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...

My second illustrated cookbook now available!

I've completed illustrations for another cookbook written by Melissa Fouch Machowski of M Delish Boutique, and it is now available for purchase!
One Dish Wonders is personable and enjoyable to read, and its smaller size and spiral binding gives it that old school/potluck-y feeling that I love. I think it would make a great gift, and Melissa has spice kits and other stuff available to package with it. 

I'm really proud of this one, and I hope you check it out. More info can be found at mdelishboutique.com. Below are a few screenshots from the book...

Another submission to Mark Mitchell's Guest Group Critiques

If you're an illustrator (working or aspiring) and you haven't heard about Mark Mitchell's Guest Group Critiques, I highly recommend checking it out: http://guestgroupcritiques.com/

This month's assignment/critique is with children's literary agent and artist's rep Nicole Tugeau of Tugeau2 Illustration. You can check out her assignment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QILCl_CU6Ow.

Nicole chose 15 of the approximately 50 submissions to critique on May 24th, and I'm very grateful that mine was one of them! Here's my submitted sketch below. Off to work on the final!

Illustration Friday, "Sparkle"

Time has been tight the past couple weeks, but I was able to re-purpose some collage elements and submit to this week's Illustration Friday challenge: Sparkle.

Art show at the local coffeehouse

Back in October, a friend in my town of Croton-on-Hudson suggested I show some of my watercolors at the local coffeehouse, The Black Cow.

With much gratitude, through the month of April, I am now having my first solo art exhibit since college. It feels pretty great. (:

First assignment with MATS Bootcamp 2016!

I enrolled in another year of Lilla Rogers' Make Art That Sells Bootcamp. Previous years' assignments have included creating art for a phone cover, illustrating an online editorial, and making a holiday plate/paper collection. I find that MATS Bootcamp is an exceptional way to try new materials and markets, and the class has really helped to develop my portfolio.

Lilla starts all of her course assignments with a "Mini." This is a just-for-fun exercise, which includes a little research of a given topic and a whole lot of no-pressure creating and experimenting. For this first month's assignment, our Mini was 1920s hairstyles. I found a ton of cool photos online, and I drew and drew. It was a surprisingly inspiring subject for me, and I found myself drawing more portraits in general that week. 

After one week with the Mini, we received our full assignment, which was to assemble our drawings and ideas into a faux cover for an adult coloring book. After drawing several faces, hairstyles and patterns, I went with this as my final submission....