- Home
- Blog
- Web Design The Distinctive Watercolor Designs of Karen Kurycki
The Distinctive Watercolor Designs of Karen Kurycki
- 10 min. read
-
Trevin ShireyVP of Marketing
- Trevin serves as the VP of Marketing at WebFX. He has worked on over 450 marketing campaigns and has been building websites for over 25 years. His work has been featured by Search Engine Land, USA Today, Fast Company and Inc.
Karen has worked with the design team over at Nike.
She’s illustrated for the Washington Post.
She’s garnered highly coveted featured spots at popular online media outlets like DesignWorkLife and the Behance Featured Project Gallery.
She also runs Absurd Overheard — a quirky and humorous niche website that publishes interpretive illustrations of silly statements she’s come across.
And she participates in volunteer work, using her skills as a designer and illustrator for the betterment of the public.
To say that this artist is well accomplished and busy these days is an understatement.
Perhaps what’s she’s best known for is her distinctive style of marrying watercolors with her designs, resulting in eye-grabbing, vibrant, and very memorable pieces.
She started experimenting with watercolors back when she was still in college at Kent State University in Ohio.
“While I was there I had an awesome professor who is also a great illustrator named Jerry Kalback and he really encouraged me to keep pushing forward with the illustration alongside my design classes,” Kurycki shared.
The Creative Process
Like many designers, Kurycki starts her projects with thumbnails, sketches, word association lists, and other things that help her develop a concept.
She gets her inspiration everywhere, but she says that “humor and wit are two very inspiring things” to her.
“I like to surround myself with funny people because it’s really such an important part about life. I’m truly inspired by funny people,” she says.
As for blogs and sites that inspire her, Kurycki cites Design Work Life, Designspiration, Ffffound and the interviews at The Great Discontent.
Tools of the Trade
For her watercolors, she goes with Winsor & Newton professional grade watercolors that she buys in tubes and uses to create her own color palette consisting of 32 colors.
Her canvas is either an Arches 140 lbs.
cold press paper or Winsor & Newton 140 lbs. color press paper.
She scans in her work with an Epson scanner so that she can use a graphics editor like Photoshop. “When I combine illustration and design, I’ll tweak it in Photoshop until I feel I’ve achieved the look I’m going for,” Kurycki shares.
Serving the Public through Design
Karen is highly active in volunteerism.
Ever since she was little, she’s been volunteering and trying to give back to her community.
“I can’t really imagine not giving to something, whether it be through design or doing hands-on activities,” she says.
When I asked her whether she thinks performing pro-bono design work devaluates the profession, she tells me, “I think a lot of people misinterpret what ‘pro bono’ means — it means ‘for good’ not ‘for free’.’”
She’s currently working with Rethreaded, an organization helping women escape the sex trade.
“It’s a heavy subject, but every community deals with it, and it needed awareness,” Kurycki says about the collaboration.
Kurycki also helped create the AIGA Jacksonville high school design mentoring program because she saw a need for more design education in her area. “It’s been a very rewarding experience getting to work with the kids and now some of the students from the first class are graduating from college with design degrees, which is very exciting,” she says.
Showcase
Here are some handpicked pieces created by Karen Kurycki.
More Info About Karen Kurycki
If you enjoyed learning about Karen and seeing her work, check out her portfolio site cmykaren.com and her other website Absurd Overheard for more of her pieces.
Also follow her on Twitter as @cmykaren and connect with her on Dribble.
* Thumbnail image: “These eyes” by Karen Kurycki
-
Trevin serves as the VP of Marketing at WebFX. He has worked on over 450 marketing campaigns and has been building websites for over 25 years. His work has been featured by Search Engine Land, USA Today, Fast Company and Inc.
-
WebFX is a full-service marketing agency with 1000+ client reviews and a 4.9-star rating on Clutch! Find out how our expert team and revenue-accelerating tech can drive results for you! Learn more
Make estimating web design costs easy
Website design costs can be tricky to nail down. Get an instant estimate for a custom web design with our free website design cost calculator!
Try Our Free Web Design Cost CalculatorWeb Design Calculator
Use our free tool to get a free, instant quote in under 60 seconds.
View Web Design CalculatorMake estimating web design costs easy
Website design costs can be tricky to nail down. Get an instant estimate for a custom web design with our free website design cost calculator!
Try Our Free Web Design Cost Calculator