I won two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators this year, in the Book and Institutional categories. HOORAY! This means you can see the original embroidery for Black Beauty (and The Secret Garden) at the show, which runs Jan 25- Feb 18. The opening is Feb 3.

The second gold medal is for this Croquet Poster, which was commissioned by Cramer-Krasselt to benefit the Penfield Children’s Center in Milwaukee. This image will be included in the Institutional/Advertising show, February 23, 2012 – March 17, 2012. Thank you, Society and jury!

Sonoko, from Confessions of a Mask. I didn’t really “enjoy” this book (“joyless” is probably the best adjective to use), but it was interesting enough and filled with very lovely imagery and hence I would like someone to pay me to make some illustrations of it, please.

Was messing around with drawing on the Cintiq today because I’m thinking of doing a short comic digitally. Got sidetracked and made this Sonoko drawing. This was done completely digitally, which is not my normal Modus operandi, but enjoyable. For those of you who were asking on twitter: yes, this was done in Photoshop, on the big-sized Cintiq.

I just finished another big quilt. I’ve been working on it for about 6 months… mostly picking at it after work (it’s hand-quilted). The theme for this one is “The Machines Are Alive”.

I really haven’t figured out how to get a nice straightforward shot of these large quilts, so these’ll have to do. Maybe one day I’ll get them professionally shot or something.

P.S. You can search all embroidered/quilt/fiber works by looking under the quilts or fiber tags.

A couple of days ago I got an email from a librarian in New Jersey named Julie. Julie had some good news! The library’s Teen Gay Straight Book Club (Ocean County Library, Toms River Branch, by the way) had voted SKIM as “Most Awesome Book” in a recent awards ceremony and could she send me and Mariko certificates?

Um. YES!!

I received the lovely package yesterday. I don’t think anything else this week will top it. Thanks Ocean County library! Thank-you, book club teens! And thank-you Julie and all the librarians. Yours is important work and we authors love you.

My studio at-this-moment. What’s happening in this picture: I’m uploading the 2nd draft of “Awago Beach Babies”, the graphic novel I’m working on with my cousin, so she can have a look at it.

Trying to make my studio a more amiable place to work in prep for a very crazy new year. Getting distracted by the stuff I’m supposed to be throwing away. Made this collage.

Sometimes I wish I was a collage artist. It’s so immediate and direct. I was very into this sort of thing when I was a high-school student, when I discovered the Dadaists and this book of Surrealist games.

Yesterday I was on my husband Sam’s radio show, Your Dreams My Nightmares. We spoke about confidence, lesbians, and our future baby (amongst other things). Here’s the podcast:

Your Dreams My Nightmares – Jillian Tamaki by Your Dreams My Nightmares

Afterwards, Sam bemoaned asking so much about Art School in the interview. So, if you never want to hear about Art School again, I’m sorry. If you’re a current student, you’re welcome.

Here’s the show’s webpage, in case you’d like to link/reblog/retumbl/rewhatever.

Hey guys, a few things I wanted to mention.

1. A Student FAQ! I made one. It’s here.

2. Tomorrow (Dec 14) I will be on my husband’s radio show, Your Dreams My Nightmares. You can ask a question via call-in, email, facebook, or twitter. All the info for that is in this post (I keep on telling him to GET RID OF THE RED, but I’m sorry. My powers only extend so far.) Your question has a much likelier chance of being answered if it doesn’t involve asking what kind of brushes I use. The interview will be archived and I’ll post the link here when it is.

3. Happy Holidays!

(The picture above is from a few months ago. It was originally commissioned by Toronto Life Magazine.)

Here is a sketch that no one was ever meant to see. it’s from a job that got killed. Boo-hoo, would have been fun. Oh well.

I will be signing at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival this weekend. Drawn + Quarterly table, 3-4. I am always happy to sign older books if you like, since if you’re reading this right now it’s likely you’ll have already bought my D+Q petit-livre.