A Wonderful Artist You Must See.

Go visit this girl!
Her name is Kate McElroy, and she's probably one of the most talented artists I know who hasn't been discovered yet. Why, I can't explain. SO DISCOVER HER!!!

She works mostly in Microns/Prismacolor markers but is well-versed in many different media and went to the Art Institute of Boston for a few years. I met her in her prime days at the ol' Blick, and we became fast friends.

Let me tell you that she's more determined than anyone I know, and she's the type who might have to cancel plans with you because she's working on some super sweet epic drawing that she's been dreaming about all day. But she is a really, really great friend. Trust me.

Go visit her site! http://el-roacho.deviantart.com

More progress.

Did a couple of other characters.
I'm planning on keeping the girl and the spidercat as the only characters in straight, unfiltered light. I plan on having the other creatures receding into the background with their values and possibly a couple of filters to help it along. I'll still be adding more reflections/shadows to help show the characters are weighted and that they exist together.

I'm gonna change the background color, too. I was just playing around. And I'm digging the red reflections in the fat mask monster's eyes. I love drawing characters with bug eyes and little pupils for some reason.

Did the pants/boots/finished up the girl/the other two characters in roughly 2 hours. So we're at 1 hour for the sketch, 1 hour for the inks, 1.5 hours for the start (without counting the practice), and another 2 hours for this. So 5.5 hours in all, and a long way to go.

I <3 vinyl toys.

I bought another book today! It was $29.95 at the MFA bookstore. I want allll the art books in the world now. I think I'm going to start an Amazon wishlist or something. Do those even work?

Anyways, I bought Full Vinyl by Ivan Vartanian. It's basically amazing. It has soooo many of my favorite artists in it, such as Junko Mizuno, Dalek, and Tokidoki, focusing on vinyl toys and supergraphic artwork.

One of my dreams is to make vinyl toys one day (something I'm looking into). The other is to be in awesome, kickass anthologies with other hip and happening artists. I just need to find people who are motivate enough and who have enough time. It'll probably have to wait until I get out of school. But it'll be awesome!

Anyone know a good place I can find books on clowns? I've tried the MFA bookstore, Barnes & Noble, the MassArt library, and Borders. Nada. I suppose I should just check online, but I kinda need it for Monday. Any suggestions?

Finally, an art update.

A little one, anyways.

Today was the last time in my 4-year career at MassArt that I had to register for classes. And I decided, today, that I REFUSED to be at the back of the line as usual, getting shit classes that screwed up my schedule. So I was early. And in my earliness there was greatness. I couldn't get poster design for my last credit, so I asked Andy Fish (I copied Sylvia) if I could take an independent study with him next semester. And he said yes!!! I'm so excited! I get to take Andy Fish twice next semester, during my most crucial semester at MssArt. It's gonna be great. As long as he doesn't get sick of me. Haha.

On to art! I'm currently working on my stipple project for Mark Reusch's black and white class, and, to be honest, I haven't worked on it much lately because I've been so sick. I still feel like I'm choking all the time, but my acid reflux has calmed down some. I'm drawing my mum for the stipple project, because she always takes care of me and buys me groceries when I'm broke as a joke and lets me fall asleep on the couch at 7pm and not wake me up until 11am. Mums are the best thing in the world, so don't ever take your Mum for granted.

I'm also working on my detour project for Illustration 4. Spent some time today thinking of a coloring style to work in. This was the first attempt, which took about an hour and a half:

I mean, I didn't hate working this way, but I was doing it all on one layer (for some unknown reason), and her expression ended up not looking the way I had wanted. It's also super dark! Why so dark? I want it to be just as, if not more, whimsical than creepy. Like a weird adventure or something. Like she had to go on a DETOUR to pick up so many strange creatures!!! I'm SO clever.

But here's the style I decided on. (It's hi-res, and so is the other file.)


Her expression is jaded without looking like she's angry, which is what I was going for. Also, I really liked the lineart I had done by hand, but it was too stark, so I'm enjoying going over it and keeping the same flow with my wonderful pastel brushes in photoshop. I love textured brushes. <3 I also like drawing/coloring fabric, so I feel like I'm having more fun with this one. Lots more colors and reflections are going to be worked in once I get the general palette down for each character. I'm also trying to work in a way that isn't just light color + darker version of same color = shading. I'm trying to work in more colors, the way I would with paint.

So yay for that!

On a final note, I finally bought a book today I've wanted for quite a while.
I would KILL to be good enough to have my work featured in an anthology. I can honestly say there's not one artist in this book I dislike, and the ones I DO like I'm CRAZY for. I was lied to once and told I'd be helping out with a show for Alex Pardee, and I cried when I found out it wasn't true. And James Jean is my hero. The use of linework and soft shapes and faces and organic matter in his work is amazing to me. It's a good coffee table book to have, even though I don't own a coffee table.


More work updates soon! It's time to start cranking out some of these projects I have hanging around.

So I'm probably gonna just become a clown.

Clowns get to hang out with kids, and wear bright costumes, and wear lots of makeup, and have blue hair, and make balloon animals.

Honestly, maybe I'll be a clown on the side.


My degree project is making me reconsider my life.

Slow decay, I won't stop fighing you.

I think I have vocal cord dysfunction (VCD), which is normally associated with GERD when refluxed acid begins to damage the vocal cords. That's why I feel like I'm constantly choking.



I swear I'll update with art soon!

Fruits of my labor.

Thanks to everyone who gave me so much support. I'm truly lucky to know so many wonderful, wonderful people.