Work Sweet

Adapting to Fall

2011-11-22T18:31:00.001-04:00

Today is awesome. It's a "freelance day," a day where I work on client assignments, the administrative things associated with freelancing, and portfolio projects. I usually get a couple of these each week, but this one is special, and not because I worked in my pajamas until 1pm. This is the first November 22nd since moving to Boston where I've gotten to work on my own art the whole day. I have a long way to go before I'll be the illustrator I want to be, but this feels really good.

Here's the first finished comic I've done in, I think, three years. It was time consuming--seven times the drawing of those cute paintings I've been doing for sales--but it's going to have such a good home in my portfolio, and drawing, inking, and coloring this guy was just a lark.

So: "Jessie Makes Jam:"

Edited: I replaced the original version with this one. Josh delivered one of his truly surgical crits: short, to the point, and utterly right. So, I've brought back some black for the line-work. I think it has a better depth and punch now, but feedback is always welcome.

B Season

2011-11-10T11:37:00.000-04:00

Objective achieved, maybe! I've been busy since the last blog post, preparing for back-to-back holiday sales on December 3rd and December 4th (YIKES). I'll be in Longmeadow, MA for the third annual Brunch & Buy:

This is a super fun, intimate sale. It's in my parent's (cool, mod style) house, and includes some fabulous Western Mass artists who are, I can testify, amazing craftspersons and fab people. Plus there's a ton of food, and champagne. Tell your Western Mass friends!After the sale I'm hopping a bus and going back to Boston for Bazaar Bizarre! Erica Henderson and I are sharing a both! We're buying banners, we're dressing up, and we're preparing to just rock out all day.I've been doing these little paintings (each is 4.75" by 6.75") in batches for the last few weeks. I'm hoping to have another ten before Double Sale Weekend. If you see one and want me to bring it or save it for you, drop me a line.

Construction equipment puns!

This one is called "Mew Blood," unless someone things of a better name...

The phrase "Small Business Owner" is inexplicably enchanting to me when applied to an aardvark.

I think the rest of these are pretty self-explanatory.

Lastly, a series inspired by Harry Potter and an awesome Hufflepuff I met at the RISD alumni sale. (Do you know what Ravenclaw's animal is? Hint: not a raven.)

Look Out!

2011-10-18T10:12:00.001-04:00

I'm trying to procrastinate less and produce more, so this is a quickie post with a bunch of images.Last Saturday I shared a table with the lovely Erica Henderson at the fall Alumni Sale. And you know what that means?Small paintings! And animal-themed free association. For once I planned ahead, and didn't try to create and package a bunch of art 12 hours before the sale. My next goal is to do these paintings and get them up here before the next sales.Next sales, you ask? It looks like I'll be doing Brunch N Buy in Longmeadow on Saturday, December 3rd and then Bazaar Bizarre Boston (also with awesome Erica. We're making banners.) on Sunday December 4th. Cue crazed laughter.Anyhow, paintings! Most of these sold, but I'll be making new ones, and probably repainting a few that were particularly fun. (I'm looking at you, gardening badger.)

Something Old, Something New

2011-09-08T11:35:00.006-04:00

Here are two pieces that are already on the website, but represent a bit of a jump for me, creatively.

I'm recognizing that I work best when I give myself a few constraints. For my Alumni Sale paintings, I think, "What's a weird animal, and a fitting or fittingly unfitting thing they could do?" (Okay, sometimes it only makes sense to me, but it's a usefuly questions.) I was entirely thwarted by the advice to make a book dummy from a classic fairy tale (everyone will tell you to do that) but the idea of doing a nursery rhyme was really freeing. (More on that soon, I promise.)

Lately, my default parameter is "Why not make this an alphabet?" This isn't always an ideal approach, not just because I don't always want to do 26 of something. Plus, how many words start with X, really?*

I've managed two of these, anyway, the first being "A Bichon frise teaches Ballet to a Beaver, a Bunny, and a Baracuda."

I am ridiculously happy with this piece. I intentionally limited the palette (cerulean is the only blue) and I'm really happy with the vignette edges, among other things. This and the next piece are both on Fabriano watercolor paper, and I think I prefer it to my regular Arches.

"Peccaries Parade in Pompadours and Ponchos, Packing a Pineapple Pinata, Piggy bank, and the Parade Princess."

I'm less utterly charmed by this piece (not: cerulean blue isn't actually the answer to everything) but it was fun. I think the format, which is wildly inappropriate for my website, might mean that this works well as a repeat. We'll see.

Finally, an all new painting. I made this card for an entirely lovely wedding a couple weeks ago. I was really happy I had time to make this (and go to the wedding!), and when two separate speeches mentioned the couple's affinity for wacky cards, I was pretty relieved.

Inside, the card says, "You're going to build an incredible life together." Get it?

*By the way, I hate workarounds, especially in alphabets but also generally. When I was little I had a video that showed an alphabet of animal clips. When they got to X, why just showed an ox, and flipped the word horizontally. Even at age 5, I felt like that was a cop out.

Twist and Shout

2011-08-02T15:42:00.000-04:00

You know when you put something off so long that the problem solves itself? And by that I mean, melds with another problem so you just have one big problem? I meant to do a little post about my newly revamped website, and also to post on this poor, dusty blog more than once every six weeks.

In any case, I made a new front page image, based on that earlier painting and folding in illustration with design:

I'm super happy with how he came out, and have been circling the piece since, trying to figure out how to build off of it.

Okay, first problem/thing I procrastinated about solved! The other thing I wanted to talk about went live yesterday.

I have a new story in Twist Collective!

I've taken to describing this assignment as Illustrator Bait. It's a three-part narrative with a lonely peasant girl and magic and hand lettering and knitting. Take a look, but kindly click on the above link to see the pieces in context and read Daryl Brower's lovely story:

What was especially nice about this job was how smoothly I worked, compared to the last story I did for Twist Collective. Straight out of school, I was so nervous about messing up the paintings that I worked them half to death. I also managed to schedule a three-day interview the week before they were due, so I was both panicked and exhausted. On the (very) plus side, my fee for that job and the money I made selling the paintings paid for first, last, and deposit on the apartment I'm still living in today.

Alright, posting completed! In a fit of productive procrastination, I also reinvigorated my Etsy shop (yes, again), so the paintings are for sale there, among posters, notebooks, and cards. As usual, tell your rich friends.

Until next time (October?)!

Blog ALL The Things

2011-06-08T14:54:00.006-04:00

(If you don't know what the title of this post refers to, read this, and then her whole blog. Actually, read my post first, because nothing can possibly compare to Hyperbole and a Half. I'll post another link at the bottom instead.)

My time away from the bog has been really productive. I went to Surtex in mid May and I've been thinking about my work since then. While I would love to illustrate picture books and text books, I think my work lends itself naturally to a younger audience than I've been aiming for. (I should say: a younger audience and their parents.) I've been admiring board books (like the Little Pea/Hoot/Oink set I have) and counting and alphabet books, and wondering how I could reshape my portfolio to showcase that kind of work. I've also been working on various client projects, so until a week ago, I'd only had time to ponder, rather than paint.

Luckily, a deadline came along! In five days I banged out these twelve little paintings (about 4" by 6") for a craft sale I was in this weekend. The sale was pretty subdued, but I'm really happy with the work, and I think that they're going to lead me somewhere interesting.

Enough text! Pictures!

Beach Urchin

Narwhal and Friend

Manta Ray Bans (I am soo proud of that one!)

K is for Koala (and Kite)

W is for Wombat (and Wig)

The Party

Bathtime (Sold!)

First Position

Angora Knits Alpaca

Hula Hoopoe (Sold!)

Stripe (Sold!)

Delicious

Now, as promised, look at this blog and be filled with wonder and giggling.

A Measure of Consistency

2011-04-13T14:34:00.005-04:00

If you happened to talk to me during the last two weeks of March, I didn't hesitate to tell you exactly what I was working on. An application for...well, I'd rather not jinx it. Rest assured, I cranked out some work, and everything is safe at it's destination, and I'm not going to think about it for a couple of months.

A large chunk of the work I produced were these three pieces, showing a character in a variety of settings and perspectives and palettes and emotional states. There are a lot of publishers tho request this kind of thing, and I'm happy that I have a set ready to go.

In my sleep-deprived, work-addled state last month (which is much better now, thank you) I feel like I figured out some important things about my work. I still like complex, even crowded compositions (is it obvious?) but I also like complex (crowded) emotions. My boy here isn't happy, sad, and mad, he's impatient and bored, lost and small and uneasy, relieved and embarrassed and excited.

Deep thoughts! On a shallower note, my goal for the week is to give my website a facelift. It's been almost 3 years of blue (and lightbox) and I'm going for something cleaner. Not sterile, mind you. Just cleaner.

Pattern Recognition

2011-03-14T22:33:00.004-04:00

A couple months ago I picked up Colette & Blue as a new client and have done two collections for them (with more on the way). This is the first time since that fateful licensing class at RISD that I've created unified collections of fabric, and I think the themes (and color restrictions) have been incredibly helpful.

My first collection, for kids, was frog and duck and rainy-day themed. These haven't sold yet (and creating the collection was, at times, a real challenge) but I learned a lot and they make me smile, especially the retro looking off-white one. Plus, coordinates!

And this is a Valentine's collection...for next Valentines, of course. Last I heard, all but two of these have been sold (to big stores! Stores I've heard of! And been in)! I was giddy for whole days after I heard.

This collection went much faster, and I think I'm learning a lot about good work habits for developing repeats. I'm also thinking about them more creatively...for me, at least. The pattern in the top left corner started as real live crayon and ballpoint doodles, and I'm going to be exploring more "real" media in my repeats in the future.

Speaking of fabric, I landed a lovely new day job, at the lovely new yarn and fabric store in my neighborhood. Stop by JP Knit & Stitch; I promise to enable you!

Springtime!

2011-02-18T16:14:00.005-04:00

I'm finally getting around to posting a piece I did during one of our freezing rain/hail/snowball blizzards. I used sunny colors, and it seems to have worked, because it's 60 degrees outside. But before I go dance around Jamaica Plain Pond and remind myself what sunlight feels like, I'll post this piece.

Especially now that the weather is warming up (12 hours of this and it's like winter never happened!), I wish more than ever that sewing was as portable as knitting. As it is, there's barely room in my studio for a machine or to lay out pattern pieces, let alone on the T or a waiting room.

Thanks to Providence for modeling some background buildings and rugged sidewalks.

Frogged

2011-02-01T13:30:00.002-04:00

In knitting, sometimes you have to undo a large chunk of a project (or the whole project). This is called frogging (because you rip-it, ha ha ha). So, drawing knitting and adorable amphibians? Just my thing.

Fun fact: the half a sweater I used for the reference photo? Yeah, I had to frog about 7 inches of yoke. I should probably use this power to my advantage and draw someone signing a book contract.

Snowed further In

2011-01-12T14:54:00.004-04:00

The MEGAstorm of 2011 has already hit, so I'm having a surprise freelance day, tying up loose ends (mostly tax-related fun) and digging into some long and short-term projects.

I didn't make many specific resolutions this year, but chief among them is to break into publishing. I want more work in magazines, in text books, and I want to start inching towards real, live picture books.

To that end, I've sent out a stack of mailers:

Here's the original illustration, combining all the things I feel confident with (color, oddball animals, pattern, and line weight):

I really enjoyed doing a holiday themed mailer. I think it will be a good introduction as I continue to send cards and portfolios throughout the year.

So, anyone else feeling like they're off to a good start on their resolutions?

A regular thing

2011-01-04T13:19:00.000-04:00

This summer, I started illustrating a column in The Bay called Just Add Water! I haven't been to Providence except for the Alumni Sale since then, so I still haven't seen my illustrations in print, but they are online here! (Just Add Water is on page 50 in the latest issue.)

It's a lot of fun to work on editorial assignments, especially because I tend to illustrate things pretty literally. Great for a textbook, but not great for an article about emotions, or green boating practices.

These have been a blast, and Art Director Alli Coate is a pleasure to work with.

June's illustration, about green boating practices.

July's illustration, about a father and daughter sharing a beer on the dock.

August's illustration, about a pickup truck loaded with beach gear all summer.

September's illustration, about the danger of motorboat wakes to sailboats.

October's illustration, about using your boat as a platform to drink and relax.

November's illustration, about magical fairies that come to winterize your boat!

Snowed In

2010-12-27T18:05:00.006-04:00

Last month I posted a page of animal sketches on Facebook:

That's half of what became a pretty massive project. I drew 26 animals and then traced them in Illustrator. And then spent way too long fussing with fonts and white space.

The result is a poster (or, maybe, tea towel) in four colorways:

Orange Line:

Ink:

Garden Party:

and Classroom:

I made a print of Ink for my aunt for Xmas, and I have to say it looks fabulous and a bit Scandinavian in a birch frame. Prints available at my Etsy shop, for those who like that sort of thing.

Providence Monthly Stories

2010-12-19T22:00:00.000-04:00

More editorial work, this time for Providence Monthly.

These were four vignettes about Providence nightlife, including salsa dancing and Scrabble nights!

(The only beer in my fridge was a lone bottle of Harpoon, so I used that as reference. The labels are so nicely designed!)

This was for a piece on Sound Session, a music festival in Providence every summer. The festival is always fun, but there was some drama in managing it this year, so I depicted the "aftermath." Drawing the Providence skyline was quite fun, and made me a little nostalgic for RISD.

And this is a companion spot for the same article. I also had a sketch of a squirrel in a Mardi Gras mask, but I think the idea of a pigeon at a rave (or right afterward) is distinctly winning.

A Winter's Night

2010-12-11T00:11:00.004-04:00

I'm bundled up in my semi-heated apartment, doing a bit of digital housekeeping after two major craft sales. I've also updated the snot out of my Etsy shop, including writing some rather punchy descriptions. Won't you take a peek?

For the Alumni Sale and Brunch and Buy, I wanted to have more watercolor paintings, so I whipped up eight. Five are from a slowly-emerging alphabet series. The other three seemed right for the season. They're all about 5 by 7 inches in watercolor and ink, and this time I scanned them *after* I'd titled them.

(Sold!) I really dig the color of this acorn. Sometimes it's tough to get away from brown, especially with rodents.

(Sold!) This dachshund started with a ketchup-and-mustard colored sweater, but while painting late at night it began to remind me of (groan) Freddy Krueger. Luckily my lovely tablemate pointed out that those are actually Gryffindor colors, and he became a Harry Potter pup (unofficially, of course).

(Sold!) I love this little guy. I might make a few more (in different sweaters, of course).

The first alphabet piece, somewhat inspired by my previous peccary painting. I'm also really digging green and pink as a color scheme.

(Sold!) I pulled out an elementary school watercolor trick for this one: salt!

Painting her spots was surprisingly fun.

(Sold!) Mmm, pie. How many peccaries can I paint before it becomes, like, a "thing?"

And the final piece, a lovely species of woodpecker. He's on a stamp in Moldova. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to Fresh Air and do a bit of holiday knitting. Season's greetings!

And we're back?

2010-11-09T18:54:00.004-04:00

I've had a long sabbatical from the blog, but for a pretty good reason. My faithful Powerbook has been failing slowly and agonizingly over the last two months. Despite a friend's herculean repair efforts, I had to mooch off of Josh's computer while I prepared to replace the my laptop.

And replace it I did, with a 21.5" iMac. It's huge, it's shiny, and it's FAST. And I've used it to watch almost all of Season 2 of Parks and Recreation since it arrived. (Video was one of the capabilities ol' Powerbook had given up long ago.)

But I HAVE been making art! In preparation for the Fall RISD Alumni Sale, I made a few original paintings, and almost all of them sold. I'll definitely be cranking out some more for December 4th and 5th, when I'll be at the Holiday Alumni Sale and the Brunch & Buy, respectively.

So, finally, some watercolor work!

The Sweatery Sheep (sold!)

Crouching Tiger (sold!)

Kangaroo Rat I (still available!)

Kangaroo Rat II (still available!) (Oooh he's so cute I can barely stand it.)

Carousel Horse (sold! To a little girl who loves carousels!)

Llama in Alpaca (still available!)

Scarlet Ibis (sold!)

Airborne Peccary (sold! Along with the Ibis, this was the first thing I sold at the sale.)

It was a lot of fun to work with watercolors again and draw some slightly obscure animals. Up next: my editorial work from recent months.

Next Time, On Top Fabric Design...

2010-08-14T17:24:00.002-04:00

I placed lucky number 13 in the camo contest (with 250 votes!) I'm trying to keep in mind that this is a great exercise for me, and winning doesn't matter at all...but it's still fun to place in the top twenty!

This week's prompt is "Surrealism, using fruit as a subject" which was pretty challenging at first. I am not a big fan of Surrealism, but I do love the party game of making exquisite corpses!

Fun fact: the fabric works as a normal repeat and as a half-drop OR brick repeat! Exciting!

Vote among the 84 (low, this time!) entries here.

PS: I have been making illustrations, too! They'll be up soon, I swear.

Blending In

2010-08-05T14:03:00.003-04:00

Last week's results are in, and this week's contest is up! I came in #29 (out of 119) with 174 votes. Yay!

Here's my design for this week's Spoonflower contest. The theme is "camouflage" (which I really, really cannot spell reliably). It was a challenge to get beyond just camo, and the mood and cliche that usually goes along with that. My solution (as usual, it seems) was to go for a cute animal, albeit a cold-blooded one this time.

You can vote here, among 122 designs, if inclined.

More Fabric Designs

2010-07-29T12:48:00.005-04:00

This was my entry for last week's Spoonflower contest. The challenge was cut paper, and I spent a lot of time on a design that looked truly terrible when I put it in repeat. On Tuesday night (fabrics show up on Thursdays, but the deadline is always on...yes...Tuesday) I scrapped the whole thing and played around until I came up with this:

The contest is over now, but I placed 10th (out of 106 entries) with 331 votes!

This week's challenge theme was "desert." (I double checked--twice--to make sure it wasn't "dessert.") I wanted a bright yellow fabric, without a doubt, and something with some open space and texture. I drew a bit of inspiration from Japanese novelty prints; there are a bunch that have a little vignette surrounded by a very subtle repeat. As my subject, I chose the cutest desert creature possible.

This is my kangaroo rat fabric. Josh informed me that the kangaroo rat plays a big part in Dune, so this pattern is called "Muad'Dib Noms Some Seeds."

If you are inclined, you can vote for the desert fabric designs here. I'm going to do my best to keep posting my entries and results here and on Facebook. This has been a great way to keep my creative juices flowing, and I'm going to do my best to keep up with it!

Make Me a Star!

2010-07-19T08:31:00.005-04:00

Well, you don't have to...

I've decided to start entering Spoonflower's Fabric of the Week contests as a way to explore textile design and "get into the mix." Here's my entry for this week:

(It's called "Yellow Check, Please" and my user name is, creatively, eloisenarrigan.)

And here's a link to the Spoonflower blog. If you feel so moved, you can click on that grid of fabrick designs (or scroll down a tiny bit and click the link that says "VOTE FOR SUMMER FLOWER FABRICS") and vote for all the (restricted palette!) patterns that tickle your fancy. You can only vote once per computer, so don't feel obligated to sit there all day clicking just for me.

Now, onward, to more textile design!

Woof?

2010-06-29T22:44:00.003-04:00

As evidence that I really have been making art--seriously, no kidding!--a new illustration! I've been doing a few pieces to fill out my portfolio, and recently finished this:

It's an additional digital piece, and a spot illustration, and one featuring a boy (instead of a [very white] girl), AND it's a dog (instead of a cat or an anteater).

I was inspired by Josh Chodorow for this piece; I'm not above rooting though a few childhood memories (and photos) for source material. But it's done with love.

Vectors are your friends!

2010-06-08T15:43:00.003-04:00

I did a t-shirt design about a month ago for a potential client that produces custom apparel for sororities. We couldn't work things out logistically this season, but I had a blast producing an illustration in illustrator and creating some hand-drawn text. Working with the color limit (five, plus the color of the shirt) was also a great challenge.

The front (which would be about 3 inches across, on the left chest:

And the back:

Cute birds! And patterns! Surprising, right?

Updated

2010-04-05T22:33:00.006-04:00

It's warm and springy here in Boston, and I'm getting ready for the Spring Alumni Sale at RISD. (May First! Benefit Street! Be there!)

The word I hear most at sales is "cute," and it's meant as a compliment. I'm never going to be the edgiest illustrator in my graduating class, and I'm coming to terms with this. For the sale, I've made some new paintings, intent on being as adorable as possible.

Kitten sketches!
Spring:

Summer:

Fall:

And winter:

...and winter again:

I wound up redrawing this one after I printed the first sketch and traced it onto watercolor paper. I scraped the whole composition and went back to thumbnails. The kitteny actions stayed the same, but they got hot chocolate.

I'm really happy with the final paintings. (No in-progress photos here. As usual, these pieces had an extended and awkward adolescence.) I used regular watercolors as usual, and did the linework with Pelikan Opaque Watercolors. The set I have has a great range of colors, although I do wish that the yellows were more opaque. Anyhow, kittens!

Kittens frolicking among the flowers:

Kittens enjoying lemonade (and cool shades, which might be my favorite thing in this whole series):

Kittens frolicking among the autumn leaves:

And (you knew it was coming) kittens in mittens!

These are all up on my site, although right now they have pretty boring (and pun-free) titles. Any ideas?

A Metaphorical Circus

2010-02-19T17:23:00.004-04:00

Or, you know, a literal one.

A finished painting to go with all of those sketches from earlier.

It was a blast to get back to my paints after such a long time away, and I finished this piece with no major disasters. I got the dark, saturated color I was looking for, and I think that the color directs you to my central characters in a way I haven't really done before. (I do a lot of warm/cool focus, but it's mostly blue versus red. This has a lot more secondary color and doesn't just rely on warmth, but also saturation and value.)

I darkened the pony, since without the noise that was graying him down in the sketch, it was all "look at me! I'm bare watercolor paper! I'm bright!"

I also spent an entire afternoon painting the tattooed man, mostly trying to get the muddy (and, at least to me, very pretty) colors I associate with (old) tattoos to jive with the vibrancy of the rest of the piece.

In other news, I got into the Spring Alumni Sale! Look for me (with some new adorable animal merch) on May 1st. (And if there's a papergood you wish had my illustrations all over it, let me know.)

Eloise is now a Textbook Illustrator

2010-02-09T19:59:00.005-04:00

It's true! I finished illustrating Integrated Chinese: Level 2, Part 2 way back in November, but got to pick up my copies of the book just last week.

I'm still a little giddy about it, especially this:

Proof! And the illustrations look great! The color translated well, and they didn't have to do too many post-production fixes.

Looking at the book, I feel lucky that I was given this opportunity, that the publisher liked my work (and my personality) enough to commit to the entire book. But I also see all of the work I poured into it. Over the three months it took to produce the 140 illustrations for the textbook and workbook, I skipped a lot of outings, a lot of sleep, and a lot of knitting time. But it was totally, totally worth it.

Plus, I was allowed to indulge for a couple of illustrations. For instance, my tendency to draw lots and lots and lots of stuff:

and adorable animals:

and, if called upon to create a female character that spends too much time staying up late and studying, to draw pale, skinny brunettes:

I also learned a lot, especially about anatomy, and how there isn't any shame in needing a reference photo or two. They are useful, and occasionally hilarious.

Oh, and I drew a whole lot of bicycles.

*All illustrations (except the watercolor, a nice exercise in looseness after three months of very solid digital illustrations) copyright Cheng & Tsui.

Make me a winner!

2010-01-28T20:40:00.005-04:00

I'm in Spoonflower's weekly fabric design contest, for this design, "Giraffe Spots and Stripes:"

You can vote for it, and any other charming fabric designs that move you, by following this link.

If I win, I get five free yards of fabric (and, more importantly, posterity!), so vote early, and tell your friends often, since voting ends Tuesday. (And you don't even have to register!)

Here's the link again!

UPDATE: I didn't win, but want to thank everyone who voted. I'm thinking I'm going to get back into designing more textiles. It's fun!

Sneak Peek

2010-01-09T13:18:00.006-04:00

Oh, poor, neglected blog. Both craft sales were a lot of fun; I love actually talking to the people who buy my stuff, and it's even worth the lifespan-shortening stress of watching person after person walk by my booth (when a sale is as big as the alumni sale, you can't take it personally that not everyone is in the market for kitten postcards.)

Since the sales I've been buried until the usual Christmas madness, including knitting socks, sewing skirts, and dusting off my knitting machine so that we can really spend some time together. And I'm trying to keep in mind that not everyone loves the racket of a knitting machine on Saturday morning.

I've also been having great fun with a particular piece. In the interest of blog fodder, a bit about my process:

I start by scribbling little thumbnails until an idea or concept emerges. These are incomprehensible to most (including me, sometimes) so no images for that step. I then turn to the next page in my sketchbook and do a full sized sketch.

This is an ugly process and takes about the same amount of time as painting. I sketch the basic composition, futz with each figure, take reference photos, fix each figure, change my mind and erase and redraw at least a quarter of the piece, and add any important details. Some parts of this sketch are out of proportion in an unsettling way, but I usually save fixing that for later (I leave myself a little note, though). I do fix anatomy issues in this step, though, which this time included pulling out my anatomy book to add mass to my tattooed man.

Next, I scan the sketch and move everything around in Photoshop.

At a certain point I flipped the whole image by mistake and liked it a lot better. (I'm a big fan of the theory that since we read left-to-right, an illustration--especially when things are going well in the narrative--should also read left to right. Here, the big reveal, that our girl is talking with a snake charmer, is nestled into the lower right, surrounded by all the excitement of the circus.) I'll print this out and trace it onto watercolor paper (using graphite paper), fix the remaining anatomy bits, and paint it.

Since, at this point, Photoshop is already open, I'll do a quick color study, mostly to organize my colors and experiment with a few elements that don't have a clear color already. (I went through at least 6 colors for the benches in the background before I found the one that felt right, which isn't something I can do in watercolor.)

My color studies tend to be darker than my paintings, but one of my goals for this piece is to be less dainty with the watercolor. Time will tell!

As you may be able to tell from these sketches, a lot of my process involves trial and error. I am--especially if you look at my taxes--a professional illustrator, but this stuff doesn't come easy to me or, I think, to most. Luckily, the challenge can also be the most fun. And the whole process is quieter than a knitting machine.

Live and In Person

2009-11-13T15:17:00.005-04:00

I have been doing a lot of work these last few days/weeks, but I'm not showing any of it today! (Well, kinda. You'll see.)

Instead, you can come see me in person in 3 or 4 short weeks, because I'm doing back-to-back art sales. On December 5th and December 12th, I'll be hawking adorable papergoods at two very different events:

The Brunch & Buy is a tradition that my arty mother and some of her arty friends started many years ago. (The first one I was probably 12 or 13 and I made about $60 selling...journals? It was, at the time, a lot of money and very exciting.) This year, I made the flier.

It's out in Springfield/Longmeadow, but if you're in the area, you should stop by to see the house I grew up in (kinda) and meet my mom and some other amazing artists and also to eat some delicious food and buy some gorgeous work. I will be bringing banana bread, if that makes the decision to go easier.

The RISD holiday art sale is a different bird altogether. I'm sharing a booth with Kate Walsh (of the gorgeous jewelry) and Zoe Brooks (of, we hear, plates, cards, and all manner of classy home goods). Admission is $7 (free if you're under 14 or a current RISD student), but it's at the RI Convention Center at One Sabin Street in Providence, we're right by the entrance, and I know at least one booth will have delicious free candy. (You see how I bribe you with food both times?)

See you there!

New Month, New System

2009-11-01T19:58:00.006-04:00

Today I uploaded (what may very well be) the last illustration of the Massive Freelance Project to the company's server. I took today to rest up from the project and clean my studio up, a job I've been ignoring for essentially three months. Here are some before pictures:

And after:

The file folders (the low green cabinet) came from a friend of a friend of a friend; an illustrator who might be moving to Jamaica Plain and is getting rid of some old equipment in the meantime. The cabinet is inhumanly heavy (which is why it is on the floor and not on the table, as in my original plan) but the drawers slide nicely, and I was able to fit all of the work that Josh and I had hung onto from RISD.

Looking through my past work...well...has me feeling pretty proud of myself. Sometimes illustration is a struggle for me, and I'm still finding my voice and my style, but I feel very, very lucky to have learned from teachers and fellow students who took me seriously, and taught me so much, despite my (obvious, gaping) weaknesses.

Coming next week: I'm either going to post work from the Massive Freelance Project or some of the less embarrassing RISD stuff. Cheng & Tsui will decide.

Little Harbor Press

2009-10-13T09:11:00.003-04:00

Last summer, an awesome designer I worked with at Merida (where I interned between my Junior and Senior year) asked if I'd like to be a part of a little start-up stationary company. I talked to the company's founder, created some designs, and the rest? Well, the rest isn't history, exactly. The rest is now available online:

Visit Little Harbor Press.

And just as a sneak peak, here are a few of the motifs I created for the company.

You can expect more in November, when The Freelance Assignment is complete. In the meantime, explore the site, check out the other designers, and if you happen to buy anything, plug in the coupon code "HOLIDAY10" to get ten percent off your order.

Coming Soon

2009-09-23T21:10:00.005-04:00

Between working on parts of the mad illustration project (MIP for short) I've been doing some small projects, including creating a placeholder page for a little business venture. I did the logo for them a few months ago.

Anyway, the logo started with this:

And ended with...well, you'll see.

Where have you been all month?

2009-09-06T10:57:00.003-04:00

I am currently embroiled in a gloriously, terribly huge freelance project, which has shot my already bad blogging habits to hell. Hopefully I'll be able to post what I did when I'm done, but at the very least, I'll make sure it's public knowledge that I'm finished with the project. In the meantime, here's a hint.

I do have two little things to show off. First, a fellow graduate, the indomitable Margaret Middleton, ordered a print of my Kittens in Mittens painting and was nice enough to send me some pictures of it framed in her sewing room. Ta da:

And secondly, I went home last week to celebrate my Dad's and my aunt's birthdays. I'm frantically knitting something (um, still) for my aunt, but I got to make this card for my dad.

I cannot express how nice it was to put aside the work on this freelance project and paint adorable animals for an hour. I even enjoyed painting on coldpress, although I still haven't figured out how to scan it in a capable way.

The card said "It's your birthday!" on the outside and "Eat whatever you want." on the inside. (My parents thought it was funny...)

The Odd Bird

2009-07-09T10:19:00.004-04:00

While doing some research for an upcoming project, I happened upon this little weirdo, the Stork-billed Kingfisher.

I wanted to experiment with some cold press paper anyway, so I did a little painting.

The process reminded me why I use (and love) hot press paper, but it was also fun to pull out the gouache to save this painting. This little guy was surprisingly difficult to draw, since he doesn't even look very believable in photographs. I fudged the color on his neck to that he looks a little more unified, but the proportions are all correct.

Here's a link to more thoroughly weird photos, from a really excellent website, Surfbirds.com.

But what is the upcoming project, you wonder? For now I'm keeping it secret, but I'm hoping it will be ready by the end of the month.

PS: My Etsy store has been so lonely lately. Drop by and say hello to the postcards, prints, and original paintings, will you? (And tell me if there's other merch that should join them.)

Hold Your Applause

2009-06-17T15:23:00.004-04:00

About six months ago, I was looking at apartments in Boston and spending a lot of time with fellow illustrator/recent grad Kate. We were talking about making portfolios and postcards and realized we were doing very similar self portraits to blow off steam. Constructing a lot of stuff that says, in a demure and subtle way, "I am so awesome you want to pay me lots of money to do all this for you" is stressful to me, so I drew a piece that said it explicitly. (Kate was painting herself as a saint.)

Actually, the piece includes a lot of what my work is about: anteaters, yes, but also bright color, pattern, a generally light mood, a healthy dose of cuteness, and stylized but accurate and researched anatomy.

Like I said, I thought of the composition in December, took about a month (and a lot of embarrassing reference photos) for the drawing (and one night to ink it), colored it, hated it, put it away for five months, and pulled it out today to finish it. I wanted to do this piece digitally since the beginning, but it's been a struggle to find a level of finish that isn't fully rendered or shaded but still shows all the forms I want it to. For now, I'm pretty happy with it, and hopefully it will kick off some rather breakneck portfolio building in the next few weeks.

Updates!

2009-05-07T13:56:00.002-04:00

I've added some more prints to my Etsy shop. I still have some original paintings and I want to list my Spoonflower fabric as well, but that will have to wait a couple days. I can only list so many things on Etsy before I start making silly mistakes.

I also wanted to show off yet another aspect of my growing internet presence (ha!), my public profile over at Spoonflower: ta da!

I hate to make a post without images. Rest assured, I have a couple sheets of watercolor paper stapled to boards and drying on my floor. Assuming nothing unexpected gets in the way, I should have some new work to show off soon.

Happy May!

2009-05-03T14:46:00.003-04:00

I had a great time at the Alumni Sale yesterday! All the preparing...

And staging the table in my studio before the show...

Really paid off (I think)!

(That's my table-mate, Kate, who also has a great blog and Etsy shop.)

Even though there was a tent over all the tables (it rained a little in the morning) a ton of people came to the sale, and as an added bonus, I returned home un-sunburned.

I've added the postcards, which made their debut at the sale, to my Etsy shop. I'm also working on an elegant way for people to order custom fabric (printed by Spoonflower) from me. I'll be adding that fabric and some new paintings to the shop this week, so keep an eye open. (And of course I'll announce it here, too!)

Live and in Person

2009-04-29T15:56:00.004-04:00

This Saturday I will be half of table #59 at the RISD Alumni sale.

I'll be selling the stuff I offer in my Etsy store--prints and greeting cards--and some other goodies will be making a premier: awesome, awesome postcards, some original paintings at bargain prices, and fabric!

I've been preparing for the whole display and packaging and everything, and will post pictures of the set up after the event.

(If you can't make it to Providence, that's okay. I'll be listing the things that don't sell on my Etsy shop when I get home.)

The sale is from 10 to 4 this Saturday, May 2nd, on Benefit Street. I've been doing ceremonial dances to ensure that the weather continues to be as wonderful as it is right now.

Also, I finished a painting: (prints and the original will be, you guessed it, available this Saturday.)

This is based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale called The Elderflower Witch, although I took some liberties, mainly removing a character and changing the appearance of the witch from an older Norwegian. Consider this the beginning of my campaign to quit drawing pale, skinny brunettes (except for actual self portraits, of course) and introduce a little diversity into my work.

I Dedicate this to Mr. Taxman

2009-04-13T17:43:00.003-04:00

I have new work to show, but first, an extremely compelling answer to the question, "Where have I been for five weeks?"

Where I started:

Where I ended:

This year, I did my taxes by myself, for the first time, start to finish. My Dad gave me a big maroon binder, recommended Turbo Tax, and answered my (occasionally panicked) questions. Today I mailed off five envelopes and a lot of money, and I feel great. The best part is that as a freelancer, I'll pay my taxes quarterly from now on, so the task will never be this insurmountable again. Never mind that I'll have to do this four times as often.

To celebrate my mathematical triumph and in an effort to revive my limping checking account, I've stocked my Etsy store with a fine selection of prints, including two Brand New Pieces. (I'll blog about these later this week, including the exclusive location where I'll be selling the originals, but for now, visit my Etsy store

Me and Totoro

2009-03-08T17:25:00.000-04:00

The other day I realized it had been a while since I had painted anything. I took a few hours and did this.

If you haven't seen My Neighbor Totoro, I would set aside the time to do so immediately. Also, I am truly terrible at chess.

On a related note, I made this last summer:

I'm hoping to find some cheap bulky yarn and make a larger one someday soon.

Surface Design

2009-03-03T14:35:00.000-04:00

I was lucky enough to find Planet Home, a textile and decor company that's just starting up, on RISD's Artworks site about six months ago. Before meeting with them for an interview, they mentioned that damasks were very popular this year.

It turns out designing damasks is incredibly fun. I brought these to the interview:

They commissioned the bottom design (the first one is hand drawn and inked, the second was created in illustrator) with a few color changes, and last week I got to see what had become of my design.

These are lovely, plushy bath towels! Planet Home is presenting them to a buyer, which means that my designs may be coming to a store near you!

Textile design is a nice change from illustration, and I'm looking forward to doing more soon.

My Sketchy Life

2009-02-26T12:48:00.003-04:00

One of the biggest projects I'm working on right now is sketches for a series of poems about Jewish holidays. These sketches were my first draft for the poem about Chanukah, where a young boy searches for the brightest light in the world. We wound up changing the pacing of the story and its setting, and I'm happy with the result, but I was initally pretty pleased with these drawings.

Since these won't be used in the final manuscript,I feel comfortable posting there here. Enjoy!

Return of the Rabbit Socks

2009-02-22T20:36:00.001-04:00

I finally finished my first pair of knitted socks recently. I love them; they're comfy, warm, and, if I do say so myself, terribly cute.

If you happen to be a knitter, you can download the color chart I used and put my bunny motif on whatever you like. The teal dots mark where I made increases when making my knee socks.

It's A Gift

2009-02-19T17:51:00.003-04:00

This weekend I managed to avoid going out into the sunshine and taking pictures of knitwear (again) but there will be a lot to show on that front sometime soon.

In the meantime, I made this as a very late XMas present for Josh's parents. They like Southwest Native American Art, and I like anteaters.

This is in Pelican Opaque watercolor. I like this paint a lot, but its really lovely blues tend to influence my color choices.

I found out a little while ago that I'll be in the RISD Spring Alumni Sale on May 2nd! If you're in Providence that Saturday, stop by and say hello in real life. I'm going to be selling prints, originals, cards, and possibly fabric and other goodies. I'll be sharing a table with the truly charming Kate Walsh, and I'm very excited.

Sketch to Finish

2009-02-06T11:58:00.003-04:00

I'm finding that the hardest part about being an illustrator--aside from the constant quest for new work, which I think I'm getting used to--is the balance between creating a piece that meets the needs of the client and that you can be proud of.

My first paying illustration gig met the needs of the client decently, but I was really in love with my earlier sketches. They're more dynamic, more fun, and, frankly, a little badass. Having to part with my best friend, line, to do the finished piece made it even more of a challenge.

Luckily, a modern-day patron of the arts found me through Etsy and my blog. She loved the sketches too, and commissioned an ink drawing.

Does it show that I had a ridiculously fun time doing this? By default I draw things from above, and it was a nice challenge (that involved some really unflattering reference photos) to draw from below.

I've got quite a little backlog of work to show at the moment, so check back here soon.

New Things

2009-01-16T23:15:00.004-04:00

I spent a cozy evening this week tinkering my with my website, and now I can officially say that my site is compatible with Internet Explorer! Ha! (It turned out the secret was a couple of key attributes: "header tags"--bad--and "absolute" positioning--good.) This is something I've been meaning to do for months, and I'm happy to have a website I can be really proud of.

Oh! I painted, too. This is another vignette, meant to fit in with my knitting pieces. It's about the absolute magic of spinning, and it was a lot of fun to figure out how a spinning wheel is operated (and to look at lots of intricate sweaters as inspiration for the sheep).

Private Commission: The Kitten Circle

2009-01-05T13:00:00.003-04:00

After Twist Collective went online, an extremely lovely knitter contacted me through Ravelry, asking if I would make a painting for her. I asked her what she had in mind, and she explained that she wanted a knitting circle of cats.

It's hard for me to rank my pieces, but this illustration was one of the most fun to do. I had a lot of reference material--pictures for two of the cats, plus a huge sampling of knitting projects to choose from--as well as a lot of freedom. I'm quite happy with the gesture and character in the piece, and, again, it was simply a blast to paint.

I spent a lot of time at RISD resisting a natural inclination for cuteness. I know it's force that I could easily succumb to, and it's still not what I like about my successful pieces. (I like narrative, if you must know. I'm an illustrator. I like to illustrate things. Seriously.) I know that it's important not to get too comfortable, but I'm also learning that trusting my own instincts on style and design can result in some really pleasing pieces.

I'm working hard on reforming my portfolio. I should have more to show soon.

It's Christmas Eve Eve!

2008-12-23T18:53:00.007-04:00

I'm almost done wrapping presents, sort of. (The paper is papercloth from Ikea. I think there's about an acre of it per roll):

I even made special gift tags from the animal icons I created last year.

And as a special very last minute sort of gift, instead of selling them in my Etsy store, I'm going to make these gift tags a free download. (Although if you download them, leave a comment. This blog has been far too quiet lately!)

Click here to download a PDF of super-cute animal gift tags.

In Which I Thrive On Deadlines

2008-12-18T20:01:00.006-04:00

On Tuesday I got a coupon from Overnightprints.com for 30% off on note cards. It's been my plan, given the really encouraging success I've had selling note cards with the Twist Collective illustrations, to make another series of cards. This coupon (which expired today) was just the bump I needed to make three new paintings of adorable animals in knitwear.

These were a nice way to get seriously back to painting and composing illustrations. (I've been doing some freelance with pattern and textile work, which is an entirely different sort of mindset.) The ultimate goal is to build (rebuild) a portfolio to send to publishers. By January.

In other news, I moved to Jamaica Plain/Boston last week. It's an amazing neighborhood.

In Memory

2008-12-10T16:09:00.002-04:00

A little while ago, my family's '95 Honda Odyssey was totaled. (No worries, everyone else is fine.) I loved this car; I've hauled a lot of boxes in it, and driven back and forth from my parents house in Western Massachusetts to school and friends in Providence more times than I can count, especially this summer. Maybe the air conditioner didn't work, and the brakes were about to go (again), and it was mainly used by my father to haul gasoline and gravel, but this car was "mine" more than any car has been.

I'll miss it.

And under the heading of good news? This weekend I moved to Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. The neighborhood is amazing, the apartment is beginning to look like adult humans live in it, and I can finally get some work done in my very own space. (I love my family and living with them since graduation was as good as it possibly could have been...but this is better.) Pictures are coming soon.

The Internet is Too Fast for Me

2008-11-19T12:38:00.011-04:00

One week ago the winter issue of Twist Collective went live. Twist is an excellent publication. It's a hybrid of website and magazine, with articles for free and (gorgeous) knitting patterns for sale. The site was created to serve designers in particular; Twist promotes the patterns and the designers get paid for every pattern they sell. I can also personally say that the site/publication is run by some of the loveliest ladies in knitting.

Why am I talking about Twist Collective? Besides the fact that it's an all-around awesome publication, I'm in it. I am an official, paid, published illustrator.

After the issue went live, I put the original paintings for sale on Etsy. All but the cover illustration sold almost immediately! I feel incredibly happy: I've sold illustrations for publication and original paintings this week, and some more work has come out of this assignment as well. Today I am a successful illustrator, and I owe it all to the knitting community.

These are the illustrations as finished paintings. Go to Twist Collective to see them in full, published context.

After I pay for food and rent (more on the latter bit later), I'm going to give back to knitting, a little. I'm going to make this.

Sketches

2008-11-12T10:24:00.005-04:00

I have some awesome unused sketches from the Campbell American Guitar spot. I may wind up finishing at least one of them, but for now, enjoy some penciled craziness:

Any preferences on which one I ink and/or color?

Trying to get everything you ever wanted.

2008-11-03T11:01:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do some freelance work for the Christmas Tree Shops. (Those of you who are not native New Englanders may be lost at this point, and I don't know if I can help you. CTS is a unique place and I recommend that you find and visit one. I spent my time at the art department at the central offices, where they create every graphic for every product that they manufacture.)

The freelance was a step in interviewing for a fulltime job. It's worth noting that this position is essentially my dream job: go to work, create patterns, graphics, drawings and paintings for a huge variety of products, work with trend boards and a group of artists that are young, funny, talented, and mostly RISD grads, then go home to my well-appointed Boston-area apartment and enjoy my health insurance. (I'm pretty sure that when I was younger, my dream job involved more fuzzy animals and less healthcare, but I think that's a symptom of adulthood.)

Christmas Tree Shops has put hiring for this position on the back burner for a while. It's understandable; the economy has everyone nervous. (I've lost the "why does everything happen to me?" attitude I had when I first heard this news.) In the meantime, I've redoubled my efforts to be productive in every way.

I've been spending my mornings writing letters of inquiry for jobs in the Boston area, my afternoons looking for and at apartments, and my evenings making new illustrations for fun and profit (more on that last one in the coming days).

This is all a very long way of saying three things: 1) someday soon I will be moving to the Boston-ish area (I'm looking from Waltham to Jamaica Plain. As long as it's near the T it's a possibility), 2) if you need an illustrator, I'm most likely your gal, and 3) I did some Christmas-sy pieces a while back. Check it out:

And here are a few sketch pages too, some of them with a decidedly Halloween feel:

It's been strange to write this much about my life (and this little about my illustrations) since this is a blog for my work and not a personal journal, but these are important times for me. I'm looking forward to rereading this in a year and knowing that everything worked out fine, and maybe not in the way I expected.

PS: Vote!

My First Ad Campaign

2008-10-10T15:01:00.004-04:00

Through sheer proactive phone-calling I landed a freelance job with Campbell American Guitars a few weeks ago. The piece is done and has been sent out to three guitaring magazines and will appear first in Premier Guitar this November.

The owner/my art director wanted the piece to have a style like a forties poster, and I'll admit this was a departure for me, but the concept was such a blast that it kept me focused. I'm sure I forgot a strut or a whammy bar or something, but I'm quite happy with the finished product, especially considering how far it's come from earlier drafts.

New-media bonus: people who are friends with me on Facebook will see that my profile picture is a Very Special Reference Photo.

Beginning a Story

2008-09-08T15:14:00.004-04:00

This was another illustration-gift combination, although this was a little more self-serving. It's a part of a slightly longer story and a chance to show that I can draw the same characters more than once and in different emotional states.

I know those rounded corners are an easy stab at sweetness, but I can't help but be charmed.

Card Number Two

2008-09-05T13:34:00.006-04:00

Josh Chodorow's grandmother gave me a ton of yarn the last time I saw her. I made a card for her a little while ago, but wanted to wait to post it until she got it in the mail.

She has a great collection of giraffes; I had a good time adding to it.

I actually have a couple of projects in the works; activity on the blog should maybe sort of pick up soon.

Panda Says:

2008-08-15T11:49:00.004-04:00

I'm channeling Ali today and making at least one wacky card. Tada! This is a birthday card for my Grandmother. Her birthday is on Thursday.

Would you believe I actually toned down the cuteness from the initial drawing?

I spent this morning doing two things: reading everything Kate Beaton has ever written (go! do it now!) and fighting with every scanner in my house. It may actually have taken me longer to get this piece up here than to make it. If that isn't a good enough reason to buy a scanner and move (farther) east I don't know what is.

An Open Letter to Orson Scott Card

2008-07-25T00:36:00.004-04:00

Dear Mister Card,

I would like my life back, please.

Love, Eloise.

PS: What happens to Achilles?

I read Ender's Shadow this week over three days, although that final day meant 13 straight hours of reading. (I'm not fast, but at least I'm obsessive.) In celebration, I did a quickie sketch (on the Wacom). Those would be my neglected art supplies in the foreground.

Also! The sketch features my newly sewn dress. I really like color, but I really really like to wear gray. This makes my mother crazy.

New stuff coming soon, darn it.

Back and in color

2008-07-08T15:10:00.009-04:00

I just returned from a two week trip to California with my mother and sister, and although I have a lot of inspiration and almost ten yards of really gorgeous fabrics and two weeks worth of obsessive knitting, I don't have much in the way of illustration to show.

I realize, though, that I never posted the entirety of my final for Artistic License. Along with the patterns and the picture book, I made toys.

Like previous ones, these are cast plastic from rubber molds and their parts are interchangable and magnetic. I painted them with acrylic this time instead of spray paint and am much happier with the result. The packaging (which was a fun new experience) is a plexiglass tube with a styrofoam top and bottom.

Eloise really does draw illustrations

2008-06-15T14:34:00.004-04:00

This was something I started at the end of the semester, as a sort of companion piece to my blue-haired knitter.

I did the line drawing on real paper and scanned it in, then colored the whole thing in Photoshop, including coloring a lot of the line. This got off to a bit of a slow start; I had trouble establishing a real color scheme at first, but I'm really happy with the final product.

Website work continues as well. I'm going to expand it in a way I've wanted to for a while now. I'm adding an options to view the whole gallery larger. I think the site looks great on my 12 -inch Powerbook, but I want to serve the giant monitors of art directors (I hope) as well.

A New Day

2008-06-05T17:52:00.005-04:00

I graduated (on Saturday)! And to celebrate, I updated my website, eloisedraws.com. There's new content, a more specific front page (have you tried reloading the front page a few times? I promise it's exciting), and a lot of new people on the links page.

I'm back home in Western Massachusetts, baking and knitting and trying to catch up on the sleeping and eating I missed this semester. I'm also, of course, working on slow and secret projects. Posts, as always, may be infrequent, but I promise that there's stuff in the works, namely, a rather epic job search.

Wish me luck, and congratulations to all the ridiculously talented people who graduated along with me.

The Cute Comes Out

2008-05-22T21:23:00.012-04:00

I posted some patterns from my final project for my Artistic License class earlier. This was the very last thing I did for the collection: a simple board book.

It's fun to go back an forth between extremely detailed, complex compositions and simple, graphic images. I'd like to eventually experiment with silk-screening these, although I think I'd have to simplify the color a little bit more.

Traditional Media

2008-05-20T18:32:00.008-04:00

The last two weeks have been crazy; between my senior show, finals, and helping to hang the show of some close friends during finals, a little bit of work has piled up to show. In any case, here are five (five!) new pieces from the end of the semester. Everything is in watercolor and ink with a little bit of goauche to reclaim whites.

These first three are an attempt to beef up the editorial/spot portion of my portfolio as well as somehow commute my frustrating lack of time to knit into something productive. It didn't really work, but tomorrow I'll be able to get back to it in earnest...after I do a bit of job hunting.

"Knitting What You Need," a semi-self portrait. The hair is definitely spot on.

"Last Minute Finishing." Ha, ha.

"Hardcore Knitting." This is loosely based on my friend Aidan, sort of.

And these are the last two assignments for Cover to Cover. First, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. This image is bordering on being an interior, but it was good practice on something I need, that is, drawing humans of the male persuasion.

This was for From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg and may be my favorite piece from this semester. Remember the Moby Dick piece? This is like a thematically appropriate version of that. Although both were extremely fun to do.

That's all for now. The upcoming days and weeks are going to include a bit of website tweaking (including a higher-res version for all those art directors with shiny, giant monitors) a lot of digital work, official graduation, and socks with rabbits on them. Stay tuned.

A quick shill.

2008-05-10T13:21:00.001-04:00

One scheme of happiness is holding a pretty excellent summer reading contest. I can't wait until I have time to read.

New work coming soon! Seriously!

The Art of Self-Promotion

2008-05-05T16:17:00.002-04:00

My senior show opening is this Thursday and you should come, if you can.

Here's the info:
Date: Thursday, May 8, 2008
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: ISB Gallery
Street: 55 Canal Walk
City/Town: Providence, RI

And here's our totally badass poster:

An announcement, mostly.

2008-05-02T11:46:00.002-04:00

I finally got some real hosting and real server space and as such, I have a real website:

eloisedraws.com

It's sort of a constant work in progress, of course, and the whole thing displays a little funny in Internet Explorer (of course) but overall I'm really happy with the whole deal. Once classes are over and I've gotten everything working properly I'll start promoting the heck out of eloisedraws.com

Also! If you want to be added to the links page (I'm assuming, here, that I know you and what you do) drop me a line and we'll work out something reciprocal.

So, yeah. eloisedraws.com!

Quickie

2008-04-24T09:28:00.009-04:00

I'm flinging these up here before I go off to work; they should be on the website by tonight.

These are patterns for my Artistic License final project. More later.

Into the Woods

2008-04-16T18:47:00.003-04:00

Another finish from Cover to Cover, this one for A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I like this piece and I really loved doing the tree. It's an authentic olive tree, since the play takes place in Athens. They're really gorgeous, rugged things.

RISD's illustration portfolio review is in exactly one week, so I've been reworking my website and designing mailers and business cards. Pretty soon I may be a real, live grown up. Watch out.

Object Lesson

2008-04-02T18:49:00.008-04:00

Just a little to show, from way back in the fall.

This is an articulated (gasp!) anteater, made from Super Sculpey. The limbs are attached with metal fabric snaps, which allows them to rotate on an axis. It's an interesting application and was sort of a stepping stone to these guys:

These are toys with interchangeable magnetic limbs. I like the shape and funtionality of these guys, but the paint gets me down. Luckily my final project for licensing (lasting for the next six weeks) will be expanding on this line with (at least?) four more animals. Look! Sketches!

I'll be redoing the kangaroo, anteater, polar bear (although he may become a panda), and giraffe. Opinions on the other creatures would be super appreciated. (The class had votes for the kiwi, the turtle, the iguana, and the hare, for the record.)

Out of Character

2008-03-31T22:29:00.005-04:00

Cover to Cover has gotten me to draw things I wouldn't if left to my own devices. My Moby Dick cover had more shirtless men than I've put in all of my other illustrations combined, and the last two covers (both were due today) feature exotic creatures.

Our first assignment was issue twelve of The Goon. The comic as a whole is both weird and gorgeous; this issue was bizarre and also featured a significant role for Lagarto, a Spanish lizard butler.

I really sort of love him.

Our second cover due today was King Kong. The tragic aspects of the story have always appealed to me. I was also thinking about the hugeness of New York City, even compared to the eighth wonder of the world.

Six Weeks of Knitting Makes for a Surprisingly Manic Wintersessio

2008-03-20T13:35:00.011-04:00

Finally the pieces from my Machine Knitting class this Wintersession have been properly (more or less) photographed. First, samples!

These are samples made by manually manipulating stitches as they're knit.

The machines we use are incredibly cool; they're completely manual and don't use any electricity. Two-color pattern work--fairisle--is done with punchcards. It's an odd combination of math and mechanics and something close to a magic trick.

This is my favorite sample; unfortunately I didn't have time to work with it much, but I'm planning on adapting it for a pair of handknit socks. The sample is hand felted (my first attempt) so it's a little wonky. It's also a nod to the lovely Rachel Rabbit.

Here are the garments I made. All the garment-construction articles I read on Knitty really came in handy. I bought a cardigan from Delia's to get rough measurements, then lengthened the sleeves and made the neck a little scoop-ier. The buttons are antique shoe buttons from Valley Fabrics in Northampton. It's made with a wool-synthetic-alpaca blend, which is a little itchy, but really warm.

This is the same pattern, just not a cardigan, in a really nice wool-cashmere blend. A friend pointed out that I've been wearing it at least every other day since I made it.

Lastly, this was my final, reverse-engineered a little bit from a coat in the Vogue Knitting 2005 Holiday issue (from the collection of Victorian patterns) and taking inspiration from the costumes in Pan's Labyrinth. It fits, I have to say, perfectly, and the inner front (it's double breasted with ten--count 'em--buttonholes), collar, and inner sleves are lines with a different color of that same cashmere-wool blend. I'm waiting for spring when I can wear it as a jacket.

This class was a great departure from my normal studios. I love telling stories and I missed drawing, but it was really refreshing to embark on a project and know exactly how it was going to end. If a sleeve didn't work, I just had to readjust my math. I'm an illustrator at heart, but I want to pick machine knitting back up when I get settled after graduation. After all, machines on eBay can be aquired for just a couple hundred dollars...

Stories About Animals

2008-03-12T17:27:00.005-04:00

I'm gradually getting into the swing of Spring Semester and liking all four of my studios. I'm taking a watercolor course, a portfolio studio that's essentially an independent study (I'm doing young adult illustrations for that), a class on licensing where I can draw graphic and adorable animals to my heart's content, and a class called Cover to Cover which is all--surprise!--book covers.

I'm really liking Cover to Cover; the range of books we're tackling is really wide, including a couple of comics. Here are the first two:

Moby Dick, in watercolor and gauche.

Animal Farm, digital printed on Reeves BFK with china marker. (If I'd had time, I would have screen printed this, but the piece got a great reaction in crit.)

As always, more to come.

What I did for my summer vacation (part 2)

2008-02-20T22:55:00.021-04:00

My other major project for Merida (besides the usual intern tasks like assembling three dozen sales binders) was to use existing rug designs to develop patterns for greeting cards. Every pattern was created in Illustrator and I'm really thrilled with how these came out; the sales reps for the company are already using them for correspondence with clients.

They wound up printing five designs in four colorways each. Here are the cards and the designs that inspired them:

The final thing to come out of the internship--and this was suggested but it was still a surprise to see arrive in the mail--were two notebooks using variations on two of my card patterns.

The blue one, based on a poor-quality photo I saw of the rug that inspired it, is probably my favorite pattern and colorway of the series.

The best part about these notebooks is the huge production quality. They're printed on recycled paper with matte covers. Merida is a fairly green company, and I'm so happy that they gave me the opportunity to create so much work and then produced in such a high-quality and responsible way.

What I did for my summer vacation (part 1)

2008-02-19T18:09:00.009-04:00

I finally had some free time during a sort-of sunny day to photograph some things, including the work I did for Merida over the summer. Five decks of these finally came in the mail a few weeks ago:

These are playing cards I designed from start to finish; each card has a pattern from Merida's Viewpoint Collection, and each suit represents one of the four sets within the collection. They're going to be handed out as promotional items at trade shows.

Every card was done in Illustrator and is symetrical like a commercial playing card. The company had them printed by a service, so they look really great.

These are my two favorite cards, along with the informational card included in each deck. Since the rugs are all wool, I made the Joker a sheep (the King, Queen, and Jack show the process of designing and making a rug). And one of the designs from the Kids' Viewpoint Collection is called Eloise. I take it as a sign.

An Anti-Valentine

2008-02-12T23:10:00.002-04:00

I am done (done! Done!) with the most intense Wintersession of my life, including my first show and a fifteen minute presentation. I took machine knitting (which was truly amazing), and I should be posting my work within the next couple of days. In the meantime I'm reposting (a better image of) this...

For Dabbled's Anti-Valentine contest. Wish me luck (new content soon).

Back! (Again)

2008-02-04T01:13:00.000-04:00

Just a little something, with the promise of more to come. This was a valentine for the lovely and talented Erica Henderson.

It's mostly from Peter Venkmen (that is, Bill Murray from Ghostbusters). He and Erica were both fun to draw, and inking this was disproportionately fun.

This Wintersession I'm taking my very last art history class and a machine knitting studio. The knitting is awesome; it's a great combination of clear technical procedure and free, exploratory artistic expression. I have a garment and a big pile of samples in my room, but it turns out that any time it would be a good idea to take photos (i.e. when the sun is up) I'm in the knitting studio. I'll be posting things soon, including some patterns I'm really enamored with.

I've Recovered from Finals Enough to Post Something!

2007-12-22T20:18:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a break from furious Christmas/holiday knitting to post my finals for Style and Substance. The first is a book cover for a short story, The Dead Man. It's a digital collage; two watercolor and ink pieces combined. This is more free-form (and, clearly, less narrative) than what I've been doing lately. I'm not in love with it, but it was an interesting experiment.

Our second final for the class was, I thought, a really excellent assignment. Each person is given a word to illustrate. The rest of the class chooses the word; it's supposed to be completely incompatible with what they've been doing the whole semester.

My word was "vile." This is watercolor, ink, and gauche, as usual. I put down a pink watercolor wash first, like a monochromatic underpainting, which I haven't done in a while. It was a bit of a challenge to get other colors to pop on top of the pink, but the gauche saved me. I'm going to experiment more with this soon.

Limited Palette

2007-11-20T13:33:00.000-04:00

Still more work from this week and a couple of weeks before.

This is another piece for the same Editorial assignment.

This hasn't been critiqued yet, so I'm not sure how well it reads, but the review mentioned the mountainous Irish landscape and a highly symbolic dead robin. (Consider that a big hint.)
The piece is a linoleum block print with watercolor washes.

And, for Style and Substance, a full page illustration for James Thurber's "A Box to Hide In."

This is watercolor with gauche. I love gauche. Sometimes I forget exactly how much I love it. There's a class spring semester called "Wicked Watercolor,"so perhaps this love will expand to watercolor as well.

A Change in Tone

2007-11-19T21:17:00.000-04:00

Two black and white (and red) pieces from a couple of weeks ago:

This was a spot for Editorial for a book review. The book is about a man who returns to his hometown in Ireland and promtly goes insane. It was a little intimidating to work with such a dark subject, but I enjoyed being a little more free than usual with the watercolor. This was done with black and indigo watercolor, Speedball ink, gel medium, and white gauche.

For "What's Your Story:"

This is a comic from a personal memory, i.e., the first and only time I ever fainted, which happened to be on the subway in New York. I owe a lot to Ian Falconer for the color palette. The pages were inked with a brush, lettered with a pen, and toned with charcoal pencil and a red pastel pencil.

Absolut Illustration

2007-11-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

I'm relatively sure that every student in illustration has to do a piece inspired by Absolut's old ad campaign (the second-longest-running continuous ad campaign, after the Marlboro Man). Here's mine.

There are...a lot of bottles. This reads better a little bigger (so, you know, click on it.)

I love color-filled lines so very, very much. It was fun to do patterns again (after working with Illustrator all summer) and to do a digital piece.

Knitting and a 3D piece coming soon, I promise.

A look at process

2007-11-01T12:55:00.001-04:00

I wanted to show something start-to-finish (sort of...I generally feel that all of my finished pieces can be changed or reworked in some way, but that's another story) since my process has been pretty consistent this semester.

This was for Editorial Illustration for an article about "The Secret." (Oprah's big on it.) I started with a concept sketch.

I noodled with the gesture and the composition of the figures then inked the piece. I scanned the inks and did a color study.

This came out reasonably well except that it looks like a backyard party. I tried to tone down the colors a bit for the final, which I did (for once) right on top of the ink in acrylic, watercolor glazes, and gauche.

The creatures turned out, I think, a little too adorable to really be the destructive and burdensome secrets we all carry around, but I think the piece has promise overall.

More blog news: I need to take some photos, but I have some 3d work (and, uh, knitting) to show off in the next couple of days.

Choose Your Own Adventure

2007-10-28T14:05:00.000-04:00

I love inking with a brush, and I love that I've had the opportunity to do it for almost every assignment this semester. I also love that it can be cleaned up in a variety of ways.

This was for Style and Substance. The assignment was to illustrate a particularly annoying noise in black and white (and all the colors in between). Every Sunday morning, the church across the street from me rings its bells at ten thirty. For eight minutes. I know that hating church bells may seem...petty, but the timing and duration and irregularity of the noise is a perfect storm of very, very annoying. For me, at least.

This is Speedball ink with a brush, cleaned up a little in Photoshop. It reminds me a lot of Frank Miller.

And then I tried the whole thing with a 50% gray. Which, I think, feels completely different, and maybe a little noisier.

I know that there's still a little humor (and even cuteness) to this piece, but I like the darker, rougher feel, and I think I'm going to push more in that direction for Editorial Illustration.

Featuring Tock, the Watchdog

2007-10-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

For my most recent assignment for What's Your Story, a class about narrative illustration, I had to distill a play or novel into three illustrations. I choose "The Phantom Tollbooth." These are all in ink and watercolor (as usual. I'm going to take another crack at acrylics this week).

Milo and Tock meet the Humbug (and the Spelling Bee).

Milo tries to steal a sound from the Soundkeeper.

Milo, Tock, the Humbug, and the Princesses Rhyme and Reason are surrounded by the Demons of Ignorance.

These captions may make the book seem overly serious, but it's really a sweet, clever book about language and learning. Read it if you haven't.

I am an Illustrator

2007-10-23T01:55:00.000-04:00

Instead of doing dishes, two quick pieces, with more to come soon.

This would be my successful-as-an-illustration-in-itself-but -not-necessarily-for-this-assignment piece of the week, in ink and watercolor, as most things are these days.

This was for Editorial Illustration.

And this was for Style and Substance.

This is a book cover for "Juggling for the Complete Klutz." I love Klutz Press and I am one of the least coordinated people I know. This was fun once I got a composition nailed down. The shadows need to be revisited, but I think it's a nice start, since it was the first piece I did this semester (after a summer of Illustrator and InDesign...by the way, the work from the summer will be posted soon. I swear.)

Like I said, more to come in the very near future. It seems like every project from this semester is 89% done, but this week should see a lot of things finished.

Things are Getting Done

2007-10-10T11:05:00.000-04:00

Time to take advantage of an inexplicable chunk of free time (that is, the fifteen minutes between putting the finishing touches on an assignment and when class starts).

This was for my editorial illustration class, for an article about bloggers. One might argue that the concept got away from me.

I'm still surprised that this is watercolor (and Speedball ink for the linework). The piece represents my triumph over the medium by beating it into submission over three days and about a million layers.

And this is for my narrative illustration class (What's Your Story).

The assignment was to illustrate an historical scene with an extreme horizontal or vertical shape. We also had to put ourselves in the scene. And now the 1-inch-square self portrait is my new icon (and one of my favorite things I've done this semester).

More work is coming. I've found a faster way to post, so maybe that will spur me on a little. I've certainly doing enough work.

Goodbye, love

2007-08-31T11:43:00.000-04:00

Today I am going to put down my knitting and make paintings until school starts. So I thought I would start things out with a piece showing my mad passion for untangling yarn.

I promise the next thing I post will not be a self-portrait.

Hey, look! A finished object:

From Knitty's "fetching" pattern with my own accidentally graceful colorwork, in...um, I've lost the bands. The cream is Frog Tree alpaca and the teal is a different, super-dooper prettily heathered alpaca.

I know I should have more to show after an entire summer of obsessive knitting, but the rest of the projects are (a)in drastic need of alteration and repair, (b)unassembled, (c)in someone else's hands or (d)half finished. The ugly fact may be that I like knitting more than wearing.

I've also been sewing a new messenger bag these past few days. Having a quantifiable project that clearly has a beginning and end is a great way to deal with being frustrated about how very open and subjective illustration is.

Speaking of illustration and frustration, I've been relieving sketch-related tension by looking at blogs, specifically Vera Bee's and Craig Thompson's. His work makes me appreciate all the resources I do have, and every once in a while prompt me to go out and draw from life. And, of course, I want to be Vera Bee. She lives out west and knows that you should draw what you want to, not what other people expect. And her name is perfect.

I need to relax and sketch and perhaps accept the fact that in the six days I have before class starts I'm not going to have five perfect, finished illustrations. But I could have a whole lot of studies.

A grand return and shameless self-obsession

2007-08-08T20:08:00.000-04:00

Summer is nearly over and this is what I look like.

(Credit to Fritz, my artistic anatomy teacher, for all the realistic bumps and veins and whatnot. The self-obsession and awkward tan-and-sunburn lines are mine.)

The blog neglect was caused by a number of things, most notably a full time job! and the exhaustion that comes with it, and sitting around reading really excellent blogs about knitting.

Which has, in turn, led to a flurry of work but no properly finished objects. My job ends in a week and a half, though, and then I'm going on a trip the next week, and then I'm going to come home and my friends are going to pry the knitting needles out of my hands. Which means that hopefully I will redo my final from Colorworks (that oh-so-adorable, oh-so-presently-completely-overworked bird-and-boy series) which will hopefully result in a nifty before and after series. And. I will finish some knitting projects.

First, a list, then a dump of finals that will not be redone. Immediately.

Upcoming and to-be-completed projects are:

this scarf, in red

a mystery hat

these mitts in grey, either in needlessly complicated colors as inspired by my roommate or with no ribs at all and just a cribbed fair isle pattern

this sweater, brutally modified so that I don't have to buy new yarn

I also have two sweaters in need of finishing. And possibly ripping out and redoing.

Rather than post the comic book final that I'm not all that crazy about, I'll just bookend the entry with another scantily clad self portrait. I'm lucky that no one reads this.

This was my final project for Artistic Anatomy, a piece on the the ideal physical specimen and what that means to us, to artists, to society. Fritz worded it with more genius, though. The piece is about control and precision and everything else I want from myself and the frustrating, inevitable failure of the body. Specifically, my body.

Basically, I gave myself robot parts. I'd do it for real if I didn't think that I would lose interest halfway through and be left with only one knee.

Here is the sketch, pencil on paper stretched over a canvas frame. It's something like 36" by 18". It was tremendous fun, although these pictures are awful.

And then things went horribly wrong. I killed my poor, delicate pencil drawing. I drowned it in acrylic and glaze. The same thing happened with my Colorworks final. I've learned this year that time does not necessarily equal great art.

There are tiny parts of this I like, but it's too, too far from what it could be. So, with a week to go (and then two days to go...I also learned that I work well under pressure) I started again, smaller and more carefully.

It's better in person, and again, the drawing was the fun part. I need to experiment with making the lines come forward. I keep meaning to play with colored inks.

Coming eventually:knitting, the redone Colorworks final, and, hopefully, all the design stuff I've been doing at work.

All In A Day's Work

2007-05-07T00:22:00.000-04:00

After a Friday and Saturday of getting less done than I'd meant to, I spent all day working on a couple of my finals, leaving my room only for a delicious sandwich and to email this to my teacher.

This is a color/composition study for my Artistic Anatomy final. The long explanation has to do with the physical limitations an artist runs into and what I expect from my body, and how I am inevitably let down. The short explanation is that I get to paint myself as a robot.

Considering that this was relatively off-the-cuff, I'm pretty happy with it, although it needs more red, and there are a variety of problems with my right arm.

I spent the rest of the day working on my Colorworks final, that three-part narrative. I'm about ninety percent done with the second piece, but the first one is stranded in Ugly Painting Land and I just obliterated the pencil drawing for the third by mistake. Depending on the crit, I'll put up pictures within the next few days.

Think About Birds

2007-04-30T01:49:00.000-04:00

I've been working on my final for Colorworks all day. These are the first two pieces from a three-part series. I had some compositional issues with the third piece (the material from that adventure will be posted as soon as I have a scanner) so I've been painting the other two. In fact, the first round of acrylic glazes on that second piece is drying on my desk right now. I'm going to come back to it tomorrow; at the moment, all I see is purple.

I really have been working all day, except to eat Pop Tarts and watch Rescuers: Down Under with my future roommate and her current roommate. I spent the entire movie ripping out four rows from the shoulders of my sweater, but I've finally started knitting again. I (hopefully) have all the yarn I'll need to finish this eternal sweater, just in time for summer.

Alternatives To Writing My Term Paper

2007-04-18T01:27:00.000-04:00

In between reading about sixteenth century Flemish benches and recoloring my comic book homework, I colored a couple of sketches that had been floating in my sketchbook.

This was a proposal for a book my comic book class is (hypothetically) putting together, featuring comics about how to do (and not do) a few everyday things. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to draw a squid.

And this is the result of listening to a lot of Of Montreal over the last few weeks.

Critique

2007-04-15T14:26:00.000-04:00

Like, I assume, most people, I spend kind of a lot of time thinking about my flaws. Some of these are bizarre enough to draw, hopefully.

And so I present three instances of self obsession, all from my sketchbook and inked with Faber-Castell pens, my new darling tool.

This last one was inked with a brush pen and then colored in Photoshop with my (this semester, at least) tragically neglected graphics tablet.

And now I am incredibly sad that it's Sunday and I can't get a perfect burrito from Watermark.

A Long Time Later

2007-04-12T23:45:00.000-04:00

Okay! After a couple of near tries, I am finally, finally updating this thing, and the result is what can only be refered to as an art dump!

Granted, it's only four pieces, wretchedly photographed, but each is so terribly new and unique.

This is a gouache color study for an N. C. Wyeth painting. I did the final in acrylic glazes for my Colorworks class, only to find out during my critique that the image I was working from was far, far away from what the original painting looked like. Still, the whole thing made me take a very patient look at color and the use of glazes, and this study reminded me how very much I love gouache, even when it isn't entirely cooperative.

This was a three-week in class painting, using acrylic glazes again. Please ignore most of the painting; I'm posting this because I love the face of the woman in the coat. I did it with some careful observation and just three glazes. It's these sort of almost-effortless, almost-accidental successes that make me feel comforted as an artist (and more so as a student).

Here is yet another example of mushy anatomy for an artistic anatomy assignment, but I love the shapes of color. I did this in sepia and white conte crayon on really soft, tan paper that turned green as soon as the conte hit it. (Thanks, color theory!)

I whiled away my entire afternoon on this last piece. I've been dying to play around with Sculpey and actually make a real, live object, so this is a 3d model of a character I designed for my Colorworks final. (It's three or four sequential pieces, about a boy who's obsessed with birds and what ensues. I'm hoping to use the cuteness that is so omnipresent in my illustration pieces along with a bit of darkness. It's always a fun combination; I just have to consciously try to keep the bite in my work.)

I used Styrofoam and armature wire inside so, sadly, I probably won't bake him.

And here he is on an Altoids tin, for a sense of scale.

Coming next: work from my comic book class and a pile of weird sketchbook drawings, hopefully within the next few days.

Change of Plans

2007-03-20T09:27:00.000-04:00

Due to domain troubles that are clearly way over my head, the shiney new website is back to the following monster of an address:

http://students.risd.edu/yr2008/enarriga/cupcake/

I'm going to try to remedy this (by buying some real, live server space rather than messing around with redirecting) this week.

I am a graceful ballerina

2007-03-19T11:07:00.000-04:00

Much belated, of course, but here is the color version of the portait from a while ago. This is watercolor with a limited pallette (pthalo blue, alyzarin crimson, lemon yellow, and white) on a burnt umber ground. Please ignore the razor sharp edges.

This is my artistic anatomy homework from last week, in which I made up some muscles.

And here's the finished piece.

Random sketchbook work coming soon.

Rock Hard Times

2007-03-13T00:24:00.000-04:00

My classes progress at a good clip, but until I get to a scanner, I don't have much to show. I did color charts all week, though. So that was good.

A certain interview (more later, one hopes) propted me to throw two knitting projects onto my website, which has moved to the far more memorable www.narrigan.com and has been completly revamped! This is the final product of slaving away at web design, finally.

The unbearably chipper tone of this post is brought to you by white chocolate and raspberry ice cream and the prospect of reading about the Northern Renaissance for a few hours.

A Weekly Occurence

2007-02-28T11:55:00.000-04:00

I just finished the second week of my studios. Colorworks is going surprisingly well, with my particularly mournful homework below.

This week's assignment is to do the piece again with a limited palette, which will give me a chance to work on the shoulders and hair.

My comic book class hasn't really taken off yet (so far I have three pages of how to make eggs in a basket) but the homework includes a lot of sketchbook work. I used this excuse to work up a swatch in the yarn I bought last weekend.

A short intermission

2007-02-20T00:12:00.000-04:00

Over spring break I finished absolutly nothing, but since Spring Semester started today, I have at least a little work to show. I am also in the middle of a peculiar beginning-of-the-semester phenomenon, where I have the resolve to work but little or no homework, so hopefully I will be able to show more shorly.

This is the first thing we did in Color Works: apples in charcoal and chalk and in black and white watercolor. Today I realized that I have been using gouache so long and so comofortably that it has obliterated any skill I had with watercolor. When I got home, I tried again, with slightly better results.

Then I got distracted and painted some kiwi, which reminded me why I love gouache so very, very much.

At the moment, I want very much to learn to upholster foam, just so that I can make a firm but squishy giant kiwi. If I made is strong enough, it could hold my scarf or something.

A sudden draft

2007-02-13T00:46:00.000-04:00

I have yet to finish anything major, but various projects are edging towards completion.

Also, this, which happened in my Print and Interactive Production class.

I have, at least, become more comfortable with Flash. I'd like to explore animating with it, but spring semester looks like it's going to be pretty busy.

I realized today that I'm really only taking a more refined version of my sophomore required studios, that is, drawing, painting, and illustration. I'm taking Artistic Anatomy (with my old drawing teacher, no less), Color Works, and another comics class, although this one sounds like it's going to be very different.

I need to block my legwarmers, which are already looking stretched out and sad. They're still cozy, at least.

One Thousand Projects

2007-02-08T17:20:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I had my final crit for web design. Once I've debugged this thing for Internet Explorer (and take some time to shake my fist at the sky) it will officially replace my current site.

During the crit I drew this, hopefully an example of Bill Waterson's axiom, that sometimes the artwork makes up for the writing.

Click for a larger view.

I've also been working on my mysterious never-finished final for New Yorker and pop-up promotional material. Pictures as things reach completion.

Art and Medication

2007-02-07T17:42:00.000-04:00

It's already been a long, weird week (among other things, I have a cold and jury duty on the horizon) but rather than spiraling into a pit of negativity, I drew this to cheer myself up.

It's okay because:

I did it in about 20 minutes.

I used my Wacom tablet and Photoshop.

The thought of a tiny Apatosaurus is genuinely cheering.

Dispatch from New York

2007-02-02T15:20:00.000-04:00

In celebration of having no homework for one of my studios, I've been drawing with my graphics tablet with a vengeance. This was brought on mostly by the realization that I have very little digital work. I'm so contrary, though, that I'm beginning to miss gauche.

So! A pomegranate:

And a more graphic artichoke:

And resultant patterns for apparel:

I knitted on teh bus to New York for about three hours, so I'm almost finished with the leg warmers, and then I have to finish a sweater, and then I'm going to start messing around with this pomegranate pattern.

The internship search continues, and is going considerably better than last year.