Introducing In the Studio
Welcome to our new blog series, In the Studio. This series reflects our commitment to highlighting and incorporating more local art in our branches and communications and marketing efforts. Follow along for behind-the-scenes looks at original artwork and installations waiting for you to experience in CADL branches and original artwork and design from our in-house Marketing and Communications team.
Wild About Reading
By Rissa Groves, CADL Multimedia Content Coordinator
As CADL’s Multimedia Content Coordinator, I am responsible for creating art that speaks to and reflects our patrons and community. It is my personal mission to create promotional materials that are eye-catching, unique, and worth keeping—be that in-branch display posters, bookmarks, program guide covers, tv commercials, or more. Today, I’m inviting you to take a peek at my creative process and all that went into creating the illustration for CADL’s March-May Seasonal Guide, based around our March is Reading Month Theme: Wild About Reading.
Whenever I approach a new art piece, I think back to my childhood spent in the library and the artwork that I saw there. I remember being so inspired by the fantastic, illustrated posters and bookmarks that surrounded me. A lot of my process involves thinking about what would’ve made me excited to read when I was a kid. With the Wild About Reading theme, a lot of our branches are exploring imagery that involves jungles and wild animals. I wanted to offer a view of the imaginary world a child may see when they’re entranced in a book.
Each illustration I make at CADL is also a personal challenge to myself to push outside of my comfort zone and engage my abilities in new ways. This is the first and largest full-color gouache painting I have created. It’s also relatively new to me to create a 3-dimesional scene with characters. I wanted the colors and textures to be visually dynamic, so you can allow your eyes to explore the piece. I also reflected elements of the child’s outfit in the wild animals you see in the scene.
I started with a watercolor wash, to cover the basic shapes and produce a highlight that shows through the opaque gouache that isn’t pure white. Gouache is a water-activated paint that functions similarly to watercolor and can be re-wet and blended with additional layers. I tried to avoid blending too much, to create a more illustrative and cartoonish style. I finished the finer details with colored pencil.
Overall, this painting was relatively challenging and fun to create. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to create imagery that children in our libraries can see themselves represented in and hope my art can help to inspire a new generation of readers!
CADL Seasonal Guide
Get wild about reading and everything that comes with it! Explore our March-May Seasonal Guide to discover inspiring author visits, dive into history, tap into everyday resources that make life easier, and enjoy engaging programs for kids, teens, and grown-ups.