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Because practice makes perfect, part 2 of the podcast I did with Margot and Jeb on practice!
http://thejuicecast.com/practice-practice-practice-part-2/
I was on the Creative Juice podcast that was just aired this week on Practice and how long it takes to be good at something. We talk about drawing and obsessions and unused talents.
It was a lot of fun! Listen here:
http://thejuicecast.com/practice-practice-practice-part-1/While you are on the site, check out some of their other topics. The Juice Cast is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs.
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John the Lion, the handsome fellow I have sketched several times at the Cincinnati Zoo |
I have a sketch for sale of John the Lion that will benefit
The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado to build funds in order for them to bring in and care for 33 lions and 1 Andean bear just being rescued from circuses.
Spread the word; Share and enjoy!
http://us.ebid.net/for-sale/john-the-lion-by-christina-wald-138219609.htm |
From a trip last summer...
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You can see all the art and prints available here:
http://us.ebid.net/perl/main.cgi?mo=user-store&title=wildlife-art-for-the-wild-animal-sanctuaryAlso for sale is a signed copy of my book
Big Cats.
http://us.ebid.net/for-sale/big-cats-by-christina-wald-138219576.htm
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Cherry blossoms and bunnies... 'Tis the season |
I do plan to paint this image, but do to finishing my next book, it will probably be by the Eastern Orthodox Easter.
Speaking of which, this is a good time to post some of the amazing art at the pained Monasteries in Romania.
Not only are there the ones dating back to the 1400s, but they are building new ones! Such a fascinating art form. It was nice to see the artist credits on the new ones.
Growing up catholic, it is interesting to see parallel but different imagery.
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Judgement Day painting on the Voroneț Monastery done in 1547 |
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Detail of the seraphim at the Humor Monastery painted in 1535 |
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Lives of the saints or rather the martyrdom of them, Voroneț Monastery |
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More seraphim at Voroneț Monastery |
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A new depiction of Judgement Day |
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Seraphim detail |
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New Judgement Day at a church in Bucharest |
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Detail of the Judgement Day painting in Bucharest. Ioana and I were pleased to see the artists credited inside. |
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All of the Judgement Day paintings have the people being 'reconstituted', even if devoured by wild beasts. Such delightful imagery! |
My monastery sketches and more of my write ups are
here.
http://christinawald.blogspot.com/2014/11/trip-to-romania-part-3-painted.html
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Unleashing the last spirits of winter |
Something about spring makes you think of fairies. I think it is all of the new life that emerges. So, I have been doing a lot of them in my sketchbook lately.
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The council is in session... |
We also just saw
Song of the Sea, a wonderful film by the folks who did
The Secret of Kells. It was a beautiful film with a bit of a
Spirited Away vibe with a dash of Tolkien's
Silmarillion (he was greatly influenced by Celtic and other European mythology). I loved the design and the concept.
It is common mythology around the world of spirits being a part of everything... The world does awaken this time of year from a dormant state.
I can hardly wait to get outside to sketch!
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The Leaf Litter... |
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Even at the Krohn Conservatory! |
I will be doing a lunchtime lecture at the
Art Academy tomorrow at 11:30 am as part of the
Slam Bam Comic Jam.
It is called
Storytelling in Books and Comics.
Here is the Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1638524756380216Hope to see you there!
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From Why the Possum has a Large Grin by Johnette Downing |
Happy Chinese New Year a day late! Although this is from the goats I saw in Greece on a tiny island off of Aegina called Moni Eginas.
It was cute and covered in goats and peacocks.
My friend brought bread to feed them and got head butted by an aggressive male when she tried to pet him. She said she should have known better and had giant bruises to prove it!
They had glorious horns!
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Moni Eginas; magical land of goats and peacocks |
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Beautiful wooden chapel next to the tallest wooden church in Europe. |
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Me sketching quickly |
Sketch of one of the chapels in Maramureș next to the church with that is tallest wooden building in Europe. I loved the little chapel next to it and drew there. The gorgeous arched gateway was a good place to sketch from. |
Ioana took this picture of me entering the monastery complex. The chapel is hidden behind the trees, the tallest wooden church is on the left. |
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Chapel detail |
The architecture is very different from Brasov and the Moldovan areas. We were very close to the Ukraine here. This was also the town with the Merry Cemetery called Săpânța. |
Taken from my balcony overlooking the cemetery |
We stayed at a wonderful pension here called Anuta. (Basically what they call a bed and breakfast there). The owners were super friendly and even invited us to try their homemade brandy! The location was next to the Merry Cemetery. It was hard to convince my husband that was a selling point when he saw this picture I snapped from my bedroom. When we first entered the town, we stopped by a woman's house where she showed us socks and blankets she had woven. The folk craft in Romania are high art. Gorgeous stuff!
She had Ioana take my picture at the loom.
I have several posts after this including castles, more painted church details and I cannot believe I skipped posting about
Sighișoara!!!
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The Merry Cemetery in the daytime... |
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Greetings from Săpânța! |
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Cover for Star Crossed by me for a comic collaboration with Steve Bryant |
A Month-long Comic Arts Exhibition and Extravaganza Features Artists from Kabuki, Star Wars, and The Walking Dead
WHO: Exhibition Artists: David Michael Beck, Allison Craig, Brian Hagen, Russell Ihrig, David Mack, Tony Moore, Joe Slucher, and Christina Wald.
PRESENTERS: Mike Fleisch, Anthony Moorman, Joe Slucher, and Christina Wald.
WHAT: Art Academy of Cincinnati’s Inaugural “Slam Bam Comic Jam” Exhibition & Extravaganza
WHEN: January 30 – February 27, 2015
Opening Reception: Final Friday, January 30, 5-8 pm Live Screen-Printing of Limited-Run T-Shirts (Only 50 Shirts Available, $10 each), Music,
Comic Merchandise Tables, and Costume Contest for fans of Wookiees and Walkers
Closing Reception: Final Friday, February 27, 5-8 pm Making It Documentary and Q&A with film director Anthony Moorman
Complete Schedule of Events will be posted on the Art Academy’s website.https://www.facebook.com/events/404716769677449/ http://www.artacademy.edu/new-site-2013/wordpress-news/?tribe_events=slam-bam-comic-jam
Catbat will also be premiering!
When Crabs Cross the Sand written by Sharon Katz Cooper and illustrated by me is just out from Capstone/picture window books. The color looks amazing! I really like the printing and design on this one.
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Glorious samples just in! |
The crabs are fascinating to study. There was a great documentary on National Geographic about them.
They do a little dance in the ocean when they release their eggs that is worth watching:
http://youtu.be/XFfUr9e5Gos |
Crabs have tooooo many legs really; or so I though as I was painting... |
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View from the bench |
My final Romania post will be soon. I have been really swamped with a variety of things.
I have several books in the works and I look forward to showing work from them soon. I am crazy swamped right now, but there are a lot of great things happening! (Yes, I am aware I said I am swamped twice!)
Here are some images I have neglected to post.
December 23rd I visited
Krohn Conservatory to sketch their holiday display with
Amy Bogard. It is beautiful, filled with Cincinnati icons made out of natural materials. We found out later from Chuck Rekow that the display was done by
Applied Imagination.Amazing! It looks like Cincinnati as a fairyland!
Amy and I also sketched at the Mummy Exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
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Sketch from the hearing doctor's office |
I have been squeezing in sketches hear and there between deadlines. The view of Clifton from the ear doctor’s office (in the Good Samaritan hospital campus) was gorgeous! I could not resist sketching it.
So, I am catching up on this blog and am currently preparing for the
Slam Bam Comic Jam at the Art Academy.
Details very soon. The opening is January 30th!
I have been so swamped but there are still a couple more Romania posts to go. I will get to them soon. I am also doing a travelogue.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday! Here are some pictures from our trip to NYC to celebrate my mom's birthday. I got a bit of sketching in and this picture of Grand Central Station seemed to capture the spirit of the season.
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Location shot! |
Mom had her birthday dinner at the
Breslin where we had a whole pig. It was amazing!
I cannot remember a time when the city was more crowded with tourists. The holiday season is the time to be in the city I guess.
We had a lot of wonderful food, drink and company.
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Sketching at the Lucky Cat |
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Troy and I at the Rockefeller Center tree |
By:
Christina Wald,
on 11/19/2014
Blog:
Christina Wald's Design and Illustration Blog
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Me Sketching at Voronet |
We went to a lot of monasteries old and new. Of course the star monasatries are the old ones...
Above is Voronet Monastery in the Moldovan area of Romania. It was built in 1488 by Stephen the Great. The painting have survived war, weather and disuse. They are now restored including the paintings on the inside. They are not restoring the exterior paintings as far as I know which I think is a good thing.
This was the only place where we ran into an American tour group.
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Detail from the exterior of Voronet. All of these churches have paintings of the Last Judgement... This is the place you want to avoid... |
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Me sketching at Humor Monastary |
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Detail of the battle in Constantinople. |
Above is the Humor Monastery, a painted monastery located in Mănăstirea Humorului. The frescoes were originally painted in 1535 and this one shows Constantinople defending itself from a Persian invasion in 626. The Persians were illustrated as Turks which is proof that the news is always prone to revisionism even if it is really old news
A lot of the monasteries had these cool seraphim images depicted as wing clusters with lots of eyeballs.
I know I have been slow to post these images. But there is MUCH more! Next up, the Merry Cemetery and a stones throw from the Ukraine border...
Read the rest of this post
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Sketch of the Museum of History and Archaeology in the city of Piatra Neamt. |
More from the Romania trip!
Piatra Neamt: We loved this city so much, we stayed for 2 nights at the Grand Hotel Ceahlau and took a lot of time to sketch. They have the cutest gondola up to the top of the mountain.
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Recently restored fortress that was much more vertical than the sketch suggests in order to defend from the Turks. |
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Sketch of the Carpathian mountains before a hike on September 7th. |
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Picture on location from the porch at our little pension. I sketched during breakfast. |
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Just call me Indiana Wald! Hiking over a safe but rickety looking bridge in the Carpathians |
I was sad not to see any brown bears in the mountains. We did see their scat though…
I will be at Books by the Banks this year with my 3 books out in 2014!
I hope to see you there! I am excited to get a couple books signed by John Scalzi if I can sneak away from my table!
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A Cool Summer Tail |
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Animal Atlas |
And, just out this week! |
Macarooned on a Dessert Island |
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Red line shows our itinerary... |
I just got back from a 2 week trip to Romania with my friend Ioana who is working on a plant field guide to the country. So much fun touring the country and seeing castles, churches, villages and fortresses.
It was a whirlwind! We were on the road a lot so we could see as much as possible. But, in the short time, it was just tastes of different regions.
We first went to Romania in 1998 to be in George and Ioana's wedding. The country has done a 180 since then and is growing in leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, the guys could not join us this visit.
We did not get to revisit the seaside town of Constanta or the Dacian ruins, but next time...
Our first stop was Brasov and OF COURSE Castle Bran in Transylvania. We did not see Bran last time since I had to pick one castle to visit and that was Peles. So this time, we made sure to cover it.
Brasov is an amazing town. I hope to go back and sketch more! We only got a little taste of the city.
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The Brasov town square |
While I sketched this, they were giving a free opera concert. It seemed to cover a lot of the greatest hits and was a bit of a sampler platter of songs.
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A peacock is a good image in Brasov. It is a proud and beautiful city. |
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Did you think I would not sketch it? |
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Queen Marie's Chapel we thought... Gorgeous with all the moss... |
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Me, walking up to the castle... |
If you are curious and want to know more, watch this amazing series about Romania called Wild Carpathia. They go to a lot of the places Ioana and I went to and talks about how they are trying to conserve the largest areas of virgin forest in Europe.
http://youtu.be/jvDIpOPlWJ8
It has been a CRAZY summer! I am REALLY behind on posting here.
I went to Portland in July for ICON the illustration conference and just got back from 2 weeks in Romania. I am now digging out from under a TON of work.
So, enjoy these ICON and Portland sketches.
ICON was a great time. I met a lot of cool artists and got to visit LAIKA studios.
I do wish they had a set up that involved smaller groups rather than a lecture hall for all the presentations one after the other. I know there are a lot of challenges putting up an event like this, but there was an impersonal, lecture hall freshmen 101 feeling to it that would have probably been helped by everyone picking 3 or 4 smaller sessions a day to see.
It would have also been less overwhelming.
The speakers were very good for the most part; there was just a fatigue that set in when you watched so many in a day.
The workshops were set up more in that way and were excellent.
More soon!
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Chinese Gardens |
The book I illustrated for Bloomsbury written by
Anna Claybourne was in a supplement for
The Guardian featuring the
Best New Children's Books Summer 2014.
Here is a scan of the page. They used one of my favorite spreads.
I am finally posting all of my sketches from Chicago. I have been buried since my return in work. (I have some amazing projects on my plate at the moment.)
But, it was wonderful to have a weekend devoted to just sketching and hanging out with wonderful friends.
You can see photos from the seminar here:
http://chicagosketchseminar2014.wordpress.com/and some of the Cincinnati group's photos and sketches here:
http://cincyillustrators.blogspot.com/2014/06/urban-sketching-seminar-in-chicago.htmlSee Vanessa's sketches here:
http://nessydesigns.blogspot.com/2014/06/urban-sketchers-chicago-2014.html |
My favorite sketch from the weekend. This is the Holy Name Cathedral where Roger Ebert's funeral was held |
and her incredible photos here:
http://nessydesigns.blogspot.com/2014/06/chiacgo-urban-sketchers-trip-photos.html |
Another church on the church architecture tour |
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Porsche at what the locals called 'Viagra Triangle' which is a good description |
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Big statue next to the hotel |
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A bit of sketching between bites of Garrett popcorn |
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Detail of the facade |
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Part of the Newberry Library |
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Mabel has a spa day |
I have a backlog of sketches. I did the above sketch at
Amy's house in Amberly Village in my new,
beautiful sketchbook made by Vanessa and the other at Miami Whitewater during the long Memorial Day weekend.
I am heading to Chicago this weekend for an
urban sketching workshop. Expect many posts soon!
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The swan paddle boats at Miami Whitewater. I so want to ride one! |
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Sketch in my 8x10 Moleskine |
Amy Bogard,
Vanessa Sorensen and I all went to Krohn Conservatory Friday May 16th to check out the butterfly exhibit and sketch. Check out there sketches at their blogs (their names are linjked.
It was a rainy day out so sketching in the rainforest was just perfect! There are a bunch of caged tropical birds in that area too so we could not resist drawing them.
Vine Video:
https://vine.co/v/MXTjEgX1JdOI have a backlog of sketches to post. More soon!
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Curly leaves. |
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Leaves covered in rain drops. |
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Wonderful camel bench. |
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Where's Wald-o? |
I have a bit of a backlog so I am trying to catch up here.
I met
Pat Ann and
Larry MacDougal in Toronto to sketch and go to TCAF. I had wanted to see this comic convention for a while and it had been a long time since I had been in the area (2011).
We met Friday to check out Oakville. It is a beautiful town that is starting to become very affluent. There is a ton of new construction there. It is also home to
Sheridan College, where they both met and went to school.
We sketched at the marina until we were rained on, but it was so cold that it was good to go inside for coffee.
On Saturday, went to the comic show. My mom traveled with me to spend the day with my Godmother who was her best friend during her college days at
Case Western Reserve in the early 60s.
It was amazing and PACKED. It was probably the youngest crowd I have ever seen at a comic convention. We talked about a table at TCAF but I need to do a LOT more comics before that happens...
After the show, we sketched for a while at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Vine video:
https://vine.co/v/MgrPzumhFpHI love the Chinese lions!
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Mushroom House on Erie Ave. built by architect Terry Brown |
I have been getting out and enjoying the warmweather when possible.
Info about the house:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_House_%28Cincinnati%29Vine video:
https://vine.co/v/MndFLuZxui1 |
The San Marco at Madison and Woodburn in my mini-sketchbook |
Vanessa and I sketched this building from the cafe after a bike ride at Lunken airport. It was a beautiful day to get out.
Vine video:
https://vine.co/v/MvhwFrE1lJLVanessa's sketch is
here.
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Another sketch in the mini on Harrison Ave. |
In Westwood of the First Presbyterian Church while waiting for a friend... The man at the garage across the street said many people come there to draw, paint and take pictures.
Here is a vine on location:
https://vine.co/v/MnZOVbz6xZL
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My friend Theresa's Easter ducklings |
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The bunny puts the duckling it his place. |
That is the saying isn't it? Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!
Patti Gay did a nice write up about me on her illustrators blog. There are some other cool profiles there too so check them out while you are there!
She lives in California now but went to CCAD in Columbus. Check out her
site!
http://theillustratorsmarket.blogspot.com/2014/04/christina-wald.html
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