Includes my art process, art shows, new ideas, products that are released into stores, artists I admire, and printable art that is free to download (free printable coloring pages, etc.). Your feedback is always welcome.
In Lilla Rogers' MATS Bootcamp course, our main assignment this month is to paint a picturesque scene on a round wooden surface.
I started my mini assignment by sketching scenic plates that Lilla had provided (you can see one of them here). I then moved on to create my own scene, using collage. But I decided to eliminate the texture and work toward more of a cinematic, dark effect.
This was my final layout. Now to transfer it on wood....
In fact, she kind of likes him. Work-in-progress...
I'm finishing up my portfolio for the #NYSCBWI Conference this weekend, and I've been working on adding an audience to my guitar player collage. I'm not sure which girl to go with, and I'd love some feedback? Comments are welcome, or you can email me at kendrasred (at) gmail.com. Thank you!
On Monday, we began our second assignment for Lilla Rogers online class, MATS Bootcamp. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, Lilla always starts with a "mini." The minis help us warm up, draw, paint and enjoy ourselves before we're given our actual assignment.
This month's mini is the scenic plate. She showed us several cool plates from her own collection, all with different kinds of scenes painted on them. Yesterday, I chose a plate with a pastoral landscape to sketch from, as well as one with a charming lord and lady courtship setting.
(I had some difficulty keeping my paper and pencil away from my new, extremely-playful-and-cuddly kitty, as you can see in the picture below.)
I've been working on this guitar-playing character the past couple days. Today, I plan to build her an audience. It might just be one child flanked on her shoulder. Perhaps another at her feet. I'll post again when she's complete. Thanks for visiting!
Yesterday, I went to the Met to see the Madame Cézanne exhibit. While I'd gone to view the paintings, it was Cézanne's sketches that I was most drawn to. I was once again reminded of how much I love swift and unfinished work. How a quick graphite sketch can capture more for me than a detailed portrait. I just love them.
This morning, I set out to sketch a bit myself. Here's one of today's drawings of my husband.
This morning, my son's school was delayed due to the snow, so we spent the extra time creating our own fonts on paintfont.com. My son worked on his while I shoveled, and when I came back in, I realized he'd made pictures, instead of letters — his own hieroglyphics! Or secret code.
Below is Archer's super-cool picture font (look at all those cool characters!!). My handwriting font follows. We had a great time, and I highly recommend trying it!
I have a few more rounds to go on this character, but here's my initial Edwardian-themed sketch. It began with a series of Edwardian brooches that I created for my 2015 MATS Bootcamp course. Stay tuned to see how she's completed.
In my last post, I'd just started to develop this new character. I have since been working on editing some of her details and creating the scene to place her in. I decided upon this semi-fantastical, wintry backdrop, a green jacket and a mysterious book...
In addition to this new character that I posted about yesterday, I have also been working on this girl. I'm still developing her story, but she is about to embark on an unexpected mission...
Here's one of my new favorite people I'm working with. I still haven't settled on her name (suggestions welcome!), so I'm calling this "The Budding Seed" for now...
Yesterday I took the train to Manhattan to meet with Carmine at Graphic Lab about printing my portfolio. When I arrived, he'd already printed one of my illustrations on two types of sample papers, which was extremely helpful, and we discussed the binding options. Because this is my first printed illustration portfolio, and I'm just not sure about the order of pages yet (or which images to keep/ditch), we decided to go with a screw post binding and a scored, heavyweight paper.
Below is a sample print, which I thought turned out pretty great. I'll post more once it's all completed.
As I'd mentioned in yesterday's post, I am putting my first illustration portfolio together for the upcoming SCBWI conference, and I've been looking through my initial illustration work.
I found this piece that I created one Sunday morning in 2012. I'd just recently started to work with cut paper and collage, and I had a leftover square. I challenged myself to create a little story with it. This is what I came up with...
I've been putting my portfolio together for the upcoming SCBWI Conference in NYC in February, so I've been looking through a lot of old files and thinking about what kind of work I want to make in the future.
When I began my first illustration class in 2012, I hadn't painted since college (see this post for a little background), and I almost never drew anything by hand anymore. Carrying a sketchbook around was in the past for me, and almost everything I'd created in the previous decade was done on the computer. Although I really wanted to make art with my hands again, it felt uncomfortable and scared me. So I chose to work in Adobe Illustrator and got started.
Per Mark Mitchell's instruction, since I didn't have a story in mind, I went with a simple song to illustrate, Mary Had a Little Lamb. I started with a rough storyboard that I sketched using the pencil tool in Illustrator. Instead of Mary living in the country, I felt she should live in a Brooklyn-style city. I wanted the lamb's attempt to follow her to seem somewhat vast and overwhelming, and I wanted them to be happily reunited on a city street shortly thereafter. Below are some of my beginning illustrations:
Finding Mary
Looking for Mary
We just returned from an incredible week in Florida with my in-laws, and I made this little collage on the plane ride home.
With tremendous gratitude to all of you, I wish you a very happy holiday!
xo,
Kendra
