Started serious work this week on the second of the Doom crew, Badger lord of the forest.
There's a couple of ideas that I haven't quite nailed down yet. The scarf and name, I got from my friend Josh "Badger" Atack. The initial idea for the doom crew characters came from a group of artists that I was friends with over on CA, with the eight major antagonists being very loosely based on them. I also like the idea of him having these big baroque, Steam-punkish power claws. The bomb is just an idea I'm toying with. It's kind of a cool visual element, but I'm not really sure how it jives with the character.
Until tomorrow then, take care and be good!
Your friend
Jeffrey

Daily Life 009:Ultimate Alliance

This weekend Chet brought over Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Soooo much fun. I found myself thinking about the wreckage we created on the city streets of Latveria, and the super laser awesome combo moves often today while I was at work.

Daily Life 008: Waiting

Amy had a meeting and a conference after work today, so Abby and I sat outside and waited for her. Part of the time we spent just hanging out, watching the cars and peoples go by, and drinking milk. The rest of the time we spent playing with toys out of her satchel. She's not really even talking yet, and still she seems more grown up every day...

Finished Abigail wallpaper.

I've decided that I need a name for the Sunday section of the blog, since I have one for the other three days. I like the way, on the other days of the week I can write "Daily Life: ..." and then the subtitle for the post. Sundays it always seems out of context. If any of you all have an idea for the name of this segment, let me know.So I finished the Abigail promo piece. It sort of evolved as it went, and I learned a ton about Photoshop working on it. I LOVE layer masks. There was a time when I didn't see the point of them, but one of the great things about layer masks is that you can effectively delete a portion of your drawing without actually losing it, so you can always go back, and re-edit it. Another awesome thing about layer masks is that using a gradient on them, you can fade part of one layer into another. It just opens so many design possibilities.
I was almost finished working on this, (had converted it to a jpg, and set it as my desktop so that I could consider it for awhile... viewing the image out of the context of the actual editing software often helps to define problem areas. I guess because you can't focus your attention on just one area, you only get the big picture.) and decided to repaint the face. I looked up some reference pictures, and got to work. I redefined the planes of her face and fixed a lot of the yellow tone in her skin (adding more purple and red to it) And totally redid her mouth (Reshaped the lips, defined the upper teeth, and added lower ones.) I also cut out one of her eyes and resized and repositioned it, because it was pretty big. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it all. I realize I should probably go back in and work on her sweater and shoes a little more, but I'm not really sure how big of a deal that is.
Well, that's it for today. Tomorrow's a new daily life, so until then take care and be good.
Your friend
Jeffrey

DailyLife 007: Kicked Out

I got kicked out of the garage this weekend... After accidentally calling Theresa, Crystal. Twice.
Just to make sure that I understood just what was being asked of me, Crystal walked out to demonstrate EXACTLY how I should stand and also what expression I should carry. No standing meekly facing the corner for me.
No Sir!
Stand outside of the garage looking humbly in at the comfy chairs, the warm pipe and hot coffee. Listening to the laughter (product of stimulating and intelligent conversation) with out being able to join in. No Warioware on the Game Cube... Just tears and shame.
That's what I was supposed to do...

More bass playin' goodness...

It's been a busy week. Working on a freelance gig, getting ready for Archon at the end of the month, and I spent a large chunk of today moving stuff around in the studio, to make room for stuff from the office, which is going to be the new babies room.
So all you get is this sketch. Like I said last week, the pose on the sheep dog character was just too close to the one that I'd already used on the Goat, so I changed that around a bit, and I think I'm also going to use an upright bass (Like the bassist for The Reverend Horton Head, pictured on the left) as well, to give him a little more character. So that's it for this week. I'll have more goodies for you next time.
Take care and be good.
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life 006: Long Week

It's been a long, and very busy week. My wife is pregnant with our second child, and we've begun talking about some of the changes coming up in our lives. I have that feeling, like when you've just moved into a new house and you sit down in a little chair with boxes of your stuff in a place that's not really yours yet. I sit and let out a deep breath, and just feel a little... overwhelmed.

More pics of the band: The Bassist

Started work on the bassist for the animal band this week. The sheep dog. I wanted an animal that I felt you could rely on to be there when you need him to be, but that is also is pretty laid back. I don't know anything about real sheep dogs, or their temperaments, but this is the impression I get.
The image in the upper left is my working drawing that I pulled into illustrator to act as a guide as I create the final character. In the lower right hand corner is the bass guitar that I intend to use as a model for the final instrument for this character. In the center is a mockup of the final character (that I put way more effort into than I should have, but I wanted you all to have something nice to look at, and I'm putting off going to bed...).
I've started vectorizing his head, and am playing with how much (or whether I even should) of his eyes and mouth I should show. Also, I noticed that his pose is almost exactly like the keytar player, so I should probably think about that a little more before I get too far into this.
Thanks for looking, and until I talk at you again tommorrow, take care and be good.
Your friend
Jeffrey

What you Talkin' About: Jackson Pollock

I am not really a huge fan of the work of Jackson Pollock. I appreciate the idea behind it, and the experimental nature of it... but basing an entire body of work around this idea seems unreal. I'm not here to bash on Mr Pollock though. I have a design related story to tell, and it involves him.I got in the mail the other day (by other day, I mean about two month ago...) a brochure for Pantone. There was a design on the back of it that I thought was really pretty cool, lot's of swoops, flourishes and spatters. At the end of the day, this is really just controlled chaos, which got me thinking about Jackson Pollock. Maybe I'm way off base here, and I can think of other artists/movements that also relate to this statement, but here we go. I told my wife that I don't know whether we'd have design quite like this if it weren't for Jackson Pollock.

I graduated from college with a studio art degree, and I remember feeling like it was just as useful as a philosophy degree. (By that I mean not really useful at all.) So much of "Fine art" is wrapped up in ideas, and like them or hate them they do affect the world we live in, and do become a part of our collective unconsious. Sometimes it gets so easy to be elitist about what is good or bad art and design which is a dangerous trap to fall into, simply because it closes your mind to the dialog of ideas. I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to stop here. I hope you enjoy the design stuff I pulled off the interweb, and Jackson Pollock too.

Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend
Jeffrey

Daily Life 005: A gap in my afternoon

Every day last year as I passed through one of the neighborhoods on my way from work to pick up Amy and Abby, I would pass this older black gentleman. And every day, he would turn slowly and wave as I passed. It's over two weeks into the school year now, and I haven't seen him at all... It seems odd that I should really miss a person who I never really met. And it kind of makes me sad that that should seem odd at all.

Some More Progress: Almost finished

So I got some more work done on this Abby promo image this week. I finished all the coloring in illustrator.And then I moved over to photoshop to add in the highlights, and deepen some of the shadows as well as smoothing out some of the color breaks. I'm not 100% thrilled with with it. I think I need to do a little more work on the pants and face especially, but I'm not really sure where to go with with them right this second.
I started adding in some background elements too. Designing in photoshop is something that I rarely do, so this is a little bit of an adventure for me. If you all have any comments or suggestions about where I am, or where you think I ought to be heading, please drop me a comment. The plan for this page, is to be part of the website background, and I think also I will make it available as a downloadable desktop background too.
It's not nearly done yet, I have a vision for what it will look like, and I think I might do this weeks "What you Talkin' about?" segment relating to where I'm going with it. So'oooo please make sure to drop by for that little slice of heaven.

Okay, until tomorrow then, take care and be good.

Your friend
Jeffrey

Daily Life 004: New Boots

Abby got a new pair of boots from her Nana this weekend... She was very excited. We went to the Wal-mart after dinner, and she kept stopping to admire them.

Daily Life 003: My Bike

My Bike is now functional again! The plan is to drop me and the bike off at work every day, and then I will ride it in the afternoon to pick up Amy and Abigail. It's like getting back in touch with an old friend.

Daily Life Logo: A little process.

Designing logos for yourself is always hard. Okay, I mean for myself. I feel like when I'm designing for other people, 1. I usually have a clear idea of where I want to go and 2. There's always the "safety net" of the client's feedback.

At any rate... I've been working on a logo for the "Daily Life" section of the blog, and thought I'd share a little of my process.
The first two steps here are pretty much interchangeable for me. There's different type of "thinking while I'm working". I begin by generating ideas. This is either in my sketchbook (above), or on the computer (below) and both methods have their merits.
Working in my sketch book, I am not hampered by specific fonts, or images. I can work out of my head, trying out different shape combos with out having to figure out how to make that happen within a program. I can abandon an idea that's not working and write notes to myself without changing tools. I'm not as good at this method, but I am trying to get in the habit of doing it because I will not only get better at it, but I think that it will ultimately help me generate stronger, more original layouts.


When I'm generating ideas on the computer, I usually start with an idea of what types of font I am looking for, and "pull" samples that fit that. Going through the list also sometimes gives me possibilities that I hadn't thought of and which might push me in a new direction. Fonts are useful, and can be a great time saver, but sometimes can lead us into a rut where we aren't doing anything really new and original.
So I take my a font that I like (or two or three) and set them aside along with all of the other characters from that font. What I'm looking for here is shapes that I can use to embellish existing letters. One of the really nice things about working with text on the computer is that you can cut text apart as shapes, and then paste those parts onto other letter shapes to get new effects.
As I'm working, I'll add graphic shapes and maybe some images to turn the plain text into more of a design.
I came up with a few versions of the logo. The top one is a definite no. It's one of those ideas that worked in my head, but just didn't translate well. The rest... I like all of them pretty well, but am not really feeling WOWed by them yet. I'm leaning toward the one with the blocks and the ball, but think I need to do a little more work and find a few more ideas.
Until tomorrow then, take care and be good.

Your friend
Jeffrey

Daily Life 002: Darth Vader

Abigail recently discovered her mothers microphone/tape player. She doesn't seem to get that you're supposed to talk into it, so she sticks the whole microphone into her mouth and does a pretty decent Darth Vader impression... Then says UH! really loud.