Kari Fry

Moved my blog.

2011-06-07T13:17:00.001-07:00

Please visit karifry.com for my blog. :) I probably won't update this one anymore.

The Serenity Club up on RIPT Apparel!

2011-05-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

On sale at RIPT Apparel for $10, Monday, 5/2/2011 only!

Guardians of the Labyrinth now up on Tilteed!

2011-04-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

~~$12 on Tilteed.com! Three colors on American Apparel Olive; pretty and comfy.~~

~~Available for three days only; until 4/30, 3pm EST.~~ Aww, you missed it.

LOLmart - Catalope

2011-04-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

Put away your wolf shirts. Deer are played out. If you’ve been searching your used clothing spots and faux-vintage websites for THE DEFINITE AWESOME/IRONIC NATURE TEE, stop your search now. You’ve found it. Catalope up.

For sale until 4/10!

The Serenity Club

2011-04-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

Four colors on white. It's up on RedBubble if you want a shirt or sticker. :)

Cyber3PO & R2Dalek

2011-03-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

This Doctor Who/Star Wars mashup will be available in the coming weeks. :)

Jason Novak, a brilliant writer/nerd/brother-in-law, came up with the concept. I was only the visual part of the equation on this one.

For the record, I really dislike drawing anything mechanical, but this idea was too good to pass up.

Coming soon to a t-shirt website near you...

2011-03-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

My First App: Monsters & Creatures for kids!

2011-03-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

Monsters & Creatures For Kids is an app for your child’s iPhone, iPad, or Android device that features illustrations of 25 supernatural and mythological creatures, drawn by Kari Fry. Your child can read along with the narrator as he describes each monster in amusing detail. Now, when there’s a monster lurking under your kid’s bed, he or she can tell you exactly what kind of monster, so you can deal with it appropriately!

Monsters & Magical Creatures Guide For Kids, for iPhone/iPad

Monsters & Creatures For Kids for Android devices

Programmed by my husband, written by Jason Novak, illustrations by me.

Coming this Thursday to TeeFury...

2011-02-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

Doc Fink will be available on TeeFury, for one day only for $10!

You can get it on a poster, or on a different color shirt on RedBubble.

If you're interested in seeing process, here's the original sketch:

Facebook

2011-02-10T16:54:00.000-08:00

Have you joined my artist's page on Facebook? I've been doing caricature giveaways. I plan on doing at least one per month for my followers.

How it works: I make a post that I'll draw one person who comments, I pick a person, I draw that person.

This was the latest one I did. I picked the person based on his comment... Sounded like a fun challenge.

I got everything down to the juju bees and snickers. >:D

But yeah, follow me on Facebook and it could be you that I draw next.

Art Deco SFII design finds a home

2011-02-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Remember this design?

Now you can pick it up on LevelUpStudios.com as a shirt!

Or if you prefer to not wear it, the design is up on RedBubble as a poster/print.

Coming this Caturday to TeeFury...

2011-01-25T07:22:00.000-08:00

~~Don't forget to check TeeFury this Saturday if you want in on the LOLcat shirt action.~~

~~It's only on sale for one day, for $9.~~

This shirt is up on Zazzle and RedBubble in case you missed it on TeeFury.

See more of my shirt designs here.

Guardians of the Labyrinth

2011-01-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

My entry for this week's shirt.woot contest.

Click here to vote!

Three colors on olive.

Behemoth Brew

2011-01-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

Just an experimental piece. Playing with texture a bit. Good excuse to draw a scary thing.

Two colors on olive.

Obake Party

2011-01-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

Made this quick watercolor for a good friend of mine for Xmas.

I'd like to loosen up and do one of these super-fast watercolors about once a week. It's a fun medium, and I appreciate that you have to really strategize when laying down your colors. Maybe I'll start up an Etsy store for these little guys.

Street Fighter II design

2010-12-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

Doc Brown obsession

2010-12-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

Doc Brown VS Ed Roth

Doc Brown VS goofy Einstein

Awesome nephew

2010-12-20T19:26:00.000-08:00

My nephew sucked up to me by wearing my Biking Viking shirt, so I just had to draw him as his current Favorite Thing Ever, the Hulk.

Then we made a collaborative piece together. We drew his father as Thor.

Awesome nephew was proud of his awesome accomplishments. :D

It's nearly impossible to tell who drew which part. Especially since on the arm I drew, I put the thumb on backwards. :\

Caricature dump, holiday 2010

2010-12-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

Serious babby is serious.

This guy had the hugest, most intense eyes. This caricature is honestly more like a straight-up portrait.

These two were fun. We had decided that if they were animals, he'd be a capybara and she'd be an owl.

(this was a bonus caricature, and my favorite)

This pipsqueak was a squirmer, but I got him.

I drew this guy from across the room and demanded he legally change his name to this drawing. He said he'd put it on his business card. Eh, close enough.

A going-away caricature. Do people still say "or bust?" Hmm.

Chihuahuas are always looking kinda cool.

Coq au Vin

2010-11-28T07:59:00.000-08:00

Coq au Vin is a yummy dish. It's so yummy that this rooster is honored to become it.

(Four colors on Cream)

Available on RedBubble as a shirt.
Available on Zazzle as a shirt, print or coaster.

Speaking of dogs...

2010-09-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

This was an entry for a Shirt.Woot.com derby. Not doing too shabby! Hoping for an Honorable Mention. :)

Link to the entry on Shirt.Woot.

Pet Caricatures

2010-09-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

Over the summer, I drew quite a few pet caricatures. These are just several that I happened to get a shot of.

Cat caricatures are always done from a photo. No cats enjoy being in public. Or on a leash.

The calico was the instigator of the group, its owner told me.

A dog.

Chubby chocolate lab. (Hey, that sounds like an ice cream flavor!)

This dog would stand on its hind legs and shake its front legs in the air. I just HAD to draw that.

This dog was far too good for me and wouldn't stay put for the photo.

These dogs are soooo popular.

I love it when pets resemble their owners.

The shorter one was half-corgi. He's sure got corgi ears! (which you can't see in his photo, of course)

This was the prettiest dog I'd ever seen! It was part Dingo and had one blue eye.

His ears had a real unique shape to them, too.

Biking Viking printed at Shirt.woot.com

2010-09-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hooray, shirt.woot.com printed my Biking Viking design! Get it today for only $10 shipped!
After 9-22, you can get it here for $15.

Northalsted Halloween Parade posters

2010-09-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

I recently completed a series of posters and banners for Northalsted's Annual Halloween Parade. (Northalsted is a neighborhood in Chicago)

This was the teaser poster, to be displayed before October.

This is the whole series... From left to right: Banner front, banner back, standard poster with sponsorship area at the bottom, teaser poster, postcard (bottom).

Kitten cone.

2010-07-30T16:25:00.001-07:00

Vanilla, Peanut Butter Cup and Caramel Swirl.

Earth Song Farm illustration

2010-07-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

I did this illustration for Earth Song Farm in Medina, OH.

It's a lovely farm and the owners are great people. The picture only shows about 1/8 of their chickens (they have 200 happy free-range egg-laying chickens).

birds' tweets

2010-07-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

A shirt design. I've been so fascinated with our backyard birds recently that I had to do a bird-centric piece.

Illustration Friday 005 - Ripple

2010-06-13T12:07:00.001-07:00

Olsen twins

2010-06-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

Android mascot vector

2010-06-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

Click here to grab the vector version. Saved it down to Illustrator 10.

I'm doing a little development for the Android platform... I wanted a vector version of Mr. Android Dude, but I couldn't find one (admittedly, I didn't look that hard). In case anyone needs a free vector Android, here he is.

His color is consistent with their branding: #A4C63A.

I have a blue jay friend

2010-05-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Our backyard blue jay is my muse. He comes up to the window feeder and violently taps at his reflection. Sometimes it wakes me up, but I love the little guy.

I drew him sitting like people.

Jacob

2010-05-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Caricature - Jimmy Kimmel

2010-02-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

I watch Jimmy Kimmel Live almost every night... He's the only late-night talk show I watch anymore since Conan is off the air. To be honest, Jimmy's monologues are my favorite, anyway. He's got the best delivery. He usually has crappy guests, though.

When he's speaking, I hardly ever see his top teeth. He's got a semi-Dick Cheney-sorta thing going.

Looking at other photos of him, I don't think I gave him enough chin.

To me, he's nothing but squinty eyes and lower teeth. Everything else is just filler.

I'll finish this later. Just kinda playing with color for now.

Caricature - Pete Emslie

2010-02-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

It's Pete Emslie, the guy behind my favorite cartoon blog, The Cartoon Cave! He's also a professor of Animation program at Sheridan College (which is a top-notch program from what I hear).

These are the reference images he provided on the ISCA forum.

Kind of a step by step progression. You can see my underpainting. *blush*

Illustration Friday 004 - Confined

2010-02-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

I know this is a few weeks late for the Illustration Friday theme, but here it is.

I <3 sweater llamas. Makes me wish I were a sweater person.

Illustration Friday 003 - Muddy

2010-02-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

The Shar pei almost looks semi-fluid with its loose folds of skin, so it was a good animal to represent "muddy."

Click image for a larger view.

Nomming Tiger sketch

2010-02-05T19:47:00.001-08:00

This is just a color study from a fun little sketch. I'm trying to push my color more. I love hiding greens and purples inside areas of orange.

I lost some of the energetic, loose quality the original sketch had. And yeah, I know that hind leg isn't right. ;)

Na'vi and the iPad

2010-01-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

Another quickie sketch for the night. For the sake of posting something (hopefully) everyday, I'll throw lame things out there more often. I'm sorry.

Na'vi find the iPad about as useful as I do.

The text is unnecessary, but I put it in there anyway to mock Cameron's use of Papyrus in the film. Really, you hire a linguist to create an entire language, but you can't shell out some bucks for a non-overused, cliche "exotic" typeface?

Caricature - Julia Child

2010-01-26T20:29:00.000-08:00

For the sake of posting often, here's a quick caricature I did of Julia Child.

Her smile was the most difficult part for me. When confronted with someone with a downturned smile, I'm always tempted to force the tips of the mouth up. But it's as good as drawing a lie! (Not to mention it hurts the likeness)

As a half-Amazonian myself, I love her towering height, and played that up by cutting off the top of her head.

The bright yellow background is simply a reflection of her warm personality.

If I ever revise/finish this, I'll put some food in there. :)

No Garden, One Dragon

2010-01-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

The theme for this week is Palindrome. I chose "No Garden, One Dragon" as my subject. (Cause I'm a sucker for dragons.)

I got the dragon's long winding pose finished before I started on the head. This one looked a little too much like Shen Long to my liking.

This one had some more spunk. I like being able to show that weird molar-fang toward the back of the mouth.
Arms were annoying at this stage. Asian dragons have goofy little arms that can appear at any point along the long coiled body.

Here was my first pass at a colored sketch. Didn't bother with an arm. Just wanted to try some colors.

These were the colors I went with. I got rid of that pink, since I was only using it in his mouth. Thought I could use a slightly more versatile color that I could also use elsewhere. I went with kind of a burnt orange. I was able to convey more depth in the scales and body that way, and it was a convenient mid-tone color for the tree.

I've been using Photoshop for ten years. I did not know until a few weeks ago, how to use masks. WOW, do they make things easier! Especially with t-shirt designs when you use the color of the shirt as a highlight or outline color.
The highlights helped add a lot of depth. I was loving the shirt color at this point.

For kicks, here it is on white. I like the cream much better. I find this to be a bit harsh.

Here is its entry on shirt.woot.com.

Illustration Friday 002 - Clumsy

2010-01-22T13:41:00.001-08:00

This is my entry for Illustration Friday.
CLUMSY

Hopefully I won't draw anything else this disturbing for a while. :p

Making of a woot shirt entry

2010-01-21T18:01:00.000-08:00

This actually started off as an entry for Illustration Friday's theme: Wilderness. At first, it was a scaredy tiger being afraid at the not-so-scary wilderness around him (like a toucan and praying mantis).

Then I adapted it to the woot theme (Nightmares), making a lion who's having nightmares about some of the threats he has to deal with in day to day life (hyenas, panthers, crocodiles, pythons, and um, fire?).

This is the piece uncolored on cranberry.
There used to be a hippo and elephant in there, and the panther and hyena were laughing at the wussy lion. I did more with the lion's expression at this stage, too. He's got more worry lines and such, and I added a tooth poking out for more character.
The crocodile was added in strictly to balance the composition. ...OK, also I really like drawing crocodiles.

And this is my finished entry. I wanted to try limiting my palette a bit, since I always use the maximum of six colors.

Illustration Friday 001 - unbalanced

2009-11-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

So I'm going to start participating in Illustration Friday.

This week's theme is unbalanced.

ISCA Speed Competition - Joe Bluhm

2009-11-14T07:15:00.000-08:00

This is Joe Bluhm, who handily won the speed competition.

I think he's using a thicker marker than the usual Markette. The way he can be so quick and confident with his lines is amazing.

All right, last ISCA-related post. I'll post some of my own work tonight.

OH! And if I would have worked at Six Flags/Geagua Lake another year, I'd have worked with him. And yes, I am bitter about it. :p

ISCA caricature convention, part 3

2009-11-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

Taka Watanabe

This guy worked from cut paper... Some with patterns, some semi-opaque, some transparent. Really cool stuff.

KILLITWITHFIRE
That's more teeth than are allowed.

Great drawing of Roger Hurtado. Lookit that second eye hanging out there.

Shiroi's epic double-pants

The sketch that resulted from Shiori's double-pants.

Miguel! He's got a great Rat Finkesque style.

Jert's Walter. What DOES that guy have in his briefcase, anyway?
Also, check out Jert's work, will ya? It's great.

Toru Tanaka drawing Tomo. Dig them teeth.

It's a black guy with a beard. It made me laugh a lot.

ISCA caricature convention, part 2

2009-11-07T07:24:00.001-08:00

The following four pieces from a Japanese artist (whose name escapes me) really blew me away. Since I went to the con as a guest, I couldn't vote, but this would have gotten my vote for best color technique.

Soft purples in the shadows... Something about this reminds me of the way color is used in some anime nowadays... Colors are soft and non-primary, but often super-saturated.

Seiji and Sean Gardner. This guy really knows how to use negative space.

Alexander Clare... I really loved his loose lines.

This is Chris Chua's drawing of the Asian artists at the convention. The overall shape, is Shiori Sato, with everyone else taking up a small portion of her face. The amount of detail in this piece is incredible. And Chris appears to be an egg coming out of the rabbit's ass.

This was some of Dylan Glynn's work. He did wonderful loose watercolors and posted his thumbnails and developmental sketches. I really love being able to see the thought process, so his work was a treat.

I got drawn by Roger Hurtado! Great to see artists still rockin the airbrush. Roger was one of the kindest, most approachable folks at the convention (which surprises me, since he's a legend)... And completely without ego!

Tomokazu Tabata drew me! This thing is crazy! I love it!

ISCA caricature convention, part 1

2009-11-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

It occasionally pays to be fugly.

I was drawn a LOT at the caricature convention in Sandusky, OH.

This was my first ISCA convention, and I attended as a guest (meaning I couldn't compete). I was floored by how approachable everyone was and how generous they were with sharing their techniques.

Jert was probably my favorite discovery of the convention. He's got this kinda funky John K thing going on.

Aaron Philby. Man, I love this guy's drawings. This sketch is among my favorites for its exaggeration and the great loose lines. I'm gonna follow the heck out of this guy's work.

I got a Chris Chua drawing! <3 I've been following his work for a while now, and I'm so glad I could get a sketch from him. He was super-busy and determined this week working on a very outgoing piece.

This is Paul Flatley's work... He's one of the masters! Lusciously soft pencil work. I was so pleased to sit for him and pick his brain a bit.

My Brian Oakes sketch that drove me to tears in front of him, due to it being one of the greatest things I've ever seen (sorry, Brian, that was probably extremely awkward). I love how honest he was with the rendering of the body. The pants' wrinkles just kill me, ha! That's a face I make very often, when pushing my glasses up my nose.

In my next post, I'll highlight my favorite work of the convention. And maybe more Kari pics. I've got, like, 20 of em.

shirt designs for shirt.woot

2009-10-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

Shirt.woot.com does a contest each week. They pick a theme, the community votes, and the top three shirts are printed.

The theme for this derby was Flight.
So, naturally, I drew a t-rex being blown out of a volcano.
Hmm, I really phoned in those pterodactyls.

Visual Puns theme: Dandylion!
It's a lion. He is dandy. Though I might argue he's more dapper than dandy.

Visual Puns theme:
Brainstorm!
Could definitely have used more brains. And refinement.

Visual Puns theme:
Husky husky is husky.

National Parks theme:
Carnivore Valley Park (a made-up National Park in Sudan or something)

Cooking theme:
Tonight I Dine
This one was rejected because they didn't want any video game references. Not that TMNT is strictly a video game (was originally a comic), but oh well. I'm not planning on doing any more designs that are referencing pop culture. I should do my OWN stuff! :)

Ryan as Ken

2009-03-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Ryan's been hittin' the Street Fighter IV quite a bit lately. He usually plays as Ken.

old sketches

2009-02-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

I was looking through my old files for examples of my best work... I wouldn't present these as "my best work," but I like these old caricatures.

Michael (Steve Carrel) from The Office. The nose is pretty off, but oh well. :\

Stanley from The Office

Robbie Rotten from LazyTown (I know, right? What was I doing watching LazyTown? :p)

long time no blog

2009-01-18T13:32:00.000-08:00

I recently got to do a very fun piece for GenCon Indy 2009. They asked me to come up with an anime mascot. I did the illustration and the type will be added by their designers.

The mascot girl I created for them is a big mashup of anime stereotypes...

She's got a mechanical arm (like Jet from Cowboy Bebop, Tetsuo from Akira, Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist), she's got an eye covered up (Kakashi from Naruto, Sanji from One Piece, Gegege no Kitaro), she's wearing a school girl uniform (Sailor Moon, Haruhi) and she's holding a genki dama (Dragonball Z).

This image belongs to GenCon. It was a blast to do.

SPACE DISK is totally cancelled
SPACE SWORDS is totally cancelled
SPACE LUGE is also cancelled
and all other events are pendiiing

If none of this makes sense to you, educate yourself. I live for SNL Digital Shorts.

This was a commissioned piece with the characters from Arashi no Yoru Ni, a movie about a goat and a wolf that become best friends. They have adorable misconceptions about what the other likes to eat. And they were fun to draw -- I liked the wolf's fluff.

Gegege no Kitaro doing his hair needles attack. The little eyeball guy hanging out in his hair is his dad.

This is an acrylic painting, about 18"x32" or so...
The idea behind it: One lady does the voice for both of these characters. When they scream/yell "UWAAAAAaaaah!!", they both sound exactly the same.

I did this for a buddy of mine, Krhainos, that likes Swat Kats.

Okay, and here are some pictures of me in Japan. My fiance and I visited for two weeks in November.

At a train station getting some vitamin C drink (I had a cold). ...In my thug hat I bought at a 100-yen store.

Me upstairs in the Kitaro Tea House, snuggling with a pillow Nezumi Otoko (he was filthy from all the cuddling).

Me eating Monjayaki, and being extremely skeptical of it. It's like gravied cabbage on a hot grill that you eat off the back of a spatula. It was... interesting. I'll stick with Okonomiyaki.

Rar, I'm a foo dog. I getchoo.
(This was outside a shrine in Suginami)

work dump

2008-05-02T21:56:00.000-07:00

Dude. It's Hurley.

Emu. Scary.

Kitty bothers its mommy.

Walk cycle.

Pandas actually don't much care for bamboo.

Some character design... This is a bad-guy cat mechanic.

Ridiculous pygmy goat.

Wolf!

Suave alligator.

It's over 9000, ZOMG. Been watching a lot of Dragonball Z lately since we dropped the cable.

photoshop paintings

2008-01-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

Trying out some experiments with color. Putting unexpected greens in a region of orange and so forth. For now, it's nothing too gutsy, but I'm enjoying it.

First one is a character from an anime that I like.

This one was difficult because of the hands. If there's one thing I wish I would have done more of in school, it's draw more hands in Life Drawing. I have a horrible habit of leaving out a joint when I'm drawing fingers. For this sketch, I looked at my own hands, which is why his (yes, it's a he) left hands looks like it's attached wrong.

Second one is a character that belongs to a friend.

This one was finished pretty quickly and loosely, about half an hour. It was fun.

sketchy experimental drawing

2008-01-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

Drawing of a character of a buddy of mine.

Trying a looser technique. This is sort of like a project I did in Advanced Life Drawing with gesso and charcoal on 2' x 3' paper... I made a sloppy sketch, and tried to make the sketch into a more finished piece, while still using the same amount of looseness and spontaneity used to make the original sketch. Except instead of using gesso and charcoal, I'm using Photoshop and a teeny Wacom tablet. Being loose is harder to do when you can't use your whole arm to draw, only your wrist.

2008-01-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

Some concept sketches for an upcoming cartoon at work, Ninja Kitty. Written by J. Robert Novak.

Here's what the cartoon itself looks like, hooray!

Tokihanastu! (Release!)

2008-01-06T22:17:00.000-08:00

Here's an experimental drawing of Kusuriuri (Medicine Seller) from Mononoke. It's a damn fine anime program about a traveling medicine seller who exorcises demons and ghosts. The show is visually awesome and very unique.

(click to view full-size image)

Made with with the help of Photoshop and RobG's textures.

LOST flash

2007-04-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

That there's Ben.

15-year old drawing

2007-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

My dad found this the other day. I apparently drew this when we got our Super NES, probably around 1992.

It also contains useless information about Mario and Luigi's jumping skills throughout different games. BONUS!!!

2007-01-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

I did caricatures tonight for First Night's volunteer party. I was pretty rusty but I managed to draw 24 people in 2 hours.

This fella wasn't too ashamed of his sketch; he let me snap a photo. :)

Canal Dragon - GREAT SUCCESS!

2007-01-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

I completed my project for First Night Akron last night. I wrote a proposal back in August for an artist's project.. I proposed to float a dragon (think Loch Ness Monster) in the city's canal. We gave the kids dragon eggs to throw in the water toward the dragon and I had temporary tattoos made. In Children's Hospital, which was next door to the event, they had mask-making for kids. I saw several kids come over with splendidly-colored dragon masks.

The dragon is about 8-9 feet tall and made out of steel with tube lighting, which rests on pontoons. I commissioned Abi Good, a dynamite sculptor, to construct the dragon.

Pic taken from the bridge overlooking the canal.

Our friends from the water department helping us install.

The dragon was put onto pontoons to be able to handle the rising and falling water levels from the rain.

The kids threw glowing dragon eggs into the water after making a wish. :) We made the eggs from polka-dot easter eggs with glow bracelets stuffed inside.

Canal Dragon - LIT!

2006-12-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the crummy cel phone camera photo.

2006-12-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

I've started tinkering around with Flash a bit more...
This was a Christmas present I did for a friend.

Click on the nose!

The sound is a dog growl, not a scraping muffler.