La Scala Milan Illustration

Just when one book design was wrapping up, another project began. This time it's for a book about learning to love opera, penned by Louisville author, speaker, and expert on the arts, Thomson Smillie. What is especially exciting about this project is that he wants to sprinkle it with lots of fun illustrations by moi!

For the cover, we went with the striking facade of Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

I love how my new "sketchbook" illustration style (which is the only style I use now) allows me to be more impressionistic. There is no need to get caught up in the details which keeps the illustrations loose and fresh. Thomson said it best; "You don't need to draw every architectural detail of the facade for someone to recognize it as La Scala. Either you recognize it, or you don't!"

This project should be wrapping up by summer time, so hopefully I will have lots of opera-related illustrations to share with you.

Till next time,

cat

Cat Scott
Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator
www.CatScott.com

illustrations for enGrossed.me

Another thing that has kept me busy for the past several months is a full time gig I started in October at a competitive intelligence firm called Sedulo Group. I'm their Creative Director and oversee everything design and marketing related, like the website(s), tradeshow materials, newsletter, and even powerpoint presentations. They keep me pretty busy.

Our managing partner, Heath, started a blog called enGrossed.me to write about competitive intelligence for people who don't really understand what it is, like for example, ME four months ago.

When I first started building the articles, I looked at some stock images but quickly realized a few things:

• Stock images are super cheesy.
• The illustrations are way too expensive.
• It was impossible to find an image that conveyed the exact concept I wanted to illustrate.

I thought of one of my favorite sites about web design, A List Apart, and how they use a simple illustration for their articles. I thought, hey, I can do that! Heath loved the idea. Then I just needed a "style."

The goal was to do two posts a week, and these illustrations were in addition to my already ginormous pile of work, so I needed to be able to do these quickly and easily.

Here's the process:

First I do a very rough drawing. I never do a bunch of thumbnails, I just go with my gut on these. For this particular article about using competitive intelligence to see the future, PhotoBooth helped me pose for my own reference shot for the hand.

I scan the sketch and tweak it in photoshop.

I print out the tweaked sketch, throw it on my light box (My favorite two guesses as to what my old crappy lightbox is: a time machine, and an 8-track player.) I then trace the drawing onto Bristol paper using my brush pen.

I scan the brush drawing into Photoshop and then proceed to layer it up with multiplied layers of black tones, and then top it off with one darkened layer of color.

All in all, the entire process from concept and sketching to posting to the blog takes about 2 hours. And in the end, we think it's well worth it to have a fun, consistent image for each of the articles posted to the blog.

cat

Cat Scott
Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator
www.CatScott.com

When Time Ends: Book Design

One of the things that has kept me crazy busy over the past few months has been designing a book for my dad.

"When Time Ends places the biblical passages behind popular end-times books in their historical and literary contexts and concludes that the Bible's messages are quite different. Instead of postponing the kingdom of God to the future, voices of prophecy and apocalypse in the Bible encourage Christians to realize the kingdom on earth now through forgiveness, compassion, and reconciliation, persevering in their faith despite the overwhelming injustice and violence that surrounds them."

His book is available at Createspace and Amazon. He is also now blogging over at WhenTimeEnds.net (he's such an author!).

With all of the quotes, footnotes, multiple parts, chapters, section breaks, and bible passages, it became quite the style sheet smorgasbord. But my dad made it very easy for everything to fall into place and I'm really excited that his project is finished!

I'll update this post with mo' better images once I take some.

cat

Cat Scott
Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator
www.CatScott.com

Jane Radstrom

I haven't posted in a really long time, but I just had to share this. Jane Radstrom has been posting tons of her drawings lately, and this one blew my socks off. Loving the texture, the color, and of course the amazing technical rendering behind the whole thing.

Hope to post some stuff about ME soon, I know that's what you all want!

cheers,

cat

Cat Scott
Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator
www.CatScott.com

Beer in Progress...

It's Craft Beer Week here in Louisville, so when I popped into my neighborhood Valu Market for a few dinner items yesterday, I happened upon a BBC tasting event. It just so happened I was in need of a new beer for my beer series, so I snagged a tasty double IPA called Homewrecker. I started the painting tonight and hope to have it finished by next week.

Cat Scott - Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator

Louisville Painting

Louisville - 20" x 10" - Acrylic on Canvas
For Sale: $275, price includes shipping cost

Another half finished painting that I dusted off and finalized. After painting in oils for the Stella painting, it was strange to transition to the quick drying acrylics. But it was nice to not feel like like I was going to pass out while painting in my studio!

Cat Scott - Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator

Stella

Stella Artois - 18" x 18" - Oil on Canvas
For Sale: $350, price includes shipping cost

Finally finished a beer painting I started back in 2007, Stella Artois. I went through a Stella phase, but got over it when I realized IPA's are far tastier.

Read more over at the beer blog.

Cat Scott - Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator

New Cat Scott Logo

I created a new logo for my website and blog. Created in my "sketchbook" style on Bristol paper with my trusty Hi-Tec C pen and some acrylic + gac 100 drybrushing.

Cat Scott - Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator

Tuesday Coolsday - Wadia Newman

Every Most Tuesdays, I will feature a Louisville artist whose work I admire.

Wadia Newman - Architectural Artist

This weekend was the September Art Fair at theMellwood Art Center. It was my first time to this major creative mecca over in the Clifton area, which is surprising since (a) it's ridiculously close to me, and (b) they have a funky maze of studios, galleries, cafes, and boutiques that are open regardless of a special event. But it took an art fair to get me there for the first time.

Enough about me. This is about Miss Wadia Newman, a very talented draftswoman I happened upon at the fair. Wadia grew up in Louisville, studied architecture at Arizona State, and then worked as an architect in SoCal. Upon her return to Louisville (those who leave always come back!), she was thrilled to draw the ornate architectural details of historic landmarks all over the city. Her drawings are meticulous (in a good way) and truly highlight the beautiful intricacies of these fabulous structures. I have so many favorites of hers already, but only two fit in my little preview image, so I encourage you to get lost in her artwork.

I should also mention that she's as friendly as can be. But then again, who in Louisville isn't?

in progress

Working on a Stella painting that I started like 3 years ago. I hate not finishing things, so even though I've outgrown my Stella phase, the painting will be finished. An additional challenge is that it's in oil which I'm out of practice with. Hope to finish it this week!