Alice Ratterree | Children's Book Illustrator

Blog

  • God in a boat with a balloon

    or: “Trail”

    Well, I just had to deviate from my one-word blog titles. Last week, my son (age 3) drew an image on paper with pencil. I asked him what it was and he said, “It’s God on a boat…with a balloon.” I fell in love with this idea and it became my submission for Illustration Friday also (the theme this week is “trail”)

    The concept of God on a journey hit me as so meloncholy. God alone in his boat, searching for his own path, holding something so child-like it strikes me scared and is comforting at the same time that he doesn’t have all the answers.

    I don’t know, but I think that sometimes 3-yr-olds just understand more than we do, or at least give them credit for.
    (The top image is mine, the one below is my son’s)

  • Slither

    Illustration Friday.

    I couldn’t resist the obvious… the sneaky reptile. The original reptile that slithered its way into Eve’s heart apparently slithered its way into mine and begged to be my subject.

  • Early

    I stumbled across a site called “illustration friday.” Each week, an inspiration word or phrase is posted. Artists are then called to render their interpretations by the next Friday.

    I love this. It keeps me thinking and moving forward with something in between projects. Not to mention the accumulation of potential portfolio material.

    This week’s challenge is “early.” Tough, because it’s hard to resist the gravitation towards sunrises, birds and worms.

    Last Friday, my son and I made pancakes, as is our usual Friday tradition (fitting that we do that on Friday….) Anyway, I ended up with more batter than I intended and tried to stack them on top of each other and create a collossal tower of pancakes.

    They toppled over before I ever made it this high, but it still amazed my 3 year old.

  • Environment

    Another start to this idea of a nursery rhyme series that keeps nagging at me. I’m not sure why I am so obsessed with taking these little nuggets and fleshing them out. Perhaps it’s because environments have been the biggest challenge for me as a visual artist. These poems are mostly focused on the character, that giving them a stage to play it out in is what is driving me forward. I guess that’s the old theatre gal in me that won’t let that go…driving toward just what are the intentions of, and the story behind these odd anonymous characters…

    Why did Little Bo Peep loose her sheep? (better yet, why are they horrifically missing their tails)

    What if Jack and Jill were fetching water up an icy hill in a snowstorm, rather than the blustery spring day we always tend to think of? Giving more reason to why Jack can’t keep his footing and making their venture more futile than ever.

    What is Mistress Mary really up to?

    Why does Jack want to jump over that candlestick?

  • Web

    The website is here!

  • Identity

    The drawing came about simply from a project for a marketing agency, but it’s made me consider the true meaning of “identity”

    Webster describes two aspects of “identity”:

    1) the distinguishing character or personality of an individual (what I always tend to relate to “identity”)

    2) sameness of essential or generic character in different instances

    So not only is identity about uniqueness, something distinguishing that sets us apart from others, but also about consistency of that uniqueness.
    Identity is something everyone searches for at come point. Some people actually think they find it, but I think we can never really know the uniqueness of our own identity since we live it all the time. What may be unique about me to someone else, I’ve lived with my entire life, maybe even have loathed that about myself and tried to purge it, or think it just mundane and average.
    And then there’s the consistency factor, which I find terribly difficult. I only want to keep consistant that which are good traits, and to break the consistency of my not-so-good qualities. So I find myself alot of times being very inconsistent.
    Therefore, do I have an identity?

  • Layers

    Continuing to pursue painting in photoshop, alternating my use of layers. Applied a thicker top layer to this character, relying less on the drawing and resulting in a truer “painting” experience.

  • Character

    Tonight I dove back into characters. Bright, warm, sunny children – not taking myself too seriously. I had a blast. Normally I like to post finished work, but the rough in-progess stage has an appeal too, and sometimes makes me hesitate to go further. But I will.

  • Fearless

    I embarked on a fun project a few years ago for Clemson University’s “Tri-Art” program, an outreach initiative to bring the three performance arts (drama, dance and music) into local schools. The client wanted one character that somehow represented all three disciplines, so I created a little girl who wants to do it all. Striking a fearless pose that begs to be in the spotlight, center stage.

    We all know her. Weren’t all us girls her at some point in our life?

    Fearless-ness. That’s what I’m aiming for. That childlike attitude that I can be anything….still…at my age. That although my “education” is behind me, I will always be learning. And if I’m learning, I’m growing. And if I’m still growing, then every day I’m more and more like that child I remember.

  • Home

    OK so I’m in the throws of building a web site. That’s a very accurate term…”building” a site. It is true construction. There’s first a site, with a “domain” name, for your “home” page, then entryways to other rooms containing all sorts of treasures of information. And there has to be a certain feng shui about it all – a pleasing consistency that will invite my “visitors” to stay a while. I’m keeping mine simple, partly because I’m not savvy enough to add many bells and whistles, but mainly because I like it that way.
    My little home.