Carpe Diem

Hard to believe, perhaps, but I've got another Threadless submission up for voting.  This is just a general design, meaning that it wasn't done for any particular design challenge, just for the thrill of it!  And the hope that it gets printed and I get some extra spending monies and an even stronger foundation on Threadless.  As I said in my last post most of my ideas start with a pun and then eventually transform into something else, and that is very much the case with Carpe Diem.

And so, without further ado, let your votes and comments ring clear through the sky like the dawning of a bright new day!  Or, like the meticulous digitizing of 1 and 0's in a coded sequence to give your opinions manifest!  Whichever encourages you to head on over and check out the design, give it a vote, and maybe even leave a comment or elect to "buy it as a tee," or "as a print."  Thanks again everyone!



I hope the true start to everyone's Fall season is going swimmingly, stop by again soon for more fun stuff!

H.B. Moustache, Esq.

Hello there everyone, sorry for the slight drought in posts lately, I've been busy trying to put the finishing touches on a number of designs/illustrations at the same time so the completion rate has been slightly slowed.  I promise there are many to come in the (nearly) immediate future.  The first and foremost is this design I just submitted to Threadless for voting.  It was inspired by the current (at the time) design challenge for Movember, or, the Moustache Month of November.  As with many of my designs, the basis is found in a pun, but through the imagery and resolution of the drawing, it becomes something more.  In this case, the pun is the pencil moustache that a young man sports in defiance/admiration for his elders and forebears.  I was inspired by Victorian framework and fashion, particularly in the drawing style and the color choices.  And I had a lot of fun drawing all the facial hair.

Thanks to all of you who helped vote for my last design, I really appreciate all the support and encouragement.  It would be great to have that same support for this design.  SO, if you feel so inclined then by all means stop by and let your voice be heard!  Remember: if you want to leave a comment or "buy it as a tee" (check that box before voting on the number system) to increase the chances that the design will be selected for printing then I totally support and encourage you!

Thanks again for checking in and don't be shy about voting!





Happy viewing!

Old Fashioned Rabbit Ears

Hey there folks, I've got a new design up for voting on Threadless.  It's called Old Fashioned Rabbit Ears, so drop by and check it out, vote, and maybe even say you'd "buy it as a tee."  You can vote to the right of the design and the more votes the design gets, the more likely it is to be accepted.  If you say that you would "buy it as a tee" or "as a print," then the chances of it getting selected are even higher.  So, stop by Threadless by clicking on the link below and let your opinion and vote be heard!

Thanks a lot for the support and votes, I really appreciate them both!

One Stone, Two Birds

Alright, so here's the deal. I'm publishing this as a post for Illustration Friday's most recent prompt: "proverb." Now, what the illustration actually depicts is someone "seeing the world through rose colored glasses," which is really more of an idiom or expression than a proverb. HOWEVER (and here's where it gets tricky), I had this drawing that I had done for another post that I never got around to finishing so I thought that this would be a good chance to finish the illustration and complete a response for this week's IF, and in that way I would be able to "get two birds with one stone," which is traditionally recognized to be more of a proverb. KABLAMMO. John Gilman, Professional fine artist, illustrator, and designer, and Amateur Rationalizer seeking endorsement to go pro.

+Someone who wears rose colored glasses sees the world around them only as they want to, rather than seeing the reality of the situation.

Following my work on the last post with physical media, I really wanted to achieve a more cohesive appearance for this piece through employing a bit more texture and atmosphere, so with that in mind let's boogie.

I started with a drawing that I finished in pen and ink on moleskin paper (I wanted something with less tooth). When I drew this one I was going for a more graphic feel, especially with the pen. Here's the drawing once I brought it into the computer:

I then isolated the linework using the method that I've recently adopted (which works like gangbusters and I am very excited for), and proceeded to begin the process of flats. I wanted the area contained in the rose colored glasses cone of vision to be much more planar and tidy and the grungy world of reality.

You can see that at this point I didn't put in the planks of the rose bench or the vertical pattern on the curtain behind the bench that the left-most tree becomes in the rosy realm.

Next I changed the colors to match with my original intentions, by using mostly passive, appealing, and warmly seductive (oh my) colors in the rose colored world and more jarring, subtly sallow colors in the real world. I began adding more tones and variations in the colors at this point, and here's what it looked like with the right colors mostly placed in:

Now then, on to that cohesive texture I was talking about earlier. I wanted to add a gray/sandy textural haze to the real world and a pinkish glow to the rose world. I used graphite and powdered charcoal on vellum and scanned them into the computer. Fortunately the line isolation technique is so effective it even picks up such subtle variations as this (for the real world):

and this (for the rosy realm):
I colored those accordingly and placed them beneath the linework layer and this is what we have without the linework visible:

Sam Bosma did a wonderful job of explaining this process on his blog and it was an invaluable resource while I was working. He's also got some pretty stupendous work, y'all should check him out. This is the final piece again, after having lightened the highlights for the whole thing a bit and removing some of the glasses-wearing man's wrinkles to make him look less like an old lady:

I'm satisfied with the final result and I'm excited for all the possibility that this texture-layering process holds for my other works. I've also got a few more t-shirt designs on the docket so look for them in the near future. I hope you've enjoyed my lengthy rant and that you've had a pleasant time viewing, and that you'll stop back again in the future.

Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezad-ie had a thousand tales

What can I say, I'm a sucker for slightly xenophobic depictions of foreign cultures and systems of belief, call me a traditionalist. In actuality this was not created in response to a recent viewing of the 1992 Disney flick, but rather due to a personal love of history, literature, and mythology; all of which the Arabian Nights holds in spades. And with those passions in mind I set myself upon redesigning the jacket for this lovely gem. I wanted to create a subtle yet striking image of Shahrazad veiled and slightly pensive (with a touch of fearfulness thrown in for good measure).

The story of the Arabian Nights is essentially this: Shahrazad (Female Protagonist) is wed to the king of Persia (Shahryar). Gum Drops and Rainbows right? Not really. See, Shahryar had a nasty habit of killing his wives after only one night of marriage. Shahrazad resolved to keep herself alive by telling stories that she began in the evening, told through the night, and always left the ending unresolved. In this way, so long as her stories held the king's interest through the night her life would be spared. And there's a happy ending too. What a strange story.

At any rate, I knew that I wanted to depict Shahrazad (spellings vary by the way but I'm staying faithful to the spelling found in this particular text) and include subtle allusions to arabesque design and architecture. After working digitally for the past few pieces I really wanted to explore the subtleties of physical media again, paint in particular.

And we're off! As usual, I started with a drawing that I scanned into the computer, lowered the opacity on, and printed out to resolve issues and create a finalized pencil drawing, which we find here:
I extended the hair for the wrap-around cover but didn't bother to place it in the final drawing because I wanted it to remain largely abstract so that it would begin to unravel as her stories do. This was painted in Watercolor first, then I laid a white acrylic wash over-top of the entire painting and blended the two paint layers together to create a hazy sense of sfumato. I wanted to make her seem faded and worn, seeing as she is perpetually in danger of being killed and all. I went back in with watercolor and added some more subtle detail in the face and hair and repainted the majority of the veil with gouache. This is the product of those efforts:

This was painted on a large format piece of paper so I had to scan it in as two parts and piece them together digitally, which I think is hardly noticeable in the final work (which is good, huzzah!). With subtlety in mind (notice a trend with this one?) I chose the colors, blocked out the areas of text, and reduced the opacity to allow for elements of the painting to show through. I also scanned in the barcode and publishing house logo to allow for more authenticity in the design. After playing around with the font quite a bit this is what resulted, the final cover once more:

I am pleased with the final product and think that I achieved most of the goals that I had set for myself for this piece, particularly with regards to the SUBTLETY. ahem, excuse me. This was fun to do and I really enjoyed working with the watercolor, acrylic, and gouache combo so expect more of that on the horizon. I plan on printing this out and putting it on the book itself so I can photograph the physical product, not just the digital plan. So that's just about it, with more struggle, triumph, strife, and joy mixed in of course. Hope you enjoy it, view happily, and in parting I will leave you with more words of wisdom from the masterful Alan Menken:

Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways.

Sweet Summer Rain

This was intended to be submitted last night for this past week's Illustration Friday prompt but it didn't quite make it in under the wire and I wanted to be satisfied with it rather than display something I was unhappy with. And so here it is on the blog! The given prompt was "dessert," and I've seen my fair share of ice cream being eaten and worn this summer so I thought it was only fitting. I recently discovered an even better way to transfer line into Photoshop so that it maintains its integrity and subtlety, so this week I wanted to take full advantage of that. And so, as I usually do, I began with a sketch:

And from that sketch came a more resolved drawing and finally a finished drawing done with graphite on vellum, scanned in, the line isolated, and a quick background color laid in to give a bit more context before going into flats:

This next step might be the most time-consuming, tedious, and a bit thankless actually. It's hard to keep your head above water when the water looks like an undulating paint-by-numbers ocean. However, in the long run laying in flats is totally worthwhile and really advantageous for color isolation and really quick color manipulation from a higher layer. Basically the idea behind flats is this: so long as the adjacent areas aren't the same color (or similar for that matter) you can block out all the major areas and then quickly color them by selecting them with the wand tool and adding the appropriate colors later. Here are my flats:

Like I said above, this makes it easy to then determine the primary colors that you want to use, and here they are (immediately after having finished flats):

After this point is when I can start to resolve and soften the edges a bit more and put in some cleaner and more satisfying points of transition (particularly in her face and grass). Also I drew in the sweet summer rain itself, the falling drips of ice cream. I wanted to do them digitally because I thought it would be pleasing to draw attention to their presence stylistically to provide a point of interest through contrast, and I'm glad I did. Here's the final paint layer before laying the linework back in:

And here's the final image again, linework and all:

Overall I am really pleased with how this piece came out, and I am definitely excited for what the future holds.

Also I wanted to have a link to a clip of Daniel von Bargen saying "Sweet summer rain" from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? but I couldn't find it on YouTube, so use your imagination.

So there you have it, my most recent piece from start to finish (mostly), although admittedly very abridged. I hope that this sheds a bit more light on some parts of the process that I hadn't addressed previously. Look for a few more pieces being added next week sometime, and hopefully an Illustration Friday post that will present itself in a timely fashion (I'm thinking something quicker, good sweet bippy!) Thanks for stopping by, and happy viewing!

Immovable

Hello again all, this here represents my first post in my second month of posting, wahoo! In all seriousness I'm glad that I've been able to keep up the pace I started in Maine upon returning to the beloved land of my birth, Pennsylvania. This piece was made in response to another Illustration Friday prompt, this time the topic given was "Immovable." I decided to pair the immovable element, which is purposefully very static, with a fiercely agitated scene involving two lovers in a highly dramatic spat. Seen above is the result of my endeavors, a clear cut case of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

This is my first time really working with digital coloring, and I think that there is a lot of potential for future success. One of the greatest benefits is that it is significantly easier to manipulate and alter colors and compositional elements on the computer, which makes the whole process less stressful. Parts of the physical drawing irk me a bit, like the way the man is rendered, especially when compared to his female counterpart. I wanted to create a more dynamic composition with this piece and I think I succeeded, especially compared to some of the previous work that I put up.

Here's how the process went down:

First, I started with the final sketch:

From here I put it on the light box, got out my final paper and proceeded to set about inking it. The product of those efforts was this:

I then scanned this into the computer and attempted to isolate the line (something that has given me heaps of trouble in the past) and begin digitally coloring it. This is what it looked like to start, after I had done the flats, a process which I will be elaborating on in one of my next posts probably (I've got like 3 projects going right now).

Notice that white haze that covers the whole thing? That's the problem with the line isolation that I was talking about, its the tooth of the paper that got transferred when I attempted to copy the line. Basically what was happening was this: In trying to isolate the line I select all of the background white on a grayscale channel first, then I would normally just opt to "select inverse" and that would then select and copy the linework, then being able to paste it into a new layer.

However, when that final stage would roll around I would be dissatisfied because that white haze would remain, which honestly was thoroughly frustrating. I experimented and realized that when I selected the white of the background initially I needed to delete that selection and only THEN could i select the linework.

This got rid of that gross fuzz and left us with our final image:


Like I said, I am quite pleased with it as a whole and I am very excited for what the future holds for me and digital coloring. There will be more coming next week I expect, LOTS MORE, so stay tuned and as always, thank you and happy viewing.

Domo

This last piece is a design that I created for a Threadless design challenge for Maxtopia. The subject was basically about the blending of Nature and Technology together to create a new world. So i created a design that relates directly to the annunciation of these seamlessly blended yet contrary elements. This represents the physical manifestation of a very planar robots longing for organic elegance. Also, I figured if a robot was going to dream of anything organic it would be the flower most associated with canonical purity, the lily.

Score it here (once it's accepted)

This will probably be my last post for the month of August and overall I am quite pleased with not only my prolificacy but the standard for the quality of work I've set for myself. Score it if you like, follow the blog if you wish, and as always, happily view.

Shiver Me Timbers

This is a label design that I created several months ago for a friend who was considering venturing into the distillery business. The theme was quite nautical and focused heavily on the seafaring adventuring of the buccaneers. This was a good chance for me to experiment more with hand-lettering and paint one of my favorite subjects, skulls. The type and the colors are designed to mimic the flamboyant clothing and eccentricities that buccaneers are usually depicted as having, as well as the raw and slightly sinister nature that made them famous. Overall I am satisfied with the way this project came about and was finished, for now that is. It was interesting to work with someone who I know quite well but hadn't worked professionally with before. I really enjoyed dialoging back and forth and trying to make the label fit my friends needs, it always feels very rewarding to collaborate in that way, especially if it's challenging. More labels to come? perhaps. I will also have pictures soon of the paintings that I have been working on, so stay tuned and as always, happy viewing.

This Ain't no Party, This Ain't no Disco Daphne

I've been listening to a lot of Talking Heads, hence the obscurity of today's title. Regardless of the worded obscurity, my efforts are becoming slightly more clear with this latest piece, a direct homage to the story of Apollo and Daphne (or at least Daphne).

The inspiration for this came from the blog Illustration Friday, where I will be submitting it soon (a few more changes might be coming, you never know). Illo. Fri. is a blog where people can create and share artwork inspired by a weekly prompt, and the prompt for this week which was "caged." The story of Apollo and Daphne in a very tiny nutshell is this: Young amorous Apollo is struck by cupid's arrow with irresistible love for Daphne (a nymph who's father was a river spirit named Peneus). Daphne flees from the young sun god's advances and pleads for her father to rescue her in some way, shape, or form (PUN), and he turns her into a Bay Laurel (tree). That's good parenting like only classicism can dish it. At any rate, paternal discrepancies aside, I elected to illustrate Daphne being "caged" in her new form. So, we're off.

I started with a small sketch (that needed a lot of work):

I brought this into the computer, scaled it up to size and then decreased the opacity so that the lines would be more faint so i could print it and do this to it:

Feeling much more satisfied with this foundation, women are hard to make up off the top of your head by the way (way to go ladies), I transferred it to the final paper and went at with the gouache and this is the end result:

I'm satisfied with the way the piece came out and I think definitely adds a lot to my burgeoning portfolio. I'm pleased with the atmospheric energy contained in the background, especially those white, pink, and blue trails of light. In addition to that, I enjoy how pink Daphne is in contrast to the golds and browns of the trunk and how her features are beginning to be exaggerated and combined with those of the tree (this includes her dramatically elongated neck and shoulder). I also just really like rendering tree bark (A LOT). Speaking of which, I've got a few wordless (possibly not) comics lined up on the docket for the next coming months and one of them is going to be very densely wooded, so expect more bark.

Oh, and in terms of expectations, I've also been working on 4 large scale paintings that I am hoping to bolster my "fine arts" portfolio with for gallery submissions this fall but my camera is still swimming in the mess it made in it's bed so no pictures for a while. There will be more soon, although probably not next week because I get to spend a week adventuring and relaxing with my family and my wonderfully talented and doubly beautiful (in oh so many ways) girlfriend Melissa Schmid.

So there might be a lapse in the frequency of posting but have no fear, there is more on the horizon, even if it ain't no mud club, or CBGB. Happy viewing as always!

A Fool and His Sandwich are Soon Parted

This piece was really just a chance for me to get out of the labored, mechanical process of the both Mr. 1/2 Full and the Magic Mountain, which involved a lot of careful measuring and patience. Not that this didn't, ah well, the best laid plans.

At any rate, this guy took a while to complete but I like the way he came out, especially those slippers. It was a good chance to get into the gouache and just build on my familiarity with it too. After i brought him into the computer I altered the background colors slightly, making the green in the background a touch more blue and the gray of his step a bit more red. I also extended the height of the canvas a bit, he felt a bit cramped.

I'm definitely going to be using gouache more frequently, I like how it moves. Mostly. So here it is, the sad tale of a man with no head and a slippery sandwich, enjoy!

Buck Up!

So, as I mentioned previously I've been working on a poster for a campaign launched by the folks over at positive posters giving a prompt of "a glass half full." Well, here's my response:

This represents my first real exploration of the poster format, and I've got to say, I like it. I'm pleased with how this one came out, especially considering the lengths I went to complete it. I painted all of Mr 1/2 Full and the words below him in gouache and then outlined those segments in pencil on vellum. Those parts were scanned in pieces because my scanner isn't a large enough format to handle the size that I had created them on, so it took a little fiddling on the computer to make it work. Did I say a little fiddling? I meant more than a little, like a lot. I don't normally like how images look when I piece them together but I think in this particular case it's not very noticeable.

Originally I wasn't going to have the words above Mr. 1/2 full but I think they add a little bit more self-awareness and direct relation to the prompt itself. those elements were also drawn with pencil on vellum. I decided that the plus shape of Mr. 1/2 full was getting lost amidst all of his angles and edges so I traced the most frontal +, scanned that in and digitally colored it white, I think that works pretty well.

Like I said, I'm pretty satisfied, and my entry has been officially submitted and is awaiting review by the "moderation queue." It should be up in the next couple days (I'll post a direct link to the page when I get confirmation), happy viewing!

Necessity is the Mother of Designing Book Covers

I'll admit that it's not entirely catchy, but in this particular instance it's at least highly relevant. So a week or so ago I was careless with my water bottle and managed to make quite a tidy mess of things, nearly spoiling several very important accessories and causing water damage to the book I am currently reading, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. Well, the cover was ruined and ended up falling apart. I had been planning to try my hand at book design anyway, and I thought why not now? So, having lost one rather poorly designed cover, I gained a slightly less poorly designed one. The illustration and the design are both of my creation.

The illustration references a turning point in the book, when the main character turns from a visitor to a patient of the sanatorium where the novel is set. It also draws on the medical journals and medical investigation that pervade the spirit of human dissection and study (both mental and emotional) that makes up a large portion of the narrative's intrigue. Hans slowly becomes separate from the self he once knew in the "flatlands" as he becomes more and more involved in the life nestled in the shadow of the magic mountain. I like the color scheme. The view here shows both the front (on the right) and back (on the left) cover divided by the pumpkin colored spine. Hope that you enjoy, happy viewing!

A Call to Arms

So, as I've very recently explained, one of the primary goals of this blog is to increase the breadth of my Illustration and Design portfolio. I am really just beginning my foray into both fields, having graduated from MICA with a painting BFA in '09 and an MAT degree in Art Education this past spring. So, in the spirit of self-actualization and the enterprising nature it clearly requires to be successful in either field I've been giving myself assignments and taking what I can from the thriving communities that already seem to be very much in play. There have been several blogs and general sources of inspiration, creativity, and positivity that have been particularly helpful at the start of these efforts. Not least of which being the Escape From Illustration Island blog and Podcast by Thomas James and the Zero 2 Illo Blog of Jonathan Woodward, where I found the call for entry that inspired the creation of this poster design. the design isn't quite finished yet, but it is in response a prompt set forth by the folks over at Positive Posters based off of the idea "a glass half-full." I was hoping to draw on the unending charm and chirpiness of early anthropomorphic advertising cartoons and a sense of calm and pleasant support with the color and font formats. As I said, he's not quite done, so you folks might need to wait a couple days, stay tuned!

Bang! false start.

After other unsuccessful and ultimately abortive blogging efforts, the race is on! Against...myself. Well, regardless of how many attempts have been made previously, I am intent on making this one stick. The purpose of this blog is essentially this: produce artwork and display it publicly in hopes of not only finding a niche for myself in the creative world, but also for creating a source from which I can relate more directly to the ever-expanding creative field and one to which it, in turn, can relate back. I'm currently spending the Summer months working diligently to on expand my creative portfolio by creating a series of paintings (pictures of which will begin to surface in coming posts) and generally creating a solid foundation for an Illustration/design portfolio to begin distributing this upcoming Fall to potential employers while looking for the possibility of freelance work in either of those fields. And so, without further delay, my name is John Gilman, and welcome to Notes from the Fence.

This is just a very introductory picture I painted in my sketchbook, it's a woman breathing smoke apparently.