Creating my illustration portfolio

Yesterday I took the train to Manhattan to meet with Carmine at Graphic Lab about printing my portfolio. When I arrived, he'd already printed one of my illustrations on two types of sample papers, which was extremely helpful, and we discussed the binding options. Because this is my first printed illustration portfolio, and I'm just not sure about the order of pages yet (or which images to keep/ditch), we decided to go with a screw post binding and a scored, heavyweight paper.

Below is a sample print, which I thought turned out pretty great. I'll post more once it's all completed.

An early sequence

As I'd mentioned in yesterday's post, I am putting my first illustration portfolio together for the upcoming SCBWI conference, and I've been looking through my initial illustration work. 

I found this piece that I created one Sunday morning in 2012. I'd just recently started to work with cut paper and collage, and I had a leftover square. I challenged myself to create a little story with it. This is what I came up with...

Early illustrations from my first illustration course

I've been putting my portfolio together for the upcoming SCBWI Conference in NYC in February, so I've been looking through a lot of old files and thinking about what kind of work I want to make in the future.

When I began my first illustration class in 2012, I hadn't painted since college (see this post for a little background), and I almost never drew anything by hand anymore. Carrying a sketchbook around was in the past for me, and almost everything I'd created in the previous decade was done on the computer. Although I really wanted to make art with my hands again, it felt uncomfortable and scared me. So I chose to work in Adobe Illustrator and got started.

Per Mark Mitchell's instruction, since I didn't have a story in mind, I went with a simple song to illustrate, Mary Had a Little Lamb. I started with a rough storyboard that I sketched using the pencil tool in Illustrator. Instead of Mary living in the country, I felt she should live in a Brooklyn-style city. I wanted the lamb's attempt to follow her to seem somewhat vast and overwhelming, and I wanted them to be happily reunited on a city street shortly thereafter. Below are some of my beginning illustrations:

Happy Holidays!

We just returned from an incredible week in Florida with my in-laws, and I made this little collage on the plane ride home.

With tremendous gratitude to all of you, I wish you a very happy holiday!

xo,
Kendra

Random bird watercolor post

Lately, when I'm having difficulty getting into an assignment, I pick up a brush and loosely watercolor. I find it helps me feel productive, and the lazy brush strokes somehow free me to move forward.

I straightened up my studio space yesterday, and I found these warm-up sketches from last week. This blue one below is my favorite.

Happy Thanksgiving! And my last MATS assignment

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Shawn, Archer and I have the great fortune of having several family members stay with us in Croton-on-Hudson this holiday, and it has been more fun than we'd even hoped. 

Before our guests arrived, I submitted my final assignment for Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells online course (Part B). For this last week, we focused on the Party Paper market (plates, napkins, cups, etc.), and our theme was flora.

The mini assignment was given to us on Monday, which was to gather and draw/paint flowers, leaves and anything that is currently growing in our region. On Wednesday, we received our actual assignment: use the art from our minis to design a plate and napkin for a party.

I spent most of the week creating watercolor and ink drawings of the dried leaves and plants I'd collected on my walks, but I kept thinking about the winter-ready holly bush right outside my window. It's so green and alive amongst the other bare bushes and trees, and birds stop by to eat the bright berries all day long while I work. The holly is festive, and with the guests' impending arrival, I imagined a wintry holiday party. The prickly shape of the leaves lent themselves to collage, and in the end, I went with this presentation below.

Below are some of the watercolor sketches from my mini assignment:

This was probably my favorite assignment in MATS B. Although none of Lilla's assignments are easy for me, I felt most at ease with the subject matter. It was a great way to end the course, and I look forward to her next class, MATS Bootcamp, which starts in January.

As always, your comments are welcome. I hope you're all having a tremendous Thanksgiving weekend!

Holiday Promo Card

I really want to send out promotional postcards this holiday season, so I took advantage of Moo.com's latest sale.

Below is a potential front (my name will be on the back). What do you think?