Artist Alice

Drawing

2011-10-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

Blood Tea and Red String

2011-02-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

Mouse dolls~

I saw the brilliant stop-motion film "Blood Tea and Red String" and knew I had to make some Aristocratic White Mice for myself. It also calls to mind the two mice in some childhood book (was it Beatrix Potter?) that get into the dollhouse and break everything to bits, then meet some terrible fate or other. Anywho, everything good. I am working on another one now, his head is in the lower portion of the third picture~

Ghost

2011-02-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

A ghost that came to stay with me awhile, then moved on, looking for a lost love.

Done as a materials test for my new Tombow water based markers, I'm very pleased with them.

Halloween Every Day

2010-10-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

http://ashfx.blogspot.com/

New blog especially for makeup FX and costumes.. hoping to get some freelance revenue out of halloween makeup-ing this year.

Tiny Hats (v. Logo)

2010-04-06T20:24:00.001-07:00

First draft of my little hats tag, it'll eventually have my email and website. I'm planning to order some little hats offline and get started on 'em.

Even More Demons

2010-03-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

From back in Illustration 3, 2007

Drawings: From the Files

2010-03-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

Having some time to organize my computer files has brought a lot of ancient and not-so-ancient history back into focus. I had some good ideas once in a while back then..

2007

2008

1. 2009 2. 2007 3. 2005

Photographs, old and new

2010-03-03T14:36:00.001-08:00

Sorting through files, I came across many interesting photographs I hadn't seen in a while that I thought deserved to see the light of day, and all you fine people...

Dexter

2010-01-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

I've made a list of illustrators whose inking style I greatly admire. Here's the first of them, my character Dexter, bug necromancer extrordinare, inked similar to Mike Mignola's style.

Been getting a lot of work started, I do suppose it will come around to being finished. I've got two new comic pages, a painting, and four color illustrations underway, and a doll diorama planned for starting on Monday, when I'll have a bigger studio space here.

ROADTRIP

2009-12-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

Pompano Beach.
Pensecola.
New Orleans.
Memphis.
Tulsa.
Santa Fe.*
Taos.
Kingsman.
Los Angeles.
San Fransisco.
Salt Lake City.

Read all about it!
http://thecuriocabinets.blogspot.com/

*Currently in Santa Fe!

Mad Hatter

2009-10-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

At Animation SuperCon. Selling tiny hats off a tray. Hooray!

Costume World Comics

2009-10-22T08:17:00.001-07:00

Fashion Flats

2009-09-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

More color sketches... I was having a discussion about production volume and illustration, and decided to see how fast I could crank something like this out... Also I wanted to play around with some fashion design. I did them straight into sharpie, no sketching, and managed to get all four drawn and colored ( and the fourth shaded, too) in an hour and change. It was fun and painless, I'll try to do more...

Color

2009-09-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

With my tablet out of commission, I had to get myself a new lease on traditional media color sketching. Here I am trying out crayola on cheap construction paper. Sort of fun and novel, I think.

Back on Track

2009-08-28T09:37:00.001-07:00

I finished my website and sent out my mailers today. Summer has been very busy with work, I have decided as of now, to shift my attentions to travel plans and illustration....

Here are some new and old things for perusal..

On the right, an illustration for Clive Barker's wonderful novel "Sacrament", on the left, the Night's Bride.

Promotional Materials for Jewelery Class

2009-05-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

At the Canada House:

Sixpenny Avenue Sketches

2009-05-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Continued work on character development for my comic, Sixpenny Avenue.

New Orleans!

2009-05-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

http://thecuriocabinets.blogspot.com/

Spectacular spectacular!
My documentation (going up still, in bits) of my road trip down to NOLA and the following time in Northern Florida at various campsites (to be included soon).

Giant Ceiling Mural 2008

2009-04-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

Whew. So with the nightmare of this project behind me, I've decided to post the documented evidence of these 13 days of precarious and labor-intensive ceiling mural execution. I nearly killed myself twice setting up first one set of scaffolding, than this one, by myself (the first was too short to reach the 14' top of the slanted ceiling). Here you have it though, my monumental effort towards ceiling decor, finished despite setbacks and misunderstandings with a client new to hiring fine artists, and my father discovering that work on the scaffold wasn't going to work with his back, and leaving the ceiling to me. When I got up there, too, I realized the ceiling needed to be primed with acrylic base color, with a roller, before any detail/brush work would go, because it was matte and textured. We'd estimated it at 6 days, with us both working, but it took me much longer on my own. In conclusion: it was a lot of stressful, tedious work, for half the amount of money we should have asked, but I really felt, on completion, that I'd done something pretty impressive in scale. Definitely, future wall murals are going to be a piece of cake.

BFA Finals Preview II

2009-04-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

BFA Finals Preview

2009-04-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

Second Essay Dolls: More Finished

2009-04-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

BFA Dolls: Color Draft

2009-04-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

Demons

2009-03-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

Decided to revisit these, from way back in Illustration 2. Though, you know... It wasn't SO long ago... Only last year, in fact. Strange how that worked out.

The assignment was to make a scroll with 100 demons on it. Personal demons, specifically. So, here we go.

Second Essay Dolls: More Progress

2009-03-28T17:27:00.001-07:00

Second Essay Dolls: In Progress

2009-03-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

The painter, the poet, and the pornographer <3

BFA Dolls

2009-03-02T20:08:00.001-08:00

Post 6

2009-01-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

I am the sort of illustrator who loves getting involved with fictional worlds, and the people and creatures who inhabit them. I would love to persue a career working out fantasy-world details and character complexities, either of my own creation, or collaboratively. I like to be loose and expressive with my quality of representation, using a variety of different media, and not limiting myself necessarily to 2D. I hope to stay involved heavily with other forms of the arts for inspiration-- Opera, ballet, theater, fashion, etc.

There are many things I like to do, but wish I was doing in a more proffessional way, to be included in my portfolio: That is, using these techniques, but taking the time necessary to produce a more professional finish: more considered composition, figure reference, tied up loose ends.

1. I would very much like to find thematic content that both satisfies my craving for fantasy, but it also poignant and relevant, in a political way, or in a general way relevant to the state of things in the world. I have started to do this with some of my projects, but I feel it has not yet hardened into maturity and clarity.

2. I would like to do a lot more of this: Very loose collage-type art with photoshop elements overtop. Basically, I would like to make of myself more completely a student of Dave McKean, so that I may assimilate what I need to and move on . It is something I am always looking at, but I feel that if I went about it, even in exactly the same way, with exactly the ratio of collage to drawing to painting, that my work would be distinct. I feel that the mediums McKean works in do not exclusively define his style, and it's the medium, and the tone, that I'm interested in.

http://fc66.deviantart.com/fs18/f/2007/204/f/c/Moonhead_by_GhostAlice.jpg
Mixed media with little characters/medium scale

3. I would like to work on my anatomy, esp. in regards to movement of the body through space (walking, climbing, wrestling, etc, and either get better at it or find a way around it, perhaps a method of further stylizing my figures in a more static sense, so I am not sort of hovering between extremes.

4. I used to do a lot more photography, and consider myself a very solid photographer... I should set up more shoots that are thematically considered as well as just well-composed. Also, I would like to do some straight photo manipulation, without the McKean-esque messy collage chimera feel.
http://fc93.deviantart.com/fs22/f/2007/365/9/2/Between_Worlds_by_GhostAlice.jpg

5.Sci-fi/fantasy themes/fashion and setting design/digital painting
http://th03.deviantart.com/fs36/300W/f/2008/269/8/3/Singular_by_GhostAlice.jpg

Post 5

2009-01-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

If I had to spend the rest of my life illustrating one book:
At the current moment, I am tempted to say Phantom of the Opera.
Grand gilded opera houses, layrinthine underground tunnels and lakes, strange personages living in catacomb-like darkness (The Rat Catcher included) Little unassuming towns in France, circus freak shows, Persian death-trap castles which are architectural wonders used for torture, pretty sopranos in exaggerated hoop skirts, or backstage in a dressing room buried in flowers, elegant monsters in masks, organ music, candles, velvet drapery, intrigue and murder, mannequins, props, backstage ropes and rigging, ballerinas, stage hands
..... Really now, what else could you ever possibly want to draw?

If I could apprentice with any two artists in the history of the world:
Klimt, because his work was so very inspirational to me in my younger years. Also, because through his career he himself morphed through at least three distinct artistic metamorphoses, from highly realistic detailed scenes, to a flattening of the figure with pattern and abstraction, to his later impressionist landscapes. Also, he's a cat person, and Vienna in that time was probably a very happening place. Additionally, Schiele studied under Klimt, and look how great his work was. Probably not excessively the credit of Klimt, but it couldn't have hurt.

Fritz Lang might be a good choice,too. His films are so stunningly visual, and expressionistic, his use of light and shadow are exceptional, his silent storytelling and striking characterizations are brilliant. It would be a lesson in story creation, writing, sculpture (as with the sets in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis) and composition, as well as timing. He was brilliant in his time, and his films always inspire me visually.

If I were banned from the art world, my alternate career choice would be:

Entomologist. Whether stuck in an office studying bug diagrams or exploring the amazon with a butterfly net, if it were bug related, I'd be happy. Plenty of new species to discover, after all. Alternately, I wouldn't mind being a history or anthropology scholar.

1. If I had one month and one thousand dollars to spend on art costs only:
I would do a graphic novel. It wouldn't be very expensive to do material-wise, so I would self-publish all the copies I could get on the rest of the thousand dollars.

2. Six months and ten thousand dollars:
I would spend it building fabulously elaborate fine-art costume pieces. I would hire people to do the more laborious sewing, off of patterns I made or altered, and spend my time thinking up concepts, and doing finishing touches/elaborations/changes to the rudimentary garmets, once they were sewn. I would spend some of that time and money, after I'd done one or two, seeking out parties who might be interested: art galleries, embarassingly rich drag queens (which possibly don't exist), private collectors of couture, high-end fashion stores....

3. One year and one hundred thousand dollars
I would put on a ballet of some sort, perhaps, or a movie, or musical. It might be enough time/money (though I'm not sure, really) to come up with a full concept, review work of songwriters and lyricists, look up coreographers, hire actors or dancers, design stage sets, design costumes, find a venue, advertise, etc. I imagine it would be based off of some existing form of literature, or a painting, or a moment from history, or a movement (Les Miserables, Hair the Musical, Wicked, Jekyll and Hide, etc, being examples of adaptations of the former list)

Post 4

2009-01-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

Ten illustrators whose work you admire

Dave McKean
-DC Comics
-Kitchen Sink Press **
-The Face Magazine

Donna Barr
Tracy J Butler

FSC (Foo Swee Chin)
-Slave Labor Graphics
-Starbucks (Singapore)

Ursula Vernon
-graphic smash
-(publisher)

Lisa K Weber
http://www.creatureco.com/
-Graphic Classics
-Cricket Mag
-Prestige Toy Company
-Rich FX
-Raw Films

Clive Barker
-Arcane/Eclipse Books
-Dread magazine/Fantaco
-Rizzoli Books
-Bess Cutler Gallery in New York
-Bert Green Fine Art in Los Angeles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Barker#Visual_art_and_plays

Dame Darcy
-Presspop
(Darcy has provided illustrations for writers Alan Moore, Poppy Z. Brite, Trina Robbins; and fashion designers Anna Sui, Jared Gold, CWC, and Coi Girl Magic, among others.) Wikipedia

Edward Gorey

Post 3

2009-01-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

My typical creative process:

I do a lot of thinking about a thing sort of half-mindedly, before I pick up a pencil to start thumbnailing. I let the assignment sort of swirl for a while, if I have that sort of time. If I don't I skip straight to thumbnailing. I need a quiet place to thumbnail, where I won't have interruptions. Sometimes I go for a walk beforehand to clear my head of unwanted noise/concerns/panic over my procrastination. When my ideas happen quicker than thumbnails I write them down with words. A lot of time I will write lists of words that inspire the feeling of a piece, or what I'm trying to achieve with the composition: "calm, pastoral, balanced, even, peaceful" or "jagged, menacing, directional, oppressive" ect, and that will help call to mind a variety of compositions. It's easy for me to move from verbal/written to images. When I start on my final piece, I like to have my thumbnail scaled up mechanically to my final size, rather than redrawing the smaller thumbnail large: I always adjust to leave more space than there is on the thumbnail, which annoys me, and I don't like to redraw and redraw on the final canvas. I like best to get big areas covered quickly, across the whole of the composition, in a media I can draw/paint back over to refine. In general, I like to rough out the whole thing, quickly and expressively, then get the details in place.

What it should be:
Especially for three-dimensional work I need to spend more time in the planning stages of a thing. I get impatient sometimes, and often I manage my time badly through those beginning sectors, and sometimes through the finish section. I think I need to be bolder about corrections made to pieces: I am still hesitant about erasing or covering things I like, in fear that they won't come out that way again: I should either trust my skills more, or if they are in fact not up to par, practice more.

Post 2

2009-01-23T17:54:00.000-08:00

I have no one favorite work, of my own pieces. I find some more impressive, and some less, I am personally attached to some because of their subject matter/idea, but hesitant about showing them as a favorite because of the sloppy execution. I'm going to leave this a blank for now.

The two works that I notices specifically that other people liked:
Warning: photographic nudity/thematically mature:
http://th06.deviantart.com/fs10/300W/i/2006/083/4/0/Bandage_by_GhostAlice.jpg
"Bandage"

"Lunar Walk With Shoelaces Untied"

I attribute the success of these two pieces to popular demand for the subject matter, at the venue in which I displayed them: On DeviantArt, there's a big fetish photography community, and in that community, there's a lot of the same-old shot ideas going on: I venture to say no one has done anything quite like covering their nude body in band-aids and house paint.

At the Holiday Bazaar, where I displayed the finished (color) version of this piece (in two panels), it sold like hot cakes. There was a demand at that show, I think, for interesting abstract art that would match the couch.

Disclose/Enclose

I was surprised by this piece: I was sure it would fall apart, but it ended up being fully functional, as intended, despite a bit of lapse in the planning stages, for such a large-scale piece. Looking back, I would have made a more complete finish on it, though, esp. with the text.

Five doodles or sketches I like:

Post 1: State of the Union

2009-01-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

All about Alice's artistic mode:

Media I like to work in:
Acrylic paint, conte and gesso, cut paper, comics, pen and ink, dip pen, digital painting, digital collage, collaged tissue paper, poetry, paperclay, sculpey, fabric, wire, wood (and drawing on wood).

Media I dislike:
Pencil (for anything more than the under drawing), because it's messy and smudgy, and a lot of (i believe) unnecessary work to get value, when you could have just used a darker/bolder media in conjunction. I don't like glue, though it's a necessary component to collage, because it's difficult and sticky, and I hate peeling glue skins off my fingers. I dislike pastels, because if you don't constantly affix them with an inch-thick coat of spray fix, they smear all over the place and get ugly. I like media that doesn't smudge or smear when you run your hand over it. I like to work on mat board or stiff material that doesn't accidentally crinkle or tear. I like to have a permanence to my marks, so they don't accidentally get ruined. I feel the same way about ceramics: too fragile, compared to say, woodworking or found-object assemblage.

Four classes that have inspired my work:
World Drama: I really connected with the plays in their visual aspects, simple layouts, on a stage, like illustrations, every element placed just so, for a certain meaning. Also, specific plays, like Genet's "The Maids" or "The Screens" and Lorca's "Blood Wedding" gave me very strong visual and ideological inspiration for work.

Surrealism and Film: What can I say, but awesome visual images, and thought provoking conceptually. Especially in the Bunuel films, for underlying social ideas/criticism, and especially with the link between that and sexuality. The Cocteau films for their stunning visuals, especially his Beauty and the Beast. Man Ray's film "L'etoile De Mer" was also pretty inspirational, and Dali's En Chien Andalou. The excruciating strangeness and stilted imagery appealed to my aesthetic senses.

Sculpture/Ceramics: I've been very interested in combining 2D and 3D in my illustrations. In my ceramics class, too, which was combined with a higher level class, I got to see other Illustration students doing just that, as well as exploring some more conceptual abstract concepts and designs myself.

Figure Drawing/Drawing Comp: Helped me a lot technically, to develop the freeness of my line, working large, being bold, using collage and mixed media, mixing markmaking, controlling the composition of works.

Cocteau's B&B... the 2005 Phantom of the Opera ripped him off on those arms-from-the-wall-holding-candelabras, bigtime.

The kind of subject matter I like to incorporate in my work most:
Figures and character designs, animals, dresses/period fashion, swirly organic lines, insects/insect-people, demons, creatures, masks, character designs or revamping of existing fictional characters, elements from nature interwoven into figures/characters. Often, dark subject matter calls to me most: vampires, night-creatures, spiders/bats, chimeras, deformity, death. Also, I gravitate towards historical subjects: especially the 1920s (Weimar Rep. Germany), and 1700s (France), and the Victorian era (1900s, America)

Subjects I read about:
Fantasy/historical fiction, gothic/horror fiction, classic novels, vampire novels, insect field guides,

Music:
Rock/metal: Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Abba, Orgy, Bush: A lot of the Rock music I get exposed to is just by listening to the radio. I like rock and techno because of the loud, lively beat. It's good working music for me, also sometimes relaxing.

20's german cabaret/jazz: Marlene Dietrich, Zarah Leander, Ernst Bush/Lotte Lenya: Puts me in mind of a certain place. Also, I think it's sexy,

60's folk: Simon and Garfunkel: Relaxing, pretty, clear, environmentally and politically conscious, reminiscent of a time and place that was pretty happening.

Showtunes: Lively, also, you call to mind the characters and their relationships and personalities, as well as the story and mood of the musical.

Non-art-related interests/hobbies/skills
-Dance: classical ballet, club dancing, swing dancing, latin dancing (interest, rather than skill)
-Chess
-Tree-climbing
-Fashion design/clothing/costuming

Corset Cameo by Louise Black: How awesome is this.

Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" : An absolutely gorgeous ballet with modern coreography and an all-male cast.

Something I like that nobody else likes:
Obscure, lame, underappreciated villians. I love most all of them to death. It doesn't matter how pathetic their death scene was, or how little screen-time they had, or how corny their evil-scientist laugh was, they are close to my heart.

Mouse> from Armitage III, Frollo> Hunchback of Notre Dame, Rufus> FFVII , Scarecrow> Batman, Oriya> Descendant of Darkness .....heaps more that I currently can't remember.

If I had the run of the world's museums, I'd like to own:
Winged Victory/Nike of Samothrace.

Klimt's 'Watersnakes'

I get the strange feeling...

2008-12-28T16:18:00.001-08:00

...that more people than I assume check this blog with some degree of regularity. How would I know, after all? I've decided to post up older work, this being break, and I doing little personal projects rather than things I want to put on the blog, to keep the information stream somewhat more consistent.

Here's an assignment from Illustration 2 in which we had to place our assigned little finger-puppet monster into a recognizable photograph/painting.

Phantom Character Designs

2008-12-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

For the summer, I'm planning to do a graphic novel.
These are just some initial experiments into style and character design.

Dunnnnn, dun dun dun dun dun.... dundun! Phantom of the Opera <3

Shadow Puppets

2008-12-23T17:15:00.001-08:00

Made for Comics 1 for a specific comic assignment. Locke Frothington (with the hat and tentacles) meets Ashley (with the skates) by a strange set of coincidences involving some thin ice and a dimensional portal.. She's still at this point a bit weirded out.

These earlier shadow puppets are cut out of construction paper with a blade, then hinged at the joints using knotted thread. Later I figured out that mini-brads, the sort you use in scrapbooking, worked wonders.

Here are the twins being slick, with a unedited photo so the brads/joints show. In stage 2 of this process, I'd adjust the levels in photoshop until I got a flat black/white then fill in the spots of white in the forms.

Older Poster Design: Peabody Hotel

2008-12-23T17:08:00.001-08:00

The Peabody is an upscale hotel downtown Memphis. We all went there as a class (Illustration) and did some sketches, then went back as was necessary to fill them in, and came up with a final poster design. This isn't the final version of mine, but close to it.

NPDA Poster

2008-12-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

In the words of my colleague/poster-partner Jessica Biggs:

A poster that was an assignment for my design 3 class.

One day a year, art colleges and universities all over the country set aside a day in which high school students are encouraged to bring their portfolios to be reviewed by college-level teachers, artists and faculty and discuss the transition from high school to art college.
The National Portfolio Day Association is a committee which overseas this event. Every year the NPDA chooses a double-sided broadside to be sent out to all the high schools in the country advertising this event.
The candidate posters are made by design students from art schools across the country.

This was a collaborative work between illustrator [Danielle Bertocci] and [Jessica Biggs] as a designer.
While our piece was not chosen to continue to the NPDA committee, I feel it is still worthy of showing off as we both worked very hard for nearly an entire semester on it.

----

Yep! Enjoy some squids.

Sydney Comic

2008-12-09T13:31:00.001-08:00

Ind. Study (Dolls) : Final Project (Photos) Part II

2008-12-09T12:37:00.001-08:00

Ind. Study (Dolls) : Final Project (Photos)

2008-12-09T10:40:00.001-08:00

Calvino Cover Illustration

2008-11-29T15:09:00.001-08:00

3 / 3

Wardrobe Project Part I

2008-11-28T19:08:00.000-08:00

Striped cravat-collar and red corset, sewn by me. Next on the list: spats and lacy wrist cuffs. Possibly some sort of jacket, and a bustle skirt.

Cosmicomics II

2008-11-23T20:07:00.000-08:00

Cosmicomics

2008-11-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

Italo Calvino
Cosmicomics
pg 52-53

I went into a sandy wasteland: I proceeded, sinking down among dunes which were always somehow different and yet almost the same. Depending on the point from which you looked at them, the crests of the dunes seemed the outlines of reclining bodies. There you could almost make out the form of an arm folded over a tender breast, with the palm open under a resting cheek; farther on, a young foot with a slender big toe seemed to emerge.

We ran along the crest of the volcanoes. In the noon grayness, Ayl's flying hair and the tongues of flame that rose from the craters were mingled in a wan, identical fluttering of wings.
"Fire. Hair," I said to her. "Fire same hair."

Holiday Dolls Part IV

2008-11-21T00:13:00.000-08:00

First Stamp and another Holiday Bazaar Doll

2008-11-15T23:38:00.000-08:00

Illustration HW Part I of IV

Finished Bazaar Dolls!

2008-11-13T12:18:00.001-08:00

More Holiday Dolls

2008-11-01T17:58:00.001-07:00

Halloween!

2008-10-31T17:40:00.001-07:00

Holiday Bazaar Dolls

2008-10-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Steampunk!

2008-10-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

Fate and Siren

2008-10-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

This second one here will eventually have 6 tentacles and two arms. These are loosely inspired by mythology, one is a variant on the siren, the other, one of the three furies. My siren is a bit more blue-green than shows up in this photo...

More Dolls

2008-09-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

In-progress: Moon doll body re-sculpt. (The first, very sadly, broke.... but it wasn't very sturdy to begin with) Also, Owl doll, made from wood.

2008-09-29T23:49:00.000-07:00

Squid Balloon - Color Comps

2008-09-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

For the National Portfolio Day poster... without text for now.

New Dolls

2008-09-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

This is Moon. She's from a play by Lorca, called Blood Wedding. She's eventually going into a diorama of the woods, with two lovers hiding in the underbrush, and probably some branches and blood. Also, she'll have fancy black lace, like a spanish dancer.

New torso - sculpted the original in stoneware, made a silicon mold, pulled this cast in sculpey, baked.

This tiny thing is Sydney. Too small for wigs/sewing, I think, so I'm going to sculpt the hair and clothes on, eventually.

Cristoff's Bookshelves

2008-09-17T09:57:00.001-07:00

More for comics class. We're developing 5 characters, and a story. This is Cristoff, first of the five. I'll put the character backgrounds and stories up later.

The Exterminating Angel

2008-09-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

A screenprint inspired by a surrealist film about bourgeoisie cultural entrapment, by Luis Bunuel, that I viewed in my Surrealism and Film class. I wrote a rallying essay on the subject, too.

Some essay highlights:

...Bunuel takes the theme of possession from the sexual to a class reading of such, the bourgeoisie possessed by their possessions, trapped in trappings.

Through the majority of the film, the guests are trapped in the music room, unable to leave despite pressing appointments and plans for secret trysts. The first evening there are dozens of good reasons to leave, and even if they stay, there are guest rooms more comfortable than the floor, but no one seems to muster the will to budge an inch out of the door.

The enclosed space becomes a metaphor for an inescapable belief system. Nothing physical holds any of the characters in place, and yet they are still unable to escape, they starve and suffer and see their ideals and pretensions collapse around them like so much hot air, and yet they cannot simply step outside, remove themselves from the situation.

Visibility is the most important signifier for the bourgeoisie, and it is what gives validity to their privilege. It is, in a way of speaking, their ticket into the exclusive club. Having vast wealth is a secondary consideration to showing that wealth, in ostentatious display. The reality of bourgeois spaces is that only certain things happen in an open, visible space. For the system of respectability to hold up, some things must be kept out of sight. Certain actions are regulated to private spaces, not to be shown or discussed. ...

A few dolls--

2008-09-15T06:23:00.001-07:00

Just initial ones. Tescatlipoca, in the feathers, there, a somewhat new character of mine. The other is Flower, still in progress. The third is experiments into woodcarving... getting there slowly.

Capital Punishment

2008-09-15T06:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a little morbid piece about the death penalty, for Illustration 4.

If killing is wrong, it should be always wrong, ever, for anyone, with the inclusion of execution and war, too. Does a difference in motive, in procedure, make someone's systematic death acceptable? The pro-capital-punishment websites have a strong focus on descriptions of the killer, and the crime, meant to work the viewer into a sympathetic frenzy with the victim, ready to demand retribution. At the point and time when you demand someone die for what they've done, and vote for it, pass the sentence, turn away, you yourself are complicit in a murder of some kind. Motives of revenge and desire put you mentally on a criminal level. If compassion and fair treatment of one human being to another is the goal, then it should start with people of some privilege. It affords us nothing to let people live. Contrary to common belief, it actually costs more, in the end, to execute a prisoner, than to feed and upkeep them for a full life sentence. And what is the cost of an execution, not in monetary loss, but for the psyches of the people involved? What about the murder victim's family? If the death appeases them, if a problem of anguish is solved by killing for revenge, then it has simply come full circle. Certainly some murderers deserve to die, but who can really make that call? Opposition of the death penalty supports the moral stance that people should be treated better than they deserve, by one another, and by society. As a statistically Christian nation, capitol punishment does not hold up to moral scrutiny, the way I see it.

"As one reads history...one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime."
~Oscar Wilde

Only 14 democracies in the world still have the death penalty, and only 3 of them have carried out executions in 2005: the United States, Taiwan and Japan. 44 dictatorships also practice it regularly.

88 per cent of all known executions in 2007 took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA.

New!

2008-09-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

Returning from long absence, I bring you: an update!

This blog was previously used as part of the criteria for my Illustration 3 class, to post up Illustration-related assignments. I am now taking illustration 4, comics, an independent study in dollmaking, creative writing and poetry. I will try to the best of my ability to document the goings-on of my schoolwork on these various fronts.

edit: broken picture link now fixed.

To start it off: A little one-page comic. The assignment was to follow people and record real-time dialogue, and write a comic with a natural conversational feel. I looked a little like a creepy stalker, hiding hunched behind a bookshelf scribbling away notes as these kids went at it, but I think it was overall successful.

Letterform Cards

2008-05-30T12:08:00.001-07:00

Lisa K. Weber

2008-05-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.creatureco.com/home.html

What a lovely style of painting! I think these are great. Clean, graphic, highly stylized and exaggerated. Simple without being boring, conceivably targeted for children, and extremely fun without losing any visual sophistication.

Tom Bagshaw

2008-05-29T12:43:00.001-07:00

Very glamorous, cleanly rendered, figural fashion and editorial work. Perhaps a bit TOO beautiful at times - the glamor tends to get in the way of truly sincere or expressive poses, but good if taken for what it is, and interesting things going on with some of the design elements.

Julien Pacaud

2008-05-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Intriguing and mysterious collages.

Ryan Friant

2008-05-29T12:24:00.001-07:00

How flippin' cool is this? Not many people use sculpture/dolls for *illustration* purposes. It's something I'm very interested in exploring the possibilities of myself. The materials used are very creative and immediate, hand-crafted-looking and expressive.

Alicia Neal

2008-05-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Alicia Neal
http://www.alicianeal.net/

Katy Horan

2008-05-29T12:10:00.001-07:00

http://www.katyart.com/

Katy Horan has an intricate pattern-like line forming complex shapes and textures for her hauntingly composed pictures. They use no perspective, instead laid out more like ancient wall paintings, showing each figure on a flat plane in relationship to each other. I like the color palette she works with, and the stylization of her figures, as well as the metaphoric use of pattern and line to show the unseen.

Amy Sol

2008-05-29T11:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.amysol.com/
http://www.amysol.com/blog
Amy Sol has a smooth, subtle touch to her painting, very smooth surfaces and muted colors, letting the natural wood of her drawing surface show through to a very pleasant effect. Her scenes are soft and pleasant, with an element of the fantastical balanced with strong design-centric, simplified landscape elements. There also seems to be some Japanese influence in her work.

Daniel Bejar

2008-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

I like, in Daniel Bejar's work, how very simple shapes are arranged in a highly compelling and clear manner, but remain visually interesting by utilizing strong composition, but also the texture that comes from screenprinting as a medium.

Clients Include:
Advertising Age
Alternative Medicine Magazine
The American Lawyer
GQ
Harper's
The New York Times
Newsweek
Opprotunity Journal
POZ
Rollingstone Magazine
TIME
The New Republic
The Washington Times
Worth

Josh Cochran

2008-05-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

I find these works to be especially impressive because screenprinting is used to create a very common linear-and-flat-color look that many other illustrators use photoshop to accomplish. I think his work is also very nicely composed spacially.

Partial Client List
Atlantic Monthly / American Airlines / Bugaboo / Cramer Krasselt / Discovery Channel /EA Sports / EMI Music / Entertainment Weekly / ESPN / Esquire / Fantagraphics Books /Faber and Faber / GQ / Harcourt Brace & Co / Kiehl's / The Los Angeles Times / McSweeney's /Men's Health / Metropolis / Motion Theory / The New Yorker / The New York Times / Nike /Outside / Pepsi / Pentagram / Sony Music / Spin Magazine / Sterling Books / Target / Texas Monthly / Volkswagen / VSA Partners / Wired

Anthony Waters

2008-05-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.thinktankstudios.com/

Waters uses a wide variety of approaches, many of them utalizing photoshop painting techniques, occasionally mixed with real media. He uses a realistic style to render fantasy environments and characters. It seems like a fun thing to be able to do for a living. There's something to be said for the more traditional fantasy style in his work - it is certainly impressive, and shows a lot of rendering and work in the details.

Graphite, charcoal, conte, marker, watercolor, gouache, pastel and oil are all part of my arsenal. I’ve been using Painter and Photoshop professionally since 1996.

I have fifteen years of experience in game and story development, both as a freelancer and as a full-time employee. I’ve worked on all aspects of the production cycle on a variety of commercial products including kid’s multimedia, strategy games, comics, fiction writing and film. (from resume)

Foo Swee Chin

2008-05-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

FSC is an artist I've followed for a long time. She is based in Singapore, and is best known in America for her work on the first 12 issues of the comic "Nightmares and Fairytales". She has published other comics and art books of her work in Singapore, in addition to the several books published by Slave Labor Graphics and Neko press. She has also done a promotional book of illustrations for Starbucks, published in Taiwan. I find that her work is an interesting example of someone who began in a very manga-esque style, and slowly evolved away from it into something more unique. Apparently Singapore's local comic artists are getting more international attention of late.

Deanna Staffo

2008-05-29T05:32:00.001-07:00

http://www.deannastaffo.com/deannastaffoillustration.html

I love Deanna Staffo's work. There is nothing in the style that is particularly different or spectacular, she uses a technique which many illustrators use - delicate pen lines overlayed with flat colors (she also changes the color of her initial line digitally, sometimes, to a nice effect.) However, there's something about the -quality- of her work that really shines through impressively. An eye for detail, faces, people. Her figures are very expressive and natural; unique and recognizable, while retaining elements of her personal style.

Deanna Staffo received her bfa with honors from the maryland institute, college of art and now lives in philadelphia. she teaches illustration at the maryland institute and her work has been recognized by american illustration, the society of illustrators west, the altpick awards (2nd place series illustration), communication art's "fresh list" (aug. 05), and taschen's "illustration now". (from bio)

Barry Bruner

2008-05-29T04:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.barrybruner.com/

I like the muted color schemes, and the simple narratives, or visual representations he depicts using rendered (in space) forms/linework and flatter coloring techniques.

His work has been honored by the Society of Illustrators of New York, American Illustration, and 3x3 Magazine. (from bio)

Eduardo Recife

2008-05-29T04:31:00.000-07:00

Eduardo Recife
http://www.misprintedtype.com/v3/

Eduardo Recife has an interesting dada-esque collage style, which I think is very nice, especially in regards to his use of typography.

Christine Hawthorn'

2008-05-29T04:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.christinehawthorn.com/

I find Christine Hawthorn's work, at least in terms of execution and overall visual feel, to be similar to Clare Mallison's. Hawthorn also has a loose, direct-application-of-ink approach to her linework, and a similar delicate quality. The colors she lays in are bolder, however, and it lends the pieces a more graphic, flatter look, at a glance.

Since graduating from Kingston University I have continued my love of drawing through freelance illustration. I also carry out other creative work such as technical drawings for clothing and retouching. my work combines traditional drawing with modern techniques and my contemporary style is adaptable to any subject matter.(from bio)

Gordon Wiebe

2008-05-29T04:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.gordonwiebe.com/

Gordon Weibe has a wonderfully simple, unique, graphic style, which uses a very distinct stylization, but at the same time, retains a lovely subtlety. I particularly enjoy the way he stylizes forms, and the colors that he chooses. Equally appealing is his use of shape as compositional tool, and his working technique, which yields pieces that almost resemble cut-paper. Also, he has taken on working with a wide range of bright colors, which I think is difficult, and has pulled it off very well; the colors sync up nicely with his style.

Jens Maria Weber

2008-05-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.jensmariaweber.de/

Jens Maria Weber's prowess in the realm of real media drawing is notable. There is a textured, layer-y look to her conte and charcoal and pen drawings, that speaks to a very considered and developed approach to mark-making. Sometimes these marks are used, as in the first thumbnail, in combination with flat digital color, and I think this works very well to accentuate the unique quality her particular line quality, which has a definite character.

http://www.jensmariaweber.de/seiten_skizz/cth_deal_530-px.jpg
http://www.jensmariaweber.de/seiten_skizz/pkschr_530-px.jpg

Katie Cusack

2008-05-29T04:06:00.001-07:00

http://www.katiecusack.com/

I find Katie Cusack's work to be very visually rich and compelling, for her use of collage and mixed digital and traditional media. There is simultaneously, I think, a sort of child-like playfulness and a darker, more somber tone to the pieces, in both subject matter and in execution. I think the color on many of the pieces in her portfolio is interesting; she knows when a piece needs to be more monochromatic, and when to experiment with contrasting, or complimentary color schemes in a more bold fashion.

Katie Cusack uses digital mixed media to create surreal dream-scapes using found objects, photography and painted imagery. She specializes in Editorial and Children's Book Illustration but has also done work for the Music Industry. After graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Illustration, Katie attended Johns Hopkins University for a MA in Education. She has taught Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education within both public and private school systems. She has worked as a Cognitive and Verbal Behavior Specialist for children with Autism and as an Editor for a major educational publishing house. Now she is a full-time, independent Illustrator, which has been her dream job since childhood.
(from bio)

Clare Mallison

2008-05-29T03:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.claremallison.com/
http://www.claremallison.blogspot.com/

Clare Mallison has a great loose, linear style that I really like. It has an immediacy and an ease. Some look like they may be drawn directly in pen - the buildings and landscapes describe the space and tone of an area very well, and yet precision in perspective or line straightness doesn't figure into the success of the piece. Her line quality is very delicate, but confident, and the muted accented spot colors do a good job of creating visual interest and rhythm without being too heavy, which would overwhelm that linear quality.

Clare draws continuously from her studio in Bethnal Green London for a broad range of international clients. Her work is a mix of quink ink pro markers and sometimes pencil. (from bio)

Juan Carlos Federico

2008-05-29T03:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.juancarlosfederico.com.ar/

This working method is really awesome. Federico collects snapshots of things, cuts them out digitally, and pieces them together to create little mechanical or office-supply frankenstein creatures and animals. I like the way the texture for the background is handled, and how creatively different found objects are incorporated into the designs.

Unusual Typography

2008-05-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

...Involving 3 foot long sticks, drawing without looking, cutting up xeroxes of insects, and using 6-for-a-dollar-cheap-brushes and ink. Also a loaf of wheat bread.

Editorials #1-3

2008-05-26T23:22:00.001-07:00

Mecca and Moderation

Ice Dwellers Are Finding Less Ice to Dwell On

Superhero Fashion Show at the Met

Andrew Hem

2008-05-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.andrewhem.com/

Marguerite Sauvage

2008-05-23T06:09:00.001-07:00

http://www.margueritesauvage.com/blog/

French Illustrator

Edel Rodriguez

2008-05-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

An interesting variety of approach as far as medium and style are concerned. I like his hand-done work more than his computer-assisted stuff. The textures he gets with whatever medium it is in that last picture there - either monotype or charcoal/conte, probably, are very nice.

(from the bio: )
His work has appeared in four picture books, on stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, and on posters for Broadway shows. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine and was also an art director at TIME magazine for over a decade.

edelrodriguez.com

Tim Gough

2008-05-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

Graham Roumieu

2008-05-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

http://roumieu.com/

Whimsical and sketchy, very distinctive style. Often slightly jarring, ironic depictions of topics. Works probably with pen nib and watercolor, and has a good combination of a strongly linear description of form, with very nice washy, textured colors laid over. He's done editorials for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, American Airlines and Disney, among many others. He also has illustrated a book (about Bigfoot, a fictional autobiography of) and has done covers for other people's books.

Andy Smith

2008-05-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Andy Smith

Smith, who counts Nike, BT, The Guardian and Time Out among his clients, also had to deal with software packages that can produce very different results. “I use a lot of textures in Photoshop and try to keep a hand drawn, rough feel to my work,” he says. “Going into Flash and trying to draw with vectors meant I was making smooth crisp lines and movements, which isn’t really my thing. Although I use a computer for all my work I don’t like it to look as though it’s made digitally, so I have to build textures and scribbles into the animation so the hand-drawn feel is not lost.” (Computer Arts - http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/illustrate__animate )

There is a very strong emphasis on typography, and how it interacts with line and the drawn image. Hand-drawn text interacts with printed text, and the text shapes itself to become architecture or little characters, occasionally. The words lend deeper meanings to very simple forms. Composition and text makes up a lot of the strength and simplicity of Smith's style.

www.asmithillustration.com/
www.andysmithillustrator.blogspot.com/

Eunsil Cheon

2008-05-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Eunsil Cheon
http://www.rabbion.com/

Nicholas Di Genova

2008-05-22T19:45:00.001-07:00

Paul Rumsey

2008-05-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/rumsey/gallery.htm

So odd and evocative to see such classic-looking work relating to contemporary issues. The subject matter fluxuates from greek myths to pieces that look like they could be editorial in nature. The handling of the charcoal is lovely and delicate, and there is a dark, rich quality to the balance of light and dark, and the texture. There is also a sort of seriousness, that perhaps derives from the method itself. No frills, just drawing, and feeling.

David Mack

2008-05-22T18:26:00.000-07:00

I first saw David Mack's work in Kabuki, maybe 6-7 years ago,and thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Since, I've seen more of the same, and perhaps of better merit/quality, but it was my first experience with non-comic-style comic book art. I loved his use of child-like crayon drawings, collage and paint along with line to create gorgeous spreads that read in a creative and unexpected manner.

Mix 'n Match Visual Metaphors : 2 of 2

2008-05-22T06:04:00.001-07:00

Mix 'n Match Visual Metaphors : 1 of 2

2008-05-21T23:31:00.001-07:00

International Herald Tribune: Article Summaries and Visual Ideas

2008-05-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

(environment/science)
Ice Dwellers Are Finding Less Ice to Dwell On.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/20/healthscience/20count.php

Exactly how many walruses there are in the world is unknown, but it's estimated that there's about 190,000 of em. However, problems are arising for the walrus population that may have further repercussions for other sea life as well. The ice caps are melting sooner and coming back much later in the season than they were 20 years ago. Walruses are amphibious, and while the males migrate inland for the summer, the females and calves remain on the ice floes. However, with the early melting, they are forced to migrate as well, and sometimes die of starvation. Also, the melting ice has encouraged human industry (like oil companies) to creep in on once-preserved natural habitat, due to the ease of access.

artic sea___walrus/family___aquatic mammal___iceburg___ice flow ___squeeze___cubicle___"on a dime"___pedestal___fish___competition ___injuries___time - hourglass___melting ___icecube___home being devoured/destroyed___home melting___bite ___crowding___trampling___starvation

(health)
Mental Illness in Iraq Rises as Care Falters
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/20/mideast/doctor.php?page=2

The Ibn Rushid psychiatric hospital was once a clean and modern establishment, that took pride in the qualities of it's practices and the meticulous care of it's patients. Since 2003, it has seen a sharp decline, with only 4 of 11 psychiatrists remaining, a shortage of medicine and upkeep, and more incoming patients than can be cared for in a fully considered manner, with the amount of staff on-hand. They are using an electrotherapy machine that is 25 years old, and severely outdated. Conditions put a strain on the psychiatrists, too, who have been around to see better times, with proper equipment and resources. The doctors say it is an emotional strain as well, as many of the stories patients come in with are daily realities for them all, such as car bombings, killings, militia fighting, and Iraqi and US forces in conflict.

Electrodes___Crowds__Straight jackets____doctors____clipboards ____notes____medication bottles ____crowds of people____hospital beds____"tattered lace curtains" ____human grief ____touch ____ whisky ____ suicide ____stress ____tears ____helplessness ____decay

(emerging technology)
One Laptop Per Child
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/16/arts/design19.php

One Laptop Per Child is an innovative new design group which has developed a laptop that is extremely low-cost to manufacture, and also highly durable, for distribution in underdeveloped 3rd world countries to use in schools and elsewhere. It is portable, water and dust proof, and also utalizable as a TV and a radio. It is crank powered and has a half-mile radius for wireless signals. Currently there are 5 million X0-1s in production. The current cost is $150 per laptop, but with more orders the production cost would go down. The group estimates that by 2010 this goal will be reached.

connection ____ lines ____computer ____internet ____waves ____cords ____global ____teaching tool ____kids ____durability ____usefulness ____portable unit ____square (console) ____ helping technology ____integration ____multipurpose/multifaceted ____interaction/interactive ____ two places connecting ____ information sharing ____graphic/interesting graphics ____ book/ebook/electronic data recorder/tablet ____juxtaposition of practical/traditional and fancy/entertaining/new /state of the art ____cost efficiency ____conveyor belt ____multiples

(religion)
Mecca and Moderation
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/20/opinion/edmecca.php?page=1

Does an increase in religious orthodoxy lead to increased close-mindedness? Not necessarily, according to a recent study concerning the moslem practice of hajj, pilgrimmage to Mecca. The trip puts moslems in contact with a wide variety of people, and promotes understanding and a desire for peaceful interaction side-by-side with an increased fervor for Islam. According to a 2007 survey 45% of Americans believe Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions. (Strange, from a religion whose name is, literally translated, 'Peace') The article seems to say that orthodoxy is not parallel with fanaticism and radicalism; that it is possible to uphold one's own religious tradition while remaining open and understanding of other ways and traditions.

pilgrimage ___walk ___travel ___footsteps ___meet people ___contact with outside religions/types of people ___openmindedness ___spaces and connections ___rigid confining complexes (vertical) openminded consideration (horizontal) ___ inspiration from islam/spirituality/tradition (upwards) / connection with others of different walks and faiths (outwards) ___ the divine being traveled as a journey that takes one through the secular ___ impressions of Islam as violent/terrorist religion ___ stereotypes versus teaching ___ distortion of what islam is in the minds of others ___ walking and expanding ___ holding hands around mecca ___sharing spaces ___ traditional islamic headgear associations ___ prayer posture / echo in violent shape in thought bubble.. "before" action.

(fashion)
Superhero Fashion Soars in New York Exhibition
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/05/arts/fsuper.php

On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a fashion show inspired by superhero designs, some, as described in the article, 'quintessentially American' and all with a measure of the fantastic, the larger-than-life.

dual identity ___fusion ___dresses and superheros ___the super vs everyday compared to couture vs ready-to-wear ___masquerade ___ superman and gucci ___ pro models and jet packs ___ juxtapositions of the two ___ telephone booth couture ___ high heels and superpowers (heels x jet packs?) ___ fantasy ___ "identity and transformation of the body" __ superhero on catwalk with models

H.B. Lewis

2008-05-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

H.B. Lewis
http://www.bucklewis.com/hb_main.html

HB Lewis has worked on big blockbuster animated movies such as Lilo and Stitch, Madagascar, Robots, Ratatouille, Cars and Ice Age. He has also illustrated six published children's books.

I found it fascinating to look at his production sketches for these 3D animated films. They capture a richness and texture, as well as a color palatte, that seems to translate directly into the cleaner animation style of the finished movie. The designs themselves are very unique also. I especially like, in the robot and alien designs for their respective movies, how the characters seem to be very shape/silhouette inspired, conforming to strange/unique contours.

Kent Williams

2008-05-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Kent Williams is known for his illustration of the graphic novel "Blood: A Tale" and also has several art books out. He also does editorial illustrations for several magazines.

I love the way paint and drawn line interact in these pieces. They have a textured, layered, emotionally raw quality to them. They are textured and interesting, but have a clear visual hierarchy. There is a loveliness and care infused into the painting, but, while descriptive, it remains loose and gestural.

http://www.kentwilliams.com/illustration/illustration.html