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So here is a long-time-coming follow up to the Freya piece that I posted a while back--which I have been painting on actually. I had a tremendously busy summer. My summer teaching schedule is actually more rigorous than the regular school year. But now I've been able to actually get back to this Norse stuff I'm excited about.
I have a little grouping of thumbnail sketches for the different Norse characters that I'm going to do paintings of and I hope I can start to gain some momentum in rolling the designs out. Here's the thumbnail that developed into the above finished Thor drawing:
I really like how my very manly Thor (I mean, come on, it's THOR!) came out, but it took a while to design the background shapes. The two animals in the background are the billy goats that pull his special chariot.
Not sure which of the drawings I should work on next. Perhaps Odin. Or one of the creatures like Fenris the wolf...
Read the rest of this post
Well, yes, I have been kind of getting excited about Norse mythology & Viking stuff lately. Though this drawing could almost have evolved off of that last Celtic dragon & warrior little piece I posted previously :)
But it does seem that Viking culture is getting some attention these days: the new VIKINGS tv show on the History Channel, the Thor movie sequel coming out... I've centered some illustrations on Norse mythology in the past, but it's been quite a while and I would like to tackle the genre again. It will be interesting to contrast what I did back then with what I produce now.
I do plan to paint the above drawing digitally, but I thought I would show the drawing by itself first. The figure is meant to be the goddess Freya. She is seen as one of the preeminent goddesses and is associated with many things including love, beauty, gold, & war. She is linked to the valkyrie warrior maidens, of whom she leads half of their number (Odin gets the other half). I picture her here in her warrior capacity.
Here's an illustration from that Norse mythology series I did way back when (in graduate school). I painted in oil over inked lines.
Anybody else appreciating Norse mythology these days?
P.S. I noticed that this makes my 100th blog post! (congratulates self--feel free to join in :) )
This week's Illustration Friday challenge (from illustrationfriday.com) was "Myth." Couldn't let that one pass me by! Plus, I had extra time this week because my teaching is mostly on break for Finals week. Yes!
First off, I knew I wanted to do something with dragons. Then I felt like I wanted to do something Celtic knotwork-ish. Sketched around and came up with this fun little image. Thought it would be fun to have a lady warrior challenging the beast. I did the color and texture in a way that echoes the Book of Kells. The technique was pencil sketch scanned and then colored in Photoshop.
I guess "when it rains, it pours" because here's another new little posting! This is a digital painting I did this week in response to an illustration prompt from the blog "Illustration Friday". Illustration Friday is a great blog that provides a prompt every week on Friday (how did you guess?). This week's prompt was "New", in honor of the New Year beginning. I sat down with my sketchbook and wasn't sure what I was going to do with that, but found myself doodling this morning/flower image. I guess "new" makes me think of a new day, and new things growing.
To finish it I scanned my pencil drawing and painted it digitally. I played with painting it in Corel Painter first, but went with Photoshop in the end, using my Wacom tablet.
Thought I'd post a couple of sketches while I was thinking about it. These are from the last figure drawing class I taught before Xmas break. I demo'ed that day (let myself draw) and focused on portraits of 2 awesome student models that I borrowed from other conservatories. This guy above is named Mars. Appropriate! The guy below is Dmitri. I couldn't help feeling like Dmitri came straight from the woodland realm of Mirkwood! (The Hobbit on my brain) Thankfully, Dmitri was pleased when I told him he looked like a Tolkien elf extra :) Both portraits were done with conte' crayon in about an hour (each).
Well, it's just about time for New Year's resolutions, and resolving art stuff is always at the top of my list! To whet the appetite for my planned year of making more good art stuff (I didn't say I was resolving to use better grammar), here's the Hobbit bookplate that I made in response to the release of The Hobbit movie (part one!). I printed them onto adhesive paper and gave them out with some of my Christmas cards. Do people actually use bookplates? Who knows. (snarky comments received about being a Kindle user: 1) But bookplates are pretty :)
Here's some sketches I did the other week of a very cute bulldog named "Lola" that a friend owns. She was doing mostly napping as you can see (it was a warm afternoon after all).
On the second page you can see where I did a skeleton analysis of her, trying to figure out how her bones were positioned.
She was super sweet and I just wanted to take her home :)
Alrighty, continuing in the Bible theme, here's an illustration that I just completed for a company that produces paint-by-number kits. A friend from art school passed along the job (thanks, Sean!). He's also doing work for them.
It was a little different from the artwork style that I usually do, but that's the nature of the business of illustration: "Yes, I can do that!" :)
There was somewhat of a learning curve for this in designing a painting for use as a paint-by-number. I needed to adapt my color sketch into hard color shapes in Photoshop according to the swatches of color that the company uses.
In this case, my friend Sean had already done his own rough color sketch for this picture, so I just made some adjustments and worked it up to the finished product.
I'm excited because there is already another piece that's in the pipeline, this one a picture about horses (yay!). I'm hopeful that I can continue doing work for this company.
Yesterday I received a copy of the book that I contributed two illustrations for back in September. Woo Hoo! I've had a few other small things published, but this is the first time I've been able to see my work printed in a physical book (versus game cards, digital pdf downloads, etc.) so it feels really special :)
The book is an informational reference guide regarding the temple of the Israelites as described in the Old Testament of the Bible. Rose Publishing releases products for the religious market and was my client for the job. I posted a shot of the finished pieces back in a September post
here. And here's me holding the book open to my page.
Well, onward and upward. The weather is sunny and warm here in Cali (I'm so thankful to live here) and next week we'll get our extra hour of daylight back again. I'm ready to push forward and re-double my efforts with my art.
p.s. You can order your copy of the Rose Guide to the Temple
here.
:)
No, it's not a Jackalope. But close. Did a sketch this week of this mythical creature said to reside in Germany for my animal drawing class. Part rabbit, part bird, part snake, and part deer. It's called a "wolpertinger." Yes, a "wolpertinger." (please find a way to insert that into casual conversation this week)
Fun.
:)
Hey all,
So it took a little longer than I expected, but my newly refurbished website is now up! It's always been
just long enough since the last time that I updated it, that I've just about forgotten everything about how to build a website :)
Anyway, it's actually pretty similar to the old one, but I've added a bunch more content.
I hope you people enjoy it! :
Here's a snap-shot of what I've been working on lately. I'm updating my website. I'm excited to be adding a bunch more content, including a sketchbook page as you can see there.
My website name has changed as well. It wasn't by choice. Long story short, someone bought up my name when it expired and there's now a junk website up at caranilsen.com. I spent some time trying to resolve the problem, but in the end I had to just get a new domain name. Sooo, my website is now at
www.caranilsenart.com. It's still my old website right now, but I look forward to uploading my updated version real soon!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is now enjoying getting into the holiday spirit! I've got my Christmas tree up :) How about you?
So here's a sketch I did the other day when doodling in my sketchbook. I don't think I've tried to draw a "wizard" before. This is sort of the archetypical one that I picture. He looks a little dark and dangerous, which I hear wizards are.
I have to confess, drawing the beard was probably the most fun.
My actual sketchbook often actually gives me inspiration for the classic fantasy stuff that I like to draw. I don't think I've shown it before so here's a photo:
I made it out of an old presentation portfolio that I had been using to show my illustrations. It was a little cumbersome as a portfolio (it was the kind with the leather strings that tie around it) so I ended up shelving it for a simpler to use portfolio.
But I loved the thick leather it was made of and wished I could use it somehow. It occurred to me that I could use it to make a cool sketchbook. I modified the shape a little, sewed drawing paper into it, glued magnets inside the front flap for the closing device, and voila!
I always feel inspired just by pulling it out and looking at it:) When I fill the pages completely, I plan to remove the pages and save them, and sew new pages in.
:)
Hey everybody,
Well, I've been kinda busy of late, but I'm finally putting something up here on my blog. I did have a nice little assignment for a small publishing house the other week. It looks like it might be leading to some more work too--yay!
Here's the illustration:
I was excited to do the finished piece entirely as a digital painting. It's for use in a reference/educational kind of book.
In other news, I'm really enjoying my new animal drawing class I'm teaching at OCHSA. Such a fun class and I'm learning a lot myself, of course. This week we're headed to the zoo! Fun.
Cara
Hello all,
Well, I'm sorry I've taken so long to post a new blog since my trip! I guess I'm still in denial about being back to "real life" after my trip. AND school has started back up again so I'm plenty busy with that. This is week three of the semester. But before I get talking about school, here's a sampling of photos from my trip!
Big Ben!
Super delicious fish & chips in Bath!
Sheep at the B&B in the Yorkshire Dales!
Abbey ruins in York!
Cream tea near Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire Dales!
Hobbit-ish tree near Bolton Abbey!
Typical charming pub in Stratford-Upon_Avon!
First off, I wanted to say that I probably won't be posting new blogs for the next couple of weeks because I'll be on vacation in the U.K. Woo Hoo! I leave tonight. I'm a long time anglophile and this will be my first trip to England, so I'm super excited!
As for how Comic Con went, wow. Lots of craziness! I showed my comic sample around, but I don't think that anything really solid came out of it. I think that the San Diego Comic Con has just gotten too big for a little person trying to break in at that event in particular. I did have a lot of fun though.
The highlight was probably getting to talk to Peter S. Beagle, author of
The Last Unicorn, at his table in the Artist's Alley section of the con. People who have followed my blog for a while know my love for
The Last Unicorn movie. So cool to meet the author of the original book! He was super friendly, and signed a copy of the new graphic novel of the book that came out in 2010. I was kinda star-struck.
My next goal for my
Snow comic is to show it around at the Long Beach Comic Con that happens around Halloween. I just got notified this morning that I was approved for professional free passes, so I'll definitely be headed there! It's a much smaller event, so I'm hopeful that I can have some quality networking opportunities for my work there.
After that, there is another event called the CTN Animation Expo in Burbank that I'll be headed to with my stuff. That one starts November 18, which just so happens to be my birthday. Perhaps that'll make me extra lucky there!
Alright, gotta get going to catch my flight. I'll bring back pictures :)
Here is a mock-up of the cover design I think I'll use for my comic/eventual graphic novel. I got excited to finally design and use a border pattern for this project since that's one of my favorite things to do:)
I looked at some examples of manuscripts dating from the middle ages as reference for designing the border and the font for "Snow."
On Thursday of this week I'll be heading to the San Diego Comic Con and look forward to having samples from my comic to show!
Wish me luck!
Cara:)
Hey everybody,
Here's another page from my comic. What
could be happening?? I will be adding text boxes eventually, but you can fill in your own play-by-play for now.
I plan on showing these sample pages at the San Diego Comic Con and it is less than two weeks away! Ready or not! (that reminds me, I wonder where I put my Galadriel costume...)
In non-art related news, I just have to give a big shout-out to the U.S. women's national team for their un--believable win over Brazil this morning in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup in Germany. Definitely one of the best soccer games I've ever seen. Really. Now they just have to carry onward and upward to win this thing! (sorry to gush about this on my art blog--I played soccer in college and have a deep love for the game).
'Til next time...
Happy Independence Day everybody:) Right now it will be July 4th in exactly 10 minutes.
Well, here is some progress on my comic. This is from the same story I posted a page for a few weeks ago. I'm happy with them but hoping I can gain some speed and really start to roll these out faster!
Are you wondering what is happening in the story?? Well... there are dwarves... and that looming shape in the last panel is a wolf! That's enough to tantalize you for now:)
Oh, also I thought I would show you more of a peek into my process. I posted thumbnails of all the pages for this opening portion of the story last week. Well, as I take these to the finish, I just blow up the thumbnails, put them on my home-made light table, and draw the tight drawings on top. Saves time and helps me keep the compositions as strong as they were in the thumbnails.
Here's the blown-up thumbnail for the tighter page above that I just drew on top of:
That's all for now... enjoy the fireworks tomorrow:)
Here's a page of my thumbnails that I did this week for the comic I'm working on. The thumbs are actually about 2 1/2 x 3 1/4" for each little double-page spread. This is the first excerpt of my longer story (graphic novel). Proper planning is such a timesaver in artwork & writing, and I can't imagine trying to tackle this story without it!
I'll probably blow these thumbnails up and actually draw right on top of them over a light table. This helps keep the compositions as dynamic as they are in the thumbnail stage.
Still an intimidating amount of work to be done in the next few weeks... but it feels good to have my basic layout and compositions sketched out.
I need to figure out the cover artwork... and I want to have at least some of them painted/colored as well. We'll see!
Hi everybody,
These are some sketches I actually did a couple of weeks ago after I saw the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie (part 17?). I guess I would put the movie in the category of "have low expectations, and you won't be disappointed" :) It was easier to follow at least than the other recent ones. I did have fun though.
Anyway, I've actually been a fan of pirates (not real ones, mind you) since I was little. See photo:
That's me on the left :) How awesome is that?! The tattoos and facial hair is courtesy of my Mom and a Sharpie. Not sure how old I am in the picture... 6 maybe? That would make it around 1981. My sister to my left chose a more demure Arabian princess costume of some sort. The pirate thing was definitely my most favorite Halloween costume as a child! You can tell I'm really feelin' it.
And here is a photo of my super cute niece from a few years ago doing the pirate thing (a convenient excuse to post of picture of Katey):
She is way cute, but I don't think she's as into it as her Aunt Cara was in similar circumstances:)
How do you guys feel about pirates? Still cool? Or "over it"?
'Til next time.
1 Comments on Pirates are fun., last added: 6/20/2011
Just a quick note to say I'm sorry for not posting recently. I got picked for jury duty (!!) which lasted a week and two days and finally ended yesterday. No, I can't tell you about the riveting case. Yes, I missed my final art classes with most of my OCHSA students :( I have my final final (does that make sense?) on Thursday.
Also, I picked up my Mom from the airport for a visit and she's staying with me until June 15th.
Sooo, a few things keeping me busy.
I did have a meeting with the new writing group I've joined, in which I talked about my current progress on my graphic novel story. New pictures soon, hopefully. I have been fleshing out more of the plot points.
I'm still planning on bringing some part of this work to the San Diego Comic Con.
Hope everyone is enjoying summer weather and I'll get back to you soon!
Hello all,
Well, I'm trying to get a-going on panels for the story I'm working on so here's a couple of panel sketches. Briefly, it's kind of a re-telling of Snow White. Here's the seven dwarves not having such a good time. I don't usually do compositions with a lot of characters, so it's fun to challenge myself in this way. A bit depressing to stare at for a long time while I'm drawing it though:|
In other news, my teaching is winding down... So much to do here at the end of the semester. It always gets done somehow though.
After school ends, I'll be working more on this comic thing, as well as teaching a summer art class for kids. What are everyone else's summer plans? Trips? Lollygagging and lounging? Workin' hard for the man?
I don't mean to make anyone jealous, but I'm actually going on a trip to the U.K. for a couple of weeks right before school starts back up. I've never been before and couldn't be more excited!!
Later.
Okay, so in honor of the new Thor movie, here are some concepts of what Thor might look like. Of course, I'm not really doing the comic book Thor. This is Norse mythology Thor.
With facial hair... without... hard to say what looks better. He's quite the brawny man-in-repose though :)
Anyone see the new movie yet? I haven't yet but plan on it.
Later.
Okay, so I know the first dwarf looks really sad and haggard. But I made it up to the dwarves in the next one. Look at him in his heroic glory!
I've been drawing some dwarves for the story I'm working on and so the two appearances pertain to the story. I decided once again to indulge my Norwegian side and make these dwarves from some sort of Norse culture.
I'm still spending a lot of time on the writing aspect of the graphic novel I'm working on, but I like how it's coming together so far. I've formed a writing group with some fellow creative people and we met for the first time over the weekend. Looking forward to that being a great help.
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2 Comments on Back in SoCal, last added: 9/8/2011
Nice!
I, too, turned to dragons and Celtic knotwork for this theme, but I think yours comes off rather better. Aside from the more airy dragon, the parchment texture seems to add a lot over the flat beige background I used. Well done.
Very cool! And really nicely done in this style!
I like it!