King of the Savanna

I've been doing so much experimentation with watercolors lately. As we all know (yes, internet, you should know this by now) I am a big fan of large felines (i.e. lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, etc.). My favorite Disney movie of all time is The Lion King, after all. It would not be a lie if I told you that The Lion King was the film that got me deeply interested in animation and art at the ripe age of 6.

As a sidenote, I was afraid of the dark when I was wee. So much so, that I was too afraid to go to the movies because once it began.. uh.. THEY DIMMED THE LIGHTS. Despite this, I begged my Dad to see The Lion King. It was the movie to end all movies in my little mind, and still is. Of course we went, and as the theater lights dimmed I went into semi-panic mode. The dark was coming. This was it. The end of my life. Goodbye cruel world. I had already written my will. To my best friend, my stuffed animals. To my parents, everything else, because you own it anyway. My Dad assured me all was well. But no. It was not okay. Couldn't he see that it was GETTING DARK?

Suddenly, "NAAAANTS INGONYAMAAAA BAGITHI BABAAAAA!" boomed magnificently through the speakers, the African sunrise appeared before my eyes, and I was spellbound. From that moment on, I would not fear the darkness. As my Dad explains it, my jaw dropped and my eyes took the shape of the full moon. Something like this: O________O

So yeah, I painted a lion. The painting was unrelated to The Lion King, but it reminded me of my artistic muse. Here are some progress images, and the final result. Behold, "King of the Savanna".

In Progress

Voilà

To purchase this as a print and see more of my work, visit https://www.etsy.com/shop/WildfoxStudios

Welcome to the Land of Ooo

Since Christmas is over I can finally share this! I have been working on a surprise piece for my boyfriend as a Christmas gift, so naturally it was top secret until he got to peeps it first. We are both huge fans of the animated series Adventure Time, which airs on Cartoon Network. I thought it would be fun to Adventure Time-ify us and our animal companions.

This was my first experience in Illustrator using the Blob Brush tool. It's the tool I've been begging the Adobe Gods to create for several years now. Imagine the pen tool, but way more organic and natural feeling to use. I'm used to sketching and painting most of my lines, and while the pen tool gave me crisp and clean line work, it just felt clunky and mechanical to me. Needless to say, I will be experimenting a lot more with this in the future.

Tiger Sketch

An update, hoorah! As of late, the Holidays have consumed my life. For the past week or ten I have been trying to get my shopping, wrapping, and artwork done. Other than a recently launched Etsy shop (next post!), I have been enjoying my time with family and friends. Today is the first day I've had some down time. As a result, here is a tiger doodle.

As a side-note, I saw Frozen this past week. Months ago I saw some concept sketches involving Sven the Reindeer and Elsa/Anna. I was pretty pumped, but the marketing for the dilm eventually turned me off. After hearing only good things about Frozen, I finally had to opportunity to go, and I'm so glad I did! I LOVED IT! I will be seeking out the art book as soon as possible.

To Where the Wild Things Are

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Maurice Sendak's beloved children's storybook Where the Wild Things Are. I've loved this book for a long time, and perhaps my love for it has only grown over the years. The monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are" serve as an embodiment of the imagination. For me, it's a visual reminder to the magical worlds I created in my own home while growing up. I made my own dinosaur costumes out of printer paper and crayons, exploring the vast wilderness of my hastily constructed blanket forts from the comfort of my own living room. He was a boy in a wolf suit, King of the Wild Things. I was a girl in a paper T-Rex suit, Queen of the Three House Cats and a Lab/Rottweiler Mix. (Coming to a child's bookshelf near you, Spring 2015)

This book has been analyzed in many different ways, and it's no secret that Sendak had dark overtones in many of his books. On a simpler level, Max is just a wild little boy with a vivid imagination. Perhaps he'll grow up to write his own books. Maybe he'll be an inventor or a storyboard artist. (Or some sort of terrifying masochist, but hey, who's to say?!) Imagination is a powerful thing, and I think Sendak himself sums it up quite nicely:

“Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.” ― Maurice Sendak

Monsters!

Shhhh... don't tell. I love monsters. Here are some monsters from my brain.

Pen & Watercolor

Here's a couple experimental pen and watercolor pieces. Definitely will be doing more of these, fun stuff!

Cat & Dog Sketches

Squash and Ollie

I met up with a friend in Saint Louis this weekend. She happens to be a fellow artist, so from time to time we draw things for one another. She ALSO happens to be a fellow self-proclaimed cat lady, so I did a quick watercolor painting of her cats, Squash and Ollie.

Mustachioed Cat Magnets

Whenever I can fit it into my schedule, I volunteer as a photographer at The Vanderburgh Humane Society, photographing everything from dwarf hamsters, to cats and dogs, to major events.

In our community, summers are are a particularly crazy time for the cat population. I spend a lot of my time photographing kittens and cats, many of which I see waiting for their forever homes weeks on end. These are all perfectly good-natured, healthy adoptable cats, but many never find a home.

This breaks my heart. If I could, I'd take them all home. The reality is that I can't or else I'd truly hit crazy cat lady status. I do my best to help get the word out that there are some amazing animals at the VHS waiting for adoption.

Throughout my time at VHS, I've accumulated a large library of animal photographs. One afternoon, I decided to make a few of these into magnets. Obviously my first thought was, "Oh, yeah, better add a mustache to all of these cats!" And thus, cat mustache magnets were born.

I chose a few images that clearly displayed a cat's face and took them into photoshop. There I converted them to black and white to help make the mustaches really POP. I added in the mustaches, sized each head to be a little smaller than one inch and printed out a sheet for cutting. I picked up some crafting glue, magnets, and a 1" round paper cutter at Michael's. I found the glass bits at both Michael's and the Dollar Tree.

My fridge is no stranger to odd and interesting magnets, (I collect them from National Parks, magnets from favorite shows like Adventure Time, dinosaur magnets, bad pun magnets, etc.) but now I have thousands of mustachioed cat faces staring back at me whenever I go to grab myself a snack. Soon, you can too.

Available on Etsy soon (http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/KeriDuckworth)

Digital Portrait

Earlier this year I was asked to do a digital portrait as an anniversary gift for a best friend's parents. I was given a photo reference, and after several hours in photoshop, this was the result. I was excited to have the opportunity to recall my days of figure drawing and work on a realism piece, as typically I draw things a bit more on the whimsical side. You know, like cats with mustaches.