The Digital Sketchbook of Caitlyn Kurilich

Romani I, II, and III, Graphite, 2013. I FINALLY drew stuff for...

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:00:14 -0400

Romani I, II, and III, Graphite, 2013.

I FINALLY drew stuff for myself that I didn’t have to draw for any assignment or project or job I just drew them and it was SO GREAT.

I see you around SCAD quite a bit; you are gorgeous. You art is fantastic too! just a random question that I hope you don't mind-- why do you always wear white?

Sat, 11 May 2013 15:07:00 -0400

Aww, you are quite the flattering one, Anon! Thank you. :)

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I decided to wear white every day for one entire year mostly as a social experiment and perhaps also as a branding exercise. It is said that the things that people remember the most (in terms of psychology anyways,) are shape and color. I wanted to test it out! The year is actually up now, and I’ve been wearing some colors again.

It is very interesting to see who notices and who doesn’t. I often get random strangers “accusing” me of wearing color again, and some people actually don’t recognize me when I’m in colors. It’s hilarious and intriguing all at once. (And it’s a good conversation starter!) I hope that successfully answers your question!

Silva, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x 17”, 2013.

Thu, 09 May 2013 16:15:00 -0400

Silva, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x 17”, 2013.

nightmoor: First Page | Previous Page | Next Page I finally...

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:16:23 -0400

nightmoor:

First Page | Previous Page | Next Page

I finally present to you my darling secret project: Nightmoor. Updates every Thursday.

Without further ado, I release to you the project I’ve been talking on and on about! Nightmoor is a short, dark, and horrible comic that I am quite excited to share with you. Start reading it here.

Unearthed, Graphite and Digital Media, 12” x 12”,...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:00:00 -0400

Unearthed, Graphite and Digital Media, 12” x 12”, 2013.

An image for an ad campaign featuring the Museum of Natural History NYC’s newly renovated dinosaur exhibit.

Only if it was the end of April already

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 01:15:02 -0400

Sssssh, don’t speak those words! I can feel the time flashing by. But hey guess what! I’ve got a couple illustrations queued up for this week to tide you over. Woooo!

Tsaatan, Graphite on Moleskine, 8” x 10”,...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:00:12 -0400

Tsaatan, Graphite on Moleskine, 8” x 10”, 2013.

Woooow, it’s been a long time since I’ve just sat down to draw something for myself.

Where's all the beautiful art?

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 13:34:26 -0400

You’re just in luck- I’ve got something queued up for tonight! I’ve also been working on a really large long-term project that I’m getting ready to release at the end of April, or thereabouts. Just sit tight. :)

I just started a huuuuge project, and I’ve been posting...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:23:00 -0500

I just started a huuuuge project, and I’ve been posting teasers and wips for it on Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to follow along as I go, keep checking those daily!

Adrien, Graphite and Digital Media, 16 1/2” x...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:57:25 -0500

Adrien, Graphite and Digital Media, 16 1/2” x 14”, 2013.

This is a small, small illustration of a tragic and horrible story that I have yet to tell.

what are you studying at scad?

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:35:00 -0500

I study illustration right now! But I’m taking an awesome intro to sequential art class, and I’ve been considering switching my major to Sequential. Who knows? :)

Auspice, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x 14”,...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:23:00 -0500

Auspice, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x 14”, 2013.

This is the very first piece in a series all about different types of fortune telling. Auspicy (or Augury) is the act of divination through flight patterns of birds.

SCAD Animate Poster, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:17:00 -0500

SCAD Animate Poster, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x 17”, 2013.

Did I ever tell you I help do some of the posters for SCAD’s illustration club? If you’re a SCAD student and your Thursday night is looking free, come party with us illustration nerds.

Just in case anyone is curious...

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:38:00 -0500

Just in case anyone is curious...:

I keep an online inspiration/reference morgue on a separate blog, if you ever want to see some of my sources. (Or if you find it useful yourself.)

The Curse, Ink on Inkjet Paper, 11” x 17”, 2013. I...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:06:00 -0500

The Curse, Ink on Inkjet Paper, 11” x 17”, 2013.

I was lucky enough to get into one of the most intense Intro to Sequential Art classes at SCAD. This was our first project- two pages in an outdoor setting which must include a conflict and its resolution, at least two characters, and dialogue from both characters, all due in just under two days. It was certainly a challenge.

Free shipping on my artwork until January 13th! (But only with this link.)

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:18:54 -0500

Free shipping on my artwork until January 13th! (But only with this link.)

Secret projects.

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:17:40 -0500

Secret projects.

Q & A

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 07:35:00 -0500

So a sort of impromptu Q&A session happened last night! All the answers have been collected in one master post, for anyone who may have missed it. (I’m also still taking questions to add to this post, if you still have them!) Answers after the break.

Okay, so I am unsure if you have already answered this but: Where do you buy your art supplies? How much did they cost (approximation)? I really wanted to know where you bought your moleskin paper? Your art work is amazing, by the by. Thank you for your time! c:

huffleclawytherdoor

Thank you! I’m very fortunate to live in a place that has amazing local/independent art supply stores, so I usually just buy things there. But if you’d really like an awesome selection online, I recommend Blick and Jet Pens.

You can get moleskines online, but I’ve also seen them in Barnes & Noble, I think. I use the “large” sketchbook kind, which is 5.25” x 8.25” when closed. I’ve also heard their watercolor sketchbooks are to die for.

Right now, I tend to use these supplies. (Prices are from Blick, in USD.)

Large Moleskine Sketchbook - $18.95
Pentel .7 B Lead - $.99
Borden & Riley Paris Bleedproof Paper (11” x 14”) - $16.05
Copic Sketch Blender Marker - $5.24
Papermate Eraser Stick - $1.95

I also use a very old 9”x12” intuos3 tablet to do my bidding when it comes to digital work. I think it was around $500 when I first bought it? I hope that helps you out!

sorry, me again :) when you draw in your moleskin sketchbooks with pencil how do you get your shading so smooth and stop it from smudging? your drawings always look so smooth like if you touch them they would smudge. i always use B pencils so maybe thats my problem?

Anonymous

Haha, it’s okay! I use B lead in a mechanical pencil, so it is possible to use B pencils. My secret is this- I blend everything with a copic marker blender. The alcohol seals everything into the page so it doesn’t smudge, and it becomes very smooth. However, you’ve got to be careful about this, because once the pencil is sealed with the blender, you really can’t erase it.

I only just recently started doing this, though! Before, when I used to do super rendered graphite drawings, I would spray the page with a ton of fixative after I was done. Either method should help you stay smudge-free. :)

What programs do you use for your digital art???

Anonymous

I mostly use Photoshop CS6 for coloring graphite drawings, but I’ll occasionally use PaintTool SAI when I’m doing the entire piece digitally.

i love your artwork so much! you have an amazing talent. im an artist too but i have so much trouble drawing people. they never come out right. do you have any advice you can give me? ive tried drawing from real life and in my university classes when we had to draw models i could never draw them right. they end up contorted or miss proportioned. when youre drawing how do you know where the folds in clothing go? how to position the body, hands, fingers, feet? is it all by memory and imagination?

lefty-in-the-sky-with-diamonds

First of all, thank you! I’m glad you like my work. As for your questions, be prepared for a very long answer! Are you ready?

You’re doing a great job with the life drawing and attending open model sessions. Definitely continue to do that! That’s one of the best things that helped me to improve on my anatomy and figure drawing. I recommend doing quick gesture sketches instead of really long poses to start off. 1-3 minutes per sketch is great. Do bajillions of them- so many that they make you sick just to think about. Then, do more.

There are certain guidelines that may help when you’re trying to draw the figure. For instance, the average figure is measured in the length of its head, and is supposed to be about 7.5-8 heads tall. Shoulders are, in general, about as wide as three heads side-by-side. The length of the body is about three heads tall, your feet are about as long as a head is tall, and so forth. There are so, so many guidelines for the human figure that can help you out with proportions. I’d recommend finding a figure drawing book to help you with these guidelines because it’s probably less confusing than how I’m trying to explain them.

Practice drawing a lot. Draw in class, draw with friends, draw when you’re bored, draw before you go to sleep. Draw and draw and draw until it feels unnatural not to have a pencil in your hand. Always keep a sketchbook on you. I do this, and when I’m not drawing in my sketchbook, I usually do gesture drawings on dozens of sheets of computer paper, (which I end up throwing out later.) The end result is not important- the practice is. If you draw like your life depends on it (and it technically does, if you’re studying art as your profession,) then you will see improvement! I can practically guarantee it! :)

Also, when you draw all the time, you begin to memorize how clothing folds and anatomy “should be.” This is good and bad. It’s good because your drawing intuition is improving, and later, this will lead you to your natural style. It’s also bad, though, because it can make you lazy. Even if you can memorize how things should look, it is extremely important to find references to double check yourself and your work!

When you’re doing a final piece, either have someone model for you, or take your own reference pictures so that you may get the anatomy and clothing right. If you don’t own a camera, it’s okay to use google images as long as you don’t rely too much on the photo. (Don’t trace someone else’s photo or copy it enough to look exactly recognizable, else you would be plagiarizing.) Because I’ve gotten to the point where I like to be lazy and draw everything out of my head, I’ve always found that references give my work that extra 10% boost of awesomeness that I never knew it was missing.

Also, (and this is very important,) make sure you have someone you can trust to critique you. It’s very important that you surround yourself with people who will be honest to you about the quality of your work! It is better to get criticism on your work than useless platitudes.

If you follow all of this advice and you end up coming to a plateau in your improvement, it might be time to switch mindsets a little. There is something called “deliberate practice” which is basically a term for picking one thing to practice at a time, and then practicing it like crazy until you’re satisfied. For instance, if someone is really bad at drawing hands, they’d just draw hands for weeks and weeks until they’re better. Then, maybe, they’d notice that their foot-drawing skills aren’t so great, so they’d practice that for a couple weeks, and move on when they’re happy. It’s sort of a clinical and scientific approach, but it’s pretty much the method I’ve used since forever. Definitely try it out!

And most importantly, do not be too hard on yourself! It’s all going to turn out great, okay? Yes, you will have to work. You will have to fail at things before you can succeed. But when you finally do succeed, it’s going to feel like the greatest thing in the world.

I wish you the best of luck, and do feel free to ask me if there’s anything else you may need to know.

Best,

- Caitlyn

Chapellerie, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x 14”,...

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 17:41:17 -0500

Chapellerie, Graphite and Digital Media, 11” x 14”, 2012.

So I’ve been on this historical movie kick recently. This was inspired by a very short scene in the movie Amadeus. That movie is so good.

Fahrenheit, Graphite and Digital Media, 6” x 9”,...

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:25:00 -0500

Fahrenheit, Graphite and Digital Media, 6” x 9”, 2012.

I haven’t had a chance to make any book covers yet, so here’s a mock cover for Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.