Monthly Archives: August 2014

Week 2: Draw 21 Days Challenge

Week 2 of illustrative designer Von Glitschka’s  21 day drawing challenge was full of variety.  Day 6 was to complete a drawing in a Picasso-esue abstract style. As usual we could pick from a few subjects to draw–I decided to draw a snake in a tree.

Day 6: Abstract drawing.

Day 6: Abstract drawing.

Day 7 was my favorite “draw what you like.” Yeah! So I drew a kooky face with some Smash H2O paint markers. The more I use the Smash H2O the more I like them. I even had to place an order for more because I got carried away after the day 7 exercise.

Day 7: Smash Face

Day 7: Smash Face

Days 8 and 9 were a bit more textbook art class. On day 8 we did a light and shadow exercise with a reference sheet of faces and light sources to fill in. I decided to have some fun with this one and use some of the light directions to make Fred Flinstone’s five o’clock shadow and a flashlight to illuminate Pete Lorre’s face.

Day 8: Light and Shadow

Day 8: Light and shadow.

Day 9 we received another reference sheet of possible subject matter and were asked to render two of the objects in a mechanical way or whatever is “mechanical” to us. I took the opportunity to combine the headphones and coffee machine with my character Jazz Katt, he’s usually the tea drinking sort, but after that trip to France he caught to espresso bug.

Day 9: Mechanical drawing.

Day 9: Mechanical drawing.

Day 10 was a full page doodle. This one was fun and very challenging. I really admire the people who can do those full page doodles that flow very easily from one drawing to another. I didn’t mean for flying saucers to attack my Ya-Ya cat, but I wanted to give a nod to that ultimate graffiti artist/doodler Keith Haring. It’s not too late to get in on the drawing action just go to lynda.com and join the fun!

Day 10: Full page doodle.

Day 10: Full page doodle.

Simply Smashing!

Day 7 of the 21-Day Drawing Challenge was my favorite so far. The theme was “draw what you like” so I drew a kooky face with some Smash H2O mops and a little Posca marker for detail. After I scanned and uploaded my day 7 drawing I kept sketching with the Smash mops till around midnight! This morning some of the mops are sounding kind of empty–time to re-order. I hope Smash is listening and adds some new colors (metallics would be sweet) and a smaller felt nib for a sketch mop. The more I use the mops, the more I like them. Looking forward to another frenzied sketching session with my Smash mops.

Day 7: Smash Face

Day 7: Smash Face

Week 1: Draw 21 Days Challenge

Illustrative designer Von Glitschka threw down the graphite gauntlet with his 21 day drawing challenge. The first day was easy peasy–draw a cat–done!

Day 1: Draw a cat.

Day 1: Draw a cat.

Day 2 was a bit more complicated. The challenge was to draw continuous line drawings of five specific things: a smiling face, a hand holding a soda bottle, a dog running and a man on a unicycle. I liked the continuous line challenge because it makes you think about how to “design” your drawing in order to not lift your pen off the paper.

Day 2: Continuous line drawings.

Day 2: Continuous line drawings.

Day 3 was a fun drawing exercise called “draw what you see.” Participants downloaded a page of squiggles and were instructed to draw what they see, much like the way we “see” shapes when we looks at clouds.

Day 3: Draw what you see.

Day 3: Draw what you see.

Day 4 was draw your non-dominant hand in 5 different styles (this was a tough one for me), and on Day 5 we were asked to pick from a list of subject matter; I chose Bigfoot. As I kept drawing bigfoot I realized I needed something other than just big feet so I gave him Kiss style boots.

Day 4: Hands.

Day 4: Hands.

Day 5: Bigfoot.

Day 5: Bigfoot.

Week 2 is off and running with new challenges from Von Glitschka. You can check out the Vonster’s website: Glitschka Studios or follow him on twitter: @vonster.

Work in Progress: Interview Magazine Doodle-Bomb

Yesterday I started a new magazine doodle-bomb and I thought it would be fun to post “in progress” pictures. I’ve always been fascinated by the creative process and how ideas take shape.

Demure cover model transformed  into Tiger Girl!

Demure cover model transformed into Tiger Girl!

So far the cover model is covered in my signature “kattsy stripes.” I played around with some clear acetate overlay to think out some background ideas but because of the glare I didn’t photograph the magazine with the acetate overlay, but I’m thinking of continuing the animal print theme with the background.

Putting Markers to the Test

It’s no secret that I love Posca markers and how opaque they are, which makes them great for working on canvas or doodling. Today I am putting many different paint markers to the test on one magazine cover. If it’s opacity you are seeking, Posca, Zig, Molotow and Marvy Bistro clearly have the edge—just see for yourself how the colors pop over Angelina’s dress! And a black Sharpie (the three stripes on her cheek) is always a fine choice for doodling on a light colored surface.

What surprised me in this test case was how poorly Montana paint markers performed. I had to keep priming the marker continuously as I wrote its name out. It appears that Montana paint markers are in the same class as Liquitex and not meant to be opaque. I filled an empty marker with a mix of two different Golden Hi Flow paints which  did very poorly, too (see the purple-pink color outline on Iron Man). I had high hopes for the Golden Hi Flow paints and am disappointed in how they performed.

Various paint markers on EW cover.

Various paint markers on EW cover.

I didn’t expect outstanding results from all of the markers, but I wanted to test many brands on one cover, especially the brands I have written about in previous posts. Admittedly the paper for the magazine is just your average cover stock—not as glossy or thick as many fashion/lifestyle magazines. However, heavily varnished paper can present a whole new set of problems even for Posca markers. To draw on the ID magazine I turned to a Sharpie for the black and still used Posca for the other colors, but I found I had to pump the marker a lot and create a large thick pool of color to make it work.

ID Magazine muse

Heavily vanished cover paper on ID.

Luckily for all of us, the inside pages of a magazine are generally very easy to doodle on with just about any marker, pen or pencil you have handy. So why not carry a magazine and some markers with you; it’ll be like having your very own sketch or coloring  book.