Happy christmas!!

Elly car ride

This is the first part of today's illustration journey. It's a long way to go but it's a fun one!

Night lights

Love how this scene gives a sense of coziness for a late night chat. The story revolves around a kid whose dad is always oit at sea. This comforting flying kiss while sharing moms hug surely captures this golden moment.

Title :  my father the shape shifter

Publisher : lampara books manila 2013

Triangle Town

Here's a sneak peek for big book #2 which is currently in the drawing board. Got to fiddle around with paints and blending it witha hint of digital paints. Glad to be out of the screen for some time. Still deciding if i should blatantly outline all the triangles or keep them well-hidden in this picture. Welcome to 1/2 of triangle town!

Ten Polka-dot Zebras inside art

six green goats

Sneak peek at the inside art vs. Orig art of my newest book, 10 Polka-dot Zebras. The first title of our big book series, written by my lovely Haraya Ocampo-Tejido. Hope our baby Sophia enjoys counting our animals!

After doing around 50 picturebooks, this is my first big book, and it was a challenge considering the sheer size that wont make readers miss any details. You may have seen the previous post on how the complete pencils looked like. :)

Excited for his birthday

The forest march

I enjoyed creating the illusion of depth in this forest march. Timmy is excited for his birthday. Check back to see what happens after he hears a knock on the door...

My New book series

character studies for a series

Wish i could already tell more info on this but its still confidential. It's an exciting time as my new client and I are getting a fix on what the main characters will look like in this new project. If everything's good, I'll be hanging out with these guys for the next couple of months for my biggest book project yet. So give 'em your best pose guys! Follow my blog and see how these fellas are developed over the next few months. :)

Watercolor love

Fox boy

I am still riding on a journey through transformations of my style. Gladly, this time it's just for my medium. I still find watercolor works incomparable to digitally painted ones. It's the sense of lightness, warmth and sincerity that draws me into them. In the production side, i enjoy how the  characters seem to pop out of the sketchpad as if they were really here. So I guess it's the start of yet a new detour! Experimentations should happen in the couple of days with other anthromorphic fellas, and maybe some children characters too. :)

Heroes!

Heroes

My new set of hero-costumed kids of different ethnicities for an upcoming catalog :)

Goats building a boat

Goats building a boat

Something big's coming soon in the Manila International Bookfair. Am so eager to see all this in print! :)

Hamsters Sketch

Approved sketch!

Finally did my first pet shop illo. and was approved by the Korean publisher. For those who grew up considering pets stores to be a wonderland of delights, you'd probably relate to with my love and fascination for animals.  Watch out for the colors and vignettes coming soon!

Lions with crayons

Here's a sneak peek on my Think Big project. Lions are great subjects because of their flame- like hairdo. Something serene about this picture made me decide its the one I'd like to end with for print. Years ago I told myself I'd never draw each leaf of my trees. But in this current style it would just seem wrong not to. Same goes for hair strands and grass. I've found beauty in lines again.

Final lions with crayons

 Here's how the first study looked like, which I really enjoyed drawing. It lacked something though.

initial study of lions and crayons

Hamsters!

My first exciting project involving hairy creatures... hamsters! Heres my initial study drawn directly onto the layout to make sure nothing hits the text. Watch for updates coming soon, this is due end of July!

Reading time!

Reminiscent of the evenings when I read to Sophia, I found it a joy watching her climb the stairs on her own. She'd even look and check if I'm following right behind her. This illustration evolved from its original plan of having two big bears climbing up for a jar of honey on the highest step.

This will be part of my upcoming Think Big (A Big-Book trilogy) for toddlers. Hopefully we'll all get to see it in print for the Manila Int'l bookfair on September. :) Despite the very enticing digital art rendering, I'm trying to make this set of ten illos as handmade as possible.

Carrot Cakes!

Carrot Cakes! 

This is the fun part of dealing with warm , friendly and light characters. Reminiscent of my newfound love for carrot cakes, this is a sneak peek on my cityscapes. I am hoping to do an entire city aerial shot showing the hustle and bustle of different animals. But actual illo projects are coming in so i'm putting this experimentation to rest and start doing things for some actual publications. Updates are soon to come :)

Picnic illo: working backwards

Forest Picnic

Heres my second take. Keeping my daughter in mind, I'm trying to draw her in different situations. This is a final frame of a personal e-book project I am planning for her. Still working on the frames before this scene, but it's super gratifying now that I am illustrating stuff directed for someone.

The foreground elements create all the magic of depth. I should make more of this. My tablet and I are best friends again.

Tejido Illustration 2012

Let's Go! - Version 2

Working on my new style for the weekend, i figured out what was wrong with it and added some hand-drawn flavor into it, which worked wonders. Still working on my 2012 folio for now, but am really pleased with the differnce this has from my previous blog entry. Let's see how I deal with humans for the next trial. Cant wait to use this on my next books. Thanks for viewing!

JM Tejido's  Illustration and character design: 2012

Let's Go!

After creating children's books for the past 12 years, I'm thinking of settling into one style that gives distinction to my work. It's a personal goal I'd been wanting to find in the past five years, and with multiple attempts, I'm hoping this would be the one. My criteria for this narrowing down is that the style must be dynamic enough to take various themes, ethnicities and characters (human or not). My eureka moment came as I developed  characters that had the proper balance, the comfort and adaptability, without compromising the doors for possible mischief and lovable spunk.  

At the moment, I am tasked to do a "motion" themed set of works, I made this piece reminiscent of my childhood love for running, scary forests, puddles, lamps and fireflies. After making it, I realized the characters in this scene personify my current feelings over settling into one style! It's eerie figuring that out after the many hours that went into this. Let's see how this goes along. I still have a stack of sketches to render. I've got a long way to go, but thanks for joining me in this journey.

Sa Tapat ng Tindahan ni Mang Teban (Painting Collection 2012)

Here are paintings from my latest book, Sa Tapat ng Tindahan ni Mang Teban, published in Manila by Lampara Books. I was teamed up with a writer named Joachim Antonio and the Filipino daily life - inspired funny story was well meshed with my banig painting style. Doing this book was fun. I got to play around with the exciting possibilities of how two people ceaselessly compete with each other, and input my own symbols and abstraction for visual metaphors.

Most of the pieces were sold early this year, but you may get in touch with me for some which are still available. Each comes with a free picture book for a fun read-along to a child, and introduce him/her to the appreciation of original works of art.

Jomike tejido art newsletter jan 2012