Natalie Malan | illustration & design

The Activity Day Answer

2011-02-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

My most recent magazine illustration is now out! You can find it in the March 2011 Liahona Magazine. Thanks tons to my two wonderful models!!!

Here's the article with text. And if you want to see the original web posting click here.

Shutterfly Card Freelance

2010-12-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

This year I got the chance to design some cute card patterns for Shutterfly. I love their fresh, fun designs, and it has been really fun to see my prints around different places. They even have address labels to match. I took Penny to go see Santa, and when I was standing in line to pic up my prints, I looked over and there was one of the cards I designed right up by the register. I don't know why it was shocking to me; I've been a freelance designer/illustrator for 8 plus years now, but for some reason happy little greeting cards with other people's kids on them made me really happy.

I've also made some really cute photo books in the past, but I'm excited to print up some cards this year. If you sign up for their emails you'll get some great deals too. They send them out all the time.

I know if you're reading this on my facebook, you've already seen this print, but today I found an offer from Shutterfly for 50 free cards to bloggers, (but hurry! it expires today!) so here I sit, blogging away. I'll let you know how it all turns out. In my laziness, I had determined not to send out cards this year - until I got a great shot of Penny and Santa; and now the tables have turned. Add in 50 free cards, and that convinced me even more. Happy Holidays!

Chloe's Closet - Making Memories

2010-04-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

A line I worked on for Making Memories that was exclusive to Michaels Crafts.

Your Story - Baby Kit

2010-04-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

Some papers for the Provo Craft baby "Your Story" line.

"Maria's New Dress" Friend Magazine Illustration

2010-02-13T07:29:00.000-08:00

Yikes! So much to catch up on!!! One word: DEADLINES. They are my life now. I love it though. I've never had so much fun work in my life! The problem is that I get too busy working on the next thing to post anything, but I'll start with this since it's out right now! If you have a copy of the Friend Magazine for February 2010, I have an illustration for "Maria's New Dress." Thanks Sophia for modeling for me! I need to pick up a copy of the magazine myself; I don't have an image with type to post yet.

::Update::

Thanks Helena! She sent me the link of it on the church website where they had the final pdf. I had no idea it was reversed in print.

Liahona illustration

2008-06-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Another fun illustration for the "Liahona" and the "Friend." I've done two others since my last post as well, but I'll have to keep looking for my files! I've been busy illustrating and designing. I can't wait until some products I've designed come out to WalMart and Target! Fun! Super busy, but fun. But I always have a good time illustrating for church magazines. I'll have to post all the changes this project went though (making the girl younger and younger, and younger still).

Cameron

2007-09-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

Another pencil drawing, this time of a little boy named Cameron. He was showing me a bunch of bugs in the yard outside of my work. And eating pizza. I left that part off his face. He was running around being a boy, flapping his arms, and "getting all the bugs away" for me. I think he saw me bolt when a bee came too close.....

Book Binding

2007-06-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

I wanted to start posting a few books on my blog, but I'll try to keep it mostly illustration based. These are just two japanese (technically they are stab) bindings that I did with some 8.5 x 11 paper and satin ribbon. For more bookbinding posts check out this book blog.

2007-05-18T08:46:00.001-07:00

I started making some tags and paper patterns, and tried to make a digital epoxy. It's just a clear png that can go over any one inch picture to make it look like an epoxy. I also made a new brush just for fun. If anyone has ideas to improve the epoxy and make it look more real, let me know. I'd love to hear them.

Friend Magazine - April

2007-04-01T10:31:00.001-07:00

A small and fast illustration for a children's magazine called, "The Friend." My model for the dog had just gotten a bath the day before and only gets picked up when he needs a bath so he was growling the whole time, and I think he scared my little model. She opted to pose with a stuffed dog, and then I drew them like they were together. This style is really fast, this took about four hours or less from start to completion. Art direction by Brad Teare.

icons

2007-02-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

Some icons done for a software company. They were to represent things like big and small, fast and slow.

painter

2007-02-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

Introducing...

2007-01-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

bear attack article

2007-01-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

This was a fun project about a little girl that gets attacked by a bear. They were debating a bit about the age group and if it was ok to show the bear, or if a scared little girl and a big bear shadow would do the trick. I was happy to do such an exciting story.

I called Hogle Zoo to try and get some reference of a bear and felt like a stalker. "Do you have any black bears? No, not stuffed teddy bears. Real ones? Are they out today by chance (it was snowing)? What kind of cage are they in? Do you think I get good pictures of them in that kind of cage?" I couldn't find any scrap of a black bear from behind at this angle. Not that is was absolutely necessary, but I get stubborn. Apparently grizzly bears are more photogenic. Finally someone mentioned the Bean Science Museum at BYU, and I called and asked if they had any black bears (not grizzlies), and if they were standing. Art direction was by Eric Johnsen.

development

2007-01-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

A recent project for a local developer who wanted a concept drawing for a new community. They needed a concept design integrating a community with walking paths and parks into the existing and future commercial areas surrounding it, so that the area could be rezoned.

pencil

2006-12-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

Another drawing of my friend. For some reason they always scan funny. There's a nice posting by William Whitaker on the concept art forum for anyone interested in a realist approach to painting. Click here for the link.

pre-k

2006-11-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

The robot dog and little girl were just for fun. I think I was having flashbacks to the Jetsons.

These are also for a younger crowd. The two girls are so that ESL students can talk about the differences between the two after coloring them in.

Here's one for the little people. I wanted to post some vector work, but it's all pre K age. This one is designed to be colored, cut out, and taped to a paper plate to make a frog puppet. Guaranteed to entertain for at least 4.67 minutes, or your money back.

flash

2006-11-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

My friend Maryn has always been a big fan of drawing in flash and since I love illustrator, I thought I'd give it a try. I almost hate to admit it, but she's right. It is "blazingly fast." I think it will be fun to sketch around in.

shoes

2006-11-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

This one was fun to do, especially the wallpaper in the background. I was living in a 104 year old house at the time and liked the pattern of the ripping tattered paper in our living room. I swear the colors are richer in person.

Candle

2006-10-29T07:16:00.001-08:00

Thought I'd post the cover of my children's book. I finally got to see the finished product. They did a good job with the graphic design, but as always with reproductions the colors in the paintings turned much more golden than the originals. But I bet most people won't notice. I interned with Paul O. Zelinsky a few years ago and he was telling me there is always a huge difference once things go to print, and even showed me his Rapunzel originals which were amazingly rich. But he was right, we compared his reds to those in the book and they weren't nearly as gorgeous. Many thanks to my models Jennessa, Barry and Michelle, for all their wonderful help!
deseret book link

soft edges

2006-10-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

One of my friends was nice enough to model for me, so I thought I'd post a recent drawing. It was done with a .3 HB mechanical pencil. Someone once told me that my drawings had too many hard edges so I've tried to soften it up a little over the years - well, I assume that's what the guy meant. He said they looked like hermetically sealed mayonnaise. I didn't really understand it either, but it's one of the funniest comments I've ever recieved.

Letters

2006-09-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

Another image from Imagine Learning, each artist was assigned three or four letters to illustrate and animate. We all recieved our letters at random, but it was a fun challenge to think up a new and creative way to illustrate the word as well as animate it. The letter "P" starts out with a close up on the cook who throws his pan up into the air, and it rotates until it is standing on the handle in the shape of the letter P.
Zipper was a challenge to animate, it pans up from the bottom and then the zipper starts forming the "z" and then glows. These are some of my favorites from IL because we were all given templates for our letters; they had to be a certain font/letter shape, we had to do capitals and lowercase versions and they all had to end up with the letter centered like the template we were given.

J was great; there's a surge of bubbles and then the jellyfish expands and contracts while glowing.
Yarn was a challenge. I wanted something entertaining and yarn by itself just wasn't a visually engaging item to me. So for the animation the mouse rolls a ball of yarn accross the ground and pushes it into a hole while the screen pans out and you see the letter in the hole filled with yarn that starts bumping into each other when he pushes the top ball in.

goodmorning

2006-09-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

I worked on some freelance projects before working full time at a software company called Imagine Learning. This is one of a series of pictures that accompanies a read along style song to teach kids learning english vocabulary about morning and night.

2006-07-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

2006-07-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished my first children's book, "A Candle in the Window" so I thought I'd post some of the paintings.