Friday Practice

(Posted on Saturday, natch!)

I’ve been trying to draw through my forms. This is a tip gleaned from Scott Robertson’s videos on perspective. He suggested drawing past the point you’re trying to hit while still hitting it. Drawing “through” the form. I’ve been doing that when drawing in perspective, but I’ve started to use the technique in my life drawing with organic figures. Paired with the square-boundary, outline-your-figure philosophy, I feel like I’ve found a way of quickly, loosely jotting down ideas that suits my arm.

Fluid strokes are important in my style of work. Analog, most people “push” lines away from themselves. Digital, I tended to “pull” lines towards myself. I’d start fast, with light pressure, and slow down, with heavy pressure, if the line were, say, a feathered halftone.

Now that I’ve been drawing traditionally, I get more fluid, natural strokes with a “push” (again, dragging the stroke away as you draw). Working traditionally has taught me this, and It’s helped a ton. Draw from your shoulder and elbow, not your wrist. It takes some getting used to. You won’t be as good this way, likely, to start. The end result is fluid, pretty strokes.

Stock Carpenter Race

Art directed by J.L. Vara of Dutch Southern, it was a fun job to revisit the characters of Carpenter movies past. I’m a huge fan, from Thing, They Live, Christine, to Big Trouble in Little China and, guiltily, Ghosts of Mars, there’s little he’s touched that isn’t worth a tribute or two. It’s up for sale if you feel the same.

A little process from this guy:

Well, maybe not sleeps. But I bet they cavort. They look like the cavorting type.

The fishman tee design that garnered a lot of interest is for sale at Shirt Fight starting right now. Wee!

I’ve gotten a lot of requests for prints. I bought my own Ultrachrome-ink capable printer and realized the cost per print and time invested in printing and shipping packages was too much. I’d need to sell prints for more than I felt comfortable charging.

Instead of pricing prints at a level higher than many could afford, I’ve opted to partner with a print on demand company. After considering the available services, I settled on inPRNT.

The print quality is top shelf on high quality stock. They ship flat. Their profit sharing is the most generous I’ve seen for artists. inPRNT and I have an existing relationship both thanks to the handful, and growing, contigent of Stylus users selling prints there and my casual e-friending of it’s founder, a mutual forum dweller. It was a pretty easy decision.

I’m eager to make work that isn’t a product of art direction and multiple-party collaboration. If sales of these prints are supportive of the effort, I’d like to produce tees, vinyl toys, skatedecks – sky’s the limit.

Kingstrike launched today. Kingstrike seems a godsend for clients and designers alike. They list art for sale. There are plenty of sites which do that, but the site is structured in a unique way. Clients see prices. Transparency allows for ease of buying the art. Purchased shirts are immediately downloadable by clients. The designer uploads the high res file when submitting the design. This allows a client to be confident that a purchase made is an easily, instantly printable piece of art. I really think such a site could be grand for the community. I’ve been toying with designing more in advance of being requested for art; Kingstrike looks like a great way to test those waters. My first submission comes in the form of Howling at the Moon, a design that continues the exploration of painterly work. Essentially a light study, I really had a lot of fun making, and learning from, it. Fifteen-ish process images on Flickr.

I am chest deep in work at the moment, but wanted to briefly direct attention to my new Threadless tee for sale, Braaains!.

(Photos courtesy Threadless.)

I wouldn’t have bothered, but, after one day, it is close to selling out in a few sizes! You can pick it up for $12 during Threadless’ annual sale, on now.

Here’s an uncolored detail shot depicting the more than 30 unique faces that repeat across the shirt in a seamless pattern:

Update: Threadless sold out of a few sizes and is reprinting them. Apparently, during the first week or so, it is their policy to immediately reprint sizes that go the way of the dodo. With that in mind, a few more sizes are closing out. It’s fun to see the design received so positively!

Additionally, there is an interview with me up on their site now.