Caitlyn Crites Illustration

Long time no see

2011-10-02T13:12:00.001-07:00

Well. I started a Tumblr for works-in-progress and that's been getting a lot more love recently (also because this blog is on an old e-mail account that's being overtaken by Facebook notifications) Anyway, now that the excuses are out of the way, this is a little self-portrait I did for professional development, intended for use on a bio page. If I was a Saturday morning cartoon it would be decently accurate - although I got at least three suggestions to "make the mouth HUGE" and so that's probably why little cartoon me looks so enthused. That or the cat.

Pigeons!

2011-07-18T09:33:00.001-07:00

Did these little guys for my internship! The wood-cut inspired one is digital, and the rest are gouache with just a few digital details.

Vend Send Mend

2011-06-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here's my piece for Vend, Send, Mend! All proceeds from the show go to Doctors Without Borders and the Japan relief effort. The colors on Blogger might be a little bright; the blacks are a little darker in person. It's ink, marker, and gouache (I think you can do washes with gouache, right...?), and I'll do a digital version at some point, too.

Some kids

2011-06-21T11:28:00.001-07:00

I recently got an internship at Carus Publishing in Chicago! (I start officially in a few days) As I was applying for the position and conversing with the art director, he asked me if I ever drew anything for younger audiences. After looking over my portfolio, panicking, and spending a night drawing these kids, I was able to tell him yes (or at least that I was capable of drawing a person younger than 15, kind of.)

Pride

2011-05-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

I think Blogger might have clobbered the quality of this, but anyway - this was a poster illustration for my Lifestyles class. It was part of a diptych showing pride and humility (or superbia and humilitas in Latin). These ladies are a little too self-obsessed, but definitely more fun to draw then their humble counterparts.

Ginger

2011-05-02T11:32:00.001-07:00

Just a little something - gouache and digital.

Paintings

2011-04-19T09:41:00.001-07:00

Thought I would share these one-shots. Scanners are not kind to oil paint.

Style Buddies

2011-04-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is an ongoing "paper doll" assignment for Lifestyle Illustration. The assignment was to draw three characters and dress them in designer clothes each week. Here are a few of mine.

Sketches

2011-04-03T15:39:00.001-07:00

Just some things from my most recent sketchbook.

Portraits

2011-04-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well what do you know - after an hour's worth of scanning I have some things to post. These are all from a monster portrait painting class I'm in; by monster I mean that it's 8 or more hours long, usually requires two paintings a week for homework and an in-class painting, and is 25% lecture. So. I have a few more things I'm going to put up but for Blogger's sake I'm going to upload in chunks.

Narrative Color

2011-02-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Last semester I had the opportunity to take a class with Frank Stockton (who's awesome.) It was basically a life-painting class with an emphasis on using color. I learned a lot and also can now successfully(?) wield acrylics. Woo!

Sweater Cat

2011-01-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

This was a christmas present for a friend who's a big fan of both cats and sweaters. : ) It was my first time using gouache so I'm still sort of figuring it out, but it's fun and I'll probably work with it more throughout the semester.

2010-12-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

Some doodles I did a while back for a project.

Also

2010-12-14T00:33:00.000-08:00

This is still sort of work in progress, but hey. I could always use feedback and I have a month long break coming up to make it look better/get better at making things look cohesive in Photosop. It's supposed to be an accident waiting to happen - I chose 4Loko and the internet, aka the mother of all bad combinations.

Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner

2010-12-14T00:31:00.000-08:00

I did a series based on the poem by Samuel Coleridge. Here's the first one.

Mo' Sketches

2010-09-14T20:13:00.001-07:00

Just some stuff I've been meaning to upload.

More WIP

2010-07-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm just getting around to coloring this (that explains the lack of values/colors, as of now). I was busy with ICON6! It was the highlight of my summer and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

...hi?

2010-07-07T16:10:00.001-07:00

I know, ok. My updates don't happen, ever. Here's a work in progress I'm trying to knock out by ICON. It's a poster/portrait of The Tallest Man on Earth, who you should really listen to if you haven't yet.

Feedback appreciated, please and thanks! I'll keep posting shots of this as it comes along.

Preview!

2010-04-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the sketch/underdrawing for my Drawing and Painting: A Dialogue final. I'm going to start painting it tonight. I finally took advantage of the do-literally-whatever-you-want aspect of that class, and stopped worrying about if my work had enough "content" and "meaning" (which it doesn't, really, which is why I struggled all semester). Oddly enough when my professor gave me a critique he pointed out all kinds of possible subtexts, so maybe there's hope for me after all. Ultimately I just had a lot of fun drawing from my imagination, after not doing so for a while. There are probably a lot of proportion issues, but whatevs.

Oh. And the basis for this drawing was Facebook. More progress pictures coming soon.

Gestures

2010-03-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

Since everything for Drawing from the Tablet is digital, I have a bunch of drawings just chilling on my hard drive. I liked some of these gestures so here they are. The last image is just a doodle of my friend from last semester's visual journalism class.

A galaxy rise with 400 billion suns!

2010-03-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

So here's a screen cap of my latest assignment for Illustration 2! It's a magazine spread for the Radiolab episode about space. I'm going to color Carl Sagan's halo with metallic pencil when I print this bad boy out. I'll post a more finished jpeg file (hopefully with some sharper edges, ha) later.

Also here's the original drawing for kicks. I changed some stuff but graphite powder is my new bff.

Some sketches

2010-03-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Because they're all I ever post, when I post. I have a new baby Moleskine and it's great for stealth-doodling in class. I probably should be taking notes instead...

Help plz?

2010-01-08T09:14:00.001-08:00

Long time no update. So the lovely and talented Paige Vickers is making a zine about Texas and I was asked to contribute. Turns out Texas has a lot of really sweet cowboy folklore, so color me inspired. I'm thinking I'm going to do at least three sexy cowgirl ladies (Annie Oakley, Slue-foot Sue, some saloon girls) and some cows. Maybe. Here's the first go; it's definitely an under-sketch and will be more detailed later on. I mainly wanted some input on the background.

Should I go with this one, which is partial and has some grass and some rocks and a little shrub tree (just in case you can't read my scribbles) or...

the simple rope border (yes, that's supposed to be rope), or come up with something else all together? Other ideas involved really long grass making curvy patterns. Or cacti. My attempts weren't so great but I'll post them if I make any headway. What do ya'll think? (any crit not pertaining to the background is welcome too)

Oh and btw!

2009-11-01T13:32:00.001-08:00

And here's a small work in progress self portrait. Kind of like a bonus! I started it to use up some excess paint and will probably continue to do so - it's pretty much just to mess around with color and that sort of thing.
Here's a detail!

MASSIVE UPDATE!

2009-11-01T12:01:00.001-08:00

I love how my last post is from JULY. So much stuff has happened since then it's really ridiculous. I realized I needed to update when my younger sister she'd been looking at my friends' blogs and would hire them before me, because they actually have new (and regularly posted) work. I guess my sister is more business savvy (and critical!) than I thought. Anyway, I've been doing a lot of work so here's some stuff from Visual Journalism with Warren Linn. It's all sketchbook and observation based.

Finally!

2009-07-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

(Does anyone know how to flip an image in blogger? I can't figure it out.)

Here's some stuff from figure drawing last semester. I'm working on a new painting now and should have pictures of it soon. I just felt I really, desperately needed an update, bad image quality aside.

2009-05-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Some sculpture

2009-04-09T09:56:00.001-07:00

I'm kind of scrambling for art so here are some things from last week's figure sculpture class. It was a two week full-body sculpture, from a model. It's since been torn down (that's the beauty of that class - you make something, destroy it, go home, and have no homework. Yesss.) Obviously I spent most of my time working on the face. You can tell, right? /sarcasm/

Sketchbookery

2009-04-08T11:56:00.001-07:00

Finally, right? These are just some pages from my current sketchbook(s). I think most of the faces excluding the cartoon-y ones were done from life, i.e. when I was bored during an Elements crit. I'll try to post some life drawing stuff soon.

I'm really in the mood to paint right now. I don't have a project that calls for it or the time but I haven't used oils since last semester and I miss them. Cleaning them up - not so much. But you know. It's (usually?) worth it. I have to go be academically advised so later. :D

First Post

2009-03-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

So, in step with the rest of the artistic and/or MICA illustration community, I now have a blog. It beats new Facebook. I'll start posting art soon enough. : ) Check this out while you wait.