KISSELEV illustration - The Blog

Some work over past months.

2011-12-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

Kim Kardashian for the New York Observer

This was another piece for the Observer. I believe I've done three now.

The illustration went with an article about Kim moving to Brooklyn for that's where Kris lives/lived.

Either way when I finished this, I think it must have been a matter of weeks before they split up.

Great assignment. Worked with Scott Dvorin again.

Company portraits for ALS

This was a pretty sweet job because it came from within my day job. I work for ALS Library Services during the week. Our company director asked me if I could draw up some b/w portraits of all the team leaders for an upcoming conference. Sure. This was especially cool because these were just normal people rather than celebrities. Normal people generally have more interesting features I think.

It was also great to see everyone squirm when I took reference photos.

Rebel Meets Rebel for Revolver

I was so psyched to get this job. Revolver was my last meeting in NY during my promo trip. I reckon it was the one mag I wanted to get a job with the most. I got the job through Stephen Goggi whom I got the chance to meet and is an absolute champ! Rebel Meets Rebel is a regular section that features an artist from one band interviewing an artist from another band. I got Dallas Taylor from Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster interviewing Neil Fallon from Clutch. Since both bands are pretty 'Southern Rock' we kind of went with the shoot-out theme. Not only was it awesome to get the job in itself, but this was my first double-page spread. As well as that I got to do a bit of hand typography. Very cool.

Spartacus Davis

This was just a small commission I did for my mate Shaun Davis. He got me to draw up a picture that he could give to his friend Lisa (pictured) for Christmas I believe ...

I'm just putting this up cos I kind of like how it turned out.

Cover for Christianity Today

I wanted to put up the final layout of the cover, but the art director hasn't got back to me with it yet.

This was a completely out of the blue job. Months back I did a massive mail out with new work to about 200 magazines. I probably got about four replies from that. I completely forgot about it when I received an email from a dude named Gary Gnidovic asking me to do a cover for Christianity Today. As well as that, if I had the time I could do two more spot illustrations for the inside. Wow.

The issue focused on civility in politics. The concept was already worked out and basically consisted of a red group of people ready to face off with a blue group. Republicans vs the Democrats without being too direct. The turnaround was quite quick, but everything went pretty smoothly.

Also, these guys paid me the next day.

I couldn't believe it since most places are taking at least three months.

Unholy for Guitar World

I've been pretty lucky with getting cool jobs for cool mags so far. This was definitely one of them.

I never did end up getting that meeting with Guitar World but because Stephen Goggi from Revolver works next door to Alexis Cook from Guitar World, and she saw my piece for their last issue, I think I pretty much got this job because of that. I got to draw Zakk Wylde and Gene Simmons!

The story was about how the Black Veil Brides are doing a cover of Kiss' Unholy on which

Zakk Wylde was making a guest appearance.

The BVB dudes were especially hard to get a likeness from since they're all covered in white makeup.

Came together in the end though.

Portrait for Money Magazine

2011-07-12T02:42:00.000-07:00

Hi.

This is a small portrait assignment I just finished for Money. It took a little longer than it should have just because I wasn't quite on the same page as the art director with the first take. Because this is going to be printed quite small, the line work in the first one would have been completely washed out. To fix that I took it up two point sizes compared to what I usually use.

Also, I made the nice lady appear a bit too masculine. That was the main issue really for me - I wasn't sure how hard I could crank it when I got the job. So I went medium strength. Even that turned out a bit too strong.

It seems I had to apply my style to more or less a straight-up, somewhat flattering portrait.

That's what I tried doing with the second take. I removed some line work from the face which generally makes women look older and uglier. I also slightly opened up her eyes, reduced her nose and fattened up her lips. On top of that I added some colour. I changed her top from red to green in the third one because it was all getting a bit too red. Lastly I added some shaky looking stripes for a bit of a pattern look, hopefully giving the portrait a little kick of character.

It was great to do this even though I had some stuff to fix up. Really different drawing-wise for me, but I would be quite happy to do more like it again.

How I handle a new piece.

2011-06-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

There are many ways you can approach a piece depending on the way you work and your personality I guess. Some people are more meticulous than others; I tend to be a lot more scrappy.

I feel like my process hasn't yet been perfected because sometimes it seems like I spend too much time on a certain aspect when I'd rather be working on the next part. Hopefully with time and practice it will come together.

Basically I have fused together what I've been taught at various institutions. I kept the parts that seemed useful and cut out things that just didn't work for me.

I start off with a simple idea. Some people do 'idea generation trees'. It does not work for me. I keep it in my head. If I'm afraid I'll forget it, I'll write it down. I expand on the idea also in my mind. I like to keep my images pretty self-explanatory and not too conceptual. Also, I try to be funny. It's terrible because my humour isn't very elite. I have to stop. The style is kind of comical in itself though. However, I don't really consider myself a caricaturist. I just don't like the sound of that. It sounds very one-dimensional. I'd like to think that my work has a slightly higher sophistication level. This is just the way in which I draw and I would call them likenesses rather than caricatures or even worse, cartoons.

Then, once I have an idea, I'll do a very rough sketch. I'm terrible with thumbnails. I just can't scale things down in little boxes. Plus the style in which I work is largely set around non-fixed shapes. There's an element of spontaneity which I like to keep. If I do a thumbnail, I'm locking myself in. So I just do very rough sketches. When it is clear in my mind what I want to achieve, I start looking for reference. Reference is very important. Some people say it's cheating. They are wrong. An illustration must seem believable, no matter how stylised it is. You can't just make up how light falls on the folds of clothes or what a bent arm looks like. You can, but the chances of it being believable are very slim. I use reference for everything. It may not seem like it because I still distort things a lot, but I do. Once again, it's not copying, it's reference. Whether it's going through the net, setting up a scene in the back yard or just taking a snap of my hand in Photo Booth. The only problem I have with this step is that a lot of the time I'm hell bent on an idea and I will spend hours on the net trying to nail down that particular photo of that particular person with that particular shadow across their face. That's one of the aspects I need to cut down on.

Most of the time, my screen is on reference overload.

Once I got reference, I pretty much just start drawing - either the whole thing at once or individual elements of the piece. Sometimes they are terrible, sometimes I really like a drawing. When all the drawings are done, I scan it, or them if there are more than one. On the computer I adjust the composition by moving them around, changing scale, etc. I don't actually draw on the computer because I don't know how to, nor do I really want to find out. I quickly block in some colour if I'm using colour. Then I print it out. Usually they are pretty big so I have to print out a bunch of sheets and then stick them together. I stick the printout to the back of my prepared watercolour sheet and whack it on my light table. With the tracing, it's more suggestive rather than identical, just so I can keep some freshness when I go in with pen. This step works fine right now, but eventually I want to cut it out and just be able to rely on my hand and skip the tracing; move straight to the final pen work.

Drawings that get kept

Roughly what I envisioned

Some slight dimension adjustments and colour guide

Light table tracing. Ready for starting the final.

I begin the final with just laying in the pen work. First all the main lines, then all the hatching. I use my sketch as reference at this point. I don't actually refer much more to the original photo reference. After all the thin pen work is done I go in with a nib and add some thicker lines in black ink for definition. It brings out the drawing considerably. Then I lay in all the black. If it's a b&w piece, I'm done at this point. If it's colour, I lay down the colour last.

When all the manual labour is done, I move on to scanning the final. Because most of my illustrations are large, I need to scan a piece in up to four sections. Connecting all the sections in Photoshop is an absolute nightmare. I know there is a quicker way, it's been explained to me, but I just don't seem to listen. I will sit there like an idiot for over an hour and rotate and nudge things until they meet up, which they never truly do.

Sticking it all together

Once that's done, I am relieved. I adjust the colours and levels and save the file three times. PSD, TIFF and a smaller JPEG. End.

Final

New York

2011-06-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

There's been a very long lead up to this New York trip.

I first heard about this crazy method of meeting someone in person from my friend and colleague Robin Eley. This was about four years ago and at the time he was my teacher. Even by then the guy had totally made it, so anything he was saying was gospel. It makes complete sense to meet someone in person. Might seem a bit intense and expensive to travel across the Pacific just to say hi, but if you want it to pay off you have to pay first.

Once I reached the point when I had enough work I was happy with and it all looked and felt relative to each other I had to start working on getting it down to New York to show people so they could give me work. Why New York? Because Robin told me to. Because it's the capital of the world and it never sleeps and their editorial market seems to be alive.

First thing was to make a list of people that I felt would be interested in my work. There's probably different ways you can do that, but all I did was Join ADBASE. It is expensive, but once again, it's worth it. Through ADBASE I researched and pulled out about 50 contacts that felt suitable. Then I composed an introductory letter basically saying, 'What's up, I'm coming to NY and will be giving you a call'. Meanwhile I also printed a bunch of promo cards which I would post with the letter. When I posted the letters I was convinced they would all be received. Realistically I think about 5 out of 50 were received.

Two weeks before departure I had to start making follow-up calls to try to book actual appointments. Now this was by far the WORST part of this whole experience. First of all staying up late waiting for NY business hours to start. Then talking to a complete stranger and asking for something from them. Mind you, art directors are some of the busiest people out there. And I sound like a retard on the phone.
Crunch time came and I had to do it. It was as horrible as imagined. Getting through was very hard; most people weren't at their desk. Some people just had no time. But some were very to happy to hear from me. My first appointment I managed to book was with Steven Charny from Rolling Stone. I couldn't believe it. He turned out to be a complete champ when I met him in person too.

So when I actually left for NY I had only managed to book six appointments. That made me feel pretty uncertain of the whole trip. Luckily I had a reserve of about five people that told me to call them once I had arrived.

The flight was a nightmare. DON"T ever fly United. United is the most rubbish airline ever.
I arrived in NY about seven hours late into literally fog. The weather was terrible. Once I got to my hotel in a Brooklyn war-zone I thought I would just crash, but couldn't sleep so I went and caught the subway into Manhattan. I don't want to sound rude, but nothing really made an impression on me. Every image of NY has already been stored in my mind from watching TV and the internet. So as far as the sights, it all just didn't register. Their subway system is amazing though.

Meetings started the next day after I arrived. I won't go into the details of every meeting. I can say that generally most art directors are super nice people and were very welcoming and happy to see me. Paul Ewen from Golf magazine even took me out to lunch! Everyone liked my work, only one place said that even though they like it, my type of illustration won't be a good fit for their publication.

From the very first day of meetings I was on the phone trying to book more meetings. Nail down the people that told me to call them once I arrived as well as new contacts. So every morning I'd sit down for breakfast, whip out my list and start calling. Highlighting the ones I got and crossing out dead ends.
Surprisingly it all just started to come together. My schedule started to fill up. A very cool thing some art directors do is recommend you to friend art directors at other magazines. I managed to get a few appointments through that. It was generally a very productive two weeks. Like I said before, calling was the worst part. Once I was there I was completely relaxed. The meetings themselves were very casual. Anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes.

Two weeks passed quicker than I could realise. As I boarded the plain for San Francisco on my return home I felt a feeling of accomplishment. It felt like it didn't matter if I didn't get work out of this, I still played all the right cards and that felt rewarding already.

I feel pretty optimistic about getting deeper into this and doing more work. The important thing now is to send out thank you emails as well as a few new promo pieces to all of the people that met with me. It feels like even though things went well and they liked my work, they still need a reminder of my existence. Like I mentioned before, they are extremely busy people and when the moment comes they could simply forget about me. So that's what I'm doing now. Working on two promo pieces. One generally for everyone and another specifically for one magazine I desperately want to get into due to a common interest.

That's it.
Peace.

The only photo I took during my stay. How crazy!? This isn't Edwardstown HJs, this is classy. Seriously, you sit at a bar on stools and order Whoppers!

Illustration for the New York Observer

2011-06-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hi.
Last night I finally arrived.
I finished my first "real" illustration.
It was commissioned by the nice people at The New York Observer.
Technically I should retell my tale of roaming the streets of New York in search of Job. I'll make a special post for that.
So I was approached by Scott Dvorin whom I did not meet when I visited their office. I'm guessing he got onto me through Ivy Simones. I got the email at about 3.00 am on Tuesday morning asking if I could do a spot illustration for a column titled "Wee Hours". In a nutshell the story was based around Richard Geoffroy; the owner of Dom Perignon throwing a brunch for the rich and famous. This was followed by a polo game that never happened because the grass was too wet.
So Scott sent me a bunch of hi-res photos from the event (which were excellent reference material) and basically gave me the artistic freedom to do whatever around the information provided. Nor him nor I actually knew who these "famous" people were. My time frame was to present him a sketch by 12.00 pm the next day, New York time. Which is like 1.30 am here in Adelaide. From experience art directors seem to be active at around 10.30 pm our time. Time difference is the greatest enemy at the moment. I will wield its power and make it my instrument.
The next day I woke up late due to the late night email correspondences.
I started drawing straight away. Driven by the excitement/fear of the first job.
I settled on a composition that wasn't too conceptually heavy. Just exercising my line work around three portraits, positioned in an interesting manner. I hope anyway. I sent a rough sketch with a very rough colour study to Scott at around 7.00 pm. At 11.30 pm I got an email back giving me the green light to start the final. That was the only crap thing. I had to wait for four hours for Scott to wake up and go to work in NY. Can't really do anything before you get an approval.
I was pretty juiced-up on coffee so it wasn't much of an issue this time. Once the OK was given I was straight into it. I finished the physical piece at 4.30 am. Then scanning, adjusting layers etc. took up to an hour. Technically there could have been heaps of tweaking I could have done. But time, there wasn't much time. So I had to make do with what I had. I was probably 70% happy with the finished piece, which is very good for me. And just like that, 'bout half an hour after I sent out the final, I got an email back from Scott congratulating me on a great job. That's it! A hectic 24 hours came to an end and that was that, almost like it didn't happen. I gently laid my head to rest at 5.30 am.

Very rough looking sketch.

Very rough looking colour study.

Final. If I had more time I'd bring the grass forward a bit, darken the horse so it contours the girl clearer and lighten the purple shirt.

What I use.

2011-04-18T02:16:00.000-07:00

Hi!
I thought I would begin with just running through what kind of tools and materials I use when I'm making an image.

Firstly, I would just like to say that I'm very far from being an expert on anything related to tools and materials. It has all been trial and error up until this point.

I start all my drawings on ordinary cartridge paper. It's cheap so I can angrily peg it at stuff when my drawings suck. Also it's quite transparent so I can easily chuck it on my IKEA light table and trace elements if need be.
For a final piece I used to use illustration board, which is great, but quite expensive and opaque. I really prefer to reduce erasing of any kind to a minimum in my work, so when I used illustration board I had to use carbon paper to transfer the drawing on in the end. I always ended up pressing too hard or not hard enough. When I pressed too hard the carbon was really hard to erase and just made a huge mess. So I switched to regular watercolor paper. I've used quite a few different ones. Right now I use Arches smooth hot press. Mainly because I find some have a bit of a yellow tint. This one doesn't seem to. The paper's natural color becomes the area in the image that are highlights or just blank. I mean you can tidy all that up in Photoshop in the end, but I like keeping it as natural as possible. Also the paper is transparent enough for elements to be traced on through my light table.

I've used the same 2H pencil for the last year I reckon.

The main pen I use is a Pilot HI-TEC-3 0.25. I don't know about anywhere else in the world, but you can't get them here so I have to order them from Japan. It's really thin! It was recommended to me by a higher power. I've used it ever since. It does need some working in because it's so thin. Sometimes I switch to the old reliable Artline. However the thinnest they go is only 0.1.

I use 2 different nibs. One for drawing and one for writing. I really can't say what they are. One day I just got a whole bunch and narrowed it down to the 2 I use now.

I am not sure how good the brushes are that I use? They seem to do the job fine. I just chose some mid priced Winsor & Newton brushes in 3 different sizes. For the last few years I've replaced them maybe twice? Still just use the 1-2, 6 and 10. Haven't needed anything else.

I use FW acrylic ink. Love it! It's a mean ink that's waterproof. Primarily just use black.

For actual color I use an old set of Russian watercolors that was inherited to me by my grandpa. I've used them for quite a bit and they just don't seem to ever end. Hope they never do.

The worst part of my setup is my palette. It's not great. It's small, hard to clean; just terrible. For some reason I am yet to replace it.
That's about it. Just have to make sure I'm stocked up in paper towels.

Hi.

2011-04-18T00:56:00.000-07:00

This is what I look like 24/7. Especially when I'm illustrating.

My name is Paul Kisselev and I'm a Russian-born, Australian-based illustrator. Welcome to my blog.
I'll try to keep it brief and professional.
I primarily work in the traditional media of pen, ink and watercolor. Currently I have the freedom of subject matter. Mainly I enjoy drawing things I'm actually into. It all kind of adds up to just being people from the entertainment industry. Nothing wrong with that, for now.
Over time I hope to use this blog to give a bit of an insight into how I approach my work.

Thank you and goodnight!