Tuesday, April 22, 2008
FANTASTIC VOYAGES





Two more images in an ongoing series of Jules Verne-inspired artwork. These will both be available as large screenprints at this year's comic-con.

On the topic of fantastic voyages, I'll be taking off for London tomorrow to work on a project at Passion Pictures with Pete Candeland and Jamie Hewlett for a couple of weeks. It's an incredibly exciting opportunity, and luckily this trip is coming at the end of one of the most frustrating weeks I have had in my life. Elizabeth will be coming to visit me in the UK for a week, and I'm hoping it will be a good chance for us both to escape from some of the Hollywood nonsense we have found ourselves mixed up in as of late, and enjoy ourselves for a bit across the Atlantic.

I'll be back mid-May with lots of photos and fun stories to report. In the meantime, if anyone reading this is in the London area and would like to hang out while I'm there please send me an e-mail. Cheers!

 POSTED BY: kevin at 06:46:29 PM - 9 COMMENTS   



Wednesday, March 26, 2008
SCRAPS



A lot of times I get ideas for illustrations that don't exactly fit into any of the projects I'm currently working on, so I try to draw them out as quick thumbnails. That way the idea can stay in the back of my head and eventually it might fit itself into one of my projects, instead of just disappearing into the endless void of unfinished drawings in my head. The thumbnails above are examples of some of those rough ideas which I would someday like to finish in the right context.



The drawing above is a quick warmup sketch I did based on some photo reference of Sophia Loren. I've been experimenting with some new brushes and techniques in Photoshop in an attempt to make my paintings look more like classic 1960's magazine illustrations.

In case any of you are wondering why I'm only posting crummy thumbnails and unfinished drawings, and also why I update my blog so infrequently, the answer is that I've been working on loads of cool new stuff but I can't show any of it right now. Since November I've been doing background designs and beat boards for Cartoon Network Europe. They're making one of the coolest cartoons I've ever seen and I hope it makes it to the air so you can all see it too. I've also done some new t-shirt designs for Gama-Go for their Fall lineup, character designs for Laika on another secret project, and I'm working with Elizabeth to develop a show at Disney. Besides that I'm creating a bunch of new poster illustrations for a secret project which I'm not quite ready to talk about yet... but you will hear more in the coming months, and there will be lots of new prints at Comic-Con!

And finally - Elizabeth just opened a new store and a website! Go check them out!

Kikutowne Store

Kikutowne Website


 POSTED BY: kevin at 11:25:15 AM - 1 COMMENTS   



Monday, February 25, 2008
GAMA-GO



These are two t-shirt designs I did for Gama-Go a couple of months ago which are now available for sale. Click here to go to their store!

Also here's a page of early sketches I did in a completely different vein before being asked to do the designs above.



 POSTED BY: kevin at 11:11:46 PM - 14 COMMENTS   



Wednesday, January 02, 2008
THE NATURE OF WATER



This is an acrylic painting I did for the Nature of Water exhibition at Nucleus. I'll be at the opening this Saturday night if you want to stop by! Here's all the deets:

The Nature of Water @ Gallery Nucleus
Opening Reception January 5, 2008 (7 - 11 PM)
30 West Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
626.458.7482


UPDATE: Prints available here.

 POSTED BY: kevin at 12:52:04 PM - 10 COMMENTS   



Friday, December 07, 2007
WAITING ON PLATFORM 3



A little winter-inspired image I drew for my talented girlfriend, Elizabeth. Print available at Fleet Street Scandal.

Happy Holidays!

 POSTED BY: kevin at 04:55:18 PM - 13 COMMENTS   



Thursday, October 04, 2007
SIR NIGEL CREATURE, ESQ.



Here's a little painting I did with acrylic and watercolor for "The Classic Monster Exposition" show. The theme was portraits of classic Universal monsters. If you're in the LA area you should stop by this Saturday for the opening! Elizabeth Ito also did two great pieces for the show. Here are the details:

Opening Reception
Saturday, October 6th 7pm-10pm

Chango Coffee House & Gallery
1559 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90026


Here's the initial pencil rough I did and the final cleaned up sketch I made in Photoshop.



 POSTED BY: kevin at 09:34:42 AM - 5 COMMENTS   



Tuesday, September 25, 2007
PAINTING STYLE

It's been a little while since I checked in here, and I wanted to write a bit about some things I've been working on. The Pixar internship was really great, and I feel like I took away some things that have completely changed the way I work and think about art - not so much about how to draw better, but how to organize my thoughts and get things done.



I've been spending my time since the internship tackling assorted freelance, working on an upcoming Fleet Street project, and enjoying being back in Southern California. While doing development work on my personal project, I've been thinking about the different ways I like to draw - sometimes more painterly, sometimes more graphic. I usually feel that I go too far when I start painting things, and they lose the original graphic feel I wanted. Yesterday I did the drawing above as an experiment to see if I could capture the textural quality of painting I wanted without losing the simple shapes of my design, and I think I got closer than I have with most of my illustrations.



This is a quick doodle I did tonight in a more graphic style while thinking about another project in the pipeline.

 POSTED BY: kevin at 08:28:24 PM - 7 COMMENTS   



Thursday, August 16, 2007
HANSEL & GRETEL: PART III



UPDATE: We're down to the wire, but I made a couple changes to the layout of the poster and I'm a lot happier with it now! Hope you all like it too.

This didn't really turn out how I wanted, but we only have a week left and I'm not sure I'll have time to fix it! Here is my color script too.



 POSTED BY: kevin at 12:15:00 PM - 13 COMMENTS   



Wednesday, August 08, 2007
COMIC-CON REPORT

Here are some photos from our trip to San Diego!



It was quite an adventure this year. It was great fun hanging out with our friends and seeing all of the great artists at the convention. Thanks to everybody who stopped by our booth to chat and check out our prints. I came away with lots of inspirations and ideas for what I'd like to do in the next year. One thing I'd like to do is make more screenprints. I think it's a really exciting medium to work with.

In other news, I got a little painting ready for the Ninja Show at Nucleus. Elizabeth helped me immensely with this over the weekend, and was very patient when instructing me in how to use the paint. The final piece is done with acrylic and is 9"x12". I thought it would be fun to show some of my preliminary sketches too, since I hardly ever show my process on here.





I want to do a lot more tradional painting in the future. It's really fun and liberating, because I think I've become a little too dependent on the computer.

 POSTED BY: kevin at 01:24:10 AM - 9 COMMENTS   



Friday, July 20, 2007
HANSEL & GRETEL: PART II

Last week was focused on set design, so I did some rough thumbnails of the planet on which Hansel and Gretel are banished, and some model packs for the witch's palace and the home spaceship.





Next week is comic-con and I can't wait! Chris and I are going to be at table E4 selling our book, lots of old prints, and lots of new prints including these two Jules Verne-themed screenprints that I designed.





I really hope you all will have have a chance to come down to San Diego and say hi and check out our prints! See you there!

 POSTED BY: kevin at 05:14:19 PM - 9 COMMENTS