PANDAMONSTER

Pandamonster gets a new look!

2011-02-03T11:18:00.005-04:00

Thanks to my Advanced Illustration class, I finally got the inspiration/gentle nudge/kick in the ass to give my blog a more "custom" look. And boy, ain't it purdy!

Ever wondered what a pandamonster would really look like?

THAT.

Now I'm an "advanced" artist!

2010-10-26T19:51:00.007-03:00

Currently working on a bit of a creative overhaul, so I'm finally getting some quality digital versions of my art. Thought I'd share one of my favourites from a series I just finished called From the Ground Up. This series is a unique combination of colours, materials and mark-making to literally "build" up a drawing that pulls inspiration from the effects of time on the floors and white walls at the university where I study fine arts.

Floor no. 3
Katelyn Richard
Mixed media on paper
October, 2010

More to follow soon.

Purple Haze

2009-07-24T14:28:00.004-03:00

For my brother's 18th birthday this month, I decided to pay tributes to both my hero and his with a Warhol-inspired painting of Jimi Hendrix.

My brother, an avid drummer and guitarist, is also a big Hendrix fan. I had already bought him a Hendrix shirt a few birthdays back, so I figured original art of his hero would be a nifty change this year.

While Googling reference pictures, I came across one that had been edited to resemble a Pop Art portrait. I'm a big fan of Andy Warhol and I liked the look of that picture best, so I figured, "Why not?" Hendrix was also a well known psychedelic drug user, so I thought the colour scheme and aesthetics associated with Warhol's work would be appropriate as well. ;)

I think it was a fairly successful leap into Pop Art. I'm rather satisfied with how it turned out, and my brother (thankfully) likes it!

Drawing class

2009-05-26T22:50:00.007-03:00

I finally decided to photograph some newer drawings, if only to prove that I can draw. These are two of my better ones from the Intro to Figure Drawing class I took at NSCAD in the winter.

This was an assignment early in the semester. We had to do a mirrored copy of a Master drawing. I mirrored Raphael Santi's "Nude Study" (which can be found here). I noticed as I was pinning it on the wall that the man's legs and feet look just a little bit small, but I'm not super concerned. The muscles in his back were pretty fun to draw.

This one of Acid Betty was drawn as part of my final project, a series of drag queens. I fell in love with her look after seeing her on season 4 of Project Runway and immediately knew I wanted to draw her at some point. I cropped out her hands because they gave me such a headache when I tried to draw them. (Note to self: practice hands and feet!). Other than that, she was some of the most fun I've ever had drawing. I'll definitely be revisiting drag queens in my future work.

THE POWER IS YOURS

2009-05-05T00:06:00.004-03:00

I must have had some sort of nostalgic episode tonight because I felt a compulsion to go through some of my old files from high school. Between my oekaki doodles and my pet chemistry project (a comic about nuclear energy) I found this little gem from eleventh grade.

This was originally done for a poster when I decided to run for Arts Rep on my student council. (I lost.) It proved to be quite useful again when my twelfth grade Political Science class put together a mock election and I was campaign manager for the Green Party. (We won!)

At the time, I thought I had some mad Photoshop skills, but looking at it now, it's kind of ridiculous. I decided to cut out the poster text and throw it up here for a laugh. I'm pretty sure this cartoon was actually TERRIBLE but I still love as much as I did when I was five. I mean, it's a series about villains that pollute the earth solely for the sake of being a douchebag and the hero has a green mullet. You don't see stuff like that in cartoons anymore. (On the Metro Transit late at night, however...)

Mo shirts!

2009-05-01T20:30:00.006-03:00

I suckered my friends Kandis and Katie into taking some photos of my final screenprinting project yesterday. There are two shirts with this design and 4 with a smaller Mo drawing that I still need to get pictures of.

I'm currently trying to find a place online that will custom print shirts for a decent price. I'd love to go into business selling my own work but it's much too expensive and time consuming to hand-print these multi-layer designs myself. I was looking at setting up a CafePress store but the licensing of my content to them under the Terms of Service makes me uncomfortable. Suggestions?

Southern Ann-Margret... On steroids.

2009-03-20T00:39:00.004-03:00

My final project for figure drawing class is a series of drawings of drag queens. After researching photos of Varla Jean Merman, I fell in love with her retro-Hollywood look and did this drawing as sort of an exploration of the subject manner. Drawing a figure that's both male and female is an interesting challenge.

I think my cat, Mimi, really liked this drawing.

This is one of many creative obstacles I deal with every day.

In which there are BUNNIES!

2009-03-09T21:53:00.014-03:00

I decided it was high time I actually post some artwork here. For the last couple of weeks, I've been doing repeat patterns for my Introduction to Screen Printing class. So far, I think I like them! So now I'm sharing.

The first assignment was a 2-way border repeat on 3 meters of fabric. I had used koi fish once before on a corset that failed miserably (it was my first time sewing one) so I decided to take a second stab at it. Despite some minor goofs, I thought it turned out rather well.

Spring break gave me an extra week to punch it up a little, so I decided to break away from plain white cotton and venture into colour territory. I used an unbleached factory cotton and dip-dyed it a pretty orangey-gold (inspired by goldfish) with Remazol dyes that I mixed myself. I mixed pigment with transparent base into what I describe as "blood orange" so the print would have contrast without being overpowering or looking too Halloweeny.

The second assignment was to do a 4-way repeat. I was kind of on a roll with a cute animal theme so I did bunnies inspired by Derringer's pet, Elliot, in Friendly Hostility.

I only had one week to print the fabric instead of two like I did for the koi fish, so I used the plain white mercerized cotton for simplicity's sake. However, rather than print in plain black, I decided to use a magenta pigment that I had bought but never used. :D I like the colour combination of bright pinks or magentas and white (because lets face it, hot pink and black is SO overdone). I also thought the magenta would lend to the silly/cute idea.

So far, I'm thinking bags for the koi fish and pajama pants for the bunnies. :D

Horrorfax Harbour

2009-02-01T17:16:00.003-04:00

This is actually a little bit older, but I wanted to share it anyway.

"Horrorfax Harbour" is a little video project done by my dear friend Katie Hillman about life in the Halifax Harbour. Using Nick Park's "Creature Comforts" as inspiration, she asked friends and family to say something about the local landmark (watermark?) and then animated each interview as the sort of deformed sea life that might live there.

The creatures (that include a fanged seagull, three-eyed harbour seal, garbage fish and a seaserpent) are all animated in different styles, which lends the video the sort of creative twist that makes Ms. Hillman's work such a visual treat. I highly recommend you mosey over to her DeviantArt page and check out her other works. And if you like claymation, take a look at "Alles Gute Zum Gerburtstag- a german expressionist birthday."

Oh yeah, did I also mention that she asked me to voice the seal?

Hello world!

2009-01-29T13:44:00.005-04:00

It's been a while. How are you? What's new?

Really, I'm writing this just because I wanted a new post on the top of my blog. Initially, I had no idea what to write. And then I remembered BRAID.

No, not the kind in your hair. This Braid is a video game. And I love love LOVE it. This coming from somone that never got past the first level of Super Mario Bros and considered games like Bejeweled 2 and Duck Hunt 'good' video games. It's true. I'm not actually a true nerd. Dang. I digress.

When my boyfriend Andrew first mentioned Jonathan Blow's indie-darling endeavor, I feigned interest, but never actually retained any of the conversation. (I am a bad girlfriend too.) After trying out Gears of War 2 on his Xbox (and dying a spectacularly violent, Locust-orchestrated death about 5 minutes into the game), a friend recommended the demo to me over Facebook. Andrew ever so kindly forgave my previous affectation (YAY HIM!) and dug out the demo for me. I was hooked.

Despite my lack of gaming experience (and my subsequent whining for help every 15 seconds), I fell in love with the Super Mario Bros-esque gameplay, the innovative time-manipulation puzzles, the storyline (IT HAS ROMANCE YAY), the beautiful painterly style of the graphics and the ability to simply hit "rewind" every time I died.

I've heard complaints that the game is much too short and the 15 or 20 dollars it costs to download from the Xbox marketplace doesn't feel worth it. But it definitely is. Especially if you're as utterly thick and inexperienced as me, in which case you'll get an extra 3 hours or more of game play just making Timmy smash his head against ledges while you try to figure out the puzzles. (I played all morning and still couldn't for the life of me figure out how to open two doors with one key in World 5.) If you're not that thick and inexperienced, then it's still worth it because the game is just so bloody brilliant and beautiful, you can't NOT play it.

Winter

2008-11-22T02:08:00.004-04:00

I left Halifax a little after 11pm tonight in the midst of a heavy snowfall. Despite stress of finals and the other everyday (or not so everyday) blues that have been weighing me down lately, I felt oddly zen walking home from the bus stop. I normally hate the cold, but snow cheers me up, especially at night. There are no cars. No people. It's like I'm not even in the same city, or even the same world. I'm all but completely alone. Just me, and the snow.

It's quiet. There is no sound.

Only white noise.

My pet, the dog-cat.

2008-11-01T14:00:00.004-03:00

Fiddling around on my boyfriend's laptop this afternoon, I came across a recently visited Wikipedia page on the Van Kedisi or Van Cat. It listed some interesting physical and behavioural traits in the breed, which urged me to do some research on my own cat, Mimi, who is part Maine Coon. This is what I found.

Physical traits were dead on. Mimi is somewhere around 10 pounds, if I recall (making her about twice the size of my brother's cat, Lily, who was the runt of the litter.) She also has the M on her forehead, long hair "britches" on her back legs and the enormous tail. Reading through the section of polydactyl Coons, the part about walking easily through snow caught my attention. Though Mimi is not a polydactyl, she takes to snow like most other cats take to catnip.

Her behaviour is similar to that described of a typical Maine Coon, though I have yet to catch her opening cabinets and flushing the toilet. She does on occasion lead me to her food dish for company while she eats and has amazed the family with her ability to pick up her cat toys with her front paws. The part about Fetch especially made me laugh, as I recall her kittenhood fondness for socks. One night while folding my laundry, she attacked a rolled-up pair of socks sitting on my bed. I threw them across the room for a game. After flying across the room to attack them a little, she picked them up in her mouth and brought them back to me. I threw them for her again. It continued in this manner for the next 10 minutes. (I would like to add here that a few of my socks went missing during the first few months I had her. She has since outgrown Hide The Sock and Fetch, but still enjoys attacking my laundry.)

As she gets older, I notice she's mellowed out some. Coons are typically not lap cats, but she will occasionally sit in my lap to be scratched and loved up some. She's an intelligent, lovable and loyal little companion. She curls up on my desk and naps while I work, sleeps in my bed with me and comes when I call her. For anyone that is looking for an intelligent, easily trained and playful cat, Maine Coon is a breed to consider.

Pop Explosion

2008-10-26T22:39:00.010-03:00

Yesterday, my lovely friend Katie and I celebrated 5 years of friendship by selling work at the 8th annual Zine and Record Fair thrown as part of the Halifax Pop Explosion. The two of us shared a table and marketed original art to the masses. Pictures ensue!

Our little table! Note Katie, hard at work.

People went nuts for this. She drew all day.

Some of Katie's paintings.

A print version of the web-based dream zine, Naked in the Hall.

These two made me laugh! I love his creepy bug-eye expression.

Their hilarious portrait. Love the owl.

Finally, a picture of us together! <3

My half of the table, selling decorated sketchbooks and a few of my friend Jonbob's singles.

I expanded on the idea of completely homemade sketchbooks that I did for last year by putting relief lino-cut prints on the covers of blank Moleskine sketchbooks. They ended up selling well and I'm now I'm considering going into business selling them online. But first, I want to evaluate the general interest. I'd like to know if people would buy them, and if so, for how much?

Any feedback via comments or e-mail would be fantastic. E-mail responses can be directed to katelynr @ gmail.com (minus the spaces.)

Everyone loves the undead.

2008-08-26T02:54:00.006-03:00

A birthday present for my lovely friend/soul sister Katie. I had a lot of fun painting this.

Acrylic on masonite, 6-7 hours.

Harry Pottah!

2008-08-12T02:18:00.004-03:00

Some Harry Potter doodles that Dice and I did on his whiteboard. My favourite part has to be his starry-eyed Dumbledore off to the left. "Bambi's mom! You're alive! I never stopped believing!!"

PS: See if you can spot lyrics from The Mysterious Ticking Noise.

PRINTS! squee

2008-08-01T01:25:00.008-03:00

I was lucky enough to be surprised this week with a limited edition poster from Questionable Content and a specially-adressed-to-Katelyn signed drawing of a kitty by the the writer/artist, Jeph Jacques (!). Did I mention that he is my idol? I actually threw out my back a little in my fit of glee.

Really wish I could find the batteries for my digital camera so I could accompany this post with a photo... Going to look for frames and mats for them at some point. My friend Keri mentioned that Michael's usually has them on sale. An 11x17 frame may be a bit of a challenge to track down though.

More art

2008-06-26T00:15:00.003-03:00

I'm really on a roll with the art this week.

The first (almost) finished piece for the gothic lolita dead doll costume I'm making for an Undead Masquerade. A neck corset to match the actual corset top I'm working on! :D I used black string just to try it on and take a picture, but I may use black ribbon instead to achieve a more frilly look for the masquerade.

This is how my brain works at 2am

2008-06-25T02:02:00.005-03:00

My parents fork out five thousand dollars a year for me to go to art school, and then I turn out crap like this:

My friend Kandis and I were discussing our roles in relationships are some such crap like that. I am a clinger, she claims to be a "callous bitch." At some point, she mentioned "We'd make a good team. You being clingy and me being callous and all. We could fight crime!"

So here you have it. Tenacious K and Butch. I think I love Kandis' fake mustache the best.

He's back.

2008-06-09T02:06:00.005-03:00

The raccon that wandered onto my back porch last summer, forthwith referred to as "That Furry Bastard" has returned. While checking outside for my cat, I caught him on the front doorstep, blissfully munching on last week's chicken. He ran away when I turned the light on.

Photographic evidence to follow. I'll catch him in the act eventually.

Déjà Vu

2008-05-07T01:43:00.004-03:00

I remember the "senior slump" in high school. Post freshman year of university, I seem to be experiencing that feeling again. Is there some sort of summer slump after the first year of art school completely drains one of creativity that I was supposed to know about?

I'm spending Thursday with Kandis. Hopefully, there will be some creative/productive energy emerging then.

Until then, I am spending too many late nights watching reruns with my new boyfriend, Spicy Nacho Doritos.

This is a MUMORPUGER!

2008-04-28T13:47:00.005-03:00

Keri's boyfriend, Jeff, introduced me to Zero Punctuation last night.

There are no words to describe the joy I feel when listening to his delightful accent ridicule Dante from Devil May Cry 4 for wearing too many belts

Congratulations, you're a fanboy. Line up for your free t-shirt and cat ears.

Now with 30% more hormones!

2008-04-17T23:37:00.004-03:00

Dice and I concluded today that there are three types of PMS.

Pre-menstrual syndrome, post-menstrual syndrome and presently menstruating syndrome.

Either that, or I'm just a bitch.

Still more geek.

2008-04-15T12:53:00.006-03:00

More art of my Gaia avatar, Kitto-chan. I just wanted an excuse to play with coloured pencils.

I heart Kermit.

2008-03-27T17:59:00.004-03:00

I had an overwhelming urge to share this animated gif I found. The Muppets never fail to make me giggle.
(Bork bork bork!)

How geeky? This geeky.

2008-03-25T23:18:00.007-03:00

Dear Gaia Online:

Easter event?

Eastaaaah

2008-03-23T15:33:00.007-03:00

I am required to love this holiday because I have estrogen. Chocolate is a good thing.

Art, say whaaaa?

2008-03-18T02:02:00.007-03:00

Something a little different. Drawings!

Somewhere, between no sleep and time-that'd-be-better-spent-working, I actually draw for myself once in a while. So now, I'm sharing.

I don't feel like finishing this art exhibition proposal for my Writing class. Let's see if Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City can make it just a little bit more bearable. I seem to have exhausted Youtube's supply of Sex and the City reruns.

2008-02-26T15:55:00.003-04:00

Lately (on the off chance that I get to sleep for more than 4 hours) I've been having some really weird dreams.

I had one last night where I was staying at a house up on a hill with some of my family. At the bottom of the hill, in our backyard, there was this beautiful little stretch of beach, all white sand and bright blue water, and this little tropical island just off the shore, within swimming distance. So my two cousins, my brother and I all decided to go down to the beach and go swimming. But when we got there, it was all covered in rocks and old, rusty metal scraps and nails. As we were trying to pick our way through the junk and into the water (which was now an interesting spectrum of reds and browns), a grubby young man in construction gear approached me and demanded that I give him a password. I replied, "But, we just want to go swimming!" and he let us go. Around that point, my brother and cousins gave up on the idea and turned back. I kept on wading into the water, and once I was a few feet in, the junk just trailed off and I was left standing in clear blue water again.

In another one I dreamt a few nights ago, my family was growing pumpkins in the backyard. But they kept cracking open and rotting. So one night, I picked up a good one and promised I'd find a freezer to save it in. As I was carrying it up the hill, it cracked open in my arms. In a panic, I tried to eat it before it could start to rot. But rather than the usual pumpkin guts, there was this weird, bittersweet citrus-like fruit inside that tasted so amazing. And I couldn't stop eating it, even though I knew I had to save the pumpkin.

It'd be interesting to see what a dream interpreter could make of this.

A Christmas Request

2007-12-09T00:16:00.001-04:00

Dear Santa Claus,

Please bring me the hot guy from the Calvin Klein Obsession Night ad for Christmas.

[Please note: I have gone temporarily insane from stress and illness. If you see them, please punch whichever person it was at NSCAD who made me sick last Saturday night.]

I <3 Johnny Weir.

2007-11-10T11:11:00.002-04:00

As a kid, I used to be sort of fond of figure skating. I had some taped Christmas special of Disney on ice, went to see the Ice Capades a couple of times, blah blah blah. But I kind of lost track of it as I got older.

My friend Kandis is absolutely bonkers for figure skating and last year turned me on to the beautiful Johnny Weir. He is AMAZING. So elegant! (I highly recommend that everyone see the "Fallen Angels" routine he did with Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov.)

Anyway, after seeing him skate (and having her babble about for the last few months) I started getting all excited for this year's figure skating season. Just this morning, I hopped on my laptop and found out that Johnny won this year's Cup of China! Also beating his personal best! Weee!

So yeah, much deserved "congratulations!" and general excitedness for him!

EDIT: Johnny Weir's short program at CoC! (Also, love the new hairdo.)

I need a Red Bull the size of my head.

2007-09-28T00:59:00.002-03:00

But I don't want to waste a post on complaints. So, you get recommended reading. So I don't devote this whole post to complaints.

I'm currently really into Art Speigelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale Vol. 1 - My Father Bleeds History.

This graphic novel was assigned as part of my required reading for Intro to Visual Culture class. The illustrations intrigued me, so I picked it up and flipped through the first few pages. Immediately, I was hooked.

Art Speigelman retells his father's story of life during World War II in a comic form, featuring Jewish mice and Nazi cats. Through the eyes of Vladek Speigelman, the reader sees the war in a whole new way. It's intensely emotional, but without being too sappy-Diary-of-Anne-Frank-ish. Every chapter also features a brief comic about the actual interview process, when Art began to record his father's story. These scenes add a touch of light heartedness to the story and keep it from being too melancholy.

I'm nearly finished volume 1 now. Volume 2, And Here My Troubles Began is on my list of books to read next.

A Non-spoiler Harry Potter Blurb

2007-07-23T02:51:00.001-03:00

At approximately 2:30am, July 23, 2007, I officially finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, afte 17 hours of reading, punctuated only by work, sleep and food.

I don't think I have ever been so glued to a book since my mother surprised me with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone years ago. J.K. Rowling, my heart belongs to you. I laughed, I cried... Okay, I didn't actually cry, but there were a couple of scenes that got sad gasps. And a few more where my jaw quite literally dropped. If HPATDH was a box, I am positive that the box would be overflowing with awesome.

To anyone who hasn't yet bought into Harry Potter Mania, you don't know what you're missing.

Once more into the blog! ONCE MORE!

2007-07-20T00:09:00.000-03:00

It's 12:09am in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I am sitting in my basement den, watching "grownup" cartoons on Teletoon and fiddling around with my laptop (who will forthwith be referred to as 'Beastie') when all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, I think, "I should restart my blog."
Like everyone else and their grandmother who has hopped onto the blogging bandwagon, I am so egotistical to believe that my ramblings are interesting enough to be posted out on the worldwide web for everyone to see. But mostly, I'm just tired of scribbling stuff down in my sketchbook where people close to me can swipe it and read it. Ironic, really, but I seem to have more privacy when my entries are out in the open.
So, here it is. My innermost thoughts, feelings, tips, tricks and crazy ideas, tacked on this digital bulletin board for the public eye's perusal. Damn, I really need to go to bed....