Holiday Cards for Sale!

 Impress your family and friends with completely unique limited edition holiday cards. Only $10 for a set of 15 with free shipping until December 7th!

I have a few of my limited edition holiday cards left and have decided to offer them to you in a special holiday sale! These full bleed, rounded-corner, 4x6 cards feature art from my Realms of Fantasy Illustration for  "Maiden, Mother, Crone". The text on the back quotes a line from Robert Louis Stevenson's poem, Winter-Time:

Black are my steps on silver sod;

Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;

And tree and house, and hill and lake,

Are frosted like a wedding cake.

Then reads:

Warmest Wishes this Holiday Season 

Information about the original art is along the bottom opposite the card's number out of 100.

I am fancy- packaging them in sets of 15 with envelopes included. Use them yourself as a unique alternative to store-bought cards or give them as a gift-set to the collector in your life. The cost is $10 per set of 15 and as an extra special early bird offer, I will include free shipping until December 7th! After that, shipping will be an extra $3. Please email me at kristina (at) kristinacarrollart.com if you are interested. I accept most forms of payment.

Remember- there are only a few sets of these remaining so order soon!

It's all about me!

Today is my birthday! So I decided to do a whole blog post about me! Self Portraits that is. One of my favorite teachers, Irwin Greenberg, used to say "If you are unsure what to paint- just do a self portrait!" It's good exercise for sure and what's good enough for Rembrandt...!

These were all done in a little over an hour.

This one was done very quickly last night. My last self portrait as a 20-something!

Nudes to chase away Tuesday blues

Every Monday (except when he's closed up the studio for art making) Rick Berry hosts a figure drawing session run by the Boston Figurative Art Center team. It's one of my favorite things to do up here, naturally, and here are a few of my favorites from the session:

August 2011 copy of Realms of Fantasy now on stands!

I just got my copy of the August 2011 Realms of Fantasy!

Check out my previous blog on my process for this piece, and you can order your copy here!

Cover Illustration for Realms of Fantasy

I am very pleased to announce that my art will be featured on the cover of the August '11 issue of Realms of Fantasy! This is my second time working with Doug Cohen and RoF, and it was once again a pleasure. One of my favorite things about working with them is their philosophy of creative freedom. It is a very rare thing these days for publications and art directors to show so much trust in their artists, and it is a big breath of fresh air to be allowed to really bring a personal voice to a story and feel supported doing it.

Originally this piece was commissioned solely as the interior illustration to a story called Leap of Faith by Alan Smale. The story had a lot of themes that really appealed to me: archaic biblical gods, the imperfection of creation, flawed industrialization. It brought together very separate historical elements that you wouldn't expect to see together in one world, and it was a fun challenge to bring them together. I did pages of thumbnails but eventually narrowed down what I wanted to a scene with the main character and Smale's incarnation of the Lilith 'demon'.



I played with the composition and size relationships a bit but decided the first two felt a little too "Night on Bald Mountain' for me. The last had the best movement and hinted at a more communal relationship between the characters. Plus the view of a vast ruined industrial landscape from a place of height tied in better with the story theme for me.

Progress shot of mostly under painting.

The final piece!



Now you may have noticed a slight difference in my final piece and the one appearing on the cover. That's because when it was just an interior, the presentation of the Lilith's 'femininity' was still ambiguous enough not to be worrisome. There was no blatant nudity after all. However, when Doug started talking about using it for the cover, there was then the question of how ambiguous is not ambiguous enough for the general public. While Doug and I both loved the piece how it was, I didn't think a little edit for peace of mind would do anything to its integrity and a few more appropriately placed feathers did the trick. Et Voila!

I can't wait to see the cover all shiny and in person!

Still Life Dump

So while I am waiting for some illustrations to come out of NDA land, here are some quick still life paintings that I did in between jobs.

Spectrum and Leurzer's Archive

So I just got my Spectrum letter telling me which piece got in number 18! Strange portraits of Richard Saja seem to be my lucky charm it looks like, because it was another commission from Richard that earned me a place in the book this year:

This piece was a collaboration between Richard and I, stemming off the initial idea of a portrait with piebald skin and then incorporating a few symbols that have significance to Richard. As I've mentioned, I often look to Baudelaire for inspiration and his poem Elevation ended up being my personal mental narrative for the painting.

Whose thoughts, like larks, rise on the freshening breeze

Who fans the morning with his tameless wings,
Skims over life, and understands with ease
The speech of flowers and other voiceless things.

Speaking of Richard, the last portrait I did of him for his show at the Shelburne Museum continues to bring me luck as it was chosen for this year's Leurzer's Archive of the 200 best Illustrators World Wide.

I actually had two pieces accepted into Leurzer's. The other was my 'Echo' painting:

But I decided to only show one piece in the book this year.

Emily

Emily is long-time friend and was one of the first patrons of my work- so when she commissioned a portrait, I really wanted to capture her personality as well as her classic beauty.



While initially Emily's look puts one in mind of a Michaelangelo, her strength and sharp wit are equally defining features. During the photoshoot we tried a few poses, but once again a relaxed in-between shot led us in a much better direction. Emily has a commanding presence, and I think the subtle smile and moment of paused motion let her confidence shine through naturally.