Gandalf!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!