Konite Art Blog

St. Patty's Day is coming

2011-02-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here are some old linocut prints I did last year. Want to see them on a shirt? Check out my shop.

Sketchbook Pro 1st sketch

2011-02-18T22:36:00.001-05:00

After reading a few blog posts here about Sketchbook Pro, I decided to download it and try it out for the 15 day trial period. In honor of my 5 1/2 month old's dinner tonight, here is my first sketch. I went a little overboard with the blur tool, but it looks better than it did before the blur.

Logo Design

2011-01-23T21:37:00.000-05:00

So my new years program totally went into the crapper like a week into it. I blame a very sick infant who had to go to the doctor 4 nights in a row, including a trip to the ER, who then passed her illness onto the rest of the house. Oh well. While I haven't been working on all of the things I had outlined, I have been working on some art. Here is a logo I designed for a start-up law firm:

Hurry! Ends soon!

2011-01-12T13:54:00.000-05:00

I really wish I had posted about this earlier, but there is a great sale going on at http://zero2illo.com/store/community-super-sale/. Tons of great resources for illustrators for a low price! It ends in like 6 minutes, so hurry!!!!

New Year, New Blog, New Art

2011-01-03T13:34:00.002-05:00

I don't really like to make New Years resolutions because, well...I pretty much suck at keeping them. Doesn't everyone? I guess that's why we just keep making the same ones year after year. Don't get me wrong, I know I need to change. A LOT. Instead of trying to lose 20 lbs, eat healthier, exercise more, and solve all of the world's problems by the end of the week, I have one goal: be a better artist. Wow, couldn't get more specific could I? Nope. Because I can't be more specific. I don't know what it means to be better or what it will take to be better, but I plan to try lots of different things and just see what happens.

I am instituting the Couch to Illustrator (C2I) program starting today. Instead of sitting on my butt thinking about what I could be doing to be a better artist, I'm going to actually do something. And maybe...just maybe, I will see a change. Hopefully this time next year I will be able to say that my little plan was a success.

The C2I program includes the following (I am open to more suggestions by the way):

1. DRAW EVERY DAY! I think this is pretty important because like most skills, if you don't use it, you lose it. Practice makes perfect. Insert any other corny saying that applies. I will draw something every single day. I'm not saying I will create a masterpiece everyday, but I will put pen to paper, brush to canvas, or stylus to tablet for at least 30 minutes each day. Perhaps it will be doodling, or maybe it will be a photoshop painting that takes me weeks to finally finish, but rest assured, something will be happening. Every. Day. (This is probably my most lofty goal, but I think it is also the most important)
2. Blog once a week. If I'm drawing everyday, I shouldn't have a problem scraping together a blog once a week.
3. Figure out my own style. There are so many illustrators whose work I love. They all have such completely different styles. I am a master at copying anything, but I haven't quite figured out my own personal style yet. By drawing everyday, I'm hoping something starts to emerge.
4. Spend each month working on a different technique for creating art. This is all part of figuring out my style. I have the most experience with pencil drawing, so in order to diversify, I will spend a whole month learning and practicing different mediums. I know a month isn't much time to master anything, but I think it is good enough to see where my strengths and weaknesses lie. This list may change, but right now it looks like this:

pen/ink
gauche/gauche resist
watercolor
colored pencils
oil pastels
linocut
illustrator
photoshop
painter
scratchboard
charcoal
carbon dust

I think this month I will get back to basics and do some charcoal drawings. The monthly mediums as I am calling them, may or may not be a part of my everyday drawing. But I will make sure I devote plenty of time to each medium.

In addition to helping me improve as an artist, these things will help me build my portfolio. My ultimate goal is that by the end of one year, I will good enough and diverse enough to start some freelance work on the side. During the year I will also work on research, marketing ideas, and create a website.

So what was I saying about making impossible goals??? Wish me luck interwebs peeps.

I totally won an art contest!

2010-03-04T13:26:00.003-05:00

Ok, I didn't win in the sense that my art was judged to be the best. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Sparky Firepants posted a contest to draw Sparky based on a picture he provided. The only rules were it had to be digital, had to use the picture provided, and had to be submitted by Friday. The 1st 10 entries won. Well I managed to whip something up and get it in quick enough to win!

Here is the original picture and my (very quickly done) drawing. I inked in Illustrator and did a quick paint job in Photoshop.

It's been too long :(

2009-07-30T14:07:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates....I haven't had much time to draw, paint, or even doodle. However, I took the day off work on Monday and spent the whole day working on designs for my CafePress store. Please check it out to see some of the new designs.

Shoot the animal

2009-04-16T21:43:00.002-04:00

painting on old books

2009-04-14T10:11:00.004-04:00

I've seen this a lot lately, and think it is really cool. So here is my 1st attempt. The drawing was just a quick doodle I did that was very similar to another drawing I saw. But this was more for trying to figure out how watery to make the paint, and things like that.

tattoo design

2009-04-07T20:59:00.003-04:00

My friend Kim asked me to design a tattoo for her. She really wanted her kids initials (J & A) using an elvish font. She was hoping to incorporate their birth dates as well (10/2 & 10/7). She wasn't sure how to bring all of this together, so that's when she called me in. Since she is a big Lord of the Rings fan I decided to incorporate a design from the movie. When I saw the White Tree of Gondor, I thought that would work well with the initials:

This is my initial marker sketch.

This is the cleaned up vector image.

Lino-cut prints

2009-03-02T10:55:00.004-05:00

It's been a while.....

I started playing with linoleum blocks over the summer. Here is a series of 3 prints I did:

Days 7-10

2008-07-31T22:23:00.003-04:00

Not very good, but I guess that's the point of this exercise.

I only spent about 15 minutes on this, but I think it is cute.

Again, not much time on this, but it is a quick sketch of an idea I have for a character.

I spent way more than 30 minutes on this, but I love it!

100 Themes

2008-07-30T12:53:00.005-04:00

Many of you have probably seen this before, but just in case I am posting it here also. As soon as I finish my 21 day creative exercise, I will be doing this 100 themes challenge. The goal will be to create an illustration for each item on the list. If anyone else is taking part in this, please comment with a link to your blog/portfolio.

1. Introduction
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity
13. Misfortune
14. Smile - Doodled
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Mother Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules

51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can't
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation

Days 5 and 6

2008-07-26T14:14:00.003-04:00

My 80's robot, complete with wrist bands, leg warmers, and scrunchie. He's dancing...doing "the robot" of course.

I don't know what this crazy old guy is pointing that gun at....maybe a dancing 80's robot.

Doodle on Crack

2008-07-24T20:50:00.003-04:00

I doodle a lot....I couldn't stop adding to my doodle from a few days ago and it got a bit out of hand.

Day Four

2008-07-24T20:43:00.003-04:00

Day four of the 21 day creative exercise. A little back story on this one....my dog is a little too friendly at the dog park. So we started calling her our little pug slut :-)

Day 3 and Illustration Friday

2008-07-23T10:17:00.002-04:00

Day 3 of the 21 day creative exercise. Also my submission for this week's Illustration Friday topic "enough."

Sadly, this little guy would never be tall enough.

Day 2

2008-07-22T14:34:00.002-04:00

I haven't been able to get into any books lately....maybe this is why.

Doodle

2008-07-22T14:15:00.000-04:00

21 Day Creative Exercise

2008-07-21T19:52:00.005-04:00

I've decided to start a 21 day creative exercise. It is best explained here. The rules I have set for myself are to spend between 15-30 minutes each day drawing anything I can think of, as long as I don't use any photo references. The reason for this is that sometimes I spend more time looking for the perfect picture of what I want to draw instead of actually drawing.

This is what I came up with for Day 1. I can't tell you what it is, but I think it is something I will revisit later. I think it could be really cool in color.

Linocut

2008-07-20T14:50:00.004-04:00

1st attempt at linocut printmaking. The only paper I had was watercolor paper, so the print is too textured. Once I get all of the proper supplies I will try it again.

a few character sketches

2008-07-20T09:59:00.004-04:00

Just a couple of quick sketches since it's been a while. I drew them after reading "How to draw comics the Marvel way."

The Marvel Way

2008-07-06T16:57:00.001-04:00

Just picked up a copy of "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way." Here is a quick sketch of The Kingpin.

Dubya in Photoshop

2008-06-24T22:19:00.002-04:00

More fun painting in Photoshop......

Painting in Photoshop

2008-06-24T12:45:00.002-04:00

This is my first attempt at painting an image in Photoshop. I inked the lines with the brush tool in Illustrator, then imported it into Photoshop. I also got a little texture happy, but I still think it looks cool.

It's been a while

2008-06-23T11:20:00.003-04:00

I haven't had much time to draw or paint, but here are a few random sketches I did over the Memorial Day weekend.

This is another ink drawing I did....I'm still not happy with it, but there are some things I like. I was trying a different technique that I read about, but I don't really think it worked well so I probably won't be doing it that way again.

This is just a quick sketch of an old SUV that I did with markers.

Another marker sketch. I think I went overboard with the circles at the top, but this has the potential to be something really cool one day.

Elephants on parade

2008-05-26T09:11:00.003-04:00

This is definitely the best piece so far! I had some small pieces of clayboard lying around, so I decided to use that. I also used more layers of thicker paint, and I let the ink dry overnight, which was probably the most important improvement.

Gouache Fun

2008-05-26T09:03:00.003-04:00

I had high hopes for this piece....the colors were great, and the ink was very black when I applied it. And then came the rinsing.....You never know what's going to happen when you rinse off the water, and I guess that is part of why people love gouache. What I did not expect was for all of my vibrant colors to completely wash off and for half of it to still be covered in ink. Hmmmm....why did this happen? Right now I think I just didn't wait long enough for the ink to dry. I figured 45 minutes or so was plenty of time, but it may not have been. Also, I think my layers of paint were too thin. I also had the same problem as the first piece with the paper ripping. I'm using professional grade 140lb cold press paper, so I wasn't sure what could be causing this. After it was semi-dry, I went back and added some color to the frog, but I don't like the way the ink spots now look washed out.

I have another idea to improve my technique, so we'll see what happens.

I'd like to add that this was not enhanced in Photoshop like the previous painting.

Don't resist

2008-05-25T13:14:00.003-04:00

I just discovered the gouache resist technique and I fell in love with it! This is my first attempt. The only gouache I had was an old tube of white, so I decided to draw a polar bear. When rinsing off the ink, I rubbed too hard and ended up tearing the paper. The ink I used was also a little too watered down (I don't think I'll add any water to the next one). I adjusted the levels in Photoshop to make the black darker (it was more gray in the original). After the entire piece dried, I went back with some watercolors to add color to the sky and some shadows. I think I'm going to love this technique! I just bought a cheap gouache set, so stay tuned for more!

Karate Stags

2008-05-22T19:48:00.002-04:00

Cartoon Doodles

2008-05-21T19:40:00.004-04:00

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Kira: ink & colored pencil in my moleskine

2008-05-18T19:48:00.003-04:00

My second attempt at ink drawings....better than the first, but I still have some issues with shading.

Art DNA logo: Part 3

2008-05-17T13:05:00.005-04:00

I wasn't completely happy with the way the logo turned out, so I decided to play with it some more. The biggest problem I had was that the pencil and brush were not intertwined, and therefore did not really resemble a DNA double helix. So I went back to my original Illustrator file, selected the brush & pencil, then used the pathfinder to divide the paths. Once that was done, I selected the paths I wanted to move and colored them accordingly. It's still not perfect, but it's getting better.

Art in my DNA: The Sequel

2008-05-11T00:47:00.004-04:00

I finished the logo that I started yesterday using Illustrator. The text was done using the scribble effect, and everything else was drawn with the pen tool.

Art is in my DNA

2008-05-09T13:58:00.002-04:00

This is a preliminary sketch for my logo. Being the science dork that I am, I thought incorporating the DNA double helix into the logo would be cool. So I had the idea of using a pencil and paintbrush.

A Scanner Darkly

2008-05-01T22:07:00.003-04:00

This image was created using the tutorial here. It was painstaking work, and took the good part of a day, but I think it is worth it in the end.

Team Qualidation

2008-05-01T14:28:00.004-04:00

Another logo idea...this is for my co-workers. I've recently learned a lot about making custom art brushes and transforming shapes. I like the retro look of it all.

more fun with the letter e

2008-05-01T14:24:00.001-04:00

Ugly Fish Part Deux

2008-04-29T16:21:00.008-04:00

Created in Illustrator CS2....I outlined the basic shape with the pen tool, colored it using gradients, then added the background.

Pattern

2008-04-25T17:28:00.002-04:00

Pattern drawn in Illustrator.

I can use the pen tool!

2008-04-24T17:49:00.003-04:00

I know it's nothing fancy, but I drew this in Illustrator completely with the pen tool! I was inspired by watching a tutorial on You Tube. The pen tool tutorial and many more are available at www.tutvid.com. Seeing it done makes much more sense than reading about it. I'm going to practice a lot, because if this is what I can accomplish after a 20 minute video, I may be well on my way to a thriving career quicker than I imagined.

In Memoriam

2008-04-22T20:22:00.003-04:00

Lindsay Marie Harvey
July 19, 1982 - April 13, 2008

Check my poopdeck!

2008-04-11T16:38:00.003-04:00

Another baby design (available here). This one was my little sister's idea. I hope I did it justice. I'm really becoming addicted to using textures and adusting the transparency to give a different feel to the image.

Ugly Fish

2008-04-04T17:33:00.003-04:00

Random sketch using Pigma Micron in my moleskine.

Learning to Sew

2008-03-21T15:32:00.003-04:00

I periodically read this blog, which features some incredible sewing projects. My favorites are her custom totes and clutches. As I've always been a pretty crafty person, and was also in need of a new purse, I thought I would try to make my own tote. The 1st problem is that I don't really know how to sew. I do have a cheap sewing machine, and have even used it once or twice....but for the most part, I can't sew. Problem 2 is that I have no idea how to make a tote bag. No big deal, I can just buy a pattern, right? Hmmmm....how exactly does one read/use a pattern? I was extra ambitious and decided I wanted a quilted purse. Have I mentioned I can't sew? The only thing I've ever sewn was an apron in 7th grade home economics.

Well, I finished. It took me a week to complete, and I definitely made tons of mistakes along the way. But overall, I think it looks pretty good!

Science in action

2008-03-12T19:24:00.002-04:00

A lot of my job is sitting around and waiting for results. Today I had 15 minutes in the lab with nothing to do except wait. So I decided to covertly sketch a new employee who was busy doing her training. I managed to get the basic shapes down, but didn't have time to do much shading before I had to get back to work.

Will Cry for Food

2008-03-10T20:16:00.004-04:00

Available here!!!

Fridays off!

2008-03-09T10:51:00.003-04:00

I've started a new schedule where I work four 10-hour days with Fridays off every week. This means I don't have time to work on anything new during the week, but also that I will have an entire day to myself that I can spend drawing & painting. With nice weather fast approaching, I really want to spend those days off going out to different places around the city and just sketching for a few hours. Of course it rained all day on my first Friday off, so instead I spent the day finally putting pics from several trips into photo albums. I decided to sketch a few of the photos, so here is the first one. It is the California Lighthouse in Aruba. I went there several years ago....long before I ever thought of a travel sketchbook. The sketch is done using a Micron pen and my travel watercolor set in a moleskine watercolor book.

latest t-shirt designs

2008-02-28T19:31:00.003-05:00

Here are just a few of the latest designs I've added to my cafepress shop (www.cafepress.com/konite).

Hillary in pencil

2008-02-21T18:20:00.004-05:00

I was working on this sketch for a couple of days, mostly trying to practice shading. I'm so used to drawing everything with outlines, that I really need to work on shading. There are some things I like about it (the earring, nose, hair, and mouth), but also some things that need improvement (the proportions of the face are off).

I chose Hillary because I thought the original picture was awesome.

pen & ink drawing

2008-02-13T10:01:00.004-05:00

A quick sketch I did in my Moleskine sketchbook using a 35mm micron pen and a photo reference. I had a hard time shading the face, but for my 1st ink drawing it's not bad.

Konite Designs

2008-02-11T17:25:00.001-05:00

These are 2 logos I designed for my Cafepress shop (www.cafepress.com/konite). I made the starburst design by first drawing an elongated triangle and they using the transform feature to rotate it every 20 degrees. I placed a colored circle behind it, and then the cutout square in front (2nd picture). In the first pic, I made the cutout square white. I also gave a brushstroke to the text in the first image.

Random Watercolor Pencil

2008-02-09T17:49:00.001-05:00

I've been playing around with ink & watercolor, and ink and watercolor pencils. Here are a couple of quick sketches I did using a crow quill pen and black ink. I really like this look so I am going to practice in this style more. Today I bought a Moleskine watercolor notebook and a field watercolor set to keep a travel sketchbook. Hopefully I'll have lots to post later.

Buy my designs!!!

2008-02-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

You can find some of my baby shirt designs for sale here at http://www.cafepress.com/konite.

Keep checking back as more designs will be added. Also, contact me if you would like a custom design.

Hook, line, and sinker

2008-02-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

There's a possibility I may be doing a logo for someone who is starting a fishing lure business. Since I heard about it I've been brainstorming some ideas. Here are just a couple preliminary sketches.

Graphic novel

2008-02-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

In preparation to possibly illustrate a graphic novel that a friend may or may not ever write, I am trying to learn how to draw in that style. I've read a few Frank Miller books and have started looking through others. What I've realized is that there is not just one style, but many. So I guess I will just have to figure out what style I am good at. My first goal is to draw realistic looking heads/faces. Here is one of my first attempts:

Once I get these down using pencil, I'm going to try my hand at ink.

Moleskine book

2008-01-29T17:31:00.001-05:00

I finally got around to buying myself a Moleskine sketchbook. I used a small one when working on the Sketchbook Project, but that never really felt like it was mine. Now I have one to call my own. It's impossible to not feel inspired when you own one of these...I mean this is the same book that Picasso and Hemingway used! I feel like I want to draw, paint, write...anything...I just have to do SOMETHING!

I sketched a stone wall I had seen in a book using watercolor pencils....which is how I realized the Moleskine sketchbooks do not handle water well. I guess now I have an excuse to go buy the Moleskine watercolor book.

Painting

2008-01-27T20:34:00.000-05:00

I've taken a break from designing baby clothes and logos and decided to get back to some more traditional art. I really just wanted to play with my some of my Christmas presents...a set of acrylic paints, brushes, an easel, and clayboard. I'm not much of a painter; I never have been. I'm really not good at anything with color - pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, etc. But I know I won't get better unless I practice, and if I happen to create a lot of crap in the meantime, oh well. So, I asked for acrylic paints because they seemed like the best of both watercolors and oil paints.

For my first painting, I was really trying to get the feel for how the paints act. I tried mixing up washes and painting right out of the tube. There are definitely a lot of problems with this painting, but also, some aspects I like. I thought I did a decent job of laying in the wash for the sky. I also thought the use of a little orange was well placed. The actual pier looks like crap...the lines aren't straight, they're too thick, and the colors suck. But I learned a lot in the course of this painting which hopefully I will carry on to future paintings.

The second painting I tried to do more like a watercolor painting. I used watercolor paper which reacts much differently than clayboard. Again, there are several things I like and dislike about this painting. I like the way the sky wash turned out. I also like the texture and depth of the sand. I really like how the different colors of the water blend together on the right side. I could have done a better job with the hobie cats, especially the body of the boats. For the sails I probably should have stuck with the more transparent glazes, but I went for the thicker paint. I also took a little artistic liberty with the coloring of the sails which did not turn out well. Overall, not TOO bad, but I need lots of practice!

Yankees Suck!!! Now with less copyright infringement!

2008-01-18T17:41:00.001-05:00

You can buy this shirt here!!!!

Yankees Suck!

2008-01-18T17:26:00.000-05:00

This is how I roll!

2008-01-15T18:48:00.000-05:00

You can buy this shirt here!!!!

Maybe a dingo ate your baby!

2008-01-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

You can buy this shirt here!!!!

Potty like a rockstar!!!!

2008-01-14T20:00:00.001-05:00

You can buy this shirt here!!!!

Another onesie design....

I drew the star shape and filled it with "metal gold" in the graphic style menu. I copied the star (no fill; black outline) and made it slightly bigger than the 1st. I aligned the 2 stars in the center. I gave the black outline a brush stroke (0.25pt). In the next layer I made the text, and also gave it a brush stroke, and rounded all of the edges. In another layer, I took a picture of some wood grain, live traced it, and colored it white. I then manipulated the size and placement of the texture until I was happy with it.

More Onesies

2008-01-14T17:55:00.002-05:00

You can buy this shirt here!!!!

Some more of the onesies and bibs I'm making for my future niece/nephew. These are not too original, but my brother-in-law is a huge fan of the tv show MASH, and the band R.E.M. The MASH design is pretty straight forward...I just used a font that was similar and filled it with black, and outlined in white. I created a box filled with green behind the text. I also made a red rectangle, then copied it, rotated it and aligned the two in the center. Then I added the shapes together in the pathfinder menu.

For the REM design, I found a picture of the Monster album cover and applied the live trace. It took a bit of playing to get the detail I wanted. I also had to carefully delete the elements I didn't want. I then used live paint to fill in the image with a shade of orange. The text was added in a separate layer.

Baby Onesies

2008-01-13T20:04:00.000-05:00

You can buy this shirt here!!!!

My brother in law and sister in law are having a baby in June. I am VERY excited for my 1st niece/nephew to enter the world. Since I'm no good at quilting or knitting, I've decided to design and print custom baby onesies. I have a ton of ideas, some original, some not so much. Anyway, here is the first design I've finished.

I took the sketch of George Bush I drew for The Sketchbook Project (see post on 10/23/07) and placed it into a blank document. I applied a live trace, changing the threshold until I was happy. In a separate layer I created the text. I also placed a picture of a crumbled sheet of paper that I found online. I applied a live trace to the paper and placed it in front of the text. I copied the text and pasted in front. Then, selecting the pasted text and the paper, I made a clipping mask.

The 2nd onesie was just text that I filled green and then applied the woodcut appearance under the graphic styles --> text menu.

Can't Stop!

2008-01-10T18:21:00.000-05:00

I can't stop thinking of different ideas for my friend's website. There are so many things you can do with the letter "e." For this design, I drew a box, and then placed the letter on top. I subtracted the letter from the box (pathfinder menu), and added a shadow. I then copied the box 3 times and changed the orientation of each one. Viola!

Images are copyrighted and may not be used without my permission

Happy Accidents

2008-01-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

While playing with some different logo design ideas I was moving the images around on the screen. The picture above happened when I copied the triangle with an E, and then pasted it on top. I was going to reflect the image, but I kinda liked the way it looked, so here it is.

Images are copyrighted and may not be used without my permission

Illustrator logo

2008-01-09T18:06:00.000-05:00

This is just a very basic rendition of the sketch below in illustrator. I didn't do anything special. I used Live Paint to color the logo, then dropped a shadow.

Images are copyrighted and may not be used without my permission

More Logo Work

2008-01-09T08:33:00.001-05:00

This is a rough sketch of another idea I had for my friend's website logo (see post below). His initial's are actually ME, and that is how he usually signs his posts, emails, etc, so I think this design works as a play on both letters. The initial sketch was done in pencil (on the back of an old xerox copy....gotta love drawing at work!), and then colored with a black sharpie. Later, when I'm not on company time, I'll see what I can do in Illustrator.

Images are copyrighted and may not be used without my permission

button/pin logo

2008-01-03T20:07:00.000-05:00

A friend mentioned needing a logo for a website he runs. He wanted something simple, perhaps just the letter "e." So I was playing around today with some simple pin shapes in Illustrator that I learned about on Veerle's blog (in my links). For Veerle's complete tutorial, go here:

Here are the 2 designs I've come up with based on the pin idea (the actual images are much nicer than the png files I've uploaded):

Images are copyrighted and may not be used without my permission

New Year's Resolution

2008-01-02T20:53:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I've let 2 months slip by without updating. I resolve to do better this year. And not just at updating this blog, but to spend more time drawing, painting, and whatever else I can think of! I was looking at one of my favorite sites, www.illustrationclass.com, and the latest exercise involved random doodling. So, when I've had a few minutes here and there, this is what I've come up with.

These are not done yet:

Check out Von. R. Glitschka's website above for this creative exercise and more.

Puffin

2007-11-04T13:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't used Corel Painter for a while, so I thought I'd get back to it. Here I painted a puffin using mostly wet acrylics and some smeary brushes as well. First, I cloned the image (file --> clone). In the clone I selected the image (Select --> All), and deleted it by pressing the backspace key. This left me with a blank canvas. I was able to toggle back and forth to the original image by turning the tracing paper effect on and off. I eyeballed most of the colors, but there were some that I selected using the color picker (hold alt key) while painting. None of the painting was done using the clone stamp. I really like the visible brush strokes and the appearance of layering paint in some areas.

Halloween Jesus

2007-11-01T20:22:00.000-04:00

A little backstory on Halloween Jesus.....A friend of mine was trying to explain the Trinity to another friend. When the part about the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost came up, there was some questioning if that was when Jesus scares people on Halloween. It was suggested that I give life to Halloween Jesus, so here it goes. This is just the initial ink drawing. I definitely plan to draw him in Illustrator. I'd also like to draw some other Biblical figures in their Halloween best.....maybe Mummy Moses will be next :-)

The Good

2007-10-24T16:51:00.000-04:00

A few of the drawings from The Sketchbook Project that I think turned out really well (or better than expcected).

The Bad and The Ugly

2007-10-24T16:40:00.000-04:00

As promised (or threatened), here are some of the very bad drawings I did for The Sketchbook Project. These are some quick sketches I did using charcoal. As previously stated, charcoal is NOT my friend. I've never worked with it before, and it is clear I need to practice. The point of the following sketches was to do something quick (1-2 minutes tops), with no reference material, using a medium I've never tried before. Since the theme of the project was "fear" I thought I did a good job of not only drawing things that represent fear, but doing it in a way that scared me.

Fun from The Sketchbook Project

2007-10-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't had time to work on anything new, so here are some more sketches that were part of The Sketchbook Project. All sketchbooks will be on dispay at the Art House in Decatur, Georgia on October 27th.

This is a quick cartoonish sketch I did of monsters hiding under a child's bed.

In keeping with the theme of "fear" I did 2 caricature's of people that scare a lot of us!

And to be fair, this probably scares those guys:

Busy

2007-10-08T12:12:00.000-04:00

The past 6 weeks have been very busy....I got married and went on my honeymoon, so I did not have time to work on any drawings. Since then I have been busy with post wedding crap, car accidents, and everyday life. I just realized that the deadline for submitting my sketchbook to The Sketchbook Project was fast approaching, so I had to get to work.

The theme was "fears" so I decided to just do a literal interpretation and draw things that people are afraid of. I played around with different mediums (charcoal is NOT my friend) and styles. Some drawings I worked on for no longer than 1 minute, while others I worked on for hours. Some turned out really well, and some just did not. Seeing as the reason for this blog is to show my progression, I will be posting the good with the bad.

This is the 1st page of the book. Overall it's not the worst thing I did, but I did have a lot of trouble drawing flames. I used several different pencils from a B to 8B.

The next drawing of a jail cell was done using a single sepia pencil. I should have used a ruler to get the lines straight and keep the perspective.

"Bugs" was done using black calligraphy ink and a crow quill pen. I haven't really worked with this medium before. I think it could have been a cool effect, but the paper was too thin to handle the ink and the pen was tearing right through the paper.

progression

2007-08-23T10:46:00.000-04:00

I am still incredibly new to Illustrator and Photoshop, so everytime I learn anything new, it makes a huge difference. Case in point is my profile pic. First I sketched the picture with pencil on tracing paper.

My 1st attempt at drawing the image in Illustrator:

I was playing with gradients a little, but my lines are horrible. I am NOT proficient with the pen tool. Hopefully practice really does make perfect.

My 2nd attempt in Illustrator:

I learned a little bit about mesh gradients, which I incorporated into the shoes and hair. Also, some of the line work is a little better. Maybe in 6 months I'll take another stab at it to see how far I've come.

Edited to add: I didn't export very high quality images from Illustrator, so they are pixelated. The real images are much smoother. If I get around to it, I'll export them as PNG files and post again.

Always tweaking....

2007-08-07T19:52:00.000-04:00

I am always tweaking things I draw...always looking for ways to improve. Especially with anything I create digitally since I still have so much to learn.

I added one small thing to the shamrock from the honeymoon t-shirt, but I think it really looks better. So I made a shape that follows the edge of one leaf, but a little smaller. I filled it with a greyscale gradient, and then set the transparency to "screen" mode.

I also made a small change to the back of the shirt. I added a picture of a typical Ireland road sign and just moved some of the other images around. The road sign was made by using the live trace feature on an image from the internet. Again, a small change, but I think it really improves the overall look. Too bad I made these changes after the shirts have shipped.

T-shirt I designed

2007-08-04T23:05:00.000-04:00

Shaun and I are going to Ireland for our honeymoon, and we had this really silly idea to make t-shirts for the trip. He had heard of someone else doing something similar, and the bartenders and locals loved it.

I designed everything in Illustrator CS2. These designs really tested my limited knowledge of the program, and I think I used every technique I know, and may have even learned a think or two in the process. Most of the images were from the web, and then I used the "live trace" and/or "live paint" features. I created the shamrock using the "blend" tool. I saved both images as a PNG file, and uploaded them to CafePress to be printed.

Front of shirt (actual size around 4 inches, located at pocket area):

Back of shirt (centered):

The Sketchbook Project

2007-07-31T15:29:00.000-04:00

Check out http://www.thesketchbookproject.com/. They will send you a sketchbook for $13 (part of the proceeds benefit a rape crisis center). You fill the sketchbook with anything you want relating to the theme (fears), and it will be put on display during an exhibit on October 27th. I think this is a really cool concept.

Hurry and register as there are only 85 books left!

Logo Design 2

2007-07-21T14:55:00.000-04:00

I just thought I'd post with the latest change to the "sshabang" logo I am working on. I changed the tail a little on this one to better match my original sketch. I'm still waiting to hear back from my friend regarding any changes he may like.

Logo Design

2007-07-16T09:40:00.000-04:00

I have been working on my 1st freelance project which is a logo design. The logo is for a software program that works as an installer for OpenBSD (the program was tentatively called "sshabang"). A friend of mine is in charge of the software updates and was looking for a new logo. So I started coming up with some preliminary sketches that incorporated aspects of the OpenBSD blow fish. The OpenBSD blowfish logo is copyrighted by OpenBSD.

The best 2 ideas were a bomb with spikes, and a series of cogs that morphed into the fish. I was thinking of "Spy vs. Spy" when I drew the bomb, and then added spikes to mimic the fish, and just make it look menacing. However, it was mistaken for a stick of dynamite in the fish's butt, so I guess I didn't convey the look I was going for. My friend preferred the cog logo, so I went to work in Illustrator and came up with 3 designs (all basically the same). The design is not finalized yet, and I think I need to work on some aspects (like the tail). Once I get some feedback I will be sure to post updates.

About my blog

2007-07-15T16:15:00.000-04:00

So the reason I am starting this blog is because my goal is to one day have a successful freelance art career. I have no formal art training, but I am hoping to go back to school soon. This blog is just a way for me to document the journey. It will be cool to see how I've progressed (especially with digital art...I'm trying to teach myself Illustrator & Photoshop now). Hopefully this will become a place where people can share tips and give constructive criticism.

Some old pencil drawings

2007-07-15T16:01:00.000-04:00

A sketch of a convergent lady beetle I did:

Sugar maple leaves drawn with carbon dust on drafting film. This was my first time working with drafting film and carbon dust. I quickly learned that fingerprints on film are a bad thing! However, it did end up creating some interesting texture effects. After completing this drawing, I ruined the whole thing by trying to backpaint it.
I took an adult continuing ed drawing class, and one night we had to draw a wine glass still life set-up. We covered the entire piece of paper with carbon dust, and then completed the drawing by adding darker values, or erasing to create lighter values.

Some old digital drawings....

2007-07-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

This was the 1st picture I ever did on the computer....I used Corel Painter (using the Pencil tool) and a Wacom tablet:

I then took the same picture and played with the oil pastel tool in Corel Painter:

When I bought Adobe Creative Suite 2, I was playing with the Live Trace and Live Paint features. The coloring is completely off, but I thought it looked cool anyway.