Welcome to my studio
Fine Art | Illustration | Design
I’m Erika Karl, an artist, illustrator, designer, and recent transplant to Cleveland, Ohio via Brooklyn, New York. I have some exciting new projects brewing. Here is where I’ll share my processes and new collections.
On My Desk…
Song Sketch
This is a quick sketch I made for the next Oracle Project piece. With all of the birds singing for a mate, songs getting stuck in my head, and all of the feelings that go with that, I can see the next card forming in my mind. I often do quick sketches to hash out my ideas and work through the composition of a piece before I lay the ink down on paper.
For this sketch, I used Procreate, which is an iPad app. It’s similar to Photoshop, but feels very close to taking a pen to paper. I realize some purists wrinkle their noses at using digital methods to create, but I still consider this “hand-drawn”. There is very little difference between my taking a pen to paper and taking a pen to an iPad, and using my hand to draw and illustrate.
I think the biggest difference is, I’m not wasting my ink and I’m not crinkling up paper and throwing it in the trash. Next up: A “real” ink-wash painting of Song… stay tuned!
The Oracle Project
New Prints Available
Bring The Oracle Project to life in your space. Each piece in this collection is created using my homemade black walnut ink, adding a rich and earthy tone.
New prints are continuously added until I complete the project and create a full oracle card deck. You can see how far I got to date here. If you’d like to have a part of the series for yourself, go to my print shop to find the piece that speaks to you.
Introducing Three Sisters:
Astrid, Gertrude, & Wilma
Three Sisters is a paper doll series found in Erika’s Attic, a place on my website where artistic ideas can be explored, appreciated, and enjoyed by all. Each edition focuses on a unique theme and is hand-drawn by me for you to make your creations as you see fit.
Some News…
On a whim, I submitted to Uppercase Magazine, which has been a fun source of creative inspiration for me. Funny enough, this edition #58 is called “Become Whimsy” and I feel a lot of my work fits well into this category.
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“UPPERCASE is a quarterly magazine for the creative and curious inspired by craft, design, typography and illustration. Published since 2009, the magazine has an enthusiastic and loyal readership of designers, illustrators, craftspeople, creative entrepreneurs and paper lovers around the world. Ads-free, with high-quality production values and a unique design aesthetic, the content of each issue is eclectic and inspiring.”
*description & photo from uppercasemagazine.com
Ink-Making Fool
I’ve been making so much ink I decided it was time to use it for something awesome. The Oracle Project is painted in black walnut ink since its warmth and natural origins lend itself well to this series. If you’d like to try your hand at natural ink-making, I have my black walnut ink recipe up on my blog…