"T" Time

So there was this idea I had a long time ago. I originally planned for it to be a t-shirt design but I wanted to do the art in my preferred working style, which is not screen-print friendly. The concept of the design revolved around a tee, within a tee, within a tee but with a twist. I wanted to have some characters characters having tea time (drinking), while golfing (tee time), on a tee shirt. Then I thought about how this would be rather boring with people and brought animals into the process. Call it inspired, or WTF, but I thought about how it would be awesome to have whales playing golf. How could they do this? With mechanized exo-suits of course. What would they use for a club? Why not a giraffe. Since we are now in Africa, a pangolin would also make a nice ball. Plus the animal club and ball would be a bonus reference to Alice in Wonderland.

 Here is the original sketch.

Once I had an idea and sketch put together I researched some whale, giraffe, and pangolin images, then drew the whole thing into a composition. Okay, fact-check reality is the drawing was so huge that the two whales on the left were on one sheet of paper and the whale on the right was on another sheet, and the composition came together in Photoshop.

 Original composite drawing.

 Detail of whales on the left.

 Detail of Whale on the right.

After the drawing phase was complete, I set about finding textures that would work for all the different elements. For the whales, giraffes, and cephalopods, I referenced actual photos of the animals but altered the color and manipulated the shapes to fit within the drawing. I found other textures to fill in the nonorganic areas which were also color and shape manipulated. I then added shadows and highlights to all of the elements. Finally, I found and manipulated background elements to work in the composition.

 The art at this point.

I removed the pencil lines here so you can see what

the texture/color looks like without the pencil work.

Color/texture Progress from pencil to completion.

At this point I was really happy with the results. The problem was that this would not print well on a t-shirt. The idea was scrapped, as far as shirts go, and the image was added to my portfolio. 

On a whim, and mostly to see how it would score on Threadless, I submitted another design called "Speed is Relative" (see previous post) in this same non-print friendly style. It was my highest scoring design and it ended up printing months after it was submitted. They managed to print it beautifully. 

For this reason, I started considering submitting "T time" for scoring. I had to make the design blend into the tee better so I used a nice Photoshop brush to round and fade the bottom on the composition a little. It also made the composition more vertical, and less square, and brought more emphasis to the characters.

Design to be submitted?

I have not submitted the design. I was thinking it might work well in a drawing contest. I think I will get some feedback before I decide.

Thanks for looking and let me know what you think.

"T" Time: IF (Tall)

Click Image to see a little bigger

Finally, I am finished with the epic undertaking. See earlier post below to get an idea of how much I lagged on getting this together. When I do something for myself, and put the full effort forward, sometimes it takes a very long time.

Closer Detail

ChaDes Challenge LXV: Highlanders

This is my return to the ChaDes Challenge set forth by honorable Austin Madison. I have been absent from the challenge for too long. In anticipation of the movie Brave, challengers are creating Highlandish character designs. This is Crannog Mackinnon the highest of the Highlanders from the Isle of Sky; please excuse the bad pun.

I have another illustration / design based on an older ChaDes Challenge that I did not participate in, but loved, that I will post soon. Keep yar eyes peeled.

Brain Wash

Here is a recent illustration I did for a client presentation. It is a good example of working with a client and adjusting an illustration to meet their needs. In the initial concept meeting we discussed using an image of a brain taking a bath. After I did some pencil sketched, which I wish I could find as an example, we decided to go forward with the illustration pictured below.

I thought it was a clever illustration because it implied both brain bath and "Brain Wash." When I mentioned this to the client they rethought the message and said they really wanted to imply a bath of chemicals. To me this implied a negative impact on the brain which lead to memories of Bugs Bunny bathing in a hot cauldron unaware that he was being cooked. We decided to go with an image of a Brain bathing in a cauldron filled with a chemical broth.

Although I like the double meaning of the original illustration the final art was a much clearer communication of the clients message. I also like the art in the second version more, so it's a double win.

Visual Vocabulary

Here is some more work I did for Literacyhead.com recently. As usually these were done super fast. I enjoy doing these little studies because they get me thinking differently about visual communication.

These are all intended for web viewing and are pencil sketches with digital texture / color.
All images ©2012 Literacyhead, LLC.

Reading Opens Doors

This is a recent project I have been working on in collaboration with my Literacyhead.com partner. We were contracted to create a 5.5inch x 3.25inch educational flip-book for Smart Start Education, a division of The United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. The flip-book would be given to parents to help the parents encourage reading through games and activities described in the flip-book. The project is not finalized and we are still working on some client requested edits. Pictured above is the cover we presented to the Smart Start Panel.

The image above is the first draft of the cover. Initially, we decided to make the front cover be a door that opens into the content of the book. The challenge was to make a door interesting and inviting. We thought using a child would be engaging and also established that showing the child's thoughts, of what doors could be opened through reading, would work well conceptually.

After the initial draft was approved, I redrew the image to be used in the color draft (pictured above).

Next I added the color, texture, and the children's thought images. From here we came to the conclusion that the kid's face needed to be cuter and more family friendly. I was also asked to include a pot of flowers to add some visual interest. The draft with these changes is the final draft image at the top of this post.

While I was working on the cover, I was simultaneously working on the book layout. Each chapter was appropriate for a specific age group. We thought it would be cool to make each chapter be a different door that is being opened. Each chapter door has drawings, or elements, that relate the to the age group represented in the chapter. Pictured above is a chapter introduction spread for the 4-6 Years chapter.

Pictured above is a spread of how most of the pages look in the flip-book. Each chapter uses a different color scheme to let the reader know which section they are in. Everything that is red, in this example above, changes to a different solid color with each advancing chapter. The pages are 5.5inches x 3.25inches, the font size is 11 point, and it will be spiral bound.

This is the Back Cover. We wanted to have visual interest/friendliness and invite the readers to use the flip-book again.

Fearless: Final

I created the lamb and the wolf in conflict a few months back and I really liked the way they turned out. I went ahead and created a background to finish this illustration. It was a lot of work but I am satisfied with the results. I hope you all enjoy it too.

Rodeo at the Dude Ranch & IF: Racing

Here is another design and illustration that I have created for Threadless. I am very excited about because I know so many people who would wear it. It is an homage to one of the greatest movies of all time, The Big Lebowski. Please enjoy responsibly.

Here is a link to Threadless where you can vote if you feel so inlined:



IF: He looks like he could be racing, but it is actually a bucking bronco.

Some Dudical music to listen to:

The Triumphant Return (Star Gazing)

Imagine star gazing and seeing these guys. When their Galactic conquest for tasty resources came to it's conclusion, the royalty of Earth's food chain returned to reclaim there title.

16x24 Pen & Ink, digital texture, and vector graphics.



Voting has ended

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.

IF: Focused

"Scavengers" 9.5 x 5.5 inches, Pencil with Digital Color/texture.

I have had this idea for a long time but it took IFs' "Focused" prompt to leech it out of me. With the award season in full swing this piece seemed appropriate. I like movies, music, and being entertained, but I think there are a lot more important things to be focused on right now.

IF: Crunch

This is immediately what I thought of for "Crunch." It seems I am late, as usual, but I hope is illustration is worth wait. Thanks for stopping and, as always, comment are always welcome.

"Crunchy" 8.5 x 12 Pencil & Pen with digital texture and color.

If: Entangled

This is what came to mind when I thought of "Entangled." I couldn't help but think of the "entangle" spell from D & D. On another level, Subconsciously, I think I may have been channeling my feelings about having a child in remission from Leukemia; the uncertainty, the dread and the hope reaching out into the future. I only thought about this in hindsight of the images completion.

"Entangled" Pencil, Digital Collage and Color. 6 x 6 inches.

ChaDes: Super Villain

The Ice Raptor
Ice Raptor is part of the WOE, which is a group of super villains dedicated to destroying all Super Heroes. This group was created by Austin Maddison: Check his site for more WOE action.

Ice Raptor Origin:
Doug Vansant was a live in land lord of a San Francisco East Bay Slum were no one wanted to live. Unknown to him, there was an unscrupulous genetic engineer that was in hiding living in the apartment above his own. Adjacent to the genetic engineers apartment resided a low life that operated a Meth Lab. One day when loud noises where coming from the apartment above Doug's, he went to investigate the clanking. As he was reprimanding the engineer he happened to see some odd equipment: viles of liquid, large eggs, petrified bones, and computers. A minute later there was a giant explosion. The apartment was leveled but from the ashes rose Doug transformed into a hideous beast. Mysteriously during the explosion the chemicals of the methamphetamine meshed with the DNA of both Doug and a Velociraptor. What resulted was a half-Raptor-half-man creature with Amphetamines infused into it's DNA.

Powers:
Never sleeps, moves incredibly fast, super strength, works well with a team, poisonous saliva (equivalent to injecting 1000 cc. of uncut Meth), razor sharp claws and teeth, and ability to stay focused for extended periods of time.

Weakness:
Will do anything for a cigarette, prone to vacuuming at 3 A.M., twitchy (can't stay still, which is bad for hunting), tends to jump the gun, always paranoid, Kleptomaniac leanings and other bizarre phobias. Doug was an amoral Slum lord; I will leave these weaknesses to your imagination.

Apparently I was a bit late with this. Check out Everitt Downing's and Emma Coat's characters too.

More T-shirt Art

Content Edited (9/17/09)

In other news, the first design from the previous post is going to be printed. It will be printed on a natural colored shirt with browns, red, and oranges(see below). I am overjoyed to have a shirt chosen by Dan for his solo tour.