Month of Love

In February I organized a daily art challenge that included 20 amazing artists. Every day (except Sunday) was "love" themed art with a mix of free-style and detailed challenges. The Month of Love turned out to be a great exercise with some truly amazing art resulting from everyone, especially considering we rarely spent more than an hour on each piece. There is a ton of beautiful art up there- hundreds of pieces in fact and I urge you to go marvel at what these artist can do in such a short time. Here are some of my favorite pieces I came up with:

"Love Song Shuffle" Challenge:
 Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones
oil
"Love is Blind" Challenge:
 charcoal
Freestyle Sunday - - Blue
watercolor
Neverending Story Love - The Childlike Empress
pencil
Cat Tryst
watercolor
Medea
charcoal/digital
Favorite Mug/Caffeine Love
oil
I love my job - life sketch of James Gurney at NHIA demo
pencil
"Mating Rituals" Challenge:
charcoal 
"I love you guys" - Portrait of the MoL artists challenge
Jeanine Henderson (who designed our layout)
oil

Below is one of my favorite challenges. It was a multiple day challenge leading up to Valentines Day and was meant to  be an autobiographical love story. I chose my first "boyfriend". Here is the full story:

In 6th grade Chris started walking me home from school and became my first boyfriend.


Chris and I talked on the phone a few times.


He even came over once to play on my jungle-gym with me.



When he gave me a big, purple ring from a cracker-jack box, I knew it was serious. I mean, our names were sort of the same so it was clearly meant to be.



Then one day, I waited for Chris to meet me after school and he didn't show up.  I was a little bit worried but convinced myself that he was just sick or something. However when I called his house later, he wasn't home and he didn't meet me the day after that either...


Later that week, I found out he had been walking Misty Powell home from School. He was no longer my boyfriend.

- The End -
See All my Month of Love work here

Vernal

Vernal
Oil on panel
12"x 13"

Most of the time when I start pushing paint around with an incomplete idea, nothing worth showing happens. But in this case, the freedom from my usual structure worked in my favor and I came out with something I am very pleased with. I started out with the desire to do a figure of gold. I am a big fan of editorial fashion photography, and had several inspirational references  around the easel that I wanted to draw from.


I had an ochre toned board from a previous demo and just began making shapes, thinking it would be a short discovery exercise but then a few hours hours later, realized I could see where I wanted this to go.I began thinking about the themes of youth and beauty being idolized  and the eternal struggle to maintain or retrieve something fleeting and superficial.  I added decoration and started pushing the figure toward something ornate and rich, but maybe a little cold and unattainable. 

 Although Asian features of my figure were simply the result of making shapes and keeping the ones I liked, quite by coincidence (or synchronicity) while working on this I listened to a Moth podcast about how South Korea  is obsessed with beauty. It has the highest rate of plastic surgery of any other country. Some all-girl high schools have mirrors and scales that they are encouraged to use frequently and people often have to attach photos to resumes. It was a country obsessed  in a way that shocked me. As an American, one of the few things I thought we did best was mess up culture of self-image for our youth, but apparently in a desire to become more Western, South Korea has surpassed us on even that. 

Life Painting with my students


Right before thanksgiving break, I scheduled a model for what would be a small Wednesday class and decided to do a little painting of my own in between chatting with students. It was a 2.5 hour pose, but I maybe worked an hour on this. Made me realize how much I miss life painting. Time to start making more room for the Boston Figurative Society again!

Fun fact: The model's name was Kristina too.

The Bavrogar - A story and illustration for Halloween




The Bavrogar
By Kristina Carroll 

Somewhere in the gray creases and folds behind your eyes is a cold and twisting swamp. You won’t find the entrance to this labyrinth in the daytime; you won’t even find it in the easy chaos of dreams. But in that uneasy midnight of the soul, when you've woken staring into corner shadows and glancing at hours that swiftly devour sleep in a digital glow; this is when the way opens. This is the path to the Bavrogar.

It starts with a shiver and a clammy uneasiness. Fog creeps from between roots under the bed sheets and into your lungs. A path yawns under your feet and wet, rotting leaves cling between your toes as you take one step then another, hoping movement will shake the chill. Green, wet hair weeps from leaning branches to caress your neck. A light that always floats just beyond the next tree whispers answers, and you follow because going back means only questions.

When the flicker of light disappears and stagnant mud gives way to sticky, black pools, that’s when you see it. A skeletal finger of smoke leads you between trees to a pond with no reflection of the silent spirit floating above and the snuffed bone-yellow candle in its hand. The Bavrogar is the place and it is the figure. It is the smoking candle and it is the cold chill that surrounds everything here. The delicate face of the spirit is beautiful but any detail of features forgotten behind the melancholy of one who has no dreams. For there are no dreams in the Bavrogar. Never any of its own anyways and never for long. But that is why you have come here, after all, to the cold swamp with your fever of bright dreams that burn away sleep. Hope is often an uneasy burden and there are few fears like those of dreams that may fail. Fear has led you with bare, dirty feet to the Bavrogar and its sweet face is a painting of compassion.

Come. The Bavrogar says. Come, let me take this fever that burns you so. This little dream of yours, it is too hot, so terrifying. Think about how peaceful and cool you will feel without it. And I am cold; can you not see how this dream will keep me warm? You do not want it, let me take it from you and you can sleep again. Sleep like a babe without fears or hopes. Such a beautiful sleep.

You hear the words like cold water behind your eyes. It soothes you and comforts you. Yes, you think. This dream is too big for me, how much easier it would be to leave it here. Yes, take it and let me sleep in peace. The Bavrogar softly smiles and holds out the candle. A chill winds up from your toes and out your head as the candle lights with a burst of white-hot flame, burning fast and blinding. You throw up your hands to protect your eyes and wake with a start. Cold sweat makes the twisted sheets stick to your legs and back, but you don’t remember why you've woken and turn over to fall into a black, hard sleep.

When you wake, it will be as if from the dreamless sleep of one who has been walking all day. You will feel light and rested, suddenly unburdened and certain that life is going to be easier. And it is, for a while. After all, life without a dream is very easy.

Yet somehow, you will always feel just a little colder than you used to.  The sun is never as warm and the colors never as bright. For when you leave something with the Bavrogar, the Bavrogar leaves something with you. A shadow on your vision and a string of smoke behind your eyes leading you back to that mirrorless pond. For the bone-yellow candle never stays burning for long in that place, and with each dream you surrender to the Bavrogar, it becomes easier and easier for it to call you back. Until all you will have left is the white-hot dream of life itself to light the Bavrogar’s candle.

© 2012 Kristina Carroll

Watcher of the Bruinen for the LoTR card game



A while back I did this piece for Fantasy Flight games' Lord of the Rings card game. I do love Tolkien, so this was a lot of fun. I did a few color studies because really wanted to push my colors here to get that sense of early morning, as if this guardian has been standing still for a long time. It made me realize how much those help, and started me on a trend of using them regularly. 

I don't believe I will never tire of painting elves.

© 2012 Fantasy Flight Games
10x10 oil and digital
© 2012 Fantasy Flight Games 

Charcoal Portrait: Opening

Been painting away, a few private commissions and lots of personal work. Several of those 'Almost Finished' pieces scattered around the room waiting for those last few hours of time and glazes to dry. Walnut oil is a bitch for glazing and I don't recommend it. So here's a little in-between thing that's been taped to the wall a bit. For the longest time I thought I needed to go back and finish it, then I realized it was already done.

Pond Ghost drawing


This idea sprung from a random abstract thumbnail I did in my sketchbook several months back. I'd begun the drawing right after, then it got pushed aside for other projects for a long time. I started it up again recently with the lofty idea that I might make it a painting for Spectrum Live, but it wasn't to be so.


Looking back at the thumbnail, I might change the figure a little bit to bring back some of the original shapes, and I am on the fence whether to light the candle or keep it smoking. But I like the overall feel of it, and look forward to moving into the paint.

 EDIT: Went back into it and changed it up some. I think this has a little more going for it:

Fun with charcoal: Twain and Walken portraits

So a few weeks ago, Scott asked me to do an oil painting demo for his class at MassArt and I thought it would be a great excuse to mess around with some portrait ideas I had wanted to flesh out. The Christopher Walken was the one I ended up moving forward with (more detailed post forthcoming when I finish the painting) but Mark Twain will end up fully painted as well, with a few more details added.

This was not my first portrait of Mr. Walken, because I love the way he looks. I enjoy his face so much in fact I have an idea to do several portraits of celebrities with very unique features. Here, I wanted to mess around with some dramatic lighting and thought some severe Film Noir effects suited his character. Christopher has a larger than life personality that fits in ideally with the Noir pastiche.


For Twain, I wanted more of the straightforward portrait.  I focused more on capturing the direct gaze with that touch of a smile that he always seems to have in photographs- like he knows something you don't. I knew that playing with the signature white suit and white hair would be a fun challenge, so I am very much looking forward to bringing this into paint too. I have a few more high priority pieces to work on before coming back to these but hopefully now that my first semester teaching has ended, I can devote some more time to my pet projects over the summer.

Bronze and Blue

Hello from the void.

 'Elevation', has won a bronze medal from the Society of Illustrators LA! Check out all the gorgeous work at their website.

In the midst of private commissions, work that I can't show, working on samples for the portfolio and teaching, it's important to take some time for self. Which for me is just pushing some paint around for a few hours and seeing what happens. So this week I took a small bit of primed illustration board, some fashion photos cut out of a magazine for inspiration and made this while listening to the audio book of "The Night Circus" (which is excellent by the way)

Blue Meditation
Oil on illustration board
5"x7"




Jorge Luis Borges


Jorge Luis Borges is one of my favorite authors and probably the most influential Spanish writer after Cervantes. Many say he is one of the founding fathers of speculative fiction and you can see his influence all over the genre from William Gibson to Doctor Who. His stories weave in and out of reality and psychology and I often find myself thinking about one of his stories years after I've read it. Nearly all of his works include reference to a labyrinth, which is a symbol I have always been drawn to and is certainly another reason his writing speaks so strongly to me. The profile portrait is traditionally used to depict someone passed in a more symbolic and immortal composition, and I thought would present him as the noble, timeless titan of literature he is. Even though he struggled with poor eyesight and blindness for a good portion of his later life, he saw realities enough for a hundreds lifetimes.

If you have never read Borges, I recommend starting with his "Labyrinths" collection. The Garden of Forking Paths, The Lottery in Babylon or The Library of Babel are some of my personal favorites and you may recognize some of the ideas.

New painting for Lincoln Arts Project show

Oil on 16 x 20 cradle board

One of Scott's former students, Pat Falco, and his friend Elliot Anderson have started a gallery in Boston. Their goal  is to bring quality, new art in from  young artists around the city into areas that might not normally see it. The resulting Lincoln Art Project Gallery has already hosted some unique shows including a showcase of concept  artists from Harmonix and a Type show.  When Scott and I heard about their plans to do an 'artist couples' show for Valentines day, we couldn't resist and thought it would be fun to create some portraits of each other for the show. I decided make Scott into a symbolist image about the relationship between artist and creative urge.


charcoal drawing and beginning washes of color 

Scott did a fantastic portrait of me looking very confident with my painting attire and, best of all, surrounded by books. It's a stunning graphic piece and I love that he sees me this way:


acrylic and pen on 16 x 20 cradle board

You can read Scott's blog about the process here.

And some press about the show, in which we are interviewed with some of the other artists, in the Weekly Dig here.

'Match'  at Lincoln Arts Project Gallery

Show Dates: February 8 - March 10

RECEPTION: Friday February 10, 7-10 PM

Gallery Hours: Wed - Fri 4-9 PM, Sat 2-8 PM or by appointment.

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!

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!

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.

Grayson

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!