We Are All One (Process)

Here is a process gif of my newest illustration/design.

Step 1. You can see I started with a pencil drawing. I did some preliminary sketches of the layout and individual character studies before making this drawing. I tried to not use too many references because I wanted this to flow and be from my imagination. The drawing phase is the most crucial in my opinion because without a good foundation, or composition, the whole piece will fall apart. Once the drawing was finished I scanned it into my computer.

Step 2. I edited the drawing a little, changed the arm and leg length on one character, and then added a Layer Filter to give the drawing a pink tone while I inked the drawing.

Step 3 & 4. I inked the circle of characters and the text with black lines.

Step 5. Solid blue was added behind the circle of characters.

Step 6 & 7. The addition of low-lights (shadows) was handled next. Since the pencil drawing included shading I made the solid blue layer invisible while working on the shadows. The highlights where not part of the drawing and I made the blue layer visible while working on them. As opposed to what the gif (above) shows, I toggled back and forth between working on the low-lights and highlights. It is kind of a push and pull process, that reminds me of the process of addition and subtraction in sculpture, and it reveals itself as you jump from character to character.

Step 8, 9 & 10. The background color is added, the text color is changed to the highlight color, and some shade is added to the text.

Step 11. Not pictured. From the beginning each color was made in black, was created on a separate layer in PhotoShop, and had a layer color overlay as a color placeholder. After the art was finished I experimented with the highlight, mid-tone, and low-light until I was satisfied with the hue and vibrance in relation to the background. This phase is important and kind of a reflective period. From experience I know it should not be rushed; in the past I think I have ruined pieces in this phase by selecting bad colors.


There is a Psychedelic contest going on at Threadless right now and I decided to do something even though I have been a bit burned out lately. This time I drew something that was fun to draw and illustrated it in a screen-print friendly, or graphic, style. The style is influenced by skateboard deck designs I grew up with in the late 80s and 90s. Conceptually it based around the five senses and how they come together to form our consciousness. At the same time it is also about life, the afterlife, time and space. I am not sure if anyone will get any of that and it does not really matter to me. The conceptual side of art is what keeps me excited and motivated to keep making and finishing art. This all said, I want the meaning of this art to be fairly loose and up to interpretation. What I hope, in the end, is that people will think it looks cool enough to want to wear it but if they do not I am still satisfied because the process of making the art was fulfilling in and of itself.

Edited the text a bit. Here is the newest version:

I will post the link when to the design on Threadless when it is available.

Gifs

Recently I sat myself down and learned how to make basic animated gifs in PhotoShop. This is the result of my exploration. Hopefully you like it because I will start posting my newer gif creations now and again. Over time I hope to get better at them.

Dah-vid (Post-post Modern Art)

14.5 x 7 inches or 10 x 22 inches. Pencil converted to digital color

Here is an illustration I did to show the silliness of internet culture. A bit of a jab at what is visually popular, what people actually look at, and what is considered art these days. It begs the question "What is art?" Did that sound pretentious enough?

Recent Art

I have not posted for awhile and for that I apologize. I recently committed to remaking a design by an artist on Threadless. I respect the artist Isaboa (Joe) and I thought his design had some potential. Here is my version.


Below is Joe's original design. I took his concept, added my style, and subdued the color. I also kept the dynamic composition.



I was late submitting a design for an Indian Pale Ale design for Finch's Beer Company. It was an open competition and I drew this picture the day it was due. Needless to say it was not going to get finished for the competition.


I also had the opportunity to create a design for the band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Most of their merchandise was pretty strange looking hand drawn art and I tried to push the envelope in that direction. I was going for bazaar but drawn well; I really liked my final product. They ended up going with designs that were more solid graphically speaking.

The Process

The Squid and The Whale. 12 x 12 inches Pen & Ink and Digital color/texture.

Here is a picture I created recently. The battle between a Giant Squid and a Sperm Whale is an intriguing concept. Here are two modern monsters, that actually exist, battling for supremacy in the shroud of our mysterious oceans. Besides just making an interesting image it begs many questions since it has never been documented. Who attacked who? Are there squids large enough to kill whales? Do they hunt each other?

I have been working on a lot of t-shirt designs lately and I was recently told I should do a design with "Nautical Stars." I wont pretend to be a Nautical buff but I do like monsters. I thought I could do a design I liked and incorporate the stars too. I went ahead and drew the squid and whale in mortal combat; pictured below.

I used multiple photo references for each creature to figure out their anatomy. I then used a circular composition by using the creatures poses, placement and foreshortening. I then inked the pencil drawing; pictured below.

Afterwords, I made a high-resolution scan. I cleaned up the drawing a little in Adobe PhotoShop CS4. I placed the image into Adobe Illustrator CS4 and used the Live trace tool to turn the art into vectors. I arranged some vector stars and paint spatters, I had on file, to create the background. I used "Nautical Stars" around the whale because whales seem to be a big part of nautical history. I used the spatters around the squid because squids ink. The result is the following picture; shown below.

Finally I took the image and tried it in black and reversed, as white, on different colored t-shirt templates. I was happiest with the white ink on a light blue t-shirt combination; pictured below.


I hope people like the final product and I also hope that all the hard work pays-off. I liked the concept so much that I went back and did a more artistic treatment of the original art; See the top picture.