The Space Mariner

Here's a little madlib for you, “The Illustrator’s Lament”:

No matter how many ( cool objects, people, or scenarios ) I draw, I will still be a ( self adjective ) ( self noun ) who will never ( fanciful action ).

For instance:

No matter how many tough lady space marines I draw, I will still be a cautious nerd who will never fire an interstellar harpoon.

This was just a piece I did for fun, out of my love of sci-fi and awesome ladies. I also used it for a quick Photoshop demo when I was a guest in Sam's advanced digital illustration class (which I will be teaching next semester!)

I used a lot of clipping masks in this for many of the textures. If you want to see how I do it, I made a walkthrough post on my tumblr about texture and clipping masks (albeit with a much simpler image). You can read it here!

My original sketch:

(although looking at it again, I kinda like its simplicity.....ah well!)

The Greatest of All Time

My portrait of Whitney Houston from the second Grantland Quarterly! My illo accompanies an article written by Chris Connelly about his recollections of the singer in her golden era. Thanks to AD Juliet Litman!
Juliet wanted a unique portrait of Whitney, and since the article was all about her domination of the music world, in my sketches I pictured her as some sort of divine presence or warrior queen.

Grantland only prints in B&W and one spot color, so I had to keep that in mind while planning and executing the piece, too. I definitely wanted a gold or yellow as my spot color--a golden bird entourage seemed fitting for a diva!

I had a lovely time watching & listening to a whole playlist of her music videos while working on the sketches and final-- she was a truly talented singer and will be missed.

Oh Brother, You're a Bother!

Since it was mother's day yesterday, it seems fitting to post this recent piece I did for the April/May AARP magazine!  Thanks to AD Joanna Foucheux! The article was about siblings who may not get along--even in their 50's. And although that doesn't have anything to do with how wonderful moms are, I did manage to slip in both my amazing grandmas into my faux-family tree!

The feuding siblings are also veeeery loosely based on my own parents--not because they fight, but because they make good models!
Everyone else in this happy magenta-haired family is made up, except for a cameo by my cat.

I formatted my sketches with the help of a previous page layout--the current page/title doesn't have anything to do with Embracing Embarrassment. :)

Joanna ended up going with the 2nd sketch, but requested that the siblings not be getting in a physical altercation and the rest of the family should just be looking forward like normal.

Thanks again to AARP, and a belated happy mother's day to all the moms out there!

Kali Eats!

So! Those of you following my art tumblr will already know this, but I've created a new themed tumblr called Kali Eats! I LOVE FOOD and I've been documenting my meals with illustrations & ingredient write-ups. Here's my illos to date--check out my tumblr to see the ingredients:

Lately I've been on a sandwich kick, but I'll be drawing other things too! Let me know if you have any suggestions! I try to post as often as I'm able, every other day if I can. Plus it was awesome to find out that Kali Eats was featured on Juxtapoz this week! Cheers!

The New York Times!

Woo! I reached a milestone in my freelance career, I got a piece into the New York Times! I was in yesterday's sunday business section, and it was extra-cool because Sam got a piece in the same section, on the same day! (plus a bunch of other illustrators I admire were in the Sunday edition too. Awesome!)
Big thanks to AD Minh Uong!

The article I illustrated was about how doing volunteer work after graduation can actually lead to new jobs and opportunities. You can read it online here!

Sketches:

Final:

Yay!