What's your favorite fantasy creature?

Pin It Now! Hello all,

So this week I've been working on sketches for a series of fantasy/mythological creature illustrations. Here's a page of some of the sketches:

I'm planning to whittle them down to my favorite one for each type of creature, and then turn that into a painting.

I'd love some reader input though... what is your favorite fantasy creature? (if you don't have a favorite fantasy creature, when did the child inside of you die? :) Just kiddin'! ) What do you think is a must have in a series of fantasy creature pictures?

Mine is probably a good ol' dragon! I've done a couple of dragon paintings before, and I'll definitely be doing a new one for this series.

Another question is, what should be happening in that scene with the creature of your choice?

Hope you are staying cool wherever you are. Wow, is L.A. hot right now!

Cara

Changes...

Pin It Now! So I'm trying this new thing of posting something new every week. Sunday is supposed to be "new post" day, so I'm a teensy bit late.

A few changes have been going on. You may notice if you have sharp eyes/sharp memory that I have changed my banner phrase. It used to say "Thoughts and updates about my journey as a children's book illustrator" and now it say "Thoughts and updates about my journey as a fantasy illustrator" Over the summer I decided to make a few shifts with my art goals. I've been pursuing the children's illustration thing for a long time. But I've come to think that I would feel more comfortable switching my focus to the older age crowd. There actually is a fair amount of crossover between the two, but there is a difference. I've felt this change brewing for me for a long time.

At this time I'm working on creating some new work that fits this new focus a bit better. I'm looking into Wizards of the Coast-type stuff, games, comics, etc. We'll see where this goes, but I'm excited!

When I grow up...

Pin It Now! Here's a fun picture that I don't think I've posted before. The above paper is one of those worksheets that you fill in when you are little that asks about what you want to be when you grow up. I'm not sure what age I was when I filled this one out -- 2nd or 3rd grade? My mom dug it up some years ago and I actually hung it on the wall at my graduate illustration show for fun. It hangs on my studio wall now.

It's a little hard to make out, but if you look closely you see that I talk about wanting to be an artist when I grow up. The best part is where I answer "Why do you want to be that?" and one of my answers is because "I'm good at it." Wow, I envy the confidence my littler self had!

I was actually really surprised when my mom showed this to me. I didn't remember writing that at all when I was little. I remember being kind of a reluctant artist really. I certainly always drew, because my mom and sister did so I was always around it. But I didn't really get into it until college. Going into college, my memory is that I majored in art (as well as Criminal Justice of all things) almost by default because I didn't know what I wanted to do.

Growing up, I think I saw my older sister Christa as so much more of an artist than I was. She seemed so much more gifted than I was. On top of that, I was a serious tomboy and pretty much wanted to be outside playing sports of any kind rather than inside drawing. Funnily enough, my mom used to set a kitchen timer to get me to draw (draw for 30 min., etc. and then you can go outside and play). Her trick worked! Now I love to draw:)

Anyway, it's funny now to look back and see the path I've taken to art.