Longtime friend and playwright Angela Hanks reached out to me to design a cover for her 2018 play “Wilder Gone.” Angela and I have collaborated before, but this time a big time publishing company was in the mix. I was ecstatic to create this cover supporting my friend’s career growth and humbled that she asked me to do it. The published work will be released in Spring 2023 and I’m excited to share it with the world. If you’d like to be delighted, keep an eye out for tickets to one of Angela’s plays.

“The Adventures of Kona & King” is a book delightfully written by Joanne Cooper. The original illustrations – created by her 11-year-old grandson Zachery Cooper – are accompanied by hand-drawn and digitally altered backgrounds by me. The book design and layout were also created by me.

It is an interactive book written in a rhyming poem format, asking questions to stimulate children’s imaginations and initiate conversations. The two stars of the story are two real-life Labrador Retrievers named Kona and King.

Peter Donovan of the Seattle band, All the Real Girls, approached me to design the cover of his upcoming single “Good to Be Alive.” As I learned more about this project I was elated. As a part of the Bushwick Book Club – Seattle, Peter based his song on the popular children’s “Frog and Toad” book series by Arnold Lobel. “Frog and Toad” was a favorite childhood book of mine and I asked Peter if he wanted the album art cover to be based on Lobel’s illustrations. Since Peter’s lyrics beautifully echoed the book series I decided to use the naturistic subject matter and 1960’s color pallet in my design. I used a flat illustration style, hand-inked drawings, and textured watercolor-painted paper strips which I combined – along with type digitally.

The lovely animation was created by Bradley James Lockhart.
Song by Peter Donovan & Elijah Ocean

Hamilton Boyce – Harmony Vocals
Peter Donovan – Vocals
Zach Jones – Piano, Harmony
Vocals Curren McDowell – Drums, Percussion
Elijah Ocean – Guitars, Bass, Organ, Harmonica, Harmony Vocals

Here we are. It’s the year 2020; the world has a human-based virus and (hopefully) we are all doing our part by staying home as much as possible and flattening that curve! I wanted to find a way to make our home stays a little easier. If you have kiddos or are a kid at heart, this project is for you. Feel free to print and share coloring pages for you, your family and friends to enjoy. Also, feel free to tag me on social media with your completed pages. Just please refrain from selling, stealing or making a profit from these. They are my gift to you and I can’t wait to see how your creativity shows itself.

Love,
Amy

Plants clean the air in your home and give joy to your soul. They give you something to take care of and bring life to a dull space. One of my personal projects is to create illustrations of the plants in my home and frame them with vintage frames discovered at thrift and antique shops. Recently I’ve enjoyed finding ways of weaving these hand drawn and painted plant portraits into the digital world.

The Garden Series, a personal project, is inspired by the imaginations of children and how we often lose our sense of wonder as we grow into adulthood. In my home I’ve acquired many plants, and my partner and I have small figurines scattered throughout them. In this series of paintings, my houseplants become jungles and miniature toys become adventurers in strange lands.

The Vestibule, a unique family-owned space, is both a neighborhood gallery featuring local artists and an Airbnb accommodation.

When owners Kascha and John Snavely approached me, they were interested in showing my nature-themed illustrations from my Morning Sketching collection. The gallery’s primary presentation space features a mini window-display that passersby can enjoy even when the space is not open to the public. In addition to showing pieces from my existing series, I wanted to add something special for the space. The gallery is located near a secret beach in Seattle’s Ballard area, and I gathered specimens (driftwood, seaweed, and kelp) to draw as hanging artworks in a window installation. On the lower half of the window I painted line-drawings representing the tides that brought to shore the objects I collected and drew.

Naturistic is an online educational film series exploring biology and ecology by scientist Nash Turley, PhD, and musician/composer Hamilton Boyce.

The two friends brought me onto their team to create illustrations. We discussed what areas in the video would benefit from diagrams, small animations, and more focused visuals, and I worked with Hamilton to create line drawings that clarify and support each episode’s topic. To reflect the accessible and light-hearted mood of the series, I gave the hand-drawn illustrations a slightly comical yet realistic style. We then layered the drawings over foliage-rich background photography and video to create a multidimensional feel.

For over 25 years, TCS World Travel has hosted guests on adventures of a lifetime. Their high-end, all-inclusive journeys deliver unparalleled and meaningful experiences in unique destinations around the globe.

Each year, the company collaborates with an illustrator to create a calendar for their clients that celebrates world travel. In 2016 they hired me to create detailed illustrative snapshots of their beautiful featured vacation destinations. I brought scenes from around the world to life using bright colors and a style I adapted for a more realistic depiction of the locations. I created the illustrations using a combination of gouache, watercolor, and my favorite black Sharpie pens, with any edits made digitally.

Velouria is a small Seattle boutique and gallery chock-full of US and Canadian-made goods. Their pieces are made by folks who are dedicated to beauty, quality, and sustainability.

In February and March of 2016 the wonderful ladies of Velouria and I collaborated to create a window display featuring my Morning Sketching illustration collection. The installation consisted of two parts. First, we decided on five black-and-white sketches to feature as blown-up backdrops providing wallpaper for their display mannequins. Then I implemented hand-painted designs across the front window panels to create a multilayered aesthetic. Inside the shop, Morning Sketching drawings were exhibited, and a reception was held during Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk (in conjunction with local jewelry artist Angela Delarmente’s beautiful jewelry). To create an evolving design, we followed up the February installation with added color elements in March that complemented Velouria’s new spring clothing lines.

San Fermo is an Italian restaurant in Seattle situated in a newly renovated historic house.

The interior design features a mix of both vintage and clean modern aesthetics, and the owner reached out to me with the idea of using hand lettering for their signage. I started with the exterior sandwich board using imagery referencing the aged cutting boards that the owner and his wife had collected over the years. Finding inspiration for the environmental design in the space itself, I took visual cues from the vintage European tableware that the restaurant uses. For any detailed design elements, I created stylized typography that reflects the modern/vintage feel of the restaurant.