Hello all! I've realized that I haven't updated this website in a while, but that's because I've been busy building a new website! I managed to get a domain name through Squarespace, so the website that I will be using from now on is marielacostaillustration.com. It still needs a few tweaks, but it is up and running! I have also uploaded my resume and newer illustrations there, so be sure to check it all out! As of now, I am abandoning this website, and will only keep it up to direct traffic to my newer website. So for those of you just visiting, follow the link above please! It was nice using this blogspot for a while, but it's time to move on to something more professional now! See you guys there!

Hello everybody! I am creating a new website so I can show my portfolio and other pieces of artwork even better, which means that in a little while, I won't be using this blogspot anymore. I'll be posting everything to my Squarespace website from now on! This also means I'll be making new business cards, postcards, and all that other fun stuff! I'm still adding more work to the website, and I'm in the process of purchasing a domain name, but after that, I will share it on this blog so everyone who visits this page will be directed to the new website! I'll keep this page updated with how the process is going, so look forward to a few more post in the future!

I decided to do a coloring book page for the Doodler's Anonymous Book since they were taking submissions for the next issue and WOW did I have fun with this! Line work is my favorite process of an illustration, and inking this in was a nice break from thesis work. I made a little story in my head about a world where a giant monster creates all the mountains by planting little baby ones all over the earth, and it does this by carrying them all on its back. I did the whole thing traditionally using Winsor & Newton ink and a super tiny watercolor brush. I really hope my entry gets accepted, because I totally want to do more of these!

This summer, I was commissioned by Faith Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana to paint a mural on the side of their office building. My family knew the pastor, an he thought it would be a great idea for me to contribute my art skills to their community. They wanted me to recreate a scene from The Chronicles of Narnia books, more specifically a scene from the third book where the character Eustace is turned into a dragon, and Aslan the lion transforms him back into a boy by clawing his skin off and dunking him in a pool of water. It was pretty challenging, but it was a cool scene to paint nonetheless, and  I had a lot of fun doing this! Granted, it was always 100+ degrees outside and I was sometimes painting in direct sunlight, but I think it was a good experience for me. It's definitely the biggest painting I've ever done. Thankfully, some volunteers from the church even helped me paint the background colors and block all the shapes in. Many weeks of planning went into this, and the actual painting took about a week total. Unfortunately, I had to fly back to Baltimore for college before I could finish this, but it was finished-looking enough that I felt it was a good stopping point. I plan to work on it a little more when I go back to Baton Rouge for break. For now, the pastor and all the other church members like it the way it is.

Here are some progress shots and a photo of the (almost finished) piece! Sorry if the pictures are a little low quality. I had to take these with my phone.

For those of you who have been following me for a while now, you know that I got accepted into last year's Art Melt 2013, which is the largest juried art exhibit in Louisiana. You'll remember it was this piece that got in, and that it was on display at the Louisiana State Museum for about three weeks. Unfortunately, I was studying abroad in London when it got accepted and was unable to go the the opening ceremonies or anything, but I was able to go to the gallery everything was displayed in when I flew back to Louisiana. It was a super cool experience for me and also was a really great chance to see some amazing work by other Louisiana artists.
Well good news! A piece of mine got accepted this year as well! The first self portrait in this post I added last February got in. This time I was able to go to the preview party this year, and it was really nice to be able to talk to some of the other artists about their work. All of the artwork is awesome, and to think I was one of the 67 artists to get accepted out of over 400 entries is very cool. If you're ever in the Baton Rouge area, so to the Louisiana State Museum to check out the exhibit I'm in! It will be up until August 28th, so everyone has plenty of time to see the work that all of these artists, including me, have to offer!

I'm entering the juried Art Melt exhibition again this year! This is one of the pieces I entered, which was inspired by the Tibetian Buddhist art I saw at The British Museum while I was studying abroad in London last summer. I was really fascinated by the amount of detail and precision used in the artwork, and I wanted to depict the deities and gods I saw in my own style. I tried to keep a limited color palette and used acryli-gouache on packaging paper. It was also one of the pieces I had displayed at Spur Gallery a few months ago, and it one of my favorite pieces I've done so far, so hopefully I'll get into the exhibition again!

These are some environment concepts for that story I was talking about in the last post. Basically, it takes place in the far off lands of Thundsull and Irrillio, who have been engaged in an all out war for so long that none of the regular citizens can remember why it started in the first place. The plot centers around Dusty, a young Thundsull girl who doesn't think much about the war until her parents are drafted and she goes on a quest to find them both before they get killed.

I'm going to work on this project some more over the summer while I have the time. I'm working on the script and some more characters now, so look forward to that in the future!

A spot illustration for a story I've been planning out for years. I'm actually working on this story for my book illustration final so expect a full synopsis and more later!

After about three weeks of work, I've finally finished this 50 Things poster for my Illustration class! I choose to do monsters as my subject, since monsters are my favorite things to draw, you might even recognize a few if you look close enough! I sketched out each one traditionally, scanned and arranged them all, and then digitally outlined and colored everything. I'm still not too sure about the colors, but I changed them about ten times so I'm happy sticking with this version until I find a color scheme I like better. I'm very happy I was able to complete this project in the amount of time I was given, since it was a pretty big undertaking!

About two weeks ago, I noticed that the awesome website, TheyDrawAndCook, was hosting a competition  sponsored by Glad that encouraged people to illustrate not one recipe, but three recipes that all used the same key ingredient! I decided to illustrate my favorite banana recipes, since all the bananas I end up buying go overripe before I can finish them, and I'm always making recipes using them.

If you want to see the original submission and other great recipes, click here!