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:

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.

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.

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! 

A Super Month

Last month at Jeb Kennedy, the four of us dedicated an entire month to art inspired by Nintendo. I have already uploaded the early stages of my King of Kong illustration and my Mario illustration, but I didn't want to upload any of the finished pieces on here until the month was finished. Now it is October and we are well into "Jeb Kennedy's Second Annual Month O' Monsters", so I think it's safe to share my Nintendo stuff on here.

"The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Parts 1& 2"

"Punch Out!! Great Tiger"

"Tecmo World Wrestling: El Tigre!"

"A Complicated Man"

Mario

New Website is Up!

You guys, my new website is finally up and running... There's a few things I'm still playing with, but I think it represents me pretty well so far. I also had a ton of help from friends when trying to make this thing, especially Joel Martinez, Natalie Slater, and Jon Beers, and photo credit to Tyson Banks. Much thanks to my homies.

Check out the site here: www.kyleblairart.com

"Pretty bird, pretty bird..."

Here's a little bird I made today, for my Twitter and new website that should be up in a week or so. Just a little bird.

Welcome

Hey you guys, this is my new blog that will soon be teamed-up with a new website. Don't worry, I will still be contributing to Jeb Kennedy, but this blog gives a little wiggle room for when I really want to deliver some gags and goofs. See ya around!

P.S. Here's a little teaser for the website I'm working on:

Kisses,

Kyle