After years of exhibiting artwork on my mother’s fridge, I went to art school and graduated with a BFA in illustration.  As a kid, my two favorite things were reading books about fairy tales and drawing in sketchbooks.  It was my love of stories and my ability to draw and paint that motivated me to search for a career where I could combine all the things I loved.

I am currently working as a freelance illustrator in Southern California.  I have managed to stay pretty busy with commissioned pieces from clients as well as creating artwork & crafty items to supply my yet-to-be-named Etsy shop.  Until it opens, please feel free to browse through my site, read through my blog and email me with any questions or requests that you may have.  I’d love to hear your comments, feedback, or do my best to create a piece of artwork for you to show at your home.

Thanks for stopping by!

It seems I have a bad habit of letting my blog go…for days on end, which turn to weeks and then faster than you can say, well, BLOG, months have flown by!  How does this happen?  I had a few projects to work, projects that occupied my time and left me feeling, well, not creative.  Which left the blog neglected, so sorry readers, the few of you out there who actually stop by.  Hope you are still with me and I haven’t lost you forever!  Here’s a little apology artwork and I PROMISE, PROMISE, PROMISE more will appear very, VERY soon.

I’m not sure what everyone else thinks, but I’ve always loved to read artist’s blogs where they show in-progress work or their process for how they “create” art.  Everyone does things different.  Even when using the same process, they still manage to progress and move along in different ways.  It’s something I find really interesting and I always find myself looking forward to viewing their progression.   For instance, I know a lot of artists who start work with thumbnails before progressing to their drawing or painting, this is something I do as well….but while I tend to draw out a few images and pick from around five to ten sketches, I’ve seen artists who fill pages upon pages before finally deciding on which design to move forward with.  I already have a hard enough time choosing from 5-10, if I had to decide based on two pages worth of thumbnails I might never get to a finished piece

So for the sake of showing progression I thought I would document a new painting I’m working on from start to finish…for today, here are the rough concepts, or my thumbnails. More to come very soon.

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This weeks topic for Illustration Friday is “expired.”  After following the site for at least a year now I have finally managed to not only remember to post my sketch but also submit it in time to play   Let’s hear a big WOOT for me, LOL.

For those of you not familiar with Illustration Friday, let me explain.  Each week a new word is chosen for us artists/designers/illustrators to sketch/paint/design or…well… you get the idea.  You basically get to interpret the word into your own concept and then go nuts with it.

This is my first Illustration Friday entry, a quick pencil sketch….maybe next time I’ll actually find the time to ink or paint something for this very fun and creative group.

…the bigger the pile on my desk becomes.  Coincidence?  I doubt it.  As usual I have about a half dozen different things I want to get started on, am in the process of working on, or just can’t seem to finish.  As of late I’ve had three commissioned paintings!  It’s been awesome working with people getting their input on what they want and seeing how happy they are with the end result.  Especially when you know the painting is intended as a gift for someone special – and they chose me to help create that gift.  So much fun.  Anyway, until I can reveal the commissioned pieces…here’s a little sneak peek at what’s been keeping me busy this week.

Why is it that whenever you want to take the time to sit down and do something right the evil forces of nature come out and block your every attempt? Or am I the only one who feels this way?  I have been trying to get my website up to date for months now.  I have a children’s book I am trying to complete in order to send to publishers, a painting I’ve promised to my youngest sister since two Christmas’ ago, a bed quilt to finish and items to produce so that I can finally start my Etsy store.  Each and every time I make some progress I feel as though something sets me back or gets in the way….sometimes those obstacles are good, fun obstacles which almost makes it worse doesn’t it? Like someone is tempting me or luring me away from my art…I know, I know…I need to make myself a schedule and stick to it.  I need to be disciplined.  The Boyfriend has told me plenty of times that when I have trouble prioritizing I should create a schedule and say I’ll only do blog entries on this day of the week and I’ll work on the book that day of the week….why is that so hard for me to get? I think it’s that inner artist that loves all the chaos

Anyway, I have been busy and decided to just do a photo update – but look who opened her mouth after all.  Well, I guess it was more like my fingers did the talking since this is over the web, huh?

Just some of the things that I have been up to my eye balls in  I’m drawing, I’m creating – I should be happy with that…now if only I was making money off of these things so that I could support myself without the crappy desk job

As my previous post stated, I had originally planned on posting pictures of what I have been working on these past few months…oh I dunno, a few days ago!  To show proof I’ve actually been working and not just neglecting ye olde blog.  But it seems there were a few problems with the pictures I took and I had to wait to get images from the recipients of said gifts.  That first image above, the one all done up in pink, was for my sister, Stephanie.  She loves pink, loves clothes and so I created a little girl’s biggest dilemna, “what to wear?” I hand drew little dresses onto patterned paper and hung them from a clothes line. She loved it.

Also, if you look below, you’ll see the painting I made for my dad.  From the time I was in first grade until my youngest sister graduated college he had us playing softball.  He got stuck with three daughters, he made sure we were into sports   Anyway, the picture I created is his three girls on a softball bench, one spitting sunflower seeds (that would be me), one blowing a bubble (Ashley), and one sipping on some water (Stephanie).

This next image was my mom’s present.  She is miss crafty and an all around quilting freak.  I say freak as in she loves it so much not as in some strange sub-species of human…need to stay on her good side if I want more sewing lessons   Anyway, I really wanted to give her a gift she could display in her sewing room…although if I’d planned better I would have realized that there is no more space. Just kidding, Mom.

I have been away from my blog for far, far too long.  I promise I have a really good excuse, though. Well, not that good I suppose, but I have been busy, busy, busy. Making art, art, art.

I will post oodles of pictures soon to show you all the work I’ve been up to since my last post….in November!!! (hides in shame)

In the mean time, let me also apologize for the lack of a gallery or portfolio on my site as of the new update.  My galleries are still under construction, but will hopefully be up very, very soon.  The portfolio galleries of an artist’s site are obviously the most important, right? and yet goofy me, left them till last.

Why am I not surprised

I’m still working out a way for my wee bunch of followers over at my original blog to not have to re-subscribe to a new blog roll, but at the moment I’m not sure if it’s actually possible. If need be I may just continue posting in both places until a better solution presents itself.

Welcome to the new home of Kelley Frisby on the web! Everything from blog to portfolio will be integrated into a single, coherent whole from now on! Hooray!

5 Cents goes to the first person who can tell me where the title of this post is from! That’s one SHINY nickel, FREE, all you pay is shipping and handling!