one head painting

here is my favorite study i did in justin taylor's head painting class this semester*. ideally, i'd show you all my less-than-great ones first, but this is the only one i have in a digital format and i'm getting antsy and want to post.

oil, 18x24 on gessoed masonite

he had us do monochrome paintings for a good chunk of the semester, which was extremely helpful when we delved into color. i think this was burnt umber. i used it in extremely transparent layers for the underpainting and darks, and then built up the lights by mixing white with it.

*semester of fall '11 -- august to december 2011

old school animation

i was so fortunate to take cynthia hogan's 2D character animation class this semester (cynthia is absolutely amazing, both as an animator and person). we had to choose a character from a film to animate, and i chose sawyer from cats don't dance, a favorite of mine as a kid. then we chose sound clips from our character's voice actor/actress (mine was jasmine guy) and animate scenes of our own using that character and sound clip. finding and editing the clip was actually one of the hardest parts for mine in particular.

due to some file format issues and some computers being exchanged, i sort of, um, lost my first animation (*aaarrrgghh!!*) .....but then i found it! the paper version, at least. so i re-shot it, though the timing wasn't perfect since i'd readjusted it when i first shot it. however, it was the best i could do with the limited time i had, so here it is.



the second and third animations were to include a hook-up, or a shift of camera in one scene ("hooking up" one shot to the next).

keep in mind, i hadn't animated since i took the intro class back in '09 and this was my first time animating to a sound clip. my shapes are all over the place. when she critiqued it, cynthia attributed this to the fact that i was drawing like a clean-up artist, rather than an animator. ah. that was the key. i wish i would have known the difference before i animated it. meh, live and learn. after i shot it, i realized i totally could have taken away one of the poses because it moves really fast. but i only got one chance to shoot it and that happened to be right before it was due, so, c'est la vie.

even looking at it now after having turned it in a few days ago, i know i could go back and make it SO MUCH BETTER. but i did what i could with the time i had to spend on it. someday this knowledge will make itself manifest in some brilliant project i work on. anyway, here's what it is for now:


even though the outcomes could have been much better, i'm seriously excited that i learned so much. and i'm stoked to apply it in the future.

grandview south community celebration

i have lots of projects to blog about! here's one i did this past summer.

this project was part of the publicity for a giant community reunion that was being held. the event was huge! and so were the posters. they wanted an old-fashioned feel, and i was given a watercolor from one of the community members to use. with that, i created multiple versions of lawn posters, flyers, a blog header and banners to advertise the celebration.

main teaser poster: 16" x 20"

lawn poster: 24"x48"

lawn poster: 24"x48"

banner: 3' x 10'

all sortsa nerd

i'm tonks for halloween.

and i just couldn't help but make this....

(i obviously intentionally ripped off this image.)

[click to enlarge]

it was a fun process, and i did it rather quickly. after 40 minutes, i went from the first photos on the left to the second image.

from that point on, the other 2+ hours were just tweaking and awesoming.


in short, i -- desaturated the photo, cut myself out, added grain, adjusted lighting and contrast, cloned part of the lower half of the body from the second original picture, painted fog, and added facial highlights.

the hardest part for me was painting the rim light and highlights. but i think i got the gist of it.
























i really needed a break from work/freelance/classes to recharge my artistic brain, and i think it worked. happy halloween!

for all you artists

i read this quote by ira glass a while back, and just found this video on it. oh my goodness, it is so great for anyone who creates anything.


Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

coming in the next few posts: portraits, guest artist lectures, and TOMS! stay tuned. :)

TOMS tomorrow!

sorry for the lack of update (i wonder how many of my upcoming posts won't begin with that apology.....). school and work have been crazy, but i have some awesome things to show you, so be excited! in the meantime....

remember the TOMS event i did a while back? well, i've since done two more and i'm doing another one tomorrow! if you're in utah, you should definitely stop by. not only will there be shoe painting, but there will also be face painting and a live band. bring your friends and family or just yo'self and come party it up!

{some TOMS i've designed since that last post}

if you can't make it but would still like some sweet custom-painted TOMS, contact me at kgull.art@gmail.com and i'll paint yours!

alice een color

does this look familiar? earlier this year (winter '10 semester), i decided to take my alice digital for jake parker's digital painting class. i could definitely go back and fine-tune this, but i'm not going to worry about it for now.