christina dacanay

illustration / inspiration

[cdacanay]

A Walk, for Gowanus Print Lab’s Summer Show last year.

[cdacanay]

I did a piece for Gowanus Print Lab’s Liminality show last year. 

[limbicspace]

[cdacanay]

Working on a fantasy thing. 🔮✨

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[cdacanay]

I have 99 problems and they’re all slightly misregistered screenprints.

[limbicspace]

[cdacanay]

I’m looking through old sketchbooks before the move and finding little moments from the places I’ve lived. 

[cdacanay]

Magic Knight Rayearth had mechs, swords, elemental powers and romance. Seriously-- what else could you want? 

This is my contribution to Cluster, a CLAMP tribute zine with a bunch of cool artists in it. Thanks to Clare and Lydia for organizing! 

Pre-order here or check it at Otakon.

[cdacanay]

How resilient are you? A new one and some spots for a Nautilus quiz-- I barely scored into the highest resiliency level, wooho! Big thanks to AD Len Small for being a real cool guy.

Take the quiz here!

[lydiayyso]

Hey guys! I’ve be working on a CLAMP zine with some AWESOME people recently! :D <3  If you’re interested in getting one…

PREORDERS HERE: http://clampzine.storenvy.com/

and they cost $10 +SHIPPING

Size: 8.5 X 5.5 in (~ 40 pages)

I also worked with some REALLLY awesome people! 

Alice Tse, Andrea Mastroeni, Angela Zhou, Bekky Shin, Bridget Gibson, Christina Dacanay, Christina O, Clare DeZutti, Erica Ostrowski, Eve Gietka, Evyn Fong, Gabby Howitz, Jennifer Bae, Jen Phan, Jessica Chen, Jill Kaczak, Joshua Heinsz, Juliana Chen, Kate MacDonald, Katie McDermott, Kelsey Sunday, Kim Te, Leonard Peng, Lila Mitchell, Lizzi O’Rear, Anna Rose, Lydia So, Meagan Ciongoli, Meaghan Stephenson, Nicole Surman, Pauline Phouybanhdyt, Shirley Chan, Sonia Liao, Boya Sun, Tara Saldajeno

[cdacanay]

I'll be in this! Pre-order for magical girls, silly swords and beautiful, sparkly eyes.

[cdacanay]

The Indian in his Solitude - N. C. Wyeth 

Spring - Andrew Wyeth

Today me and my co-workers from the Society of Illustrators visited the beautiful Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, where we were given a tour N. C. Wyeth's family home and studio. The pieces above are two of my favorites from the impressive permanent collection. 

This is your friendly reminder that, if you're uninspired, a visit to a new museum is a quick fix. If that doesn't work, taking your shoes off to walk on a river bank helps too. Watch out for ticks though.

[cdacanay]

Some plants I drew in my sketchbook to deal with the harsh winter last year. New illos soon! 

[cdacanay]

Aloneness

A little experimental piece, just for me.

[cdacanay]

Here's an illustration for Nautilus magazine about taste aversion. After doing a bunch of cockroach studies I find them cute! 

You can read the entire article here, and big thanks to AD Len Small for the opportunity.

[cdacanay]

I've got sympathy for gorgons. 

More on Instagram

[limbicspace]

[cdacanay]

Everyone’s drawing cute witchsonas! I’m a potions/charms/hexes girl for sure. 

[cdacanay]

First post of 2014! Yikes, I'm late. 

The months after graduation have been pretty hectic. I moved to a new city, lucked into a wonderful job at the Society of Illustrators, and subsequently lost a) my access to a scanner and b) most of my desire to draw digitally.

The conversation about style and voice is so frequently repeated in art school that it's a cliche to say "everyone has their own voice", but we talk less about how you can mistake other's peoples voices for your own. For a person whose preferred drawing style fluctuates, or who isn't as confident in the way they like to make marks, it's very easy to get sucked into a "correct" way of drawing that is more similar to your peers / your teachers / what's trendy. This isn't anyone's fault, and homogenization is typical in an educational setting, but as an artist you should really be the person responsible for getting to know yourself. 

That being said, I've gotten to know myself pretty well in the months of quietly working in my sketchbook without anyone's critique but my own. It hasn't culminated into any finished pieces yet, but I think I'm getting there. By the end of my senior year I was unhappy with most of my portfolio because I didn't much enjoy the process of making my work, and it showed. These small, private drawings have been very liberating. I've been messing up a lot, learning a lot, and being very happy about it. Now I just have to make a new portfolio. *wheezes*

To the followers, thanks for following. Thanks to Noelle for the plug; I don't really miss art school but I sure as hell miss you guys. 

Follow my Instagram for more sketchbook photos! Also, pictures of food and dogs and things that make me feel stuff etc. etc. etc. 

[cdacanay]

After a summer of sketchbooking I've been a little weary of my tablet, but with all the packing paper and cardboard boxes around my apartment (I'm moving, by the way) I wanted to stare at a screen and nothing else for a little while. 

Jake Wyatt's Necropolis looks amazing so far, and The Third Sword's design makes a girl want to cosplay with a fury. I'm excited to see her bash more flaming animal skulls.

Also, Tumblr image compression, what are you even doing. 

[limbicspace]

[cdacanay]

Here’re some bits and pieces of what I’ve been doing all summer!

I’ve spent the past seven weeks working as a summer camp instructor at The Walter’s Art Museum. There were five weeks of 1st and 2nd graders and two weeks of middle schoolers. Both groups were super fun to teach for very different reasons.

Each week had a different theme, like Asian art, building and architecture, Egyptian art, etc. You can see our powerful dragons up top, snapshots of our miniature city populated entirely by pipe cleaner penguins, as well as our Friendly (?) Pharaoh whose tomb we created in our classroom. I’ve added a little more information in the photo captions. I wish I could put up more pictures, but many that I took have the students faces in them.

The middle schoolers were a refreshing change of pace after such high-energy students. They were a really talented bunch, and it was great to be around young people who really loved and enjoyed making art.

It was such a pleasure being able to hang out with energetic, bright and funny kids. The experience has entirely reshaped my idea of early childhood education, and the importance of an art curriculum. It was such a fulfilling time!

 As for my own work, I’ve been playing a lot more in my sketchbook as a result of being away from the computer for such long periods of time. I’m finding that everything I do traditionally is about 5 times better than anything I do digitally, and I enjoy it more! Hopefully I’ll be able to share soon when I can invest in a new scanner, but you can expect some mediocre phone photos soon.