Design and Illustration: July 2011

edgi

Below you can see some promotional material I made for edgi. The "Chocolate Covered Evil..." was an aphorism I came up with and I worked on the logo with a really talented artist named Cody Garcia. Cody came up with the skull as chocolate idea and did a great job executing the graphic. We put together some background designs that I used on the final shirt and on the promotional post cards.

At edgi I was also responsible for getting the shirts manufactured. Below you can see one of the finished shirts with the "Chocolate Covered Evil..." design worn by one of our models.

Concept Art

Above: this is a design concept for the logo of Panic Attack Press (© B-water Press).

Below are some examples of concept art I did at edgi. After coming up with the aphorisms I usually worked with the owner of the company and I would draw various quick thumbnail sketches until I hit upon something he liked. At that point I'd hand it off to a member of the art team to run with and we'd rework the design to get it to a final piece that the owners liked. It really was a team effort which I enjoyed a great deal.

All aphorisms and art © edgi

Aphorism: "Afflicted With Genius"

This one was tough, since visualizing genius as an affliction was kind of challenging. I came up with this aphorism though, so I kind of had an idea in mind for the visualization. I'm not happy with the font of the words- if I were to revisit this that would change.

Final colored artwork made by Cody Garcia

Many times I'd make several sketches until I hit upon something liked by the owners. Below are a couple of examples of my quick sketches which illustrate the process of getting to a final design.

Aphorism: I'm Having An Emotional Orgy
Instruction: Have a naked tattooed woman in the image

1) Above: first image drawn and used as a stepping stone to get to the final design.

2) Above: the final thumbnail approved by the owner.

3) Final colored artwork made by Chris Ortega

Aphorism: Victim of Bliss

1) Above: first thumbnail used as a stepping stone to get to final design.

2) Above: final approved concept design.

3) Final colored artwork made by Alisa Christopher

Photo Retouching

Here are a couple of examples of photo-retouching I did while I was working for edgi. The original photograph is on the left and my re-work is on the right. In some cases I'd create a background from scratch (as in the first image) and in other cases I'd take background photo's previously shot and re-work them for an image with the model (as in the second image).

edgi Graphic Design Work

I had an opportunity to work for a fantastic company called edgi a while back, and it really was a lot of fun! I acted as Art Director and Project Manager, and I was tasked with assembling an art team and creating the artwork and t-shirts needed for the company. I had a great time working with some wonderfully talented individuals! Below are some of the designs we created at edgi:

"Chocolate Covered Evil Is Easy To Swallow"
Finished art by Cody Garcia

"Bad Dog, No Biscuit For You"
Finished art by James Nagel

"Love War"
Finished art by Mathew Mossman

"I Give Great Heart"
Finished art by Christina Ortega

"Charity Water"
Finished art by Cody Garcia

"An Inconvenient Truth"
Finished art by Mathew Mossman

"Stand Your Ground"
Finished art by Mathew Mossman

Amazing Spiderman #101 : Pen and Ink

A while back I was contacted to recreate the famous John Romita and Gil Kane cover from Amazing Spider-Man # 101. It is definitely one of my favorite issues, so I really loved doing this. The person I made it for just wanted an original piece of hand-drawn art of that iconic cover- since the Romita-Kane original would be impossible to come by. So, I made what you see below copying the original as closely as I could. It is ink on 11"x17" comic book Bristol and it was a blast to make (I had the original '67 Spider-Man cartoon playing in the background the whole time)!

Below you can see the comparison of the cover at comic book size, and the recreation at 11"x17".

It really is one of the all time greats of comics. They just don't make them like John Romita and Gil Kane anymore!

Animation Recreations

Years ago I started out as an animator- before the digital days believe it or not! Sometimes I do re-creations of animated scenes that folks want to see. Here are a couple of examples of how it's done.

This example (below) I did as a gift for a friend who owns a local comic book store. He has his own character, named Captain Four Color, who is used to promote Flying Colors Comics.

I found a shot from the Justice League show that I though would work great for a Captain Four Color cel. The process starts by drawing the characters with the shading in the proper positions.

Next, I xerox the drawings onto clear transparencies and paint them using cel paints (from Cartoon Colour). It is necessary to mix the colors to get the right shades of skin tone and reds and so forth.

Above: here are the backs sides of the transparencies. When painting a cel (or transparency) you always paint on the back side of the print, and you paint in stages; painting one color then letting it dry and painting the next color butting up to it. By painting on the back side you maintain the detail of the line work from the drawing. By painting colors in stages you prevent colors from mixing on the acetate sheet. Also, once a color is dry you can paint on top of it without damaging the image. Cel paint is very viscous and leaves a nice thick coat on the transparency.

Above: here are the front sides of the painted transparencies. As you can see the integrity of the line work is in tact. Also, since these are transparencies and not animation cels, they can not be confused with original production cels used in an animated tv series.

Next, I used the background from the episode I was re-creating this moment from and Photoshoped out the characters. The final result consists of 2 painted transparencies on top of a printed background.