What I Wore Today!

Hello all!
New Square Carousel challenge! This one is for the website “What I Wore Today” by Gemma Correll. We are also collaborating with The Pen Pals!

My process for this piece was much different than my usual method. I actually did sketches every day, during one of the most fantastic weeks I’ve had in a long time. South By Southwest was providing tons of entertainment (and free shows, which I was able to see 5 of!), my best friend was in town doing interviews, the weather was lovely, and I was able to enjoy Austin probably more than I ever have. Usually I don’t sketch much, but I felt that the week needed to be documented in as many ways as possible. This also gave me options to choose from for my final piece.

Keep in mind that these are pretty rough (and goofy!) sketches!





And here's my final! I'm pretty pleased with it:


"What I Wore on a Very Good Day," Gouache, 2012.

That's all I have for now!
adios,
caitlin

I love "They Draw and Cook"

Hello all!
A few weeks ago, I was personally invited to enter a competition hosted by my favorite illustration website duo, Nate and Sally from "They Draw and Cook," and "They Draw and Travel." The contest is to create a recipe (for "They Draw and Cook") using one of Kraft's products. I chose the "Cabo Beach Cheese Burger" from their website. This was a lot of fun to work on, and I pushed my color palette a little bit with this piece, to give a feel of summertime fun.


"Cabo Beach Cheese Burger," Gouache and Digital, 2012.

Here's the piece on their site!
More work coming soon! Keep your eyes peeled!
Also, be sure to switch over to my Tumblr, because I'll be putting my Blogspot to rest in just a few more posts.

That's all for now!
adios
caitlin

Those other updates I was telling you about!

Hi all,






I painted another Austin scene for work, only this time in glazes instead of gouache, and on a plate instead of paper, which is a lot more difficult! We are using it as a sample right now, to show all the different sizes and shapes we have to choose from. I love to see my work in a different media like this! It's really rewarding, knowing that it's something useable. Eventually I'd like to make more pieces like this.

Also, I have some of my old prints hanging for sale! My boss, Kelly, was nice enough to let me test out the waters a bit, to see if anyone is interested. I've had a lot of positive feedback, so hopefully a purchase or two will be on the way!





And again, make sure you switch over to my Tumblr page, so I don't lose you when I make the final switch! That's all I have for you today. :)
adios,
caitlin

Latest Square Carousel Challenge!

Hi all,
Sorry it's been a while. Please make sure to check out my Tumblr, where I'm updating more regularly now. Eventually this blog will no longer be used. Sad, I know :(
So... now for:
Square Carousel challenge number 13!

"St. Patty's Parade People," Gouache and Digital, 2012.

We can't attend the St. Patty's Day parade in Savannah this year... so we're going to make ourselves one. Head on over to the site to see what everyone else came up with, and also to read more about these characters.
Not too much going on in other news, at the moment. I've just been busy getting my day-job stuff sorted out (which it looks like is now finally the case!). I have sent out 20 packets full of goodies to art directors at publishing houses, magazines and even an art licensing company, so hopefully something will come of that soon!
I've also got a few other little things to show you, but it will have to wait for another day... Oh, the suspense!
adios,
caitlin

Just a teeny update...

Hello all!

Just a very brief post to show you my latest piece for Square Carousel. The challenge was "Sh*t Politicians Say," which I was so excited about! I never illustrate politics, or specific people, so this really pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone. Head over to Square Carousel to see more crazy quotes, and to read more about the Light Bulb Debate!

"Light Bulb Debate," Gouache and Digital, 2012.

That's all for now! Sorry for the briefness here :)
adios
caitlin

First Change of the Year

Hi all!
So, to those of you who adore Blogspot, I have some news you may not enjoy. I've created a Tumblr, where I've imported all of my old posts, and plan on beginning to use it as my only blog sometime this year. I'll be using both at first, just because I'm not a huge fan of change myself, but eventually, should things be as great at Tumblr as they say, I'll stop posting on my Blogspot. If you have a Tumblr account, be sure to follow my new snazzy layout! And also, a big thanks to Casey Crisenbery for helping me figure out the HTML coding... not exactly my cup of tea!

On to other news: School is back in session for Square Carousel! Our first challenge of the year, chosen by Maily Degnan, is to illustrate our favorite movie. I chose "Big Fish" for mine, and focused on the character design of protagonist Edward Bloom's true love, Sandra Templeton. Head on over to Square Carousel to read more about the movie and my process!


"Sandra Templeton," Gouache and digital, 2012.

Also! I got my new set of cards in the mail! They look fantastic. Gotprint.com did a great job with the color. This time, I got matte instead of glossy, and I really prefer the turnout! The only thing I'm a bit saddened by is those corners. Last time I got rounded ones, and I loved it, but unfortunately, for some reason, you can't get them with matte cards. Oh well! I'm excited to send them out. Time to start writing addresses!




That's all I have for now, folks,
adios
caitlin

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

Happy New Year!

Hi all!
Just a very, very quick post to let you know I've survived the holiday season and haven't forgotten about you!

Just before Christmas, Seo and I completed our collaboration piece for Square Carousel. I really, really love how it turned out. It's so much fun to see how my work can transform by the hands of another artist. Check out the website to read more about our process and thoughts on the final piece!


"Relationships," Mixed media, 2011 ©Caitlin B. Alexander and Seo Kim

I'll have more news to share soon.

adios,
caitlin

Christmas Inspirations

Hi all!
A quick note: I have significantly updated my website! There is one little glitch I have just noticed-- on the portfolio page, the Christmas dove piece continues to haunt you when the cursor is off the thumbnails! I will be fixing this problem shortly. But check it out anyway!
Speaking of Christmas cards...
Well, this year I am neglecting to paint my annual Christmas cards, unfortunately. I was on a roll, three years in a row, but I just couldn't find the time for 2011's rendition. So, instead, I decided to show you some really wonderful retro cards and advertisements, all of which I find pretty inspiring.

I can't resist starting off with my favorite: Mary Blair!

Here's a Disney illustration from 1952. The use of green is a little odd here, but I love the line work on the buildings. I think it's also pretty funny to see the traditional Disney characters drawn in their usual style, with Mary's trademark technique surrounding them.


©Mary Blair, 1952.

I'm not sure when this Christmas card was made, but I really enjoy the simplicity of it. The texture is really nice, also. Although, the rocking horse's eyes make me slightly uncomfortable after some time.


© Mary Blair

Not a card, but still for the holidays! This character is my personal favorite of the bunch. Her way of handling children still has the largest influence on my personal work. I also enjoy that this piece required such a limited color palette.


© Mary Blair for Meadow Gold

While on the hunt, I also found some really fun card illustrations from the 1950s. The first is from "Better Homes and Gardens," illustrating a happy family in the most traditional sense possible. I love that about old illustrations. Even if life wasn't really this perfect, the world sure pretended it was! Wonderful limited color palette here, also.


© Better Homes and Gardens

This is an old children's card from Carrington. Again, the simplicity here is just wonderful. Apparently, there are some Carrington card collectors out there. I can't imagine what kind of lovely goldmines those folks have.


© Carrington

Now, this I just found really funny! Talk about simplicity-- Santa in his most basic form, selling electrical appliances. I'm not sure what woman today would really want a slow-roaster or waffle iron for Christmas, but I won't judge either. This was printed sometime in the late '50s or early '60s.


I don't have anyone to copyright it to. :(

And last, but not least, a really fun card illustration from 1960 by Hallmark. The card was made for First Lady Mamie Doud Eisenhower. Apparently, Mamie was responsible for the pink bathroom trend that graces millions of homes today (or once graced, as I'm sure many have sadly been torn out by now). Click here to read the really interesting article on Mamie's love of pink influencing America, which I discovered was attached to the illustration.

© Hallmark via The Eisenhower National Historic Site

I hope this makes up for my lack of personal work for Christmas!

adios,
caitlin

Features, features, and some more features!

Hey all!
I realized that I never updated you on my fun discovery a few weeks ago! After taking Kellan's suggestion to Google my own name, I found that other folks had, well, found me! Let me tell you, it is one of the most exciting things to unexpectedly see your work featured on another website. (Unless, of course, they've stolen it. I suppose that would be a different kind of exciting.)

Here's the links to each page:

Halogentv.com wrote an article on They Draw and Travel, and They Draw and Cook. My Zippy Zucchini recipe was at the top of the page! This was a nice treat, and was posted on my birthday, no less.

Avocado Sweet also did a piece on They Draw and Travel, and sampled both my Austin map, and fellow Square Carouselian Catherine Fontenot's Northway Park guide. About my work, they said, "Two maps that immediately made me want to go to Texas: Active Austin by Caitlin B. Alexander which includes a plea to 'Keep Austin Weird' and identifies the Armadillo World Headquarters."

Another Wordpress site to feature TDAT was Valesulfilo, which included my Austin map again, as well as previous Square Carousel member, Shannon Snow's, Savannah map.

I also found my map on a Tumblr page!

The most interesting feature of them all though, I must say, is the one I found written in Portuguese. The author was comparing cat totes, and mine was at the top of the page! It's so interesting to wonder how this ended up on her site, because it had been a year (at the time of the post) since my Etsy screen-print shop was selling the bags! In the post on Nao Me Mande Flores, she asks "Which one of these cute cat totes would you rather take home? I want them all!" I am proud to say (after translating all the comments like a dork!), that my tote was one of the most popular in the bunch! Good to know I have some Portuguese fans!

On another note, I finished my recipe for They Draw and Cook's youbeauty.com holiday contest. They'll be announcing the winners soon. I hope someone from Square Carousel wins a prize! That would be so fun, but if not, it was a blast anyway. I always love creating pieces for TDAC and TDAT.

"Superfood Salad," Gouache and Digital, 2011.
That's all for now!
adios
caitlin