Daydreaming of a studio

Hello all,
I know I just posted a few days ago, but I was pondering my future career, and then wandered into fantasies of a perfect studio. Working in a tiny space that also serves as your bedroom, library, closet, and lounging area isn't so easy. I find myself placing artwork or supplies on other things precariously, and then when I need that space, having to move it to another over-crowded spot. I am a very, very organized person, so this is not a cleanliness issue. Just a lack of space! The idea of having a designated area for my supplies, inspiration on the wall, papers in a filing drawer, and artwork in various labeled portfolios is so exciting! I know I'll have a writing desk for my computer, printer, and paperwork, and a drafting table for my projects. Although I already have one, there is a very nice model at Ikea that has a built-in light table. Needless to say, it caught my eye!



This (my desk now and personal belongings)

PLUS



this (me in an Ikea workspace dream. The clips on the wall- genius! The drawers for large paper- inspired! The yellow wall- beautiful!)

PLUS




this (a cozy, cute, and old little home in quirky Austin, Texas)

EQUALS

perfection!

Any thoughts to share on a perfect studio space?
And just to get a little art in, here's a painting of me painting (old school Caitlin art)


"Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting" 2008, Acrylic paint

That's all for now!
adios
caitlin

I think I can, I think I can...

Hi everybody! Well, this quarter is stuffed full of art, to say the least. It's going to be tough, but I can't wait to look back on it, knowing I devoted everything I had and did the best I could! Plus, hopefully, I'll have some killer portfolio pieces. A quick update on all my projects and such:

Starting February 12th, I will have my piece "Cat" in SCAD's Poetter Hall for the Society of Illustrator's Humane Society Benefit show. It's for sale, and the proceeds go the Humane Society. If you are in Savannah, you should check it out!

"Cat" 2009, Watercolor and Ink

My first relief print is finished! The composition was originally a tight square around the rabbit, but my professor and I decided it would pop much more on a solid black, and larger background. I used chine-colle to glue the cut-out rabbits onto 30 inch by 44 inch pieces of black western paper. It was a massive undertaking, but paid off quite nicely-- one of the three prints is now hanging in Alexander Hall, and another was held by my professor for the printmaking department.

"Bunny 2/3" 2010, Relief Print with Chine Colle

My pirate piece is complete, as well. I attempted to create an off-register look with gouache paint, and added detail with ink. The colors and symmetry are based off of illustrator great Maxfield Parrish's work. Here's a sample:

©Maxfield Parrish, 1908 "Lantern Bearers"
Here's my final piece:

"Captain Rory" 2010, Gouache and Ink

No finished pieces yet for Children's Book. We have spent the last four weeks on story-writing, spread-planning, composition-making, character-sketching, and layout-roughing. Here are some scans of my character development. This character is Francis, the girl who lives in a city apartment with her mother, and enjoys reading and writing. Her pet is a fish.

Francis as a concept during page layout. The sketches below were added later in an attempt to recreate the original pose.

First pencil sketch of Francis. Very stiff!

More pencil sketches, with newer pen ones next to them, attempting to be looser.

Redo of the layouts- Francis takes more shape, now that I've done a few character design sketches.


Sketching Francis acting as though she would in the book.

Working out the interaction between Francis and her fish.

Finally some color studies (after re-drawing all the roughs large-scale to be traced for the final artwork)! Her jacket will be collage, and the rest qouache paint.

I decided to do the outlines in a color relative to what it would be surrounding. The colors here aren't exactly right since I wasn't using a very good scanner, but you get the idea. My, how she's grown! And to think I haven't even begun (and have five other kids! Eesh!)
So much for this being quick. Oh well. Time for bed!
adios
caitlin

What a busy quarter it will be!

Hello all,
I started classes back up a week ago yesterday, and I can see already how intense it is going to be! My Survey of Illustration class is not only a lecture (with two exams, two papers, note-taking, the works), but a studio class as well (four assignments complete with sketching and roughs and critiques)! Our first assignment is to create a piece illustrating a pirate of choice, using some form of inspiration from any of the illustrators we covered whom worked from about 1890 to 1920. The task is clearly taken from Howard Pyle's love of pirate illustration. I have chosen to illustrate my dad as a pirate. He is rather obsessed with the idea of being scoundrel on the sea (in a past life, I suppose) and I couldn't resist the minute I heard what our project was! It is too perfect! So far, all I have are sketches though, so no solid work to show just yet.

©Howard Pyle 1902- Illustration for "Harper's New Monthly Magazine"

In Relief Printmaking, I have begun my first wood cut print. The task is extremely daunting! I chose to try a 24 by 24 inch piece for my first try- we'll see how that works out. It's getting a bit easier to control the carving tools, but today I will do my first test print, and that will let me know for sure how much I'm improving! My concept for the piece is pretty simple- its a fat, round, graphic rabbit fitting sung within the square border of the wood. I'm going to be doing a lot of pattern work inside for his fur. I'm pretty nervous about this one! Here's a photo reference for the pattern. It's taken from my nasty old mat in the bathroom! Funny where you'll find inspiration sometimes...


And, saving the best for last, I'm LOVING Children's Book! The class is going to be a ton of work, but I am so excited about it. After seeing some of my previous work (including my book "Only With You"), he told me that I was "born to do children's books" which is a massive compliment coming from a man who is very successful himself in the field! Needless to say, it made my day. I've already learned a ton about the process, and know I'm going to get even more out of it. In the class, we write, illustrate, and get printed an entire book. That's not too shabby for ten weeks! So far all I have is an idea and some rough layouts. My book will be about what makes a good pet, showing six different children in six different living arrangements, with six different personalities, and what pet is right for them. Hopefully children who read the book will be able to relate to one of the kids and make an appropriate decision in pet adopting! Here's some art from one of my professor's books.

©Allan Drummond "The Willow Pattern Story" www.allandrummond.com

So that sums it about up! Here's some old work, just for kicks.

"Greece" 2009, Gouache

"Jamaica" 2009, Gouache

Off to printmaking I go!
adios
caitlin

The Birth of an Illustration

Happy Almost New Year!
I just finished a piece yesterday for the SCAD Society of Illustrators Humane Society show, and documented the making of it to give you guys an inside peek into how I work. Let's dive right in, shall we?
First off, I always like to look up some inspiration, whether it be reference photos of my subject, or other artists' work. For this piece, I knew I wanted to illustrate a cat, which can be much trickier than it seems. Often, "cat art" can seem too childish, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, old-woman-ish. I wanted to try and put a new spin on my feline subject, so I researched a bit. I came across this work by Johanna Ost that has some lovely line work in it.

"Moon" ©Johanna Ost 2007, pen. www.johannaost.com
I also looked at different quirky styles. I love MarmeeCraft's work, and found this adorable illustration that gave me some ideas.

"Precarious Uniwig" ©Marjorie Liucci. (not sure of date or medium) www.marmeecraft.blogspot.com
Almost done with inspiration- now I top it all off with some wonderful music! (Please excuse the poor quality of some of these photos- they were taken with my phone- the only handy thing available!)

Time to sketch. I usually sketch in pen- just a personal preference. Pencil smears too much for my taste! Pen makes me much more of a brave sketcher. I started with a more naturalistic approach, and quickly realized that wasn't going to work for me, so I drew from MarmeeCraft's "thick-necked" look and sketched several possible backgrounds, choosing the yarn pattern.


My piece needed to be 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches, so I then taped my paper according to size, with a nice one inch border. The paper I used here is some from an Arches Watercolor Block.

Then I mapped out my composition with a mechanical pencil. I tried to not use too many lines, because often those will show through. I just need enough to get the idea.

Next, I started with the watercolors. The paints I used were a variety of brands- Cotman, Windsor and Newton, and Grumbacher, but it's always nice to squeeze a little of each onto a seal-able tray for easy mixing and re-usage. I always like to test my color a bit on the extra space on the paper, just to be sure. Then I began to paint! I just wanted a nice coffee stain look for a backdrop, and mixed a variety of yellows and browns. I first added a layer of clean water, and then added paint, letting it do as it pleased. The messier the better! I wanted some "mess-up" spots on purpose to give it some character, and splatted water here and there.

After that layer dried, I went in again with some darker hues, using a little blue mixed with darker browns. This change is subtle, and hard to see in this picture.

I realized my cat wasn't standing out enough from the background, and since I wasn't planning on adding any more color to her, I needed to lift up some of the color using a clean brush, water, and a tissue to dab it with. The paper's natural selection of what color to keep made a really lovely stain.

I then began to work on the more specific colors for the yarn. I still wanted to keep it loose, since I knew I was doing ink line work over it. I chose subtle purples, blues and browns for a nice complimentary contrast to the yellow hue underneath. Here again, I used a tissue to dab off some of the wet paint for an aged look.

One final touch with paint- the eyes and nose!

I needed to let the paint dry completely (not even having the paper cold to the touch) before I did my line work, so there would be no bleeding. I took a dinner break and came back to paper that was ready to go! Then I began the tedious task of patterning. It's very relaxing- until your hand starts to cramp!

And then I'm finished!

Here is the final work, sans tape and cut to size. If you have fallen in love with my kitty and live in the Savannah area, you are in luck! The piece will be up for sale within the next couple months. I'll have updates on the show in the future.

"Cat" watercolor and ink, 2009.
Another bit of good news- my book came in today! It looks fantastic. The colors are a bit more saturated than I thought, but it really works nicely with some of the images.


That's all for now. Have a wonderful New Year!
adios
caitlin

Post-Christmas Lazies

Good afternoon! It's been a few days since Christmas (we just got back from a West Texas family gathering) and boy, am I feeling lethargic! I just barely mustered enough energy to take photos of these two prints I made (gifts to my cousins) and post them here. And now I need to start packing for my trip back to Savannah! I'll really enjoy being back at school, but it was so very nice to relax with my family for a little while. I love them so much.
When I return to SCAD, it'll be a busy but exciting quarter. I'm going to be taking a children's book class, which I can barely contain myself for because I am so thrilled, my second printmaking class-- relief (which is also a love of mine, in case it wasn't apparent!) and a survey of illustration class. The survey will be a toughie, because I hear that although it is a lecture class, there are projects assigned as well. I'm pretty much going to be in an extra class this quarter. I can't wait though; all three are so important now that I'm getting more specifically into my interests. There will be plenty of updates on those subjects! But enough of the blabbing- here are the two prints I made this break:

"Dillo" Relief Print, 2009


"Weather Bird" Relief Print, 2009

Sorry the photos aren't the best. I don't have a good scanner here at home.
I did both prints on linoleum, and used my old high school's ink and press. My beloved art teacher of four years, Mr. Bates, helped me out a bit. I've been so spoiled by SCAD's excellent printmaking studio, that using a little press and cheaper ink was pretty difficult! After switching from water-based ink to oil-based, the prints became a lot better, and I came out with quite a few good ones. Thank you, Mr. Bates! I have even more respect for the prints you create, knowing that's what you work with every time.
That's all for now! Have a happy New Year, everyone!
adios
caitlin

Merry Christmas Eve!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a warm and cozy Christmas eve. I still haven't receieved my book in the mail (my fault for ordering it too late) so no update there yet. But I have two new lino prints that I will post photos of next week. They are gifts, so I can't show them just yet! So, to tide you over, here's some more work that didn't quite make it to my portfolio.

"Biff the Hat Man" Mixed Media, 2009


"Birthday Alligators" Ink 2009


"Cinco de Mayo" Collage with bought, hand-painted and hand-printed patterns, 2009


"Crawled to the Bath" Ink and Watercolor, 2009

Happy Holidays!
adios
caitlin

My book is available!

Hey everybody! I finally got my book "Only With You" up on Blurb.com, and it's available for you to purchase too! I just ordered my two copies, so I don't know how they look yet. Blurb is a great company, so I trust them, but if you want to wait for me to check out my printed version, I'll update once I get them (probably after Christmas). Here's a link to check out the book:

Only With You

By Caitlin Alexander

Book Preview

And the cover!


Hooray!

Also, Spoiler Alert if you receive a card from the Alexander family! I got my family's Christmas Card finished about a week and a half ago. They wanted something classic, and similar in theme to last year's.
Last Year- 2008, Ink and Watercolor

This year- 2009, Ink and Watercolor


Happy Holidays and New Year everyone!

adios
caitlin

Been working on my book

Hello all!
During the summer I wrote and illustrated a children's book (for my own pleasure) and have finally found the time to edit it! I'll update more as I keep chugging along on this project, but here's just an overview of the story. It's called "Only With You," and I actually got the idea from a class project (featured on the front page of my site, titled "Bunny"). The plot is that a little girl named Bernadette has just moved and gathers the courage to explore with her stuffed rabbit Mr. Wiggles, who is "larger than life." Thanks to my lovely mother for working out the plot kinks and thanks to my lovely boyfriend Kellan for editing and helping me with page layouts (which I'm still working on).

Here's one of the spreads:



"Spread 6" Ink, Watercolor, Varnish and Digital, 2009

Let me know if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book when I'm finished putting it together!

I'll be updating a bunch soon with winter projects, so keep an eye out!

adios
caitlin