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

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