Elisabeth Alba

Every beginning illustrator must learn the facts of this career - the “big break” does not usually come right away. You usually go through a series of disappointments. Don’t take it badly, don’t give up, learn from it!

Farrar, Straus & Giroux contacted me about completing a book cover for a series. Of course I was thrilled, but alas, it was not so! The sketch phase went well, but after completing a final version, they decided to go in a different direction. If this ever happens to you, you should definitely get a kill fee. You should usually have no problem getting one from bigger companies like FS&G, but just in case you’ve never heard of this ‘kill fee’ and have no idea what I’m talking about (I’m sure you do, but just in case!), clients should pay you a percentage for what you’ve done. Even if you’ve only done sketches, you should be paid something.

Here’s a cropped tiny version of the book cover I completed. Once my website is rehauled, you’ll be able to see the full version, plus all the other good stuff I’ve mentioned in this blog but have yet to put in my portfolio.

What did I learn from this? Well… just the experience of communicating with an editor and working with a publication deadline was new to me (and waiting for the images to make the rounds in the entire office+some, what an exhaustive process!). I learned that I am good enough for someone to consider me for such an awesome project, and just because it doesn’t pan out, doesn’t mean I’m unworthy or bad, it just means… well… it didn’t pan out! And this is definitely not the first time I’ve had an promising project go nowhere. Happens to everyone. In fact, the same thing happened recently to a friend of mine who I graduated with - he was working on a book cover for a series as well. And anyway, now I have a new awesome portfolio piece

Stay tuned!

So I really need to update my website soon, and when I do so I plan on splitting the art into three sections - childrens, adult (or something or other, just stuff thats not childrens book work), and concept art, which I’ve been doing a lot of in the past year, and have never shown on my website before.

I’ve done some video game work and some other stuff, but most of the work I’ve gotten has been from SpotCo - a company that specializes in theatrical advertising. The image to the left (click for larger view) was work I did for All My Sons on Broadway.

It’s pretty fun to see what the actual poster looks like in the end. Usually I’m given an idea and reference images and just draw it out. The image is shown to the client, and then it’s photographed. Sometimes the poster looks absolutely nothing like any of the concept work, but sometimes it does! If you have seen the final product for All My Sons, you’ll see what I mean. Just check out the website! www.allmysonsonbroadway.com Yeah… nothing like any of the drawings I made (to the left is just one of them, there were 4 total for AMS, all of which will eventually be on my site).

Now to the right, you see one of the concepts made for Les Liaisons Dangereuses (again, click for larger view - warning for scandalousness!). The final product DOES look like the drawing, which is super cool. This usually never happens. Unfortunately they didn’t keep the website up long but you can see the poster here - Click Me Nifty! Here’s a different concept for the promo that didn’t make the cut - Click Me, too! (again, warning for scandalousness! :P)

It’s a fun job - usually very quick stuff, fast turnaround, often sketchy, not always with actor likenesses. Other advertisements I’ve done concept work for are In the Heights, 9 to 5, Boeing Boeing, Come Back Little Sheba, and To Be Or Not To Be. If only I’d gotten to do Equus…

Definitely need to put my concept work up. Check back in the couple months for the rehaul of my site!

Meg over at the Trade Secrets blog interviewed me about my experiences at the School of Visual Arts. You can read it here: Grad School and You: Part 1

And randomly, if anyone is interested, the First Annual Coney Island Beard & Mustache Competition is Saturday, September 6, at the Sideshow by the Seashore Theater and Freak Bar. Looks awesome. SAVE CONEY!!!

Hey all! Hope you had a great summer!

I finished work on John Reed’s Tales of Woe (talesofwoe.com) which is still on for publication in Spring 2009 from MTV Books. I ended up completing 5 images for the book for three different stories. I’m really excited about this, and I’ll keep you all updated about the publication. John Reed is one awesome guy, and I recommend checking him out at johnreed.tv.

Anyway, here’s one of the images from the book - warning for partial nudity. Just lick the image to see the full size.

Image from “Santa Muerte!” - ink drawing/digital coloring

I designed a website for Brian Pinkney and it can now be found at www.brianpinkney.net!

Check it out! His work is awesome!

His latest book, Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation, comes out in September 2008. It’s written by his wife, Andrea Davis Pinkney.

Hello! I’ve just started a blog at a friend’s suggestion (www.dcgable.com :D). Thought it would be nice to let you all know when something cool comes up. Well some cool things have come up… so here’s the latest!

I’ve just been hired to illustrate a few stories written by John Reed, author of Snowball’s Chance, The Whole, and upcoming novel All The World’s A Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare. They’re for his next book to be published by MTV Books titled Tales of Woe (http://talesofwoe.com/). Depending on how much I get done in the next month, I will have from 1 to 5 images published in the book. Why is this awesome? Because it will be my first real publication! I’ll keep you all updated (: