My new website and blog

I'm happy to announce that I recently updated my website and blog!

My website, caitpeterson.com, has a brand-new look and I've added some of my more recent images, so please have a look!

I won't be updating this blog anymore, so if you'd like to keep up with what I'm doing, please visit my new blog, which is now integrated in my site.

I also opened an Etsy shop called The Owl & the Penguin, where I'm selling giclée and hand-made linocut prints.

Thank you for visiting!

Inspiration, books, and some belated Death and the Penguin images

Hello blog! Sorry you've been neglected for the entire duration of my MA dissertation. Well, that's done now, so hopefully you'll get a bit more attention. 

As I intended to do five months ago, here are the images I created for the exhibition I plugged in my last post, inspired by Andrey Kurkov's Death and the Penguin.  I was completely bowled over by the amount of people who ordered prints and bought my lino-print cards. Thank you to everyone for your support! The response was great motivation for me to continue with my illustration work.

Misha

Alone

Contact

Adoption

Crisis

Transplant

However, all that motivation to illustrate had to be put to the side for the summer, while I completed my dissertation (on the potential role of the library in artistic inspiration), and mentally prepared for my new exciting library job! For the past month since I started the new position, I've been lucky enough to wander around the stacks, finding the most beautiful, amazing books. I was shelving in the exhibition catalogues yesterday, and The R. Crumb Handbook caught my eye (it's very yellow), and I was reminded how enamoured I used to be with that guy. As cheesy as it sounds, I realised that yes, the library is basically the most 'inspiring' place for me (although my writing is all about how that term is weighted with different meanings, not all of them helpful to artists and designers).

Although it's probably already a part of art and design education, I think everyone should seek to further understand their personal conception and experiences of what they may term 'inspiration'. In particular, I found Robert J. Sternberg's Handbook of Creativity a great resource for an authoritative, accessible, and wide-ranging overview of the current psychological research. Perhaps the most personally compelling conceptions of 'inspiration' are those of the Asian subcontinent and East Asia. Influenced by the Hindu, Buddhist, Toaist, and Confucian beliefs, these traditional ideas are much more about the process of creating art, rather than its product. In fitting with the psychoanalytical ideas of the ego's expansion, there are some fascinating accounts in Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz's Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist about ancient Chinese artists who felt, or believed that they actually had become, the animal or object they were painting.

Maybe this view is just another way of artists' self-aggrandisement, which is so prevalent in Western ideas of creativity and inspiration. However, I think this is actually the best explanation of inspiration I have come across. There is something very meditative about creating art, and by concentrating on a subject, I think you come much closer to understanding it. However, regardless of the supposed quality of an artwork, I think the real importance should lie in the artists' experience of creating it. The Western art world is so commercial and product-focused, sometimes to the detriment of the actual artist.

Prior to the exhibition, I created a subject guide for ukiyo-e, Japanese Edo-period 'floating world' images best known in the form of cheap woodblock prints subjects such as Yoshiwara-district courtesans, kabuki theatre actors, and popular figures from folklore. I had about a week between my coursework deadlines and the opening of the exhibition, and I ended up being very influenced by the ukiyo-e I was looking at for the subject guide. I even placed a Hokusai print into the character's bedroom, which also serves to foreshadow the next image. I had an interest in the topic for a while, but writing this subject guide was like taking a crash course. I'm so excited for the British Museum's upcoming exhibition on shunga (because of the ukiyo-e, not because I specifically love old Japanese erotica with its graphic depiction of genitalia). There are some amazing looking talks planned, with some of my new favourite figures of Asian art history. My plan for the future is to eventually do a masters in art history, hopefully with a focus on Japanese art.

Well, for the time being, I'm going to concentrate on my new job, a whole load of new free time to illustrate again, and ... planning a wedding! Yes, my boyfriend proposed on 27th May. Technically, we already tied the knot in August, but the real celebrations are next summer. He already has a foxy blue-grey suit, and there's going to be a lot of Prince at the reception (who couldn't resist putting 'Let's Go Crazy' on a wedding playlist!).

The Animal That Therefore I Am Exhibition

Hello! It's been a while! 

My friend and brilliant illustrator Wiggy Cheung (wiggycheung.co.uk) and I are putting on an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and taxidermy at the House Gallery in Camberwell, South London, in just over two weeks. Our exhibition, entitled 'The Animal That Therefore I Am' is in support of the mental health charities Rethink and Mind. 

Stop by the exhibition any time between Monday 13 May and Wednesday 29 May (closed Bank Holiday Monday 27 May). The gallery is open Monday to Saturday 8.30 - 4.30.

More information is available on our exhibition's blog at 

theanimal-exhibition.blogspot.co.uk, 

or you can contact me at cait.peterson@gmail.com.

Hope to see you there!

2012 so far - Anteaters, Birthdays, and Weddings

My blog has been sadly neglected for most of 2012, primarily due to my choice to become a librarian! Illustration is in no way an easy career choice, and after a series of soul-destroying day jobs, I decided to get serious about library work. My artwork may be on the back-burner for the moment, but in the future, I think I'll be able to find a happy balance between library work and illustration.

Since my last post, I was accepted on postgraduate library/information science course here in London, which I began at the end of September. In early spring, I started volunteering with Westminster Libraries, which was a great opportunity. I think everyone who enjoys books, reading and encouraging kids to read books, especially aspiring children's book illustrators should volunteer for their local library's Summer Reading Challenge. In July, I quit my depressing job to spend a few weeks in Denmark, France, and back in the U.S., where I showed my European boyfriend the wonders of Chicago's Superdawg, National Mustard Day at the Mustard Museum in Middleton, WI, and the Historic Auto Attractions Museum in Roscoe, IL (okay, that last one he actually discovered). Upon returning to London, I was lucky enough to get a job in an academic library, and now I'm well on my way to being a librarian/illustrator.

While recovering from all the soul destruction that had been caused by spending too long working in catering, illustration wasn't my main priority. Here's a quick update on the (few) illustrations I did since my last post.

This anteater made his way on to a custom t-shirt I made for my boyfriend's birthday in January. He looks very pensive. 

Below is the front and inside of a mix tape sleeve/birthday card I made for my mom in July. If it's not obvious, the cake is decorated like a record. The slice is probably the most delicious-looking thing I've ever drawn, I think it's probably strawberry cake with strawberry jam layers and purple-coloured chocolate icing. The contrast of purple and orange really make this pop. 

My little sister turned 21 in July, and having recently visited the ring-tailed lemurs in London Zoo, I drew some of them partying. The lemurs form "21" with their tales on the front of the card ...

... and the lemur inside the card drinks his margarita and offers a birthday cupcake.

My most recent illustration project was for my cousin's upcoming wedding in New Mexico. I created some maps of the region and the resort where the wedding is being held (see below), and some illustrations for their wedding program, including a connect-the-dots and colouring-in page.

Like in my Eli the sloth illustrations, I used layers of digital colour and watercolour scans to create some subtle texture. The drawings of the buildings were probably the most time-consuming part, but I like the effect.

So that's really all the news for 2012 so far! Here's hoping it doesn't take another 10 months for me to post again.

Work in progress: Eli's Dad in Trafalgar Square

I was working on this illustration for my sloth book before Christmas, and I mean to go back and finish adding colour soon. After planning my book, this was the page I was most excited to draw. I was thinking what professions a sloth would be suited to, and I came up with the idea that Eli's Dad could be a living statue, and his Mum an artist's model. I hope the concept of a 'living statue' is universal enough to make sense for most readers. I decided to show Eli's Dad as a sort of Lord Nelson-type statue in front of the lions in Trafalgar Square. I had a lot of fun drawing the 60's-era pigeons with pill-box hats and bouffant hair, as well as the Polar Bear family as tourists dressed for the relative heat of London!

The next page, which I've done some sketches for, will show a framed copy of the photo the Dad Polar Bear took just as Eli's Dad moves and scares the Little Polar Bear. The rest of the page will show pastiches of famous portraits with Eli's Mum as the sitter.

Mix-Tape

I've been obsessed with the idea of mix-tapes since reading 'High Fidelity' when I was a teenager. 'Love is a Mix Tape' by Rob Sheffield is still one of my favourite books. For us geeky music girls whose ideal man arranges his record collection 'autobiographically', a mix-tape is just about the most romantic gift. Having coerced my own vinyl-loving boyfriend into making me a Christmas mix-tape, I decided to return the favour. I guess the strong point of my own mix-tape may be its cover, although even that doesn't have the charm of my boyfriend's hand-made CD sleeve featuring a photo of a penguin chick taken from his 2011 calendar.

Here' the front cover:

Notice I finally utilised the snowflakes I made for the Morozko illustration.

The back cover will be up soon once I finish tweaking it a bit.

Sherlock Holmes

For Christmas, my sister bought me 'The Complete Sherlock Holmes', published by Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics. I'm completely in love with these vintage-inspired designs, I think I've spent more time staring at the cover than reading the book (although I definitely plan to get through the whole collection at some point).

I also love the Jules Verne and 'Arabian Nights' collections.

It's fitting that my sister bought me this just as the new series of 'Sherlock' started running on the BBC. I'm swooning over the TV series as much as everyone else, but I don't think another version of 'Hound of the Baskervilles', will ever have as much impact on me as the 'Wishbone' version I saw as a kid. I remember it being dark, deeply atmospheric, and ultimately terrifying. I don't think I slept properly for at least a week afterwards. Obviously, 'Wishbone's versions have lost some of their grandeur and mystique now I've gotten older.

Christmas Elves

Here are some recent illustrations I did of mischievous Christmas house elves. As mentioned in my last post, this project got me back into using watercolours. The original images look even better, but I had a lot of limitations because of my scanner's quality. These have been tweaked in Photoshop to restore some of the subtle colour variations.

I like to think the girl has an unintentional likeness to Bjork.

... and the Dad-Elf.

A lot of my elf and gnome research was provided by a German-language copy of 'The Big Book of Gnomes' by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet. If you ever come across this strange Dutch tome, it's worth a look. It's an in-depth study of everything related to gnomes, from their mating practices to diagrams of their houses. Poortvliet's paintings are amazingly realistic, like a lovely old bird-watcher's guide ... except all about gnomes.

Eli in colour!

I added colour to this image of Eli a few weeks back, but I'm only getting around to putting it up now. It's not perfect, this was my first foray into watercolours in a long time, so some of the washes are a bit uneven. I've since become really excited about the medium. Every time I tried to paint with watercolours in the past, I was way too impatient and it all became a total mess. This isn't the best example of my new-found watercolour prowess, hopefully my latest images will be up soon as evidence. It wasn't the case with this image, but I found during my recent painting process that good watercolours really aren't done justice by my cheap printer/scanner. This bummed me out for a few days, but I finally came around to the sad realisation that it takes a few more hours of Photoshop tweaking to get the scan looking like the original, at least with my technique.

Either way, I'm fairly happy my pen lines and watercolours combination.

Morozko

This past week I've been working on-and-off on a personal project to make some illustrations for the Russian fairy tale 'Morozko'. A while ago, my lovely Russian friend brought me a book of Fairy Tales illustrated with Palekh paintings. Flipping through it for inspiration, I found a great fairy tale about 'Morozko', the Russian Jack Frost.

The general gist of the story is that a girl is being persecuted by her (of course) evil step-mother, who (of course) favours her own daughter. The step-mother is sick of the girl, so she manages to nag her husband, the girl's father, into taking her out into the woods and leaving her to die. While the girl sits shivering under a fir tree, Morozko comes down the branches and repeatedly asks if she is warm enough. The girl responds each time that she is warm, and Morozko takes pity on her and wraps her in a fur coat and blankets. Meanwhile, the step-mother is making pancakes for the girl's wake, and the dog says, 'Woof, woof! The old man's daughter will come in silver and gold; the old woman's daughter will leave suitors cold.' The step-mother tries to correct the dog, but he keeps repeating the rhyme, even when bribed with a pancake and then beaten. When the old man is sent out to retrieve his daughter's body, he instead finds her warm, decked out in gold, silver and furs, with a chest of treasures sitting next to her. They triumphantly return, and the jealous step-mother decides to send her own daughter out to the woods to reap the same rewards from Morozko. Morozko comes down from his tree like before, but when he asks if the girl is warm, she chides him for making her freeze and shoos him away. He loses his temper and turns her into ice. While she is away, the dog says 'Woof, woof! The old man's daughter will have suitors by the score; the old woman's daughter lives no more.' The step-mother tries to correct him, but a moment later, her husband returns with her dead daughter. The moral, I suppose, is to be nice to strangers. I'll over-look the typical misogyny of it all, Morozko's strange love of women who are so polite they will say they are warm whilst freezing to death, the rhyming, future-telling, pancake-eating dog, and the father quite easily being nagged into murdering his own daughter.

Looking this up online, it turns out that 'Morozko' (along with an amalgam of other Russian fairy tales, including Baba Yaga) was made into a Soviet film of the same name in 1964. The film itself looks more than a little ridiculous, and it was even featured in a Mystery Science Theatre 3000. However, it provided some good reference for me in terms of clothing, as well as the following samples of Russian scarves. As pointed out in MST3K, the character of the girl, who is called Nastenka in the film and goes on to marry a Prince, looks to be about 9 years old. I hope my depiction is a little more age-appropriate.

Here is my own interpretation of the moment when Morozko comes down the tree to question the girl. I was working on adding a crown, sceptre, fir tree and snow to the image, but I seem to have hit a bit of a creative block. So I'll post what I'm happy with so far, which is just the simple original image with muted colours and blue-grey lines.

I had some trouble drawing symmetrical snowflakes, so I cheated by reflecting and rotating a drawing of a 30 degree section of snowflake in Photoshop. I'm going to incorporate them into the finished image.

In researching 'Morozko' and all things traditionally Russian, I came across this unrelated, but beautiful image by turn-of-the-century British illustrator, Charles Robinson.