Anne Cain

Hey, gang! I shall be at WonderCon 2012's Artist Alley this year! The convention runs from March 16th-18th, so if you're looking for something fun to end your Spring Break with, come check it out. I'll post more info once I have my table placement, but as always, I'll have prints with me and I'll be taking a limited number of commissions while I'm at the show.

Also, the weekend of March 23-25, I'll be at the Dreamspinner Press retreat in NYC talking about cover art and getting to meet in person some of the fantastic authors and folks I'm lucky enough to work with. If you're a DSP author and you'll be attending, let me know! I'd love to say hi. &heart;

Okay, so I'm in crunch mode as I muscle my way through a few big projects/events, and then it's glorious summertime---full of convention goodness, artistic freedom, lemonade and a beer or two! Huzzah! I'll have more to say within the next few days, but I thought I'd dust off my journal and blog before getting back into regular posting. (Or, my version of regular posting, that is....)

Detail from the cover illustration for "Something for Nothing", published by Dreamspinner Press.

After finishing the day's work, I decided to upload a couple of new images to my Deviant Art gallery. The two new pieces I put up have absolutely *nothing* in common--the genres they were created for are different (yaoi vs. m/f romance) and the styles I used are totally different (drawn/digital painted vs. photo/digital paint). In fact, my whole gallery is a mixture of styles and experimentation, aka, my testament to diversity and versatility. Ironically, that range of style can throw art directors for a loop. I once had a conversation with Tor's art director Irene Gallo a year or two ago, and she explained the problem quite succinctly: "when a portfolio is that broad, no one knows what to do with the artist!" And earlier today I listened to a professional artist and teacher give his thoughts on the ideal portfolio, and cohesiveness is definitely a key factor. But for me, as an artist, I really appreciate having the opportunity to explore different styles and methods. For me, shaking things up keeps the creativity flowing. I have never, ever complained about being bored with my work--but then again, it's the authors who keep writing all these cool stories with fresh characters and juicy plotlines which truly inspire the creativity. I'm grateful to work with a lot of excellent small presses who encourage me to keep up the diversity, and I like that I have a really big hat collection to wear: illustrator, manga artist, writer, graphic designer, fine artist, businesswoman. Life's too short to get stuck in a rut, so here's to celebrating visual versatility--cheers!

Wow! Another year has come and gone! Things ended up getting quite hectic for me since September, but I've persevered--unscathed, for the most part. :o) Between school and commissions, I wasn't able to hang out online as much I have in the past, but as always, I'm excited for the new year and all the adventures it might bring.

While I'm working on some art projects, I decided to put on a little artistic inspiration in the DVD player: Fantasia. I'd forgotten just how beautiful this film is, and the music selections are amazing. The traditional animation is stunning, and the music is conducted by Leopold Stokowski! If you're looking for something artistic and escapist, this is it, folks. :)

A Work-in-Progress for an upcoming novel by Amy Lane, published by Dreamspinner Press.

So who said Labor Day was for chilling? ;) I had a very productive weekend and chiseled away at quite a few projects in the work queue. I'm excited to share the art for an upcoming Lynn Flewelling release once I get the go-ahead, and in the meantime I'm sharing a sneak peek at an illustration I'm working on with Dreamspinner Press. This is for Amy Lane's next book set in the same universe as "Litha's Constant Whim", and I tried to match the same style I used for the first installment. It's a mix of graphite on textured paper with digital paints for a light, airy and watercolor-y feel that I think works really well with the fantasy themes of Amy's books. I hope everyone enjoyed a great Labor Day Weekend too! I hate to make it sound as if I spent the whole time in work-work-work mode (though, making art is definitely not a chore--at least not all the time *g*), and I had the chance to do chillax with friends for a little while earlier today. We're currently on the quest to find a good macchiato here in the States, and I don't mean those sugary Starbucks' confections. ;)

This is just some random elfiness I finally finished coloring the other day when I needed some chill time away from other art projects. I like this one a lot because I was finally able to use the lovely set of color pencils emmyjag gave me for Christmas last year--I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. ♥

This week has been crammed full of stuff I'm trying to wrap up before I go AWOL in July. The To Do list is long and juicy, but I'm determined to get as much of it taken care of. Woot! Today was literally an all-day session in the studio with a couple of models and costumes, which was great, but exhausting. I'll be working to get some of those pics translated on to a cover over the next few days, so hopefully I can share that with you guys. In a totally unrelated note, I was listening to a (really, really annoying) morning radio show the other day. The DJ called CDs a thing of the past and that if anyone still owned one, they were stuck in the 90s. I promptly turned on the CD player in my car to prove him wrong. Ha! But the irony is that the CD I had in there was Jagged Little Pill, and *bam*--it was suddenly 1995 for me again. All these really good memories came back to me (not that they were all necessarily "happy" memories, but they were good memories nonetheless). So I'm sitting in the car bopping my head to Alanis Morissette's fantastic post-feminist-alternative-rock-pop-female-empowerment tunes, and damned if I'm ever going to toss my CD collection just because they're "so 90s". Shoot--I'm going ultra retro now! I hear that Kylie Minogue is going to release her new album on vinyl later this year. *wink*

I received some really sweet emails over the past couple of weeks asking about some of the stuff I'm working on. So starting today, I'm going to be posting at least one work--either a cover, a commission, a WIP, or a random doodle--every Friday. It'll be a peak at the stuff I'm currently working on, or projects I've recently-ish completed. :D

Loose Id, 2010	Dreamspinner Press, 2010

Unused artwork for a project that never got off the ground. I really enjoyed drawing this, so I kinda want to finish it by adding some coloring.

So today I decided to try a new sketchbook. *gasp* I'm one of those folks who tends to stick with what works, so I've been using these Strathmore Windpower sketchbooks for the past couple of years, and I have a few of them filled with random doodles, drawings, and notes. But one of my friends really, really likes this other brand, Moleskine (pronounced moe-leh-skee-neh, cuz it's fancy like that, having been designed in Italy yet manufactured in China and all!). Those are, like, the Ferraris of the drawing world, apparently. These Moleskine books are archival quality, and they come with a leather cover, a ribbon bookmark, a little sleeve pocket to slip notes into...they're super nice looking, and fairly pricy. So I thought I'd splurge for once in my life--this would be done in the name of art afterall, and I plunked down 20 bucks for my very own 96-page, 8.5" x11" Moleskine. While I love the way the sketchbook looks and feels, even the way it smells, O.M.G: the paper is TERRIBLE to draw on!!! The sheets are so waxy and smooth that they literally repel ink and graphite. Just staring too hard at the lines I drew started to make the smudge! LOL Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still--ink and graphit smudges super easily, so glassine coversheets are necessary to protect the drawings. I'm so disappointed, but hey, it happens. Every once in a while, we all buy something that's supposed to be really good quality and super cool, only to find we bought the idea and not anything of actual quality...*warily eyes recommendations to try an iPad*

P.S.Bonus points to the first person who recognizes where I got the quote I used in my title!

Or, "newish" artwork, at any rate! I'm trying to be better about updating my blog or DA page more regularly, but you guys know how it is...Once you spend a lot of time at the computer doing work, you're ready to walk away from the PC for awhile rather than update Facebook, LJ, and whatnot. :o) I'm busy as usual, and here are some of my latest projects.

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