My friend Audrey offered me this amazingly gorgeous box of Japanese candy. I don’t eat candy, so I declined—but asked if I could photograph it first. So so lovely!

My personal Wild Thing by Maurice Sendak. 

He encouraged my teenage portfolio & autographed my “Where The Wild Things Are” book.

For me the funny part is that during my college years I left the book at home, and thought I remembered it said “Good Luck!” Only later did I rediscover the “Work Hard!” part.

Here’s a great shot of MCKIBILLO’s NaniBirds. LOVE them! See nearby for more info on MCKIBILLO and his NaniBird papercraft collaborative project.

The #DigitalArtistSpotlight 10 is Josh McKible (aka “MCKIBILLO”)

MCKIBILLO is a portmanteau of his last name “McKible” and “illo” (slang term for illustration, from his days of being an art director at various magazines around NYC).

MCKIBILLO does all sorts of terrific digital art, a lot of it vectors done in Illustrator (his site below). He describes himself as “an editorial illustrator that specializes in infographics (and conceptual) assignments.” But he also calls himself a “papercraft enthusiast”—and this spotlight focuses on his wonderful papertoy creations, the NaniBirds. The NaniBirds are a series of collaborative (free) designs for people to build, as well as templates for designing and assembling their own papercraft toys. 

He says of this project “When I first designed my NaniBird template I wanted it to be a platform for design, specifically so I could see what other designers would do with it. With that in mind, I tried to make a compelling yet accessible form. For me, the profile was key to the shape of my NaniBird and I spent a lot of time refining it’s silhouette. But still, I needed to think about my papertoy like a little sculpture, considering all sides of the design. In coming up with your design, think about someone literally turning the piece around in their hand, examining it from every angle.”

I love the elegance and the humor combined—not to mention how my soul warms to collaborative projects. Hope you enjoy! 

http://www.illoz.com/mckibillo/?section=portfolios&gallery_id=1350

http://www.nanibird.com/
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Digital-Artist-NaniBird-tutorial/525573
http://twitter.com/mckibillo
http://mckibillo.tumblr.com/

More about the #DigitalArtistSpotlight 

As an artist and author, one of my favorite roles is that of curator. For my books I’m always looking for wonderful artists and designers to work with. And so I decided to not wait for a book, but just to get the word out about some wonderful digital artists.

In twitter threads on the first Thursday of the month I’ll be choosing a Digital Artist Spotlights for the week, and then retweeting on that Friday. Spotlight artists will also be posted on my pintarest, Facebook and tumblr pages (see below). Follow me @SharonSteuer to help spread the word about these wonderful artists:

Previously spotlighted artists:

Kim Rosen

http://www.kimrosen.com/editorial-advertising

http://twitter.com/kimrosenillos

http://www.kimrosen.blogspot.com
http://www.illoz.com/kimrosen
http://kimrosen.tumblr.com/

George Coghill 
http://coghillcartooning.com/cartooning/portfolio/cartoon-logos

http://twitter.com/gcoghill
http://dribbble.com/gcoghill
http://flic.kr/coghillcartooning

Sabine Reinhart 
http://www.sabinereinhart.de
http://twitter.com/SabineReinhart 
also: http://twitter.com/Patterrific and http://twitter.com/Floralcy
http://www.facebook.com/sabine.reinhart1

The 24+ artist members of the collective @Stikalicious
http://bit.ly/xvR3ZX

Together their work can be customized and combined in their Character-based Wallpaper App: http://bit.ly/xvR3ZX 
Watch a demo of their product here: bit.ly/wWgU5O
http://www.facebook.com/Stikalicious

Lee Daniels Art
http://twitter.com/LeeDanielsART
http://www.leedanielsart.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LeeDanielsART

Yukio Miyamoto
http://venus.oracchi.com/Illustrator/index.html
https://twitter.com/#!/Meiste_Yukio/
(this about his cool TShirts!): http://vimeo.com/31653294

Joe Shoulak
http://www.joeshoulak.com/
http://twitter.com/joegraphics 

Steve Talkowski
http://sketchbot.blogspot.com/  
http://twitter.com/SteveTalkowski 
http://www.facebook.com/SteveTalkowski

Chris Leavens
http://www.chrisleavens.com/
http://twitter.com/chrisleavens  
http://www.facebook.com/chris.leavens.art

Wonderful work, all of you! Stay tuned for more!

All my best,
Sharon Steuer

http://twitter.com/SharonSteuer
http://www.facebook.com/SharonSteuer
http://pinterest.com/sharonsteuer/
http://ssteuer.tumblr.com/
www.ssteuer.com 

P.S. Feel free to tweet me your own nominations for future spotlights!

The #DigitalArtistSpotlight 9 is Kim Rosen!

I love how Kim Rosen’s work melds traditional and digital tools.

First she draws all of her line work with pencil on paper. Then, using a light table, she works on separate pieces of paper on top of the pencil drawing to creates pastel and acrylic textures that align with her line work. She then scans in the pencil drawing, each of the color  versions, and found textures, and puts each into a separate layer in Photoshop. About how she works in Photoshop, Kim says “I compile all the layers in PS and add digital color. I pretty much know what I’m going to end up with, but at the same time there are a lot of “happy accidents’ that happen with the textures and layers that I can’t predict in the beginning stages. All of my final illustrations end up being digital in the end.”

Thank you Kim!

http://www.kimrosen.com/editorial-advertising
http://twitter.com/kimrosenillos

http://www.kimrosen.blogspot.com
http://www.illoz.com/kimrosen
http://kimrosen.tumblr.com/

More about the #DigitalArtistSpotlight 

#DigitalSpotlight 9: Kim Rosen 
This lovely piece integrates traditional and digital art-making techniques

(See the nearby post for short interview with Kim, plus links for her and the #DigitalArtistSpotlight previous artists)  

kimrosen:

World Sparrow Day is March 20th.
Here is a poster I illustrated to help Mohammed Dilawar spread the word about the decline of the common birds of India.

An artist in the making (and/or inventor?) reminds me of my friend Miles Epstein… worth watching through his fans show up!

npr:

A 9-year-old boy who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto parts store is about to have the best day of his life.

—————-

This is fantastic. My faith in humanity is restored. — Tanya

untappedcities:

Good Food in the Microhood:

Polk Gulch Errands, Art and Tea

by sharon steuer (pictures & words) and jeff jacoby (sound)

Read more.

The #DigitalArtistSpotlight 8 is:

George Coghill
Custom Cartoon Character Logos & more!

http://coghillcartooning.com/cartooning/portfolio/cartoon-logos
http://twitter.com/gcoghill
http://dribbble.com/gcoghill
http://flic.kr/coghillcartooning

_____________

More about the #DigitalArtistSpotlight 

As an artist and author, one of my favorite roles is that of curator. For my books I’m always looking for wonderful artists and designers to work with. And so I decided to not wait for a book, but just to get the word out about some wonderful digital artists.

In twitter threads on the first Thursday of the month I’ll be choosing a Digital Artist Spotlights for the week, and then retweeting on that Friday. Spotlight artists will also be posted on my pintarest, Facebook and tumblr pages (see below). Follow me @SharonSteuer to help spread the word about these wonderful artists:

Previously spotlighted artists:

Sabine Reinhart
http://www.sabinereinhart.de
http://twitter.com/SabineReinhart
also: http://twitter.com/Patterrific and http://twitter.com/Floralcy
http://www.facebook.com/sabine.reinhart1

The 24+ artist members of the collective @Stikalicious
http://bit.ly/xvR3ZX

Together their work can be customized and combined in their Character-based Wallpaper App: http://bit.ly/xvR3ZX
Watch a demo of their product here: bit.ly/wWgU5O
http://www.facebook.com/Stikalicious

Lee Daniels Art
http://twitter.com/LeeDanielsART
http://www.leedanielsart.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LeeDanielsART

Yukio Miyamoto
http://venus.oracchi.com/Illustrator/index.html
https://twitter.com/#!/Meiste_Yukio/
(this about his cool TShirts!): http://vimeo.com/31653294

Joe Shoulak
http://www.joeshoulak.com/
http://twitter.com/joegraphics 

Steve Talkowski
http://sketchbot.blogspot.com/  
http://twitter.com/SteveTalkowski 
http://www.facebook.com/SteveTalkowski

Chris Leavens
http://www.chrisleavens.com/
http://twitter.com/chrisleavens  
http://www.facebook.com/chris.leavens.art

Wonderful work, all of you! Stay tuned for more!

All my best,
Sharon Steuer

http://twitter.com/SharonSteuer
http://www.facebook.com/SharonSteuer
http://pinterest.com/sharonsteuer/
http://ssteuer.tumblr.com/
www.ssteuer.com 

P.S. Feel free to tweet me your own nominations for future spotlights!