Artist Research : MARY KATE McDEVITT

Mary Kate McDevitt

Here is some personal information about Mary that i found on her website:

Mary Kate McDevitt is a letterer and illustrator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Mary Kate graduated from Tyler School of Art in 2007 with a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration. She worked as a designer at a studio in Lancaster, PA for 2 years. In 2010, Mary Kate moved out to Portland, OR to pursue a career as a freelance illustrator and artist, but after 3+ years in Portland, Mary Kate moved back east and is residing in Brooklyn, NY.

What attracted me to this artists work is the fact that it's cartoonish but complex at the same time. I really appreciate the fact that her work is mostly based on hand made drawings and with the use of traditional media, which is very clear in her work. 

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1.) Some source materials that I can identify straight away by just looking at this image are sketches use as a template for the final piece, colored crayons or pastels for the background, letters and the rest of the elements in the image and maybe a finelner pen or ink for the really dark areas of the guitar or the shapes on the ''N'' . There are definitely many more source materials and traditional media that were used in the making of this piece but these are the most obvious ones I could identify.

It might seem that not many Photoshop tools have been used but I believe that such a creative piece of work was made with the help of digital media. Selection and move tools are the basic ones that might have been used to arrange elements on the page and resizing to make sure everything is as perfect as it could be. Layering, masks and opacity control we're probably used to give the image this poster texture that is noticeable on the boots and some places on the brown frame. 

Since it's the most important part of the image, the text is located in the middle of the image stretching almost over the whole canvas. Cowboy boots and a guitar are also visible in the image as they relate to the Southern American culture, Tennessee to be more specific. The image is placed on a brown frame and with all kinds of little details such as stars, rectangles and patterns occasionally floating around the main elements. In the background we can see a big yellow circle  with lines beaming out from the center of it, resembling a sun. Very vintage like and light colors have been used to fit the theme of a poster and the texture is very grainy, like it's been painted with a roller on a very rough wall.

I personally believe that the artists intentions were to create a ''promotional'' piece of art, the whole image is centered around cowboy American tradition and I think that in some way the artist was trying to capture this essence through the use of typography and her style of visually expressing herself.

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2.)  Here's another piece where there is no doubt that the artist mostly relied on traditional media and source materials. I can say that the artist has used sketching as the main source material to set the base line for the start of this design. From there I believe she continued by adding the color and the little details by using  pastels or acrylic paint. Either way, the final outcome is as impressive as any other piece of her work because she represents in her work the old school way of doing it and by getting her hands dirty.

In the second stage, where the image was digitized, I believe she used the move and the selection tool to rearrange things on the page and make sure everything is where it should be. She also might have retouched areas with the brush tools and also she might have used layering and blending modes to give the image it's final finish for the post card like look in the end. 

This piece of work is totally based on typography as the main element of the image is the writing which cover almost all of the canvas. Little stars and circles which I believe try to resemblance snow flakes are also noticeable surrounding the text. Really light and calm colors are once again used, in this case to give the viewer the peaceful feeling of winter holidays, with the background being a light shade of blue, the stars and circles being black and white and with light orange and black for the text.

This is a perfect design for a holiday postcard, so I would say that the artist tried to create her version of the ideal holiday greetings card. I personally believe that this is a perfect design for a postcard because of the light color used and also because of the cartoonie style used on the text which would give the viewer a feeling of happiness and maybe relaxation.


3.) Because the artist usually works in a similar style, I believe that the source materials are similar to the ones used in the previous pieces of her artwork. Sketches were most likely used as a template to begin with and from there the artist started filling it in with color and the rest of the little details. I might be wrong, but I believe that the top part of this image was collaged and she continued by creating the part of the iceberg hidden underwater.

I strongly believe that this design has been refined and digitized in Photoshop, and some of the tools Mary might have used are: retouching  tools to give the iceberg a much more realistic aspect, blending modes, masks or opacity control to give the underwater background that cold and frozen texture/aspects for a much more intense aspect.

Once again the main element in this piece is the Typography part. The text is the first thing that stand out from the whole image because of the contrast between the other colors around it. After the viewer finished reading the text, he's attention is captivated by the rest of the image, but for a very short amount of time as it's quiet repetitive.
Really cold and dark colors have been used in this image, this because it has to relate to the really cold condition where you would see an iceberg.

This is a perfect example of the saying ''you've only seen the tip of the iceberg''. This is the artist expressing herself and trying to visually present her innerself by using an iceberg. We can see that on the lower part of the iceberg it says '' I Thrive Best'', which shows that even though you might not see it on the surface, she has that inner drive that pushes her forward everyday to do what she loves and improve herself.

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