Winter

 This is a little study I did today, in my quest to get the perfect blend of water colors and digital "paint".

Things went a bit differently then usual because I am also experimenting with watercolor pencil. I painted with very minimal pencil marks at first... which is a rarity, I don't even remember the last time I water colored with out inking it first.

Above is with pencil lines over the traditional painting.

And last is my digital paint over the watercolor... I feel like I got a more traditional feel with the pencil lines and am happy with that... I just always wish I had more time to really finish these little projects.  Ohh well that is life.

Merry Christmas

and a happy New Year!

Sneak Peek

Again I have been really bad about updating my blog, and I don't even have the excuse of traveling this time so... I wanted to share these little details of a...

Scottish Terrier

and a....

Bubble Pipe

I will most likely post the rest of the image later in the month.

October

October was crazy busy, in a good way, I traveled (well traveling for me, which means Idaho and Iowa) I saw good friends and family, I did some secret art projects... but I did not blog.

I just wanted to share some of the art that happened last month

Above is a detail for the pioneer book I am working on.

And I did some traditional work again!  

Both watercolour images commissioned to be wall art, so I thought, without big revisions I might as well do them traditionally which was so fun! 

I finished this a while ago, you may recognize a detail of Aslan that I posted earlier but since I updated my website and put this on their I might as well post it hear as well. And speaking of Websites, I did update it so check it out www.kimberlistudio.com

Beorn

I am a self proclaimed Hobbit geek, so when I found out about a hobbit fan art contest, that is being judged by Alan Lee, I just had to do a piece to submit.

Native Americans

A WIP of some native americans.

Narnian Army part 1

  (WARNING: this post has spoilers in it for The Horse and His Boy) Below is  a drawing for The Horse and His Boy,  as I have mentioned before I almost did illustrations for this book for my BFA project but decided not to, so I am doing it now just for fun!  This is when Shasta sees the Narnian Army coming to help Archenland fight the Calormen Army.

 I have been experimenting with blending water color and Digital media and this will be the first full image (that isn't just a little study) that I am going to  try it on, below are details of the sketch and the  watercolor.

I will continue to post as I finish up this image and we will see how it all goes (cross your fingers.)

This is a sketch that I decided to color.

My friend over at Victorian Haus and I went "plein air" painting yesterday, this little study is the result.    It was good to accomplish some of my goals about painting from life, and I just have to keep telling myself that one day I will be able to paint a decent landscape, I am doing this to learn, but in the mean time I settle for these little studies.

Warm up

This is another warm up  I liked doing a warm up so much that I am going to try to do one every day, I hope it will help me with my character design. I get stuck with only a few different shapes that I use for nearly all my characters. I will post these warm ups but not on this blog I got a tumbler account so I will use that so you can check it out the link is http://kimberlistudio.tumblr.com/. I hope to keep up with these warm ups and post more finished art on this blog.

Walk like an Egyptian

This is a warm up I got a little bit carried away with, As always there are things that could be better like the negative spaces but it was fun, And no this has nothing to do with any of the projects I am working on, this senile Pharaoh just popped into my head so I painted him

This is a WIP I have been experimenting with using water color and digital media again. The top is a water color under painting and the bottom has digital. I miss the color variation  of the water color in the back ground, but I do like the texture I feel like my digital work is too plastic looking, so  If I can make this work it should fix that problem.

This is a WIP from a commission I have been working on.  This is the first YA novel I have worked on and it is FUN! I love being able to decide how the characters look and design the world they live in; I guess that is why I wanted to be an illustrator.   I don’t dare say too much, so I don’t give anything away from the book, but I just wanted to share this image.

P.S. I think the book will be out next February.

tradigital

Last week I posted a video on the upsides and downsides to digital and traditional art.  This week I spent a little bit of time on an experiment, It was to blend watercolors and digital.  I really love Watercolor and the beautiful water marks and spontaneous things that happen, but I can control digital “paint” better and get more detail, and better values digitally (plus when I mess up I don’t have to redo the entire painting.)  So I am trying to blend the two so I can have the best of both worlds. 

This is a detail from one of my BFA pieces, the first is the original the second I have worked on digitally.  I wish I had more time to play around with this technique but I like the look enough to continue to experiment with the watercolors and digital art

Digital and Traditional Media

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about the mediums I use.  All through College I used traditional mediums, I recently have been using digital media, there are up sides and down sides to both… but I am not really a writer so watch this short film by Emily Switzer with some of the worlds best illustrators talking about digital and traditional art.  

New Web Banner?

I need Feedback on this! I want to develop a Logo sort of thing (ok its not really a logo) to go on the top of my contracts, business card, mailers, website, and yes even this blog. Please leave a comment indicating which one you think is best (Text only, Brushes, Satyr!)

P.S. Don't worry I will do some editing to the image I go with.

This is a detail from another work in process. I have wanted to do Fan art for "The Horse and his Boy" for a while, I almost illustrated it for my BFA project... but I didn't. However I just couldn't get it out of my head so I decided illustrate it for a personal project.

I have been feeling the need to paint from life more.  Many well known artists do this often,  Nathan Fowkes, who is an amazing artist (you should follow his link and check out his blog) suggested doing a study from life every day.  I don't do a study a day but I am doing better, so I thought I would share this study I did of my back yard (I left out the fences.)

I have heard it said, that you are not a real artist until you have drawn a dead bird.  Well I have a soft spot for animals and  I find it sad when they die, so I don't think I will ever draw a dead bird. So I did a quick  study of Perceville the Pigeon (pictured above.)

Today I was working on my art when my mom commented that out cat was hunting a pigeon, then she screamed "ohh she got it it's hurt, go save it, go save it." so my brother and I ran out to save it... My brother risked scratches as he pulled the cat away from the pigeon  and I picked the pigeon up, he had suffered an injured wing. so we brought him inside, and are nursing him back to health. We named him Perceville, and hopefully he will recover soon! In the mean time he makes a very good model so you may see more study's of him.


P.S. does any one know how to take care of a pigeon?

I wanted to post a little sneak preview of some WIPs for the childrens book I am working on. I feel as though I am shaking hands with digital and I am having fun working on these illustrations!

This is a Logo thing that I was thinking of for my website, in the end I felt it didn't represent my art well enough but I like it any ways.

Sketches

Today I finished a sketch book. I always feel very accomplished when I finish one! I thought I would share some of the better sketches from my Sketch book.

So I finally got a scanner and so I decided to scan some of my prints from last fall.

This is the first page of  a Childrens book that I am working on about Pioneers. It has been a bit of a learing curve for me because it is digital but I am happy with it now, and I will keep my blog updated as I go!

ok so another post this is more from my BFA I really didn't like this piece but now after having a break from and touching it up I have decided to post it.

It has been a while since I have worked digitally, so here is a digital piece. I always struggle with digital because I like to zoom way in and noodle the piece to death. any ways here is my piece

this is a little image I did just for fun, because I recently fell in love with Bulldogs... they are just so ugly with their fat and pudge, and underbites, wrinkley skin that they are adorable!

Ok so I think this is the last piece that I will post from my BFA I did not scan it in right the first time so I had to photograph it, and now I can post it.

So... I finally have a website, I used Cargo which went relativly well. It is still not where I want it but I am horrible with computers so if any Web site/ Cargo gurus would like to give me pointers on how to achieve a better website (especially an opening page) I would love to hear them so just post a comment! Ok so with out further ado my website is www.kimberlistudio.com. Take a look!

This is a silly little post, but I have been doing some deep cleaning and I came across some drawings that I did when I was about 6 years old.

I guess I have always liked illustration this is jack and the Bean Stock

Fox

This is my favorite, I was about to throw it away until I noticed that it Said President George Bush (Senior).