Summer Limbo Land

Well, this has been a very interesting period of time so far for me. It really is difficult to describe. I feel free, in some regards, and more bound in others. I have yet to start a job, although I have been hired part-time by Urban Outfitters (starting the 26th), and am in between interviews with another store for a second job. Kellan and I have an apartment pre-leased for August. Although I've worked hard to take care of my responsibilities as a budding freelancer, it feels a bit like I'm living in the Groundhog Day movie! Every day is very similar to the last.


Regardless, I've made some significant progress with my illustration. At the end of June, I mailed out my roughly 650 postcards. That was an all-day ordeal, putting on stamps and addressing that many postcards takes a great deal longer than you'd expect. Toting them all in a shoebox to the post office certainly got me some strange looks! I also forgot to mention in my last post that the illustration department at SCAD offered to pay me for my portfolio book, to keep as a sample, but I declined. I couldn't give away my baby! So, instead I mailed them a disc copy of the PDF files. I've also prepared my tear sheet packets to be mailed as soon as we move into our apartment.

A couple weeks ago I received an email from one of my cards. I shouldn't name the company, since they haven't given me any work, but they were impressed by my portfolio and are asking for me to submit additional work soon (they need something slightly more specific in purpose than I have just yet). I'll let you know if this goes anywhere, but even if it doesn't, it was a very nice surprise, since I wasn't expecting to get any responses from my first mailers!

The biggest and best news of all though is several months in the making! Today I can officially announce my involvement with the Square Carousel Illustration Collective! It is a group of ten illustrators who met at SCAD and graduated this year. Josh Heinsz organized the group in a bout of complete genius, carefully selecting artists whose styles and personas mesh well together. I see our aesthetics as a gradient-- one person's work may be similar to another, who is similar to another, who is similar to another... The group will have bi-weekly challenges, and will act as a self-promotional tool, also giving us an opportunity to share advice and contacts with ease, now that we are spread across the country (and Canada!) The first challenge was to create our carousel animal, which will be synonymous with our name on the site. Here's mine:


"Happy Carousel Raccoon," Gouache, 2011.

Click here to check out our website! And here for our Twitter. Aaaaaand here for our Facebook page! Please like it, if you're on Facebook!

That's all I have for you at the moment. Check back soon!

adios
caitlin

As Summer Winds Down

Hello all! This will be a short update. I finished a couple more pieces this summer! Probably the most art-productive summer to date! Not too much to say about them, except that I'm pretty happy with the results and they will fill some holes in my portfolio. Take a gander!



"Moving?" 2010, Gouache



"Visit Austin" 2010, Gouache

Also, meander over to my official site-- it got a pretty major facelift! (If it looks the same, give it a day or two. Sometimes the change is slow.) I like it much better than the one I had before, and I even managed to teach myself a little html code in the process! Super-nerd in the making.
That's all for now!
adios,
caitlin

New York, New York

Hello all!
Well, I just got home from a whirlwind week in New York with SCAD. It was insanely busy and tiring, but I am so, very very glad I decided on a whim to go. I got so much out of it, I don't know if I can really fit it all in a blog post. But I'll sure try! It was scary and uplifting, eye-opening and humbling, inspiring and surprising. And most of all, it was extremely motivating! I am so ready to put together a killer portfolio now. I want to knock everyone's socks off with my illustration!


A lovely scene in New York!

First, we went to Illustration House-- Walt Reed is the founder, and also author of many illustration history books. This is the home to many renowned illustrator's works. It was a joy to hear all the stories of the illustration greats from such a respectable man and his son/business partner.


Illustration House gallery.

Next stop was the home and studio of children's book illustrators Ted and Betsy Lewin. His style is very realistic, and hers loose and lively, but somehow they have found a way to collaborate and create books together, based on their love of the animal kingdom and travel. They have gone on a trip every year since 1970 to visit every continent, but Antarctica, to watch the animals and hear the locals' stories. Their home was just incredible, adorned with the treasures of their travel. Every wall is covered in their own beautiful artwork, and they have such an everlasting love, it's truly from a book or movie. They are both so proud of each other and supportive, and they love recounting the stories from all their adventures. I just loved Ted and Betsy, and their eclectic studio. I want so badly to have a life like theirs! They are content, creative, and found a way to incorporate everything they love into one profession: each other, art, animals and travel! I would give to be so happy. It was truly inspiring.


Betsy's work on the wall.


Ted's work on the wall.


The incredible studio!


Ted showing us his book dummies.


Betsy giving a demonstration.

Our last stop of the day was at Harper's magazine. Thanks to our professor Talon, we had an assignment to illustrate a previously-published article, in which we will be contacting them through the sketch process, just like a real job. It will be a great opportunity to learn how the process works, and to gain a connection with Harper's. My article is about Broadway, and was originally written in the late 1800s. It will be an exciting challenge that I can't wait to take on! It has been requested that I work in my relief printmaking style for this assignment, so I have a good deal of work ahead of me. But I can't wait! More updates on that soon.

The next day we spent at the Society of Illustrators. It feels just like home to me! Tons of books and famous illustrations on the walls. We were spoken to by Holiday House, a children's book publisher, and got a good insight into the business, with advice on how to present our portfolios, contact publishers, and specifically what to adjust in each of our books. My portfolio review went pretty well, she asked me a few questions about my choice of media and such, but didn't say too much. She was very nice, and even had another person from Holiday come by to see our portfolios again. Overall, it was pretty successful, if I don't say so myself!


One of many bookshelves in the Society of Illustrators.

We also were visited by both Yuko Shimizu, who spoke to us about editorial and advertising illustration, and Murray Tinkelman, who discussed self-initiated projects and the importance of continuing to work even when the phone doesn't ring. Both were just lovely people to listen to, and it was nice to hear perspectives from illustrators who have been successful in the business for some time.


©Yuko Shimizu


©Murray Tinkelman

The third day started off with a visit to the New York Times. We spoke with the art directors from several sections of the paper. The insight into editorial illustration was really helpful, and they were a fun and relate-able group of people. I got some good feedback on my work and presentation of it, which I will most certainly be applying to this summer's projects. I really liked the way they worked with us, being personable so that the critique wasn't painful, and having both positive and negative feedback. It was motivating and made me want to put together the most impressive book I can. That's the plan for the next few months, anyway!

Next, we visited two SCAD graduates at their home and studio. Zelda Devon and Kurt Huggins work primarily in sequential, and just broke into the field. What they told us was eye-opening and slightly intimidating, but after a little scare, it made me even more passionate about illustration. They really emphasized how difficult it truly is to be an illustrator and to get work. You have to be very diligent and motivated to get your name out there. No matter how good you are, no one will see you or hire you if you aren't networking. As much as I love SCAD, (the program is wonderful and I have gotten so much out of it), it made me realize how cushioned we are, as students, from the outside world. I am definitely a big fish in a small pond, as they say, and it was pretty bewildering to see what the real world is like. But I know I can do it, and I want this more than anything. Zelda and Kurt's talk pumped me up to get out there and show the illustration world what I'm made of!


©Zelda Devon and Kurt Huggins

The last stop of this day was at 3x3 Magazine, a publication for illustration. We spoke with Charles Hively, the publisher of the magazine, who is notorious for a hard critique. I have to admit my heart was pounding going into that meeting! Mr. Hively is clearly very passionate about illustration. He told us about the decline in the public's interest in it, and therefore illustrators get paid less and less. His goal is to get illustration's good reputation back. This talk made me want to become active in his fight for our field. He had some very good arguments about how people who accept jobs for way too low of pay harm not only themselves, but also the rest of us. Doing this allows clients to take advantage of us. Hively talked about how photography was replacing illustration because it's "faster" and "easier." He said that illustration is "in Wal-Mart" and needs to get out. We shouldn't be looked at as the last resort for an image in editorial publications or books. His critique was pretty hard, but it will make me grow to hear the worst. He wasn't fond of a lot of my work, and said my portfolio is nowhere near consistent, which is a big problem. He seemed to like my woodcuts alright, and he had some good tips for book presentation. It was hard to hear, but completely necessary. I'm grateful for the experience.

Our second-to-last day was much easier on us! We went to Friend of a Farmer for breakfast and lunch with two children's book illustrators, Melissa Iwai and Kristen Balouch. Hearing them talk was very refreshing. They are both happy with their jobs and lives, and are doing quite well for themselves. Both are very talented women, and I really enjoyed getting to see their processes behind each book. I'd love to be in their shoes one day, talking with students about how to make it!


Friends of a Farmer


©Kristen Balouch


©Melissa Iwai

Mark Smylie from Archaia Studio Press, who creates children's comic books. It is not specifically an area of illustration that suits me, but he was a very nice man and had some more great feedback on how to enter the creative field.

We wrapped up the day at Nancy Stahl's apartment. Her studio was just amazing! She had shelves and shelves of books (it appears this is a requirement for an illustrator, which is fine by me!) and lots of little oddities from thrift stores and garage sales. A lot of it seemed to be from the '40s and '50s, and it's inspiration shows in her work. It gave me some great ideas of how I'd like my studio to be one day! I am so excited to no longer work in a dorm room.


Her awesome studio! This picture doesn't do it justice.


©Nancy Stahl

Our last day was another great one. We started off at Penguin Group, and met with people from both Dial Books for Young Readers and Dutton Children's Books, both of which are housed under Penguin (in total, three people: one for each). My portfolio review went really well with them, and it was so relieving. They told me my style was very European and "hip," and even pointed out a specific character from my children's book that they liked a lot. Steven Meltzer, the associate publisher and executive managing editor for Penguin, said he would love to hang my "Cat" piece in his house! He said my gouache work was very 1960s retro, which is a good thing, since it's coming back in style. I was ecstatic with this review! These are people I hope to be working for someday. And they liked my stuff!

We wrapped up the trip back in SOI with Steven Tabbutt, another SCAD graduate who has incredible fine art illustration, and David Guertin of Insomniac Games and Creature Box, who does a lot of character design for games. Steven's work was really interesting to see, because he even showed us original works. It made me proud to be a SCAD student! David was a really funny guy, and also emphasized how hard you have to work to remain relevant in the business, but how it's also very much worth it. Anyone interested in character development should contact him for some advice. He is a really nice man and gives great tips. We went to Toy Story 3 with the group and then said our good-byes. It was such a great trip. I completely recommend it to any SCAD students (although Talon won't be your professor for it, because he is sadly leaving the school! I am happy for him and his new opportunities though).


©Steven Tabbutt

Whew! Exhausting, huh? Oh, and we also got to see some famous murals. Dean Cornwell and Maxfield Parrish! I was so glad to get to experience these huge paintings in person.


Maxfield Parrish


Dean Cornwell

I'll update more about my progress on assignments this summer. Rest your eyes from all that reading! Update soon.
adios
caitlin

Lots of Art!

Hello again.
Sorry I haven't been so great about updating lately. After midterms I was so busy with the end of the year, packing, storage units, job hunting for the summer and getting ready for New York, I just couldn't manage to squeeze blog time in! But now I'll squeeze all that was missed into a couple blog posts.

First off: my second Lithography assignment! This is a two plate run, and a rather large print. These are aluminum plates, which require a lot more processing than the pronto plates from the first assignment. One run is the brown line work, done with Litho Crayons, and the second (yellow) created with washes. Overall, a pretty successful but not quite portfolio-worthy project.



"Catnip" AP, Lithograph Print, 2010.

Moving right along! Kellan and I, as mentioned previously, were participants in the Sidewalk Chalk Festival. No luck again this year as far as winning goes, but we had fun with it, as usual, and got a lot of good feedback from the people walking by. The weather wasn't as good this year, but we stuck it out, and it was certainly worth it!



The proud artists!



The final product! Children playing pirates in a treehouse with their imaginary friend.



Me working on our piece.

An interesting thing happened to me when I went into Panera for lunch with my roommate Maria a few weeks ago. The cashier, when I handed her my card, said "Oh! You're Caitlin Alexander!" I was pretty confused, and agreed with the statement- yes, that's my name... She then went on to say, "You're really good!" I had no idea what she was talking about, and it was pretty clear, so she continued, "You're illustration, right? I've seen your stuff, it's awesome! You have a boyfriend, Kellan, he's good too!" My department is pretty small, and I didn't know this girl from any of my classes. Needless to say it was very flattering to be recognized by my name as an illustrator! And she even knew about certain details of my life. Celebrity status, woo! Just kidding, but it was pretty exciting.

The third assignment in Poster was very frustrating for me. I actually did the project twice, starting over a day before it was due because I was so unhappy with what I made. I still wasn't thrilled about the final result, but it was better than what I had in the beginning. It is a poster for a band called Horse Feathers. The event in New York is real, and I wanted to show the concept of a indie-folk band taking over the big apple. Here, the chickens are coming out of an apple, like worms. I feel as though my color choices here are poor, and the composition was difficult to understand. A lot of people didn't see this as an apple, and I didn't like the aesthetics of the chickens.



"Horse Feathers take 1" Gouache and Photoshop, 2010.

In the second attempt, I limited my color palette, and removed the harsh orange. I made the chickens more readable, and the top of the apple makes a more iconic image. I used watercolor paper instead of bristol to help with the texture, making my technique a lot better here. I am not, however, as fond of my hand-lettering in this work. I think it looks a little sloppy and rushed (because it was) and, as nice of an idea it was to use the leaf for text, I didn't get it working quite right here. Oh well, learning experience!



"Horse Feathers" Gouache and Photoshop, 2010.

I actually started over my third Lithography assignment as well, although I don't have any scans of the first attempt to show you. This was less of my fault as an artist and more of my fault as a chemist. One of the many steps of the stone process I managed to goof up, and my first print filled in really badly. In a post following this one, I will give a step-by-step of the stone lithography process. So, I started over, and came up with this simple little illustration. The colors are done by hand, not print, with watercolor. The drawing on the stone was done with autographic ink.



"Too Many Dogs" AP, Lithography Print with Watercolor, 2010.

I was actually printing this edition (I pulled a grand total of 21 prints!) during Open Studio Night, where I also had working hanging for sale. I was essentially a demonstrator of lithography, and had people asking me questions about the process. It was a lot of fun, and I'd love to do it again.

I finished my final Litho print as quickly as I could, since I knew I had so much more work in other classes to do. This is also with autographic ink, but there is another run of monoprinting for the the balloon colors and background blue. This is when a printmaker basically paints on a sheet on plexiglass with ink, and then runs it through the press. To get a consistent edition this way is very challenging. The chine-colle (basically collage glued down as the paper is run through the press to print at the same time) of the balloon was done with the linework. It was thought, after seeing these results, that the work still seemed incomplete, and I was considering hand-coloring a little bit of it (which I did do with the hats later), when one of the printmaking professors came in with a box of goodies, showing us little tricks. I tried out her craft Martha Stewart flocking powder out, and it actually balanced the piece perfectly! Flocking powder, in case you aren't familiar with it, is a powder, that once glued down, feels like a fake velvet texture. Very retro greeting card. I love it!



"Balloon Brigade 2/3" Lithography Print with Watercolor and Flocking Powder, 2010.

I had three works in the juried show Alexander Ink at the end of this quarter. Two of them were in the main gallery, and I even got the "Sentient Bean Award" for one of them. The printmaking department announced my name as Caitlin Anderson, though, which was a little awkward. Oh well!



Me with my works in the main gallery.



My other piece framed.

I decided that I really needed to pull out the best work I could do for the final in Poster. I had to redeem myself after that Horse Feathers piece. I looked a lot at the work of Mary Blair and other 1950s illustrators, and carefully worked on this poster for a documentary. I am very pleased with everything about it. I think I finally hit the nail on the head here with the painting style working with the subject matter, and my hand-lettering. And I think the professor agreed! He was a difficult one to please sometimes, but I'm pretty sure he liked this one from me.



"Died Young Stayed Pretty" Gouache, Pencil and Digital, 2010.

And finally, I had to do a piece for the New York trip coming up. I reviewed my portfolio with my professor, and he told me that I have a style for people (gouache) and a style for animals (printmaking), with crossover between (people in printmaking), but I needed something of animals in the people style. So I came up with this! I had been dying to do a piece with a city backdrop, and it was kind of wonderful to have freedom in what I wanted to do (but not too much! That usually ends badly for us illustrators. We need just a little direction to find our own creative method within). I am very happy with this piece, too.



"Worm!" Gouache, 2010.

I also had some work in a Litho show with my class called "Polyautography: Science of the Handmade." It went well, and I even traded prints with some of my classmates. Hooray free wall decor!

And Ancient Art and Architecture, well, was difficult to say the least. Lots of memorization, and in that sense, kind of the art history class from hell! But I pulled it together and ended up getting an A in the class. All A's my entire Junior Year! I have been on the Dean's List my whole college career so far and have a 3.88 GPA. Let's just hope I can keep it up for three more quarters! In the fall I am taking Introduction to Psychology, Humorous Illustration, and Intermediate Lithography. But before then I have a few months off, and a trip to New York to show some important folks my portfolio. I am very excited and nervous. And I will update you again on how the trip goes!
Have a fantastic and lovely summer!
adios,
caitlin