Illustration of Alex Carlson

a study of a skull. The next drawing i do for degree project will somehow reflect this. I like the linework, im a bitch for brush tip pens.

One part of an ssignment for my conceptual drawing class. I dont have a picture of that (though i will) but i liked the skull and took a picture. la-dee-da.

a detail shot from my first degree project piece. Im still working on it to make it as perfect as i can. The darks will be darker, color will look better. The whole thing measures about 16×20inches and is done in graphite, ink, and soft pastel. My degree project is about the Wild Hunt in Scottish Myth. A procession of beasts and spirits that round up damned souls and take them to hell of use them as soldiers in the hunt. Really its just devolved into a reason for me to draw skulls.

two things to put up today, once ive been meaning to put up since the summer.
this first one is a drawing i did while listening to the oh so wonderful Deftones (go figure). It’s drawn from the song Change In The house of Flies and was done in pen, highlighter, and colored pencil.
the original drawing measures about 11×14 inches.

this second one was the first project for my typography class. (word and image) we had to create a font based off of our own hand writting, then make it consistent by tweaking ligatures, kerning, arms, x-heights, ect. When done with that we used a descriptive word to blow up and fill in with an illustration of the word. The word is about 7 inches high and 38 inches long. Entirely done by hand with prismacolor fine liners over the course of a week.

peace out ya’ll.

i have ridden the moon worm.

i realize its been far to long since i actually did any updates.
i have quite a bit to put up as of now.
it’s been quite a busy semester so far, even within the first few weeks. Lots of work, lots of thinking.
first one is for my illustration 3 class. the first project we had was to do concept work for characters from the first few chapters of Geek Love, a novel about a family of side show freaks. After doing concepts for the individual characters we then set out to design a new cover for the book. i deviated away from doing character montages and scenes because i really cant stand it when book covers or DVD sleeves just try and cram an entire movie into a little drawing or photo.

this is one of my concept pages for Leonna, a lizard like little girl who died as an infant.

then my finished book cover. One of the things that was talked about early in the book was the geek pit, where Crystal Lil would entertain crowds biting the heads off of chickens. good clean fun.
(click for a larger image)

next a few things drawn from life.

peace out!

-alex-

i colored it once in illustrator and didnt really like what happened, so im trying again later. till then, i have this version for you.

yay candy!

everyone come look at my shop and buy things.

www.skeletalworm.etsy.com

good times.

rest in peace for now, el pelon.

may all the restaurants of the fens come back!

best night ever.

an older drawing of mine. I happen to really like this, for both its qualities as a drawing, and what it means to me. It’s not done, i doubt it ever will be. It’s in a sketchbook i finishes, and i dont think ive ever revisited a sketchbook after i’ve finished it.
This was done in ballpoint pen, marker, colored pencil, and gouache.

Tis’ funny how love works. For better or worse…

so everyone has harassed me into finally updating again. not for any lack of work, just more laziness to type and format images, ect.
but yes, here they are:

this was done for my advanced drawing class. The emphasis had to be on hands. I kinda took it in my own direction. This is about 9”x20” and entirely done in colored pencil. I think its one of my better drawings for this semester.

this was also done for my drawing class. The emphasis on this one had to be on a reflection. The was done the night before it was due and the idea and method came more out of frustration then anything else. I actually really like it now. this is done in cut paper, colored pencil, and crushed vellum.

and this is an extension of what seems to be my epic takeover of the 9th floor. Ive made a few shirts like this for friends and have now moved on to see if i can sell them. Any color monster, on any sized shirt. the only shirt color i have right now is white, but that will change soon.
if you bring me an article of clothing, i will put a monster on it.
a scant $20 for a custom shirt, $18 if you bring me the clothing.
if any of you fabulous readers out there want one, email me your desired color of monster and shirt size to alex.carlson@mac.com or comment on this entry.

bye for now!
-alex-

I’ve been quite busy lately.

between work and school my days have spent either at Dick Blick stocking shelves and wowing people with my awesome knowledge of paper and paint, or working on this and that in the studios at Massart. I have today, two things id like to share with you all.

both of these assignments are for my Advanced Drawing class.

this first one here is for assignment simply entitled “cast shadows.” i wasnt really to excited for this project until i stopped caring about it. We were supposed to have shadows tell a bit of a story and be the main point, but through some extensive critiquing and mulling over my ideas, i reached this one. the shadows are there but are not really the center of the drawing, which im totally okay with.
I love my monsters, they have really become a huge part of my work recently between my drawings and the cutouts. I’ve also become quite known for them here as well.
This drawing was done in graphite mechanical pencil on tracing paper.

this assignment was more of a personal based assignment. we drew many everyday objects and then picked out favorite drawings and had to give that chosen object a new life or meaning. i chose a stool i drew. many of my original drawings were anthropomorphic in the fact that i had drawn the original stool with legs or fins. The idea i had before mister Aurelius here was a derby race with stools rather then horses, but i though this was far funnier.

graphite mechanical pencil on Canson marker paper.