Cursed Desserts

A wonderful place where everyone is happy. But what’s lurking around the corner?

Body Positivity by Kailey Lauren Kay

In order to survive in this delectable dreamland, the creatures had to adapt. The sun grew a giant eye to keep watch over all of his delectable treats. He employed his minions, the plants, to keep watch over the earth.

We’re witnessing the daily sacrifices that must be made. While everyone on land is forced to survive on vegetables and healthy food alone. Never getting to taste the sweet goodness that grows from the ground.

If they dare to eat it they’ll be forever cursed to serve the Great Eye Candy God of the Sky.

This piece was created using Prismacolor Brush Markers on  11” x 14” Bristol Smooth Paper.

Prints Available

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Raccoons vs Flowers Battle for Treats

In honor of World UFO Day, it’s time to go on an adventure through deep space. 

Raccoons vs Flowers by Kailey Lauren Kay

The flowers were left with but one duty… guard the Nuclear Treatos at all costs. When the raccoons caught wind of what the flowers were hiding, they didn’t hesitate to invade.

Dropping their trash can fighters out of their garbage truck destroyers the raccoons came to take every drop of nuclear treatos the flowers produced.

Who will prosper?

After the raccoons’ misstep in dumpster diving for pizza, they were launched into the magical realms of outer space. They rallied and formed an elite force of trash warriors with nothing to guide them but their hallucinations. With all the powers of the galaxy’s trash behind them, they conquered planet by planet, collecting and devouring all of the treats. 

Until they came upon planet Necton. A neon, glittering place where the animate flowers spent their days producing and guarding the nuclear nectar that fuels desserts across the galaxy. Coming together with a united purpose, the flowers banded together to protect their nectar from the Raccoons at all costs in a stunning battle of neon lasers.

Raccoons vs Flowers Bomber Jacket

Original work created using Prismacolor Brush Marker on 9” x 24” Bristol Smooth Paper.

Prints Available

Click “I want a print!” to grab a gallery-quality art print, canvas print, or acrylic print! Available in a variety of sizes.

How to Draw Unicorns: 3 Secret Tips

Wondering how to draw unicorns? First, you have to understand them. I’ve heard a fair share of stories about unicorns & their horns, the alicorn. In Renaissance times they were a symbol of purity and their horns were one of the most expensive and reputable remedies of the time. Since the discovery of the narwhal, unicorns have graced our fantastical tales and bring little girls (and adult me) all the rainbow, glittery joys a magical horse can bring. Unless you ask KR. He will tell you they’re murderous creatures just waiting to impale unsuspecting victims with their deadly, dangerous horns.

I have to say I disagree. What better use could one have of a long noggin horn, than to toast marshmallows with some great friends in a magical forest? The rest of us can only hope we’re special enough to make the grocery store run for supplies. 

The creation of this piece was quite an adventure for me as well. I have an affinity for drawing fun, random creatures and treats floating in space. Why? Because it saves me a lot of geometry and has a large potential to get weird. If anyone questions me I can respond with a simple “why not?” However, this time I really wanted to challenge myself. I bought an excellent ebook by Mitch Leeuwe that went into great detail about how to draw backgrounds with good composition (something I was told my other pieces lacked.)

As you might have guessed, I immediately ran into the inevitable wall that encourages me to stray from this path, but this time I stayed the course. I spent a lot of time debating creature size vs distance to get the perfect perspective. That’s the tricky part about drawing these types of scenes. You have to figure out how to size all the elements of your piece so they look realistic when you put them together. If you made your unicorns too big, they’ll look larger than the trees and throw off the effect of depth you’re trying to provide. On the other hand, if you make the dragon too small, she’ll look like a baby dragon and not a mama bear. If you’re looking for an in-depth tutorial on that process, I would highly suggest checking out Mitch’s work. For the purposes of this blog post, I’d like to touch on a few key elements that really helped me power through learning how to draw unicorns.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a basic principle of composition I originally learned about in freshman year photography class. You simply split your frame into 9 equal sections, 3 up by 3 across, and try not to put anything important in the middle. Unless you’re going for that “look how cute we are on family vacation” type of vibe. Balancing important features of the image on the gridlines & intersections helps the piece gain balance and flow. According to Wikipedia “Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy, and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject.” 

In A Unicorn’s S’mores, I placed the campfire on the bottom right intersection. I also tried to direct all the other elements of the piece so they subtly guide your eye toward the campfire. This is a great starting point for anyone looking to explore composition. Heck, I’m pretty sure there’s a setting for the rule of thirds grid on every smartphone. Try playing with composition during your next selfie session!

Things Look Smaller When They’re Far Away (Unless They’re Huge, Then You Have a Problem)

This one is kind of obvious. Stand by your window and look out into the distance. You’ll probably notice things that are far away seem smaller, even if they’re truly the same size as what’s right in front of you. In order to capture that depth in a two-dimensional drawing, you have to draw the far away objects smaller to create the illusion. 

I wanted the trees to look like they were spread out across a meadow, so I drew larger, more detailed trees upfront and some skinny, less detailed trees off in the distance. Theoretically, if you walked through that meadow you’d find those trees to be about the same size as the “larger” ones. You just can’t tell because they’re off in the distance.

On the other hand, if I had drawn a human behind the trees that were somehow taller than the trees, you could assume that they were bigger than Godzilla and you should probably commence running, right about…NOW!

Lighting Can Change Everything

Your light source has the potential to tell the viewer a lot about the composition and depth of your piece. My big, magic, unicorn moon is lighting up the clouds it’s closest to like the Fourth of July, but as the clouds get farther away, the moonlight isn’t affecting them as strongly or at all. This tells the viewer that while the light source is powerful, it isn’t as bright as the sun. It also tells the viewer how far away the outer clouds are. 

Now consider the smaller light source, the campfire. Campfire lights are a low, warm glow, so it makes sense that it would only affect the objects closest to them. While the unicorns and the trees around them are catching the glow of the fire, the mama dragon across the river is unaffected. This gives the viewer perspective on the distance between the campfire and the trees across the river. 

Playing with light sources in general is a fun way to add life to a piece and play with colors and shading. I think if you really hit the sweet spot you can amplify the magic and mysticism of the piece as a whole.

In Summary

These are only a few quick tips I picked up from my first intense foray into drawing a full background scene. There’s a ton more for me to learn about composition and perspective and I look forward to sharing the knowledge I gain with you! In the meantime, do yourself a favor and take a look at Mitch’s tutorials. I’m not sponsored by him & I don’t know him personally. I just found his books to be the most helpful and clear guides to background and perspective drawings I could find online. So in the spirit of questing for awesomeness, let us go forth, learn, and become more amazing every day!

Love yourself some unicorns? Don’t forget to grab a Unicorn’s S’mores print or Crop Top!