Illustration of Alex Carlson

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-

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.

oh five page english paper, you torment me so.

A drawing of myself based on a conversation between Beto and I.

WIP.

it seems these little guys have been collecting across the studio. Ive been having a number of requests from other people in the studios to do them.
Sometimes i feel if im going to get famous it will be for all the wrong reasons, ha.
Click the images for a larger version.





The little eskimo looking man is named Walter. He now lives with Adam Tibbets in the studio. He’s a bit smaller and on a thinner board.
The Little batman was more an exercise in anatomy. My friend Dave had been giving me pointers of superhero physic. it mildly succeeded on some aspects, i still need work though. Black paint with white china marker.
Catasaurous was made for my buddy Ben Z who works next to me in the studios. Due to a recent mouse problem, i found it appropriate to give him the Catasaurous. I ran out of cardboard when i made this, so he is made of a thick craft paper.
LOL Batman was derived from one of my lessons from Dave in which we drew on my desk and a sketch of batman was born which i then put a silly face on. Adam decided he wanted a big version of that, thus this cutout came to be.
lastly, upon request from a friend of mine, Nick, the last cutout was made. His name is steven and he’s the tallest of the small monsters.

if by the end of the year (or even semester at this rate) if i have a good collection of these guys that are mine, i want to put them in professional looking mattes and try and get into a gallery with them.
Im beginning to wonder what other things i can apply these guys to. There is a world of design beyond cardboard after all….