... it's a mock-up of work from my Summer 2010 MFA endeavor at Marywood University's  'Art of Children's Book Illustration' class.

I was hesitant about taking on the daunting task of illustrating a children's book, but my wonderful professors, Megan Halsey and Melanie Hall were so positive and supportive during our initial meeting, I felt energized about completing this project.

Everyone in the class was assigned a manuscript and I believe they picked the perfect one which allowed me to explore my artistic strengths. I have crafted a style of art where I use the xerography process (photocopy words and sometimes images) and hand-tear the resulting paper palette to create my imagery. I created several (political) pieces of artwork using  this collage technique prior to this class (my first piece was in 2004). but I believe by spending almost a year + on perfecting these illustrations (I did several versions of each spread) has allowed me to successfully showcase my style of illustration and offer this service to my clients (Thank you M & M!)

The slideshow below is the final project, a complete 32 page illustrated book of her manuscript. I sent numerous copies to publishing houses for review and have received wonderful feedback from many of them, but no one has officially agreed to publish this version. Even though I did receive approval from Miriam's estate to solicit prospective publisher's with my version of 'Lazy Day', I believe because this was previously published (and is not in public domain) I am wrestling with an additional obstacle of having a prospective publisher weed through attaining her estate's publishing credits. However, I am still soliciting, but mainly as a  portfolio piece which showcases my illustration capabilities. For this reason, I figured I'd just post the entire book as a part of my portfolio.

I am working on writing and illustrating my own book, but I realize, even as an illustrator with a specific style, breaking into children's book publishing  is not only a crap shoot, but if someone decides to pick up your book, it's also a mighty long process until the work is published. It may be a long journey, but I am set for the challenge and will keep everyone posted of my progress.

Until then, I am happy to share with you and hope you enjoy my version of Miriam Schlein's 'Lazy Day'!

-CG

(As of 2012, all imagery below is for educational use only, not for print publication Credits: Artwork © Christina Galbiati; words © Miriam Schlein).

Shown below is my handmade paper collage illustration shown at the "Art Takes Times Square" show in NYC on June 18th. Much thanks to Michelle Hunter, (http://twitter.com/artcoholic) for taking the picture. (Direct link to her photos: http://a.yfrog.com/img861/8692/dppf.jpg)

Show below is the full image, a 12" x 12" paper collage; subject/inspiration for the piece was  Monotype Imaging, s global font company. They provide "text imaging and graphical user interface solutions to consumer electronics devices." They also offer "font solutions to independent software vendors who develop applications and operating systems." 

Since they specialize in all things type, I decided to create a custom handmade illustration using their name, and also using as inspiration for the main type/image, the individual metal type characters that were used to set type on old-school letterpress printing machines (Vandercook/Linotype, etc). 
The background pattern was created via the xerography process; using their name in 11pt Goudy Type, and repeatedly copied using a photocopy machine. (Materials used: French Paper, Grape Jelly and Razzle Berry (28/70lb text), French Paper Construction, Steel Blue (28/70lb text), solid black toner ink.)

The result is a handmade paper collage illustration, which symbolizes the importance of tangible print media/type communication in today's digital dependent society.

-CG

(Original artwork is available for purchase; email: [email protected] with subject of email "Monotype" for pricing.)