The Third Wyrd

Holiday Cards for Sale!

2011-12-02T10:26:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-09-01T06:51:00.004-04:00

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

2011-08-30T04:56:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-08-19T12:39:00.004-04:00

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

2011-07-22T17:03:00.016-04:00

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

2011-06-13T08:48:00.007-04:00

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

2011-03-30T08:33:00.013-04:00

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

2011-01-28T15:57:00.002-05:00

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.

Grayson

2010-12-03T08:23:00.013-05:00

About a year ago, I met Andrea in Prospect Park while we were walking our dogs. We got to talking and the subject came around to art. When I mentioned I paint, she became interested and so I handed her my postcard. She started telling me about how she'd always wanted to have a more unconventional portrait of her son, Grayson, done with a sort of sci-fi setting and my style fit the bill. After several conversations, she hired me to do the portrait as a gift for her husband. I was a little nervous, having never painted anyone under 18 before. Luckily Grayson was a real character and kept us smiling during the photoshoot:

I'd done a few sketches for composition - Andrea liked the idea of Grayson in front of a window looking out on a otherworldly landscape, but she didn't want it too over the top. The image on the right was closest but she was looking for something simpler.

Then during the photoshoot we had one of those happy accidents where on a break, Grayson threw his hand over the back of the chair and I took some shots. It ended up being just the right pose for his personality and Andrea agreed this would be a great image to work around. She even wanted to keep the watch in. I created the drawing:

And after approval, the painting:

It's no secret that I love painting portraits, and getting the opportunity to bring portraiture and my affinity for fiction together made this a great job. We all ended up happy with how this one turned out- and no doubt it will be the most memorable Christmas present this year!

Realms of Fantasy

2010-10-29T18:07:00.005-04:00

Realms of Fantasy has been a great outlet for new artists for as long as I can remember . I have a lot of friends who have produced some turning point pieces for the magazine- largely because they gave you the sort of creative freedom that is pretty much extinct nowadays. I've wanted to work for them ever since I became interested in fantasy illustration ,so when Doug Cohen asked me to do a piece for the December Issue- it was a no-brainer. He even wrote a lovely blog post about how he first saw my work:
http://www.rofmag.com/2010/08/06/rof-art-department-latest-artist/

Unfortunately not long after turning in the art we were sent the sad news that the December Issue was to be the last, and would not make it to paper print. The final issue has been placed on the RoF website for free download here:

http://www.rofmag.com/rof-dec-2010-free-issue.pdf

Where you can read the story this piece was done for and see the rest of the magazine, including a fantastic piece by David Palumbo and lovely feature on Terese Nielsen.

So long Realms of Fantasy. You will certainly be missed.

"I Aten't Dead"

2010-10-16T10:12:00.004-04:00

To quote my favorite Discworld character. I just moved to Boston. And while times the NYC withdrawl gets to feeling a bit much, I just look out my REAL STUDIO window to my LAWN and somehow I think I can go on.

So I've been lax, I admit. The lead up to the move, the move itself (happening quite suddenly a month before schedule) and getting adjusted... sure I've been making art- just not sharing. Only some of it due to contractual constraints. That ends now. I've got a decent backlog waiting to see daylight and it's time to get back onto communicating with the rest of the world.

The above self portrait was done in a little over an hour one morning when I looked at a still-wet palette from another piece and figured I shouldn't let all that paint go to waste. I call it "You're Coffee's Getting Cold."

Tattoo!

2010-07-14T09:14:00.004-04:00

So a few months back my friend Vanessa hired me to design a tattoo for her. The concept was an original version of Yggdrasil, the World tree out of Nordic myth. It was a little intimidating...this work of art would be on someone for the rest of her life. I didn't want to slack off on this one. After a good amount of research and sketches I finally came out with this.

I felt pretty confident with it. I think it gave her a good design while still looking very 'me'. And clearly she liked it because she went out the same week to have the first pass done!

Thanks Nessa for giving me the hugest compliment of all!

Painted Ladies

2010-06-10T21:34:00.007-04:00

Lana Crooks has done it again! She's curated another great show out in Chicago and I am really excited about being involved in this one. 'Painted Ladies', an exhibit focused on the art of the female form is a new group exhibit with an all-star line-up. I'm joining such awesome artists as Dave Palumbo and Craig Elliott on the walls of OhNo! Doom's gallery. In addition to sending my Eve drawing, I created three new pieces in charcoal for this show:

Painted Ladies
Opening reception: June 5th 2010, 6-10pm

Exhibit Closes: July 3rd

Painted Ladies is a group exhibit that celebrates the art of the female form. All new lady-themed work by painters, illustrators, designers and animators:

Shannon Bonatakis
Chucho
Kristina Carroll
Craig Elliott
Stephanie Inagaki
Jeremiah Ketner
Steph Laberis
Netherland
Vince Newkirk
Dave Palumbo
Jason Rudolph Pena
David Rettker
Arkady Roytman
Scott Tolleson
Alex Willan

A portion of the art sales will be donated to the Avon Breast Cancer Walk (taking place June 5-6th).

Directly after the opening reception all unsold artworks will be available to view and purchase thru our online store: http://www.enstore.com/ohnodoom/

OhNo!Doom Gallery
1800 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

Gandalf

2010-05-24T15:17:00.004-04:00

Back in January I posted the oil sketch for this piece. I've been finished with it for a while, with the occasional tweak here and there and finally decided that it was time to share.

There's something about painting old men with white hair that really appeals to me for some reason. I think it's the challenge of whispy hair against old, leathery skin. Wrinkles are so much fun! And big, bushy eyebrows.

Replanting the Garden

2010-05-11T11:57:00.005-04:00

Replanting the Garden brings together the work of 40 artists who were simply given the directive to make a piece in response to H. Bosch's GARDEN of EARTHLY DELIGHTS.

I ended up choosing something a little different: Eve Taming the Snake. Eve gets a bad rap when all she did was choose to accept awareness and knowledge of the world. Without Eve there is no art, no words no pain, no love, no beauty. Without Eve, we would not be able to delight in the earth, so I decided to paint a portrait that illustrates the respect I feel for her. She has cast off her forced role of the weak-willed woman, shaved her head and made that snake her own. My Eve isn't the tempted, she is the hunter. Next she will go rescue Prometheus.

Replanting the Garden, curated by Richard Saja, opened last week in Indianapolis' Big Car Gallery space. This is a wonderfully eclectic show and I was very happy to be included. You can see all the images at http://replantingthegarden.blogspot.com/ and purchase them through the Gallery or http://www.etsy.com/shop/BigCarGallery.

ArtOrder article, some drawings and some news

2010-04-23T18:25:00.012-04:00

Hello folks!

I am excited to share my first ever foray into semi-semi-pro writing. Jon Schindehette over at his ArtOrder blog recently put out a call for guest writers to help lighten his workload and I decided to respond. You can see the results Here:

http://artorder.blogspot.com/2010/04/guest-writer-kristina-carroll.html

Please go check it out and let me know what you think! I had a wonderful time writing it.

And now it's time to share a few new pieces I'm working on:

Eve

This piece is for a show going up in May: Replanting the Garden. All pieces are works that were inspired by Heironymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delight's. I wanted to try something different so I chose a very simple and quiet composition of Eve taming the snake. The curator is the same man who commissioned my Richard portrait for his show at the Shelburne Museum so I think this is going to be a good one. I also quite like the color studies I did for the piece:

You'll have to wait until the painting's finished to see which one I chose. Lastly is a drawing I am very excited to start painting:

Merlin

Very much inspired by the charcoal drawings of Charles Vess. I haven't done a nice, woodsy scene in a while and I am really looking forward to it.

Lastly I am very pleased to announce that the aforementioned Richard painting has been accepted into this year's Spectrum annual!

This is such a huge honor, and I still can't quite believe that I got in.

Read what Richard Saja, the curator, had to say about the piece in his show here:

http://mrpeacockstyle.blogspot.com/2009/10/chat-with-historically-inaccurate.html

Last, but not least, Marc Scheff posted a lovely review of my Zebrulu piece on his blog:

http://www.marcscheff.com/some-favorites

Go check them out!

Mutation Nation

2010-04-11T22:56:00.008-04:00

Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get in on the latest Art Order challenge, but made some time this weekend to play (and get sorta sick) so I did a little something. Introducing Zebrulu!

Kim Boekbinder

2010-04-07T10:33:00.005-04:00

Not too long ago I discovered the music of the very talented Kim Boekbinder and have since become a big fan. Not only do I love her songs, but she is a work of art herself and a very fun girl to draw and paint. Here's a little watercolor piece I finished recently and hopefully just the first of many. We may figure out a way to use the art to help her raise money for her album, so check back for details.

Original drawing:

Still Life

2010-03-27T21:58:00.005-04:00

So I have been doing a lot of charcoal stuff lately and decided, after being inspired by Rob Rey's beautiful still lifes, I wanted to spend some time painting to keep up my practice. I haven't done a proper still life in... a long time. So I set one up all nice like- even did some clever umbrella action to control the light. Here's the set-up:

And the full painting:

Because I'm me, I spent longer on it than I had originally planned- so tomorrow I think I will set up a smaller one, stick to my time-limit and see what happens. I was just too happy to be playing with paints today to stop.

Starstruck

2010-03-11T22:25:00.004-05:00

I am very happy to share my newest painting. This piece was made to be a two page spread for Michael Kaluta and Elaine Lee's groundbreaking space-opera comic, Starstruck, currenlty in re- release from IDW. The updated book is made all shiny with brand new drawings and covers by Michael, additional words by Elaine and some beautiful color-work by Lee Moyer. These are some of my favorite people in the industry and I was so honored to be asked to take part in their baby.

The short story behind this piece is that it depicts the murder of Sambo Thrace-Smith, the worst playwrite in the universe by Kettle Black, leader of the Guernican Art Squad. To get the full story, you need to go buy issue #10 of Starstruck. But really you should buy them ALL. Because they're really, really good and unlike anything else you've ever read.

Rust painting

2010-02-15T00:54:00.005-05:00

Here is the painted version of my Rust drawing for ArtOrder. You can read about the meaning behind my interpretation in the previous post.

I think it still needs some tweaking if I'm honest. A unifying glaze, and cooling down that foreground hand to start. But still- not TOO bad for a couple days work!

Rust drawing

2010-02-10T20:43:00.008-05:00

"A sword, a spade, and a thought should never be allowed to rust"
~ James Stephens
Irish poet and storyteller, 1882-1950

This is my Charcoal drawing for the latest ArtOrder challenge, which was to create an illustration from the above quote. I LOVE these sorts of challenges because they demand that you think outside the box. I knew immediately that the first rule for this piece was to avoid swords and spades as imagery. I thought about it for a while and then, randomly, picked up my favorite book The Neverending Story and opened up to the chapter I was currently re-reading. (I have plans for this book, but in the words of Ende "That's another story and shall be told another time.") Anyways one of the characters has an army of metal giants that she controls with her will. Towards the end, when her evil plans have been thwarted, she looses all control of these giants because her will no longer has a purpose and they kill her. I thought, 'well this is all just too serendipitous'.

"They were puzzled, because they knew it was Xayide's will alone that had moved the hollow giants. So, they thought, it must have been her will that they should trample her to death."

The giants are the personification of Xayide's twisted thoughts and desires. But because all her plans involve manipulation and power, her thoughts are hollow and they prove to be her undoing.

"For years the hollow, black-metal giants stood motionless on the heath not far from the City of the Old Emperors. Rain and snow fell on them, they rusted and little by little sank into the ground, some vertically, some at a slant. But to this day a few of them can be seen."

Now onto the paint!

The Waterhouse post

2010-01-21T16:33:00.006-05:00

(Disclaimer: First attempt to write anything of large scale on two days of cold medication and fever. Please be kind.)

So over MLK weekend a large group of us (artists, art directors and art enthusiasts) pilgrimaged up to Montreal to see the massive Waterhouse retrospective that is showing there until February. I could go on and on about the joy of the train ride up and back with such titans of the industry and inspiring folks as Irene Gallo, Greg Manchess, Kurt Huggins, Zelda Devon and Scott Brundage, the added fun at the Biodome, and the pleasure of sharing this show with so many people I admire- but Irene has done a much better job than I could and taken nicer pictures over at her blog. And her amazing photos here. So I will mostly just show stuff from my sketchbook and talk about a few things that I took away from this retrospective.

Saying this show was inspiring is an understatement. I always liked Waterhouse just fine, but looking at his work up close and seeing what a master storyteller and handler of paint he was humbled me. In his early works especially, his attention to detail and handling of every aspect of narrative from facial expressions to body language to value to color to brush strokes to edges only made it clear how much I have yet to learn. When at his best, not a single aspect of any given piece was thrown away.

Of course, being the portrait lover I am, I spent a lot of time swooning over his faces. Waterhouse knew how to capture an expression that told volumes, and several times I was as entranced with what was going on with the background characters as with the main subjects. Such as the two old men in Mariamne sitting in quiet judgment and whispering amongst themselves.

Here are some more faces. Many from Waterhouse, some from life and one from my head, while trying to illustrate "Dark Light" (thanks for the term Kurt!) at lunch between viewings.

I first saw "The Lady of Shallot" in London in '08. I won't lie- I might have cried a little that first time. But seeing it again after nearly 2 more years of training, and amongst all his other work- it didn't pale one bit. I noticed a hundred more details on the second viewing that just made it that much better a piece to me. The thing that most impressed me this time was, perhaps, realizing that the only thing truly in focus in the piece is her face- and as you move further out from that point, the paint and edges blur more and more. It's very subtle, (not something you can spot in reproductions) but it speaks volumes about the mastery of the painter and the story of this isolated woman he was telling. Of course, I had to try and capture her haunting expression.

Even after spending nearly 6 hours at the exhibit saturday, I went back Sunday for some more. The Magic Circle was another really popular piece at the exhibit. It was one of his simpler works, but that just made the details he included more effective. The dust on her skirt, the hint of fire from the circle, the live ouroboros around her neck and how drinking in all these details meant you didn't even notice the cave of people around a fire in the background until the 4th viewing made this piece especially riveting.

One of the things I think that I most appreciated from this exhibit was the way Waterhouse was never afraid to throw a main figure's face into shadow. The way he could hide features, and still not loose any emotion of the piece really got to me in a good way and is one of his devices (among many) I look forward to trying. It will no doubt be years and years before I can effectively use (or even fully understand) many of the things I appreciated in Waterhouse in my own work, and certainly I will notice all new things should I see any of these pieces again...but I think that is part of the joy of this whole artistic journey.

Happy Arting!

Gandalf!

2010-01-06T18:13:00.005-05:00

So I've been working several things: one of which is a Gandalf portrait and thought I would share it in its "sketch" stage.

I tried a different way of working this one- just using some photo reference, and sketching first with a blue pencil and then with raw umber directly on a gessoed panel. There's something lovely about the freedem this warrants- much like drawing with charcoal. It's got some colors on it now, and perhaps I will share another progress shot soon.

Back to the easel!

Bits from the sketchbook

2009-12-19T17:02:00.003-05:00

Time to start keeping up with posts more regularly! Here are a few things from the sketchbook:

First an old wandering wizard and his traveling companion.

I love winter for all the interesting layered fashions that people wear around the city. The bottom was a lovely woman on the subway with a great hat. The top figure was done from memory of a neat jacket a girl was wearing on the street.

I'm very lucky to be living in the heart of Park Slope, where there are so many interesting people on every corner. One of my favorite regulars is the Accordian Man. He sits out on various corners and plays some really lovely music- and I have always had a soft spot for accordion. So one evening as I was waiting for a friend, I sat at the Connecticut Muffin and sketched him for about 20 minutes.

Queen of Hearts finish

2009-11-30T23:13:00.004-05:00

I love it when friends commission a piece and say "just do whatever you want". It allows me to experiment and discover new ways of working that I might not otherwise have a chance to explore. This was originally meant to be much smaller and simpler than it turned out, but I ended up having so much fun it sort of kept going. I posted a WIP a few months ago and just realized I never posted the finish, so here it is:

8.5x11 watercolor on Canson 140 lb watercolor paper.

Illuxcon Sketch Dump

2009-11-17T11:34:00.008-05:00

So I went to Illuxcon this weekend with some amazing artist friends: Kurt and Zelda and Rob Rey. All you have to do is go check out the guest list to figure out what an amazing time I had. It's a small con, only around 200 attendees, but concentrated with some of the best artists in the industry, fascinating panels and lots of great conversations. In case you haven't heard me talk about this at length already: the people in the sci-fi/fantasy industry boasts of the most generous, supportive, down to earth sorts of folks around. I used nearly 20 pages of sketchbook during the con, so without further ado, here are some highlights:

Spot the art-stars! Sculptors Thomas Kuebler and Jordu are here...

Jordu and Thomas did an amazing collaborative sculpture during the con. Here's a pic swiped from Christopher Burdett's blog:

Here we have art directors Jon Schindehette (D&D) and Jeremy Cranford of (WoW) who both took time out of a very busy schedule to talk to me about my portfolio. You guys rock! Also Kurt Huggins.

Scott Altmann, another favorite.

A couple of Chris Burdett and Rob Rey.

Drawing people sleeping is fun- and creepy. Here's Kurt.

And Zelda sleeping in the car. Then while listening to Florence and the Machine's Rabbit Heart, I started sketching a rabbit and just felt like continuing the theme. Introducing Fungarabbit and Bunthulu:

© 2009 Kristina Carroll.

Some exciting projects on the horizon so expect more soon!

Amanda Palmer Tarot: Seven of Wands

2009-10-13T18:20:00.005-04:00

And here is a teaser for my final piece for the Amanda Palmer Tarot deck: The Seven of Wands. The most challenging part of this project was combining my vision of what the card meant to me with Amanda’s music. I knew that I wanted to use “Astronaut” as my basis but do it from the perspective of the person flying in the face of science, not the one left behind. I went through pages and pages of thumbnails before finding one that felt right and after shooting reference, began a charcoal drawing. I was still finding difficulty in placing imagery from the song in my drawing that would marry the concept with the card, until a random smudge in the charcoal put in my mind the milky way swirling around this larger than universes figure and suddenly everything started working. Another smudge on the rod in her hand made it burst into flame and suddenly echoes of Prometheus tied the whole piece together. From that point the drawing basically finished itself. I started laying down oil paint up to a certain point and finished digitally. Now I look at this piece and see a universal figure overcoming a universe in her way to achieve her goals. To me it is an image of perseverance, courage and inspiration and I can only hope others might look at it and feel the same.

More Amanda Palmer, Queens and faces

2009-10-05T20:31:00.007-04:00

Ok, ok. So it's definitely been too long since my last post. I will try to make this one count! I've been doing a lot of work for Shadowrun, none of which I can show you of course. But I can show you some of the side projects I've been working on in between.

First off a couple more tiny portraits. Here are Mark and Valya:

These two were a lovely couple and I really enjoyed working from several pictures of their beautiful family. I tried to capture the most striking emotion that both portrayed in their images. Mark definitely struck me as a thoughtful, far-looking person and Valya had a smile that I knew would be infectious in person.

Next is a little private commission work in progress I've been on for a bit. The Queen of Hearts:

Pencil and watercolor.

And finally, the piece I have been working on for the Amanda Palmer Tarot deck. The Seven of Wands with inspiration drawn from Amanda's song, "Astronaut":

I really do love working in charcoal. The flexibility and texture allow for so many happy accidents. Such as a random accidental brush turning into the milky way wrapping around a figure.

Poetry and Bella

2009-08-19T09:49:00.009-04:00

New tiny portrait done for the lovely Bella. I've been writing little bits on the back of these that I find tell a story about the piece. Lately I've been inspired by Baudelaire a great deal so here's the line I chose from Autumnal

"Sister and Mistress! be the fleeting warmth
of a sumptuous autumn or a setting sun."

Speaking of poetry and tiny portraits, you may remember my Medusa Palmer:

Well none other than my favorite author, Neil Gaiman himself, became my first customer and bought it! (Note to self: painting high profile writers' girlfriends as mythical creatures sometimes works. Especially when they're lovely supportive folks like Neil.)

Well I couldn't send something off to Neil without doing something special so, again inspired by Baudelaire, I came up with a little story/poem in response to his Beauty. Yeah, I wrote something. Weird right?

Baudelaire's Beauty

The sister with one human eye
conceives her love as a dream of stone.
But the heart is not a perfect mirror
and what is frozen by a blink,
melts in a gaze.

©2009 Kristina Carroll

Perhaps I'll start reading Byron next.

Don't forget, you can get your own tiny portrait for just $40 plus shipping. And now I'm going international! That's right, don't think that because you're overseas, you can't join in the fun. I'm a global kind of gal!

A Couple More Tiny Portraits

2009-08-03T22:55:00.003-04:00

One more of Kurt and Zelda of Teetering Bulb! The one of Kurt was done in person while having wine after an amazing day of art and walking. That's why it's the color of wine! (Right Kurt? )

Get your own Tiny Portrait!

Portraits! Get your Portraits! Tiny, adorable Portraits!

2009-08-01T02:45:00.007-04:00

So I've been teasing a few of you the last couple days about my new project that I'm hoping will excite people and maybe evolve into something really fun. SDCC was a great experience, as always and one I wouldn't give up for the world. Alas, it has left my funds dreadfully depleted and so I am trying to be creative instead of , you know, panicking or holding up the local coffee shop. (Guerilla coffee- your time is coming. All you hipster bloggers with teeny laptops should fear)

Here's how it starts:

Some heads inspired by some favorite faces from films:

Getting a little creative with some. First guy based on Rufus Sewell needed some wind. And Amanda Palmer's cool hair made me just want to make it bigger, until she became a sexy gorgon. Perhaps Medusa killed Amanda Palmer?

Then I worked on some of my friends. The top two are the amazingly talented Kurt and Zelda of Teetering Bulb and the bottom two are Gregory Manchess and Michael Kaluta- two amazing and generous artists and friends. I really went for likeness/personality in these and am quite happy with the results!

All of these are 3 inches by 3 inches on Canson watercolor paper.

So here's what is going to happen. I am going to keep making portraits and I am going to offer them at the amazing price of $25 each, plus $2 for shipping anywhere in the US. That is an original work of art for only $27! Holy cow! Not only that, but I will sign and title each and maybe even write something fun on the back just for you as a surprise.

But wait there's more.

Are you looking at these and thinking, well these are nice enough and all- but I don't really know any of these people? Well how about an original made to order? That's right- I am also taking requests. Send me a decent photo of someone. Anyone. And I will paint it up for you. Same price. You can even pick favorite colors if you want. Now there's a birthday present that will make people talk! Order in the next few days, and I will have your painting done and in the mail within a week.

Email me to start your own collection of Carroll originals or with any questions at Kristina (at) KristinaCarrollArt.com

A taste of what's to come

2009-07-30T11:21:00.003-04:00

AFMP
3"x 3"
Watercolor on Watercolor Paper

Stay tuned! More Soon...

Catching up with myself

2009-07-09T09:19:00.002-04:00

Wow moving is exhausting, and my art making has suffered. So here are a few pieces that I just haven't had a chance to get on the website yet.

Persephone.

And Echo.

Plein Air

2009-06-24T20:47:00.003-04:00

It has come to my attention that I have let the blog slip a little this month! Between weddings and moving and job hunting I've gotten lazy so let's jump back into the swing with a little plein air work I did these last couple of weeks. Hey Kelly- this is for you! ;)

So the first I did in about 1.5 hours while my good friend and very awesome model, Kate, (who you might recognize from my 'Eleanor' series) sat for me. She was a sport, and introduced me to the best ever dumpling place after that session.

This one was done a week and a half ago on a very overcast day at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. It took about 3.5 hours total and was quite a pleasure despite the chilliness. I chose this angle to do something different, and I liked the way the trees framed the angel perfectly.

That's all for now! The next plein air pieces will most likely be done in Prospect Park, only 2 blocks from my new apartment!

Variations on a Theme

2009-06-01T18:24:00.004-04:00

First of all- thank you to everyone who voted for me in the last Art Order challenge! With your support I won the game! So get ready for another round of pencil fencing, because here's my submission for this week:

Variations on a Theme asked us to take a race from the 4th edition D&D set, put it in a pose and do 3 variations of the armor. I chose the Deva mostly because of it's newness to the world, and the potential for some crazy design. It is described as having a persian/japanese influence so I went to town on reference and had a blast trying to find different ways to marry the two styles. I plan on working on some color this week, to really finish these up as I just enjoyed them so much.

So if you like my Devas, head over to ArtOrder after Tuesday's (tomorrow's) posting and leave a vote for me in the comments section. FYI, Jon is no longer accepting anonymous votes, so please remember to put your name in the appropriate box!

Concept Tuesday's Devolved Gnome

2009-05-19T17:18:00.002-04:00

So I did this week's concept Tuesday challenge over at Artorder and wanted to share the results. The challenge was to devolve a Gnome from the 4th edition D&D manual and here are the results:

Here are a examples of the original concepts by Raven Mimura:

I thought that being a trickster fae, the Gnomes ought to be more primal and animalistic with their ancestry so, going off the original design, I based my devolution on the shape of the spider monkey. The Gnome, which now lives in the roots of trees, used live on top of them. Tails, long hands and flexible feet serve the early Gnomes in leaping through the branches and swinging from tree to tree gracefully. Tricksters from the start, their long tails and clever fingers and toes also aided in swooping down to steal shiny objects from surprised passerby and disappearing back into the leaves before anyone could register what happened.

So if you like my piece, please head over to ArtOrder.Blogspot.com and vote for me!

Oil Sketch

2009-05-12T23:02:00.004-04:00

So in celebration of finally being able to go outside again, I decided to do some painting from life. Here are some windows I can see from my back porch. And by porch I mean fire escape.

I spent about an hour and a half on this I think. I am going to do more at different times of day to see how the light changes. This one was 5:30ish- 7. The little spot of yellow between the windows was only there for like 5 minutes, and it was fun trying to capture things like that as they came and went.

Charcoal

2009-05-02T09:50:00.006-04:00

So I've been rediscovering charcoal lately and decided to do a few Fairy Tale illustrations in it for something a little different:

I was looking at a lot of Shaun Tan's work for these pieces, trying to channel his atmosphere and sense of whimsy. I really enjoy just pushing the medium around, rubbing and lifting out. Charcoal is like oil in a lot of ways with its fluidity and the way it stays 'live' on the paper indefinitely. It offers a lot of opportunities for those happy accidents, focusing on atmosphere and gesture. I think I will be experimenting a lot more with it this summer.

The story is The Maiden in the Castle of the Rosy Clouds. Though the title is a bit of a mouthful, the story itself is really lovely- sort of Don Quixote/Fisher King-esque with one of those perfect bitterweet endings I love so much. It's from the Swedish Folk Tales book illustrated by John Bauer, and if you don't know HIS work then you're missing out. If you're a fan of Brian Froud's art, you will recognize a LOT of Bauer there:

Richard Painted

2009-04-20T19:42:00.008-04:00

And here's the finished Richard! I think it's one of my new favorite pieces, I had such a great time playing with skin tones, figuring out the fur and just messing with edges. After such a complicated piece like Legolas, it was very relaxing to just do a simple-ish portrait. Richard's wonderful, weird creations can be found at http://historically-inaccurate.blogspot.com/. This piece will be part of Richard's massive show at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont from May 17-October 29 of this year. So if you are in Vermont- stop by and tell me how it is! Last I checked, about 25 other artists are going to be displaying their own hybrid portraits in addition to Richard's own lovely creations, so it is definately worth the trip. Also- It has a 220-foot steamboat in its yard.

Night on Macdougal Street

2009-04-08T22:48:00.007-04:00

So my very talented friend Brennan (who you can recognize as the left twin from this post), with whom I am graduating SVA with in a mere month, bribed me with his charm, wit and DMing skillz to help him out on his thesis film: Night on Macdougal Street. It started with some storyboarding followed by a few appearances as an extra, then as the savior in a pay phone prop emergency and finally some drawings to run with the credits. The drawings, as Brennan tells it, were inspired by the end credits to My Neighbor Totoro (see why we're friends?) where the illustrations show a few scenes of life for the characters after the ending of the movie. The movie itself, to give a quick synopsis, is a semi-autobiographical account of a comedian's 8-year old son being left in a comedy club and looking for his dad around the West Village neighborhood full of tough bouncers, seedy club owners, creepy crack heads and sweet waitresses. It ends with the kid calling his dad (from said payphone) and returning to the club to wait for him. Then: roll the credits.

First we have the father exiting a cab.

The bouncer and waitress deliver Devon (the kid) to a sheepish father.

Then he tucks in a sleeping Devon.

And then a series of shots of Devon with the various other characters appearing in the film.
Devon, dad, comedians and Comedy Cellar owner (played by Brennan's REAL dad, Joe, in the glasses)

Devon with some ladies of the club.

Devon with the Cafe Wa owner and Terry the Crack-head.

Devon with some more comedians.

That's Colin Quinn on the left in that last one. He makes a very short cameo, as he is a friend of Brennan's comedian dad.

Brennan wanted the style of these drawings to be fairly simple sketches, much like the artwork on the walls of the Olive Tree Cafe where part of the film takes place (and one of my all time favorite spots in NYC). The real challenge was getting the likenesses of all the characters, especially the kid who played Devon. An early copy of the film and a folder full of screen-captures made my job much easier, and I am pretty happy with the results.

You can see the fruits of my (ok, and Brennan's) labors on the big screen at the Dusty Film Festival May 4-8. Not sure exactly when Night on MacDougal street will be showing, but I will post here when I know more.

http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu/dusty/

I'm in a show!

2009-04-04T22:24:00.006-04:00

The Amazing and Talented Lana Crooks over at Crooked Art co-curated a fantastic show in her gallery in Chicago. I sure wish I could see it in person, because a few of these dolls look really stunning. in particular, these beauties by Joe Shea :
Just wow. I want.

Anywho, here are the gallery shots of my Jack and the Beanstalk set. I liked the feeling the wood showing through gave them, made them seem more like old handed down toys to me, so I left them unvarnished.

And a few detail shots of my own:

Check out the A.Okay Gallery website at http://aokayofficial.com.

From the Sketchbook

2009-03-12T23:57:00.005-04:00

Here are a few pages from the sketchbook from my visit to Nathan Fox and Becky Cloonan's lecture at the Society of Illustrators a few weeks back. First I tried my hand at capturing the likeness of Becky, Nathan and the moderator as they talked back and forth. Sometime after I ended up doodling the creepy dog and the strange cone-head man. I think this must have been post-Coraline.

Then I went upstairs to catch the last bit of life-drawing with some friends. This was my first taste of the SOI sketch/jazz night and I have to say, I liked it very much. Great models, great music and a stocked bar make for a pretty perfect evening if I do say so myself. And I do.

Richard and his Pet

2009-03-11T18:49:00.003-04:00

Here is the preliminary drawing for a painting that will be in a massive group show in May. The curator is having about 25 artists paint him as an albino animal hybrid and is exhibiting them 19th century salon style so I thought a 19th century man was in order. I imagined Richard as a sort of Moreau-style professor with one of his creations. I thought the real question should be was Richard's unique condition a product of his own imagination or is it what inspires him to create similarly hybrid beings.

Two Heads are Better?

2009-03-05T08:29:00.003-05:00

When given an assignment to illustrate a story about a two headed man, where both heads have completely different personalities and looks, I knew exactly who I wanted to use. Brennan and Griffin are a couple friends, really fun guys and step-brothers. I bribed them over with fried chicken, took photos of them and worked out this composition.

The background is still in flux. Initially I was thinking fire/smoke on one side turning into butterflies ( a significant image in the story) but the paint is telling me this may not work. Also Grif (the one on the right) will be a bit more sinister in the final.

Cats and Things

2009-02-28T22:44:00.003-05:00

One of the paintings I'm working on has an animal that I'm not quite sure about yet. After hours of sketching and erasing, I realized that I was going about it all backwards and started doing sketches of some real animals I might want it to reference. So here are some cats, a bunny, and a thing I started developing after the sketches.

Storyteller

2009-02-24T11:32:00.002-05:00

Here is a character sketch for a project I'm working on with some friends. He's a storyteller who's a little bit shaman, a little bit skald and a little bit mountain man.

Sketchbook Saturday

2009-02-21T02:06:00.005-05:00

I'm a big fan of the Kalevala. Anyone who has let me ramble about the beautiful flowing poetry of the Friberg translation (and Gallen-Kallela's illustrations) has probably regretted it, as I will always do my best to quote the first paragraph from memory and usually fail miserably. There is also a great bit in Runo 19 about the smith Ilmarinen forging an iron eagle to battle a massive fish that has me itching to do an illustration of the scene. I mean come on! Big Iron eagle! Neat! The sketch below is not that scene. It is, instead, a funny little creature out of my sketchbook who really wants to be an iron eagle, so he makes a sort of eagle suit:

The faded drawing in the background is a Celtic version of an eagle. Someday I will actually illustrate Ilmarinen and his Iron Eagle. Just not today.

And because I can't resist, I'm going to share the first paragraph of the Kalevala which is, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant beginnings ever written:

I am wanting, I am thinking
To arise and go forth singing,
Sing my songs and say my sayings,
Hymns ancestral harmonizing,
Lore of kindred lyricking.
In my mouth the words are melting;
Utterances overflowing
To my tongue are hurrying,
Even against my teeth they burst.

You can read more here.

One of my fantasies is a week of campfires in the wilderness where Christopher Lee reads the entire Kalevala out loud.

Musicians

2009-02-20T00:48:00.002-05:00

A couple musicians from the sketchbook. Doodled randomly on the subway.

Maiden Voyage

2009-02-18T20:50:00.001-05:00

Well I've gone and done it. Finally, after much kicking and screaming mind you, I've decided to do the blog thing just like everyone else. Really I just want an excuse to sketch and share more strange things that won't necessarily have a home on the website, so here we go. Let's see what happens...

News: One of my newest pieces, Legolas at Helm's Deep, has been accepted into the Society of Illustrators student competition show. A LOT of people enter this show, and only about 120 get in, so this is a huge honor and I am really excited.

Ok- a new drawing to start this off. Here's a girl who was reading a book.