Lightbringer

Happy New Year everyone!!!
It's been an interesting year for me. I drink coffee now! I sorta figured out how to do my taxes! I did some fanart for the first time since jr. high! New jobs, new friends, new places (and a new imac!) It's been a lot of fun, and I want to thank every person that has made it that way-- my family & Sam, my buddies here and across the internet, my art directors, my students, and everyone in between.

(P.S. Twitter was a fun new discovery this year and a nice way to talk with great illustrators. I'll probably be doing a twitter print giveaway in January...my twitter account @kalidraws will be dispensing updates a little later on!)

Anyway, I figured I'd cap off my blog posts for the year with the last horoscope illustration I did before starting my current Amtrak project...
Saggitarius! The archer, a storyteller who brings light and laughter into "the darkest time of the year."

The first sketch was a dud, so I tried a more modern style for the second sketch which I liked better. Ultimately my lovely AD Anthony Arias decided on the 3rd sketch, but with the request that it get slightly more sexy. (which in my mind equated to less waifishness & extra body armor for tough love)




Looking back, I think I spent most of the year in my own "safe zone" and I'd like to gather up more new experiences next year. Art-wise, location-wise, everything! Woo woo!
Best wishes dear readers, and I hope you all have a safe and happy 2011!

"A Beauty, A Beauty"

So I took a break from drawing trains and drew a knight instead.

Here's Brienne of Tarth, from the Song of Ice and Fire series. She's a naive young woman with idealistic views about knighthood and honor. She also happens to wield a morning-star, is like 6'4" and super big, a strong fighter, and has a broad, ugly face with a broken nose, limp flaxen hair, and huge lips/teeth. Her one "pretty" feature is her large, clear blue eyes. She's a really interesting character. I probably drew her a little prettier than she should be.

Sam & I are huge fans of the Song of Ice and Fire series (read 'em!) which will also soon be released as a new HBO show, Game of Thrones. We've been thinking of doing some fanart from the books and then making a tumblr together...we'll see, once we both have some more free time!

TINY PEOPLE

This blog post is a TRIPLE THREAT because I'm posting THREE different kid-related spot assignments, all from Family Circle magazine, from different times this year. OH YEAH!

Jr. High back-to-school scenarios (sweep the leg!):

Different stages of childhood development, from newborns to early-teens:

(While working on this, I was listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks and secretly imagined the 14 yr-old trying to buy robitussin as Ron Weasley. I've since tried to include Rons or people wearing R's in other illustrations)

The Boy's & Girl's club of America, encouraging creative after school activities (the ginger is not a Ron specifically, but close enough):


Thanks for looking! (and maybe reliving awkward Jr. High memories with me)

How to Fly your Cat Plane

So yesterday Sam & I watched "How to Train Your Dragon" while we were working. It was a frustrating day, we were both having issues with color, and it felt like I was banging my head against a wall. I was having a bit of tunnel-vision, so I thought I needed to shake things up somehow. The movie was fine, there was some good stuff and some not-as-good stuff, but it was sort of fun to note all the behaviors that the dragons in the movie and regular cats had in common. So, I thought I'd apply the principle of "Dragons are essentially flying cats with fire" to our own cat, Ripley, and do a quick drawing for fun.
Then, of course, since Sam & I both have Norwegian backgrounds I had to put us in there as Vikings.

Ripley is a feisty, stout, loud American Bobtail, and she just has a little stub tail that waggles when she's excited. She's named after Sigourney Weaver's character in the Alien movies.
Ripley, on a hot day.
Makes me wish I had more time for fun little doodles! And drawing people I know as Vikings.

Detective of the Zodiac

Any Scorpios in the audience? Working on this horoscope assignment I discovered that Scorpio is "The Detective of the Zodiac, unraveling mysteries is your forte and passion". I suggest you all become film noir detectives, like this lovely lady! (what! role-reversal!)

This was my 3rd horoscope assignment for Vegas magazine. With the detective imagery in the article I thought of film noir immediately, but I had done vaguely medieval/magical illustrations for the other horoscopes and I wasn't sure if it'd be too much of a departure. For my sketches I did one medieval/magical seeress (with a scrying bowl for detective work) to fit in with the rest of the images, and also the film noir lady. I am happy we went with the film noir theme after all, I enjoyed working on this one a lot.
Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm going to STUFF MY FACE and I hope you all do too! Yay!

Status Update + Deco Los Angeles

First off, congrats to the SOI winners! Just found out that Sam got THREE pieces in, and Nick Illuzada (who is still a student at MICA) won silver in Uncommissioned. Yowza! Gotta stay on my toes!

Sam and I also received our copies of Spectrum 17 the other day--that Greg Manchess cover is the bomb and there are so many pieces in there that kill me. Awesome. Pick it up.

So I've been MIA for a while now and owe you guys an explanation! I've been sequestered in my apt. working on a kid's activity book for Amtrak, simultaneously battling some cold/flu thing for a while, and even snuck in a trip for my cousin's wedding!
When I was informed that I got the Amtrak job, I basically just dropped everything and had to get to work. To my great disappointment that meant that I also had to drop my Anthology Project comic. Sorry dudes, I hope to be able to complete a published comic SOMEDAY, and the work that's going into the Anthology Project is looking AWESOME. I'll be working on this book until early February, but I wish I could show you some sneak peeks! It's coming together. This is Amtrak's first kids book in about a decade, and they're going to be giving it away for free on the trains!

For now, I can show you some of the illustration backlog I have piling up from previous work. Like these pieces I did for LA Weekly's Best Of 2010 issue! Each of the sections in the newspaper had an opening image & spots that corresponded to a different decade in LA. Darrick Rainey assigned me the roaring 20's for the Food and Drink section, and I was PUMPED to do the illustrations for this.

If you haven't been able to tell from some of my past pieces, I LOVE art deco. It would be great to be able to do more illustrations with a 20's theme/style. Darrick remembered my Estelle LeBlanc poster and wanted me to do my illustrations in the same style.
Here's the sketches I sent:


We liked them both, but Darrick thought that the more streamlined style of the right sketch fit better, even though we both enjoyed the crowd scene. So I combined them into this:

Upon reflection, I think I should have just gone with the 2nd sketch of the girl dancing. It probably would have had more impact. I guess I just wanted to draw a crowd!

Here's the final. The colors are pretty modern instead of strictly 20's, but I figured upping the saturation would help it show up on newsprint.

Darrick also needed some B&W spots to scatter throughout the section, so I decided to make a little story out of them (dining, dancing, and PROHIBITION)

I was happy with how these pieces came out, but looking at it again I'm wondering if some texture might look nice (I was worried at the time that the texture might muddy on the newsprint). Hindsight is 20/20. On to the next.

The Mediator

In early 2010 I got the chance to do the March horoscope illustration in Vegas magazine for Aries, and after a long pause I've been doing a horoscope illustration each month for them...here's the first of the new batch, Libra!

The writing says:
"Holding the Scales of Justice, Libra weighs, divides and distributes the summer harvest. Libra embodies this time of equal day and night while seeking to find balance, integrity and fairness for all"

This was for Vegas Magazine's men's issue, so it made sense to make Libra a dude. In the original sketch he also had a scythe for the summer harvest, but the editors thought it looked a little phallic (eep!) and we changed it to an hourglass:

Aaaand the final!

Seeing it again, I think his head/face look a little doofy. It's always funny when you look back on your work and just itch to change something around... Ah well, on to the next!

P.S. Wow, we've gotten a great response on the Anthology Project kickstarter project! Thank you to all the donors!! Almost to the goal!