Rolling back the clock

I've recently been revisiting some of my old work done in Illustrator (thanks to Steph Laberis for reminding me that I really liked working that way!). For one reason, because I think in many ways it's the one app that helps me retain some of what I consider key qualities of my style -simple shapes and simple sweeping lines with a minimum of fuss. I still love getting all painterly in Photoshop, and I think going forward I will continue along a more graphic, yet still rendered approach, trying to strike some balance between what you see in these old samples and what you can see a few posts down in the Spoutwood logo work.

My only gripe about Illustrator is that it is really time consuming (for me) and lacks the spontaneity of dabbing and swiping away with a brush. The end result can sometimes seem a little to machined for my taste, but maybe if I leverage the best of both Illustrator and Photoshop I will get some tasty results.

Without further adieu, here is the old stuff:


My recently departed dog, Tonka. I kind of cheesed on the body and put my time into the head.


Probably the first thing I did in this style in Illustrator. In some ways I don't think I've surpassed it. There is a certain proportion to it that I've never quite captured since.


My magnum opus. Once upon a time, another lifetime ago I played Everquest (playing WoW these days). We had a guild forum and I made avatars for my wife and I. Well as soon as I did that, the whole guild wanted them. These were done over a period of time and range from quite good to really bad. Quality varied with how much I liked my guildy, how interesting their toon was and how fast I did them.


One of my guildies was game-wide famous for his guide to food crafting and asked me to make an image he could use for his on-line guide. I cheesed some of it, but mostly I like it. All the food ingredients were fun to do.


A shirt design with my EQ character -hate the horse, but like the overall design.


Another shirt, this time for my wife. I really like the way this one came out.

Sorry for all the old work. I know I had set the goal of showing only new, but sometimes you need to travel in the past to find your way forward and I think this has been a helpful journey for me.

And we have a winner

Alright, I know, I know, that same damn Spoutwood logo again....honestly, it's all I've been working with outside of work.

Anyhow, farmer Rob asked that I open up the logo and give it a bit more air. He felt (and rightly so) that the foliage was getting very dark and heavy and pointed to Bottecilli's Primiveria as a touchstone, lush, but open. I'm happy to have arrived at a final that we can all appreciate. The next thing will be getting some stuff up on Cafe Press. The logo has already been used in an ad in the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire mailer as well (more of my pro bono work for the farm).

Incremental Progress

So this isn't a big difference from the last post, but it's all I got this week folks. Last week's job was to reinterpret the Spoutwood logo in it's most basic sense -I re-arranged some type and did a new paint job on the pre-existing logo. That done, I think all involved felt that the overall impact wasn't as "brimming with life and organic goodness and the magic that is Spoutwood" that is could or should. Sometimes taking logo out of it's context and then amplifying what is there can underscore certain qualities that were there all along but not so obvious. I still think it works well as a simple version of the logo to use when you can't afford a lot of noise in the image.

That said, this week's take was geared towards taking it over the top with all the botanical flourish I could muster. I spent most of the day revamping my Eyvind Earle inspired Photoshop brushes in preparation for what was actually very little time painting. As a side note, I am really having fun building these brushes, and using them is a dream. They really let me focus on color and composition so much more than grinding out detailed drawings of things like foliage. Although my primary visual vocabulary is heavily influenced by Eyvind Earle, I see some of that Andrew Jones "shape sifting" quality emerging as well. This is getting so much closer to how I want to work. I'm really glad to have the opportunity to work this stuff out.

Logo

I've been asked by my friend Rob Wood to interpret the logo for his CSA Farm and home to the May Day Faerie Festival -Spoutwood Farm.

I'm kind of excited about this first draft. To be honest I don't even mind if it gets rejected b/c it let me really work out some ideas I've had about how I want to try a different approach to rendering and color than I have up to this point. I went with a very Eyvinde Earl inspired approach -graphic, but grounded in realistic if not stylized lighting.