Karen K's Sketchblog

2012-01-25T23:26:00.000-08:00

A few sketches over the last two weeks...

Etsy Shop Open!

2011-10-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Finally opened an Etsy shop. Check it on out on the left side of the blog. More prints will be added over the next few days :)

APE 2011: Table 506

2011-09-28T22:18:00.001-07:00

Yup, another "eek! APE this weekend" post! Will have tons of prints, original art, sketchbooks, and more! :)

Trilobyte Love

2011-09-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

APE 2011

2011-09-25T21:54:00.001-07:00

Hey guys! I'll be at APE this year in San Francisco with my wonderful friend, Michelle Mauk :)

I'll have original art, new prints, necklaces, and other goodies :)

In the meantime, have a rabbit.

Sophie

2011-08-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

One of our buns: Sophie

Girls Drawing Girls Signing in San Francisco!

2011-08-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

https://www.facebook.com/girlsdrawingirls?ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=227930933917190

We'll be at Mission: Comics and Art from 4-7PM
Saturday, August 13, 2011

3520 20th St. Suite B, San Francisco, CA 94110

Looking forward to seeing you there!
-K

Wonderwoman and Bats

2011-07-25T23:18:00.000-07:00

I did this piece at Wondercon 2010 and suddenly, it's on the internet! Really happy the guy that picked this up scanned it in :)

Work and Birthdays

2011-07-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

So, the folks at Crowdstar are pretty awesome. I've been there for only a month and it's been great. So to celebrate birthdays, artists volunteer a few minutes here or there to do a drawing for folks. Here's one of the images I did for one of the gals at work :)

Girls Drawing Girls Volume 4: Lily of the Valley

2011-06-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

So being a part of the rad crew known as Girls Drawing Girls, I had the opportunity to do a piece. I'm a huge nut for the golden age of illustration, so I drew my inspiration from that. So here's Lily of the Valley. Hope ya like it!

New Portfolio!

2011-04-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

So I've decided that I can't code, and rather than spend hours figuring out how to set up more images on my website, I've settled into using Carbonmade :)

http://kayjkay.carbonmade.com/

Enjoy!

Getting practice in

2011-04-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Just a lil (seriously tiny) color comp for a side project I'm working on. :) My painting skills are super rusty.

More Flash stuff :)

2011-04-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

Some other flash designs from Island Paradise and Little Rock Pool.

The Little Engine that Could!

2011-04-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks back, the Little Engine that Could finally came out on DVD and in theaters! A few years back, I was honored to work with an amazing team on a pretty grueling schedule to get the visual development and character design on this done. Thankfully, I had two amazing bosses, Karen Keller and Carol Police that whipped me into shape :) I was credited as part of the visual development and character design team. Here are a few designs below.

Walking the Dog

2011-04-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

More Flash

2010-06-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Just a few animated items from Little Rock Pool and Island Paradise :)

All items herein are copyright Meteor Games LLC 2009-2010.

Flash Designing

2010-06-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

So, I finally had a few moments to put some pages together, here's two of many.

So Good it Hurts

2010-05-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

So, I started up a webcomic (the cool thing to do I guess...)

Updates Sundays, so the new strip is up today :)

New Sketchbook for Sale!

2010-04-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.stuartngbooks.com/newarrivals.html

Hey all you cats and kittens! Stuart NG is carrying my new sketchbook, Neon Tiger. Swing on by and pick up a copy before it goes extinct.

Ahhh the bad puns. I love it. If you can't grab one from Stuart, I'll be in Artist's Alley for the Rock'n Pasadena Comic Con later this month!

Knights of the Shroud

2010-03-07T19:54:00.001-08:00

One dear internet buddy of mine, Matt Bayne, does a pretty kickin webcomic called Knights of the Shroud. And well, I like me some fighting womens. I did a piece for him last year, but being unhappy with the results, I decided to redo it. It's funny what a year does to your perspective of things...

Birds birds birds

2010-03-01T21:26:00.001-08:00

Finally had a chance to finish this piece... and now off to bed!

Smores anyone?

2010-02-21T20:47:00.001-08:00

Just a lil fire imp enjoying delicious molten marshmellow. NOM!

Fly Me to the Moon

2010-02-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

Finally had a moment to breath and work on a piece for well, my guy.

Flash for Illustrations

2009-11-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

It's pretty cliche, lil Red and the Wolf, but I wanted to learn how to create illustrations via Flash CS4. CS4 seems a lot more crash prone than CS3 (Maybe it's actionscript3? No clue), but then, I've had more experience with Flash 4, 8, and CS4 than CS3.

Wonder Woman Day 2009

2009-10-14T21:04:00.001-07:00

My contribution for Wonder Woman Day 2009!

Star Wars Clone Wars Widevision

2009-10-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Just a few of my super illustrated cards...

Company Rejections

2009-09-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

It seems odd to talk about rejections, but they came up in a friend's blog. I had two very nice rejections in the past couple months. One from Cartoon Network, and the other from Pixar. Rejections don't have to be horrible. Quite often it's the person at the receiving end of the rejection that blows them out of proportion. So I'd like to take a moment to talk about them.

I'm really amazed at Cartoon Network's politeness. I was called up and told that they'd gone with another artist (usually the case as I'm rather green in the industry) but that they felt awful about throwing away my portfolio. I told them that I didn't mind, as I had moved, and picking it up wasn't much of an option at the moment. But they insisted.

"I don't like to throw out the good ones..."

I stopped for a moment. Did she say what I think she said? She did. The lady on the phone then persuaded me to hand over my current address and I thanked her for her time. You know, you can get a rejection, and yes, rejection sucks, but that gave me warm fuzzies. My folio arrived in the mail a few days later. So cheers Cartoon Network! You guys are awesome :)

Second was my rejection from Pixar. They had a story position open a few months ago, and I sent up my portfolio. Now, with large studios, sometimes you never get a call back. You never get an email or a letter. It's simply understood that not hearing back means you didn't get the job. That said, it was nice to hear from them, even if it was a simple email to say, "We're impressed but we got someone else."

Rejections are far from the end of the world, and sometimes, getting a rejection can also be a positive thing. It's always good to read inbetween the lines. I'm proud of my collection of rejection letters. It keeps me grounded.

Painter and Tyrus Wong

2009-08-30T16:18:00.001-07:00

So... fiddling around in Painter again. I'm really surprised by how nice their pastels are, they've become a fave for doodling with.

Two of my weak points are color and landscapes, so I did these studying Tyrus Wong's work from Bambi. His simplistic shapes and gorgeous pastels are just... to die for.

Tyrus Wong as a reference for color on this piece. It's just a color study... trying to figure out brushes and whatnot in Painter 11.

The Cuttlefish Kid at Patch Together

2009-08-27T22:14:00.003-07:00

Well, I put my first design up on Patch Together to see how it does.

You can vote here:
http://patchtogether.com/designs/designs/view/id/1495

With Patch Together, you need to vote a design into pre-production. From there, it needs fifty pre-orders to become an actual toy. Help a gal out? Vote? Thanks!

Girls Drawing Girls: SUMMER SHOW :D

2009-08-12T20:27:00.001-07:00

So this is a heads up to anyone in the Los Angeles area! You're invited to the Girls of Summer Art Show at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd! Not ONLY is this a fantastic store with a fantastic gallery, but there's delicious Thai food just across the street at Toi Thai!

Not doing anything Saturday, then you ought to be here. Free tea! Comics! Art! Hot and sexy pinups!

More info here!

San Diego Comic Con Schedule and SKETCHBOOK!

2009-07-21T15:08:00.001-07:00

Booth 2002: Blue Dream Studios
28 pages (includes blank sketch page)
100 copies, signed and numbered.
Small sketch in the back.
$10.00!

I will NOT be reprinting this book. I will be printing a new book, including some of these sketches within the next month or so.

See the rest of the photos for the book here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7147185@N02/sets/72157621767730038/

It's a gypsy thang

2009-07-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

Two weird gypsy designs... Not that I tire of animals, but trying to revive my very dead inking skills.

Dogs and Tigers

2009-07-10T22:10:00.001-07:00

Been drawing a lot of naked chicks and animals lately. Here's a few. Most new drawings are going in my sketchbook to sell. Info on that soon :)

Going to the Zoo...zoo zoo

2009-07-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Zoo drawing is my zen. It relaxes me, I enjoy the animals... I do not, however, enjoy the heat. And I managed to pick the one day out of the week where it was blazing hot!

Ah well. Blazing heat made for tired, sleepy animals which meant longer poses to draw from. These are from one of my favorite sections of the LA Zoo, the "geriatric" hoofstock area with springbok, pronghorns, gerenuk, and whatever else may be too tired to be in the exhibits.

Rain in June in California? What?

2009-06-03T20:05:00.001-07:00

Harvey James meme

2009-05-05T11:25:00.001-07:00

So Harvey James, fantastic artist that he is, asked folks to redesign his cat characters into chicks... so here's mine.

Big Cat Little Cat

2009-04-19T22:41:00.001-07:00

Art Dump!

2009-04-19T10:44:00.001-07:00

Wolves

2009-04-19T01:26:00.000-07:00

One of the most inspiring animal artists I know is Meheut. Good grief what gorgeous drawings. So this weekend, I actually drew for myself. I find drawing animals and landscapes much more satisfying than people sometimes.

Color Comp

2009-04-17T21:55:00.001-07:00

Work in Progress of a lil scene I started yesterday...

Today we had wolves on my old college campus. I am now exhausted. Work shifted us from orthographics to layout, so I've been helping out by painting trees, bushes, whatever needs to be done.

2009-03-31T23:09:00.000-07:00

Concepts from the Disney XD Avatar creator launched this February.

Ezra WIP

2009-03-30T15:29:00.001-07:00

2009-03-27T23:00:00.001-07:00

Stuff!

2009-03-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'm crap at updating.

2009-02-20T11:47:00.001-08:00

I've now added a link in Firefox to get me to update this thingamajig more often.

So here's an oldie, but I never uploaded it here. Ha. I'm going back to work on my storyboard portfolio, which has sadly been neglected. I think my old story teacher would hit me for letting it linger so long, but when you're working 12 hour days? Maybe not so much.

Disney's XD channel has gone live, and I had fun designing stuff for their avatar creator :)

I'll post more on that next time ;)

Animals!

2008-10-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

So my friends, being the fantastic friends that they are, are helping me with a "project". I've asked them for two things: an animal and a descriptor. Example: A lazy llama or a lethargic octopus.

It's just a lil exercise to stretch the drawing muscles :)

Here's a few: A twitterpated giraffe and a bloodthirsty
ostrich.

Cheers!
-Karen

Two days worth of sketches!

2008-06-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

Work's been hectic, and I did update my other journal but not here, so two for the price of one! Above is a little sketch I did for an artist on Deviantart that goes by the name Themrock. Dirk's a fantastic artist and a great person.

Above is an image from an artistic challenge from the SketchTavern. Taken from a stock photo. This was done purely for educational purposes. You can view the original image here: http://candiesforeveryone.deviantart.com/art/woman-seated-stock-43642545

Return of Sketch a Day!

2008-06-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to bring back Sketch a Day. So to start it off... Here's a lil Miyazaki loving...

Where DID I go anyway?

2008-06-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since I posted (nearly a year? Yeek!). Things have been busy.

I've graduated, I'm working as a concept designer for Made in Paradise. I've been doing character design jobs on the side, and sketch card art like what you see on the left there. Those would be licensed images from New Line Cinema and Topps, just to cover my legal bum.

I just wanted folks to know I'm alive, and they can find me if they need to by emailing me at: icefoxstudios@gmail.com

Cheers,
-Karen

Let's restart this hunk of junk!

2007-02-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

So classes are going well, with a very full semester full of drawing bones, animals, cute creatures, little girls, and various other strange oddities.

I figure I'll update this post with my old Valentine's day card...