Goodbye 2009, Hello to a new decade!

Happy Holidays!

Smart Bears

Bears are smart to sleep off the winter.
It has been almost -40C at night.
My pencil lead is freezing.

He likes his hat

This dog seems very proud of his fine hat.

Good Dog

I've been doing little sketches, about an inch tall.
Here is one.

Illustrators 52

This week I heard back that my Kawasaki Exit illustration will be included in the next Society of Illustrators (NY) book and exhibit. Yeah!


At first I colored the bear pink,
but the client needed it to be blue.

Kawasaki Exit

A theatre poster for a new play titled "Kawasaki Exit" written and directed by Blake Brooker premiering in January. I was lucky to meet Blake and OYR Ensemble artist Denise Clarke at a tea shop last spring. They noticed me sketching and introduced themselves, asking about my work.
I was contacted a month ago to do this poster, I was able to listen in on a reading of the play before I started working on the illustration, which was a treat.

Here is a synopsis of the play from OYR's website:
An unlikely trio threads through the misty outskirts of Tokyo, stocking up on vodka and briquettes for their final ride. Equal parts mystery and love story, Kawasaki Exit is inspired by the real-life dark side of Japanese social networking sites. This original new play is performed in English and Japanese by the award-winning One Yellow Rabbit Ensemble. Written by Blake Brooker with translation by Manami Hara.

Visit the website of One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre for more info:
http://www.oyr.org/

Z is for Zombie

Happy Halloween!
This was inspired by an article I read, letter Z did not appear in the text. I found it interesting how little the letter Z is used.

The Quiet Book

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of Little Panda!!!
In celebration I thought I would put up the 1st look of my next book.
The Quiet Book, written by Deborah Underwood and published by my Little Panda publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
I am pretty excited about The Quiet Book, it was a lot of fun to do! The way it is written allowed me to develop the story through my pictures so it is extra special to me. Plus I am actually working on the sequel to The Quiet Book right now!

The Quiet Book is coming next spring, April 2010.
For more info about the author visit her website here:
http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/

Shake those Booties and Tails

Ever since I discovered Big Band streaming stations, I can't stop drawing dancing critters. I can see them shaking their paws and booties and tails to the rhythm of old dancing tunes from 20s, 30s and 40s. I listen to this fine music on the FStream App using ShoutCast streaming in a section called Big on my IPod.

Good day to you!

A drawing I did for a birthday card a while back.

Update to Store

I have updated my online store with a show of critters.

http://uwaga.bigcartel.com/

Rodents

Did these in my sketchbook last week. They were in the news here.

Digging the Beach

Last week I was drawing at the beach! (in Vancouver)

This was fun!

I was happy to contribute this little drawing to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of a children's art blog by Issac, Grace, and Lily.
The idea was to use one of their drawings as inspiration for your own picture
It's actually quite a tough thing to do, the original drawing is so wonderful.
Check out the link below, the other artists created some wonderful images.
http://isaacgracelily.blogspot.com/2009/08/3-year-celebration.html

Joining Pippin

A really tough part of doing kid's books is the contracts and negotiating them. To help with this I have decided to start working through a literary agent for my children's book projects. I am happy to be joining the Pippin Team. Thanks to Emily van Beek for signing me up. Also thanks to Erin Bow, Edel Rodriguez and Jeremy Tankard for generously offering feedback on having an agent.
Based on their comments, I think that the creative help an agent can offer (brainstorming, writing) may turn out to be the greatest advantage of having an agent, or so I hope!

Happy Moon Landing!

I imagine the moon landing must have been an exciting and terrifying experience. If I had watched the landing I might have been scared. When I was a kid I was frightened of Deep Sea Diving suits, and anything that looked like them such as Fire Fighters in their oxygen masks and maybe even astronauts? I was also scared of Red Hair when I was a kid - I don't know why!

Dominik The Not So Musical Bear

I have a new website and online gallery store located at www.uwaga.ca
(thanks to Mike for designing it!)

Book By Its Cover

Book By Its Cover is showing some of my sketchbook drawings,
like this one below. Thanks to Julia Rothman for hosting my little drawings!

here's the link:
http://www.book-by-its-cover.com/sketchbooks/sketchbook-series-renata-liwska

Thanks also to Jaqueline for suggesting me for the sketchbook series.

Get a Hat

It is the time of the year for annual rodeo event here in Calgary. I had to draw a hat. The whole town has gone Cowboy Crazy, even the bears.

Eh, Canada!

I missed the goose-lets growing up this spring.
Have a Happy Canada Day!

Book Design

This was a bit of Little Panda news.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Book Designs Receive Special Recognition at the 2009 New England Book Show

BOSTON--(Business Wire)--
Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt recently received high honors for the design, quality of materials and workmanship of several of its books at the 52nd New England Book Show. The annual juried show recognizes the year's most successful work by New England publishers, printers and graphic designers.

Little Panda was included in the category, General Trade Illustrated Book.
The designer I work with at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is Cara Llewellyn.
She is fabulous to work with, great design and creative cover ideas!

I am quietly waiting for the color proofs of the next book I illustrated for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which will be out next May!

Correct Change!

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We (Michael and me) will finally be starting up an online store next week. It will be found at the url: www.uwaga.ca
Uwaga means 'attention' or 'caution' in Polish.
(Mike really likes the word)

We will be offering some prints of our work and books.
To start with I will be featuring "Kiddies & Kitties" a little book of my sketches. I will post when the site is up and running.

Presentation Part 4

These last few posts from the presentation show some of my sketchbook process including rough work and finished.

Presentation Part 3

My work often incorporates memories from my childhood. An example is in Nikolai The Only Bear written by Barbara Joosse. I included a scene where the children are in a circle playing a game of pass the hanky. When I was in school the teachers would have us play games like this during recess, probably to keep us from running around and getting out of control.

Presentation Part 2

The first slide shows a photo of my old art high school where I learned to draw. The two paintings are from Art College where I learned what to do with the drawing skills I had developed in high school, tell stories and illustrate. The second slide is a sketch from one of my older sketchbooks, I went to an illustration conference in Santa Fe and was greatly inspired by a folk art toy museum. In the last slide I remember as a kid I loved candy, when my mom went out I went looking for hidden goodies.

Presentation, part 1

This is some of the slides from a presentation last week. Thanks to Brad from United Library Services, John from the Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School District No. 1 and all the librarians who listened to my talk - I really enjoyed the opportunity!

Sorry some of the first slides are repeats, the third and fourth show some of the things that influenced as a kid and now.
In particular I loved a cartoon called Coralgol in Poland (I believe it was titled Jeremy in North America and Barnaby in the UK). However I must not have liked bugs because I scribbled them out in a favorite childhood picture book (titled Pierwsza Cyztanka in Poland).

First Time in Print

I am putting together a presentation about my books for a Librarian Conference this week. The first picture is my first time in print, at age four, printed in a Danish newspaper. The second is for a drawing contest. Looking at it now, I realize I subconsciously used the cosmonaut as inspiration for my Shatner Show piece.