Ugly Fish Part Deux

Created in Illustrator CS2....I outlined the basic shape with the pen tool, colored it using gradients, then added the background.

Pattern

Pattern drawn in Illustrator.

I can use the pen tool!

I know it's nothing fancy, but I drew this in Illustrator completely with the pen tool! I was inspired by watching a tutorial on You Tube. The pen tool tutorial and many more are available at www.tutvid.com. Seeing it done makes much more sense than reading about it. I'm going to practice a lot, because if this is what I can accomplish after a 20 minute video, I may be well on my way to a thriving career quicker than I imagined.

In Memoriam

Lindsay Marie Harvey
July 19, 1982 - April 13, 2008

Check my poopdeck!

Another baby design (available here). This one was my little sister's idea. I hope I did it justice. I'm really becoming addicted to using textures and adusting the transparency to give a different feel to the image.

Ugly Fish

Random sketch using Pigma Micron in my moleskine.

Learning to Sew

I periodically read this blog, which features some incredible sewing projects. My favorites are her custom totes and clutches. As I've always been a pretty crafty person, and was also in need of a new purse, I thought I would try to make my own tote. The 1st problem is that I don't really know how to sew. I do have a cheap sewing machine, and have even used it once or twice....but for the most part, I can't sew. Problem 2 is that I have no idea how to make a tote bag. No big deal, I can just buy a pattern, right? Hmmmm....how exactly does one read/use a pattern? I was extra ambitious and decided I wanted a quilted purse. Have I mentioned I can't sew? The only thing I've ever sewn was an apron in 7th grade home economics.

Well, I finished. It took me a week to complete, and I definitely made tons of mistakes along the way. But overall, I think it looks pretty good!

Science in action

A lot of my job is sitting around and waiting for results. Today I had 15 minutes in the lab with nothing to do except wait. So I decided to covertly sketch a new employee who was busy doing her training. I managed to get the basic shapes down, but didn't have time to do much shading before I had to get back to work.

Will Cry for Food

Available here!!!

Fridays off!

I've started a new schedule where I work four 10-hour days with Fridays off every week. This means I don't have time to work on anything new during the week, but also that I will have an entire day to myself that I can spend drawing & painting. With nice weather fast approaching, I really want to spend those days off going out to different places around the city and just sketching for a few hours. Of course it rained all day on my first Friday off, so instead I spent the day finally putting pics from several trips into photo albums. I decided to sketch a few of the photos, so here is the first one. It is the California Lighthouse in Aruba. I went there several years ago....long before I ever thought of a travel sketchbook. The sketch is done using a Micron pen and my travel watercolor set in a moleskine watercolor book.

latest t-shirt designs

Here are just a few of the latest designs I've added to my cafepress shop (www.cafepress.com/konite).

Hillary in pencil

I was working on this sketch for a couple of days, mostly trying to practice shading. I'm so used to drawing everything with outlines, that I really need to work on shading. There are some things I like about it (the earring, nose, hair, and mouth), but also some things that need improvement (the proportions of the face are off).

I chose Hillary because I thought the original picture was awesome.

pen & ink drawing

A quick sketch I did in my Moleskine sketchbook using a 35mm micron pen and a photo reference. I had a hard time shading the face, but for my 1st ink drawing it's not bad.

Konite Designs

These are 2 logos I designed for my Cafepress shop (www.cafepress.com/konite). I made the starburst design by first drawing an elongated triangle and they using the transform feature to rotate it every 20 degrees. I placed a colored circle behind it, and then the cutout square in front (2nd picture). In the first pic, I made the cutout square white. I also gave a brushstroke to the text in the first image.

Random Watercolor Pencil

I've been playing around with ink & watercolor, and ink and watercolor pencils. Here are a couple of quick sketches I did using a crow quill pen and black ink. I really like this look so I am going to practice in this style more. Today I bought a Moleskine watercolor notebook and a field watercolor set to keep a travel sketchbook. Hopefully I'll have lots to post later.

Buy my designs!!!

You can find some of my baby shirt designs for sale here at http://www.cafepress.com/konite.

Keep checking back as more designs will be added. Also, contact me if you would like a custom design.

Hook, line, and sinker

There's a possibility I may be doing a logo for someone who is starting a fishing lure business. Since I heard about it I've been brainstorming some ideas. Here are just a couple preliminary sketches.

Graphic novel

In preparation to possibly illustrate a graphic novel that a friend may or may not ever write, I am trying to learn how to draw in that style. I've read a few Frank Miller books and have started looking through others. What I've realized is that there is not just one style, but many. So I guess I will just have to figure out what style I am good at. My first goal is to draw realistic looking heads/faces. Here is one of my first attempts:





Once I get these down using pencil, I'm going to try my hand at ink.

Moleskine book

I finally got around to buying myself a Moleskine sketchbook. I used a small one when working on the Sketchbook Project, but that never really felt like it was mine. Now I have one to call my own. It's impossible to not feel inspired when you own one of these...I mean this is the same book that Picasso and Hemingway used! I feel like I want to draw, paint, write...anything...I just have to do SOMETHING!

I sketched a stone wall I had seen in a book using watercolor pencils....which is how I realized the Moleskine sketchbooks do not handle water well. I guess now I have an excuse to go buy the Moleskine watercolor book.

Painting

I've taken a break from designing baby clothes and logos and decided to get back to some more traditional art. I really just wanted to play with my some of my Christmas presents...a set of acrylic paints, brushes, an easel, and clayboard. I'm not much of a painter; I never have been. I'm really not good at anything with color - pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, etc. But I know I won't get better unless I practice, and if I happen to create a lot of crap in the meantime, oh well. So, I asked for acrylic paints because they seemed like the best of both watercolors and oil paints.

For my first painting, I was really trying to get the feel for how the paints act. I tried mixing up washes and painting right out of the tube. There are definitely a lot of problems with this painting, but also, some aspects I like. I thought I did a decent job of laying in the wash for the sky. I also thought the use of a little orange was well placed. The actual pier looks like crap...the lines aren't straight, they're too thick, and the colors suck. But I learned a lot in the course of this painting which hopefully I will carry on to future paintings.




The second painting I tried to do more like a watercolor painting. I used watercolor paper which reacts much differently than clayboard. Again, there are several things I like and dislike about this painting. I like the way the sky wash turned out. I also like the texture and depth of the sand. I really like how the different colors of the water blend together on the right side. I could have done a better job with the hobie cats, especially the body of the boats. For the sails I probably should have stuck with the more transparent glazes, but I went for the thicker paint. I also took a little artistic liberty with the coloring of the sails which did not turn out well. Overall, not TOO bad, but I need lots of practice!