martedì 9 agosto 2016

100 COVERS SINCE 2001



When I started my collaboration with  the Centro Editoriale Imperiese in 2001 I was an artist  painter fond  of art and drawing but without any experience in editorial illustration. . Since then I have been studying and attending various courses on illustration, publishing  and graphics.
Starting to become more professional, I have been meeting new trends, styles and currents and it has got ever more difficult for me to remain faithful to myself, to say what I want in my own style.  The more I have progressed the more I have become thoughtful and demanding .
All my covers since the beginning are now on tumblr , and looking at all of them  while doing the posting,  I felt a bit of nostalgia of those first works: I did not know anything about  editing, photoshop and web resources, but  I just did  the job! I WORKED AS AN ARTIST RATHER THAN AS AN ILLUSTRATOR!
 I still love some of them, and I think I understand their value better now that I have progressed in my illustration and graphic studies. Simplicity and directness are my target words!
My link  name is https://cristinaberardi.tumblr.com/

martedì 2 settembre 2014

ABOUT ME


These two last years have been intense with work and achievements.
Apart from the usual editorial illustrations for the the Imperia New Magazine
my book "La Cosa Importante" came out .
It was shown at the Fiera del Libro di Imperia in June 2012.



I wrote the text and drew the illustrations. I did also the graphic of the book. It is about  Soul and the place it goes after life.
I had the honour to have my work presented at  the local Public Library by Professor Leo Lecci , Professor  of Contemporary Art at the University of Genoa





foto di Marie France Durando

In May 2013 the second edition of my first illustrated book was presented  at the Public Library of Sanremo and Ventimiglia.
Ten years ago I had published  with Fabrizio Vincitorio, school teacher and writer,  a collection of children poems Un Giro di Giostra. It had been  a good success, and the edition was sold out. Two years ago  another publishing house asked us the permission to republish the collection and I worked hard at the new edition, with illustration for each poem ( the previous edition had only 10 illustrations) 


Here are some of the poem titles:

Why do we need a heart?



Past Perfect and Future  Tenses
for this poem on grammar tenses I created a pencil riding an Italian "Vespa"




 The Windy Village
for this poem we made the other way round:
 the poem was composed getting inspiration from one of my illustrations for the  New Magazine Imperia





Planet Fair 
There is no way to arrive to , nor leave Neptune...




The Light Cloud
This was the first poem I illustrated. It is the story of a chimney with a sore throat.



I have really loved to illustrate these poems, they are beautifully simple.
The last poem of the collection is about a  drop of seawater.


In a sea of drops,
a drop of sea,
what shall it do?
It shall be lulled
by  light and blue waves,
carried away
by every current
on the far away thread 
of  horizon,
forgetting
the past 
and present,
being nothing
being everything 


....translation by me (I worked as a translator for many years...it should not be too bad!)


And this is the cover of the second edition 


This last book was published this year




It was the collection of  various authors' works.
Since 2001 I have been drawing the cover of the Imperia New Magazine (see PUBLISHED WORKS). About 80 original works have appeared on the cover, and one year ago we put up a competition on the magazine asking authors to write an essay or a story inspired by one of those covers. . The nicest were put together and published.

Last but not least, here is a personal project of mine. The Stories of Oreste, my birdy character and his friends. 


This is one of the illustrations that inspired the story (from  IL MONDO DI ORESTE )

venerdì 11 aprile 2014

venerdì 28 marzo 2014

My visit to Bologna's Children Bookfair (Part 2)




The second day I went to visit the Illustrator Exhibition: eighty illustrators selected among 3100 (+ one that is me).
Everybody was taking  pictures so I did too...




Manuel Marsol, Spain, "Superastronaut", watercolour and collage.

Min Ji Kim, South Korea, "7 Penguins"

Manon Gautier, from Quebec, "Mon Parc"

Futsomu Fujitsima, Japan, "Time after Time"

Jisun Lee, South Korea, "Little boy, big dreams", mixed media


Dylan Giles, UK, " Klim's Carriage"




Michio Watanabe, Japan, "A life to learn", mixed media

MaiKa Hayasaka, Japan, "The Fried Egg Factory", pencil

Verena Hocleitner, Austria , "Kotoletta"


Arianna Vairo, Italy, "Hoka Key, Storia degli ultimi giorni di Cavallo Pazzo", pencil


Liuna Virardi, Italy, "Tribes", rubber stamps and ink


Amin AssanzadehSharif, Iran, ""Det Bla Tree", scratchboard with oilcolours

Chinatsu Hagino , Japan, "Popochie Village"

Trine Logstrup Sorensen, Denmark, "Town of the Cats", drawing and photoshop

Anastasia Strockova, Czech Republic, An Elephant who was afraid of height", litography, coloured pencil

Anastasia Strockova, Czech Republic, An Elephant who was afraid of height", litography, coloured pencil


Pnilipo Giordano, Italy "Momotaro"

Catarina Sobral, Portugal, "O meu avo"

Oscar  Sabini, Italy

Valentina Piacenza, Italy, "Pages of Air and Water" acrilic and  collage


Toni Pecoraro, Italy, "Bononia", etching, aquatint


Miguel Pang Ly, Spain, "La Invasion Marciana" ,watercolour on paper

Miguel Pang Ly, Spain, "La Invasion Marciana" ,watercolour on paper

Miguel Pang Ly, Spain, "La Invasion Marciana" ,watercolour on paper


Pesca Nekono, Japan, "The penguin with the black egg", woodcut print, stamp made with eraser



Rebecca Palmer, UK, "Rudulphous and Brown, watercolour, gouache,,acrilic, ink

Rebecca Palmer, UK, "Rudulphous and Brown, watercolour, gouache,,acrilic, ink

Mario Onnis, Italy, "AeB", pencil

This is not an exhaustive parade, of course. I chose a few among the two hundreds I took ...some of them  because I liked them  and some because it was the opposite...but I am not going to tell you!!

This year guest of honour was Brazil. I found Brazilian illustrators  colourful and genuine...they made me think of fresh tropical fruit


Andres Sandoval, degree in architecture and urbanism, was selected to Bratislava Biennal of Illustration



Luiz Maja, artist and illustrator

Fernando Vilela, artist, writer and teacher, "Limpido e Lancelote"
(I must say my favourite )




Ale Abreu, illustrator and  cartoon creator
......sorry for the intruding lights...illustrations lied on tables and glasses reflected most annoyingly upon them!

one of my illustrations  sent   for the Illustrators Exhibitions
If you think about participating, you can find information on the site of Bologna's Children Bookfair.
Work hard and...
good luck!