Back to "When in doubt..."

In 2013, when I first started illustrating, I wrote a post titled, "When in doubt, cut it out," which emphasized how helpful cutting paper can be for shaping my characters. Since cleaning up my studio space a couple weeks ago, another perk for paper scraps would be free, no-pressure experimenting.

Although the difficult-to-cut corners, accidentally-torn details, and bends and warps of the paper can frustrate the heck out of me, these same problems liberate me. I've been treating it as a big Who Cares exercise. And, as the composition is whisked away by my cat jumping on my desk, I feel unattached and able to try something else.

Missing Milla

Last night, I had a dream that I found my beloved cat, Milla, at my friend Jenny's apartment. I was totally confused as to why she was there, but so thrilled to see her. I told her all about our new cat, Leo, and how much her buddy Tyco was going to freak out with glee when he saw her. All the while, I could not figure out why in the heck I'd left her at Jenny's in the first place.

As I was packing her up to leave, however, I realized I was dreaming. My dream self told me that Milla was not at Jenny's and would not be coming home. That she'd passed away two years ago.

When I woke up, I wanted to feel grateful that I was able to hold and pet her all night (even if it wasn't real), but it's not enough. Man, I miss her.

The A. Eric Arctander Grant

This weekend, I accepted a grant from the Putnam Arts Council, in the name of the late artist A. Eric Arctander. Aside from his beautiful "About" story that you can read here, I knew very little about him when I walked in to the event on Saturday. As I walked around the room, shaking hands and asking questions, I heard various stories about him from people with shining eyes. He was clearly highly revered. It was wonderful. And a tremendous honor.

Eric, I've since read more about you (like this... love!), and I'm sorry that I didn't know you before. Thank you for providing me with this scholarship, and I hope to be as inspiring and encouraging of an artist — and person — that you have obviously been to so many others.

Accepting the A. Eric Arctander Grant.
Presented by his beautiful wife, Dell Jones, and the Putnam Arts Council

Illustration Friday, "Ice"

I waffled over this composition, about how magical to make it. My husband felt the horns were too much... yeah, ditch the ears too... So I submitted both for this week's Illustration Friday challenge, Ice.

Back to Illustration Friday & drawing with one long line

A few weeks ago, my 8 year old son asked why I only submit collaged work to Illustration Friday — why don't I submit drawings? I'm not 100% sure of my answer for this yet, but I did decide to draw for that week's challenge, which was "Nest."

I went with one of my favorite styles to work in right now, an all-one-line/not-lifting-my-pen drawing. I then cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop and added a subtle blue tone in Illustrator...

Illustration Friday, "Nose"

For this week's Illustration Friday's challenge, "Nose," I used my watercolor paintings as my collage material. It was my first time doing so, and I really liked incorporating both of my techniques into one. I definitely plan to explore this further.

I call this piece Portrait of a Woman with Flowers.

MATS Bootcamp and The Hierophant

MATS Bootcamp for May was really fun for me.

First, Lilla assigned us the "mini" assignment which had us looking at medieval styles in both art and lettering. I found this super cool site in my search: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/, and I drew extensively. (You can check out some of my drawings on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/kendrasred/)

The final assignment was to create a tarot card that correlates with our birthday. I'm a Taurus, and my card was The Hierophant. Again, I drew a lot, and then began a collage. This was my final submission...