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.
If you haven’t already heard of Illustration Friday, I encourage you to check them out. There is something so friendly and encouraging about their site, and I always enjoy creating art for their prompts.
This week’s prompt was “Game.” I took it as “The Game” or even “Game ON.” Below are my two variations. Have a favorite?
Another year, another round (or several) of MATS courses!
This year, agent Lilla Rogers of Make Art That Sells offered a free course to the winner of the Holiday Card challenge. The prompt: Favorite Holiday Drink.
Aside from coffee in the morning, my favorite holiday drink is red wine. I wanted to create a cozy, wintry look for this card, with a not-so-dainty glass of red wine.
Drink up!
I love Illustration Friday, and I've been using their prompts to create new work since 2015.
A couple weeks ago, amidst a dearth of gray days and a cloudy head, I found out that I won a challenge! It was exactly what I needed to kick start a better frame of mind. Thank you once again, Illustration Friday!
Here is my collage for the "Twins" prompt (as promoted on Instagram):
In 2013, when I first started illustrating, I wrote a post titled, "When in doubt, cut it out," which emphasized how helpful cutting paper can be for shaping my characters. Since cleaning up my studio space a couple weeks ago, another perk for paper scraps would be free, no-pressure experimenting.
Although the difficult-to-cut corners, accidentally-torn details, and bends and warps of the paper can frustrate the heck out of me, these same problems liberate me. I've been treating it as a big Who Cares exercise. And, as the composition is whisked away by my cat jumping on my desk, I feel unattached and able to try something else.
I waffled over this composition, about how magical to make it. My husband felt the horns were too much... yeah, ditch the ears too... So I submitted both for this week's Illustration Friday challenge, Ice.
For this week's Illustration Friday's challenge, "Nose," I used my watercolor paintings as my collage material. It was my first time doing so, and I really liked incorporating both of my techniques into one. I definitely plan to explore this further.
I call this piece Portrait of a Woman with Flowers.
MATS Bootcamp for May was really fun for me.
First, Lilla assigned us the "mini" assignment which had us looking at medieval styles in both art and lettering. I found this super cool site in my search: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/, and I drew extensively. (You can check out some of my drawings on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/kendrasred/)
The final assignment was to create a tarot card that correlates with our birthday. I'm a Taurus, and my card was The Hierophant. Again, I drew a lot, and then began a collage. This was my final submission...
Time has been tight the past couple weeks, but I was able to re-purpose some collage elements and submit to this week's Illustration Friday challenge: Sparkle.
I wanted my dragon to be calm, but confident, and made of metal.
I submitted this guy...
This week's Illustration Friday topic was Village.
I decided to focus on the parts of a village, and the embodiment of a village within a person. Below is my illustration...
I'm currently sketching ideas for an assignment with Mark Mitchell's critique group, and I've been researching the nightingale. In doing so, I ran across this beautiful bird, often called the Pekin Robin or Pekin Nightingale. So for yesterday's #artaday challenge, I created a collage of this wonderful little animal...
Another week, another Illustration Friday challenge!
Below is my collage for this week's topic: Shelter.
This week's Illustration Friday topic was "Hat."
I first sketched a bird with an actual hat. Then I thought of the Eurasian hoopoe that I recently drew for a client, and the cool crown/hat that it already has.
Using the scans of vintage drawings, I assembled this black and white bird with a hoopoe-style headdress. I also added a vignette effect to give it a slightly creepy, noir-esque tone.
This week's Illustration Friday challenge topic was "Orbit."
Similar to the "Moon" collage from a couple weeks ago, I used photos of grungy and decaying textures to create a scene that was recognizable, but almost accidentally so.
After showing my 7 year old my initial abstract layout, he emphatically felt I needed to showcase the word "orbit" more, so I added more planets and some moons. This is what my son finally approved....
I really enjoyed creating this piece for last week's Illustration Friday's challenge, and I was stoked that I was able to submit again this week. This week's theme: "Tropical."
I haven't worked with birds lately (possibly my favorite subject ever), so I decided to focus on tropical birds. I looked through various images, and considered a flamingo collage, but then I found a beautiful shot of a toucan. Below is my collage inspired by that photo...
I've created art a couple times in 2015 for Illustration Friday's weekly challenge, but in 2016, I'm planning to submit something new at least one week each month.
Below was my submission for last week's challenge, "Moon."
Yesterday, I submitted another illustration for the Tomie dePaola Award. This is my third year participating — I blogged about the 2013 contest here, and I was a semi-finalist for my 2014 submission, which you can see here.
The assignment was to "illustrate a moment from the following passage from Philip Pullman’s version of “Little Red Riding Hood” from FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM (Viking, 2012)." (You can read the full prompt at SCBWI.org)
I chose this passage:
"When Little Red Riding Hood had only been walking a few minutes, a wolf came up to her. She didn’t know what a wicked animal he was, so she wasn’t afraid of him."
Below is my digital collage...
It has been a very long time since I've updated my blog, and I hope you're still catching my posts on Facebook and Instagram!
The month of October was a very busy and exciting time for me. I had a good deal of illustration work come in, AND I had my first group gallery show since college. In fact, I had TWO gallery shows in October — one opened in Iowa on the 16th and the other opened in NYC on the 24th.
I'll update more about the illustration jobs soon, as well as details on an upcoming solo show, but here is a shot of the watercolor and collage work that was at the show in Cedar Rapids ("Rabbit," "Meeting the Wolf" and "Crow").
As always, your questions and comments are most welcome!
The cookbook I illustrated (written by the magnificent Melissa Machowski of M Delish Boutique) is now in the printing process! Melissa and I had a fantastic time working together, and I'm thrilled about this whole project.
It's our first run of 50, so there could be some hiccups, but we'll be signing all of them, and I'll consider these 50 the "collector's edition." (:
To order yours, you can visit Melissa's Etsy shop here.
Here's a little preview....
Yesterday, I remembered to create an illustration for Illustration Friday's weekly challenge. The word was "Heart." Here are a couple collages I came up with...