Cara blogs

Wolpertinger!

2012-01-15T21:21:00.000-08:00

No, it's not a ~~Jackalope~~. But close. Did a sketch this week of this mythical creature said to reside in Germany for my animal drawing class. Part rabbit, part bird, part snake, and part deer. It's called a "wolpertinger." Yes, a "wolpertinger." (please find a way to insert that into casual conversation this week)

Fun.

:)

my new website's up :)

2012-01-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

Hey all,
So it took a little longer than I expected, but my newly refurbished website is now up! It's always been just long enough since the last time that I updated it, that I've just about forgotten everything about how to build a website :)
Anyway, it's actually pretty similar to the old one, but I've added a bunch more content.

I hope you people enjoy it! :

www.caranilsenart.com

Updated website coming...

2011-11-28T12:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a snap-shot of what I've been working on lately. I'm updating my website. I'm excited to be adding a bunch more content, including a sketchbook page as you can see there.

My website name has changed as well. It wasn't by choice. Long story short, someone bought up my name when it expired and there's now a junk website up at caranilsen.com. I spent some time trying to resolve the problem, but in the end I had to just get a new domain name. Sooo, my website is now at www.caranilsenart.com. It's still my old website right now, but I look forward to uploading my updated version real soon!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is now enjoying getting into the holiday spirit! I've got my Christmas tree up :) How about you?

Wizard

2011-10-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

So here's a sketch I did the other day when doodling in my sketchbook. I don't think I've tried to draw a "wizard" before. This is sort of the archetypical one that I picture. He looks a little dark and dangerous, which I hear wizards are.

I have to confess, drawing the beard was probably the most fun.

My actual sketchbook often actually gives me inspiration for the classic fantasy stuff that I like to draw. I don't think I've shown it before so here's a photo:

I made it out of an old presentation portfolio that I had been using to show my illustrations. It was a little cumbersome as a portfolio (it was the kind with the leather strings that tie around it) so I ended up shelving it for a simpler to use portfolio.

But I loved the thick leather it was made of and wished I could use it somehow. It occurred to me that I could use it to make a cool sketchbook. I modified the shape a little, sewed drawing paper into it, glued magnets inside the front flap for the closing device, and voila!

I always feel inspired just by pulling it out and looking at it:) When I fill the pages completely, I plan to remove the pages and save them, and sew new pages in.

:)

keeping busy.

2011-09-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

Well, I've been kinda busy of late, but I'm finally putting something up here on my blog. I did have a nice little assignment for a small publishing house the other week. It looks like it might be leading to some more work too--yay!

Here's the illustration:

I was excited to do the finished piece entirely as a digital painting. It's for use in a reference/educational kind of book.

In other news, I'm really enjoying my new animal drawing class I'm teaching at OCHSA. Such a fun class and I'm learning a lot myself, of course. This week we're headed to the zoo! Fun.

Cara

Back in SoCal

2011-09-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Well, I'm sorry I've taken so long to post a new blog since my trip! I guess I'm still in denial about being back to "real life" after my trip. AND school has started back up again so I'm plenty busy with that. This is week three of the semester. But before I get talking about school, here's a sampling of photos from my trip!

Big Ben!

Super delicious fish & chips in Bath!

Sheep at the B&B in the Yorkshire Dales!

Abbey ruins in York!

Cream tea near Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire Dales!

Hobbit-ish tree near Bolton Abbey!

Typical charming pub in Stratford-Upon_Avon!

The real "Lady of Shalott"painting at Tate Britain in London!

Yes, the trip was so good that I felt compelled to use exclamation points after each of those photo descriptions. Sigh.
For further details feel free to ask any questions about my trip:)

Other than that, as I said, school is back in full swing so that is keeping me busy. I'm teaching an Animal Drawing class for the first time at OCHSA. Pretty cool! Also teaching beginning figure drawing and the art elective class, as usual.

I also have an illustration assignment for a small publishing company that I've been working on. I've given them the rough and the final is due in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll post something from that next time...

Post-Comic Con thoughts & Vacation plans

2011-07-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

First off, I wanted to say that I probably won't be posting new blogs for the next couple of weeks because I'll be on vacation in the U.K. Woo Hoo! I leave tonight. I'm a long time anglophile and this will be my first trip to England, so I'm super excited!

As for how Comic Con went, wow. Lots of craziness! I showed my comic sample around, but I don't think that anything really solid came out of it. I think that the San Diego Comic Con has just gotten too big for a little person trying to break in at that event in particular. I did have a lot of fun though.

The highlight was probably getting to talk to Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, at his table in the Artist's Alley section of the con. People who have followed my blog for a while know my love for The Last Unicorn movie. So cool to meet the author of the original book! He was super friendly, and signed a copy of the new graphic novel of the book that came out in 2010. I was kinda star-struck.

My next goal for my Snow comic is to show it around at the Long Beach Comic Con that happens around Halloween. I just got notified this morning that I was approved for professional free passes, so I'll definitely be headed there! It's a much smaller event, so I'm hopeful that I can have some quality networking opportunities for my work there.

After that, there is another event called the CTN Animation Expo in Burbank that I'll be headed to with my stuff. That one starts November 18, which just so happens to be my birthday. Perhaps that'll make me extra lucky there!

Alright, gotta get going to catch my flight. I'll bring back pictures :)

Cover design mock-up

2011-07-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a mock-up of the cover design I think I'll use for my comic/eventual graphic novel. I got excited to finally design and use a border pattern for this project since that's one of my favorite things to do:)

I looked at some examples of manuscripts dating from the middle ages as reference for designing the border and the font for "Snow."

On Thursday of this week I'll be heading to the San Diego Comic Con and look forward to having samples from my comic to show!

Wish me luck!
Cara:)

Another comic page!

2011-07-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

  Hey everybody,
  Here's another page from my comic. What could be happening?? I will be adding text boxes eventually, but you can fill in your own play-by-play for now.

  I plan on showing these sample pages at the San Diego Comic Con and it is less than two weeks away! Ready or not! (that reminds me, I wonder where I put my Galadriel costume...)

  In non-art related news, I just have to give a big shout-out to the U.S. women's national team for their un--believable win over Brazil this morning in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup in Germany. Definitely one of the best soccer games I've ever seen. Really. Now they just have to carry onward and upward to win this thing! (sorry to gush about this on my art blog--I played soccer in college and have a deep love for the game).

  'Til next time...

Some Comic Progress...

2011-07-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

  Happy Independence Day everybody:) Right now it will be July 4th in exactly 10 minutes.

  Well, here is some progress on my comic. This is from the same story I posted a page for a few weeks ago. I'm happy with them but hoping I can gain some speed and really start to roll these out faster!

  Are you wondering what is happening in the story?? Well... there are dwarves... and that looming shape in the last panel is a wolf! That's enough to tantalize you for now:)

  Oh, also I thought I would show you more of a peek into my process. I posted thumbnails of all the pages for this opening portion of the story last week. Well, as I take these to the finish, I just blow up the thumbnails, put them on my home-made light table, and draw the tight drawings on top. Saves time and helps me keep the compositions as strong as they were in the thumbnails.

  Here's the blown-up thumbnail for the tighter page above that I just drew on top of:

That's all for now... enjoy the fireworks tomorrow:)

How baby comics are born.

2011-06-26T23:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a page of my thumbnails that I did this week for the comic I'm working on. The thumbs are actually about 2 1/2 x 3 1/4" for each little double-page spread. This is the first excerpt of my longer story (graphic novel). Proper planning is such a timesaver in artwork & writing, and I can't imagine trying to tackle this story without it!

I'll probably blow these thumbnails up and actually draw right on top of them over a light table. This helps keep the compositions as dynamic as they are in the thumbnail stage.

Still an intimidating amount of work to be done in the next few weeks... but it feels good to have my basic layout and compositions sketched out.

I need to figure out the cover artwork... and I want to have at least some of them painted/colored as well. We'll see!

Pirates are fun.

2011-06-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,

These are some sketches I actually did a couple of weeks ago after I saw the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie (part 17?). I guess I would put the movie in the category of "have low expectations, and you won't be disappointed" :) It was easier to follow at least than the other recent ones. I did have fun though.

Anyway, I've actually been a fan of pirates (not real ones, mind you) since I was little. See photo:

That's me on the left :) How awesome is that?! The tattoos and facial hair is courtesy of my Mom and a Sharpie. Not sure how old I am in the picture... 6 maybe? That would make it around 1981. My sister to my left chose a more demure Arabian princess costume of some sort. The pirate thing was definitely my most favorite Halloween costume as a child! You can tell I'm really feelin' it.

And here is a photo of my super cute niece from a few years ago doing the pirate thing (a convenient excuse to post of picture of Katey):

She is way cute, but I don't think she's as into it as her Aunt Cara was in similar circumstances:)

How do you guys feel about pirates? Still cool? Or "over it"?

'Til next time.

Oh, P.S. I've added a "Subscribe by email" function to the blog, so be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when I've put up a new post!

Jury Duty!

2011-06-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say I'm sorry for not posting recently. I got picked for jury duty (!!) which lasted a week and two days and finally ended yesterday. No, I can't tell you about the riveting case. Yes, I missed my final art classes with most of my OCHSA students :( I have my final final (does that make sense?) on Thursday.

Also, I picked up my Mom from the airport for a visit and she's staying with me until June 15th.

Sooo, a few things keeping me busy.

I did have a meeting with the new writing group I've joined, in which I talked about my current progress on my graphic novel story. New pictures soon, hopefully. I have been fleshing out more of the plot points.

I'm still planning on bringing some part of this work to the San Diego Comic Con.

Hope everyone is enjoying summer weather and I'll get back to you soon!

a rough day for the dwarves.

2011-05-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Well, I'm trying to get a-going on panels for the story I'm working on so here's a couple of panel sketches. Briefly, it's kind of a re-telling of Snow White. Here's the seven dwarves not having such a good time. I don't usually do compositions with a lot of characters, so it's fun to challenge myself in this way. A bit depressing to stare at for a long time while I'm drawing it though:|

In other news, my teaching is winding down... So much to do here at the end of the semester. It always gets done somehow though.

After school ends, I'll be working more on this comic thing, as well as teaching a summer art class for kids. What are everyone else's summer plans? Trips? Lollygagging and lounging? Workin' hard for the man?

I don't mean to make anyone jealous, but I'm actually going on a trip to the U.K. for a couple of weeks right before school starts back up. I've never been before and couldn't be more excited!!

Later.

The might of Thor!

2011-05-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, so in honor of the new Thor movie, here are some concepts of what Thor might look like. Of course, I'm not really doing the comic book Thor. This is Norse mythology Thor.

With facial hair... without... hard to say what looks better. He's quite the brawny man-in-repose though :)

Anyone see the new movie yet? I haven't yet but plan on it.

Later.

Dwarves

2011-05-02T12:03:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I know the first dwarf looks really sad and haggard. But I made it up to the dwarves in the next one. Look at him in his heroic glory!

I've been drawing some dwarves for the story I'm working on and so the two appearances pertain to the story. I decided once again to indulge my Norwegian side and make these dwarves from some sort of Norse culture.

I'm still spending a lot of time on the writing aspect of the graphic novel I'm working on, but I like how it's coming together so far. I've formed a writing group with some fellow creative people and we met for the first time over the weekend. Looking forward to that being a great help.

That's all for now!

Illuminated Letters

2011-04-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of a change of pace from fantasy character drawings, but this is something that I also really enjoy doing: illuminated letters and page designs. I drew the above letter this week kind of as an example for one of the drawing classes I teach (but more just because I wanted to have fun drawing it :)

I love the style of ancient illuminated manuscripts, as well as Norse and Celtic design motifs. I thought the Norse style (and Viking ship) would be well-suited to my last initial of "N", since I am a quarter Norwegian.

The intricate border design is taken from historic carvings found in a church in Norway, though I had to design corners to link the sides together.

The ultimate illuminated manuscript to my mind is, of course, The Book of Kells, found in Ireland. Here's one of the more famous pages, the "Chi Rho" monogram design, that's formed from the first two Greek letters that spell Christ, that look like an "X" and a "P" combined. By the way, total random side-note: it's because an "X" is the first part of the word "Christ" in Greek that the abbreviation "Xmas" came about.

And speaking of like holidays, hope everyone had a great Easter! Yes, I am 35, but my mother still sends me an Easter basket from New York. Thanks, Mom!! Mmm, Cadbury Cream Egg deliciousness!

still here...and went to a fun art event!

2011-04-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I've been absent for several weeks on my blog, but I'm still here. A combination of factors are to blame: moved to a new apartment; starting a new art project that involves writing a story as well as drawing it; busy with some events.

The new art project is a graphic novel I'm trying to get going. I haven't done much in the way of comics/graphic novels before so I'm learning as I go. And right now I'm needing to spend some time writing the story that will be illustrated. Hopefully I can post some pictures related to that soon. My hope is to get a sample chapter done in time for Comic Con this July.

Here's a fun thing that kept me busy over last weekend. I attended a 2-day Illustration Workshop with amazing illustrator Jon Foster.

Jon Foster is an artist I've noticed and been a fan of for a number of years, having seen his work in Spectrum's Annual, as well as on some book covers that have caught my eye. I was really excited to have the chance to take a workshop with somebody I would love to emulate, within driving distance in Pasadena.

Here's some more of his work:

and this:

Pretty cool.

He was a really down-to-earth, helpful, humble guy. He talked about his own journey to where he is now, and gave a lot of hope to those of us who feel like we should already have "arrived" with our illustration careers. Jon talked about his process, talked about the importance of thumbnails, and talked about how he approaches value and color (values first, then colors).

Jon demo-ed an oil painting the first day, then took it into Photoshop and demo-ed digital painting the second day. Oh, and he also had all of us in the class do a series of thumbnails for a cover of Midsummer Night's Dream that he looked over and critiqued.

Overall, it was super inspiring--and raised the bar yet again on how I need to push myself to get better.

Cyclops

2011-03-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been working on some other stuff that I'm pretty excited about... but not sure I'm ready to post any of that artwork right now. In the meantime, here's a couple of cyclops sketches I did today.

I started out planning on drawing either trolls or ogres. As soon as I can figure out the difference. But then I felt the need to make my troll/ogre like creature have only one eye. Hence, a cyclops. I guess I also felt the need to have him grinding bones--though it's supposed to be giants that do that, right? Ah... I'm always muddling my mythologies.

By the by, I'm moving this weekend (different place, same city) so I'll be pretty busy. Hopefully I can still get a new post up but if I don't, that's why.

Fairies.

2011-03-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this week I've got some fairies to post (just for you, Sean!). For some reason I felt possessed to add some snarky gender commentary--if you can see to read it. Feel free to ignore it. Or add additions in the comment section :)

I found I could only picture fairies with butterfly-type wings. And mine all seem very benevolent in nature. I think the historical view of fairies has been that they have more of an impish, even malevolent nature. Or maybe it just depends on what kind. Anyone have an idea about that?

In other BIG news, I received notification this past week that I was accepted for "professional" status for Comic Con in San Diego this summer! You have to go through these steps of proving that you are a professional in the realm of games, comics, fantasy art, etc. I've never applied before and wasn't sure my credentials would be enough. Yay, I've been officially recognized! Now I need to really push myself to brush up and prepare my portfolio of work to show, as well as mentally prepare myself for the absolute craziness that is Comic Con.

Anyone with any helpful advice for me, please share.

Gnomes

2011-03-06T21:54:00.001-08:00

This week I thought I'd go for something on the cute side: gnomes. I saw an ad on a bus for that new movie, Gnomeo & Juliet, and it put them in my mind, I think. I don't know much about gnomes really. When I was a little kid I do recall that I had a little 4x5 or so notebook that had these really cool gnome illustrations on the cover and some of the pages. Who knows where that little notebook (or should I say gnotebook) went, but I think I'm trying to harken back to it here.

Not sure what the deal is with those pointy hats that gnomes wear. A bit like dunce caps. Anyway, I think they have somewhat of a scandinavian origin (gnomes that is, not dunce caps), so I was thinking of that somewhat with their costumes. I have no idea why I gave them pointy/curly shoes though.

In other news, I am trying to get myself tickets to Comic Con in San Diego this July and having absolutely no luck. Any of you fortunate jerks out there going? I failed to get regular tickets during the last ticket sale window. So now I'm trying to get "professional" tickets. It's quite a process, I'm finding. But I've sent off what documentation I have to prove professional status and am hoping I get chosen/they haven't run out of pro tickets yet. Until next time...

Griffins

2011-02-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

Here's the next thing I've been sketching. I didn't post anything last week so I'm doin' a two-fer this week with the Elves post. You're welcome.

I haven't really tackled any fantasy creatures in the bird realm (well, unless you count Pegasus) so I thought I'd go for the Griffin. It's bit tricky melding the two animals (eagle + lion) in a way that looks natural. I'll be doing some more sketches to continue to try to nail it. In the meantime, this is what I have so far.

Elves, but not the Keebler kind.

2011-02-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I got a little off-track in my scheduled posts, but here's some stuff. I thought I would tackle some drawings of elves. I spent some time trying to get a handle on what my concept of elves was like. It's pretty much in the Lord of the Rings vein, I guess. Tall, stately, somewhat androgynous...

The couple was drawn around Valentine's Day. It's sort of "Hey, you're pretty, I'm pretty, let's do this," right? The lady above them isn't so happy about it ("But... I'm pretty too!")

The second page is just some of the earlier sketches I did while trying to figure out my concept for elves.

Unicorn. You betcha!

2011-02-09T23:05:00.000-08:00

I guess it's about time that I posted some sketches of unicorns on my "fantasy" art blog. I mean, they are right up there with dragons as the ultimate fantasy art subject matter, right? I will confess, I had a couple of cheesy unicorn posters in my room as a kid. Oh, and this blog is turning into a movie blog as well as art. Last week I mentioned Adventures in Babysitting.

Well, I can't mention unicorns without mentioning my all-time favorite animated movie from my childhood, The Last Unicorn. Such an awesome movie. It has a sweet soundtrack performed by the group "America" that I enjoy to this day. Wow, confessions!

Does anyone else out there remember Last Unicorn? There's also a really cool unicorn in the fun-tastic '80's movie Legend, starring a youngish Tom Cruise. Anybody out there seen it?

OK, that's all for now. I'll try to be more on time for next week's blog post:)

Valkyrie.

2011-01-30T22:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I had fun with these sketches. I happen to love Norse mythology. I'm a quarter Norwegian so I enjoy connecting to it. This page of sketches concerns the Valkyrie. These are the female warriors who gather the bodies of the brave who die in battle and take them to Valhalla. Not the most fun job, I guess...

Any other Norse mythology fans out there? Not that it's really related, but anybody excited about the Thor movie that's being made? Thor actually just always makes me think of the awesome 80's Elizabeth Shue movie, Adventures in Babysitting. There's this young girl in it that's obsessed with the comic book character of Thor and dresses up like him. Total classic movie.

Lady Faun

2011-01-23T21:36:00.001-08:00

Well, the other week I posted a faun drawing, specifically a male faun. Which is what you usually see. So this week I thought, how about a lady faun, which you usually don't see? The only instance that's coming to mind is the first of the new Narnia movies that came out: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I think there might have been some lady fauns in that... or maybe it was just lady centaurs. Definitely one of the two.

I've noticed that putting "Lady" in front of the creature name immediately makes it sound like a women's basketball team. Hey, maybe they do play some b-ball from time to time:)

Anyway, back to my drawing, I was thinking of her in Greek mythology terms. So that is what inspired the style of her clothing and look -- a Greek kind of look.

and yes, a dragon.

2011-01-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

Well, mixin' it up on my fantasy art blog and posting a dragon sketch. Crazy! I actually do love drawing dragons, though I always feel sheepish if I tell that to someone. Except my high school art students. You don't have to explain why you make drawings of dragons to 9th graders. Which is awesome.

I will note that the ears on this dragon came about because a friend commented on the fact that I never seem to draw ears on my dragons. Well. This one's got some ears.

Any suggestions for a background for this piece? Also, what would you guess he/she's looking at??

Finally, a faun!

2011-01-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

Alright, here's this week's sketch. I figured, this fantasy blog needs to have a faun drawing finally! It's not quite finished, as you can see. I plan to have him holding a pan flute or something of that nature.

By the way, I've always been a little confused about what the difference is between a faun and a satyr. I know, this stuff keeps you up at night, right?? I've heard that they are the same-- as in one is just the Greek version, and the other the Roman version. Anyone out there that can give me the facts??

Okay, that's about it. Busy week since the school where I teach, OCHSA, is have a big art show of student work at a gallery (OCCCA) in Santa Ana. It's gonna look great though. The opening is tomorrow night:) Wish us luck!

a blizzard, and another dryad sketch

2011-01-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Well, I'm safely back in SoCal after surviving the "Blizzard of 2010" on the east coast! My family is all over there in beautiful Upstate New York and I wanted to spend some time with them during the school break. I flew out of LA on Dec. 26. I had a connection in Philly and flew right into a blizzard! I ended up having to spend two nights there before I was able to finally get up to NY. I had planned a little side trip into NYC, but that ended up being a bust due to the lost time.

But I had a great time with my family:) Got to do a little skiing, enjoy the winter beauty of the Adirondacks, and, of course, spend wonderful time with my loved ones.

As you can see by the drawing I've attached, I'm still on my Dryad kick. I'm not regimenting myself too much regarding the subject matter of this blog. If I feel like sticking with one thing for several weeks, obviously, I will:) Wow, I sound so defiant! Well, I was a "strong-willed child" :)

Have a great week everybody (especially teachers facing returning to the classroom this week!) I know... there's no sympathy:)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2010-12-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted. Hope you are all having a great Christmas! I'm off to NY tomorrow to stay for a week with family so I'll be out of commission for a bit longer.

more dryads

2010-12-13T20:25:00.001-08:00

So here are some more dryad sketches. I kind of felt like the earlier one looked too much like a woman was just standing in front of a tree. For the next one, I made the woman more transparent to try to make it seem like she was more of a spirit. Then I tried combining the tree with the woman more -- kind of half-tree, half-woman. I think I like the last look best.

What do you think? How would you picture a dryad?

quick Dryad sketch

2010-12-08T00:06:00.000-08:00

Kinda late on this week's post. We all understand how busy things are, right? Anyway, here's just a quick sketch I did the other day. I was trying to visualize a Dryad, that is, a tree spirit or nymph. More opportunities for flow-ey, cool hair:) And you know how I love to draw trees...

How is everyone doing on their Christmas preparations and general holiday doings?? Busy, busy, busy!

Gotta make time for art though, right?

yeah, I know...

2010-12-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, totally late on my weekly blog post. Tomorrow, okay?

Christmas comes to Middle-earth

2010-11-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

Well, here's a fun one I just did. I had an idea about creating a Lord of the Rings themed Christmas image for a card. I mean, good excuse to draw some Lord of the Rings stuff, you know? LOTR is kind of the ultimate fantasy subject matter, so when I thought about creating some sort of fantasy-themed Christmas image it seemed like a good idea:)

I thought it would be nice to feature some of the "lesser" characters of Lord of the Rings. Boromir has his dark side, so to speak, but it's nice to seem him just having a good time with those fun guys, Merry & Pippin.

Is there a Lord of the Rings character that you can envision having a Christmas moment? Do tell... Or perhaps you'd rather think about who you'd like to cozy up next to at the fireplace. Gosh, this is turning into tawdry fan fiction. Sorry!

Anyway, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a good time at some friends' house, though I did end up being seated at the "kid's table." I'll take it as a compliment;) Now Christmas is hurtling toward us! Where does the year go?

Or how about a kelp forest?

2010-11-22T21:36:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I've still been mulling and sketching ideas for the background of the merfolk scene this week. I think I want to move in a different direction and go for a kelp forest kind of look. I'm still thinking of making this an undersea spin on Midsummer Night's Dream, so I wanted to try mirroring a forest setting.

What do you think? Should there be some sort of architecture in the design as well?

In other news, I was in Burbank over the weekend for the CTN Animation Expo. It's kind of like a smaller, more intimate version of the massive Comic Con of San Diego. I saw lots of awesome work, had quite a few great conversations, and got to show my work around a little bit.

Well, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving:) I hope you are surrounded by good friends and find lots to be thankful for. I know I have so much to be thankful for in my own life.

Hmmm, backgrounds.

2010-11-14T19:52:00.000-08:00

This week I was doing some sketching trying to figure out a background for the merfolk scene I posted before. You would just need to imagine those three merfolk figures in one of these backgrounds. I don't know if I am quite feeling like any of these really nails it. What do you all think?

Minotaur!

2010-11-09T22:59:00.000-08:00

Oops, I'm a bit late on my post for this week. Please forgive me because, hey, wasn't the merbaby cute??

So this time it's some Minotaur sketches. I'd love to turn one of these into something with a background of the Labrynth...

What do you think would be the right weapon for the Minotaur to use? A sword doesn't seem right. An axe? Tell me your thoughts, please.

Now THAT'S a hot merman.

2010-11-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, I will put up a "normal" post with some new drawings tomorrow, but in the meantime... I went ahead and drew the version of my merman that you were all waiting for. See, now he's really hot. To (mis)quote Dorothy L. Sayers in Gaudy Night, now "He's not a merman, but a mer-miracle."

But now that I've drawn a baby mermaid/merman, just don't ask me exactly where merbabies come from ;)

More Mermaids... I mean, Merfolk!

2010-11-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm a little late on this week's post. Had a trip out of town over the weekend.

As you can see, I'm still working on the merfolk stuff. I say merfolk, because I've got a merman there. You don't see those so often so I thought I would draw one. I showed the right side of this drawing last week, since that mermaid was more finished. I didn't originally intend to make a little scene, but it seems to have turned out that way:) To me, it comes off as kind of an under-the-sea version of Midsummer Night's Dream. Merfolk versions of Oberon, Titania, and Puck. Of course, a friend suggested that it looked more like some sort of love triangle stand-off ("I'm done with you, Donald!!) :) Hey, however you'd like to interpret it.

Oh, and I want to say a thank you to "Sparks" for answering my burning question of last week, about the proper plural of Pegasus. The answer apparently being that Pegasi is not correct because Pegasus is indeed the proper name of a particular flying horse from Greek mythology. So there is no proper plural other than just saying "flying horses." Finally, I don't have to stay awake at night wondering!

So is it Pegasi?

2010-10-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Lookee here, several sketches this week. I know, I'm spoiling you. But I do have a burning question: is the plural of pegasus actually pegasi? Or is it pegasuses? Please help me out if you have an educated answer for me.

Besides the pegasus or three, I did some mermaid sketching this week. Lots of fun playing with the flow-y hair and curving shapes. I guess this gal is a queen of some sort? Let me know if anyone has a story idea.

Lastly, I've got a tree drawing. Tree drawings are just something fun that I always enjoy doing.

I suppose everybody is gearing up for Halloween? I'll actually be out of town for the weekend. So you may or may not get a blog post out of me. It will have to be either early or late. We'll see...

Pretty Arthurian Lady

2010-10-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so these sketches are from a prompt from Conceptart.org to visualize the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend. I figured it could be dual purpose since I'm working on mythological subjects. I haven't done many "romantic" figures like this exactly in a while, so this was pretty fun. Also, I love drawing swords... I have a couple of swords that I've bought because I "need" them for illustration reference purposes:) Well, see... here's me using them!

Is there another aspect to the legend of King Arthur that you would like to see visualized? And what do you think about the various film and tv versions that have been done? Any Excalibur movie fans? That is some shiny steel!

Pegasus

2010-10-10T23:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have a page o' sketches for you, but here's one of a pegasus that turned out cool. I'm still keeping my mythological creature theme.

Also, I thought I might offer up some art book recommendations from time to time. I have, um... a lot of art books. I've purchased many of them over time. Some have been given to me by people that know me pretty well:) Many have been given to me by my artist mom, and the two that I'm going to mention came as cool gifts from her (thanks, Mom!)

So, here are two that I often reference when I'm drawing horses, so I'm recommending:

-Draw Horses With Sam Savitt

-The Allen Book of Painting & Drawing Horses by Jennifer Bell

You should be able to find used copies online. Super handy!

Centaurs!

2010-10-04T23:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this week I've been continuing sketches from creatures I did last week. Here are some more I worked up for Centaurs. I focused on doing some lady Centaur drawings, since you don't often see female Centaurs. I pulled out a bunch of my old horse drawings and my horse reference books. I love drawing horses, but haven't done much in a while. It felt good to get the feel for them again.

I'm still focusing on the characters, rather than the backgrounds at this point. I'm still working out story ideas for what could be going on in these pictures.

I'm still taking suggestions for what other creatures I should draw next too! :) Oh, and any story ideas for what could be going on. I got some good tips last week-- thanks to my facebook commenters!

What's your favorite fantasy creature?

2010-09-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-09-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-09-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

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.

back from the Conference

2010-08-04T13:28:00.001-07:00

So I'm back from the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA. Above you see the name placard from my spot in the Portfolio Showcase. So, how was it? Um... overwhelming, inspiring, intimidating, fun, informative,... Yeah, lots of things. A bunch of my illustrator friends were there and it was nice hanging with them. The workshops and speakers were generally inspiring. There's always a fair amount of repeat information, but there's always some new stuff too. I think my portfolio looked good out there, but I didn't get any solid bites from any editors or art directors (unless I get contacted later, which could happen).

I guess one of the things I came away with was a resolution to try again to broaden my horizons somewhat with my art. Several people mentioned to me that they thought I might be a good fit for the adult-aged fantasy market. Comic-Con would be a good place to explore those options again, though this year's event just passed unfortunately. I've been to Comic-Con a couple of times before, but felt kind of overwhelmed and wasn't necessarily sure how I fit in. I think I'm ready to give that fantasy market another look though.

I think before I start creating some new work, I might spend some time just reading current fantasy to familiarize myself with what's out there. I tend toward classic fantasy & sci fi, so I'm not that up to date on what's in the market these days. Anyone have any tips for me?

Storybook Map & SCBWI Summer Conference

2010-07-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

This is a pen & ink drawing I did the other day as a storybook map for Jack & the Beanstalk. As a kid, I always loved maps included in books. I think I may go ahead and color this one as well, perhaps with digital watercolor.

In other news, I'm gearing up for the big SCBWI Summer Conference in LA next weekend. I'm excited about my portfolio and the conference is always really inspiring and fun. There's always the hope too that I will make some good business connections and maybe even get "discovered" and hit the big time! :)

For the conference this year, other members of my monthly illustrators critique group, the "OC Illustrators", will be there as well. We're going to wear these fun little buttons with our group's name on it, to advertise ourselves. Go OC Illustrators!

Celtic-ness!

2010-06-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a piece I recently finished that I had been working on for a while. I really enjoy creating Celtic knotwork designs, but haven't done much in a while as I've been concentrating more on my straight up illustrations. I got an itch to get one going though this spring. I didn't know if it would really turn into anything but I'm really happy with how it came out. I'm going to use it as the new front page piece for my illustration portfolio.

For anyone interested, the actual size of this artwork is 5 1/2" x 7". I drew this by hand by first marking out measurements using rulers, compass, etc. I then divide up the larger pieces into more manageable shape sizes. I figure out the patterns I'm going to use and I draw them using a mechanical pencil that I periodically sharpen to a point by rubbing it on a scrap page of paper. I also use bits of tracing paper and graphite transfer the basic shape of repeating sections. The whole process is rather meditative but very enjoyable for me. Kind of like putting together a puzzle, if you enjoy that sort of thing.

This piece got kind of smudgy as I worked on it, so I also had to spend quite a bit of time doing clean-up on it in Photoshop. Oh, and I did the tree on a separate piece of paper and placed it in the center in Photoshop as well.

new digital painting

2010-06-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the digital painting version of the drawing I posted a couple of months ago. I had a lot of fun painting this one. It was fun to do something that had a border again too. A while back I used to use a lot of borders with my illustrations, but I had gotten away from that for a while.

And speaking of stuff I haven't done in a while, I also have a very intricate Celtic page design I'm working on. I have a number of Celtic & Norse designs on my website, but it's not something I have done much of in a while, though I really enjoy it. Anyway, the one I'm working on is pretty much the most intricate one I've ever done. I look forward to finishing it so I can post it.

In other news, teaching is finishing up (yes!) so I'm looking forward to having more time to focus on my artwork. Though I do teach a couple of summer classes as well... Not as rigorous as the regular school year though. I'll be preparing my portfolio for the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA in August. Big opportunity to show my portfolio and seek new work.

Cheers!

Portrait

2010-05-15T23:07:00.000-07:00

So I teach a figure drawing class at Orange County High School of the Arts and often we use students as models. This is a drawing I did during class of a student of mine from one of my other classes. She was a great model! I LOVE getting a chance myself to draw during figure class. Sometimes it's hard to wrest myself away when I'm really enjoying a drawing I'm working on :). This drawing was done with black and white charcoal.

Scratchboard

2010-04-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

I had never done scratchboard before, but last semester my director suggested we do some in one of the art classes I teach. Scratchboard is really cool! This is one I did recently. I like how the hatching gives it kind of an 19th century engraving look.

Teaching is good for keeping you on your toes and trying new things:)

Imagination

2010-04-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

Did this other spot illustration drawing recently and enjoyed how it came out. Right now I've been working on a digital painting of a dragon. Sigh. Me and my dragons:) It's in the ugly middle stage right now, but I think it'll work out.

it's a faun... and a couple of fairies

2010-03-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

So here's one of the sketches I did a little while ago to build my portfolio of black & white line art/spot illustrations. Any excuse to draw gnarled trees:)

some new stuff

2010-03-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

Well, another long silence, but I've been working on some new stuff that I'm very excited about. I finished work on the assignment I was doing for a small publishing company and I'm very happy with how it turned out. And they like it too--even better! The project was a version of Jason & the Golden Fleece from Greek mythology. I did a series of 8 black & white drawings for the story. I'm also supposed to be doing a color cover for it, but right now that's on hold (they have a blk&wht cover made up for now from one of the drawings). Above you'll see one of the drawings. It was fun and I'm hopeful that it will lead to more work both with this company and beyond that to others.

Cara :)

holiday business and good times

2009-12-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

Argh, it's been far too long since I put up a new blog post. Since my last post--which was after the summer SCBWI conference in LA, I've had a few things going. First, I've been working on some line drawing art. I'm trying to get a black & white line drawing portfolio going. I've had it in the back of my mind for a long time, but I'm taking some action on that. I'll try to put up something soon. Secondly, I've been producing some beginning stage work for a small publishing project that came out of the summer conference--Woo Hoo! I don't want to say too much about it since it's still in early stages but I'm very excited about it. It has to do with mythology which I love!

Besides that, I'm teaching my usual art classes at OC High School of the Arts. It's great and I feel privileged to be there, but I was really ready for the holiday break. I had a very nice Christmas--stayed here instead of flying back to see family in NY--and had a good time with friends here. I'm planning on visiting NY in the summer instead since that is the time of year I love the most back east.

Hope everyone has a great New Year's!

back to reality, and on to new heights

2009-08-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back now from the SCBWI Summer Conference... it ended yesterday. I thought I would write some of the thoughts and information I took away from it.

First of all, it was a really fun experience. There's nothing like being surrounded with about 1,000 people who are excited about the same thing you are--creating words and art for children & young adults. It makes you feel so empowered, like you have all these people behind you. You're not alone in what you're trying to do. And the speakers are one inspiration after another. A good place to see some photos and commentary of the conference can be found at the summer conference blog here.

Here's some of what I listened to:

-Stephen Malk (agent) talk on "How To Build Your Illustration Career", which included practical advice like subscribing to the Horn Book Magazine on publishing, finding a career model to look at, different ways of getting my work out there using the web, etc.

-Editors Panel that talked about the changing market and current success stories

-Elizabeth Parisi (Exec. Art Director for Scholastic) talk on Book Covers, which talked about how book covers have become more simple and iconic. Also talked about how most middle grade covers are illustrated, but Young Adult tend to be photo.

-Karen Cushman (author) talk about her way of creating. Some good advice like instead of the old "write what you know", write what you wonder about.

-Krista Marino & Anica Rissi (editors) talk about what's successful in the teen market right now and how the business has changed in the teen realm.

-Holly Black (author, Spiderwick Chronicles) talk about creating good stories

-Alice Pope (editor) talk about practical online promotion: blogging, Facebook, etc.

-Richard Peck (author) talk about why we do what we do.

-Marla Frazee (illustrator,author) talk about creating pictures from an author's words.

-Susan Sherman (art director) talk about looking at great master's art of the past to inform our present work.

-Karen Cushman (author) talk about researching for historical stories.

-Kathleen Duey (author) talk about how to use what we've learned at the Conference after we leave.

As you can see, quite a lot on information. I also participated in the Portfolio Showcase. It was a great opportunity to get my work seen by lots of people, including editors and art directors. I hope to see some good things come out of it and I had a couple of good conversations with people about my art.

I also had a really good time over the whole conference in being there with some of the members of my monthly illustrators' group, OC Illustrators. In fact, our little group is gaining more recognition. Last year's winner of Best Portfolio in the showcase was one of our members, Pat Cantor! Well, this year's winner was our very own Israel Sanchez! Israel and I were both at CSUF together and his work is so good though very different from mine. Congratulations, Israel!! He will be flown out as Pat was to NY to meet with art directors and I expect big things to come of it. I'm definitely in the right illustration critique group!

Well, that's the wrap up. Time for me to try to process some of what I learned and get some stuff done.

preparing for the SCBWI Conference in LA

2009-07-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally managing to post a new blog. I've just been really busy with a lot of new work--yay!--and haven't had much time for anything else except sleep and work. I'm teaching a summer art class for kids every morning and afternoon during the week at OCHSA that lasts for 6 weeks. Next week is the last week...goes by so fast! It's been really fun actually and the kids have been great. They have a bunch of classes the kids can choose from and I'm teaching beginning drawing & painting. After classes though I've been beating it home to work on my illustration portfolio. I'm going to the annual SCBWI Conference in LA and I want to dazzle! I went to the conference last year (I also went a couple of years before that for the first time) and came away resolved to refocus my work and push myself to the next level. My porfolio this year is all new work and I'm pretty excited about it. The conference is right around the corner now--it's August 7-10--so I'm hurrying to prepare the best I can. The task that remains at this point is updating my website with my new work. I'll be getting that done in the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck!

P.S. Here are a couple of the new pieces that I've done lately--they were both painted digitally.

Catching Bernie Wrightson at Gallery Nucleus

2009-05-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I'm very sorry I have put any new posts up in a while. I have been doing some new artwork. However, for this post I just wanted to tell about a really cool artist I was able to see present his work today. The artist's name is Bernie Wrightson and I've been a fan of his work for a long time. He is most known for his gorgeous pen & ink renderings for an illustrated version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as well as for the comic book series Swamp Thing. Attached here is one of the Frankenstein illustrations.

The talk Mr. Wrightson gave was up at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra. This is actually the second time I've been able to see him present his work since he presented a few years back at Cal State Fullerton. I've been a fan of his work though since my freshman year studying art in Indiana back in '94 when my drawing & illustration professor used to project slides of his work to illustrate principles of composition and values. Because of that, it's really pretty cool for me to get to see this man in person whose work I admired so much in my classes. He's very humble and personable and it was quite informative hearing him talk about his process and how these iconic pictures came about. I definitely left inspired!

Getting the chance to feed my artist's brain with such great visuals once again is so necessary as I keep plugging along trying to get better on my own stuff. Great art cannot happen in a vacuum.

Keep finding inspiration to feed your life.

Mist Rider painting

2009-02-24T23:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the acrylic painting of the rough comp I did a little while ago. I'm not sure what to call it, so for now I'm calling it "Mist Rider." I plan to go back and work a little more on it later on, but for now I'm setting it aside. I think I want to go back and make the sky a bit more dramatic, as well as to resolve the horse more. I'm pretty happy with it though. I think the mist really added to it, after not having it in the rough comp.

Cara

Rough comp of dragon picture

2009-02-19T08:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a rough comp version of a dragon painting I'm working on as another cover illustration. For this one I had a sketch I was pretty happy with, then I made a little clay model of the dragon so I could light it. I then painted it in Photoshop. I'm working on the acrylic painting of it now, which is almost finished.

Rough Comp of Horse and Rider cover picture

2009-01-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a rough comp done in Photoshop of a new piece I'm working on. I'm actually working on the acrylic painting right now. Once again, it's a cover picture but not for any particular story. She's some sort of Celtic-ish warrior woman I think. I haven't done many horse pictures before, and I haven't done too many action pictures either so I thought I would try that. I like horses in fantasy and mythology so I hope to put more in pictures in future.

Speaking of horses, I was back in Upstate NY visiting my family over Christmas and I was able to do a little riding. My cousin Sarah operates a horse stable and riding arena (handy!) so while I was there I got a chance to take one of her horses out for a spin. I rode for quite a few years when I was younger. I used to compete in English style and do some jumping. But that was many years ago now. I was so rusty and those muscles you need were really not there anymore. I definitely enjoyed it--I was riding a beautiful and big horse named Paris--but I was very saddlesore for the next few days!

tree drawing

2008-12-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

OK, so my two favorite subjects to draw are people and TREES! I love their sculptural organic shapes...the trees I mean. Well, people too, I guess:)

Here's a tree drawing I did the other night when I was killing some time--I teach a night art class at Golden West College and I was waiting for the last student to finish his final project so I could go home. It turned out to be cool getting to really spend some time on this drawing.

still working

2008-11-11T12:48:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted anything in a while though I have been alive and drawing! Here is a sketch of a dragon done recently that I'd like to turn into a cover painting. I like it and think maybe I'll do more dragons:) I'm also working on a cover showing a horse and rider, but I'm struggling a bit on that one still. I hope to have something to post for that soon.

the final is done

2008-09-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

Over last weekend I was able to get this one done:) Once the face finally started working for me, it all finished up fine. Not sure what to call it since it's not from a real story. I'd love any suggestions. This one is horizontal so it could be a wraparound cover (did I already explain that?) Now I'm looking forward to getting going on the next one. It's only in the thumbnailing stage right now though.

In other news, I'm looking forward to attending Illustrator's Day coming up in November. It's an SCBWI annual event for SoCal. They always get some great speakers and I can get my portfolio reviewed by an industry professional--intimidating but exciting:) I just wish my portfolio was a little more consistent, but I'm in this in-between stage while I'm creating this new series of covers. I'm really working hard to let it "flow" on these covers I'm creating this year (I think that's oxymoronic somehow :). Anyway, I tend to get overly self-critical when I work on my art and sometimes forget to ENJOY myself in this creative process. It really works better when I can manage to find that "zone" where I relax and just let the illustration process flow without too much constant analysis! That's the trick, isn't it :)

the color rough version

2008-09-18T00:33:00.001-07:00

And here's the color rough I painted in Photoshop before I got going on the actual painting which is in acrylic and currently in progress. I'm trying to keep a moody/stormy kind of atmosphere with this one.

drawing for the next cover

2008-09-18T00:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the drawing for the next cover painting I'm working on. I decided to go ahead and do a horizontal format make it a wrap-around book cover. The trick will be making the boy look like the same boy from the other picture. I'm glad to get a chance to put another tree in this picture since I love drawing trees :) The tree is from my head, but the boy I drew after shooting some reference photos of the same boy, as well as a few of myself to try and get the body position how I wanted it:)

new painting

2008-08-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hey there,
I finished another of my cover illustrations and wanted to post it for you. I need to get it on my website but I'm having some difficulties with that...hopefully to be resolved soon. In the meantime, here it is. I'm pretty happy with it, I think. I can see a couple of little things I might go back and touch up, but for now I'm OK with it. I'm getting going with the next one now. It's still in the drawing stage though. It's going to be a continuation of the same series and will be focused on the red-haired boy on the right. I'm thinking of doing it as a horizontal painting--that could be a wrap-around for a book cover.
By the way, in case anyone is wondering, this cover painting is not for any particular story. I am just creating works that could be for a story.
Hope you like it.

Comic Con

2008-07-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
I attended the famous Comic Con of San Diego for the first time this year...well, I went a couple of years ago, but I'm not counting that because I was only there for about an hour just before it was ending. Anyway, I've been hearing about it forever and I've gone back and forth on whether or not I think it would be worth my while to go. I decided to go ahead and spend a day scoping things out there. Basically, I was looking around to see if there is a market for my artwork there. I also got my portfolio reviewed by a couple of people. After attending, my conclusion is...well, I'm still not really sure. I definitely think that my stuff doesn't fit with a large percentage of the work there (high fantasy and sci-fi), but there was some cool stuff there that is close to what I do. So I think I should keep researching that market and keep myself open to it.
As for how the experience was apart from my "recon" work, it was a fun place to check out. The highlight was getting to watch a demo by one of my favorite illustrators, Gregory Manchess. He was at the Donato Arts booth. It was so cool to watch him paint for about an hour. I was pretty close. He did a painting of Hellboy that looked very cool. It was in oil and he was just very steady and confident in his method. Cool.
I also got to see one of my favorite art instructors, Marshall Vandruff, there. He did a drawing seminar for kids on how to draw monsters, as well as hung out at the booth he shared with the art group he's with. It's called Carbon Canyon Studios and it's he and awesome fantasy artists, Justin Sweet, Vance Kovacs, and John Dickinson. It was cool to catch up with him a little.
Overall, it was really intimidating to see the high level of talent at the conference, even if most of it is not necessarily the kind of stuff that I do. I really feel motivated to keep pushing myself in my artwork and to keep painting and drawing more, more, more!

New Resolves and Summer Teaching

2008-06-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest...I'm continuing to work on the Shunning Tree sequel illustration. It's moving along, but it's not quite there yet. In the meantime, I made a decision not to attend the summer children's illustration conference (SCBWI) in LA after all. In looking over my portfolio, I'm moving in a new direction stylistically in my new stuff. I'm at a point where I don't really like a lot of the stuff in my portfolio--well, I don't think it really fits where I'm at anymore. With my newer pieces, I'm aiming much more specifically at book cover art for middle grade and young adult fantasy. So...I need to spend more time developing this newer work so that I can phase out the older stuff. With this in mind my goal is to produce about 10 new illustrations in the coming year. I think this will really help in going after the specific market I have in mind. Better roll up my sleeves and get to it!

In other news, the summer arts class I'm teaching begins next week. I'll be teaching a 2-Dimensional art class for children ranging from 3rd all the way to 8th grade. There is both a morning and an afternoon class and it lasts for 6 weeks. I'm a little nervous about the wide range in ages. But I'm also hoping to really relax and have some fun since I don't have to worry about grading the work. We're just there to learn and have fun. I'll be experimenting with some new techniques and projects that I hope will turn out really cool.

That's all for now. Hope you're all having a creative summer!

Cara

summer, picture sequel time, & the SCBWI conference

2008-05-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
Ahh, school is almost out! I teach 2 classes at Orange County High School of the Arts as well as a class at Golden West College and the stars have aligned so that they both finish next week. Woo Hoo! During the summer I'm teaching an art class to younger kids through the high school's community arts program but that doesn't start for a few weeks. Until then I'm free as a bird to devote myself fully to my art for a little while. Uh oh. That means no excuses:) But really, I'm looking forward to finishing up a new piece I'm working on. It's the sequel to "The Shunning Tree" illustration--the one with the girl with the staff and the tree over her. The drawing for this new one has been completed and sitting on my desk for months I'm sad to say. It's time to get this monkey off my back and get it done. I've started it already and it's going well I think. I hope to pop another one out after that one so I can have a trilogy of pictures from that series.
Toward the end of the summer I'm planning to go to the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators Summer Conference in LA. I'm looking forward to redesigning my portfolio and having this new work to feature in it.
Wish me luck!
Cara

almost famous

2008-04-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

Here's some news, people! Back in December I did about 20 illustrations for this educational game called Elementeo. It's kind of along the lines of Magic: The Gathering, but teaches kids about chemistry. Well, the CEO for the game, who happens to be a 14 yr. old kid, let me know today that there was a feature about the game on the home page of Wired.com They included a picture of one of the cards that I illustrated depicting a witch overlooking some computer equipment. Unfortunately they didn't include my name:( But still, it was really cool to see my illustration on the main page of a site as big as Wired.com You can check out the article at:
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/04/14-year-old-cre.html
As far as I know, the kid behind the project, Anshul Samar, is still looking for a company to take on production and distribution of the game. Hopefully somebody will and I'll be able to purchase a copy of the game at some point. You can look at the game's website at: http://www.elementeo.com
I believe the game consists of about 120 cards and he used several other artists for the other cards.
The project was a tight deadline so I did the illustrations using scanned drawings and painting in Photoshop. I hope to get a gallery of the pictures up on my site soon.
Cara

fairy tale time and gallery updates

2008-03-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,
Just wanted to give an update on what I've been working on. I have a couple of things in the works. I'm working on an illustration of Hansel and Gretel. I originally was working on it for a competition, but the deadline has now passed...but I still want to finish it. I have a couple of other fairy tale illustrations that I've done and I thought it could fit nicely with the rest of those. It's about 75% done, I'd say.
The other thing I'm working on is some updates for my website. I want to add a lot more content to my gallery. Actually I want to set up several other galleries for different groupings of my art such as my Celtic design work, preliminary sketch work, and just other art that doesn't quite fit in the main category. I hope to work on that during spring break from my teaching which is coming up. Be on the watch for it!
Cara:)

Edit of Anti-Valentine

2008-02-18T16:46:00.000-08:00

Hello again,
I'm actually posting my valentine artwork again because I made some slight changes to it. After I posted it, I got some feedback on it that led me to make some edits: I added the broken heart graphic element, as well as making the arrows at the bottom a little darker and easier to read. I think it's an improvement so hopefully so do you:)
Cara

Anti-Valentine Card

2008-02-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

Here's something new that I worked up for the latest SCBWI on-line contest. The theme was an "Anti-Valentine's Card". Mmm, rich territory. I needed to keep it somewhat sweet though since it was for a children's illustration society:)

I decided to make it kind of a medieval setting since I like historical or fantasy imagery. I made a drawing that I was happy with but ended up with very little time to add the color. After planning to paint it in acrylic, for the sake of time I went with painting it in Photoshop. Anyway, here it is... What do you think?

Final is finally posted

2008-01-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

Hello all,
Well, I finally put up on my website the final version of the rough comp from my last post. It has been done for at least a month but I've just been too busy to get it up on my website. I feel really happy with it. I wasn't sure what to call it so I had just been calling it "Nadine", which is the name of the model I used, but I've now decided to name it "The Shunning Tree". This is because my good friend Deanna wrote a story inspired by the picture and that is the name of the story. I've decided to turn the character from the picture into a series so I am now at work on another painting featuring the same model and character. I look forward to posting some preliminary work for that soon.
In other news, this past week I had the fun opportunity to attend a 3 night seminar at Fullerton College by my favorite drawing teacher, Marshall Vandruff (see www.marshallart.com). I took pretty much every class I could from him when I was studying at Cal State Fullerton. This seminar was his Composition Crash-Course. I had taken it a few years ago, but he's always tweaking it and adding to it. It was so helpful and informative, so I feel ready to charge into this new year with new enthusiasm for my art. I took pages of notes but especially picked up on what he said about designing your pictures with abstract shapes and metaphors in mind. I was also really inspired by all the slides Marshall put up of one of my favorite artists (and one of Marshall's former students and a Fullerton College alum) Justin Sweet. Looking at his art really gets me excited about making new pictures.
Until next time...
Cara

Rough version of new work

2007-10-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

Here is the rough color comp I did in Photoshop of the new bookcover I'm working on. It's not for any particular story. I just thought it would be a good addition to my portfolio as an example of a fantasy bookcover. So, here it is...
I'm working on the actual painting of it right now, which is being done in acrylic.
I was fortunate in finding a really good model for the girl and getting some excellent reference of her.

new work finally coming

2007-09-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
I know it's been a long time coming but I'm in the midst of a new illustration now. My motivation is having new work to enter upcoming competitions with. I'm sad that I already missed one of the deadlines I wanted to make, for the Illustration West competition a couple of weeks ago, but now I'm focused on getting work done for the NY Society of Illustrators competition. The deadline is Oct. 1 so it's still going to be very tight. It's been a while since I did one of my regular traditional-style illustrations so it's making me a bit nervous. But that's how it always goes. I mean, as an artist, with each new project it can be easy to freeze up and say, "I forgot how to draw!":) But you just have to push through it.
For this illustration I've decided to go with a different focus somewhat as I'm composing it to be used for a bookcover. This is a result of my experience at the summer SCBWI conference. I came away from that feeling like I should focus my efforts more specifically on the middle-grade/teen markets in the fantasy genre. These markets feature color covers with some black/white interior illustrations. I did a little reconaissance work after the conference and went to Barnes & Noble with my camera and took photos of all the covers from those markets that I liked (well, until a B&N worker stopped me and said I couldn't do that--luckily, I had already taken enough shots:). I then drew thumbnail versions of all the bookcover photos so I could get a feel for the way shapes are used and composed on those bookcovers.
I then drew up a design that I felt could be seen on a bookcover. I'm pretty happy with my drawing, so now I need to push through to actually painting it.
I've also been doing some sketches for another bookcover. For this one I actually read a teen fantasy novel and want to do a cover and some interior illustrations as an example of what I would do for that novel. That artwork is only at an early stage yet though.
OK, that's all for now.

Narniaweb contest

2007-08-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm finally posting the picture I created for a contest on narniaweb.com. It's of the castle of Cair Paravel from the book, Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.
The contest was for a promotional image to be used for the new Narnia movie. Unfortunately I was not chosen as the winner :( You can see the picture that won here: http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=1256&dl=13420360
And some of the other entries here: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/fanclub/fanart_winners.html
I try to enter competitions whenever possible. Win some, lose some. This one was a little unique in that I did a drawing and then colored it using Photoshop. I usually go traditional but thought I'd experiment on this one.
Cara

The SCBWI Conference

2007-08-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
Here's my post after having returned from the big SCBWI children's illustrators conference in LA. The conference lasted Friday-Monday, Aug 3-6. I was really excited to go after having had the chance to go for the first time 4 years ago. I hadn't been able to afford it/did'nt feel adequately prepared since then. But this year I set aside my tax return, bit the bullet, swallowed my pride, etc. and registered for it. This time I had the advantage of knowing some of the people that were going to be there. About 5 people from my illustrators group, "OC Illustrators," attended the conference.
The conference is held every year at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in LA. When you arrive and check in you are given a packet with all of your information and schedules for the weekend. Basically, each day there are several main sessions that everyone attends, and then there are a couple of breakout sessions that you get to choose. Each of those sessions had 12 different topics/speakers to choose from. This sounds like to many choices, but actually it was usually choosing between 2 or 3 of them because many were geared toward writers instead of illustrators, or were on topics that didn't apply to me--like licensing or contract negotiations.
The speakers they get are successful professionals in the field and share all kinds of good information. Sometimes they get some pretty big names in. This year the 2 most recognizeable names to me were Tamora Pierce (best-selling fantasy novelist) and Kadir Nelson (Caldecott Honor winning illustrator). It's pretty exciting to be there and to possibly see some of these famous people just hanging out by the pool or in one of the classes with you. If you can get your courage up you can go talk to them and they have only been friendly and nice from what I've experienced and observed.
I'm one of those copious note-takers so I came away from the conference with about 11 pgs of notes in my 7 x 10" sketchbook from all the presenters. My favorites were: Peter Brown (illustrator), Marla Frazee (author/illustrator), Tamora Pierce (writer), Kadir Nelson (illustrator), John Green (writer), Jesse Watson (illustrator), and Elizabeth Parisi (art director).
I also participated in the portfolio display on Saturday evening. Porfolios are displayed in one area along with any promotional materials you have. Art directors and editors are given a private look at your work and then it is opened up to everyone. I had my business cards, promo sheets, and promo bookmarks available with my portfolio. Of course, one hopes that some editor will be dazzled at your portfolio here and offer you a book deal right there. I feel my work measured up well there but I don't know if any editors or art directors will be biting.
I definitely enjoyed getting to enjoy the time with some of my fellow "OC Illustrators" there.
Now my challenge will be to use what I've learned and to keep my momentum from all the great energy there at the conference. I've got some ideas I want to get going on soon...

I'm still here!

2007-07-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been working on preparing my portfolio for the SCBWI Conference (children's illustration) in LA in August...as well as working a summer temp job in an office...and this week, I'm entertaining my family (sister, bro-in-law, niece, nephew, and mom) who are here visiting from NY. Whew! I have done a little artwork too. I recently drew/painted a quick piece of artwork for an on-line contest promoting the new Chronicles of Narnia movies. I'll post that soon.
Well, that's all for now.
Laters,
Cara

Podcast this!

2007-06-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
My audio podcast interview is now up! You can hear my lovely and insightful voice at http://www.ocillustrators.com and then click on "Podcast" And then...well, click on me!
the future is officially now,
Cara

alternate route

2007-06-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

Someone contacted me having some trouble getting to the interview by the copy & paste way, so here's another way to get to it. Just go to http://www.ocillustrators.com and then click on "Featured Artist" There you go.
Cara:)

I'm trying not to get a big head

2007-06-14T01:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, my first ever interview is now online! I was chosen as this month's featured illustrator at http://www.ocillustrators.com and was interviewed for the website. You can read all about me here: http://web.mac.com/jheverett/iWeb/OC_Illustrators/Featured%20Artist.html
Sorry the address is so long. Just copy & paste, baby.
That website, by the way, is the online site for the illustrators critique group that I'm a part of. We're all children's illustrators who meet once a month to show what we're working on and to share information and encourage each other. A really great group of people that I feel privileged to hang out with.
Oh, there will also be an audio podcast of my interview--which is a bit different from my written interview which I prepared beforehand. I'll let you know when that's up. In the meantime, you can also peruse the excellent previous interviews with other members of the group.
Cara:)

up and running!

2007-06-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
Well, my exciting and new website is officially up and running now. I've just been fixing some last minute gliches with it--no doubt I'll find more later. I'm looking forward to having more time to actually create artwork since this website has been my main art project for the last couple of months. Hope you like it. I do plan on updating things whenever I can. One thing I want to add soon is another gallery, this one of sketches.
In other news, I did my first interview this morning--celebrity, here I come! It's actually for an illustrator's group that I'm a part of, The OC Illustrators (not that we are "OC" at all, believe me). Anyway, there will be a text version of the interview, as well as a podcast (impressive!). I'll put up a link as soon as I have it.
Later,
Cara

Hello

2007-06-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
I've just created this blog for my website so I can share some of my goings-on, updates, witty observations, mood-swings, etc. etc. I hope to add new blogs on a pretty regular basis. For now though I've got to run (I know I'm such a tease) More later I promise!
Cara