krystyl illustrates!

Recent and Not So Recent Work

2011-05-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

I put together an album booklet for The Sweet Repose from these amazing hand-sewn graphics (done by one of the band members' mother)

I'm currently working on a series of superhero illustrations for a mortgage planning company:

But the biggest news is Ryan, Kent, and I opened a comic book shop!! A lifelong dream I never knew I had... Honestly, I still can't believe we did it. I'll have to make a dedicated post to it after this. We are located in Fountain Valley, off of Brookhurst: Trinity Comics!
So I'm pretty much in charge of all design - the logo, business cards, flyers, signs, ...we made gift certificates, a vinyl decal for the door, an outdoor lighted sign, and are currently working on the website (it's gone through several re-designs).

And here's a card I made for my grandparents, who helped a ton during Trinity Comics construction (that's us!)

2011 Calendar!!

2011-01-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Tried a different technique this year - some in watercolor and others painted in Corel Painter underneath pencil. Some better than others.

Welcome to the new year....

Another Birthday Card!

2010-09-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

This one was for my twin cousins (who recently got a new baby bro)...
Fun times!

Tusken Pyro

2010-08-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

Quick card for my bestest bud's birthday ;)

...and more doodling

2010-07-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

Doodles

2010-06-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

This is always the busiest time of year....

2010-06-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

I swear all the holidays and birthdays are from May to June for me... and it turns me into a stress psycho. Here's a gift I made for my grandpa (a recent lover of Mouse Guard - who can blame him?):

And this was a silly greeting card I made for my uncle (mostly inside jokes from my life of family torture):

It was fun doing a poo-faced cartoon of me, lol.

Been busy....

2010-05-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

with a lot of design work lately... so very little time to doodle!
Here is a little diddy I made for my mum (she loves shoes, can you tell?)

Weekend in Cabo here I come!!

Expedia Fund

2010-05-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a hectic weekend... rather, hectic month. Lots to do and celebrate. This was a money holder I made for the family to give to my grandparents:
(The money went behind the little expedia tab)

For Nana

2010-05-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

Quick watercolor from life... it's been a while since I've used a real brush.

Bluecanvas Feature!!

2010-04-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to mention I got featured in Bluecanvas' latest magazine issue (#4)!! ...with Daarken and Lance Richlin! I suggest you pick up a copy! It's they're best issue yet - not just 'cause of me ;)
Beautiful, beautiful cover!

http://www.bluecanvas.com/krystyl/

New Logo Design!

2010-04-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

Progression of logo design:

This is what I've decided on in the end... simple, with minimal color.
My design work has really taken off lately - it's pretty exciting! I never thought I'd be doing this much. More to come soon.....

Marshmallow Pie Biz Cards

2010-04-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

The business cards I did for Marshmallow Pie just came in (they have a nice gloss coat mmm):

Also... we devised a plan to buy the domain registration for MarshmallowPieBand.com and forward the address to the new Facebook page we made:
http://marshmallowpieband.com/

Disneyland. Your upper management is brainless.

2010-04-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

Catch A Flave ice cream (in California Adventure) = probably the best soft serve I've ever had.

Had being the operative word. Looks like they just got rid of all the delicious flavors ...so as to speed up business. HIRE MORE, BUILD UP, GET BETTER MACHINES... don't eliminate your selling point!! There's no more FLAVE TO CATCH!!! AAAHHHhrrrrrjk61276%$#@@enoi!@###!!!!!!!

No more Strawberry, Grape, Orange.... etc
Quoted from MiceChat.com:
"Catch a Flave has introduced a paired down menu (minus the variety of flavor swirls once available for the ice creams). The only two available "flaves" are now vanilla and Chocolate. While the additional flavors will be missed, this location was notorious for slow service. Hopefully, the never limited menu will allow for more customers to be served (especially once World of Color opens)."

Fashion Illustration Show at Nucleus Gallery

2010-04-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

I had a great time over at the Line of Style show held at Nucleus gallery in Alhambra. Got a little fashion sketching in... The models were great, holding their poses for long periods of time. And the outfits, oh my! :) Eating at Cha for Tea next door made it all worth while.

Geisha Mouse!

2010-03-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

My little Geisha Mouse Guard got on Mr. Peterson's blog! Eeee!

Wacom Scribbles of Nonsense

2010-03-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

More fashion sketching

2010-03-24T12:29:00.001-07:00

Below: Ryan's interpretation of a model pose... Got a little out of hand.

Fashion Sketching...

2010-03-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

Sketch Studies

2010-02-16T00:03:00.001-08:00

Lined Paper

2010-02-08T01:47:00.000-08:00

I feel so comfortable and safe when I doodle on lined paper...

Eric's Art

2010-01-28T11:33:00.000-08:00

Just recently bought a piece from my bestest pal Eric Zendejas that I can't wait to put up on my wall! And yes, that is pen... because Eric is a master at drawing!

From the Sketchbook...

2010-01-21T20:42:00.001-08:00

Wikus

2010-01-14T18:51:00.001-08:00

Quick Wacom draw-ring I did today...

HoopCity!

2010-01-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

Just joined the HoopCity online hula hooping community! Such a great group of people~! My obsession with hula hooping grows more and more each day...

Visit Hoop City - Hooping Community

I also just posted my first (edited) hooping video:

Lt. Aldo Raine!

2010-01-06T19:07:00.001-08:00

<3 Nazi Scalps

January Calendar Page

2010-01-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

This is the layout I have for all the calendar pages - complete with a hole punch at the top! Still obsessed with the retro look

2010 Calendar Illustrations!

2009-12-31T13:52:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

WARNING:
***Spoilers Ahead***

Star Wars X-mas Card

2009-12-30T16:21:00.000-08:00

Marshmallow Pie Logo

2009-12-16T16:06:00.001-08:00

For Beatles Cover Band, Marshmallow Pie :)
Made in Illustrator (1 day) - perhaps eventually I'll be adding some rocking horse people...
Ronald, Marshmallow Pie's drummer and Beatles extraordinaire, is currently making a vinyl sticker of this to put on his bass drum!

Mmmm, pie....

A Star Wars X-Mas In the Making

2009-12-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

Gift Wrapping!

2009-12-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

So it actually came about when I was trying to figure out what to do with the trash paper backing from the bows - this year I bought tiny bows from Ikea that had round sticker backs.
I started placing them around the bows (see bottom left package) and voila! instant cutesy dots!! They sort of remind me of sand dollars.

I cut out circles from a scrap holiday card and drew a few others with old puffy paint.

Recycle!

Holiday Shoe Card '09

2009-12-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

Commissioned by my Mum.
Printed on (flecked) Mesa White paper...

Compu-Updates

2009-12-04T12:15:00.001-08:00

Just got a thorough desktop computer cleaning and a downgrade (or rather UPGRADE) to Windows XP from Vista on my laptop. Currently working on holiday cards and calendar work!

A Very Happy Birthday to Ryan

2009-11-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

And a tip of the hat to Mr. David Peterson :)

"Blur" - Illustration Friday Entry

2009-11-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

T'Pring

2009-11-10T22:28:00.001-08:00

Halloween '09!

2009-11-02T21:38:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a blast this year, as I finally got to dress like a Vulcan~! Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to sew the Star Trek Original Series dress, but the 2009 movie uniform was suitable. For my eyebrows, I used the soaping technique ... and for my ears, I simply taped the ends together with clear scotch tape.
I guess I kind of got carried away playing around on Photoshop & Illustrator.

This is the carrot cake I made - I've never decorated a cake Halloween-style, so this was a ton of fun! I used a potato masher to make the grass. And the headstone is just frozen cream cheese frosting with food coloring spray.

Skyscape

2009-11-01T23:27:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of the oil painting I recently finished:

Retro Scooter!

2009-10-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Ginger Beard 4 life

2009-10-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, ginger beard drawn with a mouse ftw!!

Also: I finally finished the landscape oil painting I've been working on for the past few months!!!! Sweet relief!

Werkin'

2009-10-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

Looks like a beardly honeycomb.

Yeah, yeah... I know Vulcans ain't got red blood like us. They like rosy makeup, so sue 'em!

New Site!

2009-10-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

I am proud to announce a new & improved krystylillustrates.com!
And in the process, I learned Dreamweaver and many other life lessons (thanks to my gal Nikki <3). There's still a few things I'm adding (like my editorial and design portfolios) but I feel satisfied at this point :)

Under construction, no more! Hazaaa!!

Sign I made for the art show display:

2009-09-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

All the labels I made for the pieces had that Another Typewriter font, so I decided to stick with it.

Sunday's Old Vine Art Show

2009-09-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Site Re-vamp

2009-09-21T23:19:00.001-07:00

So I'm currently in the process of overhauling my site ...I suppose it's that artist mentality of never being satisfied with your own work. Right now my site is simply a homepage and a link to this blog .... so, for those of you who have been re-directed here and wish to look at some of my work, feel free to click on the links on the top right. Less Recent Portfolio is actually a link to my old site (the buttons still work so you can drop me a line in the contact section).

In my last site, I wanted a hand-made look so I drew everything up (like the headers and even all the lettering - which apparently, and unfortunately, means no text for the internet spiders to feed on) then had someone help me make it live and functional.
I've now begun working on a cleaner, more retro feel and have opted to learn how to make it live myself (so I can update it with new work as I go... and so when I mess everything up I'll have no one to blame but myself).

Well, hopefully pretty soon I'll have the whole site finished and you'll be able to view a current portfolio and resume. In the meantime... stay tuned!
Oh! P.S. Got my new business cards and I don't really know what to do with 1000 of them so I've already started playing throwing games at my cat.
<3 Rounded edges!

Old Vine Cafe Art Show This Sunday!

2009-09-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

I will be showing and selling a few pieces (and many prints!) over at the community art show in the Camp in Costa Mesa! I'm really excited about it cause it's basically my first gallery-style show outside of school.

During the week I'll be working on creating a setup to showcase it all, so hopefully you'll see something sNazZy when Sunday comes rollin' around...

RSVP on Facebook and bring all your beautiful friends~!

Deadbeard

2009-09-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

Critters USA!

2009-09-01T19:02:00.001-07:00

Just received an issue of Critters USA 2010 and found myself (and all of my fellow interns from BowTie) inside! It reminded me of how much fun I had during the photoshoot...
Funny thing is, I actually own a pair of those same exact weights. Weeeiird.

P.S. How many pounds does a camera add again? Lol

Beard Sketches

2009-08-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

Some doodling for a Bearded Opinions logo.

Burning Man Shot!

2009-08-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the customized test tubes the ladies of Pleasure Island put my burning donkey logo on! It's actually printed on the plastic - not a sticker!

Pretty nifty gift shot glasses wouldn't you say?

Painting & Hooping

2009-08-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

So I'm currently working on a landscape (rather, skyscape) for my grandfather. The crappy image above is just a section of the gesso board I'm using.
But in between oil painting, I have found an obsession.

Hooping!

I started hula hooping a couple months ago and it has sprouted into a kind of love affair. I feel anxious without it and I'm constantly on the lookout for new moves to master. It's a great workout, it relieves stress, it looks pretty, and when you learn a new move you feel accomplished and triumphant - what's not to love? Anyway, I just recently dove into the world of fire hooping and I refuse to stop following this white rabbit down the fiery hole...
Here's my first fire hooping video (still working out some kinks, but I had a lot of fun):

Belated Keyboard Cat Gallery Post

2009-08-20T00:16:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of this month, Ryan & I went to a (last minute) Keyboard Cat private gallery party at Meltdown Comics in LA. There were so many amazing keyboard cat pieces!! Bad idea on our part to leave from Costa Mesa at 5:30pm (that and using something other than GoogleMaps), but it was worth it in the end:

Cupcakes!

2009-08-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

Made a few cutesy notebooks for my aunt this weekend with a colored birthday cupcake on the front and little sketches on each page - The people at Kinkos (or Fedex Office, I should say) actually knew what they were doing and remedied a problem quickly, restoring a little faith in me...

Had to have some SusieCakes cupcakes after this project! Their store is so cute!! And yummy!

Copic Marker Doodle

2009-08-11T02:04:00.001-07:00

Stole a moment to experiment with the small set of Copic Marker grays/greys I bought at Comic-con:

Burning Man Logo

2009-08-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

Logo for my friends at Burning Man camp, Pleasure Island (hence the Pinocchio donkey) - visit them at 9 O'clock and Adapt!

Logo Design

2009-08-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to build on my design portfolio with some fun logo design for WiffleNotes.com and the always alluring Illuminata Fire Dancers!
(The last two images are preliminary sketch pages)

Highlights from Comic-Con 09!

2009-07-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Ryan got Kevin & Olivia to do Keyboard Cat...

John K did a drawing of me!

Kent & I made it to Adam Hughes' awesome how-to session - front row!

And I suppose highlight is an understatement for this... EEEEEEE!

This is after I told them to desecrate each other's portrait:

I gotta figure out where to hang this when I frame it.

Attack of the Show's Great American Keyboard Cat Competition

2009-07-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today my entry for AOTS' awesome competition was shown on the show!!!

Here's an image of the... image.
<3 Kevin & Olivia~!

Damn kitty.

Close-up!

Lil' Skulls

2009-06-23T15:29:00.001-07:00

Father's Day Card

2009-06-21T03:01:00.001-07:00

A quick and silly sketch I made for my Father's Day card - "The Veatles" (essentially Vulcan Beatles if you can't tell)...

Updated work - Geisha & Skulls

2009-06-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today I entered in these 2 updated versions of my work in the OC Fair Competition (Computer Image section)... I don't expect much but it feels nice to enter work in and participate. As far as the pieces go, I'm a lot more satisfied with the little cartooney lanterns and skulls than with the previous ones (I've been meaning to change them for some time now - I like the mix between cartoon and painterly). If anyone's watching, sorry it's been awhile... this part of the year is always busy for me with all the birthdays and holidays.
More to come!

Sketches from the Tuesday Train

2009-06-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

Rat Cat Dog

2009-06-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post before I run some errands:
My birthday week+ has finally come to an end but I had a ton of fun in Frisco with the guys. On one of the walks near Union Square, we saw this awesome trio being walked across the road.... A rat riding a cat riding a dog - it was amazing.

Star Trek Sketches

2009-05-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

So... I have already seen the new Star Trek movie twice and am more than half-way through watching all the previous Star Trek movies (from which we will move on to the original series).
I'm definitely considering making a "Spockette" costume for Comic-Con (especially since I can't seem to think of anything else than Trekki-ness) - and I absolutely cannot wait to start on my vulcan pinup series. Here are some doodles:

Color note to self

2009-05-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

...Playing with the color brush in Photoshop.
Definitely a better way to preserve graphite values when coloring them.

Loranthal Scionas

2009-05-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

Latest D & D sketch of Captain Scionas:
Did a pencil sketch, scanned it in, colored in Painter, and fiddled in Photoshop.

I know it's always a risk playing around with Photoshop filters (most of the time they look cheesy)... but somehow I prefer this poster-edged version over the others.

Card for G-Ma B-Day

2009-05-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

The final decision was to color it in Painter, print on porous paper, and go over it with colored pencil. The texture of the paper I used makes the prismacolor pencils feel creamy :)

Ladies, Gentlemen... ring the alarm

2009-05-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Sketches for my Ladies and Gentlemen signs:

I had this idea to make retro bathroom signs with toiletries/objects for my portfolio. I have a strange love for drawing objects in front of me, so I'm finally taking advantage of it...
I also want to extend it to another object project illustrating my process of getting ready in the morning: hairbrush, bowl of cereal, toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, loofah, etc etc...

Here are some preliminary doodlings:
(Obviously rubix cubes aren't a part of that morning process... I gave up on that puzzle years ago)

Listen.. doo wa oo.. do you want to know a secret? Doo wa oo

2009-04-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I play Dungeons & Dragons. Nothing to hide here. I get together with a couple of good friends once a week and roleplay a magic British-sounding bard and fight off forces of orcs and kobolds. I also doodle during sessions - so here is one of those doodles of my character, Cass (named after Mama Cass) holding her wand and lyre:

Mags

2009-04-28T00:24:00.000-07:00

So I made a day trip to Barnes and Noble to look through all the magazines and jot down the ones I'd like to send my (soon to come) promotional material to. If you haven't picked up this month's Wired magazine, you're missing out! It features J.J. Abrams as a guest editor and is stuffed with awesome puzzles and mysteries - not to mention a sweet Spock comic!

I'm heading out to LA tomorrow to start a design internship with Bluecanvas. They're currently working on releasing their magazine (full-circle post, folks!) and that's what I'll be workin on. I'm excited to get some design work under my belt.

Moving Forward...

2009-04-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

Something I'm currently working on is trying to develop and cultivate the retro side of my work (and hopefully get some good portfolio pieces out of it).

This is actually a piece I have in my portfolio already, but I've redrawn it and quickly played around with color shape placement. This is definitely something I want to pursue.

This piece is a work in progress, but I'm having a lot of fun with Painter...
I'm sure I'll change the composition around and add all the fun twinkles of a classic 50s ad.

Newsies

2009-04-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

Great news! Woodleg Odd's album "One Step Ahead" is out and it features some artwork I created of one of the band members' awesome expression (Photoshop/Painter).
Enjoy!

Pinup Sketches

2009-04-17T13:49:00.001-07:00

One of my absolute favorite classic pin-up artists is Gil Elvgren. I decided before I got to creating new work for my portfolio, I would dedicate time to doing some master copies & studies:

Finished Card

2009-04-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

I found some brown recycled paper and was able to print on it with this cute little font! For the pacifier, I used Painter, fixed it up in Photoshop, printed it, and accented it with brown and white colored pencils.

Baby Card

2009-04-14T19:28:00.001-07:00

My next-door neighbor, Scott, just had a new baby girl, so I decided to make a congrats card to welcome her home... I was inspired by the never-ending pink and green color scheme of Veronica Mars. It's not quite at a pretty stage yet, but here's the progress so far (Photoshop & Painter):

New Coloring Pages Up!

2009-04-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

SmallAnimalChannel (Chinchilla, Hedgehog, Mice, and Sugar Glider)

CatChannel (All)

BirdChannel (Cockatiel)

Now that my internship has officially concluded at BowTie, I will be paying more attention to my blog and my site. I'm currently re-vamping my resume and coming up with a clever promo piece to send to potential employers. I have a long list of to-dos that seems to grow by the minute. My first priority is to get as much advice about beginning a freelance illustration career and making my work up to standard - then I can proceed to network and promote like crazy.

Update

2009-04-07T00:29:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm in my last week of this illustration internship, I feel the panic of walking the tightrope without the net. It's hard to believe 9 weeks have already gone by... At least I'll have more time to blog it up.
Lately I've been looking at a lot of my Adam Hughes sketchbooks & doodling - trying to return to one of my favorite subjects: the pinup. I've also been researching everything I can about how to survive as a freelance illustrator. I realize it'll take time ...and really, I'm more excited than fearful.

Sugar Glider Sketches

2009-03-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

Num num num num num

2009-03-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

I just can't get over the English Toffee Pudding at Claim Jumper!!!!
For those of you who haven't tried this, I strongly recommend it. This one rivals the scrumptiousness of Bouchon. Is it too much to ask for a bigger portion?

Overrrlooadd!!!

2009-03-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

I'm making up for lost time, so sue me.
I'll be making posts more often (doodles, sketches, blurbs, etc.), so you don't have to be lonely anymore....

This was a poster I did for Eric Zendejas' fundraiser party - featuring his sexy sketching skills:

Alliteration for my peeps.

Powerpointness

2009-03-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

During this time at BowTie Inc., I've also had to make a powerpoint presentation about myself to show all the managers ...and since I decided to play around with design layouts, I thought I'd post the pages!

CatChannel

2009-03-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

So for the past 7 weeks I've been interning at BowTie Inc. (the publisher of almost every pet magazine you can think of) and some of the coloring pages I did got put up on one of the sites they own: CatChannel.com

http://www.catchannel.com/community/humor_games/coloring-pages.aspx

The internship's been really fun and informative... I've done several illustrations for a few magazines and one book that I'll be posting as soon as I get my hands on them (also, for legal issues I'd rather not post something before it's printed).
Pretty soon I need to make an inventory of all my projects so I can finally put some published work on my resume!

PaTchbLox!

2009-01-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

http://patchblox.com/index.htm

Just put up a few patches.... Yay!

Hurrah!

2008-12-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

First post...
Stay tuned for updates while I pimp this blog out!