Krysten Newby Wildlife Artist : The Artist's Blog

Blog

Sep

SOMETHING IS COMING

AMP Launches with Firebox

SUPER excited to announce that my work will feature with Alternative Movie Poster’s launch with Firebox – A shop for the unusual. bear-hunter

My ‘The Revenant’ inspired poster featuring Leonardo DiCaprio wearing a grizzly bear hide caught AMP’s eye and asked me to put this piece forward for their contest to feature in this exciting launch and it got selected! I have named the piece ‘Bear Hunter’ and will be available to purchase through the Firebox website from September the 15th 2016. Exciting times!

It has taken many months of work but we are very excited to see this project finally get off the ground. We had a lot of submissions for this first stage launch, and we want to thank everyone who took the time to submit work.

You can check out the full article here:

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Aug

Fierce Album Artwork!

Bracken Band Album Artwork

Here’s some album artwork I created for Suffolk based band Bracken.

I have previously worked with them to create their band logo too, it was nice to incorporate that in to this project as well.

The band wanted their new album artwork to be influenced by the songs and lyrics that they have written for it, with topics including political class division and conquering/dealing with anxiety and depression (reference to the metaphor: black dog).

They threw some pretty cool ideas at me about what they’d like to see, and also some notable lyrics from the songs that will make up the album that helped me get a feel for the piece:

‘Do you remember a time when giants walked the earth?’
‘We are all slaves to the grind. Our balls in a vice. Work. Breed. Die’
‘Do you realise that the robot invasion is being broadcast straight to your ears’

‘The shadow creeps, cold whispers ringing through my head.
Crawling further from behind, warm breath shivers my spine.
I’m just a broken man, living in this alien world
A new tale of vintage design. The new dogs learnt a few old tricks

Bow to the Black Dog”

Be sure to check out Bracken here.

Please get in touch if you’re interested in commissioning me to design your bands album artwork, I’d love more commissions like this!

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Aug

Rock and Rollers Vintage Hair & Makeup Design

Rock & Rollers Vintage Hair & Makeup Styling

I recently worked with a local Suffolk based hair and makeup artist, Dawny P., specialising in vintage/retro 40’s & 50’s looks.
She has opened her new beauty business in Bury St Edmunds by the name of ‘Rock & Rollers’ and I had the pleasure of designing her brand.
She wanted the logo to reflect herself, with stylised bright red hair in vintage victory rolls that everyone recognises her by.

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Rock & Rollers Logo

Vintage Hair and Beauty

Jul

Album Artwork Project

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Band’s Album Artwork – (Azmaroth)

I have recently completed a monster of a project for Norwegian based rock band, Azmaroth.

Previously, I’ve worked with them to create their band mascot – a mythical, powerful horned beast character. Azmaroth wanted to incorporate this beast of a character into their album cover, with a good/evil, heaven and hell apocalyptic type theme which I carried throughout the album art.

Also included within the album art is the lyric booklet, which had to be designed.
The band wanted to pick out elements from their lyrics to be illustrated along side the songs in the lyric booklet, too. I think the middle page is my favourite with the crow, simple, but bold and powerful!

Lyric-Booklet Breather Page Design

Also, I sneakily snuck in the Azmaroth Beast character on one of the lyric pages, can you spot him lurking in the shadows?

The process of this album artwork includes photo manipulation combining stock images mixed with digital painting which I completed on my trusty Wacom Cintiq 13 HD Touch on Adobe Photoshop CS6. I highly recommend this piece of kit to anyone working in the creative digital field, it’s an absolute game changer. Pricey, but totally worth it, I’d be lost without it now!

Anyway, please see the finished project below, enjoy!

You can listen to ‘Death Crowned King’ on Spotify now:

Jun

Little Owl Painting Time Lapse Video

It’s about time!

I always like to show the stages of my work where I can, so I’ve started to do time lapse videos. These videos show the process of how I work from start to finish on a piece.

In this time lapse video, it shows how I created my latest edition to the British bird inspired paintings I am doing. I aim to paint all 259 British bird species, which may take me a long time, but it will be worth it!

Once I have more of a collection together, I’d love display and exhibit them locally and donate 30% of every sale to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Nature gives me so much, it’s only fair I give something back in return and the Suffolk Wildlife Trust is such a great organisation that really cares and helps my local environment and all the glorious wildlife in it.

Please see the video below on how I created the Little Owl painting time lapse style. I’ll be regularly updating my ‘British Bird Paintings’ portfolio on the home page, so be sure to check that out and don’t forget to follow the progress on my Instagram & Twitter, too @Krys10Design, thanks!

Apr

The Jungle Book Movie Poster – Ft. Shere Khan

After seeing the latest rendition of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ film, I was blown away by the animation and the film as a whole! So much nostalgia, I used to watch this film on repeat as a kid. I was particularly captured by Shere Khan, the ‘baddie’ Bengal tiger who happened to be king of the jungle, voiced by Idris Elba. *spoiler alert* He sadly met his demise as a result of the red flower ( a reference to fire, used by the characters in the film) in a dramatic scene. I was feeling inspired by this scene and really wanted to illustrate it in some way.

You can see the results below of Shere Khan looking rather menacing, with his battered and bruised features illuminated on one side of his face. I thought the fire in the background with the forest silhouette was also pretty effective and finished the piece rather nicely. Digitally painted on my Wacom Cintiq over the course of a week.

If you haven’t seen the film already, I highly recommend you go see it for a dose of nostalgia!

Mar

Punk Pug & Cat Tees!

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[carousel_image title=”Pussy Metal” caption=”Who’s side are you on? The ultimate Cat Vs. Dog Battle! Whoever’s side you’re on, by purchasing a tee you’ll be contributing to an animal charity”]https://krysthecreator.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/slide-5.jpg[/carousel_image]
[carousel_image title=”#kindasfuck” caption=”The good bit – 10% from every t-shirt sale goes towards the Cats Protection Charity or the Dogs Trust Charity.”]https://krysthecreator.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/slide2.jpg[/carousel_image]
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Now available!

The ‘Pug Rock’ and ‘Pussy Metal’ designs I created for PUNK PAWS are now available to purchase!

10% from every sale either goes to the Dogs Trust Charity or The Cats Protection Charity, so you’ll be doing your good deed for the day by purchasing one of these tees, no matter who’s side you’re on!

If you’re on Travis Bark’ers side: CLICK HERE!

Or if you’re on OliPurrr Syke’s Side, CLICK HERE!

Absolutely LOVE the names Punk Paws have given the punk pug and metal cat, very creative! I am also so pleased they printed so well on the T-shirts, it’s always so amazing to see my work in action!

If you’re interested in getting custom made illustrations for your brand, please get in touch, I’d love to work with you!

Big thank you to PUNK PAWS for the use of the photos!

Feb

T-Shirt Designs for Punk Paws

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Punk Paws Animal T-Shirt Designs

Due to the success of the last T-Shirt design I created for the amazing PUNK PAWS, I had the pleasure of working with them again, this time creating two T-shirt designs! Punk Paws is a wonderful alternative clothing company especially for animal lovers. The great thing about Punk Paws, is that they donate 10% of their sales to a cat protection charity.

T-Shirt Designs for Punk Paws

“Not only do we want to supply the world with some awesome clothing but we would also like to use the brand to have a positive effect on the animal world, and will therefore be donating 10% of our profits from each sale to the Cats Protection charity.”

Punk Paws recently wanted to introduce dogs in to the equation, which is why they commissioned me to design a ‘punk’ style pug illustration, complete with piercings and tattoos! 10% of the sales made from these T Shirts will be donated to a dog charity. More information about the charity work that Punk Paws is involved in can be found on their website, here.

Going back to their feline roots, they also wanted me to design a gothic looking Persian cat, which can be seen below. I think the two designs accompany each other really well and they will look great once they are printed on tees! The bold and contrasting black and white makes these T-Shirts really stand out.

These T-Shirt designs will be available to purchase very soon!

You can support PUNK PAWS & by purchasing a T-shirt HERE.

If you’re interested in commissioning me to create your very own custom illustration for your brand, please do get in touch today!

Jan

The Revenant Poster

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I went to go and see The Revenant at the weekend, a film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu featuring the fabulous Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Hardy. Such a beautiful piece of cinematography, loved every minute of it! I really do hope that Leo gets an Oscar for his performance in this film, he deserves it after all! It also amazes me how he can still look good, even after being mauled by a bear and covered in horse carcass…but anyway;

A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.

I especially enjoyed the grizzly bear scene, as I watched it, it instantly gave me an idea for this illustration, which I just had to get out of my system. Also a great opportunity to get more practice in and test out my Wacom Cintiq. I don’t tend to draw/paint humans, so it was a nice little challenge for me this weekend, I’m pleased with the end result of this digital painting and I hope you enjoy it as well! I added a bit of background and typography to the piece to make it in to an alternative film poster.

If you have not seen The Revenant already, I suggest you go and see it, it’s fantastic and I highly recommend it!

Jan

Coldplay T-shirt Design

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Coldplay T-shirt Design

After finding out about this Coldplay T-shirt design contest, I thought I’d have a go! The brief for the project via Talenthouse states that:

Things to consider:

Take inspiration from the artwork, songs and mood of the A Head Full Of Dreams album and create an original T-shirt design

Download the T-shirt template which must be used to present your design

Download and take a look at the Creative Pack, which includes logos and iconography that can be included in the design (not required)

All artwork (that is not the Creative Pack) must be original

9 Finalists will have their designs showcased on Coldplay’s official Instagram channel.

One Selected Artist will receive $1,000 and a signed copy of the finished T-shirt along with a pair of tickets to the Coldplay concert of their choosing. The Selected design will also be put into production and sold through the band’s official channels.

I very much studied the latest release via Coldplay ‘A Head Full of Dreams’. Looking at the existing album artwork, I knew that this Coldplay T-shirt design project would work great with vintage imagery from the public domain, and various other sites such as ‘The Graphics Fairy’ which has a whole array of fabulous imagery from the past, ideal for this sort of project.

Originally I started off with a design that had crazy elements exploding from a person’s head – but I thought that was too literal for ‘a head full of dreams’ and I started again, experimenting a lot with different compositions and different imagery. It took me a long time to come up with a composition that worked, but I’m finally happy with the end result! It’s very fun, quirky and colourful, which is what I was aiming for! My favourite part is the majestic humpback whale floating in his dream world in the sky. Coldplay T-shirt design

I tried to include and illustrate songs and lyrics from Coldplay’s new album, such as ‘Birds’, ‘Up & Up’, ‘Kaleidoscope’, ‘Colour Spectrum’, ‘Universe’ and more! I kept referring back to the original artwork to make sure that it was in theme and keeping with the mood and to make sure it was something Coldplay themselves could think and see working within their existing merchandise. I also made sure the overall shape of the design would fit nicely on to a T-shirt to make it a nice, full design.

I hope you like the end result!

One Selected Artist, as chosen by Coldplay and their team, will receive:

Their design put into production and sold on Coldplay’s official channels

Promotion across Coldplay’s social channels

A pair of tickets to the Coldplay concert of their choosing (preference subject to availability)

A signed copy of the finished T-shirt

$1,000

9 Finalists will receive exposure on Coldplay’s Official Instagram.