Meet Our Members ~ Grace Augustine Art

Not only is Grace Augustine an author and editor, she also dabbles in acrylic painting on canvas. Her love for art began in her early teens and carried through high school. After 40 years, she picked up the paints and brushes and found solace in the art on canvas. Click here to view her artwork.

Drawing, Adding colour, and Printing ~ by UK Artist Amanda Jayne White

     

I started my career in Community Arts, making art with people, for people. I was most passionate about young people, which eventually led me into teaching,  my full-time job for nearly 20 years.
     I have created sea monsters 40 ft. long for community carnivals and made a story book chair for a whole class to sit on for story time. It's been great. Then late in life I met my husband. He was always editing photographs and I was left thinking, what should I be doing with my time? I started drawing.
     I might have a confident CV, but drawing was not my most confident aspect of my creative career. However, I loved colour and pattern and had been teaching myself digital software. Working digitally meant I was with my husband and I wasn’t making a room full of mess. I could indulge myself in things I had loved as a child, just for me. I was creating for the ‘hell of it.’ 
     My past had been full of colouring in books, felt tip pens, books, and cartoons. I hadn’t realised but my favourite book given to me was a Disney book, illustrated by Mary Blair. I can still see the pages in my head, long after the book wore away from too much love and not enough care. I was buying drawing materials, pencils, sketchbooks, pens, and my ultimate markers and brush pens. I

could be a child again.
     I think I would describe my work as somewhat ‘childish.’ Some may see that as a negative, but my view was, if it delights me what does it matter what other people might think? What other people think of my work has been important. Nervous at first, I put images on Instagram under a pseudonym, Mandascat, playfully suggesting my cats did the drawing. 
     Then the husband did something that sent me swirling, he bought a printer. That was the start of it. I could draw, digitalise and now print. Coupled with a friend needing some illustrations for her soon to start Folk Festival, people began to see my work. It was amazing to see peoples' reactions at my first stall, and selling my work!

     I draw first, then using a light box I make new lines, my chance to refine and develop my first pencil lines. At this point I start using Japanese Calligraphy pens to get different thickness or weights to my lines, this makes the drawings more interesting.

     Then it's time to add the colour, that’s the really fun bit. I find my favourite pens of the moment and make patterns. These are scanned into the computer and I use these patterns to do my colouring in. This pattern here is the actual one used to colour the flying cat. I can get so many colour combinations from one tiny pattern. I use my favourites time and time again. 

     My passion for Community Art projects has not completely left me as I am often working to help people.  

     One of my favourites is a pub sign, for my local pub. I love

it and so do they. 

In the background you find local scenery of the pub’s vicinity, the local Church, the cranes on the dockside, and the cottages on the sea wall.  All the elements of this image are drawn separately and then put on the computer to move them around.  

     Those lovable seagulls are found in many of my images. I love them, which is not the case for my husband. However, I have sold many seagull pictures.     

     Lots has happened in 3 years, my work is used by the local council, two local festivals, my own range of cat illustrated jewelery, upholstered furniture, clothing, and product range. 

     Who knows what’s next, I am always interested in something new to try. So, I finally thrive on what people think of my work.       

Amanda Jayne White lives in the UK with her husband and cats. You can contact Amanda at her WEBSITE and browse the entire Mandascat line of artwork.  

Making a cover design fit the book AND the author... ~by Linda Boulanger

For this blog post, once again I went to my author group to see what they might be interested in. The majority of them know me as a cover designer as well, so I wasn’t surprised when Chris asked about that. She wanted to know how I come up with my cover designs for different authors and their books, and how I mesh the story line with the book and also the author’s personality or preferences.

The basics of cover design are pretty much the same each and every time.

The process consists of:

1. Gathering information about the story

2. Searching for images that might work (often the longest part of the process)

3. Designing the cover

One thing that I feel makes me different as a designer is that I am what I consider an inspired designer… meaning I have to be inspired to create the piece, just like I do with writing or any other form of artwork. Some designers have their formula and can sit down … 1, 2, 3 … and they have their cover. It’s still work and can be just as time-consuming. I just can’t do it that way, even if I wish sometimes I could.

My process starts by gathering information about the story. I have a questionnaire that I will send an author, though oftentimes I just ask the questions via email. I like having a more informal working relationship because, to me, it’s the best way I know to really dig down and find out what the author wants to see in his or her book cover. That lack of formality also lets me get to know the author and what he/she wants. It creates a friendly atmosphere so that he/she feels comfortable telling me they don’t like something or that they love something, and when they say they love it, I know they really do and we have a cover that is headed in the right direction.

I get a lot of my inspiration from searching through images. I don’t see an image as a whole, but as bits and pieces. It’s kind of like working a puzzle… my mind is constantly taking these bits and trying them this way and that to see how they fit into the creation of a whole new image. Only each piece also has to fit with the information I have gleaned about the story. I think this is what Chris was asking about. How do I gather the information that I use to pull those tiny pieces of the puzzle out to create something that fits together, fits the story, AND fits the author?

 

The answer goes back to that initial email I send back that is filled with … QUESTIONS. Lots and lots of questions. I ask about the book’s characters: hair color and length, eye color, build… anything you can think of about a character, I want to know. I ask about the genre, and also the overall tone of the book. I also want to know if there are any particular scenes that stand out in an author’s mind that would make a reader feel connected. I ask for the blurb, and on occasion (but not often because I am super busy and not a fast reader), I will actually read the book to get a better feel for what the cover needs to convey.

I don’t usually have to read the book. Talking it out (preferably via email so that I have a written copy to look back through for details) is usually all I need and I often start to get a basic cover idea from that very first email. I’ve even conceived a couple of covers in dreams that have ended up being spot on. I love that and say it’s magic. My favorite thing is when an author tells me it’s like I could see the picture they had in their mind.

So, I guess the answer to how I get my cover designs to fit the book AND the author is that every cover I create is inspired by the information I get from each author. Talking a lot with the author, getting a feel for his/her likes and dislikes, and even their personality, or at the least, the tone of the book so that I can grab those bits and pieces of images to put back together in just the right way, is how I make the covers unique for each and every author I work with.

Next month I will continue with the part of Chris’ question where she wanted to know if I had a favorite cover and why. That, along with who is my favorite author, has to be one of the toughest questions I ever have to answer, but you can find out May 5^th, right here on Originality by Design.

Meet Our Members ~ American Artist Ralph Duncan

Ralph Duncan

I learned early in life that producing something with your hands not only allows you to realize your creative vision but also gives you a feeling of self-sufficiency. Throughout my life, I started to develop a passion for art of all kinds, influenced by some explorations early in life and a grandmother who was a well-known New Mexico painter.

Over time, this passion manifested itself through carving wood, building studio furniture, and generally exploring various art mediums. However, intrigued by the exploration of light and shadows that graphite drawing provides I began a formal atelier program led by the artist Jonathan Hardesty to hone my classical drawing skills.

Today, I strive to create visual art that has a clear basis in drawing skills and shows a liberal use of mixed media. My work is very much inspired by the work of accomplished artists and teachers like Mary Whyte, Ian Murphy, and Eileen Sorg. Most of the time my subject matter comes from the sea and my life as a sailor, deep-sea diver, lover of the ocean, pilot, engineer and designer, and naval officer.

To view some of Ralph's work, click to visit his MEMBER PAGE.