A few finishing touches

Hello all.
Just two more weeks until the end of the quarter. This one has been quite the ride! It has been very difficult, but rewarding. I have just a short paper, take-home exam, Rolling Stone portrait (this is for Survey, I am going to draw Elvis Costello), and one printmaking edition left to complete. I finished up my third edition today in the print studio, and I am quite pleased with it! Unfortunately, I have no images of it just yet. I do, however, have a picture of my previous woodblock print. The assignment was to use color. It is somewhat frustrating to me, because I am usually really good with color, but this project just wasn't working out for me. It isn't terrible, but it isn't a portfolio piece, either.



"Goose 3/3" Woodblock relief print, 2010.

Sorry for the poor quality photo, as well!

Some good news though: I FINISHED MY BOOK! Hurrah! Just like my first one, it is for sale on Blurb.com.

Which Pet?

By Caitlin Alexander

Book Preview

I am very pleased with this. I put so much time into it! All the images are gouache with collage-- just for specific articles of clothing on the children and/or their family and friends. Here are a few images that will probably go into my portfolio:



"Rabbit Helps Simon," Gouache and collage, 2010



"Maggie Explores," Gouache and collage, 2010



"Which Pet?" Gouache, 2010

I have ordered a few copies of my book, and will let you know how they look when I receive them. And be sure to check it out on Blurb, even if you don't want to buy one!

Other big news: I am looking into traveling to New York this summer with the school. It's a week-long seminar that will count as a class for me. The opportunity is incredible. We will get to show our portfolio to potential big-name clients (Scholastic is one I am thrilled about!), meet current extremely successful illustrators, visit what is basically the core of the illustration field- the Society of Illustrators and Brandywine school, visit museums, and more! I really, really hope this works out. It would open so many doors and change the way I see illustration. So, anyway, I'll keep you posted on that, also!

Time to do some laundry.
adios
caitlin

A quick update!

Hello all! Here's a few images of stuff I've been working on.

In Survey, we had to create a magazine spread ala the 1950s (stories for women in Good Housekeeping, etc.) Here's mine- it's for an actual published story in 1959 titled, "Take One Rainy Night..." I'm pretty pleased with it. The text for the story would be in the bottom left-hand corner.



"Take One Rainy Night..." 2010 Gouache and Collage.

I've been working furiously on children's book as well! Here's a few images from the spreads I've finished.



"Simon and Brother" 2010 Gouache and Collage.



"Frances Reads" 2010 Gouache and Collage.

No images yet from my relief class- but some good stuff coming up soon, I promise!

I've been pretty inspired by the art of Mary Blair and Jan Pfloog lately. Blair was a character designer for Disney, and more or less created all the old characters we know and love. I don't want to be a character designer, but her painting technique is so wonderful. The flat colors and movement are outstanding!



A children's book spread, © Mary Blair.

Jan Pfloog is not especially well known, although she had a pretty good run with Golden Books. I've had several of her stories since I was a kid- "The Farm Book," "The Zoo Book," and "The Kitten Book." I love her dry-brushing and use of color. Sorry I don't have a better image of her work. The interior illustrations are much more inspiring.



Cover for "The Farm Book," © Jan Pfloog.

adios
caitlin

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a overly-sweet, chocolate-filled Valentine's Day. I don't have much to share, so this will be brief. The biggest piece of news currently: my "Cat" piece (which can be seen in a couple previous entries) is in a Humane Society benefit show for the next couple weeks. It is in Poetter Hall (for those of you who live in Savannah), and you should stop by to check it out, along with all the other fantastic Society of Illustrators' work. The pieces are for sale (mine has already sold! Hurrah!) and a good deal of the proceeds go to the Humane Society.
No new photos of my second woodcut yet- I should have taken some before I handed in the project, but forgot to do so. All of my spreads for my book are finished. All that is left are some little touch-ups here and there, the front and back covers, and the interior papers (when you open a book, the inside of the cover usually has illustrations on it). I haven't scanned any of my work in yet, though!
I do have my most recent assignment from Survey of Illustration, however. We had to make a war poster, and I chose to make an ironic image based off of World War II propaganda posters, specifically ones that would read lines such as, "He volunteered for the Submarine Service" (by Jon Whitcomb), which I changed to an anti-war message. I emulated the style of Harry Beckhoff with qouache, and then edited it a bit in Photoshop. It's not really something I'm particularly pleased with, and it doesn't really suit my style, but what can you do? Live and learn! Not every piece can be a home run. Here's the image before my class critique:



"Protested" 2010, Gouache and Digital
And here's with the changes they suggested:



"Protested 2" 2010, Gouache and Digital

Which do you prefer?

That's all for now.
adios
caitlin