And, I finally got to meet my agent Susan Cohen, which was really cool considering how much we've worked together without having met. Seeing the Writers House offices was one of the highlights of the trip.

As for the conference, it wasn't so much of a "networking" opportunity, as it was a chance to get a pulse on the publishing industry, and where it's heading next. Also, keynote addresses from RL Stine and Lois Lowry can't hurt.

I wrapped up my first picture book with Candlewick, and am hard at work on two projects with HarperCollins. In addition, I should have a book out this year from Simon & Schuster (the newest in the Lucky Trilogy), and a cover with Scholastic. In the midst of all of this, I hope that 2011 is the year I focus on some personal projects as well. Trying to pick a new travel destination as well. Maybe Ireland to visit my people. ;)

Hope all are well and staying warm!

2011

A belated Happy New Year to you, blogosphere. Here's a sketch playing with some new brushes in Photoshop. This came from a combination of seeing True Grit, and driving through the bleak Texas landscapes on my way to Austin last month to see Michael Pollan give a talk.

I'd say the only thing that comes close to my dedication to illustration is my interest in food, and the science, politics, and preparation of it. I think I must drive my friends and coworkers crazy when I get going about something, but it really is fascinating to me.

I'm happy it is 2011, 2010 was an insanely busy year for me. In addition to working full time at Reel FX/Radium, I worked on 7 book projects across 5 publishers. If nothing else, I got a crash course in time management, so hopefully 2011 is the year of balance, improvement, and developing my own projects as well.

Heading to New York City for SCBWI at the end of the month with Drew. So much to do before then!