Comic Sample Sketch!
First, I was invited to be interviewed by Kathy Temean for her Illustrator Saturday interview series (they are all so great!). Check it out at http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/illustrator-saturday-elisabeth-alba/. I talk about my schooling, the publishing work I’ve done, process, etc!
April 5-6 is MOCCA 2014! Delia Gable and I have a booth together. I’m working on a one page comic sample. I’ve decided that I’d like to do some pieces this year based on Die Zauberflöte – The Magic Flute! I think most of the work will be standalone paintings, but this first one is my comic sample – If I had the time and money, it would be awesome to do a graphic novel of the story of The Magic Flute (or Mozart’s life, if I could get Amadeus out of my head… though an Amadeus graphic novel would be sweet too). So this would be the first page – the reader enters the ‘story’ by zooming into the theater and onto the stage.
Next, I want to do a painting of the Queen of the Night and perhaps one of Papageno! Hopefully both of those can be done in time for Gen Con or IlluXCon.I am coloring it in a new way. It’ll be a mixed media painting. Fixed up the drawing and colored it digitally, then printed it onto watercolor paper. I will then be adding the black ink outlines on top and adding more color/lighting/etc.
New Small Painting – Abigail, Belle of Kilronan
This is my last painting for February’s Month of Love weekly challenge. Check out all of the completed work at monthoflove.blogspot.com! So much good stuff!
The fourth challenge was to make a piece based on one of Magnetic Fields’s 69 Love Songs. I don’t really know Magnetic Fields, so I scanned through the song titles and picked the one that caught my eye – Abigail, Belle of Kilronan.
I painted it with black ink (Ph Dr Martin’s black star matte ink), then painted on top of that with the Hydrus watercolors, then sealed with matte medium and continued adding color with acryla gouache.Here is the ink version, before I added color (click for larger version):
New Small Painting – Melissa
Here is another small painting done for the Month of Love weekly challenge blog. The third week’s challenge was “Fetish.” Ink and watercolor!
I recently learned about Melissophilia, an arousal toward bees/wasps/hornets/etc. Melissa comes from the Greek word for ‘honey bee.’ There’s all kinds of interesting things that can be read about bees in mythology here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa. Anyway somehow I decided I wanted to draw a girl with bees and it turned into this!
All of these small paintings will be for sale at conventions. I hope to keep making them after the Month of Love blog is done (until next year). They’re quick and fun and make me feel more motivated! I don’t have to worry about a client or too much about concept or making them the best paintings ever since they’re just quick fun things to loosen up and let me experiment a bit. Refreshing!
New Art and Interview!
Happy February!
First, illustrator Kiri Østergaard Leonard has begun a new blog series of interviews with women in fantasy art. I am honored to be the first one interviewed! Read the interview at http://kirileonard.com/interview-elisabeth-alba/. I talk about how I decided to be an illustrator, why I attended grad school, the pros and cons of the career, and lots of other things. I’m very excited to read future interviews with some of the other awesome lady illustrators she’s lined up.
I am also participating in Month of Love, a weekly art challenge led by illustrator Kristina Carroll. There are over 30 amazing illustrators participating. Each week is a theme, and each day different artists are assigned to post their piece based on the theme.
Here are my first two! Both are ink and watercolor.
The #nofilter Valentine challenge: I did a portrait of Beast from Beauty and the Beast – Beauty has to look past his terrifying exterior to begin to know the sweet and intelligent man he is underneath. Love is not always at first sight!
Favorite Love Story challenge – I chose Robin Hood and Maid Marian. I’ve always loved movies and books about Robin Hood and his Merry Men.New art: Chapter headers for a space opera!
I recently completed these four seals for author Philip Williams, who is publishing an epic science fiction series which can be found at www.thegriffinseries.com and on Facebook at The Griffin Series. The first three books are out now, and they can be found on Williams’ Amazon author page at http://www.amazon.com/Philip-Williams/e/B00ERZB7EM/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0. I read the first book and am now reading the 2nd, and I’m really enjoying them so far. If you like books or TV shows in this genre (Dan Simmon’s books, Firefly… etc), you’ll love these!
Each seal represents each book. They are on the book covers and used as chapter headers inside. The covers are by Jung Ho Park.
I also did these alternate ‘stone’ seals. The insect-like creature is a Gambor. It was fun creating the look of this creature that existed only in the author’s mind.
I Am #10: Cleopatra
My latest with Scholastic just came out – I Am #10: Cleopatra written by Grace Norwich, part of the “I Am” biography series published by Scholastic. I illustrated the interiors. Mark Fredrickson is the cover artist. This book is different than the previous ones I illustrated in that the books contain half photo/half art now.
Cover by Mark Fredrickson
This was a fun one. I love illustrating historical subjects and this required a lot of interesting research about battles and ancient armor. I didn’t have as much photo reference to look at as I did in the George Lucas and MLK Jr. biographies. I enjoyed revisiting HBO’s Rome miniseries (fantastic) for ideas for costumes and architecture.
Here are a few of my favorites from the book! As always, click the images to see larger versions.
Mark Antony Leading CavalryAlexandrian War – Testudo battle formation!Cleopatra and Julius Caesar in a procession on the river.Portrait of Cleopatra with the Lighthouse of Alexandria behind her.I even got to do a little map! – Illustrating the positions of the ships during the Battle of Actium.
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