Guest Artist Spotlight: Cam Kendell

Hail Munoa-go-ers!

This is not Adam… 'Tis somebody else. And no it's not He-man either. But who you ask? Cam Kendell, Illustrator, artist, and designer. I don't quite measure up to Adam I know (Literally. He's taller than me). All the same Adam was kind enough to ask me to do something for a guest spotlight on his blog. So here is my bio:

I'm an accordion playing, banjo tinkering, monster/creature obsessed, ninja turtle raised, born on Halloween, digital and traditional artist with a flair for the bizarre and slightly off-putting. So.. yeah. I tend to do whimsical art with a healthy does of perilous and/or adventurous themes. Monsters, creatures, dwarfs, and definitely lots of tentacles. Though on occasion I do enjoy drawing a bunny, or kitten, or bunny-kitten.

It's an honor to sneak a piece of my art in with Adam's. He definitely has skill oozing out of his very core.

So thanks Adam!

oh, and if you want more of me check it out in one of three flavors

Blog (camkendell.blogspot.com)

Portfolio (camkendell.com)

Tentacles (moretentacles.blogspot.com)

Or better yet, try all three!

SCBWI project: Princess Cupcake

This weekend I attended  my first SCBWI conference! SCBWI stands for Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I had the awesome opportunity to participate in a character design workshop with famed Art Director Martha Rago from HarperCollins Publishing!

About a three weeks prior to the conference We, the artists, were emailed a PDF with two possible projects. We were then asked to choose one of them. I chose Princess Cupcake. For this project our job was explore the character and eventually create a book cover. Martha asked us to send her our sketches and a mock-up for the book cover and she would send us feedback on the assignment.

This was a really good exercise and I learned a ton from this. One of the main things that I learn was to not give the story away on the cover. As you can see in the mock-up of the cover I showed the princess already holding a cupcake in her hand. Martha suggested that I show the princess baking or doing something that might hint at the story but not totally give it away.

I redrew the princess baking in the kitchen making a mess. Originally, I had a cat  as her pet but became bored with the character. So I decided to swap out the cat for a pig and BLAMO the painting became ten times more fun!

At the conference, this weekend, we had our final critiques from Martha on the project. I was given some great suggestions and advice on my cover art and will post the update when I complete it. Thanks to Martha and SCBWI for a great conference and workshop!

And the winner is......!?

Last month I promised that I would give away a free print to one of you that commented on the blog. Last night I put all the names of those that participated last month in a my trusty San Diego Padres hat and drew out a name. The lucky winner is..... Dustin Patton! I'll be contacting you Dustin so you can pick out a print! Thanks everyone for participating. I would like to continue doing this so the same thing goes for this month. Here's what you do, simply comment on a blog post during February and you will automatically be entered into a drawing for a free print from my artwork at the end of the month! Thanks again!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day from Lucky the Leprechaun! He lost a Super Bowl bet and had to fill in for Cupid during Valentines Day! This was may Valentines Day card for my wonderful wife. She is the best and I'm super lucky to have her in my life! Love you sweetheart!

Brain Fart Sketching!

We've often herd the term "writers block". Is there such a thing with artists? I'm going to say definitely YES! There have been numerous times that I have sat down to start an assignment and had nothing.

An english professor of mine would often have us do these "free write" assignments. For these assignments we were asked to write "garbage". It didn't have to make sense or be cohesive we just had to write "junk" as she would call it. We would do this for around five to ten minutes and try to write as much as we could. I was amazed at how fast we were able to come up with ideas, that, in my opinion, were quite good.

 I think that the same activity could applied for us artists. If you can't think of an idea just draw "junk". It doesn't have to be pretty or make any sense but keep your pencil to the paper and do not... I repeat do not erase! Keep the pencil, marker or whatever you are using moving. The sketches can be of whatever... just keep drawing. You will be amazed at what you come up with! Lets call this drawing exercise "Brain Fart Sketching".

Speed Painting Video!

I recently downloaded some screen capture software and have been messing around with it. Here is my first "speed painting" video it's not the greatest painting but it helps to break the ice of getting something out there. It took around 35 minutes to paint and was done in Photoshop CS6. Stay tuned for more intense finished paintings.