Jemaine Clement

I completed the second celebrity portrait in my sketchbook style portrait series. Since the first sketch was of Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, it was only appropriate to draw Jemaine Clement, the 2nd in the duo.

I'm really excited about this style. I think it suits my personality - I get to do some tedious detail work, but then get spontaneous and messy with the painting. Plus I dig how it looks. I recently completed an illustration for Louisville Magazine in this style, and I have another coming down the pipes. Hooray for a new style!

Happy Oaks Day!

Cat

Cat Scott - Louisville Graphic Designer and Illustrator

The Big Move

I recently uprooted my life in Los Angeles and moved across the country to my hometown of Louisville, KY. My Biggest Fan, Jason, uprooted his life too, and joined me on this adventure.

I'm lucky enough to be doing freelance graphic design with my previous employer, Eastdil Secured, as my #1 client. Jason is going back to school to become a physical therapist. It's a huge transition for both of us, but we're both excited to see where the future takes us!

Below is a little collage snapshot of our adventure. Now that I'm working from home in an actual studio space, I hope to be creating more work, which means I'll be posting more often.

Cheers,

Cat

Paint Lab

Where have I been?

I blame taxes. At the beginning of this year, I realized how much I'm going to get reamed and I thought, "Why do I waste my free time on this?"

So in rebellion I took a break from drawing - I stopped sketching, I stopped working on side projects, I never mailed out the pile of promotional mailers I printed. I even stopped reading art related blogs. I finished building my new illustration website just because it was a web development project - not necessarily because of the art. I was frustrated with art and wanted to give up.

Well last Thursday I was reminded why I do this. For Valentine's Day, my boyfriend and his two friends surprised their special lady friends with a night at Paint Lab in Santa Monica. For a flat fee you get an evening at darling paint studio on Main Street in Santa Monica. You pay for the canvas you choose from their stock (there's an $8 "corkage" if you bring your own), and they provide paints, supplies, clean-up, and if you're there on the right night like we were, FREE wine and cheese all night.

Since it was a surprise, I wasn't prepared to paint anything specific. So I opened my mini sketchbook that I keep in my purse and flipped through for inspiration. I landed on my Mucha Girl sketch and decided to go with it. We were provided with some acrylic paints and cheap old scraggly paint brushes, but it was enough to get me excited. For about an hour, my five buddies and I sipped Chardonnay, munched on delicious bread and brie, listened to music, chatted, and PAINTED.

Here's what I miss about art: The social interaction. I miss taking a break, stepping back, asking for thoughts, looking at friends' progress and offering suggestions. I have been struggling with making art in my free time because it usually means skipping dinners or workouts, missing spontaneous happy hours, sitting at home by myself and working while friends are all out having fun. It usually means reserving at least one day of the weekend for time at my dining room table/"studio" while friends hike, explore, relax, or travel.

I've been putting too much stress on myself. Therefore, this blog is going to be less active than before.

I'm going to do my job as a graphic designer, and I'm going to be good at it, because I've always loved typography and organizing information for optimal user experience.

I'm going to continue to learn web design because I'm a giant nerd and sort of love coding.

I'm going to draw when I want to draw, or when there's an assignment, or if it's right for a piece I'm designing, and I'm going to enjoy it more that way.

Thanks for reading my thoughts. I'll be here off and on, and I encourage you to stick around.

By the way, my illustration portfolio has been redesigned - hand coded in XHTML and CSS. Look ma, no Dreamweaver! Let me know what you think. More photos from Paint Lab are below. Definitely check it out if you are in the area.

Cheers,

Cat

Here's me enjoying the free spread of wine, cheese, crackers, bread, garlic/oil spread... mmmmmm

Natalie channeled her inner Pollock.

Dave's started as Marilyn Monroe, but slowly became Marilyn Manson.

Jon painted his one true love... his puppy Shelby.  From memory!

Jon's fiance Melissa painted a heart in honor of Valentine's day.  I dig the grey background.

Here I am, working on Ms. Mucha

And Jason is oh-so-proud of his "Interpretive piece."  If you ask him, "who is Jacob?" His response is, "Who do you think he is?"  He truly belongs in the MOMA.

Thanks again for the surprise!

Racino Downs

The January issue of Louisville Magazine is out on a newsstand near you!* The gang at LouMag needed an illustration for an important feature article about how legalizing slot machines could save Kentucky's horse industry.

I'll do my best to sum up the multi-faceted and interesting story: Other states have legalized gambling to fund their horse racing industries and are thus able to fund giant purses for winning horses. Therefore, if someone wants to make a lot of money racing horses, they are going to move to Indiana or Pennsylvania where the money is. Kentucky's rich horse history and culture are suffering because Churchill Downs simply cannot afford to keep up with such lavish prizes without legalizing casinos.

During the thumbnail process, I kept thinking that the story really boiled down to the horses that were going to win or lose - they were truly the ones betting on a win. So I sketched a horse at a slot machine. The team loved it, and I got to do my first "Animal Acting Like a Human" illustration!

Thanks to reference photos and the artistic license to make joints bend in opposite ways, I drew up this lovely Gambling Horse.

One of my other thumbnails ended up working well as a spot illustration (below). You LOST fans will notice that I used some of The Numbers as the prize amount... I'm such a nerd.

Another fun project for LouMag under my belt.  Looking forward to the next assignment!

Thanks for reading,

Cat

*Unless you are one of the millions of people not in Kentuckiana

Tuesday Coolsday: Philip Burke

I don't remember if I first discovered Philip Burke in my copy of "The Illustrated Portraits," or gracing the pages of my own Rolling Stone, but I do know that the first time I saw his paintings I was hooked.

As a student of illustration, I was doing a lot of caricatures.  Some caricature artists take the time to push and pull different features in many versions, but Burke's work seems more spontaneous and lively, like it was all done in one impression. His exaggerations are fierce and his use of color just jumps off the page at you.

These paintings are as big as I am and sell for more than I hope to make in my entire career.  But what's cooler is that his paintings hang in the homes of his subjects - that is a true honor. He is a lucky man whom I admire quite a bit.

His gallery's site is located here:  LB Madison

For more info, better writing, and links, visit Charley Parker's write-up on Burke at Lines and Colors

Bret McKenzie

Happy TwentyTen, friends!

As you probably remember from my "Best of 2009" blog entry, one of my goals for 2010 is to incorporate my "sketchbook" style into my marketable illustration portfolio. Step one: Create a series of celebrity portraits in this style.

Flight of the Conchords came to mind when I decided to pursue this endeavor, maybe because I recently read that the show is not going into a 3rd season (RIP, FotC).  First up: awkward, shy, and adorable Bret McKenzie.

This series is going to be spontaneous like my sketchbook drawings, meaning no preliminary drawing, no tracing paper, no fine tuning.  The final drawing, done with my favorite Hi-Tec C pen, is the same rough and raw "get it down" sketch that I started with.  Acrylic and GAC100 give the "sketch" tone and color.

Stay tuned for my latest RV Living and Louisville Magazine illustrations.  Thanks for stopping by!

Best of 2009

The last year of the “Oughts” has been a significant one, so for the first time, I’m going to treat my faithful readers to some highlights!

My close friends know that I love music.  My busy schedule combined with my tightened purse strings has resulted in a reduction of live music in my life, but fortunately I made it to one of my “Must See” shows – WILCO.  I saw them at the Wiltern back in June and it was everything I hoped it to be.  A very close second was the intimate performance by Vampire Weekend at a small theater in Long Beach.  If I hadn't already seen them a couple times, it could have been #1!  Both were incredible shows. 

I got to do quite a bit of traveling this year.  I rang in the new year on a cruise ship somewhere between Jamaica and the Grand Caymans, I got to see family and friends on a long trip to Nashville, Louisville and DC, and we took many small trips around California to Santa Barbara, San Diego and Monterey.  But the highlight of the year came after a flight to Silver Bay was cancelled: Jason and I decided to cancel the whole trip and we took a spontaneous trip to Yosemite. It’s quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been.

I moved in with My Biggest Fan, Jason, in March.  He’s an excellent roommate and the reason I finally got my ass in gear to start marketing myself.  He also doesn’t seem to mind too much that I commandeered the dining room table as my studio.

Speaking of reigniting my marketing, this was a big year for that. I redesigned my website, sent out mailers, and started blogging regularly again (you’re welcome).  I still have a lot of work to do, and I have been doing some soul searching in terms of style and markets I'm interested in, so 2010 could be a big transitional year too.

My favorite job of 2009 was the piece I created for Louisville Magazine’s article on Spaghetti Junction.  It had never occurred to me to do a finished illustration in my “sketchbook style,” so I was thrilled to create one for them, and I love the way it turned out.  It has a raw energy that my “polished” pieces lack.  I want to have more of that raw energy in my newly evolving style.  Here's my original blog post about it.

My favorite sketchbook piece of 2009 was the sketch I did of Jason while we sipped a couple of brewskies at LAX before our trip to Nashville.  I enjoy drawing people in life, but have too much anxiety and self-awareness to draw any stranger that might see me (how do I overcome that?).  Therefore, Jason makes an excellent model.  He has been using it as his Facebook photo since May, and I’m flattered because of that J

It isn’t all about me, though, as I have tried to relay with my introduction of Tuesday Coolsday.  I’m always looking at blogs and other illustrators' sites, and sometimes I get sick when I see some of the brilliant work that is being done out there.  My favorite Tuesday Coolsday feature of the year has been Zina Saunders. Her work and dedication has been very inspiring for me.

Back to me J  Since “Print is dying,” I decided that I should teach myself XHTML and CSS from a couple books recommended by  my brilliant web developer brother, Phil.  With my newfound knowledge, I built my first “From Scratch” website, IllustratedBabies.com.  I think it's a good sign that people are amazed I built it all on my own.  The Illustrated Babies project in and of itself has been received well and is a lot of fun.  I like having it as a part of my greater “Cat Scott Art” concept.

Some goals for 2010:

• Finish my new “From Scratch” portfolio site.  It’s a beaut.  It even has a contact form!
• Separate my graphic design work as a separate entity with it’s own site, and help the illustration work stand out on its own.
• Create a new portfolio of work in a new sketchier style – probably celebrity portraits (back to my college roots!)
• Create some illustrations for the children’s market and send samples out to publishers and magazines in that genre
• Double my income from freelance work*
• Get at least 3 new clients*

 *A girl can dream, right?

And with that I bid you adieu.  A very happy new year to you all, faithful readers (especially those of you who made it this far!)

Cheers,

Cat

Chama - Illustrated Babies

Chama, originally uploaded by Gato81.

Puppies are babies, too! This cute little guy was commissioned by a friend as a Christmas present for her sister. I really enjoyed drawing the puppy and all of the little curls and would be happy to do more dog drawings in the future!

See more at www.illustratedbabies.com.

Unicorn for Sarah

Unicorn for Sarah, originally uploaded by Gato81.

Sarah wanted a Unicorn, preferably with wings, for Christmas. So this is what she's getting. You can't tell in the scan but all the pen marks are done with glittery gel pens - this thing sparkles like crazy! Just like a Unicorn drawing should.

Speaking of crazy, it's been a hectic couple of weeks. I am back in Louisville next week for some much needed relaxation!

Thanks for stopping by,

Cat

Experimenting

Here's a sheet of Bristol paper that has survived a few experiments and tests, and turned out pretty interesting in the end.