Cimmerian Doll Illustrations

by Miranda

This fall will begin my fifth year as a student of fine art with an emphasis in drawing and painting. It has forever been my greatest ambition that my work should have an impact outside of the classroom and my local community.

Especially throughout this last year, I have struggled with controversy between what is considered to be fine art and what is illustration. For a while I was very distraught that this should even be an issue at all, feeling that no one had any right to degrade the talent of illustrators. However, I slowly began to understand subtle differences between the two and I believe that this sets my work apart from the work of some other children's book illustrators. Before I graduate with my BFA, I hope to be the epitome of a seamless blend between fine art and illustration.

Since the beginning of my college experience I have been told by my professors and my peers that I have a very distinguishable style. I love to use rich, dark colors and high contrast, with subtle hints of warm colors. My work tends to adopt an edgy, rather foreboding appeal. However, that is only my personal preference, I am actually very versatile when it comes to commisioned work. My art is very much inspired by dark stories such as Through the Looking Glass, Something Wicked this Way Comes, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Gorey's short stories, and the classic tale of The Picture of Dorian Gray to name a few.

So far I have illustrated two children's books, each with about 30 pictures and using prisma colored pencils. The first was a commisioned work in which the author was very deceptive and therefore I lost a lot of time and hard work and did not get published. But that experience taught me some valuable lessons and I decided to continue improving my skill with my own children's story, which I have most of the pictures posted on my flickr account you can find at Cimmerian Doll as well as some recent oil paintings and sketches.

Well I appreciate you taking the time to read this and if I have sparked any interest at all,I am willing to do sample sketches for a job. Also, my rate is around $22 an hour but that is slightly negotiable. Again, thank you for your time :) I am very excited to pursue my career as a freelance illustrator :)