Bad Boss Painting

I've been doing more paintings lately and trying to stick to the 24" x 36" canvas size. Documenting the process is important, so I've been doing that lately.

I'm not scared of painting over existing color(s) anymore and found that painting the entire canvas first, in this case Liquitex Unbleached Titanium, helps the painting look better in the long run. I gave this canvas about four coats.

Initial black and white outlines of the illustration using Liquitex acrylic paint markers on top of four coats of Unbleached Titanium.

The black outlines have been expanded inward 1/2" inch with a thin tip Liquitex Carbon Black acrylic paint marker, then filled in the rest of the way with brushed on Mars Black paint. Carbon Black, by the way, is more like an ink than a thick bodied paint, so I always end up getting my lines set up with the marker, then carefully going over those lines later with Mars Black brush paint. Since the Mars Black went on over top of another color, it required two coats for really nice coverage.

The white outlines have been thickened on each side with a Liquitex white acrylic paint marker, then filled in with brushed on Titanium White paint. Six months ago I would have stopped here and called the painting done. Also, I would not have used white paint for the outline, it would have remained unpainted canvas.

Always the scary part: Adding color to the face, I start on the edges and paint inward using Liquitex Cadmium Red Medium Hue and a smaller angled brush. Instead of applying paint from a palette, I simply applied it right from the tube onto the canvas. A thinner coat will go on afterwards.

The finished painting, which I'll call Bad Boss as it hangs in my house. This painting was completed in less than a week.

I Got 99 Problems But A Pitch Ain't One - Baseball Logo

DC Metro

Mark from Peep Show sums it up nicely.

Not The Father...

25 Years Ago

August 1989. 25 years ago almost to the exact day I was hanging with these guys...

(You won't be able to see it on iPhone)

                         Too hot to handle, too cold to hold...

Swim Team Sports Logo

The original logo.

The final version of my revised logo.

Earlier this year I was asked to redesign a logo for a local kids swim team (see logo above) that could definitely use a change. Sports logos are pretty interesting and a great way to incorporate objects and or animals with type.

The first design for the logotype. Ooh barracuda... 

The second design for the logotype. 

Third design is looking better and more sports oriented. 

You can never go wrong with a script and a tail. The fourth design

I started off playing around with logotypes (above) and color and came up with four very different designs. Lots of clients ask for a variety of styles when developing a new logo.

Initial illustration of the barracuda has issues with the tail.

Second version with colorway changed and shape, anatomy and curve of tail fixed.

I liked this version of the logo. I thought that the barracuda looked like it was jumping into the water that sits inside the Barracuda lettering. The name Brandywine fit well under the jaw of the fish. Additional detail and shading has been added and the tooth pattern changed.

An alternative version with thin to thick lines in place of the water.

My favorite version of all the logos, I think the colors work well together and it looks like a sports logo with the inclusion of the new script and tail lettering. 

The fins have been changed and the oval (which I liked) has been removed. The final version of the logo is complete and approved by customer. However, the project is subsequently scrapped when the customer could not pay for the work.

China Photo Adventures Logo

Eleanor Moseman, my awesome friend and VCU alumni homegirl recently asked me to do a logo for a new project of hers called China Photo Adventure. Those are three words that partially describe her, but they are also things Ellen positively knows a lot about since she bicycled close to 15,000 miles (mostly solo)   documenting the landscape and people of China and the central Asian borderlands.

The design needed to incorporate a few things: Eleanor wanted a logo with art deco elements but was still modern in appearance. It needed to be simple, to the point but yet elegant.

I first started out drawing the architecture of this Chinese temple based on an image found online. At this point in the process I'm more concerned with composition that color harmony, so not all the colors are really suitable. An invented Chinese style panel was created and the type placed within. It's not great work, but it's a start.

The original temple design is shot down and replaced with a different, somewhat less phallic (look it up) one. The new temple visually works better because its wider and anchors the design to the bottom of the logo. I'm a big fan of Michael Schwab's work and thought something simple, like the example of Chinese architecture set in a dark color with bold, in front of the Great Wall of China against a bright sky would work well. Personally, I like the top middle design and think it would make a strong poster.

Bottom Right: Early, bad logo with a shutter.

Eleanor suggested that maybe the logo should be even simpler and omit the architecture and Great Wall altogether, so I focused on just that. I came up with the examples above and made a series of them varying them in shape.

Eleanor tweaked the colors on the logo and was ready to use it. I think it works well both on a white and a black background.

The final logo in use on  Eleanor's website.

Eleanor Moseman currently resides in Shanghai, China. Read the often edge-of-your-seat true stories of her travels and adventures on The Wander Cyclist:

Look at Eleanor's photography on her website here:

Check out her new venture, China Photo Adventure:

You Can't Win 'Em All

A few moths ago I took part in the redesign of the internal company email newsletter logo where I work. They give out iPad's here for prizes, so of course I'm going to throw down. Our company's unofficial mascot is a penguin so he needed to be included in the criteria for the design.

Illustrate a penguin. Check. Vary the fonts, vary the cases. Check. Vary the colors. Check. Line everything up so it looks nice. Check. The first draft of the newsletter logo included the company name. Design is submitted and I can smell that new iPad...

By request, the company name was removed and subtitle text and weight is changed and bold formatting removed (which I don't like), but I think it's still a strong design. Design is submitted and I'm thinking that iPad is mine; I work on an acceptance speech.

The winning design (above) is chosen. 

Paintings

I've been doing quite a few painting in the last 9 months and this is two of the most recent ones. I like the bigger canvasses and will probably stick with 3 foot by 4 foot size. For the first time since I started painting, I took photos along the way to show the progress. 

This painting was a little different since I started with a few thick coats of cadmium orange hue applied with a small paint roller. After that dried I started drawing out the character with a thin black acrylic paint marker.

All the details have been drawn in and the white outline started. 

Thickening up the areas where the fill will be black.

Filling in the flesh tones.

The only difference between the above and below photo is the black fill. Makes a pretty huge difference.

Aside from the white outline, I think I could have stopped here and been satisfied with the results.

The finished painting.

The new Liquitex acrylic paint markers are phenomenal and have brought me back into making hand drawn art again. The paint marker colors are matched to the Liquitex tube paint.

Another one I worked on around the same time.

Not 100% satisfied with how this one turned out, so I might redo it as my next project.

Millencolin - Black Gold

Spaced Out

Five or six years ago I bought a big box of Lego for next to nothing. So I started out building what I would have made as a kid had I had the assortment and quantity of bricks I'm able to have as an adult. So I built a space ship. I brought it out to get some pictures of it. 

The front

The rear engines

The interior is fully detailed and the roof comes of in pieces revealing different areas for play. Growing up on Star Wars playsets, I really wanted a that playset feel to this. It's also how I built with Lego as a child. 

The cockpit / pilot area. Growing up especially on the old  Lego space sets, I'm very font of using lots of printed plates.

A view of the cockpit heading down the arched hallway.

I designed these computer areas by looking at lots of old government type computer centers. They're pretty fascinating as the computer (which was usually very large) was kind of built right into the utilitarian desk.

This area has some basic seating for passengers a few storage areas, another larger computer desk, and a simple desk with cabinets.

The back area of the ship.

Close up of one of the ship computers. Several different types of lego cables and hoses are strung along and through the walls to give it a work in progress feel.

Detail of cockpit. The style of the hallway was carried through the rest of the ship. Most of the ship was designed to be symmetrical, but occasionally I'd add or remove something to break up the monotony, like the one alert light on the right hand side.

Detail of work desk and cabinet in third area of ship. Well call them parts bins, overhead in the cabinets.

A small computer and a large display. The idea with the display was that it a giant MapQuest screen.

A pachy stowaway makes himself useful at the Craftsman work bench.

Making space for the stowaway in an unused area of storage space, Elephant Head spends his spare time listening to vinyl records.

Hallway view from back to front.

The entrance to the captain's bunk, which is actually about twice as wide as it appears here.

The engine area.

Each of the four panels can be individually lowered for access tot he engine.

Fuel area.

Various storage areas on the outside.

I tried to use at least a few old school, classic space printed bricks.