Illustration artist Kendyll Romine told Paste that she loves 80’s fairytale adaptations, oddball musicals, and anything to do with princesses. She poured these passions into an incredible 365 Day Drawing Challenge, one of the best we’ve seen this year. Romine uses a Wacom tablet, Photoshop, Prismacolor Markers and paper to create her masterpieces. She’s getting a lot of love from the theatre community and is loving life in the limelight.
I really wanted 2016 to be a year of taking chances and making goals that would help me further myself throughout the year. I wanted to develop both my artistic skills and my social media presence by consistently drawing and posting art throughout the year. I noticed some artists doing similar challenges had picked a theme to draw on throughout the year, and being an avid theatre fan, drawing a female musical theatre character every day was something I could stay interested in and also allow me to draw a variety of different things. I never imagined the feedback it would receive, and how enthusiastically the theatre community would embrace it! This challenge has given me so many wonderful opportunities and experiences, as well as strengthened me as an artist.
Romine said of her technique and materials selection that she went with her gut each day on what would work best for each character. Only a few girls were planned at length, mostly to coincide with openings/closings of Broadway shows. Romine cited her drawing of Dot from Sunday in the Park with George as one that she planned to do in pointillism because the show is about artist Georges Seurat. She says her favorite show is Cats. A VHS tape recording was her first introduction to theatre.
You can see all of Romine’s female musical character illustrations on her artblog, but here are a few of our favorites. If you’re doing a 365 Day Design Challenge for 2017, please let us know how to follow you in the comments!
Day 359: Maria Von Trapp (The Sound of Music)
Day 353: Mimi Marquez (RENT)
Day 344: Eva Peron (Evita)
Day 342: Tracy Turnblad (Hairspray)
Day 334: Dawn (Waitress)
Day 269: Fanny (Fanny)
Day 250: Hedwig Robertson (Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
Day 247: Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
Day 234: Olive Ostrovsky (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee)
Day 211: Demeter and Bombalurina (CATS)
Day 47: Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies (Finding Neverland)
Day 42: Reno Sweeney (Anything Goes)
Day 32: Astrolass (Brooklynite)
Day 25: Kate Monster (Avenque Q)
Emily Ray is Paste’s Visual Arts Editor.