About
Vital Stats:
Name: Kayleigh Lebak
Habitat: USA
Occupation: Freelance illustrator & Designer
Hobbies: Reading, Cooking, Video Games, Travel, Foreign Languages, Sewing, Yoga
Likes: Late Nights, Tea, Cats, More Tea, Books, High Heels, Doctor Who, Stockings, Stupid Bilingual Puns
Dislikes: Mornings, Region-Blocking, Power Outages, Wednesdays, Direct Sunlight
Most Likely to Doodle: Cat, Winged Heart
Favorite Sailor Senshi: Sailor Mercury
Favorite Pokemon: Meowth
Tools: Photoshop, Wacom Intuos, Strathmore Sketchpads, Cheap Pencils, Sharpies, Copics, Lots of Tea
Experience: 8+ years as an active freelance artist
Contact: kabukikatze@kabukikatze.com
F.A.Q.
What's a "Kabuki Katze" anyway?
Short Version: It's a portmanteau of "Kabuki Quantum Fighter" and "katze," the German word for "cat."
Long Version:
Imagine it's 1990-something. You are a nerdy ginger who gets the requisite schoolyard ribbing for your haircolor. One day, a distant uncle mails
you an NES game called "Kabuki Quantum Fighter." You plop yourself down, dutifully, before your game system and start playing only to discover
that the hero is, le gasp!, a redhead! Not only that, but he hair-whips the forces of evil into submission with his fabulous
red mane.
Needless to say, you are enthralled. Your child-mind pieces together that "kabuki" has something to do with massive red hair and you give it your
everlasting stamp of approval.
Years later, looking for an online nickname you recall your trusty NES and pull the word "kabuki" from the recesses of your mind. Your cat, sitting on top
of your monitor (back in the day when monitors were big enough to hold a cat) provides the inspiration for the "katze."
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Can I use your art for ____? Will you send me a high-res of ____?
If you'd like to use my work for personal, non-profit, or educational purposes (e.g. a desktop wallpaper, an LJ icon, a report on art) I don't mind
and you needn't ask permission. I do request visible credit and, if possible, a link back. However, please do not request high-resolution
images as I do not distribute these for free.
The one exception to this policy is commissioned artwork. Commissioned works are for the use of their commissioners only (especially as many of my
commissioned pieces involve characters that are the property of the commissioner.) Please respect the rights of these fine folks and refrain
from using the works they spent their hard-earned funds to buy.
If you'd like to use my work for commercial purposes, please contact me for permission, rates, and high-res images.
How long does it take you to make a picture?
This varies wildly depending on the detail level and the coloring style. Simpler images take a couple of hours from sketch to Save For Web,
but more complex images tend to be spread out over days . . . or weeks!
How long have you been drawing?
Since I could get my fat little fists around a crayon. I haven't stopped since then. (Much to the consternation of every teacher I ever had.)
How long have you been taking commissions?
I started taking paid commissions in 2004. Though if we're counting barter, I took my first commission in elementary school for a pack of Warheads.
Not my best deal, now that I think about it.
So, wait, is this your job?
Yep. Of course, that doesn't mean that I don't have side hustles. Stockings aren't cheap, you know.