Time for a Giveaway!

August 19, 2016

It's been a while since I've had a giveaway and I think it's long overdue!

This past week I had a open poll, asking what would you choose to win as a free gift?

1. Mini custom paper doll

2. Mini coloring book

3. Original illustrations

4. Pair of earrings or a pin

The votes were calculated and the winner is....

Well, there's a tie!

Mini custom paper doll or a pair of earrings or pin!!

yay! Whoot-whoot!!

Ok so how do you win?

CONTEST:

1. Like my Page on Facebook: Keghaznavi Illustration http://www.facebook.com/keghazillus

2. Sign up for my Newsletter: Curls & Markers

http://keghaznavi.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c6a11c2bf4b803ed2144e3d1b&id=9b8b3d466f

3. Share my page with your Facebook friends.

Thats it!!!

Once I reach 750 likes on my Facebook page, the contest will be over, I will randomly select a winner! The winner will be announced on my Facebook page and then contacted by email to begin the custom doll process or to select a pin or a pair of earrings!!

GOOD LUCK!!!

Head over to Facebook now & get started!

-Kierston

Mothers of Our Nations: In Progress

August 4, 2016

If you read this blog, you know that I am partnering with Pearls for Teen Girls in Milwaukee for my community art project in the From Here to Her 2016 show, Mothers of Our Nations. The team at PEARLS is dedicated to empowering young girls in all aspects of their life, and preparing them with the tools they’ll need to be successful in the future. It’s not just about preparing for college, but really building character and mentoring relationships that last beyond college.

I will be creating work to honor the staff at PEARLS and I am also currently volunteering this summer to help the girls create paper dolls of their own.

We are in the second half of the summer program, and this has been fun and challenging for myself and the girls. This has challenged me to think of the process in my doll making and try to express that in a manageable, step by step way, so that the girls can comfortably work at their own skill levels. There are some girls who dived right in, already love to draw and are moving along pretty quickly. And some girls aren’t too confident in their drawing skills. So I have been working a little more closely with them, trying to reassure them that they are better at drawing than they think they are. All of the dolls that the girls are working on are as unique as each girl and full of imagination.

I hope that after this, the girls find a new hobby, maybe start drawing more often and are proud that they challenged themselves to do something outside of their comfort zone.

PEARLS summer group. Girls busy drawing their dolls.

Some dolls are already pretty close to done.

I'll continue to post updates before the shows this fall. Sign up for my newsletter for VIP access:

http://keghaznavi.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c6a11c2bf4b803ed2144e3d1b&id=9b8b3d466f

My Favorite Mediums: Let's talk about Pen.

July 16, 2016

I switched to drawing with pens in my sketchbook instead of pencils a long time ago, probably high school. The pencil sketches would smudge and I hated that I couldn’t get the lines to stay crisp. Back then, I was trying to draw more realistically, and I’m not good at that, I knew that early on. I was more interested in the story and the characters in my artwork than perfecting the form. Plus, I really have the WORST handwriting/penmanship, so in school I needed a nice fine tip pen to even attempt to write anything legibly, well that’s if I wanted to actually take notes to study with. And since most of my notetaking in school primarily consisted of doodles and daydreams, drawing with pens became my favorite way to draw.

Neatness was definitely not a priority when I drew, and it still isn’t when I’m freehand sketching. I loved the texture of the pen scrawling & scribbles, and building up the dimensions with varying my pen pressure on the paper.

Nowadays I work primarily in pen, but I try to be a little more clean with my strokes and more decisive with my pen marks. I use pencil lightly to sketch my ideas, placement, expressions etc. then I add in the permanent lines.

From here, I color in with my markers or I scan the image & add color in Adobe Illustrator.

Rosy  marker illustration. — Rosy marker illustration.

When I draw in a freehand manner with my pen, its generally in these curvy and semi connected shapes. I can do this for hours, throw on some music, or a podcast (We Hate Movies, The Read, MmHmm Girl, 2 Dope Queens, This American Life—my go-to broadcasts) or I pull up Seinfeld reruns on Hulu and zone out. I draw them as just outlines, sometimes as part of a zentangle or I spend time coloring them in with fine point sharpies.