The First Thing I Will Tell You Is: There's A Zine I'm Putting Out Called Damn Fine Coffee! A Twin Peaks

cartoon quickdraw

Cartoon Quickdraw is a fun and likely goofy journey into nostalgia in which you choose a classic cartoon character (video games too), draw them in a minute from memory and throw the drawings into a pile. The drawings are revealed, the best and worst are chosen and, in hard core versions of the game, the worst drawing gets tattooed in permanent marker on its artists' arm. Fortunately we didn't do that when we played last night or I would have a totally wrong Rocko-as-a-puppy, a doofy Megaman or a ridiculous Foot soldier (TMNT!) on my arm right now. Can you figure out the rest of the characters?

Good way to keep your doodling fresh, but more importantly just hilarious times (note backwards-hand Sonic).

Sebastian Mesnard kindly invited me to take part in Gallery Nucleus' upcoming show Edward Scissorhands 20th Anniversary Tribute, and above is a little preview of the piece I did for it.  I chose to illustrate the scene where Edward is rushed by the suburban housewives and all their ambrosia salads.  One of my favorite scenes among tons in this movie, which made it hard to choose!  It'd been years since I'd seen Edward Scissorhands so it was great to rewatch it, and I remembered just how lovely this movie is.  It stands the test of time pretty well too!  It's not as dated as you might expect it to be. 

If you want to see my full piece, check out the Scissorhands 20th blog.  There are so many great pieces by great artists in the show and it's absolutely worth a look!  Thanks again, Seb!

Gouache Process

There have been a lot of very kind responses to my gouache paintings recently, as well as a few requests for tips, and so I've decided to do up a little process post.  I'm very flattered, and a little intimidated!  So, please bear with me as I expose all my clumsy painting techniques.  I should say that though I was taught the basics of gouache painting and dry-brushing, I took those and sorta ran off with my own methods, and they may not be the best way of working!  Like any artist, I'm always adjusting my process.  No doubt my next painting will be created completely differently, but at this point, this is what I do:

So here are my gouache tubes, disposable palettes, and palette knife (and juice!).  I don't know if many people use a palette knife when mixing gouache, but I like to so that I can preserve my brushes just a little more.  I also save all my palettes throughout each piece, and I've found that I can reuse the gouache pretty easily even on these disposable ones so long as you're patient enough to scrape and break up the dried bits with your knife and water.  I've never liked using porcelain or ceramic plates for my palettes, even though they are easier for reusing your dried gouache, only because I run out of space too quickly when I'm mixing and I can't save my colors.

Starting from the beginning!  I always try to preserve as much of the energy of my sketches as I can when I pencil out my piece so I'll usually blow them up and light-table them.  Our light table has become a hugely valuable tool when I paint.  It's homemade!  I hate to pencil directly onto the nice paper I'll be painting on, so I'll usually work over the pencils on the light table, like so:

If you think about it digitally, I typically treat this part like it's all about laying in the flats.  I'm going to have a relatively dark background, so I'll paint that in last so my lighter colors don't pick it up and get all blotchy from the retouching that would have been required in that case.

I can't ever leave that light table on and step away! Doesn't that look scary with that jar of water, and the table a little askew, and my laptop right there..........? 

No harm done!  My cat is dainty, and I'm lucky. 

So I've gotten most of my girl painted in and I've already started dry-brushing on parts.  Usually most of that detail work I'll save till the end, but in some cases it helps to do it before hand.  For instance, layering her dress over the dry-brushing I did on her arm (as you can see in the last photo) helps keep things crisp.

Starting on the background, I'm using this as an opportunity to smooth her shape out a bit and clean up any wayward brushstrokes.

It's almost there!  Now I get to dry brush!  The absolute best part.  Plus! I can abandon the light table now and just go to town adding details and cleaning things up.  This is where I go back to my palettes and reuse a lot of my gouache.  I've made the mistake of mixing too little at the beginning and only realizing it at this step and that is no fun!  Gouache can be finicky with color matching, so I try to avoid remixing a color from scratch at this point because of that.  Also, different colors may dry darker or lighter than when they're wet, which may depend on the brand you're buying.  I use Winsor & Newton and Daler Rowney (cheaper!).  Some colors work better per brand in my experience.  For instance, I hate Daler Rowney's yellow ocher.  It always dries in the tube on me and has a weird semigloss, whereas Winsor & Newton's is great.  Conversely, I've found Winsor & Newton's turquoise blue to be super oily, like, oil with some blue in it.

Anyway, heading towards the finish...

There she is!  All done.  I've added my line work for the little firework sparks, and dry-brushing the light and shadow has carried it home.  I hope this has been neat and informative.  If you want to talk more gouache techniques or what not with me, feel free to ask!  Thanks again for all the encouragement, guys!

rad suspiria shirt! are there any more for sale? i just saw GOBLIN in philly myself, and was blown away. keep up the good work

thank you! Ugh, yes, Goblin was fantastic. They were all so psyched to be there too! SUCH a rad show. The Suspira (of course) and Deep Red themes gave me goosebumps. You can pick up a Suspiria shirt at Pizza Party's site here.

Thanks again! 

___

Oh my goodness! Overwhelming! Thanks for the support everyone <3 And holy moly, welcome, new followers!

(This was a piece I did for Ferocious Quarterly Issue 2 btw)

Illustration crush: Andrea Kalfas.

What are you thinking about, Log Lady?

So there you go. What'd I tell ya? (She'll be B&W in the zine, but I can never resist color on my own time.) This one's for you, cacophonyofcolour.

so thoughtful

The deadline for Bits in Multiples of 8: an 8bit-64-bit Video Game Fan Art Zine is TOMORROW!!!  If you’re stressed out about making the deadline, I’ve provided you with some soothing music to listen to while scrambling to get your work done. >:D

Porco and Fio and an extra friend

Hi Andrea, I was in Greg's Monday class this past semester and I found your Tumblr by chance. I didn't know you had graduated MICA already, I assumed you were still a student because you were Greg's TA. It's so cool that you've done illustrations for NY Times! How did you get such a big client like that? I guess I'm just kinda gushing now. I guess I'll leave this message by saying I really admire your work =]

Hey miss ma'am! Haha I'm...glad? you thought I was a student. But no, that youthful glow and non-jaded outlook on the bitterness of life left me when I graduated MICA....Counterpoint: did I mention how I think Sailor Moon is super fun? And did you see? Kali turned me into a sailor scout! wee!

Anyhow, I actually got contacted by the NY Times rather than the other way around, which was (is) a hugely exciting thing, but probably not to be relied on as a typical occurrence. My best recommendation is to do what I do too little of and promote yourself as much as you can. Be friendly, make contacts, and send your promos out to all the people you want to work with. But most importantly, just keep making work, even if it's just for you. Try not to get seduced by trends, always aim for making yourself proud, and put some soul into your work (by loving what you do)! You never know who'll notice you. 

Thanks so much, Shirley! Best of luck!!

a near-sighted potions master