Word of the week : DISCOVER

I decided to use an old Peanuts comic I saw on the web as inspiration for this drawing. I wanted to try to get the look and feel but not completely copy it so I made sure not to look at the Peanuts image again until the drawing was completely done (when I then added the Dell logo). I think it came out alright. I wanted it to look like an old kid's discovery-type mag but I think I should have added more gadgets hanging from the kid (compass, etc.) to really get the idea across. I think it fell a little short.

Of course the Peanuts is better but who could top Schulz (even though he probably had nothing to do with such a lowly affair as the comic book reprints). The Peanut's color palette stands out a lot more then mine - and of course the characters are better even if you had never seen Charlie Brown before.

"Aren't you a little short to be a Stormtrooper?"

This is actully for a combination of 2 words. The word two weeks ago was "Twist" so I immediately thought of the extremely talented Barry McGee (aka:Twist). You can see samples of his work here. I decided to emulate his style a bit using a simple and contrasting color palette. However, as I was visiting Japan at the time, I missed the deadline and fell over into the "Geeky" week. This is where ANYTHING Star Wars comes in...

This grungeness is substituting for the simpleness of the drawing (aka: a drawing cheat).

Illustration Friday: Rejection

Not sure the link between this image and rejection. Maybe the cute girl on the other side doesn't feel the same.

Nintendo will tear us apart.

For the word: Broken.

No, I never did fall out of love with Atari. We both just grew apart. Why the drawing then? I have no friggin' idea. Kind of a throw-away drawing for me this week. Must. Stop. Using. Grunge. Brushes.

Spiffy new header this week! You like? Any and all Illustrator-Bloggers should create one. Goggle for instructions. Here's a good quicktime tutorial to try (though it left a few questiuons blank for me that needed to be filled elswhere).

Cheers.
David

Don't touch that dial!

OK, now I'm behind again - but I'm catching up fast.

The word this week: Remote.

Can't get the whole distressed-look out of my head. Everything looks so artificial and clean without it.

So even though it says Sloth, I did draw this for Remote. Notice all the remotes on the floor? Back in the day you had a friggin' remote for everything; TV, video, cable, etc. This was how I spent half my life growing up. Good times, good times. I wonder if you can tell something about the individual by whether they interpreted remote as "secluded and far off', or as a "TV remote". I don't think its as easy as "some people watch too much TV" 'cause I don't even watch TV anymore.

Tell next time.

War is baka!

Alright! I did it, I finally caught up.

The word for last week was: Lost.

I continued with the propaganda poster theme but in Japanese for a bit of excitement.
(and I have to recommend: http://www.library.northwestern.edu
/govpub/collections/wwii-posters/ for great examples)


Can you believe that just minutes after finishing the original art, I spied the posters on a wall - and they looked liked they had been there for ages. Amazing! : )

Chili Willy

Only one to go and I'm all caught up!

The word for this one was: Cold.

As I thought about ideas for "cold", the image that kept coming to mind was those 50s brand-characters like Mr. Freeze so I decided to just create my own fake brand character so say hola! to your new best amigo: "!Senior Helada!"

And yes, its probably quite obvious to many of those bilinguals among you that I don't know Spanish so all translations can be attributed/blamed on Babblefish!

Any suggestions on the proper translation is of course quite welcome.

Until next time!

Woodstock remembered

OK, I'm slowly catching up.

This one is for the word from a couple of weeks ago; Float.

I love the headache-type effect created using layers. For some reason, this has a real airline-ad-in-a-1960s-Playboy-feel to me. Not sure why. Maybe the font-type coupled with the saturated colors. As for the text, Float Away just didn't have the same ring as Sail Away.

'Tell next time: Keep watching the skiis!

Cheers,
David

MIA!

Sorry, Its been forever since I've updated this blog. I've been working on a Flash animation that has been taking up quite a bit of my time (see it here: runt.com/hv.htm).

Anyway, I'm going back and catching up on the illustrations I missed - in no particular order. This one is for the word: Fresh.

Originally, the idea was a guy getting fresh with the ladies. This slowly morphed into a parody of one of those WWII propoganda posters used to keep GIs from catch clamitia and the like. I should have made the guy a little old-school sailor, that would have been really cute. Anyway, more to come very soon! enjoy!

Oh, and must I really point out how terrible I am at drawing the ladies?

Jailhouse Rock

So the theme for this week was: Escape.

As usual, I was going to take the high-road and come up with a concept that utilized the word Escape in its most esoteric and high-minded meaning. As you can see that didn't happen. I really wasn't pleased with the way this illustration came out at all, hence all the grunge effect thrown on. I love doing grunge brush stuff. I'm late on the band-wagon so all these effects are pretty new to me so I apologize that the image becomes almost hidden behind all the distressing going on. I'm gonna cut-it out next time around.

As for the illustration, I wasn't happy with the background, especially the jail. Now that I think of it, I should have blurred the background a bit (Yeh, more grunge!). I like the cops but I cheated a bit on the shadowing under them because I couldn't really get it right. The little prisoner is cute. I feel really bad for the guy. Maybe he was just in for a marijuana bust or something.

This drawing actually reminds me of an ad I did to run in Slap, a skateboarding magazine awhile back. They refused it because of its content though which I thought was BS. Bastards. I love that ad. You kind of have to look at it for a few seconds to see all of what's going on. Lemme know if you think its too much.

Jacques Cousteau

The word for this week is: Depth.

I originally intended to do an illustration using the meaning of depth as "deep in thinking." I had this sketch of a guy at a table babbling on like your typical coffee-house philosopher. Of course his companion was bored stiff. I didn't like the way it was shaping up though so I fell back onto the more popular meaning of depth, as in a degree of altitude.

I think the outcome is O.K. I'm doing the lines a bit too thick still. The colors work but the palette isn't very special. Maybe a bit too feminine even. I should have tried more muted blues and greens like you really see in the ocean. Live and learn. The water ripples aren't bad. Just a few brush types with a motion blurred plopped on.



Actually, the funnest part was doing the research on the old diving suits. Some of the very-early prototypes are insane looking.

Ciao!

Star Wars Kid

This week the keyword is: Roots.

Influenced by the I AM 8-BIT gallery show (www.iam8bit.net), I had originally intended to draw a modern computer-gaming character, holding 2 original gaming characters (like a pac-man and a Mario). The only problem was I couldn't think of a universal modern gaming character. I was gonna try the Doom 3 guy, in his Space Marine outfit but its not very recognizable. So I just gave up and decided to go for something a little simpler: my roots. A 70s nerdy kid in all his glory. Note the yellow Star Wars tee. They looked great on white skinned skinny kids. And yes, I did read Electronic Gaming magazine. And the Dungeon (you in-the-know will remember that original AD&D mag).

Boy am I a loser.