New Illustration

A new illustration for Vue Weekly in Edmonton. Edmonton is in Alberta, a province familiar with booms and busts due to its reliance on oil mon

ey. The concept was to depict a millionaire in a soup line, to accompany an article on the emergence of the 'bust' part of the cycle.

Since I always find myself wishing more illustrators showed their process, I'm going to try out showing mine, even though I'm very much a novice compared to the illustrators whose blogs I compulsively read.  So here we go: concept sketch

Final sketch (looking at them now I kind of prefer the concept sketch 

to the final one.  I think I lost some of the spontaneity, and had better composition).

I tried to make the millionaire look a little less cartoony than he does here.  Other than that, there's more I want to say (I always feel like I have SO MUCH to learn!), but I think I'll save it for another post.  Here's the cover as printed:

ReVIEW: Reversible Book!

Now that the April issue of Papirmasse is out and safely in the hands of subscribers, we can tell you why we were all atingle about it. It's a reversible book! Printed on one very large single sheet of paper, this beauty folds down into a 6 x 9 inch book that features two-toned drawings on one side, and hand-written artist profiles on the other.  

The front and back cover of side 1.

Inside: Bruce Lee and Ride 'em Cowboy.

More doodles.

Faces from the Kid Koala drawing sessions in Montreal 

this past February, and Goodbye Hands.

Back covers!

Front and back cover of side 2.

Featuring a round-up of my favourite artists (ie. who I steal my ideas from).

Josh Holinaty, Turf One, Produkt, and Other...

...the YPF Collective and David Choe...

... & last but not least Jillian Tamaki and Dietrich Rosteck.

For more information check out www.papirmasse.com.

Click HERE to subscribe!

I sell my stuff monthly at this super cool/weird/eclectic Montreal gallery. Come check it out this Thursday if you're into art openings. I personally think that art is 100% better when viewed in a crowded space surrounded by happy, loud, drunk people. I really, really do.

This month I'm selling a kind of old but really nice nude painting in oil - I rediscovered it when I moved. It's framed and looks pretty good. Also some screenprints and subscriptions to Papirmasse. Last month I sold a monoprint of hearts that I really, really liked. Kind of sad to see it go. Also, it has gone to live in North Carolina, which is cool, but also far away (and kind of weird to think of a small part of myself in NC).

Full details:

SUBTERFUGE
May 6th to May 31st 2009
Opening Thursday May 7th 5hPM to11hPM

USINE 106U
160 Roy E.
514-728-9349

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=97729149815&ref=mf

http://www.myspace.com/usine106u

USINE 106U is glad to invite you the opening of the astounding exhibition SUBTERFUGE presenting the artwork of 29 visual artists: Mark Prent, Eric Braün, Mimi Traillette, Karine Allard, Yves Milet-Desfougères, Jean-Michel Cholette, Daniel Erban , Sweet Grognasse, Majka Kwiatowska, Xavier Landry, Alexandra Cuellar, Scott Ferry, Adam Norris, Kirsten McCrea, Patrick Lamoureux, Luc Poudrier, Serge De Cotret, Winky, Natasha Clayton, Marie-Hélène Cauvin, Jérome Bertrand, Jean Pronovost, Dominique Cantin, Julia Niemczynowska, Antonin St-Jean, Annabelle Nicole, Mathieu Bories, Matthieu Lapointe et Florent Veilleux.
Hallucinogenic paintings, pop-art silkscreens, disquieting sculptures, erotic etchings, original drawings, trash plush toys, surrealist jewelry other fascinating curiosities will massively take over the space. 

The exhibition takes place at USINE 106U, 160 Roy E. from May 6th to May 31st 2009, and the opening will be held on Thursday May 7th from 5hPM to 11hPM.

Opening hours are Saturday to Wednesday noon to 6hPM , Thursday & Friday from noon to 9hPM.

Machine Wash Cold/Tumble Dry Low

Moniker Designs in Montreal has an annual t-shirt competition where they print the works of 15 artists onto a limited run of shirts, throw a big party, and sell sell sell those shirts! This year my horse design got picked, and I have to admit that I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out. I wore it for probably longer than I should have in the days after the opening...

Speaking of which, here are a few shots of said opening last week! Click here to go to their website, where you can see and buy the whole collection.

My shirt!

The hall, lined with amazing photos of the clothes (hopefully they'll post these photos on their site).

The nifty screenpress.

Years of build-up on the plates.

Some of the other shirts in the show!

And last, some really amazing GIGANTIC wood blocks 

(for printing, I assume?) in the press room.

Framing Harper

This is my second portrait of Stephen Harper for the Framing Harper Portrait Contest, sponsored by Art Threat. I chose to focus this time less on his beady little eyes and more on his hair. How does the man who shapes our government policy shape that beastly coiffe? Neither hailstorm, nor windstorm, nor snowstorm, nor sunstorm, nor mediastorm seams to have any effect on his luscious mane. Closer public scrutiny is needed of this storm-proof hair! I know that I myself do not have any answers - not yet - but I do know one thing: the damned hair is hard to draw.

Affordable Art Market

Due to participating in Poppytalk's Affordable Art Market, I've given my Etsy page a major overhaul.  Head on over to hellokirsten.etsy.com to purchase a number of original drawings done on my swirls series screenprinted postcards, while supplies last.  There are a few other goodies over there too.  

(Mention this blog in your purchase notes and I'll throw a little present in for you.)

Blahblahblah

(Image from http://www.lcdlove.com/myspace/graphics/blah-blah-blah-myspace-graphic/)

Oh dear. Haha! Sometimes when I need to write text somewhere, instead of doing the whole 'lorem ipsum' thing (like a proper designer), I write "blah blah blah". I was just looking at my website (I'm doing a little redesign), and somewhere, hidden at the bottom of a page, are the words blahblah. Hee. I think I'll leave it there as a joke to myself. I *am* a little embarrassed though.

Put that in your Papirmasse and schmoke it.

Production for issue 2 of Papirmasse is underway!  What's that you say?  You're a bad blogger and haven't even told us what this paper-thingamajigger is in the first place?  True.  But since a trip to San Francisco and many deadlines loom in my near-future, I'm going to have to delay any explanations until January.  In the meantime, here's a preview of the cover image of issue 2, and a link to the official website, where all is revealed.

Published

And it looks great!  Vue went one step further and turned the illustration into a nifty punk-rock Christmas present in the form of a two-page spread documenting all the bands the members of Les Tabernacles have been in (hint: approximately a million, by the looks of all those squiggly lines.)  Click here for a link to the hi-res version.

First Colour Illustration

I've done illustrations before, but they've always been for 'zines or activist groups with low budgets, so I've never had the pleasure of working in colour, nor have I had the pleasure of *ahem* payment. Hence the excitement over landing the cover of Vue Weekly and getting to illustrate one of Edmonton's most well-known rock bands, Les Tabernacles. Some might say it's small potatoes, but everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm pretty stoked with how everything turned out. In fact, I had such a great time illustrating this that it's making me wonder if painting is really the path I should be pursuing.

As far as illustration goes, though: do I ever feel like I have a lot to learn! It was difficult choosing a particular style to go with. In the end I chose the strategy of following my heart; for example, since the project called for 6 portraits to be drawn from fairly low-quality photos, I had this great idea to draw the guys heads coming out of one of those whack-a-mole games. I still think it would have made a killer illustration, especially with an ominous shadow towering over them, but I realized that I would die of boredom if I had to draw every last detail of a whack-a-mole machine.

I ended up going with a pretty abstract arrangement, and am really happy with what Vikki (graphic artiste extraordinaire) put together for the inside spread:
Below are some work-in-progress shots, with colour choices being made. Choices!!

My New Favourite Website

My Love For You is a Stampede of Horses.  

More inspiring than even the best issues of Juxtapoz.  Seriously, it's like eye candy and brain candy at the same time.  Where do they find these artists?    

Threadless (ie. ka-ching, or, $$$)

I have gone in search of mountains of cash and submitted a design to Threadless. If you think the above shirt is something that you could possibly someday envision yourself wearing, well then pretty please, head on over and cast your vote. They also might publish it as a print, so if you'd like to own it as a print, once again, please vote.

Amazing!

It seems I am not the only one who has spotted the similarities between Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and a hamster. The keen eye of Don Martin in on the trail too. In a recent National Post article entitled "What we can learn from Stephen Harper and the Syrian hamster", Mr. Martin writes that:

"It took Prime Minister Stephen Harper more than two hours Thursday to arm-twist Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean into terminating Parliament after just 16 days.

Speaking of just 16 days, that’s precisely the gestation period of the Syrian Hamster, a solitary creature that will not live with other hamsters past a certain age without fighting and must be kept in separate cages."

He goes on about hamsters for a while after that. Because SH is so hamstery that even right wing pundits can't let it go. In fact, I rechristen him Stephen Hamster.

Is it the beady little eyes? The similar gestation periods? The giant exercise wheel in his office? I don't know, but I do truly hope that Don Martin responds to the e-mail I sent him, and that we get off on a long exchange about all of our Prime Ministers hamstery ways.
(The best part of this e-mail is the ads that popped up on the side)Though I am a little inclined as of late to say that Mr. Harper may, in fact, be more like a weasel. Today he cancelled Canada's Parliament to avoid a vote that would have put a coalition of his opponents into place instead of himself. If you aren't Canadian, the analogy is that he pressed Pause, Reset, Play on the government. I'm not going to get into it here, but there are some decent articles out there on the issue, such as this one and this one. Strangely, neither mentions hamsters. Damn editors!
In closing, here is one of my favourites from my Stephen Harper photo collection (hey, everyone has to have a hobby), a collection that I started long before I ever even heard of the Framing Harper Portrait Contest. Some things are just written in the stars, you know?

ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS!!

I finally have a website - a **real** one!  This blog will continue to exist as a place to bounce around my newly finished work and blab about projects, but for goodness sake: get thee to www.hellokirsten.com!  

Over and out.

I Don't Know What Came Over Me

I don't even like famous people.  I just suddenly had to illustrate Ben Stiller.  Maybe I was drawn to the ears.  I also think that this drawing somehow brought to the fore an as of yet unnoticed similarity between Ben Stiller and Tony Blair.  Hmmm.

Kim Jong da Bomb

I am hatching mad plans to turn this sucker into a super cheap print.  You in?

From the vault: Oh Alberta!

All those wheat bales of hay give away your lusty ways. 

This is an old poster from the Lip 'zine 'Public' issue.  Everyone made a different 'page' of the 'zine and then we wheat pasted them up all over Montreal in a few glorious hours.  (It's a grain elevator can-can dancing, to those of you who didn't grow up on the Prairies.  Yes, they dance surprisingly well.)

On a side-note: why did no one warn me that trying to design and create my own website would lead to frustration and possible insanity?  Not that I would have listened, but MAN, computers can be annoying to work with.  I miss painting...  :( 

Mural #2

So, a few years ago Alberta's short-sighted Conservative government gave each and every Alberta resident a tax-free cheque for $400. Nevermind that this $1.4 billion could have gone towards library cards (we're the only province that doesn't have free libraries), abolishing healthcare premiums (we're one of the only that has to pay them, though that's thankfully ending soon), hot lunch programs, mental health programs, affordable housing, etc., etc., etc. ... I used my money to pay for a moving van and got the hell out of Alberta.

But then two years later I found myself back here again. This time around the plan is to make some money and run back to Montreal, where I will use my cushion of cash to pay for a studio for a few years. That being said, I haven't posted a ton lately because I am almost literally working ALL THE TIME. Okay, I sleep. But when I'm awake, I'm at a job. Really.

Luckily one of my jobs is a sweet mural-painting gig. Earlier this week we installed our second mural of the summer (and last for a while; it's cold here now! Brrrr). Here are a few shots of the mural's progress over the last few weeks (courtesy of head mural honcho, Ian Mulder).

First, we find a wall. This one is on a metal shop in Edmonton, next to Barb and Ernie's.

Then, we paint paint paint the whole thing in studio. It's big!
Next, we paint the wall and spend tons of time raising the lift, lowering the lift, climbing up and down the ladder, accidentally dropping things off the lift and running down as fast as we can before they blow into traffic... Oh yes, we also attach the mural to the wall.
We do a lot of touch-ups on the wall, changing colours, repainting things. And finally, after three cold and windy days, it's done! The wall is ugly no longer.