Merry Christmas!!

Dear people who visit this blog,

Katie asked us to wish you a very merry Christmas! She really appreciates you taking the time to swing by every so often to take a gander at her artwork and she hopes you have a fabulous holiday season filled with mistletoe, chocolate and that fresh pine smell! Here's to you and your family and New Year's resolutions!

Best Wishes,
The Clauses

Topps-Indiana Jones Masterpieces... RotLA

Hi guys! A few months ago I received an email from the AD at Topps inviting me to do original artist sketch cards for their new Indiana Jones trading card series. I was honored and stoked! Now that the series is available for purchase I can post scans. So here's a few from Raiders of the Lost Ark ...


I still have Temple of Doom and Last Crusade to show you... but I'll prolley wait a bit before I post those :) Gotta format them and such. Check back soon!

©©©

It's gonna be a bit tacky, and possibly a little annoying, but I think I'm going to start putting ©s on my images from now on. Not only do we have a possible Orphan Works bill to worry about, but I've been finding my images being used without my permission. So I apologize for my name being slapped on my images, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do :) Hope you had a great thanksgiving!!!

muskles

and she shoots ...

put put

Here's a new Flash assignment I just finished. If blogger had allowed me to post the flash .swf file you guys coulda clicked on the animated buttons. oh well. But I figure it's still kinda cute to watch him put-put through the countryside for a little while, (he's living my dream. I want a vespa desperately but can't get myself to spend the money or risk my limbs) Enjoy!

Nice

Here's a little illo I did for the theme over at Sugar Frosted Goodness. I've decided that while I love illustrator, I need to pump up my digital painting skills. I started out this one but outlining the strokes in illustrator and importing them into Photoshop. Then I used custom brushes and some textures to mimic my traditional watercolor technique. I think the experiment went pretty good ... I certainly learned a lot. I'm going to keep experimenting with digital painting and hopefully find a looser and quicker style. But for now, I'm just excited to have something other than work or flash class stuff to post, haha.

Happy Halloween Everybody!

I promise that one of these days I'll have something other that my Flash homework to post!

balanced breakfast

This boy's about to partake in a delicious new product ... Sugar Boogers! Kid tested, Mother disapproved. Okay, that was lame. sorry :)

I made this up for another one of my flash assignments ... it was a VERY short clip of the boy pouring milk. So short that I'm just showing you a screen shot and not the actual animation cuz it's really not worth it. My Flash midterm is coming up and I'll post that, (if it turns out). It's going to be Halloween themed!

It's a bit surreal taking a class again. I'm having a great time, but I kinda feel like I'm time-warping back 4 years. Workin on homework every week. Walking on campus with a backpack and a pop tart. Sweating in a trailer-like classroom with no air conditioning, (These hot and dry santa ana winds really need to blow away). But I must say that I'm loving it. I think I'll take a silkscreening class next semester! :)

Read About Me - Available now!

Back in January I got a call from the good folks at Lakeshore to illustrate a book called 'Read About Me'. It's a fun-to-create keepsake album sold through Toys To Grow On. (click here to see the product page). How much fun was this book to design??! My good friend Dave James and I slaved on it for 3-4 weeks from beginning to finish and it turned out beautiful. It's in a cut paper style, which was new for me at the time, and I really enjoyed it. Here are some of my favorite spreads :)

learnin' me some flash

I'm taking a flash class and loving it! Flash is an amazing program and I'm REALLY enjoying playing around with it. I wish I had more time to really dive into it's depths each week, but with my schedule lately, the simple acts of going to class and doing my homework are feats in and of themselves. This was the assignment from last week, we had to make our names "explode" off the page. Nothin' like blowing yourself up!

Illustration Friday - Island

"ook! oook! eek! arrgh ... ook!"

Studio

I love to see where other people work, especially artists. Studio pics are some of my favorite blog posts and I realized I've never shown you where I work every day ... ok, not every day, but MOST days, haha. I like calling my bedroom my studio cuz "I work out of my bedroom" just doesn't have the same ring as "I work from my home studio." Ok I don't really say that either, but you get the gist.



So that's my place. I am so very very blessed to live the way I do. I love being a freelancer and drawing for a living!!

Illustration Friday - Primitive

Wow it's been a while since my last post! Sorry about that, everything I've been working on lately is top secret ;) But I had to do something for this week's IF... couldn't let this topic pass, it's too good.

boba = yum

Around Christmas time last year I did this group caricature/cartoon of some of my friends (I'm holding the boba on the right). It was a new style for me and was experimental. I enjoy drawing people this way. it's fun and loose and I don't have to get caught up in the details.

Illustration Friday - Garden

One of my neighbors growing up had a full-size, yet fake well in their front yard. It was surrounded by a lawn and a garden and I used to attempt to chuck pennies into it from the sidewalk (this vexed my neighbor greatly, I think). So whenever I see a well I think of that house and while "well" isn't the IF topic this week... I can connect the two thru my mischief-making memories. This here's a card I did for my dad a few months ago. It's in a cut-paper style I've been doing for Lakeshore lately.

Santa Gets His Eyes Checked

You : Why are you posting a Santa illustration in March, Katie?
Me: ...uh... well? I figure Santa's gotta get his eyes checked sometime, might as well be in March.

bad hair + bad hat = bad day

This poor kid woke up with horrible hair one morning and the only hat he could find to cover it up was his grandma's, yikes.

Illustration Friday - Theory

Schrodinger's cat ... is it dead? is it alive? all I know is that it's green.

Website Update

www.katiemcdee.com has finally been updated! No longer does it contain old and dated works from Katie's college years. Feel free to visit anytime... there's a new link in the sidebar.

Measure

Cut Paper

My friend Heather opened my eyes to the wonderful world of cut paper. Here are a few cards I did long ago... I love it!

Illustration Friday - 100%

I am not an early morning person ... I'm never at a 100% before 9am. Luckily I don't look like this guy when I wake up... at least I hope not. I'm planning on painting him, so check back soon to see this illo in color!