Oh the humanity! Me as a simpsons' character...

I had to delete the walking one...I couldn't take it. I looked like Marge's younger zaftig sister.

Everybody's workin for the weekend...

Do you remember that song? I actually liked Loverboy back when I was 11/12. The singer wore those tight red leather pants...and a bandana around his head... ahhh the 80's.
The clients have spoken... I have not been voted off the island. A chubbier Buddha...less kooky expression...The Womb service baby was the chosen one..chubbier as well. Simpler, a little more cartoonish. They are submitted for character approval..next step... three buddah poses and 4 baby tee's. Now, on to homework.

Apologies...

I must apologize for the last post. Quite a rant. Let's all stare at the pretty kitty and be soothed into calmness.... This is from a series of art for kid's walls I have in a sketchbook. I will paint it when I get a chance. They are inspired by the under valued, under viewed "Gay Puree" animated movie of the 1960's. Fabulous!! Judy Garland, Robert Goulet and killer design...please rent it.
I'm not angry anymore.... I will avoid the nail salon from now on. ;)

Cranky

This is messy. I hope you can get the gist. Two Moms. School drop off. HUMMER. No parking zone. Cell phone. HUGE ass sunglasses. Toe nail polish... "It's a new color, it's called Carbon footprint." "Isn't it cute?" "Cute! Ooooo... I want that ! "

I hate Hummers. No one needs a car this big! B-Sh*t! And I always see women driving them. I wasn't aware women had entered the car as "Mine is bigger than yours.." argument... I can not stand the conspicuous consumption especially in the face of the climate crisis.
Grrrrrrrrr......
Can you tell I'm angry!? I'm angry.

Long night's journey into day....

Thursdays are tough. I'm dragging... I drew this in class and on the train home last night. My cat's plotting....soon he will strike!

I'm sooooo tired..

It's 1:40 a.m. Up doing homework for my SVA class tomorrow. I hope what I have to show is enough. I only did these 2 color comps. Technically, I had 4 more...but all of the freelance took a front seat. I'm bringing that along as proof that the dog didn't eat my homework... actually, he ate some pencils today. Off to bed!

Company in the studio

It's nice to have the dog, Jabba, up here in the studio now that he's 6 mos. old. Altho, now the cat, Anakin, will not come up. The dog loves the cat...the cat is plotting to kill the dog.

Womb Service

The client gave me more info on the T-shirt images. This is supposed to say "More Womb Service, Please." I think, "Hello, Womb Service?" is better.
I asked friends what they craved while pregnant: Curry Chicken- Falafel-fresh squeezed orange juice- Chinese Vegetables - Potato chips- chocolate milk- pineapples -steak. My own: Lemon Meringue pie and fish and chips with tarter sauce (really it was just the tarter sauce - but didn't want people to see me sucking on those little packets) Fast free research - friends.

This bird has flown..

Harry Potter. I'm sure those of you who don't care must be sick of all the hype. But for those of us who care, and care greatly..it's a pretty big deal this last book. I have often said that Harry potter saved my life. I was SO postpartum depressed the year after my daughter was born. My brother gave me the first two books for my birthday. I went away for a weekend, brought the books.. and my brain rebooted. I felt it happen. My imagination was jumped like a car engine that had died. BOOM!
I love Harry Potter. I love Hogwarts school of Magic. I love Hedwig. This owl has been one of my favorite characters. It's got attitude. Pecking Harry when it's pissed off. Hooting hello and flying off to wherever Harry sends it. Now, I want to imagine Hedwig flies off at the end of book seven. Maybe just maybe, if we wish hard enough, we'll see this snowy owl again.

Addendum:I just read the first few chapters... Hedwig died. I am afraid to read the rest, I'm already crying.

baby baby

Simpler baby design. I think client is not clear on what she wants. I hope I'm not going off in the totally wrong direction.

Old School

One day, while drawing up in the studio, my seven year old daughter, Maggie, said to me, "Mom, you're so old school!" I wasn't sure I had heard her right..so I asked her to repeat herself..and she did..."YOU ARE OLD-SCHOOL!" First, how the heck did she know what that means?
Second...ouch. The truth hurts. Out of the mouths of babes and all that.
I AM old school. Practically prehistoric prep. When approaching art, I rarely think outside the box. Literal that's me. Conceptual..deisgny..ironic...serious.. alternative..edgy... can't seem to find that inside. Perhaps I am just not deep, or haven't dug down deep enough-or don't want to. I am hoping to get past just drawing pretty pictures...into something more.

Buddha Dog concepts continue. One looks very animated..the other I tried to go the retro..cartoon modern route. I'll keep going..got the babies to do too. I do love my sketchbook pro,tho.

When it rains it pours..

More freelance! "Mommy to Be, Inc." needs a baby face. Four designs for maternity wear. All this and the class homework...oy vey. There goes my planned garage sale. Baby sketches. The client hasn't given me anymore info on what hey want other than telling what in my portfolio she likes and that she needs cute cartoon babies. I can do cute. But I'd like to simplify and make a little hip. I shall keep trying...

My life drawing

That's Rachel up there. She's a 14 year old girl who modeled for my drawing class. Almost three years ago, I joined a group called, "The Artist Mothers' Group". It's here in Long Island. It was formed by a group of women about eight years ago who just happened to meet at some Mommy and Me play place. They got to talking about what they did before their lives as Mothers and found they had all been artists. Then they found none of them were working, let alone creating anything. They decided to get together once a week at someone's house and draw. Then they began having models, childcare..and moved into a community center. I heard of them 2 years before I joined, I had hit a low point. I had a 2 year old, was doing NO art and was ready to give up on being an artist. One day I called, the next day I joined.
It's been the best thing. Sometimes life gets crazy and I don't have time to go, but I force myself to. Once I am there, with this group of women, chatting and drawing...it's like meditation must be for other people. Drawing from life is grounding. It's a workout for the eyes, the brain, the hands and the heart. Each drawing is a challenge. Does it look like them? Is it boring?Is it composed well? One line off and you can loose a likeness.
We have an art show up right now. We have one each summer. We've had two this year and hope for one in October too. Each woman works differently. Pastels, pencils, watercolors...weaving,photography,digital design, felting, etc. We all ground ourselves in the human figure. It's bliss.

Thank Buddha Dog!

Finally a freelance project I can sink my teeth into! Most of my recent freelance has been what I call big boobied bikini ladies. Everyone wants T and A. Even women. I don't get it. Well, I've done it too. I used to sell drawings of Playboy bunnies to boys in 6th grade for a quarter. I should post those...
Anyway, so I got this job for "Buddha Dog". Dog Spa and organic dog treats. Probably nowhere near as exciting a job as I think, but..I think it is. A chance to design a character, create a model sheet and design a logo/web banner. It's good for me! And I like my sketch so far! Did it in Sketchbook Pro. I hope the client likes it. I fall in love with my drawings too fast, she'll probably change it..what can you do? Namaste!

Pretty Good for a girl? Wha? WHo? WHy?

"Pretty good for,... a girl." I heard this a lot growing up, in high school, in college, and even in the work world. Hence the name for the blog. Sometimes it was said differently, "I've never seen a girl draw like you before." or " You draw like a guy" or "How do you know about Heavy Metal or Tex Avery or the Brothers Quay or whatever..." I remember being the only if maybe one of very few girls in the comic book shop. (This was the 70's and 80's- when I saved my change to buy Archie comics) Or being picked to be vice president of the Art Honor Society in High School behind a guy who had no intention of pursuing art as a career(he's a lawyer). I worked in an all guy animation studio during school and took film classes that were filled with all guys. Out in L.A. I was asked out during a job interview. Because I was a girl who could draw. Working professionally there were 2 women in the art department to a dozen men. During an animation workshop ...oh there's just too many tales to tell! The worst experience I ever had: College: Ralph Bakshi- big rotoscoping god in animation (Lord of the Rings, American Pop, Fire and Ice, yadda yadda..) ...comes to campus-to speak to film students. I go...hungry for any info about how to break into animation. I'm the only girl in a hundred seat auditorium. I listen as he talks about his career, he's funny, he's arrogant..I muster up the courage to ask a question during Q&A: "Mr. Bakshi, historically, animation has been predominantly a field filled with men animators? Is that changing? Are you seeing more women animators, are more doors opening for women?" His reply: " (Laughter-not a good start) Women don't have the stamina it takes to do animation. Honey, stay home and make babies. "(laughter fills the room) NO LIE!! He actually said that! In 1991-no less! Can you believe that???
Things seem different today, I hope I am right. I see so many websites and blogs by such talented young women. Doing exactly what I wanted to do years ago. Way to go! I admit I am envious but I feel much more awe at what they are doing. I will talk about them more later...
This sketch was done today at my life Drawing session. Every Tuesday 10-12:30. Chris is the model, he's 25. Makes me feel old. - Kel

In a Past Life

So, Kermit up there? He's from my past life. I was a licensed character artist for cartoon merchandisers for many years. First working at a T-shirt company for 5 years and then freelancing for lots of other people. I was mostly a concept artist. I rarely did the finish work. Which was great for my brain, bad for my portfolio. I have boxes and boxes of sketches and comps. All hand done. The computer only played a part the last few years of my doing merchandising artwork. I have mixed feelings about this period of my life. I got to draw my favorite characters from Mickey to Peanuts.... I pumped out a lot of ideas every day... I learned a lot , BUT I ran screaming from that world. By 1997, the cartoon characters that I was really passionate about were just products people were schilling and no one seemed to care about them but me. At least not the folks in charge. It was all dollars and sales figures and how can we dress up Bugs Bunny as a rapper again... Also, the companies like Warner Bros. and Disney stopped letting artists like me draw their characters. The model sheets became style guides..the style guides became the artwork. I was far too talented to cut and paste and draw clothes on their artwork. So, getting pregnant was an out. And I don't want back in. Fellow artists are always saying to me how I could easily get work in Licensing. Even licensed childrens' books. No Thank you. I spent too much time drawing other people's characters, I'm ready to create my own.

Today..Part Deux

So since I'm new to blogging..let's fill up the blog so it doesn't look so skimpy... These are my sketches for a homework assignment from SVA continuing-ed. My teacher is a quite accomoplished children's book Illustrator named Elizabeth Sayles. She's over in my links... The class is supposed to whip our portfolio's into shape. It's forcing me to focus on this thing I want called a career as an illustrator. So, the assignment was to interpret an article on jet lag. My concept being this couple taking a trip of a lifetime around the world. He's asleep in every shot, she's got that same vapid silly tourist smile. There's two more in the series. The last being of her passed out in the airport to go home and him wide awake and wired and wearing all souvenir cheesey..stuff. If only I could condense it into one image. But I still think in panels like a comic strip..I will work on that.... I like my drawings tho. I usually like my drawings more than my finish. I hope to do these in Illustrator, maybe they'll be done by the end of the class. I've got another Illustration on the back burner...I'll add that later.

I thought I would go into who I am next post..what I've done and such. I do actually have some history as a working cartoonist and some of it is kind of interesting. .. really.

Dog on the brain

Dog on the brain...'cause I've got my 6 mos old Golden Retriever puppy Jabba who I took to the vet today. That's Jabba the Mutt @ 8 weeks old. I love dogs. I had three growing up. A beagle puppy that didn't last long when I was a baby...I don't remeber it, but I'm sure it must have left me with the doggie loving tendancy. Then there was "Mittens". A crazy Lasa Ahpso (spell?) It loved my Dad and brother but hated me. It was one of those dog in the Christmas stocking mistakes. In 1977 we got Taffy out of a shopping cart at the grocery store. She died in 1994. 18 years of the best dog that ever lived. She was a mutt that looked a little like Benji. I still get teary about her.There's also a picture of Taffy's dopleganger, Timon who lives in St. Maarten. I visit him every year when we go. Anyway...I love dogs and love to draw them.
I fooled around with that dog sketch on Sketchbook Pro. Not quite sure of the program. Photoshop is so much more precise and Illustrator so sharp and clean in comparison. Still, not horrible, but not quite the look I was shooting for...First try. I wanted more of the 20's look... I will try again. Now I have some freelance to do for "Buddah Dog" Dog spa and treats Co. I will post that as it goes along. I also have some homework I'll post from my SVA continuiing-ed class.

'Til then...

There's a first time for everything...

Hi! I am starting this sketchblog in conjunction with getting a website up (almost there)...taking on more freelance (hire me please)..and well, I'm yelling, "Clear!" and defibrillating my career in the hopes that come 2008 I can cackle "It's ALIVE!..ALIVE!"
I have been lurking all over blogger in awe of many artists' work and oozing with envy at their career paths. My own went way off track, but I'm the better for it. I have read with drooling fervor many cartoonists' blogs and when I figure out how to link to them I will.
Just last night I installed Sketchbook Pro and doodled this doggie. I will work on it some more and post whatever it turns into. I hope I will hear from some of you whom I have worshipped from afar. I hope to connect and learn and grow and work. That's all I can really hope for! So, away we go...