Weblog
Monday, 04 July 2011
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New Direction
Hi Xanga Friends,
After almost 10 years on Xanga, I finally decided to move my blog to Blogger because it gives me more freedom with the interface. So please follow me now at:
www.charlotteillustrations.com
That's right, I bought a domain ;). The new blog also provides easy access to my portfolio as well as my Etsy and Zazzle stores.
Hope to see you there folks and Happy 4th of July!
ttfn
Charlotte
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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midsummer night
Painted my gnome on the iPad last night. . did this in about an hour. I think I found a few brushes I like, but still can't seem to replicate the "sponge" brush I use in Photoshop.
Been reaallly busy preparing for the Creating Cartoons Workshop that I'll be teaching in Atherton this summer. I've been scouring the web finding good reference photos to illustrate concepts like line weight, foreshortening, cross-hatching, color scripting, etc. A lot of work, but I know it will be worth it :)
I'm also being considered as an illustrator for Byrne Publishing. They produce picture book apps on the iPad and iPod Touch and pay illustrators by royalty. Whatcha guys think? Should I take the plunge into digital publishing land?
Thursday, 23 June 2011
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launch
I know it's weird. . but that's what I thought of when given the word "launch" this week: a flying pig fleet driven by fighter chickens. They're launching an attack on the nearest Eggland's Best Egg Factory :P.
I spent this past weekend at the Book Passage Children's Writer & Illustrator's Conference. It was my second year attending and once again, I learned so much from each of the workshops/panels. The conference was relatively small in size, which allowed me to have one on one conversations with many of the faculty members there, such as Mac Barnett and Kathryn Otoshi. I also had a consultation with Thacher Hurd, who's written/illustrated over 25 picture books. . .oh, by the way, his father also illustrated Good Night, Moon! Most importantly, all the workshops had a very intimate and supportive atmosphere. . .you felt safe enough to explore and stretch the boundaries of your creativity.
One of the highlights was attending Dan Santat's workshops, where he broke down his own process of creating goooorgeous illustrations. I went home and tried a few of his tips, which you can see below.
I have to admit, to me, this image is a lot more eye-catching and dynamic than my usual style. A lot of his advice centered around making sure that, in each illustration, you told a different part of the story in the foreground, middle ground, and background. He also emphasized the use of contrasting saturations and/or color groups (cool vs. warm) to add definition to the major components in your composition. I hope you can see a few of those techniques in the illustration above. I like the sinister silhouettes contrasted with the warm/playful figure in the middle ground.
During the next few weeks, I hope to share how I incorporate more "ah ha" conference moments into my own work. Next up: establishing a fresh and authentic voice for your main character.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
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swept
This is a sketch I did while visiting the SFMOMA Stein Collections exhibit. It's Picasso's "Student with a Pipe" where the student is swept up in the plumes of his own smoke. Here's the original:
I love his quirky angles and use of different lines, textures, and patterns. It was really fun to try and replicate the style in Photoshop by messing around with various brushes. The exhibit is full of amazing paintings from Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, and more! You also get to learn about the role the Stein family played in the careers of these famous artists. I highly recommend a visit.
Lastly, I donated two art prints to the Art 4 Japan project a while back and they're selling the final pieces from the project on ebay here. All proceeds are donated to AmeriCares in their efforts to provide relief to victims of the earthquake in Japan.
My prints were already sold, but you can still purchase them at my Etsy shop during the next few weeks. I will be donating all proceeds from these print sales to Give2Asia:
Monday, 06 June 2011
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shadows
The setting sun makes shadows and silhouettes out of a safari scene. This sentence was brought to you by the letter S lol. I had inked the safari silhouette during a watercolor giveaway I was hosting at Tea's the Season:
The finished watercolor went to a good friend of mine that day. Afterward, I used the above photo to extract the black ink outline and repainted the sunset colors in Photoshop. The whole time I was painting, I heard Bob Ross's voice in my head saying "Just add a happy little cloud," so I added a few of those as well :)
If you want to see more scenery drawings, I have a few prints (like the one below) available at my Etsy shop:
