Kelly McKernan is a fine artist and illustrator who creates paintings of ethereal and fantastical women. We are so excited to have her as a featured artist on Every Day Original.
Be sure to check out her website, follow her on Facebook, or continue reading our interview where we discuss the business of art, education beyond art school, and navigating gallery art and illustration.
1. Could you tell us quick information about your background and how you came to be an artist?
I was one of those kids that always wanted to be an artist. Thankfully, my parents were really supportive of my creative tendencies and let me go to summer art camps, experiment with paints, markers, and even chalk pastels (which, if you have carpet at home, I don’t recommend giving to a child unsupervised).
Things got going in a more serious direction in high school. I had an excellent art teacher that really set a strong foundation and she ended up inspiring me to pursue a degree in art education to become an art teacher myself. I went to a college in my same state that offered the program, but after a year, I decided to switch to a studio art major. I enjoyed painting too much and felt that I could somehow figure out how to make a career out of it instead.
I graduated in 2009 and spent the following three years balancing part-time jobs with my emerging gallery career. In mid-2012, I was able to go full time after moving from Atlanta, Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee.
2. You also took a course at SmArt School, but you already had a huge following online and a successful gallery career. Why go back to school, and why online? What let you know it was time to get back in the student chair?
So, here’s the thing: while in my final year of art school, it became apparent that illustration was an actual, viable career option. It sounds silly, but I really had no clue. I was in a very insular, traditional program. I only became aware of contemporary artists with an “illustrative” style, such as James Jean, by doing my own research online. I picked up his Fables Covers book that year, brought it to my favorite professor, and he scoffed at the style. I came to find out that many of those I looked up to treated the word “illustration” to describe a style like something dirty and beneath whatever higher form of expression they were there to teach. At the time, I had already veered off into my own developing style and pretty much spent my final year creating work for gallery commitments rather than assignments. I was really stubborn and wanted to prove that I could make a living with my developing “illustrative” style at the time.
When I took my career full-time in 2012, I felt that I had developed a formula for my work, had a recognizable style, and that my work was gaining traction in the gallery circuit. All the while, though, I had this nagging feeling that I needed to expand into illustration, but I had absolutely no idea how to accomplish that. Illustration has a language of its own, and it felt completely foreign to me. This was really frustrating since I’m typically a resourceful person and feel capable of self-teaching. But I just couldn’t grasp the concept of bringing my style over to the side of illustration.
I chose Dan Dos Santos for a few reasons – his style was very different from mine, he works traditionally, I was interested in book covers, and his subject matter isn’t far off from what I was interested in exploring. What I really needed, most of all, was to be walked through how to take my current style and gallery art-tendencies and appropriately apply it to the realm of sci-fi and fantasy illustration.
As far as returning to the “student chair,” it was all about having an open mind. For three years, I had been making my personal goals as an artist and I had found a formula. That’s relieving, but also a little unnerving – is having a formula really a good thing? My work was getting stagnant and I stopped really challenging myself. So, stepping back into the place of a student had me put aside any pride from success that I felt as a gallery artist. By doing that, I learned more in a few months than I felt I had in years spent in college.
3. You are making a transition now from gallery work to illustration. Is it correct to call it a transition or are you simply expanding? Tell us why the move and/or expansion?
I’m not sure that I’m transitioning entirely, but I’m definitely expanding. I enjoy working with galleries, but you’re also sharing a large commission (usually 50%), and sometimes your work might not sell at all. You can be a total slave to the gallery system if you really want to. However, I really enjoy marketing my work. Social media is a powerful tool when you learn to use it properly.
I could probably quit being a gallery artist and sell my original paintings myself and make more money than I do by working with galleries. Private commissions usually pay a lot more as well. This is actually my long term plan regarding gallery work. I’m turning down more shows and only accepting the ones I’m really interested in being a part of. In the meantime, I’m going to focus more on illustration work. I’ve only just gotten to know a bit of the sci-fi and fantasy illustration community and attended SFAL 4 (my first convention!).
4. What do you see for the future of your work as an illustrator and fine artist? In your wildest dream, what big project are you pursuing?
Ideally, I want to see it split up like this: 25% gallery work/personal work, 25% private commissions, and 50% illustration. I think that the variety will keep me on my toes. As far as a dream project, I think I’d be pretty thrilled to get to do illustrations for my favorite fairy tales.
5. Has motherhood affected the content or narratives of your illustrations and paintings?
Efficiency is definitely key! As far as it affecting content or narrative, I don’t really think so. I’m still interested in the same things, but there have been definite changes otherwise! I would say it comes directly from my time management, now that I have less time than ever to create. I’m taking more time on prepping a piece, gathering reference, doing studies, and making sure I’m going into a new piece at least 75% sure of how it’ll look when it’s completed. Since every minute I have available to work really has to count, I don’t want it wasted on a piece that I’m not happy with.
6. Is there more to you than work and family? Are you a political science hobbyist, backyard rocket engineer, undiscovered world-renowned pastry chef?
Ha! Well, my napping skills rival that of my daughter’s. Beyond that, I really enjoy playing tabletop games with my husband. Some of my favorites are Munchkin, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Coup, and Five Tribes. Lately, I’ve picked up a few games from Steam and I just finished playing Transistor, which was GORGEOUS. I’m definitely planning some fan art. I’ve got Child of Light to tackle next.
7. Back to art: Could you walk us through the process of a piece? What steps do you take visually and what steps do you take conceptually/narratively?
If the piece is conceptually or narratively driven, I begin with a lot of notes and a breakdown of symbolism and visual cues. From there, I work out a few small thumbnails to work out a basic composition. If I need very specific reference, I’ll hire a model, or I’ll search for similar stock photos and “frankenstein” what I need.
If the piece is more personal, it usually starts with the reference. I hire a model once or twice a year and take several hundred photos of various poses. I’ll return to those folders to find something that strikes my interest and that usually inspires the rest of the piece. The angle of a neck might tell me the beginnings of a story. Both processes then meet at the same place – I print out my reference images, sketch over the final surface, and then pick up whatever media I’m planning to do the piece in.
8. How do you approach the business of being an artist?
I am terrible with money, so I leave the money management to my husband. We know the minimum that we need to meet to pay the mortgage and the bills. I make about 2/5ths of our combined income. The majority of my income is through print sales in my online shop. I also keep a close eye on my income and expenses with bookkeeping software from GoDaddy. I make sure all of my business-related expenses are done through PayPal or Stripe to keep things simple. All of this makes tax time a million times easier.
9. Where and how do you sell your work? How did this come together for you?
The majority of my original artwork is created for and sold in various galleries. I began selling my work online in early 2008 when I started getting print requests for new work I was creating while in college. Once I had a hit piece in 2009 that garnered a lot of attention, I figured out that I could offer limited edition prints and raise the prices. People really seem to react to a print being limited, so those sell pretty well.
10. In your portfolio you have a lot of original art, and you also have work that references well known myths, fairytales, as well as IP-based art (“fan art”). Why work with other people’s ideas?
Fan art and my original art feel very different to me. Some of the story and character-derived work that I’ve done has happened because I’m really passionate about it and want to get it out of my system. It’s fun and sometimes a break from some of my heavier, conceptual fine art work. Most of the fan art paintings I’ve done have been for themed gallery shows with one of my favorite galleries, Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.
11. You mentioned having synesthesia and being legally blind. Tell us more about this and how you move past it to create your work.
Being legally blind is definitely a hindrance because I have to wear RGP contact lenses, and my vision is 20/30 at best. My eyes dry out very quickly and my vision is often very blurry by the end of the day, so working at night is difficult. As far as the synesthesia, the strongest form I have of it is music-color, and it’s led me to wonder whether what I’m listening to while painting influences my color palette. I do believe that it gave me a strong sense of color use growing up and definitely influenced my direction as an artist.
12. Is there a narrative you have about how you portray women?
In my earlier years, every piece felt like an exploration of my character flaws; I was aware that every piece then was a bit of a self-portrait. From 2011-2013, I began to feel more confident and grounded, and my idealistic nature had been purged. Since my interests are favoring illustration, my personal work is less about discovering and reflecting upon my own nature and more about the experienced female. I default to my preference for painting women because that’s who I am and what I understand.
13. What is your relationship to digital artwork?
For a while, there was definitely some pressure to be a functioning digital artist. I gave it a good shot in early 2013, but I just became overly frustrated that I couldn’t execute the same movements on a computer screen as I could on paper. So now it’s just a tool for touching up scanned work, working with my reference photos, and occasionally working out a color palette.
14. If there was one message you wanted your audience to get when they see and experience your work what would it be?
I don’t want to limit the viewer’s interpretation of my work. I only like to give a few clues via symbolism and the titles of my work. This has been really satisfying when I’ve received personal emails from people that tell me that a piece affected them strongly. Once it’s complete, it’s out of my hands.
15. What are you most excited for, for the rest of 2015?
This has been an absolutely incredible year! The rest of the year includes a mini solo show, a crowdfunding campaign for IMC 2016, and creating official artwork for my favorite movie series of all time. (I’ve probably said too much, actually. Shh.)