Art

Sometimes I paint, sculpt, draw, or do anything that I might deem art

Top 50 US Craft Breweries by Sales – The Checklist

Art, Beer, Life, Projects
1989 Topps Back

1989 Topps Back

Easy on the printer

Easy on the printer

The other day I saw this map that someone had created from a list of the top US craft breweries. I thought it was really well designed and looked great. But it was missing something… I was noticing how many of these breweries I recognized and had tried their beers. I thought, I want to check them off when I try their beers. Then I thought back to when I was a kid and collected baseball cards. So today I designed a checklist to be printed out and checked off. My inspiration was the 1989 Topps set, which I always considered my favorite. The first one is from the back of the cards, which might be a little hard to print out (but it is more accurate). The Second one is inspired by the front of the card and will be easier to read and print.

SloshSpot

Brewers Association

Skulls delivered for Halloween

Art, Projects
Carter Skull

Carter Skull

Hamill Skull

Hamill Skull

I finally delivered these last Monday. I’d been working on them for a long time. I got an email from someone who had seen them at Artomatic and wanted one for a unique wedding gift for a friend and one for herself. She wanted them to be mostly black with these specific colors. I hadn’t done a one with black as the main color. I had a few false starts and paint mistakes, but in the end I think they came out awesome.

Things I learned from these.

  1. Gloss black is cool by itself, but hard to do color effects over.
  2. I hate oil paints.
  3. Airbrushing is both harder and easier than I thought.
  4. Plaster casts can be brittle.
  5. I need to pay attention to knocker length. (that’s what she said)

Save the Date – Mark and Laurel's Wedding 2010

Art, Projects
GMU Style

GMU Style

Tie Died

Tie Died

Fall/Redskins

Fall/Redskins

We’re still deciding on the color scheme, but I think the design is almost finalized. I don’t really see the point of save the date cards, It’s not like we’re inviting so many people that we couldn’t just call a couple of them and tell them to spread the word. Also we’re still going to send you an invitation in about 6 months so this is really just some sort or reminder that we’re serious about this whole thing.

I’m not sure that Laurel will let me get away with making the invitations so non-formal so this was my chance to really have fun.

Fun with Photoshop tutorials

Art, Projects
Chi Blast

Chi Blast

I’m almost convinced that with basic computer skills and the ability to use the internet anyone can become a graphics professional. There are so many high quality Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials out there that the work is basically done for you.

I think we had a discussion about this with my painting professor back at Mason. She was of the mindset that it didn’t take any “skill” to be a digital artist because you couldn’t add emotion using more forceful “brush strokes” using the mouse. While I agree to some point, you do have to build up a vast knowledge of slider settings and a wide array of brush and texture files to produce high quality pieces.

I’m clearly not at the level I want to be yet. I’m at the level where I can take some of the pieces of these tutorials and combine them into something cool. So I made this background for Wade, I think it’s more my style than his, but… whatever.

Retro Illustration Tutorial

Delivering art is hard

Art, Projects

Well it’s not that hard. I mean all I really have to do is set up a meeting place and bring the piece with me. But the problem is that i’m not known for the details in my work. I should clarify that, before I started selling things I wasn’t worried much about the durability of the pieces. If something broke I could always fix it or at least reuse it for another project.

When I’m getting ready to deliver a final version I get nervous about the buYer noticing all the little flaws. But that hasn’t happened yet! That either means that they aren’t really flaws or I’m pretty good at covering them up. The skull door knickers are kind of good at that, they hide cracks and chips. The prints are different, they seem to how every speck of dust and scratch no matter how small. I’ve sold a couple of them and have never even had a question about quality. I could be worrying too much, or because I’m selling them at $60 the expectations might be set low.

Oh well. Off to deliver another print!

Getting Art done.

Art, Projects

Or at least that’s what I call it.

Laurel was working tonight and I had some projects that I needed to get done so I put on my art boots and got to work. Once again this camera sucks, but I think it’s good enough for this.

This did not turn out right

This did not turn out right

black and red "carter"

black and red

Purple and Green "Hamill"

Purple and Green

Old copper

Old copper

Pewter

Pewter

I still need to work on a couple of these, but I really had doubts about a couple of them. The red and black one is my favorite, I was REALLY unsure about the purple and green. I couldn’t seem to get it not to look cheesy. But a little time, some chances, and I’m really getting siked about the results.

Later!