Anneliese Juergensen, Illustrator!

Some More Art!

2012-01-26T20:09:00.001-08:00

I have heard that my art website may not work properly in some computers, so I have put some of my art for children here:

I drew these dolphins on porpoise!

2012-01-26T05:08:00.000-08:00

This weekend I will be going to the SCBWI Conference in New York City! I am so excited! I just gave my portfolio a bit of a makeover for it, and this is one of my favorite pictures that I just added!

Also, I just recently created my own Twitter account! Follow me if you'd like! @AnnelieseArt

See ya later, Alligator...

2011-05-26T19:08:00.001-07:00

Right now I have a job working in an elementary school, and I spend part of the day assisting in a first-grade classroom. Today the teacher asked me to illustrate the difference between an alligator and a crocodile on the whiteboard for the kids. I kind of liked how the drawing came out, so I thought I'd share it here as well! Now you can impress all of your friends with your knowledge about the differences between these reptiles!

News and Doodles!

2011-05-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

My illustration website is up! Check it out: anneliesejuergensen.com! Now I wish that I didn't have such a long name!

Also, here are a couple of doodles I made this weekend...

New York Wonderland

2011-05-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I met up with my awesome friend Amy Appleton, who is the project coordinator at CityArts, an organization that helps facilitate big community art projects such as murals and mosaics in New York City as well as around the world. There is a beautiful mural, stretching about a quarter of a city block, that was painted by high school students in the TriBeCa area in 2002. It had started to fall apart from wear and tear and vandalism. Now different community members, artists, and neighborhood children are currently working to restore it!

It couldn't have been a prettier spring day when I came to help, even if it was very cool and windy!
The theme of the mural is "Alice in Wonderland in New York City." Here is the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, and Alice hanging out on the Statue of Liberty!
A cute young lady lent a hand!
The portion of the mural I spent a good amount of time on shows Alice dreaming of the skyscrapers and lights.

The restorers were free to add their own interpretations and changes to the mural. In one place, there was a child's drawing of a dog surrounded by colorful circles. Amy and I changed it to a robot dog surrounded by gears!
After a long day of working in the sun and wind, Amy and I got dinner and then I took the subway back to catch my train home. In the Times Square Subway station, there were posters advertising one of Amy and my favorite TV shows, Doctor Who! If The Doctor wants another trusty robot dog companion for his adventures in time and space, he need look no further than a few train stops away in TriBeCa!

Someday You'll Be Old Enough To Read Fairy Tales Again

2010-07-07T01:27:00.000-07:00

This drawing was for my illustration class last spring, based on the C.S. Lewis quote in the title of this post. I wish that the Minneapolis public transport system was this exciting!

Meeting of the Minds

2010-07-07T01:11:00.000-07:00

I really liked making this piece. It's fun to get lost in the details of the setting to really tell the story of the people inside the picture! I also sometimes like to make up names for the different people and animals in my illustrations. It makes it more personal somehow, as if I could get to know them someday, even just as fictional characters in a story!

People that I've shown this piece to have had their own opinions on whether they liked the ink drawing versus the colored version. I will put them both up here!

Human/Animal

2010-06-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

This piece was inspired by a trip I went on last summer with my family to Cape Cod. We went on a whale watch, and there was one young humpback that came up to the boat, rolling around slowly in the water and looking at us with his big eye. He was so close that you can smell his breath, stinky like old fish! The tour guide talked about how whales exhibit this kind of behavior around any new object and was probably not looking at the people on the boat, but I couldn't help but think that the whale must have seen and heard these strange creatures on the floating thing... and what did we look like to him?

For Sale: Fantasy Creatures Seeking A Good Home

2010-06-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

I can't wait for next weekend! I'll be at CONvergence, a science fiction and fantasy convention held annually in Bloomington, MN, just outside of Minneapolis. Here are some original drawings of mine that will be for sale in the Art Show.

Anyone like unicorns? I do!Or pegasuses (pegasus? pegasi?)?

How about dragons?

I will also have some prints in the Art Show, as well as participe in the Artist's Alley. Come by and say hello, I'd love to meet you! I will be happy to draw more guys like these, as well as costume portraits!

Waterfall

2010-06-04T00:27:00.000-07:00

It's a waterfall of creativity!

Dancing!

2010-06-04T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is one of my personal favorites, done in pen and ink with some watercolor wash. It was for an assignment in my "Tools of the Trade" class with Lindsay Nohl.

Post-Baccalaureate Art Show

2010-05-14T01:58:00.001-07:00

I finished my classes last Tuesday, and I admit that it's really surreal and bittersweet. I loved being in MCAD and will miss it dearly, but I am also looking forward to what's ahead, continuing to work as an illustrator!

My work will be shown at the 2010 Post-Baccalaureate show from May 28-June 13. Though, sadly, I will be out of town on the opening from 6-8pm, I'm very excited about it. The classmates that I'm in the show with, Elizabeth Kimmel Lang and Stephen Rogers, are such talented artists and it's so awesome to have worked with them this semester!

Here is the postcard for the event, designed by Sara Lintner:

The picture that is on the card is from this piece, done in ink and watercolor. It is one of my favorites from this semester, and it was based on the theme, "winter carnival"

MCAD Portfolio Day

2010-05-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from the portfolio day event at MCAD, and f you're visiting this blog from there, hi and welcome! It was very nice meeting you all! I haven't updated here much recently (school has been kicking my butt, but in a good way!) but there will be more work here soon!

That's me on the right-hand side, with my awesome friend and table-mate Aimee Johnson! Thanks for taking the picture, Aimee!

Costumes

2009-11-01T01:35:00.000-07:00

In honor of Halloween (which was yesterday, but why let the festivities stop?!), I thought I would show a series of paintings I made of people in costume. I love costumes, and pretending to be someone/thing else for a little while... it must be my inner theater geek coming out!

These acrylic portraits are part of a series depicting real people who like to dress up as a hobby, and not just for Halloween. Though in many cases it can be very theatrical, it is not necessarily for plays, either. It was a lot of fun working with the models, who were so generous and patient! Though I haven't worked on this project since the initial few weeks that I made for a class, I would love to continue it sometime!

In their own words:

I believe that breaking away from reality is extremely fun, but it’s also a necessary release especially during stressful times. You have to express yourself! You have to go out of normal, out of mind, and have fun!

I’ve always loved mythological art, ever since going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I was little and seeing the masters’ work. It’s an entire world away from where we live. You can take that, break away from reality. Go with it!

It took about four weeks to make this costume. For the hooves, my Aunt Margaret is a
physical therapist and raises show horses, so she knew how to help me make this costume! She thought I was going out of my mind, and it was great! She loved the way it came out, though.

I was inspired by the Minnesota Renaissance Fair, I went for the first time last year and I was hooked. I wore this there a bunch of times.

Don’t be afraid to have fun and step out of what’s normal, no matter how strange or goofy. Just go out and go for it, enjoy every strange look, every laugh, enjoy every bit of it!

I am dressed up like Princess Tutu. I really like the show and the characters!

Acting is definitely a part of it, becoming someone else for a little while. It’s a lot of fun.

I made this costume, and I had to make decisions, because I couldn’t afford an expensive costume. It’s not professional or anything, but it works, and that’s what’s important. I wasn’t keeping track of how long it took to make it, but I think it was about ten hours.

I started making it for Halloween, and I made a lot of revisions since then. It can always be revised!

I just went to my first convention, and it was fun being around other people who were dressed up! I also like the idea of LARP [Live Action Role Play]. It seems very magical, like Halloween any time of the year.

When I go to conventions, I work in the Artists’ Alley. A bright colored costume draws people over and brings good business. It’s also fun, I mean, how often do you get to wear goofy clothes?

I mostly do anime and Harry Potter costumes. Once I cosplayed as an American superhero, and it was not very interesting. I find Japanese costumes more interesting. I find anime more interesting because it is more character-driven, it has a more cohesive story line with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and I don’t worry about story inconsistencies. American comic series keep on going on and on and on to make more money.

I cosplay with dolls, hell yeah! Costumes are easier to make for dolls-- they have less fabric, they don’t have to be comfortable, and you don’t have to put them on traditionally. I can pop the hands right off if I can’t get the sleeves on! You don’t have to worry about hair because it’s a wig, and the dolls don’t care. If I need to swap the eyes out, then they get swapped!

With dolls, you don’t have to worry about body type. I believe people should dress according to body type. I don’t care HOW much you like Sailor Moon, really fat girls should not dress up like Sailor Moon!

The worst thing is Man-Faye. Faye is a character from Cowboy Bebop, and she’s very sexy, flat out sexy, a bombshell. Man-Faye is a fairly unattractive man who wears her costume, including garters. Man-Faye is not good. Very scary! He has a happy trail, yellow mini-skirt, stockings, and garters! You have to Google him!

I’m dressed as Yuki-Sohma from Fruits Basket. It is like acting a bit, and I like the idea of having the ability to don another personality. Not only do I look like my character, I think about his personality. The way Yuki speaks, he has a softer tone of voice, he’s thought of as a prince.

It makes you find different quirks inside your own prismatic personality. As an artist, you think of yourself as an individual, when you are actually just a sum of many parts.

At first, I dressed up as Yuki when my friend was going as Momiji. We wanted to be similar characters with Fruits Basket characters. I developed a reason to be bitter and angsty, it gave me a chance to practice acting. I’m usually pretty optimistic! Maybe, I guess it is almost an outlet for such feelings.

It’s just fun, it’s another form of fun for me.

I’m a big fan of karaoke. At a con, I try to pick songs based on the character I’m going as. For this character, I would pick “King of Pain” by The Police.

There are three unwritten rules: you don’t take your head off around non-suiters, you don’t talk while you’re in costume, and you don’t give out your real name. When you’re in costume, you’re in costume. You are associated with your character and not your real name.

Throughout my life, I drew myself as some sort of animal character in comic form. I was a cat named Naomi, then a dog, and now I’m a ferret, because people have compared me to a ferret! Drawing these comics made me laugh to feel better, and then I found out that other people did this, too. It’s all about expressing yourself, it’s another type of art.

There are people who do this in a sexual aspect. Would I? No. I think it’s stupid. Someone worked really hard to make these costumes, and then they would cut a hole in it, or mess it up. You can’t put the costumes in the wash, either, they would melt!

I use costuming to entertain others. It’s fun! On Easter, a few of us went to the park and played with the kids. If I can make a nice costume, I would like dress up for Humane Society events to help raise awareness.

I do it just to have fun. We act like a bunch of goofballs!

My Elephant Thinks I'm Wonderful

2009-10-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

A pastel illustration for my children's book class last year, for a poem by Ken Nesbitt:

"My Elephant Thinks I'm Wonderful"

My elephant thinks I'm wonderful.

My elephant thinks I'm cool.

My elephant hangs around with me

and follows me to school.

My elephant likes the way I look.

He thinks I'm fun and smart.

He thinks I'm kind and generous

and have a terrific heart.

My elephant thinks I'm brave and bold.

He's proud of my strength and guts.

But mostly he likes the way I smell.

My elephant thinks I'm nuts.

glub glub glub

2009-10-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Some quick sketches made with ballpoint pen while visiting the Baltimore Aquarium.

Fish have such interesting shapes and movements. Though I enjoy drawing all sorts of animals, if I have an afternoon in a zoo or aquarium, I would probably spend most of it in front of the displays of strange and lovely fish!

Yay!

2009-10-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd start things off by showing a drawing that represents myself in some way, an introduction, if you will. This piece is an oldie-but-goodie... I made this in 2007, for a drawing class when I studied abroad in Florence, Italy. The assignment was to create a self portrait with some sort of animal... and I love whales!

This was made with watercolor pencil on 27.5" x 30" toned paper.