ART BACKWASH

Color Palette Refinement

2009-11-08T02:49:00.000-08:00

My creative process is both analog and digital. I love the tactile approach drawing provides and the precision ease of use digital offers in regard to creating artwork and design.

I've had my battles with Illustrator over the years. And it more than anything else in my life is truly a love hate relationship.

Thankfully most of these frustrations and short comings have either been resolved now by Adobe or bypassed via helpful third party plugins that work better than the native tools.

That said, there is still room for improvement and that is what this post is about. I'm specifically talking about the the "Color Palette" in Adobe Illustrator.

Adobe Illustrator 8 Color Palette.

It's been eons since Adobe seriously updated the Color Palette. The above image shows what it looked like back in Illustrator 8 running on system 9 prior to the advent of OSX.

Current interface appearance of Color Palette in CS4.

Not much has changed with the Color Palette since Illustrator 8. Being a former FreeHand user the GUI on this specific palette has always annoyed me.

Why did Adobe ever overlap the fill and stroke controls? OK, so that was a rhetorical question. It denotes which control you have in focus either fill or stroke. Having the overlap as it is now just makes selecting them more of a pain and slows down the build process IMO.

Overlap + Dark Colors = Problem.

The current overlap causes another problem, if you have darker colors it's hard to tell which one is selected, (See above image) so it isn't fool proof from that stand point making it slow you down again. I think my solution below is better. The overlap also gives the illusion of representing a hierarchy, which it doesn't in the actual object itself, that's what the Appearance Palette is for.

But the biggest issue for me in regards to the Color Palette is the fact there is no way to quickly color both the fill and stroke at the same time. (I miss that feature from FreeHand)

My suggested GUI and functional update to the Color Palette.

I think Adobe should re-design the Color Palette. I'm not talking about making the process fundamentally different, I just want to see what is already there improved upon. They should also add in the ability to color both the fill and stroke at the same time. Everything else would work the same as it always has.

Easier to select fill and stroke controls.

Want to color your fill and stroke yellow? Just click the multi-color control shown to the right of the fill and stroke control and then create your color and your done. (You can also drag a color to the multi-color control too) This would seem to be a pretty easy refinement the Adobe engineers could make?

Arrowhead to Identify which control you have selected.

Someone in the comments below pointed out the overlapping fill and stroke denote which one is selected. I realize that but it's still not needed. I could see why they might have done that before OSX and more robust application versions but it's simply not needed.

I propose that an active arrow appears along side which ever control is currently in focus be it the fill, stroke, or multi-color.

I know everyone has different ways of working but I'd use this simple function all the time if it were part of the app. FreeHand had it, Adobe owns FreeHand now so why not implement it? They've already done so with multiple art boards, new masking etc.

H1N1

2009-11-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

H1N1 design.

You can become a host to this infectious design and carry the graphic contagion wide and far transmitting this wonderful creative virus on a t-shirt.

Creative Edge

2009-10-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

Dreyer's Fruit Bars.

One of my favorite snacks is Dreyer's Fruit Bars. I scarfed my first one back in 1997 and have kept them stocked in my fridge ever since.

Before I go any further I should say that this post is all about creative curiosity. Recognizing seemingly mundane moments in your life, and taking the time to view them from a different perspective and by doing so discovering something creatively new.

Popsicle sticks.

Every time I would have a fruit bar I'd be left with a popsicle stick. At least that is what people refer to them as. I never actually eat popsicles.

Broken popsicle sticks.

Usually I'm watching TV when I'm having one and I started breaking them into several pieces. After doing so I'd just toss them into the garbage and out of sight out of mind.

After breaking up hundreds of these popsicle sticks I began to notice the interesting edge they created when broken. But that is about as far as I took it.

Aligning broken pieces.

A few weeks ago however I was looking at a few more broken pieces and thought to myself

"This would make a really cool edge texture if you lined them all up."

Creative Edge.

So instead of tossing them into the garbage I started saving the best broken pieces. Once I had enough I drew a line on a piece of paper and started lining them up.

Building edge texture with pieces.

To hold them together I used painters tape. It has enough adhesion to keep the pieces in place but also easy enough to adjust them if needed.

Completed edge of broken popsicle pieces.

As I composited the popsicle pieces to form the edge I tried to vary the various broken ends so it would form a unique contour both positively and negatively.

Scan of pieces and detail of final edge texture.

I scanned the taped popsicle pieces in at high resolution greyscale image and then used Photoshop to adjust levels and created the final texture shown above.

It's been almost four years since my texture book came out but I continue to be fascinated with texture. Styles come and go but texture will forever be timeless and useful within design and Photoshop makes using them so easy.

Speaking of Photoshop, it's probably my favorite application to use.

That may surprise some people reading this blog, but I like it just because it allows the user to work the way they prefer, it's very flexible in terms of the app adapting to your own methodology and preferences in regards to a creative process. Ten people can do the same thing ten different ways and that IMO is an example of intuitive software.

I wish Illustrator was half as easy to use and adapt into ones creative process, but I digress.

I took a lot of time adjusting and refining the details in this edge texture so as not to blow out the image and lose the nice fine details of the splintered wood and the various artifacts it created when I scanned them in.

Example use of "Creative Edge" texture.

My penchant for frozen fruit on a stick peaked my creative curiosity and you the faithful reader benefit from this artistic experiment.

Download "Creative Edge" Texture.
The "Creative Edge" Texture download includes the following content you can use in your own creative pursuits be it personal or professional as these textures are what I like to call open source creativity. Go forth and create!

- Layered Grayscale PSD File (Hi-Res, 8.5x11 inches @ 610 ppi)
- Left-Side Bitmap Tiff (Hi-Res, 1.5x11 inches @ 610 ppi)
- Right-Side Bitmap Tiff (Hi-Res, 1.5x11 inches @ 610 ppi)

The layered PSD file has multiple options so you'll have to turn on/off the layers to view all of them, such as pre-built masked layers to make usage easier. The PSD File is CS4 but will still open in CS3 or CS2 without any problems.

- Download "Creative Edge Texture" (67 MB)

Doodle Creatures

2009-10-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

"Turn the Worm" doodle creature.

When I doodle in the wee hours of the night my art is infused with heavy amounts of late night logic.

What emerges is strange doodle creatures like you see in this post.

"Noobitoid" doodle creature.

The past three weeks I've been drawing a lot of bizarre and fanciful characters and have wondered what a psycho therapist might read into some of these images?

So if any of you know someone who might be willing to look at 5-6 drawing and share what things they'd glean from them I'd like to talk to them. (Email link in sidebar at right)

As always you can get these designs on t-shirts.

- "Turn the Worm" Tee: View / Order Here.
- "Noobitoid" Tee: View / Order Here.

Creative Faceoff

2009-10-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

NHL Hockey Patch Micro-Tut

Source Photo: NHL Legend Gordie Howe.

1. Source Photo
With this style my client provides the archive photo that their team has selected for me to draw from. For these types of portrait patches it helps to have a dramatically lit picture but sometimes that proves to be somewhat difficult since many players have long since been retired and the variety of source photos is very limited.

Thankfully this one was well suited for this style which has to be pulled off in three spot colors due to budget and reproduction methods overseas. So it's all about simplifying detail and baking down an image to not only work small but retain clarity and of course look like the person your illustrating of course.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Hockey was never a big thing in our parts. Sure we had professional teams but they were an hour north in Seattle.

There was one neighborhood kid who liked hockey, but we didn't have any ice rink locally. Every so often he'd pull out some goals he had built, gather a group of kids, and we'd have a game in his drive way using a tennis ball as the puck.

I had about as much success handling my hockey stick as I do chop sticks. It was fun because it was different but I felt something was being lost in our translation of the game.

Refined Pencil Sketch.

2. Refined Sketch
Since this style lacks any use of gradients I draw out my artwork with shapes in mind. If you scrutinize the photo enough you'll see that his eyebrows aren't exactly shaped like that, or his inner ear really doesn't contain those forms. But that is OK, It's not about photo realism it's about iconifying his visual persona.

I look at a photo and the first thing I do is purposely blur my eyes and study it, this helps me see the facial features as contour shapes and this guides my drawing.

I do this not only because of the limited production specs but also because of my own budget constraints. I can't afford to spend 8 hours on a specific patch design when my budget allows me at the most two hours.

This process is expedient but still allows me to retain the level of quality I expect from myself. And thus is the difference between fine art and commercial art.

I still don't have a clue when it comes to hockey rules, or current players or teams. Every now and then I come across a game and I watch it, but I miss the laser puck days when it was on Fox Sports.

I do recognize the hall of famer players from hockey past like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe etc. but even in this blog post I'm only familiar with 4 of the 8 players shown, but thankfully I don't need to be in order to draw them. ;-P

Building Vector Artwork.

3. Building Vectors
Because I spend the board time drawing my refined sketch I know exactly what I have to build when go from analog to digital. There is no guess work it's just a matter of creating what I've already determined I need.

Working like this also speeds up the production process because I'm not slowing down trying to figure out how something should look and noodling around trying to figure it out on the fly.

I still have never actually seen a hockey game in person. And I may never will? And unlike my childhood I don't know anyone now locally who is a hockey fan?

Base Artwork.

4. Base Artwork
Once I have all my core base vector shapes built I flow in the basic colors and set up the outer stroke thickness. At this point I'm about 3/4 of the way done.

In the last three years I've done about 300 of these type of portraits. I've done so many that I've caught myself looking at peoples faces in public and in my mind I begin to simplify their features and think about how I could build the vector shapes. So I guess you could say I have an acute case of Vectoritis.

Drawing Shading.

5. Drawing Shading
At this point in my creative process I print out my base artwork and referencing the photo I draw out the shading using the same modus operandi as I did with the rest of the portrait illustration.

My process is a mix of digital and analog going back and forth until I complete the project and unless clones become part of our everyday lives I don't see this methodology changing anytime soon.

Here is some hockey patches I created a couple years ago.

Vector Detailing.

6. Vector Detailing
I scan in my shading drawing and build out the detail in vector form. Now the art is ready to integrate into the over all patch motif and the iconification of a hockey icon is now complete.

I usually do all of my portraits at the same time progressing from one stage to the next until I have all of them done. It just goes faster that way rather then doing one at a time from beginning to end.

This post is what I call a micro-tut, if you'd like to see a full on tutorial covering this same style in more depth just visit my tutorial site at IllustrationClass.com.

Final Gordie Howe Patch Design.

7. Final Patch
Here is the portrait art nested in context of the final patch design. Along with each patch I have to use the specific team colors as well.

On very rare occasions I've managed to pull this same style off without drawing out my art first. OK, I've only done that once and it was for a very tight deadline and the photography was custom shot by my client. You can view that project here.

2008-2009 NHL Hockey Patches

This Guy Lafleur patch is in reference to his hockey achievements.

NHL hall of famer Ray Bourque.

Legendary iceman Bobby Hull.

The dramatic goalie Robert Luongo.

Tony Esposito and the big hair days of hockey.

Player and now coach Patrick Roy.

The great Mario Lemieux.

Hockey may never hold a lot of interest for me personally but I have learned a lot about it through my various design projects and no matter what the sport it's always fun to illustrate in this fashion.

Mug Shots

2009-10-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

My lovely daughter sporting a "Thug Bunny" mug.

This holiday season you can drink deeply from an official Glitschka Studios mug.

I think coffee is to designers what blood is to vampires, so I've pulled together several of my most popular designs and have made them available on mugs.

Because everyone deserves an artistic beverage apparatus.

The Loyal Order of "Thug Bunny" mug.

View / Order "Thug Bunny" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Fill your head with liquids via a "Squiggle Heads" mug.

View / Order "Squiggle Heads" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Imbibe your favorite beverage with "Tickles the Evil Clown" mug.

View / Order "Tickles the Evil Clown" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Become a hard-core drinker with this "Tribal Lion" mug.

View / Order "Tribal Lion" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Freedom never tasted so good with this "Artistic Freedom" mug.

View / Order "Artistic Freedom" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Consume your strange brew in this "VooDoo" mug.

View / Order "VooDoo" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Scary good consumption via the "Monster" mug.

View / Order "Monster" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Drink your ideological kool-aid in this "Last Daze" mug.

View / Order "Last Daze" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

What every biker bar needs: An "Alien Biker Skull" mug.

View / Order "Alien Biker Skull" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Preventing discourse is fine while you're drinking out of your "Free Speech" mug.

View / Order "Free Speech" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Enjoy your piping hot liquid bean in this "Latte Java" mug.

View / Order "Latte Java" mug here.

Read more about this art here.

Salvation by Design

2009-10-24T03:06:00.000-07:00

Concept 1

Hindsight Critique: Probably my weakest concept. Looks like a hood ornament a faith healer would have on his Rolls-Royce. No wonder they didn't choose it.

I have to admit something before I jump into this post. I normally avoid working with Churches on design projects like this. It pains me to say that since I myself am a Christian, but my experience thus far in my career supports my hesitation and that is unfortunate.

So when I was contacted by Northwest Church in regards to designing a new identity for them I was very skeptical about it. That said I quoted it like any other corporate identity project and we proceeded.

Concept 2

Hindsight Critique: This is OK. A bit too literal perhaps. Note how I colorized the NW section of the mark.

I'm happy to say that the creative process went extremely well. Working with Northwest Church was truly a joy. Mainly because they get it. I felt like I was working with an agency.

That said I still had that nagging feeling in the back of my head that at any moment someone would mess it up, look at one of my designs and say it looked like a penis or something. But I had to keep the faith.

Concept 3

Hindsight Critique: I like the clean simplicity of this idea.

Every business has a personality. Designing a successful identity is all about capturing that personality accurately in a visual sense so it honestly represents them.

That said a design can be good, even great in and of itself but still fail as an identity for the client because it doesn't capture the essence of their personality.

Concept 4

Hindsight Critique: This approach was one of my favorites. I like the simplicity, form and the color denoting location all the while serving as a cross as well.

The main problem with most Church oriented design is it's lame. Sinfully ugly if you will. Sorry the truth hurts.

So when I approached this job I wanted to avoid your standard stereotypical graphic crosses as much as possible. And instead create a new cross-like graphic to use.

Concept 5

Hindsight Critique: This is another approach I liked as well. The hint at a page from the bible makes for a good graphic device.

Graphic metaphorical visual hints are the spice in design cooking. Anyone can serve up a circle, square or triangle. It takes more conceptual culinary elegance to plate a design that goes beyond ordinary.

Concept 6

Hindsight Critique: Probably a bit too comical. Doesn't fit their personality. More inline with a t-shirt design for a Church picnic I suppose.

Logo design camps in one of two locations. Literal or Figurative. A literal approach uses literal imagery in a literal way. A figurative approach uses metaphorical imagery or literal imagery in a non-literal metaphorical way. I prefer the latter.

Concept 7

Hindsight Critique: I really liked this approach. The icons nested together well and formed a subtle cross like shape in the negative space.

Sometimes in the design process you realize an idea can work in another way for the same project and that is what happened with these icons. I used them as part of the over all identity package to define the various ministries within the church.

Concept 8

Hindsight Critique: Simon says welcome to Milton Bradley Church.

I like the symbolism in this mark. The outer circle representing the Church. The inner sections representing the four Church ministries all forming a subtle graphic cross like shape. Note how I used the color to denote the northwest.

Concept 9

This is the concept the client selected. I have to admit I was surprised but they said they loved the thought behind it and that sold it. So it's a good argument for explaining your design when presenting your ideas rather than just sending them off and saying "Let me know what you think."

Designers should be good thinkers and share a vision with the client so the client can buy into that vision and truly embrace it.

To understand the design philosophy behind this mark visit the full project post at my primary site.

A Typical Glitschka Studios Project Folder

Circular Reasoning

2009-10-23T01:20:00.000-07:00

"Circular Reasoning" design. (Click Image to View Larger)

A while back I was listening to a political talking head who was using circular reasoning to bolster his argument. This seems to be a very popular fallacy in todays media regardless of what political ideology you align with.

When something irritates me I tend to vent my frustration via doodling. So when I heard this doofus using circular reasoning I thought of the term "talking in circles" and this design idea came to mind. I quickly scribbled it out knowing I'd get to it at a later date.

"Circular Reasoning" doodle via Paper Mate® Flair Pen.

The core basis of this design was hand drawn. I knew I'd then scan it in and build out the remaining motif digitally via Photoshop. The idea was to make his tongue morph into his neck and spawn a new head.

I suppose this design could be an iconic representation of politicians in general. Frankly I'm sick of all the suited weasels in Washington. Enough R&D IMO. Maybe someday we'll get a real Mr. Smith to go to Washington and truly knock some heads together and exercise some common sense in a not so common time. But I won't hold my breath.

"Circular Reasoning" t-shirt design.

In the meantime you can always forward this link to your local politician and remind them of what not to do. After all they do play with their laptops during sessions be it solitaire, surfing the web, or watching a baseball game, so why not read an actual email from a constituent?

Of course you can also stimulate my personal economy and order this shirt from my Zazzle store too. Just in time for Christmas.

"Facial Soap" Doodle Carving

2009-10-21T02:58:00.001-07:00

"Facial Soap" doodle carving.

The first time I did a "Facial Soap" doodle carving was way back in 1989. At the time I had taken a sabbatical from my career and was traveling across the country putting on drug prevention shows for Jr. High and High School students nationwide.

As I traveled I collected the soap you get at hotels and started creating doodle carvings with them. Nothing too complex just a bunch of goofy faces hence the term "Facial Soap." I never did manage to save any of them, I usually gave them all away to people I met and once I plugged back into my career in 1990 I kind of set the creative habit aside.

My preferred canvas: Ivory soap.

Over the past several years I've been traveling around the country speaking and I've started to collect free soap again which made me think of my previous creative habit. So I decided to do a doodle carving tonight.

I don't use the soap they give away at hotels because frankly it's too cheap and fractures too easily. I prefer Ivory soap myself and a 3-pak of these carvible canvases was a grand total of $1.07.

Carving begins.

These go pretty fast. I spent about an hour while watching a movie creating one of these. An X-acto is the only tool I need to carve with and I keep a can of air around to blow out small pieces as I work.

Carving box.

Needless to say this can make a mess pretty quick so the best method I've found to minimize the shaved pieces of soap from scattering across your floor is to carve over a small box. One nice side effect is the scent given off by the soap, and one negative side effect is the soap dust you get on your hands and then rub it into your eyes by mistake. #$%@! burns.

Soap + X-acto = Facial Soap.

I'm going to try and make this a regular creative habit from now on. It's relaxing and fun.

Creating this facial soap made me realize my carving skills are kind of rusty. What I've done before was a lot more complicated so hopefully over time I'll improve.

Crusty Dude Doodle

2009-10-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Another "Red Pen" doodle via Paper Mate® Flair.

Over the last few weeks I can stop drawing with my Paper Mate® Flair Pens. For some reason drawing old crusty people is a whole lot of fun. I think it's all the various wrinkles that make it such an alluring drawing experience? The more wrinkles, the more character.

Mile High doodling.

I started drawing this art while I was sitting on an American Airlines plane at 31,000 ft. somewhere over Texas headed to Lafayette. I then finished it off sitting in the offices of Prejean Creative before I spoke at the local AdFed group.

I prefer drawing with red pens rather than black because they tend to add some artifacts in the darkest areas you just loose with solid black. It also allows me to blow out some things when I scan the drawing in as well if needed.

"Crusty Dude final artwork.

I felt my crusty dude needed an environment to live in. So I pulled a photo of a back alley I took in Savannah Georgia a few years back and composited it with my doodle art.

Download Crusty Dude PDF
"Crusty Dude" PDF Print

Dark Morsels

2009-10-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

"Fog of Complacency" red pen doodle.

Another red pen doodle. This one however wasn't something I started last night. I found it cleaning my office and it was only half drawn.

Apparently months ago I had started it and never finished. So I grabbed my red pen and gave it a proper creative polish.

Dark morsel artwork. (Click Image to View Larger)

I've always referred to my doodles as "Dark Morsels." Mainly because they tend to be strange and I just figure they emerge from the dark recesses of my mind. Be that as it may, they are fun to visually consume regardless what psychology you want to view them through.

"Fog of Complacency" t-shirt design.

I do think it would be interesting to see what a psycho-babble shrink would say about this art though. I just may try to email one and see if they'd be willing to give their opinion? That would make for a cool future post. Hmmmm.

But for now I'll let the readers of my blog suggest possible interpretations of this art in the comments. So feel free to share what you think it means. I'm curious to see what diagnoses you all come up with.

You can view and order this shirt from my Zazzle store.

(If you want to know more about the halftone effect just go here.)

Watchers

2009-10-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

"Watcher" doodle via Paper Mate® Flair Pen.

I think Paper Mate® Flair Pens Rule! And, just in case the FTC (Nanny State) is reading this blog post and wants to say my endorsement breaches my right to freedom of speech they should know I wasn't given any FREE pens to say that.

I'd like to say I doodle every day religiously. Well, I'd like too but I have to be in the mood and last night I was. I didn't have any idea where it would lead I just started drawing an eyeball and the rest just kind of spawned itself over the next five minutes or so.

"Watcher" design. (Click Image to View Larger)

Like I've said before, I prefer doodling and drawing on note pads rather than a sketch book. But that said I do have a mole skin.

My doodles tend to contain all matter of nonsensical strangeness. I don't really think when I doodle I just open the flood gates and just see what spills out. I think it's more fun that way.

"Watcher" t-shirt design.

When ever I do doodles I always try to use them in some way. Many times I animate them, but being a fan of apparel graphics I enjoy offering them up as t-shirts.

I think this art makes for a cool t-shirt so I put a design together utilizing a halftone effect.

You can view and order this shirt from my Zazzle store.

Design Time

2009-10-04T00:37:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was a little kid and would think about the topic of time, I would make a visual connection between it and the days of the week in my mind.

I've always been a visual thinker and no one told me not to do this, it was just how my imagination made sense of the topic that far greater minds have wrestled with through out history.

When most people think of a timeline be it historical or otherwise it tends to be a horizontal linear line moving from left to right. They view if almost from a third person perspective, an observer if you will.

When I view the subject of time in my mind I see it more from a first person perspective with me in the current/now looking ahead to the next minute, hour, day, month, year etc.

How I see a week in my mind.

Even though I've pictured this concept in my head my whole life I've never bothered to share it with anyone, it just never came up and when I have thought about it I've never spent more then a few seconds analyzing it.

One day about five years ago while driving with my wife I was telling her about a cool program I watched on the string theory. During that conversation I thought about my view of time and shared it the best I could.

My wife furrowed her brow and said "Your mind is weird."

I tried doodling out what I meant but it didn't help and we started talking about something else and I once again let the topic slip back into the recesses of my subconscious.

A week in my mind starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. I think that is pretty normal. But for some reason I've always pictured Sunday being off to the left of Saturday. In other words you take a left at Saturday and arrive at Sunday. Why you ask? I have no idea. It just feels that way to me.

So in my head time marches onward forever stair stepping to the left.

( I tried to show my diagram in more of a perspective but I kept having errors with Illustrator.)

This same stair stepping format applies not just to the days in a week but also to the hours in a given day. Instead of a circular aspect for time I've always thought of it within the same visual framework as I do days in a week.

Midnight is like Saturday and so on. At this point in my post you're probably saying the same thing my wife said to me? You have to admit it's at least interesting even if you think it's a bit psycho. But if you think this is weird you should read up on the latest in Quantum Mechanics.

How I see a year in my mind.

This same structure of thinking also shapes my view of an entire year. But I'll admit this has more to do with a feeling then anything else. July and August feel like a Saturday, September feels like a Sunday and so on. And once everything is moving to the left.

The Stair Stepping of Time.

So why would I devote a blog post to this? Well, because it came up again today. I was driving somewhere with my daughter and she asked "Where are we going?" to which I replied "We'll take a left at Saturday."

When I got home today I decided to document what has been floating around in my head since childhood. The diagrams in this post represent how I see time in my own minds eye.

A new day: Someday

Have you ever wondered where the days of the week got their name? It's an interesting bit of history. I've often fantasized about creating a new day to add to the calendar.

It would fit in between Sunday and Monday and I'd call it Someday. Basically forever creating a three day weekend and serving the purpose of playing catch up on all those things you never have time to do or finish. You know what I mean. How many times have you heard someone say:

"I'll get to that someday."

Well now they could, literally.

Creating a bigger step.

I know someone will read this post, neglect to discern the sarcasm and humor and feel obligated to post a comment that this idea wouldn't work because of the lunar calendar or it would conflict with the time continuum. Regardless I welcome your feedback.

There are other aspects to this that I could expand upon and perhaps I'll get to that Someday? We'll see. ;-P

Refried Artwork

2009-09-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

"Bandito" illustration. (Click Image to View Larger)

This artwork was originally created for a sticker set I designed for a power tool manufacturer. And you can read about that creative process here. But like a good digital artist with an entrepreneurial spirit I'm re-purposing my creativity.

"Bandito" t-shirt design.

Let the fabled south of the border Bandito inspire your wardrobe with his hot pepper personality. View and or order a shirt here.

"Bandito" sticker design.

Badges? You don't need no stinking badges! You need this stinking sticker!

Artito Bandito

2009-09-24T00:51:00.000-07:00

Thumbnail sketch.

My client requested an illustration of a Mexican Bandito. Of course the first thing to pop into my mind was a favorite childhood cartoon mascot called Frito Bandito.

And as the rabbit trails of my mind work I had that theme song stuck in my head the whole week, humming it as I drew my art. But I digress.

Rough Sketch.

The client actually sent me one of the tools and like they do on American Chopper I had to create a custom die for the sticker based on the tools casing. My creative challenge was to provide the requested theme in a very restrictive format, so I drew out my art with the final shape of the sticker as my guide.

Refined Sketch.

Usually I draw and redraw until I get exactly what I want to build. I don't like leaving a lot of guess work in the build stage of my creative process. It just wastes time. Since this art is symmetrical I only have to draw half of it. Digital FTW.

Building Vectors.

Once I scan in my refined sketch I simply start building my vector shapes. For more about vector build methods and plugins that make it easier just visit my tutorial web site and you'll find all kinds of information on how to control your bezier curves like a pro.

I draw all my art out before I hit the computer. If you can get into a good creative habit of working this way you'll see a huge improvement in your work and it'll prevent you from becoming a Tooler.

Base Art.

With all my shapes built and fused together via the Pathfinder Palette I'm ready to work out how I'll model my art with more details.

Shading.

I'm a digital artist but my creative process goes back and forth between digital and analog. So when it comes to shading I print out my base art and grab a pencil. 2B or not 2B, that is the pencil!

Building the Shading.

Once I've drawn out how I want the shading and highlights to be handled. I scan it back in and use it as my guide to build the vector shapes.

Details of Illustration.

Once I have the shading resolved I visually study the art and determine other areas to drop in darker shades and highlights to create depth and focus attention within my design. I also start to balance my color palette and experiment with tonal values until it feels right.

It's not always a visual thing, sometimes it just has to feel right. Call it a creative intuition but I depend on it a lot. It's the one intangible aspect of my creative process that is hard to define.

Art in Context.

This is the actual tool the sticker will be applied too. It'll wrap the front of the casing. During the process I'm printing the art out and if time permits putting it aside and looking at it with fresh eyes later and making any necessary changes that improve the art.

Final Artwork.

This shows the final art for the Tool a little larger. You can see this art re-purposed for other usages here.

Side Order of Life

2009-09-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Photo from Tillamook Air Museum.

After posting about the Graphic Eye BookI started looking through some of my other photos from the past few months and pulled a handful to share on my blog. Some are creative, some are pedestrian, but they all combine to form a side order of my life.

Tropical plant detail.

Even though I live in the Pacific Northwest, land of Bigfoot, UFO's, and the Green Mermaid, our specific zone allows us to have lush tropical plants as well so my backyard is turning into a tropical eco-system with a pond, koi fish, frogs, dragon flies and an assortment of tropical flora.

Altered states of Bean.

World class illustrator Michael Bast and myself admiring "The Chicago Bean" at the wonderful Millennium Park in downtown Chicago.

Nikon CoolPix P5100

As you can see I shot all these pictures with my Nikon CoolPix P5100. It's easy to use and gives me a whopping 12.1 mega pixels to work with

Vanilla cappuccino artwork.

I love it when baristas get artsy with their coffee.

Ornamental Grass.

I love cool organic shots like this. I'm now using this image in my desktop organizer.

Reflecting on Impressionism.

I took my daughters to a feed some ducks one night and thought the reflections on the pond looked very Claude Monet in appearance.

Ornate gate.

The one thing I admire the most about old school architecture is the attention to artistic detail they put into seemingly mundane things like an elevator gate. You just don't see this type of craftsmanship or art in new buildings being constructed now.

The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art has a whole exhibit of rescued pieces like this from building that were demolished in order to construct new ones.

American Gothic.

To stand mere inches away from an American classic like this is a bit surreal. I had no idea it was in the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art until I walked around the corner and there it was. I was a little surprised by the condition of the frame, it looks like old barn wood.

I Draw So You Don't Have To

2009-09-23T00:58:00.000-07:00

Friends original art.

Sometimes I help friends out who can't really draw. Such was the case here. He had put together the image above which captured the emotion he desired but it lacked that professional quality.

Artwork make-over.

I used his art as the foundational framework for my artistic make-over.

Final usage.

This is the final context of the artwork.

The Graphic Eye

2009-09-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

"The Graphic Eye" by Stefan G. Bucher

Stefan G. Bucher is one of those unique creative types that's always thinking, always creating, and that type of mojo produces inspiring work like his latest book "The Graphic Eye: Photographs by Graphic Designers from around the Globe"

This book isn't your everyday coffee table photo gallery of landscapes or boudoir photography, it's uniquely creative images captured by graphic designers and they are anything but mainstream.

I was honored to be asked to participate in this new book and each designer was asked to submit "10" images and Stefan picked which one would appear in the book.

The below photo was the image of mine he chose to appear in the book. And this post contains all "10" I had submitted and the story behind each. I've always enjoyed photography, so I hope you enjoy the read.

"Zimbabwe Elder" photograph

I captured the above image when I traveled to Israel. I met this guy one afternoon in Nazereth. He was from Zimbabwe Africa and was a really nice man. I thought he would make for a good picture too!

"Bug Out" photograph

I caught this caterpillar doing chin-ups near a water fall in the Oregon woods.

"Flammable" photograph

While exploring a local junk yard I discovered this distressed chemical barrel.

"Kaibeto Canyon" photograph

A couple years ago I spent two weeks on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona helping with a children's ministry and this image was from a local canyon we hiked into.

"Knock Knock" photograph

Curb appeal is strictly an American fascination. This ancient door located in Old Jerusalem has wonderfully decrepit character.

"Mr. Pinchy" photograph

This Oregon local hangs out at the local tide pool. If you blow in his face he'll get really mad and start foaming at the mouth.

"Narrow Road" photograph

This first century walk way in Old Jerusalem might have been walked on by Jesus? The second law of thermal dynamics really creates some heavenly textures!

"Temple Mount" photograph

An Arab man reads early in the morning. You don't need Starbucks to hang out and read a good book.

"Xerox Poop" photograph

My printer eats glorified crayons. Expensive crayons. So when my printer goes to the bathroom this is what it looks like. It's good to be creatively curious, that's why I still have this wax toner on my desk, it's too cool looking to throw away.

"Box Car Neuvo" photograph

Colorful and abandoned. Mundane and beautiful. Only a color blind hobo would not appreciate this box car.

Be sure to check out Stefans new book here.

Is This Your Art?

2009-09-04T02:27:00.000-07:00

My fish art stolen and sold on VectorStock.com

Like millions of other people the first thing I do most days is check my email. I sit down with a cup of coffee and read through my inbox early in the morning, respond to anything waiting my attention and put out any necessary fires.

My least favorite email subjects to read in the morning are ones that say:

"Is this your artwork?"

I dread opening them (But I do appreciate people point them out too), because I often find an attachment showcasing another infringement or a link to a web page that has my art displayed on it, or worse selling it.

These emails are always a double-edged sword for me. One one hand I appreciate people watching out for me, but each time always ends up taking at least an hour of my time to respond and there is no way to recoup that loss. On the other hand I've spent about a hundred hours this year alone getting to know the copyright laws in and out.

Well I got one of these emails today and it informed me that a nebulous user going by the screen name of "TuNiSaNo003" had posted my art as his own on VectorStock.com (It's now been removed)

A Growing Problem
As I write this post I have had over "50" separate cases of copyright infringement so far in 2009. I just settled a matter that happened four months ago which I had to get my copyright lawyer involved in, but thankfully most I can handle using my DMCA formatted infringement letter.

Such was the case with this most recent example of stolen art.

I really wish Google would buyout a company like Tineye.com and make it really useful with their infinite database. They could offer it much like Google Analytics and I'd even be willing to pay an annual fee to track my art.

Come on Google Spiders sniff out this post and put it in front of you acquisition board.

My original doodle wall art.

I created this art as part of a creative experiment I did a few years ago. I'm not sure if the weasel pulled the image from this post or if he got it from my corresponding tutorial?

IllustrationClass.com tutorial "Doodle Book Worm."

I'm guessing the culprit pulled this image from my tutorial on IllustrationClass.com since it has a larger jpeg in it of the same artwork?.

Either way VectorStock.com responded to my infringement letter and removed my artwork and shut down the users account in a very reasonable time I may add.

Copyright Infringement Letter
As a creative our work will exist online for the duration of our career in one way or another. So at some point you'll have to deal with those who have no scruples taking your work without permission and using it. I hope this pre-formatted letter will help you deal with the situation a lot easier.

View/Download Copyright Infringement Letter.

Power to the People

2009-08-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

"Power to the People" graphic.

Our national leadership on all levels needs a re-boot. Regardless of what political OS you operate under it's pretty clear that our national leadership on all platforms needs to be defragmented. They all seem to suffer from a lack of mental RAM?

A national system isn't re-installed from the top down it's facilitated by the users. So when I thought of the saying "Power to the People" it cached this graphic idea.

"Power to the People" t-shirts.

So think different and restart your own convictions in a day and age of Compromise.

- View / Order Black Shirt Here
- View / Order White Shirt Here

Seek and You Will Find

2009-08-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

Street Level Logo Design.

How do you motivate a group of stiff necked suits, or a room full of cubicle zombies, or any other garden variety form of corporate drone? Well, if you're "Street Level Adventures" you design custom treasure hunts to facilitate corporate team building for some of the nations largest companies.

Cycloptic Man.

The purpose behind the adventures is to help a team focus and operate in a unified manner. Because of that I decided to create a humanoid character with an all-seeing eye. A graphic nod to "E Pluribus Unum" if you will.

The adventures are fun and creative so I wanted the mark to be playful as well. The typography is all hand lettered too to go with the style of the artwork.

Unused Logo Concept.

This design approach played off of a man hole cover concept. Once again I kept the aesthetic playful and hand lettered the design.

Unused Logo Concept.

This business designs all types of adventures in various genres so I decided to play off a cloak and dagger theme motif. I liked it but felt it pigeon holed the perception of what type of genre adventures they offered, so it wasn't used.

Graphic Homicide

2009-08-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

Another victim of bad design.

Rarely do I talk about local design issues. But recently an article in a local news paper about a logo design demonstrated a text book case of how design can go so very wrong.

In order for you the blog reader to fully understand the context in which I'll be critiquing this design, I encourage you to go read the short article here. Or if the news paper decides to remove it you can download a PDF of the article here.

Diagraming a graphic homicide.

Design Crime Notes

Overall: This is a bad design period the end. It's not "Kinda OK" or "Not that bad" it's a victim of bad design, a graphic homicide if you will.

There isn't a distinct graphic tone for this design. It's all over the stylistic map in such an incoherent manner that it's no surprise that a board DID facilitate it.

The lack of a distinct hierarchy in the design makes for a very schizophrenic end result as well. Everything is competing for attention, which kind of reflects the board approval process it's gone through as well I suppose. Various factions all playing art director trying to get their element integrated.

I think there is too many visual compenents to begin with, but if it's mandatory to include a mountain, fish, and flowers than spend the time to weave them together in a compelling well crafted manner. What you have here is at best a mishmash design, which again may just be a reflection of the board mentality?

But the blame cannot rest on the board alone. A designer has to play a proactive roll in any creative process, not be intimidated by a client and help steer a board in the right direction. So the problem is two fold IMO. No agency, just in house designers with very little leverage and a swarm of board members who fancy themselves as art directors.

A. Photographic Elements: These glorified web graphics are unnecessary saddle bags full of bad design chops. They've been fused onto an already poorly crafted motif like love handles on a middle aged balding board member. Sure, some might find them cute, but realistically they are just visual fat that impedes the design health.

B. Typography Choice: The choice of the Optima typeface adds to the visual tension since the font itself has been referred to as a centrist font trying to merge characteristics of serif and sans serif typefaces. The fact it's hay day was in the mid 1970's makes the mark look dated from the get go.

C. Clip-Art: Like water and oil this art doesn't swim with the rest of the graphics stylistically, thus repelling each other. The so-called native american inspired graphic looks like something a hack designer would pull from an Art Explosion CD. It feels like clip-art because it's poorly illustrated and executed.

D. Mountain: At first I didn't see a mountain. I saw a green shark getting ready to eat a black fish. The saw tooth graphic is another weak attempt at native american style, and instead it adds unnecessary complexity. The rendering of the mountain is lame as well and the graphic birth mark they inserted on it's interior will just look like a hickey at smaller sizes. Brilliant!

In Closing: It's only taken this board two years to get this design result. If government can't initiate a logo design, why do we think it can run health care? (I digress.) The board needs to stop playing art director, stop using hack designers, and hire a legit agency to produce a professional solution.

The eventual eye sore.

If any board member or local citizen reads this post I challenge you to encourage our local leadership to put out an RFP to local design firms and let us show you how the creative process can produce a well crafted and creative design solution for the water tower. It won't take two years and it'll look professional.

The following is an opinion piece I wrote and submitted to the local paper in response to the water tower logo story. I hope they run it, but I won't hold my breath.

50 Miles From Good Design

What separates good design from bad design? Apparently 50 miles.

One could argue that the Pacific Northwest is a design mecca when it comes to communication arts. Portland of all cities in Oregon understands and values good design. Just drive around the city and it's hard not to see examples of it everywhere you go. Because of this attention to design Portland is globally-renowned for it's design community.

When a graphic logo is needed local Portland leaders and businesses appropriately turn to the local design community and lean on professional agencies to create what they need and the end result is creative, well crafted, and this reflects positively on Portland as a whole.

Public transportation has a nice "TriMet" logo and when Portland developed a new premiere shopping center they turned to a local design firm and produced the "Bridgeport Village" logo.

But for some reason if you travel a mere 50 miles south the attitude towards design changes and you have a city like Keizer producing the antithesis in "Keizer Station." Don't get me wrong the shopping experience is fine, I'm speaking in regard to the aesthetic of their logo, the design is bad and doesn't reflect the quality of the shopping experience.

Like Portland, the Keizer and Salem community have many talented design agencies they could be calling upon to produce well crafted and creative professional solutions for their graphic needs. Instead however Keizer chooses to create a logo design for their latest water tower graphic without tapping any local agency. You can view it here.

If you compare the quality of this water tower logo with that of Portland's "Park Smart" logo, you'll see the difference between good and bad design produced on behalf of an Oregon city. Portland values it and Keizer leadership has no clue.

Why is it that Portland design trumps Keizer design?

Portland values design, there fore they value the designers producing it and depend upon them and their agencies to guide and facilitate the creative process.

Keizer on the other hand, didn't hire any agency and instead has taken two years of board meetings and a fragmented design process to create what they now have which is at best unprofessional and at worse will reflect poorly upon the city when it's plastered on a 200 ft. water tower.

The good news is this can all be easily corrected. Keizer and Salem like Portland can have the same high standards of design appreciation and benefit from it too. It just takes leadership who'll acknowledge their own lack of understanding when it comes to the design process and realize they need to stop playing art director and be wise leaders by hiring a local design agency to give Keizer and it's community what they deserve, good design.

Another Walking Portfolio

2009-08-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

"Phoenix" custom tattoo design.

Bret St. Amour a fellow art school graduate and friend hired me to design this custom tattoo design for him. He'll be doing a road trip to Miami Ink to have the design applied.

"Phoenix" back tattoo.

Bret has fought and defeated cancer three times so he wanted something that represented freedom and had wings and I suggested a Phoenix. He loved the idea and loves his new design.

When I create custom tattoo designs I provide PDF Flash Sheets to my client that includes a thermograph ready version of the artwork to make transferring the design easier at the tattoo shop and thus ensuring a more precise replication of my art.

To see other custom designs I've created read my post "Walking Portfolios."

Molar Madness

2009-08-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

Game graphics for "Ramp Champ."

My good buddies over at the The IconFactory have released another great app for iPhone and iPod Touch users called "Ramp Champ."

They hired me to create an add-on level which I named "Molar Madness."

You can check out more about this project on my primary design site here. Or head on over to the iTunes App Store and get more information.

I've had fun playing with it for a while now in beta and the final is even better, it's a blast!

The Saramond Quests

2009-08-21T02:20:00.000-07:00

"Iron Dragons" book cover design.

A friend of mine by the name of Derek P. Gilbert is a multi-talented guy. He has done podcasting, worked as a rock music DJ on radio, hosting a FM talk radio show, a barber shop quartet member, seller of steel, and an author. He's like a utility player in baseball who can play any position he needs, to get the job done. And if that wasn't enough, he's also a really nice guy as well.

I finally got around to listening to his first audio book "Iron Dragons" about five months ago. I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of fantasy so that is why I put off getting into it for about a year. Well needless to say once I started listening to his book I was hooked, it's a compelling story with a nice twist and rich character development.

Since Derek has a voice for radio he also reads the book too, the fact it's FREE to anyone who wants to listen via Podiobooks.com is a no-brainer.

I was less impressed with the books cover however. I didn't think it did the story justice and felt the series needed to have a branded look established since this is "Book One of The Saramond Quests."

I had to tread lightly though, you see his wife Sharon designed the book cover and I didn't want to offend anyone, especially a friends better half.

Well, I never had to approach Derek because he beat me to it, and asked me to design a consistent brand for him. He's donated a lot of time sharing his work with everyone so I didn't mind sharing some of mine as well. If in the process I can help a friends work get the attention it deserves that is reward enough IMO.

"The Saramond Quests" brand logo.

Since these books will live online I kept the design streamlined. Each book will be branded with a new color but keep the same general format to create a branded coherent series. The first book is the crown jewel in the story arch so we settled on purple, this also had a lot to do with the fact that I negotiated a deal with one of the top fantasy artists in this genre Ciruelo Cabral. He gave us permission to use his dragon illustration on the cover. I was thrilled that he allowed us the privilege to use his art for this project, thank you Ciruelo!

Combine the incredible dragon art with a new branding for "The Saramond Quests" and we now have a firm visual foundation for future covers. Derek of course loves the new cover and I'll be helping him with his future covers as well.

"The Saramond Quests" brand logo.

I thought the iconic dragon looked pretty cool so I created a t-shirt design with it.

Derek has also just released another FREE audio book called "The God Conspiracy" which is in a totally different genre but once again another fun listen.

I didn't however design this latest cover, his wife did. Like Schultz on Hogan's Heros "I see nothing!"