sara wood illustration and design

Autumn Weekends

2011-10-24T23:15:00.000-04:00

The last couple of weekends were spent with family in Pennsylvania, and I'm so glad that we were able to get a healthy taste of *genuine* autumn—something that's easy to forget about here in concrete-covered New York. The following photos were taken at Terrain @ Styer's in Glen Mills and Highland Orchards in West Chester.

The Great American Cookbook

2011-10-11T23:38:00.002-04:00

Today marks the release of The Great American Cookbook by Clementine Paddleford, and it was described by its publisher, Rizzoli USA, as "The first and greatest book of regional American cuisine, now revised for today’s home cook."

Hana Anouk Nakamura from Mucca Design contacted me to do some silhouette illustrations of food, people, and animals, and I was pretty much over-the-moon about it—who doesn't love drawing food? And besides, I really could draw silhouettes all day long. Not *all* of my drawings appear to have been used in the final book, but I was very pleased to receive a beautifully printed copy the other day, and am already excited to try such old-timey, Americana recipes as "Mrs. Morton's Apple Crisp Pudding" and "Souffléd Macaroni and Cheese." Get ready, arteries.

Thanks again Hana! This was a particularly fun one.

Werk.

2011-10-05T00:23:00.001-04:00

It was at about this time last year that I started an in-house freelance job at HarperCollins, working on a specific yet large-scale project that involved dozens of reprints & repackages of Agatha Christie mysteries, which were to be marketed to a younger audience. While some of the titles would be adopting cover designs from the UK, they all needed a new, more consistently branded look, to be resized to fit Harper Paperback trim sizes, and quite a few of the books needed completely new designs/illustrations. It was a really wonderful experience—the Harper art department is full of some of the industry's most talented designers, and they're straight-up great people as well. Robin Bilardello was my brilliant art director/cheerleader throughout the whole process, and that experience alone was worth its weight in gold. Robin=the best. Here are a few of my favorite repackages:

These were all done in only a couple of weeks, as the deadline was reeeeaaaaaally tight to send them off to print. I finished these covers at the end of February, and they were printed and on bookstore shelves by mid-April. That's about one nanosecond in publishing time! Typically covers are designed about one year before they're scheduled to be published.

Speaking of working ahead of time, this is a cover that I designed/illustrated for Scholastic (whose Creative Director is the absolutely wonderful Elizabeth Parisi) at about this time last year, and it's not coming out until March 2012—nearly two years later:

That's all for now; hopefully I can put together a couple of process posts soon, since I've got mountains and mountains of comps for a few of my recent Penguin titles...

WHAT UP?!

2011-10-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

Oh my—it's been a mortifyingly long time since I've posted. Life, you know? Changes.
Here's what's changed:

I got married.

To the wonderful Jim Tierney!

...Then we went on an English honeymoon.

Two of my sisters had babies within a month of each other.

We inherited a cat named Tawny.

And then summer ended rather quietly.

Autumn is here though, bringing with it all new changes! I'm happy to report that I'm finally able to share a lot of the work that I've done in the last few months, so that'll be yet another big, honking post. Please bear with me while I play 2011 catch-up! I'm definitely ready to get back into the swing of things...

All wedding photos © Amy DiLorenzo; all other photos by me.

Ms. Koko

2011-01-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

So I've had a lot of really exciting stuff happen in the last few weeks, and 2011 is already proving to be very busy and full of many promises, but I'm going to hold off on a full update (and believe me, there's a lot to update...). I'm going to hold off because I was just looking through some old photos/illustrations on my Flickr, and there's something that I must share right now: a little 3-page comic that I did about my dog Koko. This piece is from junior year at UArts I believe, in Christine Larsen's sequential class, and I want to share it because even though it's silly/poorly drawn, it's about my favorite animal in the whole-wide-world, Ms. Koko Wood. Enjoy.

I'll be back soon for a legit post, but I just wanted to spread some Koko love.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T22:31:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all stuff yourselves silly, shower your loved ones with presents, and have a generally joy-filled holiday. You deserve it. Roll on, 2011!

P.S. I started a twitter page... Did you know? Follow me @woodsarawood if you feel like it. :)

All hands

2010-11-24T09:53:00.001-05:00

Man, hands are a tough render to begin with, but they're particularly challenging when you're rusty. And tired. This was a quick one for Redbird — they love giving me only a couple of days to complete a poster! I suppose that's why I kept it so clean and simple...

Typefaces used: Brandon Grotesque & SignPainter

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanks Barnes & Noble!

2010-11-13T15:21:00.002-05:00

Some of my covers are finally visible on B&N.com (and Amazon, etc.)! It's like Christmas come early... I actually can't wait until this doesn't fill me with glee. The fact that it does is just a mark of my status as a complete book design novice.

For Oxford University Press, where I worked from June-September (pardon the quality, they're actually grabbed from bn.com or Amazon):

The above covers were art directed by Rachel Perkins, Geronna Lyte, or Eduardo Nemeth, and all images were provided by the authors or Shutterstock.

Here's another that I did for Jim Massey over at Three Rivers Press, an imprint of Crown Publishing/Random House:

As you can see, none of these have any illustrations by me, but very very soon the first batch of my project at Harper will be coming out, and I'll be able to share those covers with you, as well as a couple more things that I've worked on in the last 6 months. Fun, right?

P.S. Check out this interview I did with Daniel Fishel over at the Non-slick blog! It also appeared on yesterday's "Something for the Weekend" post on The Casual Optimist. Mmm, book talk...

Pumpkin roll

2010-10-25T14:27:00.000-04:00

Awwww yeah, it's fall. This was the first October weekend wherein which Jimmy and I were free from work/family/whatever obligations, so we took some time to enjoy ourselves and the season while I shot a roll. My camera managed to stay put on the first frame for the first 5 shots or so, despite my efforts to advance the film, so my first photo came out as a bit of a surprise. Thanks little OM-10!

(This is the spot where Jimmy proposed to me back in June. Right there... on that bit of grass in Prospect Park.)

It was all very nice. I have to say though, I am really looking forward to next weekend. What up DC?!

UPPERCASE

2010-10-23T22:34:00.001-04:00

Hey, remember that little sneak peak I gave you a couple of posts ago? Well here are the deets:

Janine Vangool, the publisher/editor/designer extraordinaire behind the beautifully curated UPPERCASE magazine, contacted me about participating in a super fun feature for issue 7, called "I'm Feeling Bookish." The idea was to design a book cover for not just any old story, but for my story. A self-portrait of sorts, in my favorite format. Of course I was thrilled, and I had a lot of fun figuring out what to do for it—would I focus on my love for cute things like hamster hands and baby turtles? My love for learning? My love for my 3 older sisters? I decided that I'd have the most fun exploring something that's actually been much on my mind as of late: my passive gluttony. I just plain love food. (Ask my jeans... they'll tell you.)

Yep, any excuse to draw my favorite foods, and I'll take it. Anyway, it was a fabulous opportunity, and I can't thank Janine enough for including me. I was in great company as well, sandwiched between my 2 supreme favorites, the suave Jim Tierney and the Queen of Book Covers, Coralie Bickford-Smith! Check out how it looked in print (I'm including Jimmy's too, because he's my man):

Pretty great! Major thanks again to Janine, not only for the honor of inviting me to be a part of this, but also for being such a dedicated purveyor and promoter of beauty. Seriously, if you haven't subscribed to UPPERCASE yet, um, what exactly are you waiting for?

When in doubt, put triangles on it.

2010-10-12T09:40:00.002-04:00

This is my second gig poster in as many weeks. And yes, I put hipster triangle trees on it. No shame! This imagery just felt appropriate for this artist, this season, etc., etc.
Also, I feel like I'm cheating on my graphite, but grease pencils are definitely my go-to medium right now. Funny.

Gig poster: Gogol Bordello

2010-10-01T21:56:00.001-04:00

I've gotten a couple of gig poster jobs from Redbird in the last week, both with fairly tight deadlines. This one was sort of tossed together last night, but I'm very pleased with the result. Can't decide between the two different background colors though... Thoughts?

My inspiration came from Ukrainian folk art, since Gogol Bordello's lead singer is Ukrainian, and I couldn't resist indulging in those beautiful florals, bright colors, and lush decoration. Their music is fairly cooky and colorful, but quite rough in some ways as well, so I didn't want to make it all smooth and fluid, as in traditional Ukrainian folk art, and once again my handy-dandy grease pencil came to the rescue. I'm really liking it as drawing tool, as opposed to graphite, since I'm far less likely to get fussy and overly concerned with the perfection of my lines.

If you're curious, here are some examples of my inspiration:

(These beautiful images are from ..::Temple of Light::..)

More soon, promise! Some of my recent bizzy-ness is going to start coming to fruition in the next few weeks, which is super exciting.

I am not a wedding planner...

2010-09-13T00:52:00.000-04:00

But I am planning our wedding. To be fair, I'm getting a great deal of help from Jimmy and my family (particularly my mother—bless you Mamacita!), but in terms of general mood/aesthetic, I'm hoping to have an event that is, from start to finish, 100% us. Not someone else's translation of what Jimmy and I might want, but what we want. We're visual people; why wouldn't we design our own wedding day?

Since we have the venue set for early next summer and I'm very close to buying a wedding dress, I'm moving on to some of the other major details of the wedding: the cake, color schemes, flowers, and bridal party dresses. I had a bit of fun putting together a couple of inspiration boards to help me keep track of my thoughts about two of those details:

All images are from www.jcrew.com

Don't laugh at me, but I'm going to have six bridesmaids. I know that is a very high number, but hey—I have three older sisters, and there was no way that I was going to snub either them or my very closest friends, because I want all of them up there with me that day. So yes, six different personalities, body types, and personal styles to dress! I've always felt so opposed to the idea of having an army of bridesmaids, all wearing the same style dress in the same color, but unity is sort of important when it comes to dressing a bridal party. I've chosen a few grays to choose from, since gray is such a flexible and dynamic color, and with all of its various tones/values, it can complement so many different skin tones. I also think that having a variety of dress styles is important, to not only provide the freedom of choice, but also to ensure that every girl has a dress that she feels comfortable and hopefully even a bit unique in wearing. J. Crew has some really great options for those who favor a fresh, modern aesthetic, and the above options are what I'm really leaning towards: figure flattering and simple, with slight variations.

Floral images were plucked from Google, and the bouquet sample photo is from www.magnoliamarketonline.com

The floral selections were really fun to brainstorm. Now, because I haven't yet contacted a florist, I'm not quite sure what will be available in June, but my ideal bouquet would pretty much be what is pictured above. It includes peonies, which are just nature's most deliciously robust blossoms, peach stock, Queen Anne's lace, those funny little yellow lollipop flowers are called craspedia. The mixture of peachy salmon and golden yellow are so yummy against white and the bright, glossy green of early summer, and I think that they capture the right amount of freshness: perfect for our outdoor country wedding.

Thanks for bearing with me! This definitely won't be my last wedding inspiration post, I have to warn... This whole 'getting married' business is more or less consuming a portion of my life at the moment, and I'm rather enjoying it.

Last of the Summer Wine

2010-09-09T21:44:00.001-04:00

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy holiday this past weekend—Jimmy and I certainly did. We headed down to Coney Island on Labor Day to sort out photos for our save-the-date cards (coming soon!) and I took the opportunity to not only savor the absolutely idyllic weather, but also to use up a roll of film that I had knocking around.

Enjoy!

I tell you: there's really nothing quite like hand-painted type. So charming! So quirky! And Coney is absolutely full of it. We've gone down there and had a few overwhelming experiences in the past, on days where the crowds are just ridiculous, but Labor Day was a surprising exception, and it was actually really great. Take a trip to Coney Island, if you haven't been before! It's incredibly cheesy and fairly run-down, but as I said, it really is charming. It's like ramen noodles—kind of gross, but ultimately satisfying.

That's it for me for now I think, but I've definitely got some new stuff in the works, as always. More soon, for sure.

Night night!

Yummy sneak peek

2010-08-30T18:44:00.001-04:00

I just finished working on a special project, and I suppose you'll have to wait a bit to see the final result.

...But not before I give you a generous sneak peek!

Mmm, foooooooood... Come to think of it, the full thing might be a bit boring now. Ah well, I'll still save the explanation for later.

Manhattan

2010-08-17T09:43:00.001-04:00

I both love and hate it... The summer is difficult (perhaps this one in particular), because it's so incredibly sweaty and dirty, and there's almost no way of finding true comfort. But then the summer is also quite fun, because there are interesting events going on, and it feels as though everything is happening outdoors. I guess I just wish that it always felt like this Ella Fitzgerald song, with all of the charm and none of the grime:

Also, I shot a roll of film the first weekend in August, and didn't get around to scanning the prints until now. Mmm, reliving good times! Manhattan was charming that evening...

Another upside to living in New York: the live music opportunities. Jimmy and I saw Andrew Bird play in the rotunda at the Guggenheim, amidst a garden-like installation of Ian Schneller's gramophone sculptures. Sounds were looping, bouncing, vibrating... Yes, it was amazing. I didn't get any decent photos of the gramophones though, so I'm afraid you'll have to settle for these:

I have a special new project that I'll be working on in the next few days, so uh... stay tuned, I suppose.

The National

2010-08-12T09:32:00.001-04:00

I finally finished this poster! I know that it's very soft and undeniably girly, but I really couldn't help myself. I always use gig posters as an excuse to scratch whatever visual itch I've been having, and recently it was calligraphic illustration.

Drawings such as this were my inspiration. Continuous line, pure decoration... Mine is obviously nowhere near as intricate or refined, but it was certainly fun to try! I used a grease pencil (China marker) to give the drawn line a more interesting texture.

Case of the Mondays

2010-08-02T13:15:00.001-04:00

= blogging about the weekend on my lunch break. Jimmy and I had a lovely day out on Saturday. Can you tell that we heart Prospect Park?

Breakfast of ~~champions~~ cardiac patients. Well, I suppose it could be worse. But it certainly could be better...

Pigeons are obsessed with our fire escape.

Admiring other people's doggies.

I found a tattered little Red Admiral!

And discovered that I've still got it. You may call me the butterfly whisperer...

Mr. Tierney and the Audubon Center.

We've watched these signets grow up!

So pretty... And yet, so mean.

He's not though.

Sandwiches & Rufus.

2010-07-24T21:24:00.001-04:00

The other night Jimmy and I went to Prospect Park to attend a Rufus Wainwright concert. Now, we could have paid about $140 for tickets, but instead we just grabbed a blanket, a bottle of Sriracha, and a couple of Vietnamese sandwiches (can you tell that we dig those?) and we were set for an evening of free tunes. The concert was open-air, in the Prospect Park bandshell, and because it's so very close to our apartment, it was super easy for us to just trot over to the surrounding lawn, sprawl out with our blanket, and shamelessly mooch musical entertainment. It was great... Listening to Rufus Wainwright brings me back to the 9th grade, all the way. He even played some of the really great 'oldies' from both his first album and 'Poses', and I couldn't have been happier. Well, maybe I could have been happier if it weren't for this wicked crazy mosquito bite that I got that night, but I'll spare you the deets. How about some photos instead?

I had fun watching all of the planes pass overhead throughout the evening. They were all heading to JFK airport I presume, and passed by every other minute or so. I love airplanes! They always make me itch to pick up and fly off somewhere. Come on, honeymoon...

Prospect Park prospects from Sara Wood on Vimeo.

The Social Network

2010-07-19T12:27:00.000-04:00

So I'm sure that everyone and their brother has already seen this, but if you caught it only briefly before seeing "Inception" in theaters (as I did), then it's likely that you're still thinking about it. The trailer to "The Social Network":

I'd heard/read about this film before, and I knew what it would be about, but I had absolutely zero interest in seeing it. Until I saw this... What really snagged me was obviously the accompanying music: Radiohead's "Creep" as sung by a youth choir. The whole trailer is finely crafted though, and I can only assume that the film will be finely crafted as well. Roll on, October!

Cheers, CVS

2010-07-18T23:24:00.002-04:00

Tell me...is there anything more satisfying then getting a roll of film developed? When it goes correctly, of course. I've had my fair share of paying the folks at CVS $10 for a roll of blurry, dark, and completely unrecognizable exposures, but not this time. I finished off a roll on my Olympus OM-10 between yesterday and today, and had them developed this afternoon.

These little ones were out during a block party on our street on Saturday. There's a guy a couple of houses down who breeds birds, and we were lucky enough to see his itty-bittiest. Aren't they adorbz?

It must have been Baby Amminal Day, because we also got to see a few litters of rescued kittens as we walked through Union Square. The sun might have been setting, but the weather was still oppressively hot, and each little kitty had the benefit of a personal fan. That guy right there was just too cute, stretched out and overheated... He looked the way I felt.

It's a little touristy, but there really is no beating a trip to The Strand Bookstore. We spent quite a few hours in there last night, and by the time we had stepped out, it was already pretty late. We saw lots of great books though (including 'Impressive', which features the work of my friend Julie Malone), and I ended up coming home with a steeply discounted copy of John Connolly's 'The Book of Lost Things'.

Today was comparatively low-key (as any proper Sunday should be) and involved errands in the neighborhood and a stop at the local Vietnamese sandwich shop for some passion fruit bubble tea and refreshing summer rolls. It was great really... I could do without the heat though. I'm not really a fan of feeling the need to take another shower every time I step out the door.

Sorry for the photo overload! I got excited.

This is what rejection looks like

2010-07-15T18:47:00.001-04:00

So hey, while I'm not really in a position to share some of my recent work, I am in a position to show you some rejected comps. Heh. It's actually pretty amazing how much work one does that never gets used, published, or even heavily considered...

The guys of Ra Ra Riot asked if I'd like to try sketching up a t-shirt design idea "on spec" (read: for no cashmoneys unless they use it). You might have seen this poster that I did for them last summer, when I was about as inexperienced in working on real jobs as I possibly could have been, so it was fun to hear back from them again. That being said, I haven't heard a peep since I sent this over, so REJECTED. No worries, though! I had fun drawing this, and I fully expect to go to a refined finish, since I so enjoyed working with illustrative type. Mmm, hair...

I'm also working on a book cover illustration for Scholastic, believe it or not. It's still in progress, but I don't think there's any harm in sharing my rejected sketches... I was a big fan of these, but since the book is for 8-12 yr. olds, they were understandably deemed "too old" for the book. It's challenging designing a book cover for children!

Poor little sketches! Never to see the light of day... In the end, we decided on something that would most definitely appeal to the target audience. And the AD could not be nicer, which is always a great bonus.

Coming up soon: a gig poster design for The National? Yes. I need to get on that.

A whole lotta new

2010-07-14T14:10:00.003-04:00

I figured that it was high time for me to start a big girl blog. Tumblr is really great (and goodness, I love Tumblr), but I really needed a way in which to be more organized, more flexible, and more personally satisfied with my blogging habits. Also, this has been a time of great change for me, you know? I’ve graduated from art school, I’ve moved from Philadelphia to Brooklyn, started my career, and as of only a couple of weeks ago, Jim Tierney and I are engaged to be married! All of this, and it’s only been two months, so you can see why I want a legitimate blog for legitimate sharing of thoughts, news, recent work, and various noteworthy [internet] finds. I could start with a huge run-down of recent work, but to be honest, I’m not allowed to share very much of it just yet, so here’s a little peek into what I’ve been up to in the past few days:

Jimmy and I went on a quest to find a NYC beach that was a) not crowded and b) not horrible in every way. Success! After about 3 transfers and 1.5 hours on the subway, we got to Rockaway Park beach, which was really quite pleasant. We had ice cream cones barefoot on the boardwalk, and it was just... summer encapsulated. Any other recommendations regarding beaches that are public transport-accessible are more than welcome! It’s amazing how little we know about the area we live in.

THIS. This is a chocolate macaron with chocolate ganache filling. Egg whites. Cocoa. Sugar. So crisp, chewy, yummy and wonderful. I’d been meaning to try my hand at making these suckers for months and months, and I finally went for it for the first time using this David Lebovitz recipe. Try it! Do it. They’re delicious.

More soon!