Archive for the ‘Updates’ Category

New lettering projects

I’m excited to share a few recent hand-lettering projects. These were all done for book covers over the last few months (the book cover process can be lengthy, and often have to wait for some time before sharing these projects-so it’s always an exciting reveal!)

 

SECRETS AT SEA is a wonderful middle-grade novel by award winning author Richard Peck. And I was lucky enough, as the jacket designer, to get to work with the fabulously talented Kelly Murphy on her amazing jacket and interior illustrations. (She’s so wonderful! Please check her out at http://www.kelmurphy.com/)

 

The nature of the story and the art lent itself to a hand-lettered type style, so my Art Director commissioned me to create the title. I’m happy to share, too, that this super sweet book has been getting 4-star reviews!

 

cover illustration © Kelly Murphy

 

Over the summer I also worked on a lead title for Sourcebooks. The project has since been postponed and I’m not sure I’ll have the opportunity to revisit the design/image, so for now just giving a peek at the title type I created. This is a great book, and I really loved working on this one. I’ll be excited to see how the final ends up.

 

 

And this last one was initially part of the Sophie’s Mixed-Up Magic illustrations in initial rounds before they were killed.

 

“Sea”sons Greetings

It’s hard to believe, but the holidays are just around the corner! I don’t usually get into a seasonal mood until much closer to December, but this year I’d like to try to get some holiday promos out and also post some seasonal greeting cards and small prints for sale. So, I’ve already begun thinking about potential images, and have found myself feeling inspired by a “sea-creature” theme…here’s one in-progress!

 

Road Trippin’!

Counting down the moments until I leave at the end of the week for an amazing west coast road trip! I have always ALWAYS wanted to drive down the California coast—and it’s finally happening! I fly out to Portland on Friday, and we’ll be making our way down to San Diego over the following week—stopping along the way to see some friends and lots of new places: Napa Valley, San Francisco, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica…might even cross the border and hit up TJ!

 

In anticipation, I created this new little illo!

 

 

 

I’m incredibly excited for this adventure to begin—and hope to come back with loads of beautiful pictures, and even more inspiration!

 

In the meantime, I’ve been working on a new promo mailer, and getting together some items to open both an Etsy and Zazzle shop in September; Ready to kick start some big plans I have for this upcoming year, so please stayed tuned!

A busy summer it’s been…

It’s hard to believe we’re already well into July; harder to believe I’ve been too busy to keep up with my blog over the last month!

 

I have been hard at work on some exciting new things, though. First, I’ve been designing a YA fiction cover for Sourcebooks—It’s still in the works, so I can’t really share much just yet—but the project gave me the chance to create some super cool stock-photo imagery and hand-lettering. I’ll be excited to share once it’s finalized and released!

 

I also have been working on cover illustrations for a middle grade series at Penguin. These books also won’t be released for some time, so I also can’t really share too many specifics— but basically they allowed for tons of fun imagery to play with: magic lamps, flying carpets….and a great project for me to develop a character in my style! These are 2 of the final illustrations:

Unfortunately, though the Art Director and Publisher were super happy with these illos, they didn’t make it past the sales and marketing team, who felt that this genre of book would be more competitive as a paperback series if treated with a photographic approach instead. So, my illustrations were killed, but I had a blast creating these pieces anyway and am super happy to be able to add them to my portfolio.

 

Also want to share a few of the preliminary sample pieces and sketches that I did as part of the process.

I had to actually pitch myself at the beginning of the project anonymously to my creative director and publisher-along with other alternate artists, which was an interesting experience! I created these tailor-made samples to add into the mix and win out the job:

And, I went through several round of sketches to first develop the character, and then nail down concepts for each of the 3 books. Here’s a few sketches from various stages of the process:

I really enjoyed creating pieces that target this middle-grade girl audience, so looking forward to doing more in this realm!

New Projects

I’ve just gotten 2 big, super exciting jobs that I’m diving into! I’m illustrating covers for a 3-book series for Penguin, and also hand-drawing type & designing an awesome lead title for Sourcebooks. So, I may be a bit sporadic with updates over the next few busy weeks, but can’t wait until I’m able to share more details about these projects!        

Welcome to my new site!

I’ve finally launched my new website! It’s got a whole new look, includes tons of new illustration, fine art & design work—and the new format will be much easier for me to make regular updates. Plus, I’ve integrated my blog with the new site so you can find everything right here! Please be sure to bookmark and subscribe to my feed to continue to get updates on my new work. I’ll no longer be posting to my previous blog, but please look there to see older posts and archives: www.jeaninehenderson.blogspot.com.

 

I’m hoping to tweak a few things about the new design over the next few months—but do take a look and feel free to let me know your thoughts!

 

Also, I’ve recently (or more like finally!) joined the social media world!

I’ve launched a Facebook page for my illustration work, and you can follow me on Twitter too, @jeaninehender.

 

Thanks for checking out my work!

 

All artwork copyrighted. Please do not use without permission