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!

Merry Christmas Everybody!!

Thank you to all who've visited and/or commented in the last year. You've all been an inspiration and I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season!

3D

Here, I've taken the 2 dimensional giraffe and flushed it out into 3D. This was a great fun for me!

Tricky Kitty

Illustration Friday - Hats

Wow it's been a long time since my last post! I'm so glad October is over ... November is proving to be a much better month. So yeah, Hi! I'm back. This week's IF subject was 'Hats' and my entry is a "Hats Off!" to the brave fire fighters in So Cal!

meet george...

yippee skippy