So over the winter Chrysler held this lovely contest through Behance to celebrate the upcoming release of their limited edition car designed by John Varvatos. Though mine wasn’t chosen as the final design, I was lucky enough to be one of the semi-finalists. This piece is about 70% digital, way more than I would normally use, but it seemed appropriate, and I am pleased with how my hand-painted textures translated into the piece.
You can read more about the contest here:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Entry-for-the-Chrysler-Style-Shifters-Contest/6184835
So Vienna is one elegant city. I mean, they have a ball season. They have a dancing school for horses. They hang chandeliers over the streets. They also have the world’s best lamp posts, as far as I’m concerned. Curly, intricate, and too cool for words. I started sketching some, but then it kind of turned into a festive tree sketch. The city is surrounded by beautiful woods. I imagine when they have late night forest picnics, the elegant Viennese take their elegance with them.
Here also is a Society6 link to an inverted version:
http://society6.com/DanaMartin/Viennese-Ramble_Print
Dana Martin on Tumblr!
Women’s Wiles
watercolor & ink
Psyched and honored to make it onto Fuck Yeah Illustrative Art! And a warm hello to all you wonderful new followers!
Sneak peak #2 of my upcoming chapter book! This one’s of Sarah Beth trudging through the rain to the general store.
Available September 2013 through Magic Wagon, a
division of ABDO Group (www.abdopublishing.com) or your educational
wholesaler.
Sketch of the piece I’m working on for Owl Square Press.
Back in January I had this fabulous project — illustrating John and Lisa Mullarkey’s Choose Your Own Ending chapter book, The Johnstown Flood. My hands were grey for weeks from rubbing all that graphite into the tissue paper, but it was more than worth it. Many thanks to the wonderful Stephanie Hedlund for her awesome guidance!
Available September 2013 through Magic Wagon, a
division of ABDO Group (www.abdopublishing.com) or your educational
wholesaler.
http://society6.com/DanaMartin/Vintage-cDg_Print
A few days ago I asked Dana if it was possible to interview her and I’m glad she said yes. Her work has a colorful sense of wonder, honesty and innocence to them. Read the full conversation after the jump.
“A recent graduate of Montserrat College of Art, Dana Martin works as an illustrator and watercolorist. Her art has been featured in CMYK Magazine and shown in the Boston area. Her latest project was illustrating a chapter book for ABDO Publishing. It will be released this September.”
My exclusive interview with Affinity Parcels ;)
Final for the spring issue of Spellbound. Still deciding how I feel about that background color. Believe it or not, it was done with just one ink, a brown that bled out in mysterious ways.
To purchase an issue or learn more about the magazine, visit:
http://eggplantproductions.com/spellbound-magazine/spellbound-childrens-fantasy-e-zine-spring-2013-issue/
Red Peacock
I hate waiting for things. The deadline for Modcloth’s latest design contest was just yesterday, and I am already gnawing my nails waiting to find out whether I made it even past the first cut (news that won’t be released for like a month). Yeah. I have no patience.
So this blog has been sadly neglected of late, mainly because I’ve been working on illustrations for a chapter book on the Johnstown Flood (from ABDO Publishing. It will be out in September. I’m so excited! But it’s all topsecret at the moment. More news about it later). Anyway, now that my part in it is a wrap, I am getting back to my life and other projects. This is a sketch for my piece in the spring issue of Spellbound Magazine. The issue focuses on changelings. Folklorists such as Katharine Briggs and H. R. Ellis Davidson have pointed out that at the time when changeling myths were current, nothing was known about disorders such as autism or Asperger’s. That elves had switched a human baby with one of their own (or perhaps even a stock of wood charmed with the look of life) served to explain a child who responded awkwardly to the world around it.
With this in mind, I wanted to show a changeling who was uncomfortable being touched and a mother who knew she still needed to feel loved. A big book of fairy tales seemed like the natural solution.
work in progress
This is how I amuse myself during hurricanes. The Queen of Spades is one of my favorite stories, as it deals with things like high-stake gambling, exiled Russian aristocrats, and a ghost with a secret card trick. How did you spend Sandy?
Camels are smug about a lot of things. How hard they are to draw is probably one of them.
