Proportions, human figures, shading, and perspective are all
important art skills that I continually try to improve upon as an artist. I
know that the only way to get better is to practice, practice, practice. So for
the past three months I’ve spent approximately two hours each night drawing
human figures. As I don’t have access to nude models I instead used a program
call Poser 7.
With Poser 7 you can create human models and then
animate or photograph them in any position you want. You have 360 degrees of
camera angles and various types of lighting. Due to my limited knowledge with
the program, I am using pre-made models that came with the program.
Aside from practicing the skills I wanted to
improve, I also wanted to try out different shading techniques and use tools, such
as markers, which I haven’t used in a long time. I plan on doing more in the future so stay
tuned!
For
the past three years I’ve been making my own Mother’s Day cards. I started doing
this after our local Hallmark stores went out of business. I also figured that
a hand made card would be more personal than a store bought one. I’ve posted
the covers of each card below.
2016
2017
2018
Approximately a month ago a friend of mine, who
is in the US Air Force, contacted me and asked if I could design a patch for
his squadron. A few things he requested for the design was to include a grim
reaper, a B-52 Stratofortress and a few other details. Almost immediately the idea for this design
below came to mind. I wanted to create something
you might see on a heavy metal album cover. This patch went through a number of changes before
I achieved the final design. Initially I
had bombs dropping from the plane but decided that visually it was too busy,
and the lightning enhances the impression of a heavy metal motif. A few constraints I had were the final size of
the physical patch, 4” round, and the level of detail the stitching machines can
achieve. Overall I am satisfied with how
my first commission turned out.
Update: Well, it turns out my friend’s squadron
never had the patches produced. However it’s not all bad news. My friend went
to a store on the base and had them produce a single patch. The patch you see
below is made by hand. The colors are different from the original design because
the shop had limited color options. Honestly, I think it turned out really good
all things considered.
When creating a logo
I enjoy coming up with variations on ideas, and utilizing different historical art
periods for inspiration. This time the subject of my new project was a local Italian
restaurant. I posed myself the question, if they hired me to redesign or create
a new logo what would it look like? For my first design (starting with the top
row, far left) I wanted to create a logo in the style of a Victorian
advertisement. I don’t often get the chance to make drawings that elaborate and
I feel like it would work well with the current interior of the restaurant
(wood trim and glass chandeliers). With the next logo I wanted to exude the
look of classical roman art with a bit of art deco thrown in. It is a relief sculpture
of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, which is offered at Red Rose. The last logo
in the top row I wanted to relate to the physical look of the restaurant. In
the front of Red Rose Pizzeria there are brick arches over each of the windows
and I thought what if there was a stained glass sign inside one of the arches. Moving
to the next logo on the bottom row (again viewing left to right) I wanted an imperfect
look, the look of an ink stamp. It’s simple enough to be printed on employee
shirts and pizza boxes. The next logo I wanted to tie into the new casino being
built next door and emulate a 1960’s Las Vegas feel. Plus neon signs are pretty
good at grabbing people’s attention. The last logo is supposed to be a simple
graphic design; I imagined it possibly being turned into a sticker that could
be put on pizza boxes or handed out. It’s a similar idea to the ink stamp logo.
In May of 2016 our local AHL hockey team, the
Springfield Falcons, were relocated to Tucson, AZ. Not long after that Springfield, MA was awarded
a new team, with a new name and a new logo. The team name was changed to the ‘Springfield
Thunderbirds’. Although the logo had
already been designed the idea of creating a hockey team’s logo excited me and so
I set to work making my own set of logos for the Springfield Thunderbirds. For my first two designs (top row left and
middle) I focused on the mythology of the thunderbird and emulated the design
style of the northwest Native American art. With the next two designs (top row right and
bottom row left) I wanted to incorporate the bird of the previous team’s name
(falcon) and energy (thunder). The art
styles are that of the hockey logo vector art and Pop art. Finally with the last two logos (bottom row
middle and right) I wanted to stay away from the bird motif. For the first (bottom middle) I came up with
the idea of having a hockey player driving around on the ice in a 1961 Ford
Thunderbird. In the last logo (bottom
right) I wanted to stay away from the theme of thunderbirds and focus on the Spirit
of Springfield so I incorporated the city skyline and a Gee Bee Model R plane
(which used to be built in Springfield). As I am a fan of the Art Deco style I emulated
that in creating this logo.
