Erin Fellows Illustration

As Requested

2011-11-22T15:48:00.001-08:00

It's great when people request art. Or unicorns. In fact, the two seem to have an eery closeness to my life, but I'm not looking a gift robot unicorn in the mouth. I'll just be over here drawing.

Mona-Lisa top-of-my-Christmas Request List

Watch out, they will burn you.

As Requested: ALVINBOT

As Requested: Find the Unicorns.

Wait. Something is nagging at me..

So I wasn't just hearing things when he said he'd be back.

Well anyway

Hasta la vista.

Painting and Other Things I Like

2011-11-13T10:20:00.001-08:00

As I am on the digital painting tack of late, practice is my boyfriend; practice is my girlfriend. Practice is my hot hot love. This piece began as a short exercise, but as I worked I realized I wanted it to have at least some amount of finish. This is about 1.5 hours, and I'm happy with where it is now. Check out production below:

Please note I do not own the rights to the photo used, which is part of a gorgeous collection by Pierre dal Corso. His photography is very illustrative -- somewhat in mind of Sam Weber, etc. -- and very worth a peek for anyone interested.

Ahh I love digital painting so much. I'm sorry I don't have anything finished to show you yet. To be sure, I'm of a guilty conscience. In consolation, here are two camels.

ttfn, you all

Roto Visage Revisited

2011-10-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

I have finished another piece for friend and astonishing talent Jason Popejoy, better known to the world of dark electronic music as Roto Visage. This design is for a new Roto t-shirt, one of which you all should buy because it would make us feel OH SO SPECIAL. Or because it would support us. We love support. Like piers.

Other things in the works include: new website, new calendar illustrations, painting extravaganza, chili, etc. Apparently, I have missed the contest to design a cover to a Murakami story. Maybe I'll be secretly participating anyway. CHECK BACK FOLKS.

Biophilia

2011-07-09T00:30:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling the need to change a few things up in the way I'm working recently, as do most people, to make sure I'm staying loose.

Watching To Inform and Delight,

the Milton Glaser documentary that outlines the iconic designer's work, was just the ticket to some new inspiration.

A more-than-prolific artist, Glaser is an excellent thinker on the topic of art + work, and expounds on this to a good degree in the film. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the tidbits of a successful designer's life. For me, it helped to make clear that there is really no reason not to try even your most outlandish ideas when working on a project, sometimes the more outlandish the better. By challenging your mind to come up with unlikely fixes to a design problem, you open up the possibilities for more original connections, something that's invaluable to a company's interests, because the more original the connection in someone else's mind, the more memorable.

Then, one might also argue for concision. (See above.)

These two posters came about after a quick afternoon painting of Björk. Her newest show, Biophilia, explores the relationships between nature and humans and technology.

For comparison, here's what I started out with:

I'll admit to some excitement about the prospect of design, though I realize I may have missed the mark while getting to know my new friend. Either way, a newfound association is beneficial for everyone. Where before design didn't seem all that related to illustration in the proper, I now find the two are basically inseparable in terms of execution, distinguished more by literal definition than they are much in practice. I guess this depends mostly on one's market.

En Gallop

2011-07-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

You may remember this picture from its drawing stage. Though I've realized that I cared a bit more for it during that part of its life, I decided to give her some color and see how it turned out. Maybe 10-12 hours of work, and I'm not unhappy with the results. She's like a mermaid.

This marks the end of any work surrounding Joanna Newsom I think I'll do, though, as it seems she's able to draw our mortality out of every corner. A tad unsettling.

Zodiac Pieces Begun

2011-06-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

I am finally done with this: Virgo, the first in a series of Zodiac illustrations I will later be releasing as prints and someday a calendar. Let me know whether you'd like to see that, and keep watch for the next one, Aries, which will be posted soon!

What's your sign? What kinds of things do you think your sign represents, and should I put them in yours? I look forward to hearing your answers ;)

Last Sleep, Wool and Roses

2011-04-18T23:12:00.001-07:00

Dedicated to Mina Elizabeth Parsons

You still shine for us.

I am already Gone

2011-02-08T17:53:00.001-08:00

New Work

2011-01-28T20:05:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone, I thought an update might be nice. Check out my most recent job! Woohoooo. It's a book cover for Blake C. Aarens's new book, through Sizzler Editions, and I really like how it turned out. Seems like colored linework is WHERE IT'S AT.

I don't know where the type's going to go yet, I'll post the updated version once it's done.

Love, love love, see you soon

Last Pieces

2010-01-28T15:35:00.001-08:00

Finally, an Update!

2010-01-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

So I've been taking things pretty easy since graduating, which has been awesome (There is no homework ever again. Never. Has this processed yet?), and catching up on a lot of other important life stuff, which makes my mother feel better. But yesterday I sat down and realized that it's really time to get down to it. If you don't use it, it unfortunately leaves much faster than you ever feel it should. So in order to avoid that, I'm aiming to have a completely new portfolio a year from now, something that the fantastic Sam Weber recommended in his recent interview with sidebarnation.com. Great artist, even better advice.

During this year, my biggest goal artwise is just to come to some sort of conclusion or make the decisions I have to make about where this is all going. There are so many themes and styles I'm playing around with still, but it feels like that's going to change now that the direct influence of school has been lifted. I'm going to miss everyone (and Federal, dear Federal) so much. But this is good.

There are a couple of shows I've been invited to contribute to that should be happening around March or April, and I'm extremely excited for them and very grateful to Dave and Matt, as well. And then there is the continuing unknown that is looking for illustration jobs, the excitement over which I think I finally understand: Who cares what they want me to draw; they're actually paying me to do this? :D I want to tutor students, or teach lessons. I want to work in a bakery; I want to get a studio; I sort of want to move to Oakland. ... Everything is crazy, and exciting, and crazy.

Additionally, final completions on the website are happening now! www.erinfellows.com should be viewable within the next few days. Hooray!!

Here are some quick studies from last semester.

I still have so far to go. But at least now I have 50 more canvases to paint over. :P

Though Should We Not Speak

2009-10-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

Places We Can Go to Be Alone

2009-10-13T17:16:00.001-07:00

"it's stuck in your head
you think
of what he'll feel"

It's fall again. This kind of thing seems to happen quickly.. Another year into the grey of days? Well, in honor of fall, and John's good recommendation that the drawings you make are married to the paper they're made on forever, I have bought better paper to draw on.. Leave it to the printmakers.

Welcome, Autumn, and hello Molskine. You're new every time!

Exaggerated Ladies

Junie

I don't want to know what this guy eats.

From the top of Mikey's school. Very beautiful..

The best crows.

When I'm covered by the thunder I'll get rid of all my breath deep in our lungs.

2009-08-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

Recently it's really been time to switch things up. Though I don't feel tired of traditional media, it just seems impossible lately to come up with anything to do with it. Maybe it's not as exciting, maybe it's a touch of burnout. ... I think it's due to my insatiable wanderlust for different styles, media, implements... you know the way they describe food in critics' and food marketers' circles as having "mouth-feel"? I think there should be something similar for drawing and painting. Hand-feel, or something kind of like Brain-hand-feel. Every different style, every different approach and tool and medium has a different brain to hand connection, and a separate section reserved only for it. Now this is starting to sound like a bit of crazy talk, but I hope I have a valid reason to bring it up.

The thing is, all that space reserved for different hand motions and different painting styles, well.. takes up a lot of space. And it's not too much of a concern for people who have a major style and a preferred medium. They're lucky, I think, because they already have all of that figured out.. no self-searching, no anguish over once again transitioning. All that's left to do (or so it seems from the outside) is to practice, and get really good at whatever is uniquely yours, and work on improving the other aspects (composition, form, whatever it is you need to work on). ...Of course, I could also be dead wrong about that, but we're just going to go with my assumptions for the moment.

Some people say having versatility is a benefit, that it can be what makes you a sought-after illustrator. But it seems to me, as of right now, that all it does is make everything take longer, confuse the illustrator, and leave one with this guilty sense that they're not working hard enough. ..Well, now that we know my hangups.

But I don't really want to be a "versatile" illustrator, because what that usually means is that they will want to make you do something you really would never want to do, but you and they both know you can, and so you do, and you hate it all the way along, and it weakens your portfolio in the end because your boredom shows through. And so far in my struggle for continuity, it really is seeming to take an inordinate amount of time for anything to come together, for the straggling ends to either get sucked back up into the center or just finally drop away. As soon as I think something is out for good (Like digital. Like comics.), it comes right back around and bites me in the ass.

This is what happened yesterday. Stuck in a rut with painting, knowing it will come back to me but not when, looking at illustration trade magazines all day and getting more and more antsy, I just got fed up. Came home at eleven thirty, sat right down at the photoshop, and did what I thought I'd never do again.

And obviously this is fine. I'm really happy with the drawing. I'd even love to make a lot more drawings like it. What I'm tired of is always having to switch to something else, to go through some kind of upheaval every time a resurgence occurs. It would just be so nice to be consistent.

But maybe that's just not the way it's going to be. And if you really step back from it, it's probably a good thing anyway. At least, it's kind of a guarantee that the work won't get stale. Hopefully it will mean that I won't get too bored. I just have to stop deciding I'm done with anything For Good, I guess. Just have to get used to being sort of scatter-brained, sort of all the time.

Just have to stop worrying! about everything so much, Erin. Srsly.

Also, what do you think? Black or white hair? This came up accidentally and I kind of like it.. but maybe the design doesn't read as strong?

Zombie Attack

2009-05-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Acrylic

Eccentric Illustration

The Semester in Acrylics

2009-04-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

This was all done for Kazu Sano's acrylic painting class...

but there are still some more assignments left to do...

We Just Want to Make Him Stay Up Late

2009-04-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Everybody!!
:)

Making Mercy Like Molasses

2009-02-27T01:32:00.001-08:00

that afternoon you were angry with me
but i promised in my head and to the grooves in the tile that it wasn't my fault.
a hundred thousand ants might crawl under our stove from the back of your black pattern sandals
but you wouldn't have noticed.

the backyard is wet, now, with the first fall rain;
the snow sneaks up on boots.

my locket is empty now.
Deringer's piece of smithery, now, a brief memorandum on summer's throat.

I'm taking the sinner to the bath.

i'm at home with truth alone

2009-02-25T09:46:00.001-08:00

In a City That Breaks Us, I Will Say Nothing

2009-01-16T00:21:00.001-08:00

Holy Dishevel

She Keeps Her Tigers in the Tightest of Cages

2008-12-19T00:54:00.000-08:00

It's the Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life

2008-11-09T10:49:00.000-08:00

Christmas List '08:
1. Jenny Saville coffee table-sized book
2. Pillows for my ass to sit at the computer without falling asleep (though this does seem to help limit internet time, I'm really tired of it.)
3. Cast-Iron skillet
4. Typography books

Oh, and a WEBSITE. Because that would be helpful.

These are mock-ups of an album cover I did for my good friend Jason, also known to the world of ambient drone as Roto Visage..

I am not sure yet whether this is done.. Though I like the head and face, that blue background really sticks to her too much, and I need to figure out a way to let the wood show through other than just being scared to put more paint on it. Also, making it less David Choe would probably be good for everyone? Yeah, workin' on it..

So Long Ago It All Meant Much More Than This

2008-10-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

Esqua..

Encouraging journal entries..

Plane flights..*

*American Airlines seats are the most detestable seats I've ever sat in - ever.

Blatant style rip-offs which neither fully succeed nor really belong on a public blog but which nonetheless make things seem not quite at an end when it's most important..

Thank you for all the lonely rooms, and for so much more.

-----------------------------

And now as we begin the semester once again..

Assignment #1: icons..

A month of black and white, but then, I should remember that it is fall. Lovely.

I'm Working Too Much To Write You Every Day

2008-06-15T18:42:00.001-07:00

I think I am going to be switching majors... uugh. It sounds like kind of a hassle. I'm not sure if it will cost more money or if I'll have to take a lot of classes I don't want to, or of course whether I'll be getting coveted Degree anytime soon.. but then it will most likely be worth it, anyway, right? Last night I was looking through the course catalog, highlighting courses from any major that I really wanted to take. And when I finished the damage read a whopping Fine Arts: 14, Illustration: 3. ... I guess it's no wonder I felt like a big fat chunk of lead last semester. Well. This has happened before, and I have yet to talk to "officials", so we'll see. For now I think the direction is overwhelmingly -->Painting.

Two gouache paintings (ala prima?)

And muni:

Ah muni. :)

Bereft, I'm left holding my breath.

2008-06-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

Finally. A return to the long-forgotten camera cable! Home was fun, but one day or another you're going to have to come back to grey-clouded skies and elusive ultra-violet light. It ain't so bad.

Some sketches from the Parenthetical Girls show.

And by nightfall we'll forget it over again.

Six Flights of Stairs Then a Stranger Housed by a Mirror.

2008-05-17T19:53:00.001-07:00

So, hello and nice to meet you, world. To start, let's put up some pieces that have been lazing around my house, and get them going to a better use. Unrelated and separated by quite a bit of time, these are just sort of a dump to get things going. (Some are bad scans, though, as I am stuck without photoshop for the moment--too bad.) Thanks for looking!

Yes I spelled Schiele wrong. I say it wrong, too. Then it's that really awkward moment where you've both just said the same word differently and you don't really want to look at each others' eyes. Yep.