I'll be in Portugal for almost a month! 

I figure: when painters travel to Europe, they paint buildings and things.
So hopefully I will too. 

Here's the teensy watercolor palette I'm bringing along.

Breaking News: Anderson Cooper Sniffed My Art

On Thursday, January 3rd 2012, THIS aired on national television:

And—sitting on my couch that morning in my pajamas—this is what happened to my mind:

The star of Clarissa Explains It All (the coolest show in the entire world when I was 9 years old) held my painting and Anderson Cooper SAID MY FULL NAME and did not butcher it.

They both complimented my artistic skills and proceeded to sniff a portrait that I painted. This all happened for—oh—a good minute or two on national television.

Mind blown. No words. :)

Coffee Portraits: Anita

I finished these commissions this week -- two 20x24 coffee portraits of my art student, Anita.


Right now, these are on a plane to their permanent homes in Portugal.

In Portugal, people will refer to these as "Retrato de café". When they talk about me, they will say "Katie é um pintor, ela gosta de purê de batatas. Com cabelo como xarope de bordo e os seios como leitelho biscoitos! Feliz Natal!"


 
Eu sou ciumento que minha pintura começa a viajar para Portugal. Eu estou preso em uma tempestade de neve Wisconsin. Você quer aprender a dizer palavrões em Português? Ok. O coelho é um idiota. Odontalgia bastardo! Fazer xixi e cocô no fogo!

Illustration: New Spark Coaching

A couple of months ago, I did a handful of retro/line-drawing illustrations for a California company called New Spark Coaching. It's a life-coaching website run by a really nice woman named Kimberly Beck.

I've done a lot of illustration work for life coaches, wardrobe stylists. I should really start trading artwork for services. Right now my life coach/stylist is Google....i.e, "Are leggings considered pants?"* and "Is it dorky to wear a swim cap in Miami?"

* Leggings are not pants. Apparently I've been walking around without any pants on.

'Dress Yourself Skinny'

A book I illustrated is for sale on Amazon: "Dress Yourself Skinny" by author Sarah Shah

Sarah is a TV wardrobe specialist based in Houston, Texas and has worked on shows like MTV's 'My Sweet Sixteen'.

The book details every possible body-type and illustrates how to best dress for that body type. My job was to create line drawings of the 14 female body-types, the correct way to wear a bra, and how to dress appropriately for work.

Copies of "Dress Yourself Skinny" are available in paperback or for Kindle on Amazon.com.

Anderson Watch 2012: Update

Still waiting to see the portrait on Anderson Live. Fingers-crossed.

The producer says they may have it on this week. Meanwhile, I'm anxiously watching the show everyday. Every time Anderson reaches for something, my stomach drops.

Today he started talking about energy drinks and caffeine with his co-host Snooki—he even brought up coffee. I almost had a heart attack. Nothing yet though.

BUT—he did post a photo of my painting on both his show's Twitter and Facebook! Woo! 

Check it out...

ANDERSON COOPER LIVE!!!

I got a call from a producer at the Anderson Cooper Live show today - she asked me if I could possibly FedEx my coffee portrait of Anderson so they could maybe use it on the show tomorrow!!

In the words of my sister: HOLY SHITBALLS!!!

I almost got into a few accidents (did one of those right turns where you hit the curb and bounce over it) to pick up the painting from the Pollard Gallery and now it's being flown to New York. If it arrives by air time, it will likely be on tomorrow's show. AND he might Skype interview me. AND tomorrow is my 30th birthday.

I swear this is EXACTLY how my ENTIRE day has been. Especially at 1:59. With a lot more swearing:

Ohhh Shiiiih Tzu

I got wrangled into painting three Shih Tzus :) 

Taking a TV break. Figured I'd blog about it. 

Blog blog blog.

Fall 2012 Update!

Brigitta Richter expertly hanging my stuff

     My first show went extremely well. 

    Sold FOUR paintings. WOO!



 Getting crunk on champagne at the opening



Bill Robbins of the Kenosha News did a great article about the show

I'm taking a month or so off from all art-related things because I am burned out and because I'm selling Breaking Bad Halloween costumes. In late September, I realized that no one was selling Breaking Bad costumes, so I bought a few cases of yellow hazmat suits and the month has been a blur of shipments to Ireland and the UK. 



Since all of my paintings are at the Pollard Gallery right now, my art studio has become my shipping headquarters.



I used a little bit of my eBay profits thus far to renew my website address. For a short time, anyone who typed "KatieDylewski.com" was being directed to this young lady with search suggestions like: "Carmen Electra", "Drew Barrymore", and "Playboy Single".  Should I be flattered? I am.

 <---------

If Politicians Were 'Breaking Bad' Characters...

Dick Cheney as "Hector Salamanca"

I did these quickie illustrations for a FunnyOrDie.com article but they opted to use actual photos instead 

Bill Clinton as "Heisenberg"

Here are some of the illustrations that would otherwise live for eternity in my hard drive.

So, enjoy!

Maybe I'll upload the rest later.

Commission: Alexander Duthart

I was commissioned to paint this earlier this year...

It's a portrait of Alexander Duthart (1925–1986); he was a Scottish drummer who revolutionized Scottish pipe band snare playing. Thanks Wikipedia!

Unfortunately, Mr. Duthart didn't take a lot of photographs in his lifetime. The ones he did take were extremely 1970s-style blurry. On top of that, he also wore about 18 yards of plaid as part of his Scottish drummer outfit.

Painting plaid from a blurry reference photo is pure hell on the eyeballs. It instantly makes you feel like you've been in a Wal-Mart for 5 hours (or 15 minutes, same difference) and/or like you've been awake for 4 days watching Requiem for a Dream on a loop. 

I won't ever paint plaid again, ever.  EVER.

Anyway, this painting was framed at Artworks and now resides with a former student of Mr. Duthart.

First Solo Show @ Pollard Gallery (Sept - Nov 2012)

I have my first solo show coming up in about 3 weeks!

I'll have four or five new paintings; none are quite finished yet. A few ("Slaughterman", "Study of a Girl" and one yet to be determined) will be in nice refinished wood frames. These frames were sold to me by a very nice woman for WAY way too cheap at a yard sale in New Berlin because I told her I had my first solo show coming up; amazingly she just asked how much I had in my pocket and sold them to me for that.

Anywho, I am trying to refinish those frames today but I feel high from heat-gun fumes and am trying to track down a sander...so I'm taking a computer break.

Here's the info and the flyer:

Opening Reception: 

Saturday, September 8th 2012

Show runs September 8th - November 2012

Pollard Gallery - 5800 7th Avenue Kenosha, WI

Phish Painting

Don't let this painting fool you—I do not like the band Phish.  

That said, they do have cool concert posters. Also, I am dating a Phish fan.

I wanted to buy him this particular Phish tour poster for his birthday last year but apparently their tour posters are like $100+ on eBay.  

So, I made a huge cradled board out of maple wood and painted the image instead. The original design is not my own (I wish it was) -- it's by DKNG Studios.

In Phish fan language, this is the poster from 6/4/11 Cuyahoga Falls, OH bruh.

DVD Menu Designs - Katy Perry "Part of Me"

A couple mock-up DVD menus I created recently for a design firm in Waukesha.

Portrait of Anderson Cooper (in Coffee)

After many years of sitting on the floor and propping canvases against the back of my kitchen chair, I finally broke down and bought a nice easel from Utrecht. Painting is much MUCH easier now so I plan to do more of it. 

Hopefully uploading more in the next month. Here's one I did for fun...

*UPDATE: He came out of the closet one week after I posted this, therefore I take full responsibility. Congrats Anderson :)

** MEGA UPDATE!  This painting was featured on ANDERSON LIVE on ABC on 1/3/2013! Ahhh!

Move over "Toddler waving from trolley"...

Check it out! My sister just showed me this. Apparently my painting "Slaughterman" snuck into one of the photos on the Downtown Kenosha Business Directory pamphlet :)

Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary T-Shirt

I was recently commissioned to design a t-shirt for the Girl Scouts.

It celebrates the organization's 100th anniversary (1912-2012; there's a big nationwide celebration in May) and shows the girls through the decades in black and white. The modern-day scouts are shown in color.

The shirts are available for sale now on the main page of the Girl Scouts Wisconsin site to troops nationwide.

Pumped!!

Watercolor Portrait: Caroline

Just found this packed in with my older paintings. It's watercolor on board. I can't remember what her name is (I took the liberty to rename her) but I just really liked the ship tattoo.

Favorite Job of 2011

This was my hands-down favorite freelance job of the year.

Task:  10-15 sketches of various types of people fighting with crutches.

They were used in a storyboard for a commercial and yes, I took the opportunity to put a cartoon version of myself in a crutch-battle with a man in a tank top. 

I also cartoonified Anita, a young artist I tutor; she's fighting a pirate.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Christmas Work

A caricature of Snap-On CEO Nick Pinchuk, and a 40's style illustration for a family Christmas card...

If you know who this is a cartoon of, you are probably unemployed.

 

Televised murder trials and nice weather make unemployment very tolerable. 

Bye Bye Oprah

Pumpkin-Carving!

(I'm going to pretend I haven't slacked on this blog for the last 6 months and rewind us back to last fall so I can show you some pictures.) 

Happy October 2010! 

Can you believe it's October already? 

Can you believe the stores are already playing Christmas music?! (Etcetra, etcetra) 

Ok, now that that's established... here's my first attempt at pumpkin carving:

My subject, Snap-on® CEO Nicholas Pinchuk, is shown here holding my carving (his head) on a platter.

How To Fix A Broken Dell Laptop Screen

Haven't updated this thing in a while. I didn't die but the backlight on my 2005 Inspiron did.

One terrible, horrible day the screen went completely black. The guy at Computer Adventure said it wasn't worth the money to fix it. I told him I don't have money to fix it anyway so HAAA.

$25 later, my laptop is now a working desktop.

Does your laptop have a giant heated coaster that keeps your coffee warm? I don't thiiiink sooooo...

NEW! The Coffee Series

Last month, I started a new series of paintings that successfully mixes two of my loves... (no, not sailors and mashed potatoes)...

Portrait-painting and coffee.

Painting with coffee is excellent because :

1) when dry, the canvas smells delicious

2) Folgers is MUCH cheaper than oil paint

I brought my first three portraits (including 'Nesbit', right) to the MESH Haiti benefit and enjoyed letting everyone smell them.

ExposeKenosha's Lester Pitz reviewed them in his column 'Lester Says'!

Check it out here.

My Sister on America's Next Top Model Tonight!

My little sister Liz is an excellent photographer who recently moved back to Wisconsin from New York. 

While she was living there, she was lucky enough to work on the set of an America's Next Top Model photoshoot. The episode is airing on the CW Network tonight, 3/31. It has a vampire theme. 

Watch for a little redhead running around in a trash bag—that's my sister! She was tasked with cleaning up the fake blood. Woo!

This Weekend: Haiti Benefit and Dorian Grey

Busy weekend coming up! I'll have a bunch of new paintings for sale at two shows-- come out if you can:

MESH Kenosha Haiti Benefit
Saturday, March 6, 2010 -- 6-11pm
Rhode Center For The Arts
Live music, art, raffles
More info: www.myspace.com/MESHkenosha
**Proceeds benefit the victims of the earthquake in Haiti

and

Dorian Grey Art Show
Sunday, March 7, 2010 -- Noon-4 (?)
Rhode Center For The Arts

Time Lapse Mural

Here's a little video from 2006, showing me and one of my old roommates painting a mural of one of my favorite pin-up paintings by Enoch Bolles.

And the cat isn't bleeding-- she just tried eating some of the red paint:

Gift Commissions

Lots of gift commissions this winter! Keep them coming : )

Here are the two most recent ones:
- Family Portrait (in Prismacolor pencil)
- Caricature (for corporate going-away party)

Creepy Family Photo!

Very busy with art lately (I keep meaning to upload it) but I felt an urgent need to share this: Found this tonight in a box of family photos and immediately scanned and submitted it to one of my favorite sites: AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. (1/23/10 UPDATE! AFP picked it for their Saturday Night Special! Success!)

As I'm told, my mom met this family while camping in Naples back in the early 80s. Take a close look at the camper in the yellow shirt... or, more specifically, green shorts.

I would make a joke about pitching tents but I'm too worried about the little girl in the hat (who is probably 35 now and still emotionally scarred.)

Anyway, that's all. You're welcome.