Professionalism

A coworker hired me to create a portrait of her hockey-crazed son. The first attempt didn't turn out, apparently it wasn't the best photo to work from. I wasn't sure how I was going to color this; I wanted to ink it, but I didn't trust my markers to last through coloring the large spaces. I ended up using pastel pencils for the background graphic. She was very excited about this, I got paid, and everyone went home happy.
This is me, modeling my very favorite hoodie. I bought the plain orange garment at Target, and airbrushed the koi and lotus after being inspired by some sweet tattoo art. It is so nice being able to put custom. vibrant, one-of-a-kind images on my clothing!

Toy Study

My it has been a while. School has been eating my life, but now it's over and I can devote some time to sketching and creating again. Here is a study of a plastic Jinx the cat toy, courtesy of JohnK (see sidebar for link). Hopefully I didn't obliterate the underlying structure by over-detailing. Probably shouldn't have shaded but ehhh, I got caught up in the heat of the moment and couldn't stop myself. Hopefully john can find the time to give this a once over and some pointers.

constructing things

I'se been praktikkin!!

Many thanks and much love to JohnK for being such an inspiration and kick in the pant I am sure could spot numerous flaws in the above image, but I think he'd be happy that made an attempt.


Line of Action paper. Needs more exagerration and emphasis, but I was trying hard to make these solidly constructed, so the stretchyness didn't come across very strong.


My own lil jackelope 'self' character. I like the idea of this but the lifted foot irks me, she looks off-balance. Her eyes make me smile :)


I hope I am getting the right idea with these!

More to come as I progress, please help me with critiques and feedback, I am dying for input!!!

Here is the wall that I painted on. It was my first time using spraypaint to illustrate. I got the hang of it alright, but it is certainly an altogether different beast than using an airbrush! Requires a lot more finger strength, for one thing.

I painted the girl on the right, her head is about 6.5 feet from the ground. I also painted the floodlights along the bottom, which turned out kinda meh but whatever.

I am very pleased with her sparkly boots and buttcheeks.

Concept

So tomorrow me n the man are heading up to Cincinnatti to attend our first-ever Scribble Jam which is the country's largest hiphop exhibition. In addition to all kinds of crazy freestyyling and beatboxing and what-have-you, there will be a ton of slick graffiti writers. A buddy of mine is a talented writer, and has reserved a space for me on the giant themed wall, to try my hand at spraypainting. Being an experienced airbrush artist, I do have a bit of an edge over someone who had never painted with the aid of compressed air. I'm not cocky though, I am sure I will be really rough . . . especially compared to the swarm of talented folks I will be surrounded by *swoon*

The theme of the wall this year is Dark Circus, so I'm doing a fire-breather. I need somewhere to host the rough sketch to show my painting partner so without further ado:
My buddy's tag will be fire coming out of her mouth :o!!

oodles of doodles

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who draws all the time but hates sitting down to scan and resize everything! So I wait and dump it all on here at once, which probably isn't the best way to go about things :\

Airbrushing is fun and interesting! I had a whole post about it all typed up but the internet ate it >:(.


^ When in doubt . . . draw some coons! Working on construction, strong silhouettes, and line of action. Fun and challenging.

^ Every year, Louisville plays host to the National Hot Rod convention. Six Flags KY Kingdom is situated in the same place as the fairgrounds/convention center, so I got to ogle all the beautiful cars, and have interesting conversations with their owners. This fella Bob was something else!!

^based on a real situation . . . the guy was pissed because he waited in line for a water ride and was told his daughters couldn't ride because they were in bathing suit tops. I understand his frustration, but I didn't make the rules so don't come bitchin' ta me when I don't even work for Six
^Jane Fonda and her husband, from a vintage playboy.

^The faces in the upper right were folks at the Mag Bar last tuesday, and the big faces were from a girl's cell phone.
^ I liked the colors and composition in this vintage playboy advertisement for Seagram's.

Dream Scenes

Justin has been urging me to spend more time creating full scenes and backgrounds, which is something I have never been prone to doing. While examining this lack of interest, I realized it's because I don't really know what stories to tell with my pictures. Then it hit me . . . my dreams are full of rich backgrounds, vivid imagery and completely unusual stories!! Fortunately for me, I remembered the last few of my nocturnal meanderings, especially the one I recorded a few posts down.

^On the left is a very quick sketch from a vintage Playboy. The face is odd, but still bears a resemblance the original girl. Colored it at work, without reference, with markers. I'd like to sneak one of my old Playboy's into work to draw from (cartoons and pinups, what!) but ehhhh . . . we'll see. The waterfall is from a dream this morning. Buddha is my mom's dog. The mist is airbrushed.

^I kinda just launched myself at this image with out any prelim sketch, just dashing in with the purple micron. I had to really visualize it in advance to incorporate all the elements and still keep it in balance. I am unused to rendering perspective in landscapes and stuff, so this looks a bit flat. I looove atmospheric perspective, got to see it in action when we were in the Smoky Blue Mountains. Just pretend a young lady with dark hair and her brother are standing on the path, talking to the bear.

This chronologically precedes the other dream image, tho I drew that one first. I like the contrasting moods, that's how it was in the dream. I drew her hair first, then thumbnailed the composition, then drew it with a drying copic sketch marker (brush tip). That produced some smeary, translucent marks, which blurred even more when I went over with markers. Finished it with some airbrushed black and white. I think the composition is too centered, I wish I had thumb'd it before starting!

Critique is greatly appreciated!

inspiration

I had fun with colored pencils, today!

Strange happenings happened in my trusty Moleskine (heart)

Strange the first:
Oh gosh that caption is corny :( Well it's a very goofy cartoon anyway, so I guess I can get away with it. I was up until 2 AM last night collaborating with a fella on a werewolf transformation sequence. There are people out there who will pay good money to see girlies turning into beasties, who knew??? Anyway, this was burnoff from the previous marathon :p I like blushing beauties looking flustered as they mutate into something pretty or cute, as opposed to the snarling, drooly, b-film monster look.

Still with me?

Strange the second:

This was inspired by Uncle Eddie's recent post on humorous teeth. I commented to the effect of, I like drawing funny gnashers, so when I had free time at work I sketched and colored the bust. I practiced layering skintone, and defining facial structure through shading. Then I tried to caricature the face, taking a hint from JohnK. This led to more funny teeth.


Uhhhh hope noone underage is reading this blog, tho god knows I really don't care if young people see some cartoon nakeds !! Big pink skirt sketch from life was first, I am still trying to figure out skirt folds. Then the pink fox/cat girl thing, then that green croc face popped up and he became little puppet guy. The bendy bimbo was an attempt to get more noodly and loose with limbs, but I still think it looks kind of stiff and akward.


Croc puppet makes a friend, inspired by my kitty Moses who attacks a stuffed raccoon toy. The faces were drawn at the very end of the day, in the order of: middle, top, bottom. I read Eddie saying that johnK advocates writing down the characteristics of a face before caricaturing so I made up some examples. It was very helpful, I am especially pleased with the shnoz guy :)

Many thanks to anyone who is looking at these images and reading my long-winded descriptions. I hope my naked girls and pseudo-furries aren't skeeving anybody out. I just have so much fun drawing boobies and animal faces!! And . . . combinations of the twain :o

at least the baby Jesus loves me ;_;

Dream

Dreamed this morning that I was attending a giant video game convention, which my friend Kristin was hosting. In reality, Kristin is a stunning, curvaceous, chocolate-colored dynamo who definitely does not play video games (though she had fun with the Wii at the 4th of July party we threw). In this dream, she was the Queen of the Gamers, as a result of having set the record for beating some tetris-like puzzle game. She was up on stage, swinging a microphone and bellerin' about high scores or something. She later introduced me to none other than blogger's very own Uncle Eddie (not sure how to link to blogs, it's in my little sidebar thing tho) of Awesome Theory fame. I was happy to meet him, and even more delighted when he not only recognized my name, but enthusiatically shook my hand for a good two minutes, which made me laugh.

Later, I was reading a comic book with my husband, and one of the stories was about some hapless adventurers getting mired in a steamy, spooky swamp. As I read the blurb, we found ourselves in the swamp, as a voiceover described the mysterious visions, hungry alligators, and devilish mansion on the hill. When he said "mysterious visions" I looked over to see a wraithlike young girl with long, straggling black hair, astride an alligator. Their eyes gleamed at me as they both slowly sank below the surface of the scummy water, which Justin and I were now floating in. I begin to backpedal, noticing a hungry gator coming our way. We drive him onto dry land, where he flails and snaps and hisses. We eventually outmaneuver him, and find ourselves in suddenly mountainous terrain. Now my brother has arrived, and he tells us about a NAZI he just saw riding out of the woods on a bicycle, so we decide to trace his path. Along the way, we meet a young female bear cub, sitting in some flowers. She speaks to us, saying that she was tired of the man in the mansion (the nazi I guess) trying to keep her from speaking. We all creep up to the lavish house and peer inside. I woke up around that time.

Gotta love dreams!!

Scaley Kelly

Someone in a costuming community was showing off a wearable koi tail she designed. It has no scales as of yet so I thought to share a reference.
^ 6 yr old Kelly

My step-grandmother, a Mexican seamstress named Lina, sewed the body of that costume. My extremely talented, creative mother cut out and decorated all those scales and glued them into place. She also made the puffy-awesome hands and feet.

I loved wearing that dragon costume sooo much! It's debut was at my kindergarten's Halloween event/costume contest; there were many adorable, clever costumes, yet I came home with first place and a plush pumpkin doll. 10 years later, in a different state, my little sister won cutest costume in a community event. So it was an awesome get up, and wearing it is one of the fondest of my childhood memories :)

Anthrocon was awesome, made good money and met good friends. It is a huge, exhausting event, especially when suffering with a cold. Hollering about hamburgers at the 'rave' did not help my voice at all, and I am still a bit raspy. Glad to have gone, and am REALLY looking forward to Midwest FurFest in November. AC was in Pittsburgh, MFF is in Chicago. The first con I will be airbrushing t-shirts is hopefully gonna be Furry Weekend Atlanta in February. Mor on that later!

Gonna go visit my mom now to see how her latest painting is coming along. I would like to share her work with this audience as well, it's beautiful stuff <3

Peace!

we're baaaa-aaaaack

wow been meaning to make this post since Sunday but Blogger intimidates me a lil!! Probably because I so greatly admire the individuals I have discovered, artists of such caliber and style that I feel kind of small and wishy-washy in comparison :) . My horizons are broadening (if that is a word), and I am grateful for it . . . just takes a little twisting of the head and squinting some to bring things into focus.

OR SOMETHING.

Annnyway I have a bunch of six flags drawings for yas, in no particular order.

^ Playing with a bunch of Copic markers I got for a very sweet price (2 for 3 bucks, woah!!) I kind of designed these to be bookmarks. Gonna try to sell 'em at my AC table, I think. I love drawing dragons, always have :)

^Just to be spiteful, I put on the classical station to counteract the brain-drain that is pop country/blues/redneck music. I catch myself singing along in my head sometimes, because a lot of it is catchy, and some of the lyrics can be amusing, but more often that not I am vaguely disgusted by the EMPTY feeling some of them have ("Rock Hard Bodies, and Bi-ki-ni hotties . . . every bodies got it goin' on and showin' what they GOT").


I like this page a lot, did it with my faaaaavorite Faber Castell Pitt brush tip pen. I prefer using this because I must put down my marks much more quickly, which is constructive as I am recalling these faces from only a glimpse as they motor on right past my shop . . . damn it!! come buy a t-shirt or hat or license plate!! PLEASE!!!

^This is several months old . . . Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the T-shirt shop is under new (much more efficient and effective) management. I am having a great time, as I have much more creative influence over new designs and such, actually re-working a lot of old things. This page was designed to showcase thumbnails of some of the more popular designs from the previous years. Doug (Da Boss) let me know that for future reference, all he needed was a ballpoint pen scribble to get the basic idea; well this was the very first artwork he specifically asked for, so I figured I'd give it my all :) It was fun recreating these cheezy designs all one inch high with markers on a big sheet of paper. I think they look pretty. Man I hated painting that monkey >:(



^ And here is Kabuki! Maybe you will recognize her from just about every caricature page. I love johnK's blog, and this was an attempt at specific expressions, after reading his impassioned posts on the topic (yay honeymooners :p) I didn't have a mirror handy, which would have helped immensely. I tried not to do "generic", bland, happy/sad/angry faces. Hope I succeeded, I kind of can't tell. Feedbacks? I Love to draw this character, she is very much like myself. I even got all my hair chopped off, and was excited coz I'd more closely match the character design :B

I will post pictures from the EXCELLENT honeymoon (wow Asheville NC is so bitchin') later this week :) along with a BUNCH more art! I can't keep up with myself, as usal :\ All that downtime at the Kingdom gives me nothing to do but DRAW (which is of course awesome).

Honeymoon Hiatus

Hello blogoblog, and what readers may see this! Sorry for my slowness in updating and responding to comments! I have more fun face doodles to show when I get back from my HONEYMOON OMG!!!! Yes, I am getting MARRIED TODAY!!!!


WWWWOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHH!!


okay gotta go go gogogo, got stuff to do, errands to run, gotta be at the Planetarium by 12:30 @_@

See you in a week!

Wiling way the Hours

So I airbrush t-shirts at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, creating Family Fun and Fond Memories for the local, sun-baked populace :D Our lil' stand, River City Airbrush, formerly Kaotik Kolorz, is staffed by one person during the week, and two or three on the weekends. It's a new sart for the stand, under new ownership. The former owners, Graphic Creations out of Houston, TX hired me when I was 15; it was my first job and I worked for three consecutive seasons. I eventually moved into the restaurant industry working the overnight shift at a local greasy spoon. Oh the Twig and Leaf. The stories I could tell, haha! Anyway.

I waited tables for the next two years (again, stories), then last year I went back to work at Six Flags as a second job--only this time I was caricaturing! It kinda opened my artistic world a lot, getting to sketch faces from life, having to do it quickly, and of a quality that people would be glad they paid for it :X I was assistant manager (yeah right) and Lead Artist of the t-shirt and caricaturing booth, but our manager was an incredibly sweet girl who was unfortunately in over her head and eventually kind of had to throw up her hands at the whole mess. She is now on her way to becoming a roller derby babe as well as a rockstar, so more power to her (love ya panda, if ya ever read this :D)

This time, it it is a full time airbrush t-shirt affair, and the hours are loooonnnnggg and business is sloooow (but picking up! we are running a great business, but time will tell) so I have a lot of doodling time inbetween :B I did this page on a whim, as a test of my ability to remember the features of a face after having only really glimpsed them for a few moments . . . we are located on a path that is in between a few big rides, so most people are just moseyin' along and barely see the shop on their way. Those that do stop in are season pass-holding kids with not much money :$ Sometimes ya get a group of middleschoolers on a trip from a neighboring state and they all want shirts! Then it is great! I sure hope we are busy tomorrow, but in the downtime I will try to do some more skletches like these :) Hope everyone enjoys them, please ask any questions and tell me what you think these kids are like.

The Vernon

I am an aspiring freelance caricature artist, and Wednesday night was my debut to the scene. I bumped into this interesting fella at a local show (Ultra Pulverize, do a youtube search, they ROCK) who told me that he owns a local bowling alley. I asked him if he might ever need a caricature artist, told him my rates and he said to come down Wednesday, so I did! Had my younger brother Evan along to assist, and everything went beautifully.

The place is called The Vernon, and it had an amazing crowd of happy, friendly, enthusiastic people who really had fun with the caricature idea. The owner Dale took a bunch of great photos which you can see at The Vernon myspace: http://www.myspace.com/vernonlanes


^This desk I'm using was a groundscore! I was walking home and saw a guy carrying what was obviously a drawing table. He was gonna trash it, so I took it off his hands, cleaned it up and voila!! A perfectly sized, portable caricature table! Gonna paint it up all colorful and put my name and number on the front :)
^These girls wanted to look tough, straight, and awesome . . . they definitely made awesome faces for me to capture!
^Bud! Don't often get an opportunity to draw such a greeat face and magnificent moustache :-{

^Mandy and Graham. Rock those dreds!
I think this was my first pic of the night :) This was actually my first real caricaturing event since last summer at 6 Flags. I felt a little rusty at first, but I got back into the swing of things quickly.


^ She said, "Make it really crazy and funny!" and she kept licking her fella's neck sooo . . .


All in all it was a great night, I got to interact with my peers in a unique and interesting way :) When you are drawing someone's face, you automatically develop a relationship with them . . . I have to stare into their eyes, which is an intimate thing, so I have to be able to put people at ease so they don't feel TOO uncomfortable. I didn't talk much at this event, only answered questions and thanked people when they complimented my work, but I did keep up a rapport with my subjects by making faces at them :)

first drawings!

So I love to draw and doodle. I am ppretty absent-minded when it comes to scanning and uploading though, but I am gonna do my very best to upload interesting sketch pages and whatnot here, as they come into being.

This Saturday past, I left my apartment in historic Old Louisville to find a perfectly intact, perfectly dead specimen of Procyon Lotor on the curb. Yes, the common Raccoon, which just so happens to be my favorite animal for various, somewhat spiritual reasons. It felt like an omen, and I carefully carried him up to our back porch, where I later returned to do some "life" sketches. I felt privileged, in the sense that I had never yet had the opportunity to study one of these nifty creatures so intimately.

I love filling sketchbook pages with coony critters!

This last fella is an older drawing, colored in photoshop. Thought I'd throw him in here coz he's cute :)

Grittins

Hey so this is my first ever blogger post! I've been on livejournal for years but never really posted with any real regularity. I intend to use this space for my caricature work, sketches, and anything. HOWEVER, there may be titties on this page, and some of them may belong to creatures with animal heads! But that shouldn't be too big a deal, right? I mean, we are all artists, and art knows no definitions of right and wrong, eh?

Looking forward to meeting and linking to other bloggers!

cheers!

Kelly