Fresh start, 2012

Hi all!
The last few days I have been working on my new mailers for 2012, and am happy to tell you that they are ordered, and hopefully on their way soon!

By the way: Spoiler alert, if you are on my list! I'll be posting the images here.

I decided this time to change it up a bit by sending out two different cards, one aiming at children's book publishers, and the other at editorial clients. Had I been able to afford it, I would have printed cards for art licensing and perhaps another editorial example as well. Hopefully 2012 will eventually allow me that! This is still pretty exciting for now.

For the first card (my "editorial" one), I used an image you may recognize, but played with it a bit, and eventually decided to display my hand-lettering abilities at the top. This also created an unexpected and unique composition for the postcard.

"Postcard 2012," Gouache and Digital, 2011-2012.

"Hello Neighbor," Gouache, 2012.

The lettering here was a lot of fun! For Christmas, Kellan got me two amazing books full of lettering samples from the 1940s through '70s, and I spent quite some time pouring over the pages, looking for ideas. For anyone who loves type and lettering, I highly recommend these books! I am in love! (With the books, and with the boy).



The second card was almost entirely new work, although you may recognize the houses below from my collaboration with Seo Kim! I loved them so much, I had to use them again for something. For this card, I knew I needed something that would embody all the different elements of a successful children's book. This is challenging, because those elements usually unfold throughout 32 pages, but I had to represent as many as possible in one image. I feel as though the result was pretty successful, as I attempted to show both animal and child characters, an event taking place, a location, a brighter color palette, while still keeping my stylistic approach to all these things. Hopefully a publisher will feel the same way! We shall see!


"The Best Dream," Gouache and Digital, 2012.

The back of both cards will be the same as my previous one:

(It's hard to see the edges on a white background, huh?)

And in other news, They Draw and Cook is featuring my Superfood Salad on their jumbotron this week! They have been the kindest, most supportive people of my illustration career, and I can't explain enough how thankful I am to have fans in them!

That's all for now, but keep an eye on Square Carousel, because we are starting back up for the New Year!
adios
caitlin

Lots and lots of goodies!

Hello all!
I know, I know. I'm back so soon! Well, my lovely followers, I have so much wonderful news to share!
First of all, here is some new work (I have been very busy!):


"Trees in the Grove," Gouache, 2011.


"Picking Pears," Gouache, 2011.


"Harold Carries, Rosie Counts," Gouache, 2011.

These pieces are from an imaginary children's book I came up with. Theoretically, it would be titled, "Pears, Peaches, Apples," and would be about counting and seeing differences in objects (fruit specifically). I haven't added any text here for two reasons: first of all, I haven't written any text, and secondly, placement would likely be a designer's job, not mine. I had a lot of fun working on this, because of the challenge of a semi-limited color palette, as well as keeping my characters consistent.

Exciting bit number two:
The reason I was motivated to create these spreads was because I received a couple thrilling emails! First was the blog feature I have already mentioned on here. Annie Ericsson, an art assistant at Penguin/Putnam, loved my postcard mailer enough to post it on her website, and suggested that I create some spreads that show consistent characters to push my portfolio further. I have emailed her all of my most recent work.
And now, the Art Director of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has emailed me as well, saying that she loved my postcard and wants me to keep her updated with new work. How exciting is that?! So, I sent her my recent pieces also. Obviously, I will be letting you know if something happens!

And here's the BIGGEST NEWS OF ALL:

Our last Square Carousel challenge was to create a map for the wonderful website "They Draw and Travel," where illustrators around the globe create beautiful and geographically informative artwork. They often create books and calendars from hand-selected pieces, and are widely followed by the creative community. Here was my map (of my lovely home, Austin, Texas!):


"Austin Map," Gouache and Digital, 2011.

This project took a long time, and was pretty difficult for me because I don't usually work with such intricate details and backgrounds, but the struggle was so, so, so worth it! As soon as I uploaded my map to the TDAT (They Draw and Travel) site, I was contacted by the creators, Nate and Salli, saying that they had completely fallen in love with my work (I'm blushing!) and after searching around on my site and blog, they discovered Square Carousel. It was so exciting to them that our group of diverse (and talented!) illustrators had devoted our collective challenge to TDAT, and because of that, they offered to us the incredible opportunity to be heavily promoted by their network.
TDAT then did us the biggest compliment possible by telling every single person they could about our group. They featured our maps at the same time on the website (currently mine sits as the homepage!), with an amazingly large header that links to the Square Carousel page. Also on the They Draw and Travel site, Nate and Salli wrote a lovely blogpost about our collective. Then they took to Facebook and Twitter, repeatedly updating their hundreds of followers on our work. (Please check these links out for yourself, too!) The most exciting of all, however, might just be that Nate and Salli emailed all their subscribers (about 500 people, I believe) with an image-packed update of all Square Carousel's maps. This email also went, with a personal note, to the amazing Lilla Rogers, an artist representative who has corralled some of the most fresh illustrators to date. Even if none of us see immediate feedback from this networking extravaganza, it is such an honor and compliment to be promoted so heavily by one of the best creative websites around! THANK YOU, TDAT!

This made me so excited, so inspired, and so motivated that I decided to submit to TDAT's sister site (also run by Nate and Salli) called "They Draw and Cook." They are currently running a competition called "Cooking 4 Kids," so I did a quick, easy, and fun way to get children to eat their veggies: "Zippy Zucchini" (an allrecipes.com creation). This is the link to my submission and it's comments, but here's the image itself:

"Zippy Zucchini," Gouache and Digital, 2011.

And that would conclude all the exciting news I have for you right now! Stay tuned though, because I have a new Square Carousel challenge that I'm pretty close to posting...
adios,
caitlin

I got my books in the mail today!

Hey everybody! Just a quick post to let you know that I got my three copies of "Which Pet?" today in the mail, and Blurb did a fantastic job on printing them! The colors are perfect and there is minimal cropping of any images.



Running off to class now!
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

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

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