Dream Key

Hello! My name is Crystal Keitz and I am a professional illustrator who loves to create and explore every wild idea that floats into my imagination. Please visit my website (www.crystalkeitz.com) if you like my work and thank you for Tumbling with me!

[dreamkey]

Very excited and pleased to be able to share some of the art and content of the books I finished working on in December now that they are published! 

I have been working for Teacher Created Resources for a few years now and wanted to share some of our recent work. In this series, Daily Warm-Ups: Social-Emotional Reflections, I worked on every aspect of each interior page. Borders, layout, fonts, spot art... it felt great. I am very proud of the work as well being able to partner with the editor and author on such an important topic for children. Social-Emotional Learning is valuable to everyone.

[dreamkey]

An Interview With James Gurney

Hi Everyone :) I wanted to share an interview I recently read with James Gurney who is someone I greatly admire among contemporary artists. He describes his art as "Imaginative Realism," which is exactly how I would describe what I try to achieve in my own work. I hope one day to achieve the wonderful results he has accomplished in his work.

https://masteroilpainting.com/blank-canvas-an-interview-with-james-gurney/

[dreamkey]

David’s Doodles, the Art of David Colman

One of the artists I admire is doing a show at Pop Secret Gallery on August 26th, at 6 pm in Eagle Rock, CA. I hope to be able to attend! He’s known for his animal characters in particular, but is also a art director, story expert, and all around excellent illustrator. Check out his work if you get a chance :)

http://www.davidsdoodles.com/

https://www.facebook.com/davidsdoodles

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I’m finally opening a store to sell my art and my art on cool stuff! I am actually in progress of opening the stores and uploading art to the sites, but my Redbubble site is functional right now, so check it out! If you’ve seen any art you like that’s not loaded yet, please let me know. As long as there are no conflicts, I’ll get it up as soon as I can so you can shop your happy little hearts away <3 Thanks for Tumbling with me :D

www.redbubble.com/people/crystalkeitz

[dreamkey]

Progress update: decided to do the clean up these digitally so I can work with the assets at a later time if I wanted. Also, measuring out and the mechanical precision I want for some of these elements is perfect this way. Traditional to digital then back to traditional! Next step color selections. :)

Thanks for Tumbling with me!

[dreamkey]

Started a new papercraft project. These should turn out really neat. If all goes well, I'll make this type of project available for commission! You know you want cool stuff! :D Stay tuned to see the progress on these two pieces.

While this isn’t normally what I do, I enjoy it quite a bit. It’s a good break in between other projects and helps keep things fresh <3

Also, here's a link to my website where you can see another papercraft project I did a couple years ago. I'm upping the complexity on these two by including layers of flat and stand-up sections. http://crystalkeitz.com/art/design/ 

Thanks for Tumbling with me!

[dreamkey]

I've been a fan of Pistol Shrimp since... maybe 2005? I ran across them at some point and just started telling everyone who was interested about how awesome they are. (Sigh) Yeah, they are cool. <3

For this sketch, I added a couple small embellishments... they don't have spikey carapaces or horns in nature :)

P.S. Watch the video it's cooool!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXK2G2AzMTU

[dreamkey]

Sometimes I don’t realize how long it’s been between posts... my bad... Anyway, here is a recent design and installation I did for a company called Blast Studios. They do really cool stuff and I was really excited about how this came out! :)

www.blaststudios.com

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Longest title ever :) "Where the Meaning of Art and Design Come to Live." This was a paper craft project I started for a class, but it became so much more by working with the librarians at Laguna College of Art and Design. Seriously one of my favorite libraries. I kind of wish I could live there, or at least live adjacent to it with 24 hour access. Sweet, sweet art books <3 

https://www.lcad.edu/library/

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Here is a portrait I started. Final looks different, but it was really cool and creep at this stage. Oil on canvas.

[dreamkey]

Here's a sketch I did at the Exposition Rose Garden in Los Angeles. It was a good day to relax and get in some drawing.

https://www.laparks.org/park/exposition-rose-garden

[dreamkey]

Woah guys, it’s been a seriously long time since I posted. Kicking things off again with some art from a while ago. This is called “Birds and Berries.” Done way before art school when I still lived in Minnesota. It still has a great appeal to me. Might vectorize this at some point. :)

[dreamkey]

Here’s a detail of a WIP called “Funeral.” Digital. I’ll post the final in a bit along with some things from the process of making this piece. :)

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Here’s a project from the past to tide things over while I’m working on my next image for my project “The Bonds Between Man and Beast.”

These examples are from a full alphabet set of gothic-based, all-caps characters titled, “Gilded Gothic.” I designed and illustrated each of the characters traditionally (paper and ink) based on a sketch of the letter ‘C’ I had done earlier. All the characters were then bound into a hand made book. The book included a title page, a dedication to her royal highness, “By Request of the Queen, her Majesty’s Royal Alphabet Book.” This was a really great project to explore typography and book making.

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This might be my new mascot, but she needs a name. Ideas? (Concepts for more senior port illustrations)

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Share your passion with children’s book The ABCs of RPGs. Find more information here

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I can't wait you get my own fancy, paper kobolt! :)

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And here’s where “Totem” is at the moment. I had to stop and let things dry for a while. Next up are corrections, more light adjustments, more color into the tree, and human skull, then an atmospheric glaze. So close! :D