How to Draw a Toucan!

Here's a step-by-step of a toucan I am working on, from my sketchbook, to an etching print. It will eventually be water colored.

TMNT Collaboration

It's a cowabunga collaboration! I was recently asked to collaborate on a coloring project by a good friend of mine, Drew Nunes. Drew is an incredible coloring artist, and chances are you have even seen his work in DC or Marvel comics, or even the work of many popular films and video games.

Drew is a close friend to me and fellow Jeb Kennedy members, Kyle Armstrong and John Spriggs, and he approached us with the idea of collaborating on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles piece with line art by his friend, Mike Bwn! The Ninja Turtles provided a fun way for the four of us to collaborate on one piece, together but separately.

Each of us chose a radical turtle dude to color, and went from there. It's really fun to see our different styles of coloring, all in one piece, ranging from water color to airbrush techniques.

P.S. For those of you who don't know, I am a big TMNT fan, so this was a lot of for me. (Look below the piece to see who colored what.)

Drew Nunes- Donatello

John Spriggs- Michelangelo

Kyle Armstrong- Raphael

Kyle Blair- Leonardo

Mike Bwn!- Original Pencil Drawing

Not Your Mother Goose's Three Little Pigs

A while back I had the idea to do my own spin on the classic tale of The Three Little Pigs. The idea started when I was sketching pigs for the album cover I did for Bear Suit Sucker Punch, and it swam around in my head for a while until I had some free time, and I finally got around to whipping something up.

I wanted to keep enough of the characteristics from the original story to keep it recognizable, but still make it all my own. Obviously the Three Little Pigs with the wording alone, ("The first little pig..." etc.), I also kept the building tools of each pig, (hay, sticks, bricks), as well as the wolf "blowing the house down".

Anyway, you get the point. It's basically the three little pigs with a few eyebrow raises thrown in.

Oh, and I also thought it would help them feel like a set if the lines of the story rhymed when read together. I have to give a shout out to Grace Flack of the Fruitful blog for helping me think of the word "fillet" to rhyme with "hay". Girl knows food, and words. Check out her blog!

I give you pigs:

Noah's Book Cover

I've been working on a book with a great author out of South Africa, and I just did some work on a cover. Thought this was a good example of how an idea starts small before it is finished. Sometimes I will do a number of tiny sketches before deciding to turn one into a finished product. Other times, I like the first sketch enough to just go with it, (though that probably isn't the best advice).

Off to the left side you can see the edge of another roughly sketched idea that I decided to pass on, (it involved a clock tower).

Listener Band Sticker

I was recently asked by the frontman of the band Listener, Dan Smith, to design a new sticker for their upcoming tour. The band has recently grown to three members, and he asked if I could do a spoof on the popular Pep Boys logo, with the faces resembling the three band members.

I met Dan a number of years ago, and love every chance I get to work with him. Listener has a new album, Time is a Machine, coming out very soon, so keep an eye out on this website for tour dates and release dates:

http://iamlistener.com/

This is a very talented group of guys.

P.S. Here is a recent photo tweeted by the Listener guys, of a one-color version of the sticker in use!

Knit Together Photography

Here's a recent logo I did for a couple in South Africa, Brent and Nicola, that are starting their own wedding photography business. I had the pleasure of becoming friends with Brent during my S'African trip last Summer. He let my friends and me crash at his place in Cape Town for a week, and was a better tour guide than we could have possibly asked for. He showed us one of the best weeks of our lives, and Cape Town and Brent have a special place in my heart.

Brent and Nicola are setting up a website for the business now, and from what I have seen of their photography, they are going to take the scene by storm.

Grey Bird Design

Here's a recent logo I made for a super cool friend of mine in South Africa. It was a nice time working on this logo. A fan of my work, he wanted to leave the design up to me. To get my inspiration flowing, he told me he was a big fan of traditional archery and printmaking, and I already knew that he was a fan of my hand lettering, specifically my "Thank Ya Kindly" design.

Combining the feel of the cursive-hand-written-script style of 'Thank Ya Kindly", printmaking, and archery, plus the name "Grey Bird Design", produced the logo below. Lots of fun.

I also wanted to provide a black and white version of the logo. This will come in handy any time he needs to print one-color, or make a water mark or engraving.

Here is sort of a primitive step-by-step process of how I came about drawing and designing the type for the logo. First step is a pencil sketch, second step is inking the type by hand, third is making a vector drawing of the type in Illustrator, and finally sprucing it up in Photoshop.

And finally, here is look into the process of making the wee bird:

The Softer Side of Jeb Kennedy

For the month of April, my illustration group, Jeb Kennedy, hosted a theme month dedicated to women. Exactly one month after the actual National Women's Month, we hoped we could squeak by without anyone noticing. It took about one day for someone to notice.

The idea was to stretch ourselves mostly. The four of us, (all being gentlemen), haven't spent as much time practicing drawing the female form as we'd like. So, hoping to boost our confidence with drawing women, and add some to our portfolios, we set off to do the unthinkable- draw ladies for a month.

The results were a lot of fun, and we were even privileged enough to receive some guest art from some very talented female illustrators. Lots of fun. I now feel almost experienced enough to actually hold a conversation with a real lady!

Below are my submissions for Ladies & Jebs. If you'd like to see all the lady art from the other guys, and the wonderful guest submissions, please check out the Jeb site at:

http://www.jebkennedy.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!



These first two nautical-themed illustrations were a lot of fun. I plan on adding to the series with at least a third piece taking place at night. If I'm feeling ambitious, I may do a fourth installment taking place at sunrise.

I'm very pleased with this entire whale illustration. One of those stellar times when the image in my head is perfectly translated through my hands an into an illustration. A really great feeling.

This mermaid illustration is the second in the ocean series. It was really fun playing with different color combinations to get the feeling of dusk. I also really enjoyed  drawing the different sea life in this series, and giving each sea creature it's own little personality. The idea is that the moon is a a little teaser of the planned third installment for the series.

When working with a retro/mid-century style, and drawing women, it is almost a requirement to draw a  pin-up-style lady riding a rocket or a bomb. I will also take any excuse to draw anything outer-space-themed. I thought maybe putting her side-saddle would by more lady-like. This paragraph as a lot of hyphenated words.

I really wanted to do a piece that broadened the definition of our "lady" theme, by doing a little lady. Once I made my mind up to doing an illustration of a little girl, it didn't take long to decide on Boo from my very favorite Pixar film, Monsters Inc. The relationship between Sulley and Boo is really fun to watch progress throughout the movie, and I really wanted to show how she can make this otherwise terrifying beast into an innocent playmate. This one was one of my most well-recieved illustrations in Ladies & Jebs, and super fun to make. It sorta just came together very naturally. (It was also a ton of fun to sneak in all of the hidden, Pixar-style, easter eggs into the illustration.)

Hope you enjoyed the lady art! I promise, from now on it will not take me being forced to add a female touch to my work now and then.

Bear Suit Sucker Punch Album Art

I recently did some album art for my good friends in the band, Bear Suit Sucker Punch, and their new single, "March of the Pigs". I've been friends with these guys a long time, and love their music. Plus, it was a good way to return the favor for their first-rate recording of "The 12 Days of Jebmas" last December.

Check out this link for a pay-what-you-want download of the single. If you like punk rock, you'll love BSSP. If you don't like punk rock, BSSP will hold your hand and show you the way.

http://bearsuitsuckerpunch.bandcamp.com/album/march-of-the-pigs-single

Here's the cover, and below is some behind-the-scenes bonus features: a little taste of the pig character, "Fance E. Pigg", by himself, as well as my first sketch of him.

Oink!

Bonus Features:

Thank You Cards Update

Here are some photos of the letterpressed version of the thank you card I designed recently for Natalie Slater. Natalie printed each card by hand at a printing press in Tulsa, and I'm pleased that they turned out so well. You can pick up a card at her gallery show, The Mother Road Revisited, in Tulsa, OK on April 5th. Otherwise, we will be making the cards available for purchase online somehow, after the show.

-Kyle
x o x o

Thank You Card Type

Recently, I was commissioned by Natalie Slater to design some hand lettering for a thank you card she plans on giving to those who have helped with her upcoming gallery show in April. We will also be selling the thank you cards at the show, so if you are in the area you can pick one up! I've talked a lot about Natalie's show, Mother Road Revisited, in previous posts, but if you are unfamiliar with the project, make sure to follow the link to the website for info. You can attend the show opening in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 5th!

Below is the type as it is now digitally, though for the actual final cards it will be letterpressed.

Behind the scenes special feature:

The 12 Days of Jebmas

Well it's almost January, and another Jebmas has came and went. As a quick recap, I am part of an illustrator collective called Jeb Kennedy that consists of three other illustrators and myself. Every year we count down from twelve days until Christmas with a little twist on the usual days themes with themes of our own in the annual 12 Days of Jebmas!

Last year, my days were day 3, (3 Swine a Surfing), 7, (7 Spewing Silkworms), and 11, (11 Bahum Bugs), and my fellow Jebs covered the other days, with three days each.

This year we all moved our days up one, leaving me with days 4, 8, and 12. I'm happy to look back on this new batch of Jebmas art and see how much we have all improved in our art. Jebmas was really fun this year, you guys.

Below are my Jebmas days, but if you'd like to check out the other nine days, please please visit the Jeb blog here.


Day 4:

Day 8:

Day 12:

ALSO, we were so very blessed to have some of our best pals from the band, Bear Suit Sucker Punch, record the 12 Days of Jebmas song. I had the idea of asking them to do it because I knew they're craziness was perfect for the job, but the end result was so much better than I even imagined. Recorded on a laptop in a bedroom, you can tell these guys just had fun with it and the spirit of Jebmas really shows through. Thanks again, Hans, Drew, and Tyler.

Below is a video of the song with the Jebmas art to go along with it. Also, BSSP is a really rad punk band that actually has original material that's non-Jeb related. It's sure to knock your socks off and slap you with them. Check them out here or here or here or here.

Route 66 Map

I am currently working on freelance projects for an upcoming gallery show in Tulsa by the photographer and printmaker, Natalie Slater. This past summer, Natalie travelled the old Route 66 from Illinois to California, in an old Shasta camper, with a bunch of old postcards and photographs from the 1930's-50's and reshot them from the same exact locations for her project, The Mother Road Revisited. And that's only the project in a nutshell.

The gallery show will contain the old and new photos, screen prints, hand-made memorabilia, and even more surprises. And I'm being vague on purpose, you guys. There will be more surprises, and it will be really rad.

That being said, there were a number of things for the show that needed illustratin', so she asked me. Along with some other hip illustrated additions to the show, (that I may share later), Natalie asked me to create a map of the route that could be displayed in the gallery.

Below are some photos of the nearly finished map. All in all it is an 8'x4' zoomed in crop of the map to focus on the states that route runs through. You may also notice, that the route is shown by an illuminated dotted line. The map still needs to be framed, and I think that is going to do a lot for the piece. It's so big, you guys!

Anyway, check out the links to learn more about Natalie and her project. There is so much more to it than I've covered in this post. And if you are in the area, or even if you aren't yet, come to the show in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 5th!

KB

Again, the links are:

http://natalieslater.com/

and

http://www.motherroadrevisited.com/home/about/

The Magic of Jebmas!

It's getting close to The Second Annual 12 Days of Jebmas over at Jeb Kennedy, where we count down the last 12 days before Christmas with an illustration every day. It starts on December 14th, so check it out!

This year we chose Kyle Armstrong to illustrate the announcement for the event, and he did a fantastic job! He showed the character of Jeb Kennedy in a fatherly way that we haven't seen before.

Anyway, Kyle A. asked me to do the typography for the illustration and I was so happy to do so. Below is the illustration from Kyle A. with my typography to accompany it. It was a ton of fun. I love it when the Kyle's collaborate.

Design & Thinking Poster

Recently I was given the opportunity to design and illustrate a poster for an event in Northwest Arkansas, put on by a group called Creatives United. CU brings together creative people and businesses from the area for regular meetings, seminars, events, and lots of other fun stuff. (Meetings and seminars sounds boring. Think more along the lines of snacks and prizes). This past week they had a showing of the new documentary, Design & Thinking. The event was held at the John Brown University campus.

I was asked by CU to create an illustrated event poster that attendees could leave with. After the showing of the documentary there was time for anyone to get their poster signed if they so desired. Illustrating the poster was a ton of fun, and being a member of CU myself, I was honored to be a part of the nights shenanigans.

Special thanks to Moxy Ox for printing the posters. They were awesome prints, you guys.

Free Wallpaper Patterns!

The holidays are soon approaching! So in the spirit of giving, here are some patterns I made that can be used for desktop wallpapers, twitter backgrounds, or whatever weird technology kids are into!

Simply save one of the below images to your favorite desktop or twitter page, or what have you. Then make sure and click the option to tile the background image. Then just let the magic of tile science finish the job.


Presto, you're work is done!

The first pattern, "Outer Spoofs", explores the incredible vastness of the limitless universe... and has some really neat space rockets.

Here's an example of what the pattern looks like on my desktop:

Pattern two, "Wet Whistles", celebrates hydration in a day and age where so many of us forget to moisturize our insides.

Here's an example of what this pattern looks like on my desktop:

Anyway, these puppies are tried and tested, so they should work out fine! Let me know if y'alls have issues though. Happy holidays, enjoy the pattern fun... use them as wrapping paper or something. ALSO, stay tuned to hear what we have planned for Christmas over at Jeb Kennedy! 

Cryptid Monsters Series

Here is the series of monster illustrations I made for Jeb Kennedy's "Month O' Monsters". I had a blast making these. I could draw monsters forever.

Month O' Monsters: Cryptid Type

We just finished our second annual Month O' Monsters at over at the Jeb Kennedy website. Looking over my series of monsters for the month, I'm happy with the turnout of my collection and also the monster illustrations of the other Jeb guys. Monsters are something we definitely all bond over, and we look forward to Month O' Monsters all year long.

This year I decided to do illustrations of "cryptid" monsters, which are also known as urban legend monsters. Basically they are monsters that are specific to an area that are believed to actually exist by some people. I've always been fascinated with "real" monsters, so this chosen theme got me really stoked about my  Month O' Monsters illustrations.

The requirements for the monsters I chose included: having a specific area of origin, being believed to exist by a large group of people, and recorded "eyewitness" accounts. Along with each illustration of the monsters, I wanted to include some hand drawn type that I felt fit with the monster, as well as a hand picked quote from an eyewitness report.

I will upload the actual illustrations of the monsters soon, but for now I'm just gonna start with some images of the hand type for each monster. I had a blast drawing and pairing a type for each monster.