Drawing what your drawn to. {feathers}

September 21, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

seagullfeathers
I didn’t even realize I loved trees until they kept popping up in my paintings and illustrations. Drawing feathers was more of an accident. I was painting a sunflower when the watercolors bled beyond the shape of the sunflower. I moved on to another version, putting this accident to the side. Over the next couple of weeks whenever I looked at this accident, I saw a feather. Eventually I added ink details to turn it into a feather. You can read more about that “happy accident” here.

Since this “accident,” I’ve draw a lot of feathers, especially over the last couple of weeks. Recently I sketched several feathers in my book. I wanted to add a color background to them, so I started over and drew more feathers on watercolor paper.

For two of the paintings I started with the simple outline of feathers, then painted the backgrounds, and a little color to some of the feathers. I added the feather details in ink after. On the third painting, I painted a feather shape with a pink, purple, blue blend and added ink details afterwards.

I have a good feeling my September pattern will end up being feathers! 🙂

Adding illustration to a logo design. Part 2 – Logo Reveal

September 16, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Here is the final logo I wrote about 2 weeks ago in Part 1- Adding illustration to a logo design project. This is the logo project where I really put my years of illustration practice to work!

I was really excited about creating something for the city I was born and raised in. They wanted elements of both the City of Long Beach and the Fall Festival (which the logo was for). Who better than someone born and raised there?

I used the boardwalk, which Long Beach is know for, as well as the iconic City Hall building. And I had to include the bay, because after all, Long Beach is part of a barrier island. Our concept is to modify this logo for other events, by switching out the Fall Festival elements, but maintaining the City elements.

If you are interested in seeing more of my design work please visit my website: www.eileenmckenna.com

Goodbye Summer…Hello Fall!

September 13, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’d love to squeeze in one more beach day, but other than that I’m ready for the hot and humid weather to end. I’m looking forward to those crisp Fall days, with blue skies and beautiful foliage all around. I’m excited about new seasonal things to inspire me – leaves, acorns, pumpkins. I’ve already started doodling and collecting them. Maybe it’s too soon, but it’s nice to have new “material” to work from! Are you ready for Fall?
acornsketches

Looking forward to a new season.

September 9, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

One of the things I’ve learned about myself since starting my creative resolution is that I’m inspired by the seasons. I’m already seeing signs of what’s to come and I’m looking forward to it! Paintings (and sketches) of shells and the ocean will soon be replaced by leaves and trees and other Fall things! I can’t wait for the leaves to change…and the weather to cool down. 🙂

Here are some of my favorites projects from last Fall:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Adding illustration to a logo design project

September 5, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

As many of you know, I am a graphic designer. In the early days (ugh over 20 years ago) I felt insecure about designing logos. I wasn’t confident in my illustration skills. At that time I worked on a lot of text heavy stuff – newsletters, fund reports etc.. Ten years later, I started designing a lot of logos. Not because I was a better illustrator, but because the demand was there. And I got better at working around my limitations. Back then, I would often use clip art as a starting point and edit it to make it work within my logo design.

One of my favorite logos from 10 years ago:

For these two book covers designed 10 years ago, I purchased clipart then revised it to fit the concept:

Over the last 9 years, I’ve been working on developing my fine art skills (and my style). You all know what a passion it is of mine! So, a recent logo design was a bit of a “culmination” of all that hard work. The concept was for a very detailed, and heavily illustrated logo. Many of the elements in the logo, I hand drew, scanned in, and digitized and edited as necessary. Some of the more “architectural,” or square elements, were drawn on the computer.

Here is a sneak peek at a part of the logo (see the sketches above):

I’m really excited about this project! I can’t wait to show you the final logo… 🙂

If you are interested in seeing more of my design work please visit my website: www.eileenmckenna.com

First day of school!

Image | September 1, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

Pattern of Ice Cream Cones … Mmmm

August 30, 2015August 29, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

It’s very fitting that my pattern for August is ice cream cones. I’ve gotten into the habit of having ice cream almost every night this Summer!

I created this pattern using the same process as last month’s pattern, Shells. I doodled the ice cream cones in my sketchbook, painted the backgrounds separately and then mashed them together and arranged them in Photoshop.

If you’ve missed them, I’ve been illustrating a pattern a month this year:

July – Shells
June – Echinacea
May – Sandcastles
April – Dahlias
March – Gardening
February – Valentine’s Day
January – Art Supplies

It helps to have the deadline of the end of the month. I wouldn’t be as motivated without it.

I entered the Sandcastle pattern into a Spoonflower contest a few months ago. I’d love to try another contest and upload more of my patterns onto Spoonflower. A goal to work towards before the end of the year. 🙂

Results of my “Assembly Line Painting” experiment. {Please vote for your favorite!}

August 28, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I finished the four paintings that I working on in “assembly line” fashion. Click here to read more about how I approached working on these paintings.

Results: The results of the experiment are best described by this analogy: It’s like raising kids. You raise them in the same way – same environment, same food, activities, etc. but they all require different special attention and they all turn out different. And with each kid, you are a bit wiser (and more tired) so you do things differently each time – but maybe not better.

This is the inspiration painting:

The four painting above are numbered. Some of them were “worked” on more. For # 1-3 I used white gouache. As I worked I wasn’t sure what methods would be most successful – more details? more shadows? more white? more variation in color?

I’d love to hear what you have to say! Leave a comment and answer my poll below.

Conclusion: (Don’t all experiments have a conclusion?) Working this way, really allowed me to explore this type of painting and subject matter in more and more depth. If I had only painted one beach landscape, I wouldn’t have had the chance to try different techniques.

TRY IT! and let me know your results (and thoughts). Link to this post or if you’re on Instagram use #assemblylinepainting. Can’t wait to see! 🙂