Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Late by about four weeks.

About four week ago (urrrrrrgghh), C. Lijewski suggested a "Devilman Day," where we get out the old comics and draw that bastard.  I completed a sketch on the actual day, but haven't completed the illustration until now.

Mostly watercolor and acrylic, some photoshop color retouching.

Glee tonight!  It'll get my artist mojo going again, I believe!

Monday, April 26, 2010

When I did everything and nothing in one weekend

I had made grandiose plans for a weekend of productivity, mainly:

a) finding materials for my show in July
b) cleaning my apartment because it's gross
c) grocery shopping
d) finishing some more Glee characters.
e) writing some

And what ended up happening was
f) none of the above

However!  The weekend ended up being action-packed and subsequently exhausting with headshots and photoshoots and meetings with San Smith and art shows with Gary in Madison and crashing Karen Strelecki's house to peruse her work and work-functions at the Atlanta Zoo and drawing every animal ever and oh lawdy a heated wind blew up mah skirt and I am tuckered out!  I feel like a zombie at work today.

Not much going on today, so I finally got around to working on my friend Ryan's tattoo.  He wanted me to magic up something in the spirit of these two images below:


And I came up with something a-like-a-this:



Just waiting to hear back.  I expect lots of revisions since, you know.  This is going to be on his body.  Forever.  He has every right to tweak and tweak and tweak until satisfied, in my opinion!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Glee Art!

I watch like, 2 TV shows ever, guys.
ONE OF THEM IS GLEE.



SO, HAVE SOME GLEE ART.
I'm working on the cast, because I love them all a whole, whole lot. <3

April / May Desktop Wallpaper

Hey everybody!

Work was not too demanding today, and I still have my desktop wallpaper up from March from San Smith up to confuse the hell out of me when I need to figure out my dates.  So!  For my own intents and purposes, and to kill a little time and have some fun, I made a desktop wallpaper today for both April and May.  Nothing too fancy, but wanted to share and hopefully it'll help someone else out, too!


Just go ahead and click on that sucker for a 1024x768 wallpaper.  Hope everybody's week is going well!  I hope to have more goodies available for everybody in the future.

This week, I'm beginning to look for materials for my gallery show in July, as well as finishing up some lingering paintings that I've been meaning to get to for over three weeks now.  D:  Time flies!


Saturday, April 17, 2010

It was worth it, in a way.



I've officially done with my graduate studies.
Gary has gotten me some fancy flower bouquet, and I have a pretty piece of paper with my name on it (by the lovely Anne Elser) that says Student!Katie is no more, for real.  Anyone that came to party it up at the W hotel afterward (Seriously, I saw some dude that looked just like Lil' Wayne and I was like "WTF aren't you in prison but I love that Drop the Bomb song OMG"), I'm so so so glad you came out to spare some moments hanging out and celebrating with us.

My mother was in attendance, and left this afternoon.  An all-too-short visit, if you ask me. :(   This weekend is the Sweetwater 420 Fest which basically has me trapped in my house (parking situation = enraging), but it all seems okay when I have Glee, Final Fantasy XIII, and knitting.  NERD WEEKEND AHOY.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

It's bloggin' time

Available for the iPad is A Story Before Bed!  And look whose book is being packaged with the app! What a lovely surprise from the fine folks at Jackson Fish Market.  <3 I'm hearing great things about the app on the iPad--if anyone owns an iPad and is willing to download this app (free!  and my book comes with it kukuku!), please let me know what you think!

I've re-vamped this blog to hopefully be more accessible, and am promising myself to update more often what's going on in my illustrative life.  So many great and wonderful things are happening, and I'm so thankful and grateful for all the people and opportunities that have reached out to me.  I'm working with Orange Umbrella to get my main site up ASAP, but keeping this blog for doodles, in-progress things, and general rambling about the business and lifestyle.  I really feel like a new generation of illustrators and artists is emerging, especially among the community that I am a part of, and I'm genuinely excited and happy to be a part of it.

Graduation was actually in December for me, but the actual ceremony is tomorrow night.  My parents are coming into town and it should be a great time.  I have to say, the two years of internal rage and anxiety and blood/sweat/tears/spray fixatif were worth it. 

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

2 is always 2


Obviously there's a story behind this, so I'll try to explain the best way I can.

When I first moved to Atlanta to attend Portfolio Center, I had never taken an art class in my life, but knew it was something that I had always loved and appreciated. Having never studied art, I was terrified to just jump in; I knew that my colleagues would have either studied art before, or knew so much more than me, the girl who just went to comic book conventions and couldn't tell a Matisse from a Klimt to save her life. All the illustrators that I look up to and admire, like Peter de Seve or Ralph Steadman, were unknown names to me a mere two years ago. I hadn't painted or opened an Adobe product in my life. I was a scared girl with a 2 gajillion dollar computer she didn't know how to use in an unfamiliar city with zero artistic merit.

The first class (ever in my life) I attended was Gary Weiss' figure drawing class. All I knew about Gary was that he was a slow-talking Southern man that was about 16 feet tall with somewhat precarious posture--this was my first art teacher ever. I was intimidated and second-guessing my newfound career path. Our first conversation went something like:

Gary: How much figure drawing have you done before?
Me: Um, something close to nothing, yeah. *laughs nervously....to crickets chirping*
Gary: ...
Me: Heh heh...um...
Gary: I'll get you an easel. I want you to go ahead and try.
Me: *getting increasingly more nervous, and now there's a naked lady in front of me* Um...okay?

Needless to say, my first attempts at figure drawing were bleak. I'm surprised the whole class didn't laugh at me, and if Gary was less of a man he would either be laughing at me or trying to find some way to get me out of his class. But, instead, he knelt down next to me (hard to do, considering his legs are 10 feet long each) and took his charcoal and said, "Here, start like this."

This moment began one of the most fulfilling friendships I've had in my 26 years of life. It didn't come without it's hardships--I never got a "good job" from Gary until a year and a half under his tutelage--but he has pushed me harder and taught me more than any teacher or friend has ever tried to push me. He has had the confidence in me that I could never find in myself until years later. It made the first "good job"--and I'm proud to say, the many other "good job"s that followed--all the more important, and worthwhile, and cherished.

Gary is known amongst the illustration crew for saying some phrases that make sense in the context of his brain, but are usually vague and questionable to everybody else. One basic design principle of illustration is that if there are to be a number of objects in the area, the best compositions call for an odd number of objects.

However, Gary's way of communicating this idea was, "Because, two is always two."

We laugh about it constantly (lots of "blue is always blue!" and "food is always food!" comments inevitably follow), but in this statement, I see what I really feel is the basis of the kind of person Gary is and the kind of friendship we've forged, which is that things don't have to be complicated or difficult or hard. The good things are always simple and not hard to understand, and will be constant, forever.

So, thanks Gary, for taking a chance on this stubborn kid who just liked to draw comics. You're my first mentor, my greatest friend, and I look forward to pissing each other off until the end of time. "2 is always 2" is on my drawing hand, so if I ever need a boost of confidence when it's 3am and I'm about to lose my mind over a drawing or painting or whatever artistic endeavor I've wrapped myself up in, I can look down at my wrist and remember to think simple, and everything becomes a little bit more clear.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Gradjeeaytin'



I technically graduated in December, but the ceremony isn't until this upcoming April 16th. I'll walk um...a few steps forward, get my pretty piece of paper, and leave Portfolio Center again until I return in July as an instructor. My, how things have changed!

A group of us are having a group show at the Kai Lin Art Gallery in Midtown Atlanta in June. The theme is monsters, however, Yu-kai, the owner of the gallery, doesn't like anything scary or disturbing which basically cancels out 95% of my ideas, but I'm sketching some concepts this week and proceeding to bust ass once I've got things laid out the way I'd like. I've been experimenting with oil and woodburning, and picking up spare pieces of wood from the dumpster to practice on.

AnimeBoston was this past weekend, which was a total blast. It felt good to not stare at a computer screen for three whole days, and to use my paints and markers and pens again!