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Welcome to Up Around the Corner, Christine. Please,
tell us a little about yourself and your Art.
Okay, I’ll start
with the boring (but important) stuff. Feel free to skim. I’m the mother of
three sons—ages ten, twelve and fourteen—and wife to one big boy, aged
old-enough-to-know-better. My schooling
is in traditional fine arts but somewhere along the line, I figured out that
I’d rather be doing more narrative work and let’s face it, it’s a rush to see
your handiwork on the cover of a book.
So I put away my paints (before the babies could eat them) and took up
digital media.
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| Christine Griffin Self Portrait |
I love genre art,
and by that I mean myth, fantasy, urban paranormal, a little sci-fi (but not so
much the mech stuff), you know, the nerdly pleasures. I’ll tell you, becoming
an illustrator was more difficult than I’d imagined. Catering to a client’s
needs means you must be good at a far broader variety of things than if you
just picked your own poison. It’s been a challenge but I’d like to think I’ve
grown more because of it.
Like authors sometimes do of
the written word, Christine, do you, as an artist, find yourself at libraries,
bookstores and on line, perusing covers? Are there any artists that stand out
in your mind, and which, if any, have strongly influenced your creativity and
style?
All creative
types are products of the world they live in and if we don’t look to other
artists/writers/musicians/etc., we’re doomed to create the same mistakes over
and over again. We’re never finished learning.
My influences are
ridiculously copious. When I was forced to study art history, I gravitated
towards the symbolists, surrealists and pop artists but could never seem to be
that, well, weird. I guess I’m boring, when it all comes down to it. Back in
the day, I didn’t understand that what I really wanted to do was illustrate,
not be a fine artist. When I was in school, there existed a wide gap between
the fine arts and the ‘applied’ arts. Stupid but true. Nowadays, though,
students are being cross-trained and that gap is vanishing, especially in genre
work: sci-fi, fantasy, horror.
The first
contemporary artist I had a big crush on was Brom (www.bromart.com)
and I still wish I could be as daring and imaginative as he is. I love the
gorgeous colors of Maxfield Parrish and the Golden Age illustrators. All of the
Wyeths (NC, Andrew, Jamie) rank high on my hero list. Oh, and Drew Struzan!
Man, we just don’t see movie posters like his anymore. When I need ideas for
great cover layouts, I hit up Tor Books. Tor Books and art director Irene Gallo
has done more for contemporary genre artists than anyone else, these days.
And don’t even get me started on
music …
Was that a dare? How
about this: Do you listen to music when you draw or work on your illustrations
and cover art? If so, what do you listen to and why?
I’m not a’scared of you! *gets started on music*
Actually, most often when I paint, I listen to podcasts
about art and writing. My favorites are:
artist Sam Weber’s Your Dreams, My Nightmares; The Dead Robots’
Society writing podcast; Writing Excuses with Brandon Sanderson, Dan
Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Taylor; and the Nerdist Writer’s Panel.
(Yes, I’m a wannabe writer too. Why are there so few hours in a day? *whines*)
After I chug through those, I turn on the music and these
days my playlist seems to circle around Mumford & Sons, folkster Brandi
Carlile, vintage Elton John and Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, MGMT (when I’m feeling
particularly psychedelic), all things Butch Walker, and Florence and the
Machine. Many of my art buds enjoy movie soundtracks but I need the human
voice. Art and writing are such solitary pursuits, I feel a little less
cloistered when there’s another person talking or singing at me. Curiously,
when I’m painting I don’t need my music to follow the theme of the particular
job but when I’m writing, it’s important. What about you? Do you listen to
music when you write?
Actually, no, I don’t
listen to music very much. However, there are a limited number of individual
songs that I have been known to pull up on rare occasion, such as Bonny Portmore by Lorena McKennit and Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds.
Christine, can you
explain the process you generally go through when creating the cover art for a
novel?
Sure. First things first, I require a blood sacrifice and
lots of pastries. Preferably of the cookie variety.
Okay, not so much.
Once a price has been haggled out, here’s the typical
protocol:
~Thumbnails. These are small—and I mean postage-stamp
sized—rough compositional ideas. I’ll take my top two or three and flesh them
out to be sketchy, slightly larger drawings to show the client. During this
phase, I try to guide the client in design choices, and I also start looking
for photo-reference. Generally speaking, I don’t have time to read an entire
novel before starting the cover so it’s extremely important that the author
give me as many details as possible about the characters, world, and atmosphere
of the story. An excerpt is great; I can usually glean valuable clues from
observing the author’s writing style. This doesn’t mean every freckle will be
depicted on the cover; it’s more important to succinctly get the genre and vibe
of the story nailed. That’s what sells your book.
~Client Selects Sketch. Next, I start collecting photo-ref
in earnest or taking my own photos. This can be time-consuming and sometimes
it’s tough to find the right weapon/costume, but once accomplished, a more
complete drawing can be rendered to give the client better details and the
opportunity to provide helpful input. It’s wonderful when the client has
experience with weaponry and can give the artist assistance in this area (as
you’ve done in the past, Terry!)
~Painting in the Works. Typically, I work with digital media
for book covers because of its ease of alteration. It’s so much easier to tweak
colors and make moderate changes in Photoshop or Painter than it is when using
oil paints or worse yet, watercolors. That being said, changing a point of view
or completely rotating a character is still major work. This is the point at
which I tell the client “You get one last say-so about the poses and
composition; from here on out, it’s pretty much sealed.” This is just a practical
requirement. Time is limited and as much as I’d love to endlessly fiddle with the
details, I start losing money if I have to rework things constantly. I’m
usually juggling several clients at once and a single difficult customer can
put all my deadlines behind. I’m also a mom to three sons and that can gum up
the works at a moment’s notice.
~Time Keeps on tickin’ tickin’ tickin’. I’m a slow painter.
It probably takes me longer to get things accomplished than most. If I could
focus on ONE project at a time, I could probably get it cranked out in a week,
start to finish, but my world is not that perfect. Also, I’m constantly trying
to hone my skills and evolve. (Anatomy and perspective are a constant struggle
so while I’m working on paying gigs, I’m also trying to get more proficient so
that I can nab better paying gigs!) Once completed, the client will receive a
high-resolution digital file of the art. Depending upon how the art is going to
be used, the client might ask for additional things: banners, business cards,
marketing items. Note to authors: unless you’ve worked this out with your
artist ahead of time, you are not usually entitled to sell prints of the art,
or use it on things such as t-shirts, mouse pads, and other retail items.
Actually, Christine, my wife likes to tell folks she was
the staff-wielding model for the cover of Blood Sword.
Can you tell us a little about the most interesting project
you’ve worked on, and what project your deep into at the moment—in other words
what we can expect to see of your work in the near future?
Yes, your wife is the tough lady with the big stick! We all
need one of those in our lives. Can I borrow yours? Maybe I’ll actually get
stuff done.
Hmm. My most interesting project. That’s a toughie because
each project I take, well, it’s my job to find something in every project that
interests me. If you can’t do that, your creativity will have no heart and
that’s when you tread into ‘hack’ territory. So to dodge your question, I have
yet to stumble upon my most interesting project. I’m still creating book covers,
but I’m hoping to tackle more personal pieces and work on a graphic novel or
perhaps an on-line sequential. I’m also tip-toeing into the craft of writing.
Ultimately, I want to focus on my own projects, but we’ll see how that goes. I
do enjoy the cover work and it puts brass in pocket!
For the time being, I’ll be doing the odd self-published
book and you can find me at Belle Bridge Books working on their YA and Urban Fantasy lines. After that,
hopefully it will be a Christine Griffin production.
Thanks, Terry!
You’re welcome for the interview, Christine. Maybe in the
future we’ll see a graphic novel that’s both written and illustrated by you.
If you’d like to view and learn more about Christine
Griffin’s work, you can visit the following:
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