The illustration one can be found here: http://charibdys.cleanfolio.com/
And the design portfolio can be found here: http://charibdys.designbinder.com/

As all portfolios, both are works in progress.

In Progress

This is a watercolor painting that I started a few years ago and have not finished because I felt that I wasn’t “good enough yet” to finish it without ruining it. I have much more confidence that I can complete it now, although I have got some other comics, illustrations, and prints to finish first.

I also just really like how it looks sketched out!

This is a draft sketch for a little woodblock print I want to do, which is in turn a study for a larger work (mostly in process and technique). Maybe a vulture next, if this works out? I feel like I’m treading awfully close to Ursula Vernon’s territory, though.

This is about a year old. Gouache study for a painted illustration for Kobold Quarterly magazine.

In other awesome news, I got a short story accepted into Arcane magazine! Strangely enough, it’s a horror story.

I posted up a scan of one of the final the Winter Bird prints yesterday, so today I’ve got a picture of it about a third of the way carved. You can see I started with the outside; the order that pieces are carved in doesn’t really matter.

In this case I drew straight on the block, totally forgetting that the final would be reversed, and then swore a bit. After I’d decided that the image worked just as well reversed, I primed the surface with ordinary white Elmer’s glue. Priming with glue isn’t always necessary, but in this case the lines were so fine that I was afraid that the . The glue (a very light coat) helps hold the wood fibers together and also smooths the surface. That done, I inked the picture with a brush. Really only halfway- you can see that I didn’t use a terribly organized process with this one. When more colors are involved, it takes a lot more planning and precision. I inked the surface mostly so that I could tell what lines I would be carving on.

Usually I prime a woodblock with a light wash of watercolor so that the carved surface and the surface that will print are more clearly differentiated — this one I didn’t bother because it’s such a tiny quick piece. The feathers were tricky, though. I mostly used a knife.

Whew, that’s a lot of information in a short time. And carving is the easy part! Next Thursday: carving tools!

I know I have a tendency to dump a lot of information fast and/or without context, so if you have any questions, please ask.

Here’s a tiny woodblock I did last fall. The full size is 4×4″, so it’s actually bigger onscreen than it is in real life! I didn’t exactly consciously decide to work so detailed, but I like doodling on the pieces of wood I have lying around, and every once in a while I carve them. I was about halfway through it before I realized that I had to carve every single teeny feature out. Hah!

… I have a lot more of these carved doodles around that I haven’t printed yet. It’s too cold to work in the basement right now, which is where my studio is, so I’m hoping that spring will show her face any day now!

I’ve got a plan for this blog, but I’ve been to busy between convention prep and classes to implement it. So! Here’s the plan: art posts every Tuesday – finished pieces are ideal, but sketches and in-progress works too. Expect some crossposting from my dA account, which I know can be hard to navigate. Thursday will be the day I discuss my artistic process and art in general. Let me know if there’s any specific questions you’d like answered or themes to be discussed!

Now I’m going to go sleep off the con crud before I catch up on my homework.

I’m excited because they turned out so nicely. You can’t really see it on the scan, but the monster in my header is over the front of the card — in spot gloss! Very exciting.