t's so important to learn from others as your career grows. I am constantly looking at other people's work, getting their advice and running with it. Someone who has opened my eyes to a lot of things is Dani. She gets down to the nitty gritty of stuff and it shows in her work. I am constanty bookmarking her blog posts to keep as reference. I've implemented some of her suggestions and her post today was fantastic!

I've somewhat become a literal type of illustrator and I think doing educational work has pushed me to that somewhat. Not nessasarily because it's required but I've just gotten, for lack of a better word, scared to do too much crazy stuff with style and color. There seems to be a lot of restrictions with it. I remember one project where the publisher was on a war path for NO COWLICKS on the children's heads! I am slowly breaking out of that frame of mind when I sit down to sketch a project out. I've recently been using more color for instance. A school desk doesn't have to be beigy-brown like they are in reality. They can be blue, green, purple or even polka-dot, well, maybe not polka-dot. A pencil doesn't always have to be yellow. And when I get stuck drawing something I just can't seem to draw right, I look at other illustrations and see how the illustrator's drew their's. It helps me break out of the mode of "this chicken must look exactly like an actual chicken." I can see that I can add my own spin on it and make the chicken a little funky or funny and it's ok.

Since I also do illlustration work "outside" the computer, I watch/DVR a lot of crafting shows. I've learned several techniques from That's Clever that I apply to my clay and found object work. I also watch kids show, along with my daughter, to see what's working for the kids market these days. What styles and colors are they using. When I watch Sesame Street I usually come up with an idea for an illustration. It just really gets my mind thinking.