I want to be an illustrator

[kennygeeze]

Hi,
My name's Ken. I do a lot of sketching and illustration out of a place near Toronto, Ontario Canada. My weapons of choice are pencil, ballpoint pen, and watercolors. ... usually in a moleskine, or on bond paper.
I do a lot of sketching on the train to work... which makes a lot of drawing look like it was created during a mild earthquake.


in progress painting from the IMC













Edit: added this painting -- watercolor and guache



Another digital one I'm doing:

----
Here's an entertainment section editorial illustration of the characters from the movie; Juno.
It's done in watercolor and acrylic. I also included the loose watercolor studies when I was trying to get a feel for the likeness of the actors and media.

[conti]

You just made my day. Juno is awesome! Not to mention mixed media is friggin badass. MORE!!!!!!

[kennygeeze]

You just made my day. Juno is awesome! Not to mention mixed media is friggin badass. MORE!!!!!!

Thanks for commenting, conti! Yeah, Juno is awesome. The strange thing was when I had it out on my desk and was working on it people who passed by kept saying "ooohhh, arrested developement?" because they hadn't seen Juno, but recognized Cera. By the time I was finished the illustration most people I knew had seen the movie.

Here's more like you asked ...













Here's a couple more sketches from the train:






A couple of images I drew from a trip to a Nightwish concert. We had to ride a greyhound bus for hours, and then sit out on the porch of the bar from about 12:00pm to 7:00pm -- but we were nearly the first in line.

[Jamie Romoser]

Nice start for your sketchbook kennygeeze. Im really liking the penciled faces you posted! Keep it up -Omerta

[Drin]

Definitely a great likeness. I haven't seen Juno and I didn't read your description and the first thing that hit me was "Michael Cera!"

[kennygeeze]

Thanks OmertA, I guess I use pencils the most -- or at least when I'm starting any project most of my roughwork and research is all pencil.

Hey, Drin, thanks! I've been trying really hard over the last year and a half to be able to get a pretty readable likeness when I draw someone.
--------
Portrait of Safire (the pencil drawing and the painting)

[kennygeeze]

more stuff:

[kennygeeze]

[lambd4]

Nice sketchbook keep it up !

[kennygeeze]

Thanks, Lamd4!

I moved -- sketch of a pile of boxes




Other stuff





[IMG]ttp://www.kenmccuen.com/graphics/art/blog/2009/kenmccuen_spring09beginningofmay.jpg[/IMG]

[Kalim]

heey!
your sketching is good I must say
the moleskine train-to-work livesketches are really great!
post more of them!

[AmiimA]

oh hey. I had seen your stuff at a sheridan grad show. it's nice to see you go and put some colour into these sketches. do you ever take any of them further?
that is some wild curly hair on the girl up there...

[kennygeeze]

Hi Kalim, thanks! I have a lot more on the way... I've been sketching on the train a lot the past couple of days. I'll get them up when I can get my scanner working.

oh hey. I had seen your stuff at a sheridan grad show. it's nice to see you go and put some colour into these sketches. do you ever take any of them further?
that is some wild curly hair on the girl up there...

Hi AmiimA,
Yeah, I've been assembling a lot of sketches for potential finals. Most of my leisure time drawing is done on the train though since I work so many hours currently. I'll probably have time to do some paintings next week since I'll be off.
That's good that you remember that piece from the grad show. I was thinking not many people saw my board since it was so close to the projector.


IMC stuff from a while back












Started going to keyhole sessions life-drawing:

[kennygeeze]

Halfway progress shot of the painting I added to the first post in the thread.

[kennygeeze]

... and then finished.

[kennygeeze]

Brown Paper Drawing


Some photo reference used from faestock

[Aresa]

Very nice sketchbook! I love the way you use your materials. They give off a nice effect to your work. Great sketches as well, especially the one on brown paper. Keep it up!

[Nawooto]

The brown paper one is simply epic.

[kennygeeze]

Thanks Aresa and Nawooto

[NewGuy22]

Regarding your moleskins or more a general question..

I see a lot of people coloring them (most likely later on) but i was curious if you knew of any mediums that were big no no's for moleskins...for some reason I want to say they were using possibly watercolor? or acrylic...would that even be possible? I'll ask a few others but I was curious if you had seen anyone around doing something in those regards.

Obviously - awesome work. Will be coming back for more ..so i hope =).

Keep-a posting. And thanks for being here! x27 kudos. ^^

[Nonobot]

Some of your life drawings remind me of my own in a strange way. Maybe its because people who arent looking directly at you fidget less, hu?
I like that painting, its very cold, but energetic. I thick you should try the same approach a couple times. If you liked the results that is.

[kennygeeze]

Regarding your moleskins or more a general question..

I see a lot of people coloring them (most likely later on) but i was curious if you knew of any mediums that were big no no's for moleskins...for some reason I want to say they were using possibly watercolor? or acrylic...would that even be possible? I'll ask a few others but I was curious if you had seen anyone around doing something in those regards.

Obviously - awesome work. Will be coming back for more ..so i hope =).

Keep-a posting. And thanks for being here! x27 kudos. ^^

Hi Newguy, the colored Moleskin sketches were done in ballpoint and then scanned in and colored digitally.

When the moleskin paper gets wet it tends to lose a bit of its smoothness and starts to feel somewhat fuzzy to touch. I don't think you could go in with multiple washes of water... the paper would get fuzzy and probably tear through eventually. The A4 size moleskins have slightly thinner paper than the regular "large" size. The size that I most see them in stores is half the size of A4... I forget what designation that is... but its paper is a little thicker and more card-like.

Acrylic and guache seems to do 'okay' on it, but it's not the ideal surface. I usually use pens, graphite, or markers. If you use guache or acrylic just don't use a lot of water.

I hope that helped,

Nonobot, thanks for the comment. Yeah, I seem to be able to relax more drawing in public if the person is at an angle that they're unlikely to look up at me, etc. hehe.
I'm actually working on painting similar to that style right now we'll see how it turns out. I'll post it up when it's further along.

Thanks!

[kennygeeze]

Sketch done on the commuter train:

[Kfeeras]

nice style keep it up! i love your drawings from life.

[kennygeeze]

Thanks Kfeeras!

Another drawing on toned paper:

[kennygeeze]

[surus]

I like the pictures here! Keep on posting and drawing!

[kennygeeze]

I like the pictures here! Keep on posting and drawing!

Thanks Surus!

Another sketch:

[kennygeeze]

another brown paper drawing.

[raminafshari]

you have a different style by using colors differently , so original