Happy Summer! I have been spending a lot of time in the garden and it's so cool how that fuels my drawing... nothing like dirt under the fingernails and communing with carpenter bees. I saw an amazing variegated agapanthus today at Target of all places. I'm going to have to find a place for it. I'm in the process of ripping out a whole planter of agapanthus at a client's house on a landscape design job... I understand they're common, and that I may have "pedestrian taste, (as my former nursery-job boss let me know,) but I figure that they grow well and are beautiful- what more can you ask? I wish that was true of more things in life! I get a garden magazine from England, and they showed people growing them in hothouses. So Bob's your Uncle... Anyway, I wanted to post a couple of things; first, a Jack in the Beanstalk I did in Children's Book class, and second, a character design of my Grandma, God rest her soul. The woman swore like a sailor, and was never far from her scotch, cigarette, or Sambuka and coffee, but she had a heart of gold and I miss her.

Kim is digital

Woo hoo. I am digital! I am spending this summer revisiting my computer skills, and getting up to speed on Illustrator and Flash. Quite a different way to think, and sometimes I just want to solve the problem with a pencil or paintbrush (it's faster!) but the results are fun and I enjoy the learning curve.

School's out!  Woo hoo!  I did this study of a mantis from a photo-  I took a whole mess of photos of one we had here at the house as a pet.  My son named her Katrina the Bikini Girl after the notorious American Idol contestant.  I'm not exactly thrilled that my eight-year old has a crush on her... anyway, I am fascinated by mantises and how sentient they seem to be.  I think they came from another planet, or perhaps they're animatronic.  They don't seem to move like anything else.  Summer school will be starting next week, and I will be finishing off some of the illustrations from the 32 page dummy book we completed in Sequential Art- Children's Book class.

Two down, one to go!  Wednesday is the last class of the semester, and I'm still working to get all of that work done.  I did this little spot as the last assignment in my Special Studies Illustration class.  Cliff (the professor) clued me in to how cool spots are.  I tend to think of finished artwork as square, in a frame.  It's so freeing to edit down to what's really necessary.  When I started this idea, I had sidewalk, telephone pole, and a larger cast of characters (ant, mantis, slug.)  It's fun to reduce!  

fairies and bugs

Here is the other buggish piece.  It makes me laugh, hope you enjoy it too.  I did the spot of the fairy because I'm trying to work on more spots- I'd love to get some work doing children's magazine illustration.  I will post some bug spots (?!) next week as I finish them.  We're in the final week of grad school, well, for the semester at least... wish me luck!

The homestretch!  Almost done with the semester, and totally stoked from all of the work I've been busting out.  Nothing like a little pressure... anyway, here are some bugs.  I'll post Bugball now, and New Arrival when I get it off of the watercolor board.  Bug spots to come, as well!

Here is the last in the Surfside Girls location paintings- this is the Burger Dude, Sam's dad's restaurant on the sand.  The monster is just silly, I taught art in Ethan's classroom yesterday (trying to enlighten second graders to light side and shadow side, and using color in shadows, phew!) but I've been working so tightly it was fun just to let go.  Only three more paintings and a dummy book to go before semester's over in two weeks.  Go Kim!

I finished this one, Sam's house, and it's part of a 3 painting series that I'm doing to show three important locations in my book.  Sam's house is the house that all the kids hang out at.  Parents don't have a lot of money, but lots of love and lots of fun.  It's in the fictional Southern California town of Surfside.   The other painting is of a surf shack on the cliff.  I'm almost done with the Burger Dude, which is Sam's dad's burger joint/watering hole on the sand.  It's really cool to see the places in my head come to life in color!

Well, I finished the book! All of these black and white illustrations have been for a little 4x4 illustrated Aesop's fable for a class. My stepson and I constructed the little book, and sewed the pages. It's really cool to have a tactile little representation of your work. I want to do more!

I'm going on my third spring break, and finding it very hard to keep up with homework!  I had break three weeks ago, last week we had some Canadian friends come down and wanted to go to Disneyland, and this week is my son's spring break.  Anyway, I have two more illustrations to post from the Aesop's fable project.  Enjoy, and Happy Easter!

I photographed the Swim Race piece today; it's a little blurry in parts but I think it will do.  I enjoyed working big and want to continue- it really helps me loosen up!

Well Spring Break is over.  Boy did I need that!  I didn't do much homework, but I surfed at Bolsa Chica one day, and put in my vegetable garden another day.  If I didn't take the time and do that sort of thing, I don't think I'd make it through the end of the semester.  When is summer?  I did finish the painting of the swim race.  I'll have to photograph it because it's so big, and then I'll post it.  This new post illustration is the last in an eight page book we have to do for my children's book class.  It's the fable The Ant and the Dove.  I'm happy with it, and happy to be working in watercolor and experimenting with different lines.

Wow!  School's been busy!  This is the first semester I've tried three artwork-producing classes in the same semester.  In the past I've put in an art history class.  Other than the constant lack of time I feel, I like how productive I've been.  You should see my office, though...  I have a bunch of work to post, so I'll start with the most unfinished.  I'm doing a series in watercolor and pen and ink of lifeguarding events, and these figures will end up being about 14 inches tall.  It's fun to work big!

Bugs

I had to write something for my church on Psalm 92 as part of Lent inspirational readings.   "I sing for joy at the works of your hands" has been so on my mind lately, and I'll tell you that, for me, nowhere is it more evident than in watching bugs.  Bugs!  Insects!  Have you been in your backyard lately and watched the tremendous amount of work that gets done on a daily basis by bugs?  And then you get to looking at them up close, and wow!  There is some amazing, wacky, creative, inspired design there!  I've had my mantis out since the days are getting warmer, and I just live to see her move her head.  I swear that we're going to find out that they're either extra-terrestrial, or animatronic.  And sentient...

Anyway, this katydid was in my yard and I ran for my camera, and did a study of her.  She will be the subject in my series on the Domestic Life of Bugs.  Stay tuned.

Lines

I am trying hard this semester to push my watercolor skills. I rely heavily on lines to finish an illustration, and thought I would try to de-line my artwork. As I finish the first illustration in my "Domestic Life of Bugs" series, it occurs to me that I really do enjoy lines. I enjoy drawing, graphite transferring, reworking the lines on the freshly-stretched watercolor paper. I guess using line isn't a bad thing. Arthur Rackham, Bill Peet, Carl Larsson... my heroes do use line. I did clean-up in animation for how-many-years, and line is just part of who I am.

Wow!  You can tell that school has started, as I haven't posted in a while!  I've got three classes at CSUF / MFA, and that means thumbnails for upcoming projects.  I'm really excited about a series I'm doing in my watercolor class on bugs.  Since I don't have much to post yet, I'll put up the piece that got me inspired to do a buggy theme.  It took Honorable mention a couple of semesters ago in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrator's Great Race competition.  Speaking of which, I attended their "Writer's Day" conference yesterday at beautiful USD.  What a great event, and so inspirational!

I did a couple little pen and ink and watercolor sketches trying to figure out what the "Rokkit" looks like- the Rokkit is Sam's mom's moped that the girls end up "borrowing" while in hot pursuit of a clue.  I did some online research trying to figure out which body style I wanted to use.  There are some really cute mopeds out there!  And then, after choosing my reference photo and making some sketches, it came driving down my street!  Weird!  A bunch of moms and I who were chit-chatting out front flagged it down and I took some reference photos.  What are the odds? I added the custom paint job to the Rokkit,  and the ridiculous helmets, to give it some character.

Wow, it's good to live in paradise.  I needed some photo reference for Surfside Girls (the graphic novel) so I took my waterproof digital camera to Laguna, and paddled out on my big ol' Infinity longboard while Ethan was in school.  Santa Anas are blowing today, and the water was so glassy and clear I could see straight to the bottom; saw garibaldi, kelp forests- amazing!  Got some great shots of what I was looking for, and thought I'd share. Mind you, it's January, and I got too warm in my shortie wetsuit and had to cool down on the beach in my bikini after paddling. I met a guy out there in a kayak who said he saw a whale yesterday.  I kept hoping, but no luck this time.

Oh,  I'm posting a little three-panel of Sam surfing.  It's kind of how I feel today. I'm going to be making this into a t-shirt with the SSG logo on the back.