Well, hello again!

I’ve been working sixteen to twenty hour days for a couple of weeks. Multiple snow, skate, surf, and clothing lines. Band merch. Logos. Lettering. An art book for Comicon.

Almost all of it is NDA, though. I’ve posted a few things to Flickr that are public and a ton more set to private. I really wish I could show the work. Whenever I have a slew of jobs strung together with little reprieve, I feel I do some of my best work. It’s the singular focus on work that helps me make better stuff. It can be a detriment to my personal life, though, as my overly patient wife can attest.

In the meantime, though, let me ask you guys. Would you rather have Twitter like updates, with anything and everything that hits my Flickr feed coming over here, or more well rounded, almost narrative, posts such as this one?

I’ve been trying to post only when I can show the beginning, middle, and end of a piece. Something with meat to it. But, I can see the counter argument. “Give it to us as it comes. Just update something!” That sort of thing.

Anyhow, how about some illustrations?

Family Force 5 decided to make some changes to the final art from my last post. They wanted some text added to the image. Not a problem. Well, not a problem except for the fact that I took down my notes incorrectly. I wrote down a song title instead of the album title. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are both versions. This is the song title version:

And here is the corrected version:

Luckily, this isn’t a common occurrence, har!

Lastly, here’s my next tee in progress for them:

I think I’m on board for one or two more.

I’m working on a few tee designs for the band Family Force 5. There’s a pretty ravenous fan base for these guys, so it’s a fun brand to work with.

I’m trying out a few new things with my work. Focusing on bolder line variances more akin to traditional work is the main impetus for change here.

Christian from Stay Gold Clothing Company hired me to, er, flesh out a design he referred to as Kid at Heart. Essentially, the brief called for toys of my choosing to protrude from inside the heart. There were requests for playing cards, but I was otherwise left to my own devices.

Christian was super easy to work with. Aside from one or two minor changes, my original vision was left almost entirely intact. Essentially, the original brief hadn’t mentioned a need for the company’s name to appear on the shirt and that was added in. The composition didn’t even need a tweaking; everything worked out swimmingly! The final design is five spot colors and the shirt color and can be seen here:

All in all, I completed this tee in one full business day. I wish all jobs went as clean and satisfying! There are detail shots and some process after the jump.

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A diligent fan was nice enough to let me know that Adolf Jackson, a fellow who lurks on a forum I occasionally post tutorials and the like to (and proprietor of Rebel Clothing), has stolen my, and by proxy, my client’s intellectual property!

Here are my sketches and finished images:

And here you can see my Tastees ice cream sketches being improperly used and altered by Adolf for his Rebel Clothing line:

Swell! It’s times like these that I question the validity of being incredibly open about my process and techniques. I feel like privatizing my whole Flickr feed. Lame.

Update: I privatized my Flickr feed last night. I decided against that by this morning. Apparently, re-enabling your photos changes the URL. Brilliant, Flickr.

All the posts on my blog are now hosed. I’m going to fix a few posts a day. Le sigh.

Inchworm, a local (Chicago), indie band that, in their own words, “…mixes psychedelia, rock, and folky singer/songwriter stuff into a savory blend of original music,” recently hired me to create the art for their forthcoming EP, Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing.

Click the above image to enlarge.

Click the above image to enlarge.

Cover detail.

Back cover detail.

Inside detail.

Read about this job, creating for the music industry, and see some progress after the jump.

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