Oh my, it's been too long!!!

Hello everyone! I can't believe that it's been this long! A lot has happened since my last post.

First, I completed an internship illustrating for a company called ThinkActiveNow! It was a great experience! I illustrated two books for their "Ready to Write" program. The deadlines were crazy insane, but it was totally worth it! By the end of it I had finished 64 illustrations in just 8 1/2 weeks! It feels good to accomplish something like this and to know that the work is going towards such a great program. This program works a little differently than other creative writing programs. The illustrations were done first and then the books were sent to schools where the kids get to write the story around the illustrations. The teachers then submit the students' writing to the company's contest. Once a winner is picked the child will get their story published with the illustrations which will be sold in retail stores and made into ipad apps! I think this is such a great opportunity for aspiring young authors!

Since the internship I've also worked with ThinkActiveNow illustrating another ipad app. Once it is released I will be able to discuss and promote the app. :)

The next exciting news is that the Arabian Nights Project was completed, finally titled: One Thousand and One, and published! We promoted our book at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco in October. There was even a great little review of our book. You can check out the link here: http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/living-create-ape-feature-stories. We don't get mentioned til towards the end, but it's still exciting. :)

You can check out all of the work on my website, it's too much to do a mass upload. www.taryndufault.com.

I've also added a drawings section to my website so you can see some of how the illustrations make it from start to finish. Also, my etsy shop is back up and running. You can get to the shop from my website in the "shop" section or click here. 

On a side note, my daughter, Eva, had her first art competition in October. She didn't win any awards, but her artwork was chosen for display at a local business. She also won the Awesome Artist award for her kindergarten class at the end of October. She's so proud and she loves to draw and paint so much.  :) I'm so amazed and proud at how talented she is!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy the rest of the Holidays! Realistically, I don't forsee posting again until January! LOL! But, I'll do my best! It's just so easy to get caught up with life that I forget to post about it! :D Til next time...

Illustration Friday

Ok: This weeks topic was Midsummer Night.  I really like the way this one turned out.  For me it really encompasses much about my associations with summer and summer nights: sparklers, dragonflies, staying out late, night time in the city.... (my list was long. LOL!) 

Hope you enjoy!

Til next week! :D  Have a great 4th of July!

Inspiration, Podcasts, Ideas..... etc.

Hi everyone!  Today I want to talk about some things in regards to finding inspiration, resources, etc.  There is lots I want to share, I may not get to cover it all in this post so I'll prob have a few posts about these topics in the next coming weeks.

The first thing I want to share is PODCASTS!!!  I had no idea there were so many great ones for illustration.  It's easy when you're in school to feel part of an artistic community but then once you and your pals graduate it becomes more of a challenge.  For example, we moved to Orange Country and left many of my wonderful crew in San Francisco (:( I'm still sad about this... as they all know! LOL!)  I had gone to a few drawing meetups here in Orange but it got to be very costly.  So I started to look online for some other ways to connect with people, get inspiration, share knowledge, you know, all that stuff.  I started by looking on itunes and found Chris Oatley's ArtCast.  And this is where my podcast obsession begins.  I LOVE this podcast, and Chris is a very talented artist.  The ArtCast is a lot of him rambling thoughts and industry topics (he works in animation) and he also does interviews with other artists/companies.  Through listening to ArtCast I found out that he also has another podcast called Paperwings with a webcomic creator, Lora Innes.  This one is more informative and tutorial in nature.  I recommend checking it out.  Paper Wings: http://www.paperwingspodcast.com/  ArtCast: http://visualartistpodcastnetwork.com/chris-oatleys-artcast/

The third podcast I want to discuss today (and yes, there are still many more!)  is Thomas' James "Escape From Illustration Island" podcast.  This podcast has so far been the MOST useful and he has a great website to go with it!  You can find this podcast and all of the other wealth of information that he has on his website at: http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/   .  Through this website he mentioned a website called Illustration Friday.  Each week the creators of the site post a topic.  You have a week to make an illustration based on that topic and post it.  (And so you know, that does NOT mean you can post on Friday!  I learned this last week.  Oops.)

The topic for Illustration Friday for last week was Launch.  As I mentioned before you have to post you image on Thursday because the new topic posts on Friday.  So, I still have a finished illustration for this topic which I like and am still going to share.  I also did a drawing for the topic from the week previous which was Swept.  Not finished yet but I'll post the drawing anyway.  :D

I love the idea of Illustration Friday.  Not only is it a site where other illustrators can participate within an artistic community but it also gives me a personal project to do each week and something interesting to post on my blog regularly.  The link for the site is: http://www.illustrationfriday.com/index.php

OK, lastly:  I finally have a Facebook page for my illustration!!!  Wow, it's about time, right??  :D  The link is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Taryn-Dufault-Illustration/113615388729114  If you like my art and would like to subscribe for news, events, updates and when new work is posted please follow the link and click "like"!  Your support is greatly appreciated!! :D

Ok, I think that's all for now!  Til next time!  

New Look/New Process/New Work

Ok, phew!  Finally got to updating my blog.  I realized that my blog needed a face-lift so I figured I'd get that done before I posted up my new work.

I have some sharing to do in regards to my new process.  I came to a point where I realized I was hating my process!  I would do a drawing and then paint opaquely over it.  The drawing always had way more emotion and viewer connection than the finished painting would and it started to drive me CRAZY!  I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going wrong.  I finally realized that, for me, the painting process became so technical that I lost all the feeling of the piece because I was so busy thinking about how to render it.  Now, I realize this means that I really should work on my painting process some more.  However, because of the fact that I hated doing it so much, nothing was getting fixed.  UNTIL.....

Which brings me to my next topic.  One of the first friends I had in San Francisco is a fellow artist named Ben Jelter.  (You can find the link to his work on the right side of my blog, which I highly recommend checking out!) I had found out that he is leaving San Francisco, and California for that matter, and is on his way to NYC!  It was brought to my attention that a bunch of us fellow artist friends should do a portrait for him to send him on his way.  I thought this was a great idea and my brain began storming of all of the crazy conversations we had had in the past.  The portrait that I ended up making of him is more of a compilation of many of these conversations rather than a realistic depiction of him.  It was amazingly fun to do and out of it I figured out my new process!!  This process cuts down my working time over half and is way more enjoyable to do!  So, thank you, Ben, for leaving {not really, the chances of me getting to NYC any time soon are very slim so I will probably see him even less than before :( } but something in doing this portrait helped me figure a lot of things out.

So now, I'm posting the drawing and finish for the 2nd and 3rd Arabian Nights Project Illustrations.  If anyone would like to see some of the other artists work participating in this process please check out the blog: Arabian Nights ProjectArabian Nights Project 
This has been such a fun project to be a part of!  Hope you enjoy!

Also, I realize that the 1st Illustration for the Arabian Nights Project is not on my blog.  It is on my website, but I am planning on redoing the illustration so that my style's match.  I am also going to be redoing my professional website by the end of the summer, possibly sooner if I can so keep an eye out for that.

I will also be posting another drawing later in the week as this post has gotten long enough.  I have a bit more information to share that is relevant to that drawing so I think another post would be better.

Have a great week! :)

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy with client work which has been amazing but doesn't leave me too much to post here. However, for those that are interested in seeing what I've been up to work wise you can check out my porfolio website: www.taryndufault.com.

There is also another project in the works. A few very talented friends that I graduated with invited me to participate in an art collaboration book project themed Arabian Nights. You can check out the project's blog at http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/nightsproject. Keep an eye out as by the end of September each artist will have 4 different illustrations that will be ready to head to the printers for publication. The goal for the book is to represent our work at the APE convention in San Francisco next year.

I should be posting drawings here in the next few days so check back at the end of the week. I'm going to do my best to keep this blog on track. :)

Thanks all and have a great night!

So, after much long research and sketching (sorry, no sketches included.... to many to scan right now...) the first "practice" painting for the faerie series or faerie tarot series (although this one probably won't make the cut..) is here.
The title is "Send the will-o-the-wisps home". Acrylic on wood: 24" x 24".
There have been some problems arising... need ink to print on canvas so watch out for the ability to buy prints on canvas coming soon (digital prints on canvas, very nice indeed...got one printed then ink decided to be gone...:( But new ink soon :D), need monies for more wood and paint... so many things that a poor artist needs while feeding child seems to be a main priority....(man, she eats a lot! :P) Will get there soon... :D
As post-graduation is hard there is still hope for the future and more artwork will be coming soon. It seems not only my domestic life, but also the research and soul searching is time consuming as well.. :D
Have faith everyone, I do, or at least I'm trying to... :D

1st Client

So, I'm happy to say that the project for my first client finished well. :D It's very different than what I normally do, but it was a fun and challenging process. The project is a logo/product design for Miss Caroline's Vacation Retreat in St. Augustine, FL. It's a quaint little bed and breakfast but also a paranormal hotspot. The client wanted it to look like Miss Caroline's as well as add the main ghosts that are said to haunt the house. However, she didn't want the house to look haunted, but inviting. The main indication of the haunting is the faded silhouettes. The back story for Miss Caroline's is really interesting and hopefully some day I'll actually get to take a trip there and see for myself just how haunted it really is.

The finish for this project was done in Adobe Illustrator CS5. :D