flowerprinthat

Mädels

2012-03-03T09:25:00.002-08:00

Hi :)

ich mal wieder, aber diesmal nur mit einer Kleinigkeit. Die folgende Zeichnung habe ich für eine kleine aber feine Auftragsarbeit angefertigt aber dann selbst eingesehen, dass es thematisch nicht ganz das richtige ist, also habe ich netwas anderes gemacht. Sie ist trotzdem süß geworden, daher poste ich sie mal hier :)

Me again, but just with something tiny. The following drawing has been done for a small but nice commissioned work. I realized myself that it doesn't really fit the brief so I redid the whole thing. But this one turned out cute as well so here it is :)

bye bye Kathi

4 Seasons Pattern Set

2012-03-01T05:04:00.003-08:00

Hi :D

Zurück aus London kommt nun endlich das 4 Jahreszeiten Musterpaket, das ich euch in meinem letzten Post versprochen habe :)

Back from London I bring you the 4 Seasons Pattern Set that I promised in my last post :)

Die Muster im Set sind ein bisschen klein geworden, daher sind sie wohl am Besten für Weblayouts geeignet. Hier in meine Blog habe ich zum Beispiel das Frühlingsmuster als Hintergrund verwendet. Die Muster sind Schwarz auf transparenten Hintergrund so kann man sie leicht und wie man möchte verändern :)

The patterns in the set turned out a bit small so you can probably use them the best for online layouts like I did when I used them for my blog's background. The patterns are simply black on transparent background so you can easily modify them as you like :)

Frühling/Spring:

Sommer/Summer:

Herbst/Autumn:

Winter/Winter:

Gerne könnt ihr sie benutzen wo ihr wollt. Es wäre nur wunderbar, wenn ihr erwähnen könntet, dass sie von mir kommen.
Ich hoffe, es gefällt :)

You can use them wherever you want but it would be awesome, if you could credit my properly.
I hope, you like it :)

Hier ist der Download-Link/here's the download link:
4 Seasons Pattern Set

Bye bye
Kathi

Mori Girls

2012-02-14T06:03:00.002-08:00

Hi ihr Lieben,

langsam packt mich der Ferien-Blues. Es ist gut, dass es mir nicht an Arbeit mangelt, die ich schon viel zu lange vor mir herschiebe... Auf geht's :D

Slowly, the semester break Blues gets me. Luckily, I still do have enough things to do, I needed to work on already for too long... Let's go :D

Dieses Semester habe ich zum zweiten Mal in meinem Leben gesiebdruckt. Natürlich mal wieder ein Projekt für die Illustrations-Fachklasse :) Die Aufgabe war recht frei: Es musste ein Siebdruck werden und man sollte mindestens zwei Farben verwenden. Nach langem Grübeln, habe ich mich dafür entschieden, ein Thema zu bearbeiten, das mich schon lange interessiert:
Mori Girls ("Mädchen aus dem Wald" -> Ein Japanischer Modestil, mehr Infos hier)

I screenprinted for the second time in my life this semester. Of course again a project for my illustration class :) The task was quite free: It needed to be a screen print and we had to use at least two colors. After some thinking, I decided to work on a subject, I was already interested in for quite a while:
Mori Girls ("Girls from the Wood" -> A Japanese fashion style, more information here)

Das Ganze war eine wirkliche Herausforderung für mich. Siebdruck ist eigentlich eine Technik gut geeignet für große, farbige Flächen und plakative Designs. Meine Mori Girl Illustrationen sollten jedoch ganz feinteilig werden und mit den verschiedenen Ebenen und Farben spielen. Ich entschied mich dafür meine feinen Linien nur mit schwarz und weiß auf farbiges Naturpapier zu drucken. Durch die Überlagerung der zwei Ebenen verschmilzt das Mädchen mit dem Hintergrund. Am meisten Spaß hat es mir gemacht, die verschiedenen floralen Muster zu entwickeln.

The whole thing was quite a task for me. Screen printing is usually a technique for big an bold shapes and placativ designs. My Mori Girl illustrations should become whimsical and play with the different layers and colors. I decided to print my thin lines just with black and white on natural colored paper. Though the layering of the two colors the girl disappears in the background. I had the most fun while developing the different floral patterns.

Frühling/Spring

Sommer/Summer

Herbst/Autumn

Winter/Winter

Für die Eule habe ich ein Referenzbild von Tanja Askani benutzt (Leider kann ich das Bild gerade nicht wiederfinden) / For the owl, I used a reference picture from Tanja Askani (I sadly can't find it again)

Ich werde einen eigenen Blogpost für die Muster machen :) Ich will sie zum Download anbieten, also wenn ihr Interesse daran habt, bleibt aufmerksam :D

I will make an own blogpost about the patterns :) You'll be able to download them, so if you're interested, stay tuned :D

Und nun der kommerzielle Teil ;)

Die Siebdrucke stehen zum Verkauf!!!

Hier die Eckdaten:
- Format: 27x37,5 (ein bisschen kleiner als A3)
- Auflage: Je Motiv 15 Stück
- Preis: Ein Motiv 5€, das ganze Set mit vier Motiven: 15€ (Plus Porto)

Jedes Blatt ist signiert und nummeriert!
Außerdem bekommt jeder Käufer eine kleine aber feine Überraschung :D

Wenn Interesse besteht, einfach bei mir melden. Entweder hier im Blog oder per Mail an katharina.netolitzky(ät)gmx.de

And now the commercial part ;)

The Screen Prints are For Sale!!!

Here the facts:
- Size: 27x37,5 (a little bit smaller then A3) / 10.6x14.8 inch
- Copies aviable: 15 prints per motiv
- Price: One motiv 5€/6.60$, the whole set with four motivs: 15€/19.60$ (plus Shipping)

Every sheet is signed and numbered!
Moreover every buyer gets a little but nice surprise in his package :D

If you're interested, just write me. Either here in my blog or per mail at katharina.netolitzky(at)gmx.de

Bye bye <3
Kathi

P.S: The awesome frames are not part of the prints of course ;) It's just some Photoshop magic. I would love to have some of these for my prints though ;__;

Popularity

2012-02-14T03:53:00.000-08:00

Maybe you sacrificed too much for some popularity!

Schweinhundblog!

2012-02-13T09:41:00.005-08:00

Mein Schweinehund hat nun endlich seinen eigenen Blog :D
Das Design ist noch nicht ganz final, aber zumindest lesen kann man schon :)

http://des-schweinehunds-zaehmung.blogspot.com/

Finally, my inner pig got his own blog :D
The design is still work in progress though but you can already read the strips :)

http://the-taming-of-the-inner-pig.blogspot.com/

Balkan Night

2012-02-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

Hallöchen :)

Endlich Ferien <3 plötzlich weiß man gar nicht, was man mit seiner ganzen Zeit anfangen soll *lach* Bloggen scheint mir eine gute Idee zu sein. In meiner Illustrations Fachklasse habe ich dieses Semester ein paar schöne Projekte bearbeitet. Das erste möchte ich euch jetzt vorstellen.

Finally semester break <3 and suddenly you don't know, what to do with your time *laughs* To make a new blogpost seems to be a good idea. In my illustration class this semester I worked on some really nice projects. I want to show you one of them.

Für den Augsburger Club "Mahagoni Bar" sollten wir eine Flyerillustration für das Event "Balkan Night" entwerfen. Ich hab mal wieder ein bisschen übertrieben und gleich drei Illustrationen gemacht. Dabei bin ich zimlich total vom Weg abgekommen. Eigentlich war klar, dass der Kunde sich etwas einfaches aber aussagekräftiges wünscht. Meine Illustrationen sind alles, nur nicht einfach *lach*... Na ja :) Lektion gelernt. Und auch wen ich den Job nicht bekommen habe, so bin ich sehr zufrieden mit meiner Arbeit.

We should design a flyer illustration for the club "Mahagoni Bar" in Augsburg for their event "Balkan Night". As quite often, I took it a little bit too seriously and made three different illustrations. I totally lost my track. It was clear, that the client wanted something simple and strong. My illustrations weren't simple at all *laughs*... Well :) I learned my lesson. And although I didn't get the job, I'm really happy with my work.

Bye bye
Kathi

Suspense

2012-02-08T01:00:00.000-08:00

The feeling of suspense, when you get a present but can't open it yet <3

JAZAM! Comic Clash

2012-02-05T01:44:00.000-08:00

Hallöchen :)

Ich dachte mir, es ist an der Zeit mal einen kleinen Einblick in das zu geben, an dem ich die letzten Wochen gearbeitet habe. ALs Teil des JAZAM! Teams nehme ich am aller ersten deutschen Comic-Clash teil. Zum Thema "Der Sinn des Lebens" habe ich eine fünfseitige Kurzgeschichte gezeichnet :)

I thought I should reveal, on what I've been working over the last few weeks. For the first German Comic-Clash I paticipate in the JAZAM! team. I did a five pages shortstory about my personal meaning of life :)

Wie ihr euch sicher vorstellen könnt, war das eine Menge Arbeit ;) Ich bin wirklich glücklich mit den fertigen Seiten. Die JAZAM!-Comic-Clash Anthologie wird zum diesjährigen Comicsalon in Erlangen veröffentlicht. Ich freue mich schon sehr aufs Schmökern :)

As you can imagine, it was quite some work ;) I'm really happy with the final pages. The whole JAZAM!-Comic-Clash Anthology will be released at the Comicsalon Erlangen this June. I can't wait to read it :)

Diese lieben Leute werden ebenfalls in der Anthologie vertreten sein:

Those awesome people will be in the anthology, too:

Adrian vom Baur
Yi Luo
David Füleki
David Koslowski
Irina Zinner
Florian Steinl
Nico Simon
Martin Rathscheck
Stefanie Stock
Tom Drexl

Bye bye
Kathi

Forward

2012-01-30T14:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's not easy to look forward to what will come.

2 Selfportraits

2012-01-25T03:10:00.000-08:00

Huhu :)

You maybe already noticed, I did a little bit on my bloglayout over the last few weeks.

New year - new Layout :D

First, I did a new profile picture. In the sidebar, it's really tiny there, so here it is a little bit bigger so you can see the actual detail:

I worked on a short comicstory in thes drawing style.

I also redid the old banner illustration. Actually, it's the same motiv so it may look the same to you but if you compare it to the old one, you see the differences: Old post.

I really like, how it turned out :)

The plant-pattern, I used for my blog background is also self designed. I made it for a project in my illustration class which is almost done. I'll post about it very soon :)

I hope you have such a nice weather as I do :D

by ebye,
Kathi

Twirl

2012-01-21T02:42:00.000-08:00

When I was small, I loved to twirl till I was dizzy :)

Bloglovin

2012-01-20T09:07:00.001-08:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Prepare

2012-01-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

I will go to a short trip to London soon <3 I should prepare my suitcase :D

The Spanish Dancer

2012-01-14T11:52:00.000-08:00

Hi,

time to blog something else beside Pigdog-Comics ;)

While looking through my unused sketches and linearts, I found a drawing I still really like but for some reason never finished.

So I finished it for a small drawing competition.

Here is the "colored" version:

For the competition, I need a greyscale version, too:

And here's the old lineart I was talking about:

As you can see, I didn't really do much but I really like, how it turned out :)

See you soon.
Kathi

Adventskalender

2011-12-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone <3 :)

Strichnin Cover: Rainy day

2011-12-04T01:05:00.000-08:00

Yay :)

I finished my first bigger illustration this semester! It is a cover suggestion for the fourth volume of our university's Comic project Strichnin. Maybe you remember, but I also did some suggestions for the last one and I did also a whole comic story for it :)

This time the subject is "found" but actually it's quite open, what kind of motiv we want to do. So I did this:

The composition may look a little bit odd for a comic book cover. My idea was, that you can only see the left part with the girl and the little monster, when you open the book there's a flap you can swing out where the pile of little monstes is hidden :)

I have to admit, it's not a million doller idea *laughs* But I felt like painting something colorful, cheerfull and cute so I just did it.

It's done with Acrylic colors and color pencils on grey cardboard! I plan to go a little bit more analogue this year because I love to have the original final painting in my hands. That's something you can't have in that way when yo paint digitally :(

OK... I also have some WiPs for you this time because while the execution is completely analogue, I also did some steps digitally:

For example the sketch! I drew every person seperately and made the compositing digitally! Then I printed it and traced them on layout paper to get some nice and chrisp outlines:

I scanned them again and made a digital color sketch to get an idea how the final thing could look like and to show it my illustration professor so he can help me with some critics :)

With his help, I decided to make the peolple in front of the monsters a little bit bigger so the picture doesn't look so flat any more.

I traced the Lineart with chalkcoal paper on the cardboard and started painting like crazy *laughs*

That's it :)

I really hope you like it.
Bussi
Kathi

Buttons LOVE

2011-11-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

Huhu :)

I'm back with something old(er - not that old actually, a few weeks) :D BUTTONS <3

I totally love buttons, and as we had an exhibition coming and my lovely flatmate Yi (please visit her at http://heydudepp.tumblr.com/) has a button machine, I made some with her help :3!

The fun thing is, every button is an original so I created around 60 different tiny illustrations.

Here they are:

I also made a tiny box to sell them :)

On the picture, you can also see one of the Matrjoschkas I painted :O I still need to post about them ~o~/// I'm so slow :(

But anyway, if you live in or near Augsburg, Germany it would be lovely if you can have a look at the exhibition :) The gallery is right in the City Center:

Galerie Süßkind
Dominikanergasse 9
86150 Augsburg

Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr 10-18 Uhr, Sa 10-16 Uhr

Our exhibition will close after the 14th of December. I will sell the leftover buttons here in my blog so if you want one, stay tuned <3

Bye bye
Kathi

Pop Up Card, Giraffe & Meat

2011-11-24T03:57:00.000-08:00

Hi :O

No posts again for quite a while :( The "inner pig" also seems to sleept... Lots of things happend over the last weeks. I needed some time to get myself together again.

I'm still not really OK yet but here I am again, nevertheless :)

The first thing, I want to show you, is the birthday card, I did for my beloved sister's birthday <3 For the first time, I tried to do a Pop Up card. It took really long, although the mechanism is so simple...
It turned out a little bit tacky, but I still like it :)

And as this post is already very random, here is something I did quite a while ago but never knew when to post it:

Crappy photo is crappy :( sadly, it's the only one I have, because this giraffe is glued on the wall of a flat I don't live in ;) I think I will redraw it when I find the time.

And last but not least something very different. This is a picture I did for an exhibition with the topic "Meat"! It's nothing big, but I enjoyed to draw it *laughs*

Ok :) That's it.

See you soon (hopefully :O)
Kathi

Journey to Lapland

2011-10-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

Huhu :)

do you remember this post? During my summer holidays I worked on a 5 pieces serial of illustrations for the exhibition, I currently have together with my lovely flatmates.

I already showed you the first sketches, now I want to show you the final illustrations :)

Some Wips:

I worked with acrylic colors on blue painted wood! It was my first time working with wood so it took me a lot of time to figure out how to work with this material...

I really love how the texture of the wood comes through <3

Some Close Ups:

The bunny looks a bit creepy in the close up XD

Suspicious :O

I think the swan is my favorite bit of all five pictures <3

And the paintings in the exhibition room:

There were so many people at the opening. It was really amazing. I'll talk more about this wonderful evening soon :)

It's so nice, how the huge arcs frame our pictures. It looked very nice together although all of us have so different drawing and painting styles.

Here they are (at least three of them XD).

(exhibition pictures haven't been shot by me :) thanks a lot for the pictures girls<3)

Actually, this five paintings are a remake of a project I did almost one year ago in Finland. I also made a blogpost about it so if you're interested, you can read it here. At that time, I only had two days to finish all five paintings so they turned out very small and unpolished. I always wanted to redo them so I took the chance when I had to decide on a project for the exhibition :) The new version turned out completely different but they're still not that, what I initially wanted them to look like. I still really love, how they turned out so I'll give up on this XD There's no way, I'll paint them a third time *lol*

Oh... and I think I won't touch my brishes and acrylic colors for a while *laughs* I'm really not patient enough to work with these materials. I'm a color pencil and Marker person...

I'll be back soon with more stuff from the exhibition :)
Bye bye
Kathi

Badges

2011-10-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today's Comic strip is already in preparetion :)

First a little something for something very big I'm currently working on. The following badges are all around 4x4 cm.

Bye bye
Kathi

Blühende Fantasie (24-Stunden-Comic)

2011-10-05T07:34:00.001-07:00

Hey Ho :)

How are you? I finally managed to scan and letter my 24h-Comic. I'm still tired although it already happened tree days ago *weak* But I at least managed to fail noble XD I worked the whole 24 hours but I sadly didn't finish 24 pages! The last two panels and the Cover have been done in the train on my way back home from Weimar and the whole thing hast just 18 pages.

The whole 24h comic day was an awesome experience. It was a very cool feeling to work in one room togwther with so many different and talented artists.

Some of their work is already online so (if you can read German) you find them here:
Johannes Kretzschmar
Dimitar Stoykow Jr.
Lapinot
Katja Klengel
Ulf Salzmann
Yi Luo
Paul Schöber

I hope, there will be more soon :)

OK... finally, here is mine. I'm really sorry, that it is just in German. If you can't read it but really would like to, please tell me.

Bye bye :)
Kathi

Zalando Fashion Flatrate

2011-09-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Huhu :D

This entry will be in German because it's for a German Fashion contest :) I hope, you don't mind <3

------------------------------------------------------------------>

Zalando... jedem, der innerhalb des letzten Jahres mal den Fernseher eingeschaltet hat sollte dieser Name nicht unbekannt sein ;) Dank der ziemlich effektiven Werbeoffensive bin auch ich bereits ein paar Mal auf der Seite des Onlineshops gelandet und habe ein bisschen geschmökert.

Zufällig bin ich nun über einen Wettbewerb gestolpert, bei dem ich gar nicht anders konnte, als mitzumachen :D Welche Frau träumt nicht davon ein Jahr lang jeden Monat 300€ für Klamotten auf den Kopf hauen zu könne.

Auf Zalando wird eine Fashion Flatrate unter Bloggern verlost:

Die Aufgabe besteht darin, sich auf Zalando ein schönes, individuelles Outfit zusammen zu stellen und ein wenig über seine Auswahl zu bloggen :)

Es hat mir sehr viel Spaß gemacht zeichnerisch an die Sache ranzugehen:

Bitte klickt auf das Bild für mehr Details :) Da kann man dann sogar die Schrift lesen *lach*

Folgende Zalando-Produkte habe ich benutzt: Hut von Just Cavalli, Parka von Only, Schal von Gerard Darel, Kleid von Vero Moda, Tasche von Liebeskind und Schuhe von seven seconds!

Bye bye :)
Kathi

T-Shirt Illustration for Grindhouse

2011-09-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hey :)
Finally a new blogpost, that's not related to my webcomic. <_<°

Maybe you remember this post from July about the flyer illustration I did for the A Chosen Few inline skating contest.

I was pretty lucky to get the chance to redo the illustration for the skate-onlineshop Grindhouse :D I had to simplify it a lot for screenprinting, although I like the original colors a bit more, I'm still very happy with the outcome :3

I already saw the ad for the T-Shirt in the newest Grindhouse catalogue. I never did an commercial T-Shirt illustration before so this is pretty amazing for me *exited* ^3^///

I can't wait to hold one of this shirts in my hands :D sadly they don't produce girl's sizes. I don't know, if there are any boys who read my blog *laughs* :O
Well... here's the link where you could get it: Grindhouse Playground Tee

What do you think about it? O////O

See you soon :D
Kathi

Sneak Peek

2011-09-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

A sneak peak of what I'm doing at the moment :) If you follow my blog once in a while you may guess what it is ;P

Back to work now :)
Bye bye
Kathi

Little Monsters

2011-08-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

Haha... I was finally able to escape to a place where it doesn't feel like I'm melting:
The university library
...
I mean WTF, I went to the library during summer vacation... to escape summer...
Crazy times *laughs* But I have so much stuff to do, I can't lose another day :(

I bought a little teaser with me of what I'm doing at the moment ;)

And no, I didn't take anything ;P Maybe it's the heat?! This is not the final image. I have a very special, handmade frame for this picture (which will eventually explain the motiv XD) But I'll show you the whole thing another time.

I wish you great summer holidays <3
bye bye
Kathi

Bear's full

2011-08-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

A small drawing for my boy as a little "I'm sorry"-gift because I messed up with something :(

Puh... I feel like getting the holiday blues... I really should draw more and bum around less ;(

Lazy lazy girl :O

See you :)
Kathi

Animexx.de calendar entry

2011-08-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hey Ho :)

I'm back from Austria and I have a very Austrian picture in my package ;D

For this year's calendar competition of a German Manga and Anime community (Anmimexx.de), I did my first proper Manga related illustration since months. It was not an easy birth to get back to that style but it was kind of nostalgic :D ~~~ and fun!

Here's the picture:

Funny format, isn't it? The format was one of the reasons why I really wanted to participate in the compitition once again. I used to participate every year with at least three pictures when I was a teenager *laughs*

The characters shown are Aiko and Yuuki, the Mascots of Animexx.

After hiking and biking in the Austrian Alps for a week, I decided let them have lunch in a sunny scene in the Alps. I used the pictures I took as references for the background and the overall mood.

In the end painting the background was even much more fun then drawing the characters :O

You can see a bigger version of the picture here: Animexx
( to get it full size, you just need to click on the picture once more... sorry for that O: )

For the competition, I needed to save WiPs of the drawing (as I don't do that anyway *laghs*).
Here's the first digital step. I scanned the pencil linearts and painted a rough layout for the background. The format was really a challenge!

Color layers for the characters, too:

I started to color the characters. I used a quite simple coloring style because I like pictures with that Anime kind of feeling: Simple colored characters in a painted scenery.

Here I already finished the grass. For the flowers in the foreground I used references! Thanks to a well-known custom Photoshop brush, everything turned out nice and fluffy ;)

The mountain range in the background really exists. It's called "der Wilde Kaiser" (The Wild Emperor). It's really amazingly beautiful. I tried to find a good balance between detail and abstraction.... and I like the water color like look.

For the final picture, I added two more layers in the background and some textures on the characters. I'm really not used to paint landscapes like this, so I was quite nervous before I started, but it turned out quite nice, I think.

See you soon :D

Kiss ^3^
Kathi

Washing zoo

2011-07-31T23:46:00.002-07:00

Hi people <3

yay... the semester is finally over! I have to leave for my train to Austria in 15 Minutes so I thought, before I leave civilisation, I want to share one of my illustrations with you, I did for illustration class this term.
This term, we did a great project. We had to create some (very huge) illustrations for a calendar. The subject was " energy saving" and I really enjoyed it. I had plenty of ideas, sadly not so much time to illustrate all of them. But in the end, the customer chose one of my works.

The one, I want to show you know hasn't been chosen. I think, because it was not "mature" enough, but I already had a feeling, when I was creating this *laugh* I did it anyway and I really love, how it turned out.

No more talking :) I show you the result:

This is the sketch for the painting. I sketched every animal seperately and did the compositing digitally. I'm not so used to drawing animals so I'm really happy, how they turned out (only the cat is a little bit odd *laughs*)

Here are some of my favorites seperately:
Racoon:

Cacadoo:

Giraffe:

Beaver:

And the washing machine (*lol* no animal though):

I did a digital color test before I went analogue again:

And finally:

The colors are Gouache, the whole thing is around 50x60 cm. I took me so long to complete because I had to repaint some of the animals over and over again because I couldn't control the colors very well, but I love the result. It's just coloful and fun :D

For a side project, I created this little drawing. Same idea, it just should work in a much smaller format:

I also planned an elephant for the big drawing but there was just no space for him any more :O So it got it's space in the small one :)

Wah... I have to leave now. I'm really sorry for the crappy English. I don't even have time to read everything again and to get rid of the typing mistakes XD

I wish you a great week :)
See you soon,
Kathi

Flyer: A Chosen Few

2011-07-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

Puh... no updates for quite a while :) University is trying to drive me insane, I had two deadlines on Monday and two exams today. Tomorrow finally is the oral examination for presentation class :O But till now, I think, I'm doing quite Ok :D I'm much more scared of the deadlines for my bigger projects which will take part in the next two weks :O

I somehow managed to tweek in a little project for my boyfriend some time ago :) He organized a street skate contest in Stuttgart. It happened last weekend. He had a nice idea for an illustrated flyer and asked me to do the illustration for him.

So his idea, my illustration! It was so much fun to do it. Finally something ot so serious *laughs*

Here's the lineart:

And the coloration:

My boyfriend did the layout for the flyer:

I would love to do more projects like this :)

Hope to see you soon <3
Kathi

Comicfest Munich 2011

2011-06-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Boyz and Girlz :D

I'll write this entry in German this time, sorry. It's mostly about the Comicfestival which will take part in Munich the next 4 days :)

---------------------------------------->

Morgen geht es endlich los, das Comicfest in München öffnet ein weiteres Mal seine Pforten :D Ich bin, wie immer, noch mitten in der Planungsphase und dabei die letzten Dinge zu organisieren *lach* Daher auch dieser späte Blogeintrag ^^°

Zum ersten Mal habe ich einen meiner eigenen Comics für eine Veranstaltung drucken lassen. In einem neuen Gewand und mit ein paar frisch gezeichneten Seiten gibt es nun mein Finnland-Tagebuch auch in analoger Form :D

Das kleine aber feine Heftchen wird es alle vier Tage am Stand von JAZAM! zu kaufen geben. Wenn ihr nicht auf Comicfest kommt, aber eins haben wollt, schreibt mir einfach hier ein Kommentar oder eine E-Mail an katharina.netolitzky[ät]gmx.de :D

Ich selbst werde ebenfalls ab und an am JAZAM-Stand anzutreffen sein. Schon vor ein paar Wochen habe ich hier ja erzählt, dass eine Kurzgeschichte von mir im funkelnagelneuen sechsten Band abgedruckt wurde (plus Illustration in der Galerie).

Als kleines Schmankerl präsentiere ich euch zwei finale Panels aus der fertigen Geschichte :)

Zug Zug Zug Zug Zug :D

Hach... Paris <3

Das neue JAZAM! kann man natürlich auch auf der JAZAM!-Homepage bestellen: http://www.jazam.de/

Und noch eine letzte Ankündigung: Ich werde auch ein paar Ausgaben des Strichnin-Comicmagazins (http://www.strichnin-comic.de/) mit mir herumtragen (wenn der Platz ausreicht, wird es sie vielleicht auch am JAZAM!-Stand zu kaufen geben). Vielleicht hat ja der ein oder andere Lust einen Blick hinein zu werfen :)

Puh... ich glaube, das war's erstmal :) ich mache mich jetzt noch an das Basteln eines kostenlosen Gimmicks, mit dem ich das Künstlerhaus fluten möchte *lach* danah brauch ich auf jeden Fall eine dicke Mütze Schlaf :)

Bis hoffentlich Morgen,
Kathi

Life drawing

2011-06-04T01:40:00.000-07:00

Hi :D

I hope you don't mind, that I bore you with my recent life drawings *laughs* There's not much I can show you at the moment. I work on a lot of different construction sides at the same time so there is a lot of "Work in Progress" stuff but nothing finished yet :O

Sorry for the ridiculous censor bars *laughs* I did them for photobucket, where I host my images, so they don't delete the naked people again D:

Most of them have been drawn with color pencils :)

Bye bye
Kathi

Visiting the little rabbit :)

2011-05-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

Till Felix asked his readers under the last page of his daily webcomic "es wird ein Hase" to visit him, his wife and the newborn little rabbit-boy, so I took my flatmates with me and we had a look. We came quite late, as always ;)

(of course, only the four girls are drawn by me, the rest is by Till Felix!) :)

-------------------------------------------------->

Change of subject :D I decided to learn how to deal with acrylic colors. In one of our courses this term we will paint a self portrait. Usually, I try to avoid working with brushes and opaque colors but lately I realized what amazing things you can do with them. So I decided to practice, practice, practice *laughs*

I won't show you my first two tries because they turned out awful but it became better and better :) I'm still working just in black and white, colour would be a step to far at the moment:

This portrait of my boyfriend was the first thing that turned out OK :9 It doesn't really look like him though...

Next, I tried it with a self portrait. I really like, how it is painted but it still doesn't look so much like me :(

This time, I tried to paint my sister so I can give it together with my selfportrait to my mum for mother's day.....the shoulders are not pretty :( I don't know what I thought...

The first three have been done with photo reference. In class, we had a life drawing model so our teacher asked us to do a portrait of her, too.

The first try was just with pencil because I never thought I can do it with a real model (which sat quite far away from me so I couldn't see much detail). But it turned out surprisingly OK so....

I tried acrylic colors. We only had around one hour so it's not perfect at all (hat and clothes look like made of rubber) but I'm quite happy, how the face turned out. It really looks like her!

So, that's it with my acrylic experiences so far *laughs* I'll continue practicing :)

bye bye
Kathi

P.S: I reall yhave to organize my tags :O

Digitalartforum Artbattle!

2011-05-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's me again ;)

Do you know, what an Artbattle is? The It's like a tournament with digital characters. Every paricipant creates a fighter, then pairs are drawn and now, you have to try to knock out your opponent as creative and funny as possible :D The forum community votes for the better entry and the winner can participate in the next round.

This time, I was finally able to participate in the digitalartforum Artbattle. I already was a visitor there for a couple of times before.

My fighter is:

"Nemo and his Teddy"... *lol* don't ask ;)

First, I did this drawing in my sketchbook:

But then, I decided to overpaint it digitally:

I'm not so sure if I like, how it turned out. The final look doesn't fit my style at all :(

My oponent was appo2.0, a mixture between ape and memory stick *laughs*, created by a user named appomo.

This was my entry for the first round:

...
and sadly that's it. I didn't have much time for my entry so the idea is not really creative and I had to work fast and sloppy to finish it somehow. Appomo on the other hand, did a really time consuming picture sequence in a great style.

The public voting is not over yet, but it doesn't look good for me :(

If you're interested, you can have a look at appomo's entry here :)
Appo2.o vs. Nemo und sein Teddy

I would have loved to participate for a few more rounds but I'll definitely come back next time with a stronger fighter and more time in my luggage ;D

Bye bye
Kathi

That&This

2011-05-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hey Ho :D

Have you seen the Eurovision Songcontest? What a show *laughs* I really enjoyed to watch it although I have to admit, the whole thing was kinda odd this year O__o

At the moment, I'm so busy with university, it's insane... and there are still two more month to go. I'm not sure yet, how I will surivive *lol* But I have really fun and amazing projects this year so I shouldn't complain ;)

I can't show you the stuff for the big projects yet so this is just another "this&that" post :)

The first thing was something I did while being on the phone :) I found some amazing photos from a session of Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School (some kind of alternative life drawing) in Berlin and took it as the inspiration for this drawing:

I like, how all the fur turned out :O

I drew this little angel during today's lecture:

Isn't he cute? Odd proportions I have to admit...

Actually I did this Illustration for school. But I had to change the idea so I think, I can already show it to you :)

The bathtubes turned out very weird.

And if we already talk about "weird":

First, I did the girl with the bird. A T-Shirt, I saw, inspired me to the monsters...

Hm... this was also just for fun in a lecture. Tried to work with blue outlines and Mori Girl (Japanese fashion trend) like clothing.

And the last one for today:

Last Saturday it was "Free Comic Book Day" here in Germany. We sold the Strichnin-Magazine, in which one of my Comics is printed, in the local library. I did this drawing in one of the sold books :)

So,
Hasta La Vista, Baby ;D

Kathi

This&That

2011-04-25T02:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone :)

University really knows how to keep me busy! I'm working on some really nice projects :3
Over the last weeks I collected some smaller drawings from my sketchbook on my harddrive but I was to busy to get a general idea. But the easter holidays finally give me the time to make a longer post for you :D

The first thing I wanted to show you is a birthday card I made for my dear flatmate, who cut her hair short.

Actually, I did the final card together with my two other faltmates, everyone drew 6 heads and we placed them together on the card I did even 3 more and while talking on the phone with a friend I colored them in Photoshop.

The next thing is a speedpaint (with photo reference) I started with my boyfried to show him, how I paint digitally. This one, I also finished while talking on the phone *laughs* I always need something to skribble X3

Every week, I go live drawing. I'm really not so good at it so it always frustrates me, but I feel like I get slowly better. These two drawings are already a few weeks old. Each of them took me 10 minutes. I think, I had a good day *laughs*

I really like how the next two drawings turned out. I drew both out of a feeling, without thinking too much, just what I had in mind.

The second drawing is based one something I saw from the night train. I saw the man on the cleaning machine in front of the giant train for a very short time, so I used my phantasie to finish the picture.

The last few drawings are concepts for my JAZAM! Comic project. By the way, my entry got accepted :) It will be part of this year's JAZAM! *happy*

This is Elsbeth. The main character of the little story :) she's a daydreamer, likes to built castles in the air and to go on adventures.

And this are her buddies Hendrick and Wasseli. They're not what they seem to be ;)

OK... this one is very random ;) this is Elspeth's bag. I just like, how the drawing turned out (with photo reference) that's why I post it here.

I hope, you had nice easter holidays :D

bye bye
Kathi

JAZAM! Reiserei

2011-04-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

Hey ho :D

sorry for being so inactive. This was such a long and busy week. But I was finally able to finish my entry for this years JAZAM! :D I really hope, they pick it for printing *crosses her fingers*

I sadly can't show you, what I did, I can just give you just a small peak:

The whole thing has 5 pages and I'm really proud of how it turned out *__*

I hope, I can come back soon with a proper entry. After hiding the whole week in my room and workig on the comic, I have to go back to reality now!

Bye bye
Kathi

Bologna Children's Book Fair

2011-04-03T05:37:00.000-07:00

Wow... what a busy week :O

From last Sunday till Tuesday night, I've been in Bologna (Italy) with my friend Yi to visit the international Children's Book Fair. It was so amazing and exhausting *laughs* I took a portfolio with me but I was too shy to show it to the publishers *fail* But I took a lot of inspiration with me and I will be better prepared and come again.

Of course I forgot my business cards at home so Yi and I we decided to handdraw some :)

All of them were taken in an hour so I don't have any left, but I took pictures with my camera so I can show you, what I drew!

Lineart

Some color

Cut

One of the two displays I made

And the display on the open wall :D

I really love how they turned out. I should definitely do more drawings in this style *__* Sorry for the blurry pictures ^^°

Now I hve to return to my desk :D I'm still working on my Comic for the German Comic Anthology JAZAM!

Kiss~~~
Kathi

Strichnin #3

2011-03-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hey :)

yay... finally I can tell you about a big project I participated in. One year ago, I visited the comic workshop project on my univesity. During that workshop, we created short comic stories which were meant to be published in our university's own comic magazine: Strichnin

(Banner Illustration by Judith Urban)

The release party for Strichnin volume 3, where my comic will be published, will finally happen next Wednesday (30.03.), 5:30 PM , in the building of the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Room K1.01 :D

There will also be an exhibition of original comic drawings and you can have a look at all the suggestions which were made for the cover competition!

Very soon, there will be a webpage with more information:
http://www.strichnin-comic.de/

But I arranged a facebook fanpage, where you can already find a lot of information (sadly only in German) and preview pictures from all the comics :)

For the decoration in the room, where the party will happen, I did this drawing of my main character Helmut :D

(the drawing is one year old, the coloration from yesterday!)

Maybe see you there :D
bye bye
Kathi

My first Quilt

2011-03-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yay :)

I think, I already talked about it in my last post, but the reason why I didn't update for such a long time was not me being lazy ;) A really big (maybe the biggest I ever done) crafting project kept me busy!

Today was my mum's birthday so I can finally show it to you: My first Quilt *____*//

I used to sew a lot when I was a teenager but I didn't do much the last few years in this direction. Online I stumbled over a nice crafting community where I saw some stunning quilting projects and I thought, I can do this, too. My mum's birthday was the right reason to get finally started!

I wanted to make something really special for her because the first three months of the year haven't been nice to her. There's a mosaique pattern on the floor of the house where she used to live most of her live. I took it as an inspiration for my pattern.

In Illustrator I created a pattern as the guildeline for my work!

I made it much lighter then the oroginal one, because I wanted the final blanket to fit my mum's couch in the living room.

Sadly, I didn't take pictures of the working progress, but maybe that's better *laughs* I really can't remember how many hours I spend on this thing. I occupied the whole flat, my flatmates couldn't even walk through the hall or eat in the kitchen *laughs* sorry guys ;P

But with a little bit help of my friend Julia I finished in time. I am so proud of the result although you can see, that it has a lot of flaws because I don't have so much sewing and crafting experience. Nevertheless, this won't be my last quilting project :D

A few more pictures of the blanket in use :) My sister was so nice to model for me <3

And a close up so you can see how much I suck in sewing in a straight line ;)

Bye bye
Kathi

Mama

2011-03-10T10:11:00.000-08:00

My mum had an operation two days ago. I'm so happy, that everything went fine :) While waiting for some news from the hospital, I made this little drawing:

The second drawing is want to share with you is this one:

I try to develop a main character for a small Comic project and this was the first try.

I really draw a lot at the moment, but I can't share it yet.

1st: I work on a homepage for myself!
2nd: I work on the Comic project for JAZAM!
3rd: I make a birthday present for my mum!

It's like working on three different construction sides at once *laughs*

bye bye
Kathi

Lisa's Card

2011-03-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

Hey :)

My friend Lisa's birthday is on the same day as mine so we always celebrate together. It's really lovely to share your birthday with one of your best friends :D

I made a birthday card for her:

Maybe I will work a little bit more with typography from now on. It was so much fun to make this card <3

bye bye
Kathi

Steampunk Aphrodite

2011-03-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Hey Ho :D

I actually finished this picture even before I left for Scotland but it was just a few hours before I had to leave for my airplane so I didn't have the time to share it yet ;D

Here it is :) I drew this picture for conceptart.org's Character of the Week two weeks ago. I really enjoy participating there because the themes are so original and it's always a great challenge! I hope, I'll find the time to participate once in a while after uni started again next week.

The theme this time was Steampunk Aphrodite!

This was my idea:

My Aphrodite is an talented innovator who modifies hearts to help people to fall in love. Her belt is not magic but there's a third arm hidden in it, which helps her with her work.
Afraid of her beauty, her father married her very young to an ugly and rough blacksmith. The passionate young woman locked her own heart away, that was the only way how she could stay with a man she doesn't love. But it seems that her little Armor helpers found the key!

Lineart:

Blocking the colors:

Shading:

Almost done:

And the final image:

See you soon :)
Kathi

The Scotland experience

2011-03-01T04:38:00.000-08:00

Hello hello :)

Two days ago I came back from an one week long trip to Scotland to visit my dear friends Sarah and Kim. I spend a great time there, mostly in St. Andrews (yes, I even saw Prince Whilliam *laughs*), but also in Dundee and Edinburgh.

While travelling, I took a lot of pictures and I made a few small Comics and drawings I want to share with you now :D

I drew this strip in the airplane *laughs* I still don't know, why I was so exited.

1: Still one week! "I hope, I don't forget anything, I hope, the suitcase is not too heavy, I hope it is not too big..."
2. Still one day! "What, if I don't wake up, what, if I don't hear the bell, what, if I miss my flight...?"
3. Still one hour! "Where do I check in, where is the gate, where is the safety check...?"
It's the first time, that I fly alone!

After I walked a bit around in Edinburgh and visited the National Galleries, I took the train to St. Andrews.

But the train got stuck for an hour and I sadly didn't have a seat so I tried to sit on my suitcase.

In the end, I arrived safe and spend a great evening in the pub with Sarah and her friends :)

I spent the next 3 days sight seeing in St. Andrews and participating in Sarahs life ;D

As you would expect from Scotland in Feburary it was:

It was that kind of weather where you ask yourself every morning: "How many layers of clothes should I wear?"

But thanks to the weather, I was able to see the most amazing Rainbow I could ever imagine

Wednesday evening I went on to Dundee where I first watcht the movie "never let me go" with Sarah. It was really beautiful.

Some kind of a fanart :)

After the movie, I met Kim and we had a fun night in the club!

On the next day, I visited some illustration lectures with Kim and had a nice walk through Dundee.

finally the sun came out. And it was nice enough to stay the rest of the week :)

Back in St. Andrews, there was the 600year anniversary going on. I had a short look at Prince Whilliam and Kate but the crowd was too crazy.

So I went with Sarah on a walk on the Fife costal path. It was so muddy, we didn't come far, but it was amazing!

I spend a fun last evening in St. Andrews. We watched a musical, went to the pub, went to another pub and played drinking games in a friend's house. Far too late, we went to bed and it was not easy to wake up the next morning to catch out train to Edinburgh.

1. If I go to bed with wet hair... "Good night, Sarah"
2. ...I look like this the next morning.

We met Kim in Edinburgh and spend another nice day sight seeing and shopping together.

Yay.... :D Kim, Sarah and I!

I made myself an Edinburgh map to find the Youth Hostel :D

After having Haggis and super tasty Scottish cheese for dinner, I spend the last night alone in a youth hostel. The next morning, I had to wake up at 3:30 AM to catch my flight:

Because I didn't want to wake someone up in the Youth Hostel, I dressed myself in darkness!

And here I am again :) full with wonderful experiences, good food, great inspiration and a lot of ideas!

Bye bye
Kathi

Zodiac Warrior

2011-02-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

Hi :)

Do you know the conceptart.org forum? It's a great place where you can find a lot of amazing (digital) artists from all over the world. They host some weekly challenges there, so as I have the time, I decided to participate in a few to challenge myself :D

So the subject of last week's Character of the Week was Zodiac Warrior!
I chose Pisces because that's my own sign!

Here are some steps of my work :)

The lineart is done by hand. I really suck when it comes to digital inks and sketches so I prefer my pencils.

Some color steps:

Some fast Skribble Skrabble to get an idea of the colors.

It needed far more contrast.

I start rendering.

Almost done. I decided to get rid of the lineart

And the final painting:

Maybe it's a little bit too much with all the bubbles, textures, the glow and so on, but I still quite like, how the whole thing turned out :)

I sadly didn't have as much time for it as I wanted, so the anatomy is sloppy and the rendering is not perfect, but it was a lot of fun to get back into digital painting :)

Bye bye
Kathi

My Valentines Day

2011-02-14T01:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day everyone :)

I hope, you will spend a nice day with the Ones you love!

I did a mixed media drawing I wanted to send to my friends as a postcard. I wanted to do a mixed media tutorial already for a long time so I finally took the chance to take pictures during my working progress and to write my thoughts down :)

Maybe it didn't turn out as a real tutorial, more a workthrough or a "how I do things" but I still hope it can be interesting for you!

For this coloring technique, I will basically use
Pastel chalks
Color pencils
Copic markers
and Opaque white.

Here we go:

1st Step: sketch
Every picture starts with a sketch :) If I feel like it, I first skribble some concept sketches in a sketchbook or on a loose piece of paper, but more often I just sketch on the drawing paper.
For sketching, I like to use a mechanical pen, strengh 0,5mm, 2B. The lines are dark enough to look nice but I can still erase it easily.
About the paper, I used for this drawing: For mixed media techniques I recommend to use thick drawing paper, around 200g, with a nice paper structure. For this drawing, I used a very nice yellowish paper with a very heavy structure.

2nd step: lineart
If you use copic markers or other alcohol based markers, you should use an alcohol proof pencils or ink to draw your lines. I didn't, because I don't have them at the moment. I had to work really careful with the markers so the lines won't bleed out.
How you line your artwork is a question of personal style :) I don't want too dominant lines in my final drawing so I made the inner ones very thin and just framed the whole thing with a thicker line.

3rd step: pastel chalks
That's a fun part *laughs* I create a color base with pastel chalks. I just put the color on the paper and blur it with a paper tissue. If you don't know, how to do it, maybe practice how the colors mix on a second piece of (the same) paper. As you can see, I used two very different kinds of pastel chalks which react completely different.
The light orange one is very very soft and easy to smooth. Although the paper has this heavy structure, the soft chalk dust goes everywere and the structure is not visible.
On the opposite the hard red chalk. That one is not so easy to smooth out. The structure of the paper is clearly visible. I really like that effect, that's why I chose the paper. The structure won't be that visible if you use paper with a normal surface, of course, even if you use hard pastel chalks :)

The nice thing about pastel chalks is, that you can erase them with a normal eraser! I take the color away from her face and arms because I'm afraid it will become too dark if I add a layer of markers.
If you don't like the idea, that this pastel chalk base coloring will be still visible when you add other layer of color, you can erase them from your whole drawing. I like the effect, that's why I just erase it in the skin parts.

4th step: skin
I love to do skin, that's why I always do it first *laughs* I didn't take detailed pictures while I did the skin, there will come a more detailed description about my technique later. But you can see in the picture, what colors I used.

5th step: hair
I first color the whole shape with one copic color.

I draw some gradients and shadows with color pencils. Note, that I never use real black for my colorings. My favorite color pencil is a really dark blue which looks really nice with the light pinkish and yellowish colors I want to color this drawing with.

I take the brown basic color and start to smooth the colors. If you put a second layer of copic color on a dried first one, it becomes much darker, which is a really nice effect. In this case, the dark brown is too dark for my taste so I just use it in the darkest places of the hair. I smoothed out the rest with my skincolor. I like the fact, that it adds a slighty warm yellowish shade to the cool brown. For this purpose, you can also use the copic colorless blender (which I don't have). Important is, that you work in this step very loose and fast so you get nice smooth gradients.
In the end, I take my fleshcolored color pencil. This step adds another layer of warm color on the cool brown so it works better with the skincolor. I also think, the coloring looks much smoother and creamy after this step.

6th step: skirt
I documented the skirt quite well so maybe it's easier to understand my coloring technique here then in the last step.

Like in the hair, I first color the whole shape with a basic copic color. Then I add gradients and shadows with color pencils.

I take the basic color and smooth the color pencils. In this picture you can see the difference between the smoothed parts (under her knees) and the parts I didn't treat yet. The smoothed parts look almost like water color while in the other parts, the paper structure is still quite visible.

Here I did the whole skirt.

Again, I use the flesh color to make everything even more smooth and creamy.

7th step: dress + jeans
The same procedure with the dress: Basic color, and shading with color pencils.

Smoothing everything out with the flesh colors.

I do the same thing with the trousers. As you can see, the technique also works with the very cold blue. It makes it look warmer and it fits better with the other colors.

8th step: detail
Some small detail, like the shoes and the bird are still missing, so I do them in the same way. That's how the whole picture looks now:

9th step: background
The heart in the background looked dull so I took my fleshcolor and just added a layer. I worked from the bottom to the top so I can make the pastel chalk gradient a little bit nicer.

10th step: white
I take a very small brush and my opaque white to add highlights. I have a very nice white from Deleter, which is meant for Manga drawing. It's very covering although it's so liquid and it's nice to paint with it. Of course you can also use every kind of other opaque color like acrylics.
The white highlights look very nice on the yellowish paper.

11th step: red lines
I think, the black lineart is still too hard for the light coloring so I take my red color pencil and draw the lines again with it. The whole thing looks softer now. I also drew a pattern in her skirt with the pencil.

DONE :)

I'm finally satisfied with the picture. I really like how the colors work together. It's not a monochrome picture, I used brown, pink and blue in it, but because of my mixed media technique, the whole thing works.

A little bit more about the drawing material I used:
- Soft and hard pastel chalks (I like the soft ones more)
- Deleter opaque white (+brush)
- Eraser (It would be nice, if I also had a smaller one) and mechanical pen (0,5mm, 2B)
- Color pencils (I'm in love with Farber Castell's Polychromos! They're expensive but worth every cent. My technique only works with soft color pencils so if you don't have Polychromos but water color pencils, they should also work fine).
- Markers (I use mostly Copics Sketch, because I love the brush pen. I also had good experiences with Neopiko markers! There are other alcohol based markers, like Touch, but they don't have the brush pen as far as I know.)
- Multiliner (the thin one is from Staedler, 0,1mm, the other one is a brush pen from Farber Castell)

As you can see, I used a very limited amount of colors for this drawing, which I really like. Esecially when it comes to the colors I use for the shading, I always try to limit myself so the whole drawing doesn't become too colorful.

Here is the final picture:

And a detail. I really love the texture of the paper :)

Ok... I hope, the whole thing was interesting for you :D If you have questions about my technique or my material, don't hesitate to ask.

Have a great day <3
Kathi

Amigurumi Cupcake Bear!

2011-02-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Just a little something because I felt like crocheting :) I started with this amigurumi cupcake tutorial which I can really recommend for beginners because of the good pictures and tutoring. But I chose the wrong yarn for the upper part so I had to make some major changes in the pattern. I saw some really cute pictures of cupcake bears and decided, that I also want to do one *laughs*

My little critter looks a little bit more like a flat bear burger but he still turned out adorable XD I like hideous things ;P

I'm not so sure yet if I should continue crocheting amigurumi... it's a lot of fun but it's very time consuming and I don't know what to do with the final work. I can't give all of them to my boyfriend as presents *laughs*

bye bye
Kathi

Coffee Jam

2011-02-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hi ;D

wow... and again a post. Like I said, I'm not lazy at the moment :3

JAZAM! is a really great German comic project which already exists for 5 volumes and the 6th one is in the making :) I contributed a short story for the 5th volume and I'm already thinking what I can do for the 6th one (if you're also interested in participating, check their website!).

ADrian (please have a look at his weekly webcomic Hipster vs. Vampires) invited me to participate in a nice little Jam Comic about the great subject "Coffee".
Coffee, my only real addiction? Of course I participate ;)

You can have a lok at the whole page in the JAZAM!-blog: http://jazam.de/blog/
Scroll a little bite :) there are already some other pages from different artists online! And there are going to be more :D

I can't show you the whole thing here but I thought I show you some steps as an appetizer ;)

I first - of course *laughs* - did a pencil drawing. I sadly made a huge mistake, I sketched the whole thing on A3 and then realized, that, if it is going to be printed, it will be in A6. So I had to figure out something to get rid of some of the detail.

I printed the sketch in Cyan on an A4 paper and inked everything. I really regret loosing the nice little details. They made the sketch much more lively.

And the colors :) My boyfriend already told me, that they look really shrill on his monitor. I really should calibrate my labtop, it's not the first time, that this happened :(

That's it for now :) I hope, you like my little story. Some of the characters may be familiar for some of you ;P

Bye bye
Kathi

Maido no Kisetsu

2011-01-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hi :)

Yay... a really rare thing in my blog: A logo :O This was just a small finger exercise. It is a suggestion for a Maid Café which will be part of a German Comic Convention. I tried my luck because I really felt like creating something cute and girly *lol*

I also created a small mascot for them. I really like how this cute little critter turned out. I tried to keep the design simple but to give him as much character as possible.

Bye bye :)
Kathi

Meme Time

2011-01-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

The talented Jenny called out for a meme in the German comicforum. Here is the blank file, if you also want to try it :) It is called the "style Meme" and it's about drawing one character in lots of different styles. *lol* some of the following drawings are shamelessly copied from the original styles because I never tried them before (Simpsons, South Park). but I had a lot of fun figuring out what are the most important things which make these styles unique. I think, the Disney one was the most challenging, I don't know why.

As a character I chose my Mini Me from my Nimetön Kansio-Comics.

Have fun:

So, I'm not done yet *laughs* There was also another Meme in the Comicforum, started by Wittek. He asked for pictures of our workspaces. This is not a brand new picture. I took it quite a while ago but - beside the fact that it is lacking used, empty coffee cups - it is still very realistic *lol*

Oki Doki :) That's it for today. Now I have to continue to write my semester report :O

Bye bye
Kathi

My Time

2011-01-27T05:22:00.000-08:00

Hey Ho :)

I'm already back from Italy for a week but I brought a fat flu with me so I didn't do much beside sleeping and trying to get better.

So because I don't have anything new to show I try to entertain you with something old I just found on my harddisk :D

I did this drawing in Lapland on the last page of my timer. The white "flowers" were already printed on the paper. Nothing big just something very decorative. I like how the face turned out :)

Bye bye
Kathi

1 Week hiatus

2011-01-12T15:15:00.000-08:00

Hey :)

I'll be away in Italy for one week to visit my dear friends and flatmates Yi and Marie. I can't wait to see them again <3 Let's see what this journey is going to bring! I don't have a return ticket yet *laughs*

I did this small drawing in Finland and put it in a letter for Yi! It shows my best flatmates in the world *laughs*. I can't wait 'till we'll have our reunion in March when our 6th semester starts :D

Bye bye
Kathi

I draw + paint

2011-01-09T03:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone :)

I usually try to avoid paintbrushes but for the Drawing + Painting class at the University of Lapland I tried to challenge myself and paint 5 small paintings. I sadly failed because I started with them too late. In the end, I only had 2,5 days to finish all of them so they turned aut very simple.

Although they're not really what I wanted, I still like them. For a while I planned to work on them in my private time again but I'm really bad in picking up projects I already considered finished *shame on me*

So here they are :)

I used black ink for the lineart and Gouache for the coloring. Working in the big studio in the university was a pleasure. I wish my home university would have something similar.

Bye bye
Kathi

Nimetön kansio 24.08.2010-24.12.2010

2011-01-02T03:41:00.000-08:00

Hi :)

I hope, you had a great New Years Eve! Welcome to 2011 *laughs*
Here is finally my whole "Nimetön Kansio" project with English translations :) I uploaded it on Mediafire so you can download it if you want to read it. The file is sadly too big to link it with this blog properly :O

Just click on this picture to get the download link :)

It would be lovely, if you can leave me a little bit feedback here in my blog if and how you liked it!

I'm already thinking what kind of project I can do next. The "Nimetön kansio" (empty folder) is closed but I enjoyed it so much, that I can't wait to start something new *___*

Bye bye
Kathi

Merry Christmas

2010-12-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

Puh... I know, it's quite late for Christmas wishes *laughs*

I wanted to wait till my Christmas cards arrived at my friends and family's places before I upload it somewhere! I was so afraid, that they will never arrive because of all the weather chaos, they were already a few days late but today I finally got the message, that the first ones found their way :D

I really love writing Christmas cards (and postcards genereally) so I decided, that I should make a bigger project this year :)

First, I want to show you the Christmas illustration, I did for the cards:

Pencil sketch in my Moleskine sketchbook.

Basic colors with pastel chalks.

I did the rest of the coloration with color pencils :)

And the final Christmas card:

I printed it 20 times, they came sadly out quite dark ;_; But I think it is still OK :)

It was quite exhausting to write all 20 postcards by hand during only one day *laughs* but it was very nice to think about all the people I sent the cards to. Friends from Lapland, all my relatives and of course to my friends I left at home in Germany :)

Fancy golden envelopes *laughs*

Not all of them found their way to the people they belong to yet but I really hope they will :D

Merry (belated) Christmas, everyone!

Kathi

Finnish Playing Cards

2010-12-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hello hello :)

I'm really sorry for not updating my comics for such a long time. I was very busy last week and still try to catch up with the comics I missed.

But I have something else to post about <3 I already gave a hint last time that I've been working on a cardgame for university :) It was a teamwork for the finnish design course. We had to take some piece of design and redesign it as finnish as possible. I really loved the subject and working with the other girls was a lot of fun. The presentation was last wednesday and my team got a 5 (the best grade here). I'm really proud of what we did in this short time.

We decided to redesign the classic french playing cards and we didn't take it too serious ;) First I want to introduce our Jokers. The Moomins, one of Finlands biggest export hits ;)

We also redisgned the signs for the cards. Instead of Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts and Spades we have used signs you can find on Sami drums from the stoneage: The Lappish Hut, the Sun, the Snow Chrystal and the Magic Sign :)

I won't post all 55 cards *laughs* that would be boring, but I really want to show you the illustrations I did for ours "Jacks, Queens and Kings" :)

Sun

Mika Häkkinen (race car driver)

Armi Kuusela (First Miss Univers)

Väinämöinen (Character from the national epic Kalevala)

Snow Chrystal

Alvar Aalto (Designer and Architect)

Minna Canth (Novelist and fighter for woman rights)

Lordi (Hard Rock singer)

Magic Sign

Jean Sibelius (Composer)

Aino (Character from the Kalevala)

Bishop Hendrik (Catholic Saint)

Lappish Hut

Karl Fazer (Chocolatier)

Tarja Halonen (President of Finland)

Santa Claus (The biggest moneymaker)

Thank you for the great teamwork
Jinyi Su
Ruth Sari
Hare Eminoglu

:)

bye
Kathi

Real girl

2010-11-29T00:37:00.000-08:00

I actually should write an essay at the moment :O
Well... XD

I already posted a WiP of this small self portrait :) Now I finished it:

Nothing big, but I like how the textures turned out. I really enjoy drawing with ballpen.

Workbook

2010-11-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

I love having a workbook :) I use the small book for almost all the courses. It may look a bit unorganized at the first sigh but I like to skim through older work and ideas before I start something new so that system is perfect for me. I also glue everything inside I drew seperately.

I really put some effort in a lot of these drawings because I think of them as good practice in skribbeling my ideas and also in life drawing.

Here are some of my favorite drawings I drew and glued in the workbookI have here in Finland and what I use for studying on the university of Lapland:

Let's start with berries :D

I tried to simplify four different kinds of berries for a project:

This was a first naturalistic drawing I did. I wanted to get a feeling for the characteristics of each berry.

A bit more simplified. I really don't like the black lineart here :O

And the final :)

In the end we didn't use them for the project but I don't regret doing these drawings. It was a good opportunity to practice a bit with color pencils.

I tried to develope a font for the same project :) Maybe you can guess now, what this project is about ;) I found some very pretty letters in sketches from the famous finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela. I tried to develope some more letters and fitting numbers. Calligraphy is definitely not my biggest passion *lol* most of the numbers look very clumsy but it was worth trying.

A bear :D I had to build a bear out of wood and fabric for another project. The final thing turned out very weird because it was just an experiment and I didn't have much time and experience but I'm pleased how this drawing turned out :)

This drawing has been done for the same project as the bear but the idea was not realized.

And now time for ducks :D When I went to the Wildlife park here I was very fascinated of the pretty ducks they had there. I really wanted to do a project about them. In the end, we decided to do something else but as you can see, I really ejoyed drawing all different kinds of ducks (and swans):

This is a picture from the Kalevala, the Finish national epic :) It is said in the Kalevala that the world was born from the egg of a duck:

OK :)
That's it for today. Sorry for the flood of pictures :O Believe me, it's just a small part of what I'm doing here, I'm not lazy at all :)

bye
Kathi

Christmas preparations

2010-11-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hi :)

Today was a weird day. I have a really sour stomach and spend half of the night in the bathroom hugging the toilet. It's still not really better although I was able to eat something again earlier :) Instead of working I spend the whole day in bed thinking.
I really love this place here. I experience so many things I will never be able to experience again anywhere else. But still, I can't wait to come home at Cristmas and to hug all my beloved!

In less then a month, I will sit in an airplane back home :)

But till then, I will enjoy the winter-wonderland around me and try to collect as many experiences as possible.

I took this picture on the canle brige of Ravaniemi in -19°! The steams comes from the almost completely frozen river because the air is colder then the river itself.
This land is full of wonderful sunrises and sunsets. It was around 13:30 when I took this picture :) The sun is already going down again.

Ok :) That was the blogpost about being sentimantal :)
I hope, you have a good time <3
Kathi

Lantern Design Workshop

2010-11-23T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hi :)

I really felt like posting so I thought I can write a little bit about the Lantern Design Workshop I attended here in Lapland.
The assignment was, create a big Lantern fitting the subject "fishing equipment" (which wasn't easy to deal with) in small groups.

During the first meeting we just brainstormed. I first thought that we don't have much design options because the technique we had to use for the Lanterns is not so flexible, but after some research all of us came up with pretty cool ideas.

These was one of my first sketches that already shows my idea: I wanted to do a fishing net filled with douzens of fish. At that time, I thought about building a really basic shape for the lantern itself but a lot of detail on the surface.

Then we tried to combine some ideas to build the groups :) Pauliina, a finnish student, also wanted to do a fishing net but with more focus on an organic shape and Kim liked the illustrativ aspect of the ideas so we became a group <3 href="http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f44/felida99/Blogspot/?action=view&current=Skizze2.jpg" target="_blank">
(Just posting this because I love the cute candel holder *laughs*)

It was so lovely to work with you guys :D

We didn't have much time to think more about the design but were thrown immediately in the workshop room and introduced to our material: Thin wooden balks, fabric, paper and candels :)

Very fast, we realized, that we need a really good small scale model of our Design to be able to build it properly. So we build one out of clay and wooden sticks:

*laughs* I know. The model is not understandable when you don't know the idea behind it.

After finishing that thing we just got started building the Lantern (or the five lanterns. We decided to split the construction to make it easier to transport it).

Here are a few snapshots from the working progress :)

Starting with the wooden construction!

Pauliina did almost the whole wooden construction by herself because she couldn't attend the second week of the workshop :O amazing!

We started with adding the fabric.

That was an exhausing work :)

Then we had to add a second layer made out of transparent paper.

And the final contruction :D Looks great *proud*

The last step was cutting douzens and douzens of fish out of transperent paper and cardbord... what a work :O but in the end, it looked really gorgeous. we decided to use the silhouettes of fish who are really living here in the lakes and rivers in their actual size. Our teacher, a passionated fisherman, gave us the right informations for that :)

And finally, after all the long hours of work, our "child:

We set it up during the Jokivalkeat or River lights Event here in Rovaniemi :)
I'm really proud of what we did here. The final result looked really gorgeous, the shape is just perfect and the different layers of fish worked really well.

Really good job girls :D

Sadly, the lantern had a really short life, because there was no way to store it in the school. I still cry a little bit inside when I see this picture :,(

It's time to say goodbye :,O

I hope, you had a great week :)

bye bye Kathi

Moleskine collection

2010-11-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hi :)

Last week, I scanned some drawings I did here in Finland in my A5 Moleskine book. Nothing special, nothing serious, just a few small drawings I did the last few weeks when I felt like drawing :D

A woman in her traditional Sami clothing :) I drew this one in the museum because we weren't allowed to take photos but I wanted to have a picture of this colorful clothes.

This one was inspired of a legend about the people, who life under the earth. There's a belief here in Lapland, that the people who live there, are the same as we, just that their world is upside down.

This is a drawing of myself being prepared for the chilly temperatures here *laughs*

played a little bit with my drawing style in this one. I drew it some night, when I wasn't able to sleep.

I like this drawing very much. I wanted to create a feeling of being cold and lost but at the same time tried to capture the beauty of the "winter wondeland". Here freckels are form the "big wagon" *lol*

This is still unfinished. Again some kind of selfportrait :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

I hope you had a terrific Halloween :D

I did *laughs*

And I also somehow managed to finish my happy-halloween drawing :) First, I only planned to do something like a concept drawing for my halloween costume, but then I decided to make something bigger out of it :) Beware of the Manga *laughs*

The Sketch:

And some coloring steps:

I'll never again color such a drawing just with color pencils. It took me ages and I'm still not really satisfied :O

Bye bye
Kathi

My heart

2010-10-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

Just a small crouchet project :)

I worked with this pattern:
http://freeamigurumipatterns.blogspot.com/2009/08/pop-heart.html

So cute <3<3<3

Life Drawing, 1st session

2010-09-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

Today was the first life drawing session in the university of Lapland for me :)

We drew 3 poses, each 40 minutes. This was a really new experience for me, because we drew in a really big size (around 100x60cm) and with charcoal which I usually never use.

1st pose:

2nd pose:

3rd pose:

I really like the Atelier we worked in today. A beautiful big room with big windows, a lot of light and really cool equipment :D

Bye bye,
Kathi

Horizon

2010-09-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys and Girls :)

At the moment, I'm a little bit lazy when it comes to drawing. Lappland is incredible beautiful so I try to catch this beauty with my camera all the time.

I'm not really into photography and I don't think my pictures have a really high quality but I decided to share a few here in my blog with you once in a while :)

During the forth day of the excusion to Lappland, the photography teacher gave us the exercise to make a serial of pictures to one theme. This was my selection:

Bye bye
Kathi

Ruska

2010-08-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

I'm going to spend the next 4 month in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lappland, as an Erasmus student. I just arrived a few days ago and now, we're on a trip through the wilderness of Lappland.
It's really beatuiful and I'll show a lot of photos I already took and still going to take in one of the next post :)
Today, we weren't allowed to take a camera with us but watercolors and other art supplies. It was pretty hard to draw outside when it's only around 7 degree but after a few hours we moved to a little hut in the mountains and made a fire so the whole trip became really nice.

This is what I made today :D

I started with some huger paintings (size around A4) but they turned out pretty crappy because I'm not used to watercolors and the paper was not made for this medium. But then I swiched to tinier paintings and my sketchbook and I think they turned out pretty cute.

A blueberry, whitch are growing everywhere you just have to pick them up while walking *omnomnom*

A dead trunk in a blueberry field.

Mushrooms <3

And some autumn scenery.

I had such a great day :)

Bye bye
Kathi

out of my head

2010-08-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

New post :)

I made a new illustration for my blog banner. Or better said: I redid the old one.
This was the old illustration: klick This one was already two years old, but I still love the idea so I tried to make a new, better (?) one :3

Oh.... and I tried to make something like a stilized self portrait :O

1. Sketch:

2. Lineart:

3. Basic color (with Copic)

4. Shading with color pencils

5. Finish :D

Bye bye
Kathi

Clockwork-Man

2010-08-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hello hello :D

I'm so happy, that I finally found the time to clean my room. I feel so much better now. The last weeks I didn't have time to clean at all but now the whole stress is over and I used my first free afternoon to get all the dust from my furniture and out of my brain ^3^

Here's another illustration I did for illustration class this term. We had to think about a cover motiv for our university's comic project (I also participated in this one, but I can't show you the results yet ;__;). The subject was "too late" (or "time's your enemy").

If you want to know more about this project visit our homepage (sadly it's only in German): http://www.strichnin-comic.de/2/ my Comic is probably going to be part of the third volume :D

I made three suggestions for the cover and this is the first one:

The Clockwork-Man

I did douzends of thumbnails to find some nice ideas for this subject, because I usually tend to choose the first idea I have. I had a lot of funny ideas but my professor decided, that I should realize the clockwork man... which again, was the first idea I had *laughs*

Not sure if this is good, or bad X3

This was the Thumb he chose. He liked the composition a lot although the idea isn't really creative:

(the size of my thumbs is only around 2x4cm)

I did a first pencil drawing:

My prof didn't like it because I changed the composition and the clock's face and the lightening were pretty messy. He also said, that the cog weels are too comic like in contrast to the rest of the drawing.

But he liked this monochrome color test.

I redid the lineart with pencil, but this time I didn't try to draw the clock's face and worked much cleaner X3

I build the face with Illustrator. I know, I'm lazy *laughs* but it looks much better, than everything I 'm probably able to draw.

So here's the final illustration with logo and typography.
I used the pencil drawing as lineart and colored everything with Photoshop CS2. I got the analog look with the help of some textures and brushes :)

Bye bye,
Kathi

Blast Technique

2010-07-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

First post here in my brand new blog :)

I'm exited ^3^///

I've been dying to do this post for a long time but my old blog wasn't the right place so I decided to start a new one just for illustrations, my graphic design and things I want to share with you.

As you maybe know, I'm studying communication design in a cute little city in the south of Germany: the lovely Augsburg <3 This term I got the chance to attend the illustration class *yay* The first project we did was illustrationg playing cards while using a really interesting technique. The technique is called "blast technique" ("Absprengtechnik" in German) and I thought it was prety interesting to try it out. The nice thing about this technique is, that the result looks like wood or linoleum cut but is far not that time consuming.

I documented my work and thought, why not sharing it :)

1st step: You will need
- pencil, eraser and whatever you need for your sketch
- a piece of paper (as thicker as better)
- a flat wooden board a little bit larger than your piece of paper
- bone glue tape
- a clean sponge
- opaque white (water soluble)
- ink (waterproof)
- brushes (a very small and a normal one)
- cutter and ruler

2nd step: Do a pencil sketch

Of course you can sketch whatever you want :3 But take care of a few things.
- Don't use too small details and too thin lines (at least 2mm).
- Try to work clean. No pencil strokes where you don't need them
- keep in mind, that the illustration is going to be black/white so play with shadows and lights :)
- leave a white frame on the paper (at least 2 cm)

3rd step: Glue it on the board

Wet the backside of your drawing carefully with the spoon. Don't bother, that the paper is going to wave. The waves are going to disappear after the paper drys. Then place it in the middel of the board. Wet four pieces of the bone glue tape to make it sticky and glue your piece of paper on the board with them. Now let the paper dry completely. The waves should be gone now.

4th step: Paint it white

Now you need the small pencil and the opaque white.

Paint everything white, that should stay white. I know, that sounds really odd but you're going to understand this step later :D
You can use a little bit of water to make your white more flexible but take care, that you don't use too much. Paint a thick layer of white. Now you know, why I recommended you not to draw too many details. This step is really time consuming but it's going to be worth all the work :3

5th step: Paint it black

Make sure, that the white is completely dried! Now take a brush and the (waterproof!) ink and paint roughly everything black, that should be black. No need to work clean at all but work as fast as possible and don't press the brush on the paper.

Looks odd, doesn't it *laughs* but don't worry :)

6th step: Make it wet

Let the ink dry. Now, place your board in the shower and usethe shower head to "blast" the water soluble white of. Only the waterproof black will stay! Your shower head probably won't be able to do it on it's own so use the sponge to dab the white of. Be careful and don't hurt the paper.

Almost done :) Now let your work dry completely. Don't worry, the waves are going to dissapear again because we glued it on the board. You can cut the dried illustration out with a cutter and a long metal ruler.
As you can see on the photo above, theres an ugly dark spot on the eye of my king. That's because I used too many water to thin my opaque white down. I correct this mistake with white correction ink.

7th step: Finally

Here's my final work, scanned and cleaned. I shopped the letters and the spades if you wonder.

I really like the final result because it looks so handmade and really fits the drawing style I chose for this four illustrations!

Last step: Just for the laughs

Well, of course this complicated technique didn't work at all at my first try. That's one of the reasons, why I do this tutorial *laughs* to prevent you from the mistakes I did.

This was my first try:

You see, why you should use waterproof ink *laughs* I also had far too many detail and because I didn't sketch clearly, you can see my pencil strokes everywhere!

Done :D
I really hope, you enjoyed this tutorial.

Bye bye,
Kathi