The North

To continue this series of leisurely Game of Thrones fanart-sketch-experiments while I rest and recharge, I have JON SNOW and GHOST (his direwolf!) in the frozen land beyond the Wall.


This was a further experiment in making my own photoshop brushes and slapping on more texture. I expanded and made a bunch more! The new brushes are okay, but I wish I could find a really nice sort of dry-brush ink or charcoal-y simulcrum. (besides just drawing traditionally, of course) :) To the people who are curious about how I normally draw-- I just use my wacom and a regular hard round photoshop brush, start to finish, nothing fancy. (when I need texture, I put it in layers over my work)

Horses are way hard to draw. Also, I am disappointed that Jon Snow in the HBO previews has a dumb moustache. Makes him look too old! He's supposed to be a skinny 14-15 yr old!

Sunrise

This week I:

*Mailed out all the Print Giveaway prints. Thanks everyone, they'll be arriving soon!

*Finished up my 4-month-long 32-page kids activity book for Amtrak (waiting to hear if there's revisions! Fingers crossed! Pictures to come in future months.)

*Drew this medieval/Game of Thrones inspired sketch:

This may or may not be Sansa acting romantically tragic in the Red Keep...

During the last month of working on the Amtrak book I had a huge desire to draw for fun, but literally had no time. My illustrations & lettering for the book are verrry crisp and clean, and after sending in the last pages and relaxing a little, I decided to take some time to mess around with the new photoshop brushes and textures and create a new brush.

This image came together pretty haphazardly using a nice texturey brush I created (and some additional textures on top). I didn't plan anything out, I just wanted to GO. It felt good.

Plus, I learned i can draw a lot faster if I'm using a textured brush (I don't have to clean anything up!!) so I'm thinking of trying it out more in the future. What do you think?

Print Giveaway WINNERS!!!

Hoo boy, I got a lot of entries and lovely comments for the print giveaway! You guys blew me away, I will have to definitely do another giveaway in the future.

I got a lot of feedback requesting more book-based illustrations. That's great, because I definitely want to do more literature-influenced personal projects! I have a few more Sabriel illustrations I've been thinking about, as well as some Game of Thrones and sci-fi stuff. I'd love to be able to expand from editorial into the book industry!

But anyway, HERE'S what you've been waiting for, we have THE WINNERS!!! (all were randomly generated!)

CONGRATULATIONS TO:
Niv Bavarsky (from the blog)
Jake (from the blog)
Irma Kniivila (from the blog)
Boum (from the blog)
Reedtard (from twitter)
Jameshindle (from twitter)
Eptin (from twitter)

If you nice folks could all send me an email to kali@ciesemier.com with your address by the end of the week, I can get your prints sent off! If someone hasn't responded by the end of the week, I will draw another winner.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone that entered! You all made me very happy. I've been wavering on setting up an actual print shop somewhere on the internet (rather than just people emailing me when they're interested in a print)-- if anyone has any suggestions or positive experiences with online stores, let me know.

Thanks again, and expect another blog post soon!

Print Giveaway!

*UPDATE* I will definitely be giving away the extra Naturalist/Rollergirl/Libra prints I showed below! I'm blown away by the response so far, you guys are the besttt!(and if any of you are concerned about being in another country, if you win I will happily ship a print internationally)

Hi everyone!
In honor of the new year and in thanks to all you lovely people who follow my work and inspire me, I'm doing a print giveaway on my blog and twitter. Ends on Sunday the 30th!
It's simple-- comment on this post for a chance to win (you could tell me what I should draw this year, or not), and/or retweet my twitter announcement. My twitter name is kalidraws. If you do both the blog and twitter, you have double the chances of winning!
I'll be giving away these 4 glossy prints (2 for the blog, 2 for twitter):

BUT if I get a lot of responses, i'll give away even more, like these guys:

Sound good?? You have through Sunday to comment/tweet, and then I will randomly pick the winners and post their names on my blog next week so they can email me. PRINTS AWAY!!!

Foreeever Youngg

These illustrations are a bit overdue for posting, but back before Thanksgiving I was happy to have been contacted by Hemispheres magazine. They were looking for an illustration & title text ('Forever Young') for an article on their inflight movie-- "Ramona and Beezus", based on the book by the venerable Beverly Cleary. The article was going to be a Q&A with Beverly, so they wanted to include a portrait of her and the characters. Portraits aren't something I do too often, but I wanted to give it my best shot and try something a little different, technique-wise.


Now of course I've heard of Beverly Cleary, but I was probably one of the few little girls who preferred to pilfer my dad's Sci-Fi instead of read girly pre-teen books. So, I had to do some research on Beverly and her characters and I came away with a lot of respect for her dedication to writing humorous, relatable books for children and young adults (without preachy moral tones).



Thanks to my AD Ellie Clayman for the assignment, and thank YOU for stopping by.
(also, I haven't forgotten about a print giveaway--I'm waiting for my printshop to reopen on the 18th so I can get some goodies for y'all!)

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!