Christmas Reindeer

© Lesley Breen Withrow

Here's a holiday greeting card that I illustrated for Gartner Greetings last year. It's a part of a four card box set. Happy holidays!

Bird Pattern

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Here’s a repeat pattern of birds that I've recently created. I have always been a sketcher and doodler and so it was especially fun to bring my sketchy pencil look into this art.

Twelve Days of Christmas - Polk Street Press - children's book sing-a-long app

The children's book sing-a-long app '12 Days of Christmas' that I illustrated for Polk Street Press last year is still available to purchase on itunes! What a great way to get your kids into the holiday mood and it's educational too! Click on the video above so you can see it in action!

It got some great reviews last year too.

• Featured by Publishers Weekly and the iPhone Mom
• “12 Days of Christmas – Polk Street Press Singalong is a charmingly illustrated sing-along rendition of the song of the same name, and there’s some excellent practice of counting down from 12 to 1 thrown in for good educational measure.” ★★★★ -CommonSenseMedia.org
• “Polk Street Press has taken its turn with the old chestnut, providing cute animated vignettes to go along with the lyrics. Withrow’s colorful and charming illustrations are animated just enough to keep little eyes engaged.” -Kirkus Reviews
• “In sing-along mode the app really shines, offering both an audio and video recording option…It’s a lovely app for the holidays.” ★★★★ -Digital Storytime

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Thanksgiving is almost here!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

I hope everyone is doing well with their Thanksgiving preparations. Only a couple more days away!

Illustration Friday - Tree

It's been a long time since I've done IF (Illustration Friday) but the topic today was 'Tree' and I had a great piece of art for it. I love the new revamp that IF did to their website too. So easy to use and full of information. I'll certainly be posting some art there again soon!

Typewriters

©Lesley Breen Withrow

As a kid I used to love playing with my grandmother's old typewriter. Here's some art I had fun creating recently for a greeting card...and it certainly brought back memories!

Pen and Ink with Watercolor Girl

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Here's a pen and ink with watercolor illustration I did a few years ago and always enjoyed. It's in the book Illustrating Children's Picture Books ©2009 which my husband, Steven Withrow, and I wrote. Check out the link to the book if you get a chance. This site did a great job of showing spreads of the book and a video of someone flipping through the book. Very cool!

Happy Halloween!!!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

I had a great time today doing Halloween crafts with my daughters First Grade class. We made bats, mummies black cats, pumpkins, monsters, you name it, from toilet paper rolls. The kids were so excited and it was so fun! Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Halloween is almost here!

 Here are a few juvenile cards 

I created for

Halloween.

©Lesley Breen Withrow

What will you be this year?

What ever you decide...

I hope you have a great one!

Fishing Bait Art

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Here's a Father's Day greeting card that I recently illustrated. I have always been a big 'sketcher' and 'pen and inker' so it was great fun to work this look into a greeting card. Happy Friday!

Lots of Leaves!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Leaf, leaf, lots of leaves! That is what is covering our yard right now. Looks beautiful!

Little Girl with Kitty

©Lesley Breen Withrow

...and here's the art in color. My daughter loves this kitty because it looks like her favorite stuffed animal 'Tito' (pronounced Tee-toe - that's how she said kitty when she was just learning to talk) that she's had since she was a baby. Happy Friday!

Happy Monday!

Animal Critters Painting a Sign

Here's a new piece of art that I recently created for a greeting card. I added more hearts and all on the sign where there will be a title on the card instead. I have to say that I have been having a lot fun drawing foxes and raccoons lately. And I was especially inspired by the fox that was running around in my backyard the other evening!

Shelled Critters

Here's a little snippit of art from a cool project that I am working on. Happy Friday!

Halloween Costumes

It's October! We're already getting excited about Halloween in my house. I made a Scooby-Doo costume for my daughter last year. She's and even bigger Scooby-Doo fan than me which is hard to believe! What will you be dressed-up as this year?

It's a cool crisp fall morning here. A nice cup of tea always warms me up! Happy Tuesday!

©illustration used in a children's reader for a major publisher.

I had the pleasure of illustrating three educational children's book readers for a major publisher earlier this year. I can't talk too much about the books until they are published next year, but here's a little peek of the art from one of the books.

Soar to the Stars

©Gartner Greetings (greeting card rights only)

I used to dream as a kid that I would get to ride on a magical unicorn or pegasus, so this art was especially fun for me to make. Hmmm....I must admit that this thought still gets me excited! Have a great weekend everyone!

Editorial Illustration in Best Health Magazine

I had the pleasure recently to work on a spot illustration for Reader's Digest - Best Health Magazine. It was for an article on water safety for pets. I got to paint an adorable bulldog wearing a life vest and jumping into a lake. It was fun to illustrate and I was so happy to get my sample magazine in the mail recently. This is a Canadian magazine, so I enjoyed reading all about Canadian summer vacation hot spots and all too!

Greeting Card Design

I've had the joy of illustrating a lot of children's greeting cards lately. Although I love drawing just about anything, children's art is one of my favorites. I really enjoy planning the idea of what I want to illustrate as well as actually creating the art. Here's a girls Valentine's Day card...(go figure with all the hearts, right)! that I recently made for Gartner Greetings. 

In this post, I thought I'd share some information that I've learned in my 10 years as a greeting card planner and designer. I hope this helps you on your journey into the fun world of greeting cards! 

©Gartner Greetings (greeting card rights)

Cover Art

With greeting cards you have to remember that you need to leave room for a title and maybe a subtitle on the cover art. It is always best when you can plan the words to fit well within the design of the card. Here on the cover art, I left room at the top middle to top right for a one line title, like 'Granddaughter' or ''Daughter', for example. I also planned space inside the big heart for a subtitle. I felt that that was a nice way to work the words into the design of the card. It's like the girl kitty painted the words inside the heart.

The reason why it is important to have a title at the top third of the card is because that is what the buyer will see when the card is sitting on a rack in a store. If the card is not seen, then it is not sold. And most of the time people look for cards they want to buy, by looking at the titles that they fall under. Like Mother, Husband, Birthday, etc.

©Gartner Greetings (greeting card rights)

Inside Art

Inside the card, I created spot art to go around the words that are on both pages 2 and 3. I left the background white because I felt that it was a nice contrast to the pink background on the cover and it also allows the words to be very legible. With greeting cards, the words are just as important if not more important than the art. Have you ever picked-up a greeting card because you loved the art, but then put it back because the message inside wasn't right for the person you wanted to send it to?! 

I hope to share with you more greeting card information in my up-coming blog posts. Good luck with your greeting card art!

Happy Valentine's Day!

©Gartner Greetings (greeting card rights)

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! This year I helped my daughter make 36 valentine's for all the kids in her Kindergarten and reading classes. It was a lot, but we had a good little assembly line going. She wanted to make them not buy them...is she my daughter or what?! There was lots of excitement when she opened her valentines but I was super impressed when she told me that even though it's fun getting valentines and candy the best part of it was giving them to others. Awe...guess were doing something right. :)