  MEgAN WiLDER ILLUSTRATOR & CONCEPT ARTIST
m. wilder - october 30th 1994
I
am an illustrator in Northern California working in mainly watercolor and ink with the occasional dip into gouache and acrylic.
I create narrative pieces with a focus on fantasy, folklore, and storytelling. Personality is something I believe can be put into anything, from simple layout design to fully rendered paintings or character sheets. My primary inspirations are the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 1800’s and the Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau movements of the same era. Their attention to nature, craftsmanship, and symbolism and the deliberate addition of folk art is something I strive to recreate in my own work. I enjoy working with clients to bring their ideas to fruition. I take pride in watching a client's face light up when they are satisfied with the final product. Contact with me can be made either through email or one of my various social media sites. I can also be found in person at conventions across Northern California.
table of Contents
Current Projects • Wyrmwood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Personal & Academic Work • Anwyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Dystopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Musophobia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Birth Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Misc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Mermaids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Fashion Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bryn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Mandala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Still Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Resume & Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
CURRENT
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PROJECTS
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WYRMWOOD Wyrmwood, California. A city located far up the coast of California, somewhere near Crescent Bay but inhabiting a series of bays and coves that may or may not exist in any map at all. The city sprawls across a huge swathe of National Park forests and mountains. Warm lights fighting off the fog and rain provide cominghome lanterns to tourists and travellers, leading them into the teeth of tall black pines like a chunk of meat pulls a mountain lion into a steel jaw trap. Her streets wind through mountain, foothill, and valley roads, leading off into the sea and dropping off sheer mountain faces. Elio Toivonen is from here, but he does not know it yet.
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Daiman Zacharov has always lived adjacent, in one of the many facade towns that border her forests in order to look normal. The city has rules, do not leave your home after sundown. Throw a penny to the ground after leaving your car, never take a road you don’t recognize. Always avert your eyes from the speckled deer out of respect for the high court. The rules are not the worst things. Deep in the mountain and far out at sea, hiding out in the open at harbors and retail shops are cages that will catch you if you stumble. How much do you think you cost on the black market? Elio is $1,000,000. Daiman is $5,000,000.
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Wyrmwood is a novel and art project I am currently working on with co-creator and co-writer Lee Dawn.
I am creating a series of black and white spot illustrations as well as developing concept art for the town, people, and various creatures.
The story revolves around two main characters, Elio Toivonen and Daiman Zacharov, and revolves around nefarious mafia deals, family secrets, magic,with the setting of a town of cults, the paranormal, and all manner of mythology and folktale that has a bad habit of disappearing off of maps.
I work as if the format could change to a more visual medium, such as an animated feature or video game. This includes rough concepts to finished ideas, rough color keys, and turnarounds for the main characters. I am also equally responsible for the writing of the project.
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WYRMWOOD
Daiman Zacharov
20 - male Russian immigrant Witch
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WYRMWOOD 19 -male Sicilian/Greek American Oracle
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Elio Toivonen
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WYRMWOOD
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WYRMWOOD
Opium Dreams W
hen he turned away, the drawn curtain of Moira’s bed caught his eye. Opening them felt like crossing a line, but it was the only place he hadn’t checked. His hands shook when he reached for them, but he didn’t know if it was the usual tired tremble from the hospital or something new, something scared. Their metal rings slid across the bar and he cringed from the sound. The air was icy despite the rising morning temperatures of summer outside. Elio was laying peacefully in the bed on his back, face turned away from him. One of his arms was laying on top of the quilts and blankets and he reached for it.
Medium: Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper; Holbein lamp black Intent: This was meant to convey a very specific mood for the scene. In the novel, this is the first time Daiman would have seen Elio catatonic from his clairvoyance. I wanted it tense, so there’s a lot of busy patterns and very dramatic lighting. The eye symbolizes both his visions and the Italian folk belief of using an evil eye to keep the evil eye away, and I wanted a slight callback to old Sleeping Beauty illustrations of Aurora in her bed, struck down by the spindle. Fairy tale references are abundant in the work, and a callback was not only appropriate, but almost necessary.
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WYRMWOOD
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WYRMWOOD
A Lack Of Sleep T
he fluorescent lights made him white rather than pale, like a skull wrapped in blueish skin. His own face looked unfamiliar and foreign, like someone had rearranged it while he was sleeping, moved every feature a sixteenth of an inch. The purple-pink scars felt like those brands they gave cattle, one line descriptions of where he was from and who he was. He rinsed out his mouth over and over, losing the taste of bile and ice cream but not the ginger ale. He splashed water across his face but the scar s were still there. “Stop it,” he told his reflection, whose mouth mimicked his mockingly. “What is wrong with you?”
Medium: Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper; Holbein lamp black Intent: In the scene, Daiman is supposed to look sad, exhausted. He's been crying in a bathroom, splashed his face with water. I wanted to get across the idea that he's looking in the mirror and you're seeing hi through his eyes, you're stepping into the shoes of the character and seeing him as he sees himself at his most vulnerable.
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WYRMWOOD
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WYRMWOOD
Toivonen Mansion E
lio glanced backwards at the rubble blocking the hall, the blackened ceiling choking whatever light that tried to spill through. “Daiman, step back.” “What?” He ignored him and took a harsh step forward. He swung the beam as hard as he could against the wall, focusing as hard as he could on fourth of July fireworks and the way bonfires exploded with a cup of gasoline. The end of it splattered into magnesium sparks that mellowed into molten honey and amber, dripping down his hands and onto the ground. “Oh.” he said. “Oh, no.” Pig and Rabbit were gone, but their shadows weren’t. They towered on the wall at the end of the hall, featureless pitch black silhouettes. Others were scattering underneath rocks and bricks and bits of rotten plaster, diving out of the light. He stumbled back into the rubble, away from them. Daiman hissed next to him, reaching out to keep him back.
Medium: Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper; Holbein lamp black Intent: The biggest part of this scene is the shadows, looming up out of the ashes of the burnt mansion. Because of this the hall was deliberately stretched in perspective to make them larger and more formidable.
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WYRMWOOD
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WYRMWOOD
A Small Star T
he small star rolled around in his fingers, struggled to float away and escape to bounce around among the painted gold stars of the ceiling. Elio cupped his hands, bouncing it around between them. He considered making it solid, giving it points, and turning it into a crystalline light piece. He considered slipping that star into an envelope and mailing it to Daiman before she could stop him. To hell with the consequences of exposing their secrets, to hell with the consequences of Daiman finding a perfect, magical little star in an envelope with a confession letter about how he was one hundred percent a witch of sorts and all that friendly banter over their lives was true. He didn't do any of those things. Instead, he clapped his hands together, snuffing out the little star like snuffing out his thoughts of familial mutiny and casting the wagon into darkness. The fire in the stove crackled and tossed shadows across the walls of the caravan and he laid his cheek on his arm. Someday. Not today.
Medium: Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper; Holbein lamp black Intent: I wanted the scene to make Elio's magic pop. His belongings scatter around him on the floor of the wagon, his glasses discarded, a book open but ignored, his stuffed unicorn ever present, and he's laying there. He's stretched out sullenly across the floor absently making little glowing stars while he struggles with family secrets. It's dark and the star is the star of the show, so to speak.
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PERSONAL WORK
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Academic WORK
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Anwyn: Dragon in Purple Anwyn was inspired by the dragon-themed site of Flight Rising. Materials used were Holbein watercolor on Arches cold press watercolor paper, Grumbacher golden edge brushes, acrylic black ink, and white gel pen accents.
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Adust: Dystopia
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One of the largest projects I've undertaken was a large 24" x 36" painting based on song lyrics. It took nearly two weeks to complete due to its sheer size. The assignment was to utilize type in some way. There were no other parameters to follow other than to create a fully realized piece. I used lyrics from a band called Yacht and their song Dystopia, which became the piece's title.
It is painted with Holbein watercolor on a large sheet of Arches cold press watercolor paper, my preferred paper of choice, with white Molotow marker type and gel pen accents. It is based entirely off of the unpublished creative works of Lee Dawn; Adust.
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Musophobia
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Musophobia is a span of experimental works for a graphic novel pitch about plague mice and a corrupt government. Work included character designs, writing out a plot, large splash illustrations that could be used as volume covers, and the designs of various monstrous creatures. Also completed were sketches of various graphic novel pages.
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Roadtrip 21
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Space Station 22
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• Birth control • This is an editorial style of ad I created to promote the use of birth control for a visual communications assignment. Efforts were made to use the current pop culture trope of warm, sickly yellow palettes of dystopic futures and the specific look of a newspaper political comic. I wanted the poster to get the message across without being preachy or offensive and enough humor to lighten the rather dark deeper message that if we keep adding to the population, eventually we will be like these rabbits and we will have used up everything that used to have been. Heavy title type was used to grab attention and sound stern, and the stroke underneath is an arrow is used as a subliminal phallic symbol.
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Moon Moon
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★ Aradia Megido
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The Olive Garden
Potted Plants
See the Crickets At Bat
Brighten the Occasion With Franzia Wine
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Thumbnails In freshman year of college I was given a paper printout with a long list of prompts. I was given only the instruction of choosing six and creating a small thumbnail illustration of however I interpreted the prompt. It was a sort of warm up assignment, trying to get us all to open up and think outside the box when given a prompt as well as getting used to putting out first ideas quickly on paper.
The Corn Stalker Murders
Watch the Fresh Fruit Fly
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Pigeon Band
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• Mermaid Madness This series tells the story of a beach plagued by beautiful mermaids and the social issues invariably following their presence. While pretty, they are neither intelligent or particularly good at singing, lingering on the beach dressed in trash and honking as elegantly as a mating elephant seal. It started as a college project with the prompt only create 50 figures and follows the beach from four different perspectives, from the protesters angry that pollution is harming these gorgeous creatures to the mermaids lounging under the pier or the families just trying to enjoy a day at the beach.
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• Fashion Concepts • Each one of these concepts was created as a fashion assignment. Rather than strictly illustrating clothes, I turned the people wearing them into characters, the likes of which you might see in a book or an animated film. There are ladies with hair of fire, delightfully eccentric couples, and an Edwardian couple impatiently waiting in a garden. The idea of creating an outfit and who would wear it is something I enjoy immensely and continue to practice outside of college classes and assignment parameters.
Evening and Day Wear
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• Edwardian Couple
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Fantasy Gala
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Inquisitor Lavellan Inquisitor Lavellan is a fanpiece portrait of the character creator generated player character for Dragon Age Inquisition created by studio Bioware. It is the first in a series. I did research into the game's plant designs to recognizably depict both the in-game herb of elfroot and prohet's laurel, and added dripping green poison to the arrow in order to represent my choice of weaponry and class; archer and tempest, which is a sort of alchemical potion brewer and demolition man in one. Materials used were Holbein watercolor on Arches cold press watercolor paper, Grumbacher golden edge brushes, acrylic black ink, and white gel pen accents.
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Foliaceous: A Personal Piece
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n spring of 2016 I recieved the Kingsley Merit award. I was given the choice of displaying one at the luncheon and in Crocker-Kingsley publications about the awards. I made the decision to bring a personal mandala piece with me to the luncheon.
The title means ‘bearing leaves’, and each and every small element has deep personal symbolism. The coyote in the center is myself, and the dandelion represents my power to overcome. Materials used were Holbein watercolor on Arches cold press watercolor paper, Grumbacher golden edge brushes, acrylic black ink, and white gel pen accents.
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Still Life & Figure Drawing
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EDUCATION ◈ Sierra College illustration certificate received winter 2017
◈ Majored in commercial illustration from 2015 to 2016 and took illustration and special projects courses with supplemental studio arts
◈ Creatures of Amalthea Foundation, Drawing, and Coloring Courses with Terryl Whitlatch
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Experience & Projects ◈ Co-creating an illustrated novel passion project with artist and writer Lee Dawn. Shares equal responsibility for writing, illustrating, and world building as well as additional character,
M. Wilder is an illustrator working out of the Yuba-
costume, and creature designs.
Sutter foothills. She has an appreciation for ink, folk
◈ Created a graphic novel pitch as part of my
art, and the Pre-Raphaelite movements. She has received an illustration certificate from Sierra College and is furthering her education with collaborative projects and freelance client work You can find her wandering the oak-woods, painting in various coffee shops till closing, and at various conventions across California and Reno selling both prints and custom commissions.
story-building, character design, and mock comic pages. Included a large series of fully rendered illustrations for mock volume covers.
◈ Am currently creating a series of dragons and flowers
◈ Have travelled to more than twenty conventions across the west coast creating
Digital Skills
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commercial illustration major that included
custom art pieces for various small Adobe Photoshop
patrons
Adobe InDesign Adobe Illustrator Corel Painter Maya
Traditional Skills
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Watercolor Acrylic Ink Graphite Gouache
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Awards & Recognitions
Skills
◈ Received the Crocker-Kingsley merit award in 2016 for exceptional artistic achievement.
◈ Received a $78000 scholarship
◈ Expert in watercolor and ink ◈ Proficient in gouache, acrylic, colored pencil, and graphite ◈ Software: Adobe InDesign CC, Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Corel Painter, Maya
from Art Center College of Design
◈ Additional focus in folklore, novels, folk art, Arts and Craft
for fall 2016
era illustration, urban fantasy, and dragons
Exhibitions
◈ Able to work on tight deadlines and loves collaboration ◈ Experience in customer service ◈ Emphasis in literary illustration and visual development
◈ Crocker-Kingsley exhibition luncheon - 2016
◈ Student Art Show at the YubaSutter Arts Council - 2015
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Social Media ☚ ☚
MWILDER.CARBONMADE.COM •
INSTAGRAM.COM/PLUVIAMANCY •
ARTSTATION.COM/ MWILDERILLUSTRATION •
CONTACT ME AT: MWILDERILLUSTRATION @GMAIL.COM
or through direct messaging from any of my social media sites
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BEHANCE.NET/ MWILDERILLUSTRATION
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