Project Progress : Rad Poster Update

Art, Projects

In an effort to keep motivated I’ve decided to post regular updates about my projects that are still in progress. I’m going to do this for a whole bunch of projects when I move into the new house, but for now the most ambitious project I have on my plate is the Illustrated poster for the 1986 movie RAD.

I made a huge amount of progress in the last couple weeks. These drawings are all clearly preliminary as I will probably go back into them an add or take away details depending on how big they will be in the final print. I’m trying not to get too excited about it because I have a tendency to lose motivation when I can see the project being complete in my mind. But I have a plan for this one so I’m trying to be more organized. I have full color illustrations complete-ish for 5 characters on the poster.  I’m posting previews of three more of them below.

Sgt. Smith

Bart Taylor

Mrs. Jones

Society for the Standardization of Blog Navigation Links

Projects, websites

Society for the Standardization of Blog Navigation Links

Mission Statement:

Previous and Next are confusing when reading a blog. Does that link mean back to the “previous” page I was on or to the “posts that are previous to these”.  It’s the same as using “Right” and “Left” on a ship, it can have multiple meanings. We are presenting the new “Starboard” and “Port” of the Internet. Older for older posts. Newer for newer posts. Simple.

Everybody wants stickers! Right!? Had a little free time and I whipped up this sticker design for my new fake movement. After the break there’s another design, plus smaller versions for blog sidebars.  I might fine tune the design a little, but these seem to get the point across.

Top 50 US Craft Breweries by Sales – The Checklist

Art, Beer, Life, Projects
1989 Topps Back

1989 Topps Back

Easy on the printer

Easy on the printer

The other day I saw this map that someone had created from a list of the top US craft breweries. I thought it was really well designed and looked great. But it was missing something… I was noticing how many of these breweries I recognized and had tried their beers. I thought, I want to check them off when I try their beers. Then I thought back to when I was a kid and collected baseball cards. So today I designed a checklist to be printed out and checked off. My inspiration was the 1989 Topps set, which I always considered my favorite. The first one is from the back of the cards, which might be a little hard to print out (but it is more accurate). The Second one is inspired by the front of the card and will be easier to read and print.

SloshSpot

Brewers Association

Fun with Photoshop tutorials

Art, Projects
Chi Blast

Chi Blast

I’m almost convinced that with basic computer skills and the ability to use the internet anyone can become a graphics professional. There are so many high quality Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials out there that the work is basically done for you.

I think we had a discussion about this with my painting professor back at Mason. She was of the mindset that it didn’t take any “skill” to be a digital artist because you couldn’t add emotion using more forceful “brush strokes” using the mouse. While I agree to some point, you do have to build up a vast knowledge of slider settings and a wide array of brush and texture files to produce high quality pieces.

I’m clearly not at the level I want to be yet. I’m at the level where I can take some of the pieces of these tutorials and combine them into something cool. So I made this background for Wade, I think it’s more my style than his, but… whatever.

Retro Illustration Tutorial