South Shore Living Magazine

The folowing is from an article in the South Shore Living magazine and available on newstands this July 2007.
If it is out of stock, I will be adding it to my website in the coming months or you can email me directly.
It is a very nice publication and is very supportive to artists and creative individuals.
Thanks, Ken

Sleepwalking

This was one of those funny illustrations that seemed to fit real life.
Everyone seems to be burning the candle on both ends these days...
Art Director was Kate Jackson

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Here is my current and favorite assignment in some time. A fun illustration piece about the creativity and imagination in just children playing. I showed students at MassArt these sketches last week and promised I would upload the finished illustration when it was done for them to see.
Art directed by Paula Telch who was very helpful with the finished piece and her input helped create this illustration.

Shaker Tall Blanket Chest

This is the third in the series of Shaker Blanket Chests that I have now on my site. The smaller aand medium sized versions appear below. This version is the more traditional stand up chest used in a dining room or hallway. The inside is lined with cedar and the bottom of the chest has two dovetailed drawers for lines and cloth.
The exterior is distressed in Barn Red paint and glazing stain with the inside clear coated.
Next up is a punched tin chimney cabinet.

Florida Sun -Sentinel

This is my most recent illustration, finished this week (April 16th 2007) for the Florida Sun Sentinel and art directed by Sarah Orr.
Great art director to talk with.

Very fun piece to do as well and if you have ever been in the position of watching kids cry in public spaces or melt down in the store or had your own kids do this, you can relate to either view point.

Home Portraits

For the past few years I have been commissioned to do portraits of peoples homes and office buildings for a variety of clients. I would come out to their home take pictures and go back in the studio to paint the portrait. It has become a fun opportunity to get out of the studio and meet new people. Many times the art is unframed but our local frame shop does an excellent job of framing the pastel painting.

Broadbased Communications

Here is one of several illustrations just completed last month for a LBA Advisor brochure, art directed by Jan Korb. A wonderful person to do illustration for and a great pleasure as an illustrator to work with.

Smaller Blanket Chest

As promised here is the second blanket chest done this month for the collection of furniture. A smaller version than the first one but with a sliding removable tray. The piece is done in pine with dovetail joints.
The chest is lined with cedar and is slightly distressed to match a version I have seen elsewhere.

Flying Magazine Illustration

Here is a sketch and final illustration for Flying Magazine art directed by Andrew Becker. I really enjoyed doing this assignment with Andrew. His input and suggestions helped make the illustration a much stronger piece.

Shaker Blanket Chest

It's been very busy these past few months here in the studio.
I have just completed three different blanket chests to add to the collection of furniture on my website. Here is a medium Shaker cabinet made in pine. The interior has two cedar lined compartments and cedar lined on the bottom along with a brass lock and key.
I will add the other chest to the site in the coming days.

Shaker Jelly Cabinet

This is one of the many furniture pieces I now offer on my site for purchase. The Shaker jelly cabinet shown here is made from Southern Yellow pine. The exterior finish is a Yellow Cupboard milk paint with a "Old World" Cream top coat and crackle finish which shows the yellow milk paint. After a few days of drying the whole piece is waxed with a darkening stain beeswax.

This is one of the most requested furntiure pieces I have made for people who often use it for their kitchens or bathrooms. I have done this work as a painted distressed pine cabinet like the one I show but using many different colors. Or as a more formal piece, I have done the same piece using cherry or maple wood. All the knobs are hand made and the hardware is aged to make the whole piece feel many years old.

The interior has four shelves that are fixed to the piece and stained or painted depending on the client's desire. I use this particular cabinet in my art studio alot and I like the overall size of the piece a great deal. Not too tall about four feet in height to be specific...

Flying magazine

This illustration from Flying Magazine and art directed by Al Struna was one of my favorite pieces this year. We made changes to this sketch to show the serious nature of pilots lost during flight , right up to the last minute . The cooperation and discussion between art director and illustrator was one of the best it had been .
I like the final very much for it's simplicity in telling the story.

Shaker Stools

I have been building a lot of these stools lately for people and friends. Mostly they use them in their kitchens and family rooms but I just like to stack them in the studio. I like to do a few of these between furniture or illustration projects just to relax.


The plan for the stool comes from one of my shaker books on furniture. Although I have painted them using authentic milk paint from the Milk Paint Co. http://www.milkpaint.com or using paint from Olde Century Colors. http://www.oldecenturycolors.com I like the brighter primary colors that the shakers may not have liked to use because of the attention it color would receive.

Terrorist

I did this image as a personal piece describing how difficult it is to just stop terrorism.

No one seemed to notice at the time or seemed to care that no matter how many times you cut off the head of one faction another sprung out in it's place.

Hot Stove League

This is an illustration from one of my series on baseball.

I have done several baseball illustrations over the past year or so and have turned them into giclee prints.
This illustration is a mixed media piece with a layer of watercolor and a top layer of pastel.

If you know baseball you can see I used a Red Sox cap instead of a Yankee cap. This was a result of losing a bet with a friend over a recent Red Sox Yankee series. Being from New York and a die hard Yankee fan living in Boston can be difficult ...

New vs Old

This is an illustration for the November's issue of Flying Magazine art directed by Andrew Becker. I really enjoyed doing this piece and the overall look of the finished illustration which included the use of pastel, watercolor and the computer.
I turned it into a promotional postcard and mailed it out.

Baker's Cabinet

This is one of my most recent furniture pieces that I have completed and distressed. It is a colonial baker's cabinet that I saw awhile back and thought the design was very interesting so I took notes and photos.

Here I tweaked the overall size and beefed up the top of the cabinet using 1 3/4 Pine.
When finished with construction, I stained the whole unit except the back boards.
I then distressed the entirel cabinet using a variety of tools, chains and rope to give it an older "used" look.
Then I finished the antiguing by painting the cabient with a colonial shading white, sealer and then cabinet makers blue.

I proceeded to sand and scrap the entire piece to show the differing layers.
Once I was happy with the look and attached the3 doors I appliedd several coats of a dark stained wax.
The boards on the back were antiqued differently first by using Liquid Plumber to age the pine and then a crackle medium was added before the antigue white was top coated.

The inside of the lower cabinet is painted farm house red to give it a more interesting feel to the piece and since it was completed it has garnered a lot of requests

Welcome!

I hope over the next few months to include images and sketches from my illustration desk of published work. Also I will include photos of my completed furniture projects with details on how the work was finished. I hope that people who visit this blog, will enjoy looking at the process as well as the completed works.

Sincerely,
Ken