Lover of the Wild

Hey all, here's another a little something that I made a couple months ago.  It's a poster I submitted for the Kooks North American Fall Tour.  I got to play around a bit more with hand lettering, something that I've been meaning to get into for a while now.  I drew the major type elements out first and then brought them into Illustrator.  Sadly the poster didn't get selected for the winning design but I learned a great deal nonetheless.

3 is a Mystical #

More of what's been keeping me busy as of late.  I made this in what was the fullest part of the summer swing, a poster submitted for a band called Truth & Salvage Co.  I must admit, I wasn't terribly familiar with their body of work and I think as a result I didn't commit myself as thoroughly as I might have.  Nonetheless it gave me an opportunity to continue working and familiarizing myself with Illustrator.  At this point I've developed my process in Illustrator to a place where it satisfies me, largely thanks to my immediately prior familiarity with Photoshop.

At some point I'm going to have to make a detailed account of that process, if folks are interested that is.

Deep In the Heart of Texas.

This is something I made a while ago (as all of these are, really) when I was visiting a friend down where the prairie sky is wide and high.  I was down with another friend on one hell of a road trip and decided to fill a little free time playing around with illustrator.  I ended up missing the deadline for this one but that gave me a bit more time to get it to where I wanted it to be.  This was originally supposed to be a t-shirt prompt but after a little time between myself and the design I decided to retool it for a poster format.

The band is a little outfit called Grupo Fantasma out of Austin, TX.

I like how this came out, and it led me to a lot of new places with my work, more of which you will see very shortly.

I'm also thinking about making a couple wallpapers for myself soon, and if I get around to it I'm going to try and put a few up here for download, so stay tuned!

Oh Illustrator, We Hardly Knew Ye.

So I've been tooling around a bit with Illustrator lately and I've discovered 2 things: 1. I like Illustrator a lot and 2. I hate using Illustrator a lot.  I honestly find this to be true of most of the computer programs I've been using, namely Photoshop and now, most recently, Illustrator.  I think there are two primary reasons for this frustration.  Namely, I hadn't spent nearly enough time familiarizing myself with them previously, so there are considerable hurdles that need jumping.  Second, I trained as a painter and as someone who genuinely loves the physical act of creation (get your head out of the gutter), and it's taken a little time to become more comfortable with the idea of using digital tools to aid in my artistic creation.

However, that all being said, they are both excellent tools that have helped me a lot (and will hopefully continue to do so) and I really enjoy using them (with a 50/50 split between love and hate most of the time).

I'll start with a little something i drafted up for myself, initials to help cement my internet identity and whatnot (technical term).  I'm still tooling around with it but it's fun and I enjoy angles.

Just to See What it Tastes Like.

Oh, hello internet, I didn't see you there.  It's been too long, but I've been busy you see.  These past few months have been a bit of a whirlwind, with a lot of change happening in a very short time.  I now spend my days working on a farm and the summer season was rather chaotic, leaving little physical energy in the evening for creative pursuits. However, with the coming of the winter season there has been a measured change in pace.  With the reprieve from the harvest schedule and slight loosening of daily labors I've found more time to teach this old dog a few new tricks.  And so, without further a due, may I present the new look of not only my blog, but of my work as well!

I've tried to streamline the whole experience slightly while adding a bit more color and light to the general aesthetic.  I've also tried to eliminate the visual clutter that slowly worked itself in throughout the initial setup process.

I've also been trying my hand at competitions every now and again, focusing more on posters and identity work than t-shirts.
here are two resources worth knowing if you are interested in either:
1. for posters and otherwise musically-linked opportunities, creativeallies
2. for logo and identity work, 99designs
They're a good way to keep your mind active and give you creative impetus while also offering a bit cash compensation.  That beings, they both have their faults.

Here is one of the first posters i submitted for review on Creative Allies, a tour poster for the band Givers out of the Bayou from Lafayette, Louisiana.  At this point I hadn't committed to working in Illustrator yet and was still compensating for my lack of confidence by crowding it with A LOT of static.  While I really don't like this piece very much, it's a good comparison point for me and for the work I'll be posting a bit later.

 

 Looking at this piece now it is painful to me how cluttered and overworked it is.  I like the idea, and maybe I'll revisit it in another piece, but very likely not in Photoshop.

Thanks for hanging around people, and there ought to be some more updates immediately!

[But Don't Give Yourself Away]

 

Hey there everyone, here is my latest piece for IF based very loosely on the subject of "surrender."  What does the image above have to do with surrender you ask?  Truthfully, not much.  For those of you not on the East Coast or in the Midwest I guess winter surrendering to spring isn't as pressing, but for those of us in either region, it is.  I suppose that's just about as much relevance there is, it was pretty much just an excuse to draw over-sized Sasquatch/Wendigo tracks with a few creative embellishments from yours truly.  These are really just an opportunity for me to keep practicing and stocking my artistic arsenal.  Considering the turnaround time for these prompts I've been pretty satisfied with the products thus far, with obvious elements that I would change/alter were I allotted more time/knowhow/experience etc.

This one in particular took a while to color (which still isn't completely finished but it's close enough for government work).  The drawing came along pretty quickly and the layers of texture came together rapidly at the end as well (note the breath from the hunters, the pollen from the tropical plants, and the shadows under the trees).  SO for the next one my goals are pretty much the same, work on color and the initial drawing a bit more, and add more tertiary layers of texture to feather some of the "cleanliness" of digital work.

Unless this next prompt is really mind-blowing I might take a week-long break from the IF crawl to work on personal projects (BECAUSE I HAVE SO MANY ON THE DOCKET), we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for stopping in and I hoped you liked what you saw!  Enjoy the snow if you have it and the sun if you don't!

P.S.  Those with snow are also encouraged to enjoy the sun.

The Old Dusty Trail, and Hitting It.

Hey there Everyone, I haven't been posting as much as I'd like in this past week or so but I think I've been making quite a bit of progress in that time.  I've found a bit more direction with regards to the sort of style I'd like to pursue in my more illustrative work, huzzah!  And with that jubilant declaration I present to you my most recent Illustration Friday submission, meet Dusty (the only man who could ever reach her, was the son of a preacher man, yes he was).

I'm really happy with how this turned out, and moreover I am very excited about what it holds for my future work.  While working on Dusty here I reaffirmed why the idea of flats is such a good one, particularly when you use them correctly!  I'm not gonna get into what I was doing incorrectly just yet, but I might in a follow-up process post.  I also found more insight into how it is exactly I want to use secondary and tertiary layers of texture to bring a more conclusive/cohesive appearance to my finals.  ALSO I think that I've finally spent enough time familiarizing myself with Photoshop that it's becoming much more of a genuine aide rather than a frustrating intern who never shows up on time and you suspect is stealing all of the red paperclips (which are, of course, your favorites).

Honestly the biggest irritation I have with this piece is the drawing itself.  It was a bit rushed and I could have definitely considered it more fully.  However, because these are due within a week of the subject being announced I needed to cut corners a bit somewhere, sorry draftsmanship.  SO for the next projects I will be taking a long hard look at the actual drawing itself, the color relationships, and a bit more preliminary planning, whew!  

Also, this piece is dedicated to my good friend Karl LaBarbara, who recently moved from the Philadelphia area to San Antonio, Texas (turns out dedications make people sound deceased, I promise he's not).  Good luck hitting the Ol' Dusty buddy, here's hoping it doesn't hit back.

Tune in sometime later in the week for some sketches or something!  Who knows?!  Thanks for stopping in, and happy viewing!

Illustration Friday: Resolutions

This piece was done in response to the IF prompt "Resolutions."  Fitting that a prompt regarding resolutions should help me on the way fulfilling one of my own: DRAW MORE.  I did a lot of playing around with this one, especially in the drawing and the textural bubbles.  Both of those techniques will probably find their way into my more final style, but definitely with a lot more clarification and technical direction.  I'm also going to be exploring a "less is more" mentality a bit, we'll see where it gets me.

I will also be finishing up a number of gifts that didn't quite get wrapped up in time for the holidays so expect to see a couple pieces within the next week or so.  Thanks for stopping in and taking a look at the work, follow me if you wish and as always, happy viewing!

I Also Submitted Another T-Shirt Design...Months Ago.

So here is another design that I submitted to Threadless for review as part of their 10.10.10 competition, THAT MEANS IT WAS LAST YEAR!  Anyway, I'm still waiting to see the results for the competition, so who knows, maybe she's a winner.  Regardless, I'm happy with the way things turned out, particularly the type.

 And if for whatever reason you wanted to see the design on Threadless itself, you can do that here:

Yeah more frequent posting!  One more for tonight and then I'll be out of the interweb's hair for a while.  Thanks again for stopping in, I hope you enjoyed yourself!

Dear Blog, I'm sorry for neglecting you. Love, John (Your Benevolent Creator).

So it's been quite a while since I posted anything of note on here, and I wish I had a better reason for it than I do.  Frankly, I haven't had the urge to do so.  I've been wrestling a bit with what type of style to pursue for my illustrative work and that uncertainty hindered my creative progress pretty substantially.  I also took up recent employment at an Art Supply store near my home in PA and what with getting used to the job itself and coping with the busier schedule of the holidays I just plum haven't had the energy to keep up the pace I started during the summer.  But now I feel my creative juices flowing a bit more and I've resolved myself to draw a lot more during this coming year.  SO hopefully that means more posts, with hopefully being the operative.

I've accomplished a couple goals my blabsence (that is to say, my absence from blogging), first and foremost of which is create a tentative website with the tremendous help of my good friend and collaborator Jake Hiller, or Jay Killah as he is known in certain circles.  You can find Master Hiller's portfolio here and follow his tumblr here.


AND YOU CAN FIND MY WEBSITE HERE, check it out if ya like.

I'm basically looking to pin down a concrete style and begin making pieces in that style within the month.

As I mentioned earlier I'm going to be doing more drawing, which means more sketching, which is going to mean more sketch posts.  In the spirit of those intentions, here is a drawing, it is of a monkey.  Enjoy, and thanks for sticking around in my absence.  Happy Viewing!

P.S.  Expect a rash of posts to compensate for the past few months.