Try to imagine a goat/flamingo mashup… This is a lot of fun!

This illustration went straight from brain to design and I skipped my sketchbook… I feel a little sorry for doing that, like I shortcut the creative process a little. I guess I jumped the gun.

I will be screen printing this design on a bright pink Tshirt  with the two colors of ink shown above. Should be fun!

Creating an Ad Campaign - An Info-graphic

The tricky part about any info-graphic illustration is uniquely interpreting the data in a visual way that imparts a new understanding of the process or concept. A picture is most definitely worth a thousand words.

The Final Hellephant design

I have, for some time, been threatening to illustrate a series of Tshirts based upon a little known “science” called cryptozoology defined as:

the study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (as Sasquatch) usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.

Simple Sketch

The notion of creatures made up of the stuff of fantasy is plenty fodder for imagination. The first sketch I came up with was the Hellephant.
I started with a very quick sketch in my Moleskine and then vomited about a dozen more that rushed over me. I think I will call the line of shirt CryptoZ-t’s. Cute.

After the sketch I started ‘sculpting’ the main bulk of the beast on a red background in Illustrator using the pen tool. I never expect my first shapes to have much bearing on the final image other than the main ‘flesh’ of the form. This lack of expectation frees up my strokes in order to let the right side of my brain dictate believable form.

Note: I planned this shirt on a red field because I think the shirt should be red in order to leverage the color for the final product. If I were to plan the shirt on a black background, I would have to pay for red in the screen printing process—I am cheap when it counts. The final count on colors used in this will be two—black and yellow.

Bulking the Form

I then begin to sculpt shapes that overlap the original bulk of the beast to define the legs and any other spots that look anemic in form. These shapes will later be merged with the original bulk to make a kind of silhouette from which I will carve the details of the Hellephant.

Pasted in Place and Stroked

The silhouette, when finished, is then copied and pasted in place (command F). The upper form is colored the same red as the background and then locked (command 2). I can now select the lower shape and give it a stroke of black (about 7pts). This outlines the upper red shape nicely. The stroke is converted to a shape and I unlock the upper shape.

Fixing Stroke Artifacts

Sometimes the stroke does funny things so I have to go and clean up some of the artifacts. I simply edit the nodes (shift c) and pull the shapes around to make a cleaner outline.

I further the structure of the black detail by sculpting more bits and baubles on the work. Little structure lines and shadows start to define the beast nicely. Then I merge the shapes to keep the clutter down.

Highlighting in Yellow

It’s time for the yellow highlights. I don’t strictly maintain a light source for illustrations like these, it is nice to cheat the detail loosely because I only have the deep shadow (black), the midtone (red) and the highlights (yellow) to work with. This is kind of a chiaroscuro process.

Sometimes the Path Gets in the Way!

Sometimes the actual vector shape that I am defining covers up the work I am trying to relate to. Changing the opacity of the path allows me to see where I am headed.

It is my aim to hide some shapes in all of these illustrations that somehow relate to the overall concept of the piece. In this work I will draft a hotrod style flame that works with the fur on the back of the flaming mammoth and then work around it for the rest of its fur.

Hotrod Flames!

This is a nice spot to round out the rest of the shadows. I go back in with black to lock in the weight of the beast. I also take this moment to label the work in Helvetica (or should I say HELLVETICA!).

I also noticed that I HATED the red I chose for the background… so I darkened it up a bit.

The final

This entire piece was done with stark tones (no gradients) and was rendered with the pen tool. But it’s not ready for the screen printer yet. At this stage I merge all of the paths, excluding the red background, and I selectively delete all but a certain colored path using the select menu. Each colored path (black, red and yellow) are saved separately so that each color can be translated onto its own screen for printing.

Splitting the Colors for the Screen Printer

After I get a few more of this line completed, I will be selling them to benefit a child I support through Compassion International.

The Sketchbook.

When I mention sketchbooks, the voices in my head immediately conjure up images of college freshmen sitting on the quad either furiously scribbling in a large pulpy tome or snoozing over a blank page in a bound book of some sort, firmly ensconced in an array of conte crayons and colored pencils. In most cases they have something in common:

• They are encumbered; It’s Inconvenient to Carry  A Sketchbook
• They lack meaningful inspiration and are frustrated
• They will probably give up the practice of sketching some day

Scribbles from my noggin

They are doing something worthwhile and the sketchbook is vitally important to what illustrators do. Why is it so often abandoned in a world of bezier curves and graphics tablets?

Just as writers write, Illustrators draw. We always need to be doing it… it feeds our creativity and helps us stay awake in church. But the barriers to convenient illustration are many.

It’s Inconvenient to Carry  A Sketchbook:

The first barrier is the Tome of Sketchy Inconvenience. You might be well acquainted with its immense spiral-bound girth or its dual purpose as a parasail. It’s too big! I have found much success with smaller sizes of sketch books in fact, the smaller the better (I have yet to test this past the six inch Moleskine I own… ). I find myself pulling out the smallest book I have to record daily events and sketch ideas for logos. I also just draw random junk that floats up on the shore of the turbid pool of my mind.

The smaller size allows me to bring the book anywhere. I also adore using mundane writing instruments such as ballpoint pens, sharpies, crayons etc. in the book. These media make my life easier because I don’t relish the idea of carrying a boatload of conte crayons and a spray can of fixative around in a satchel. Call it creative expectation reduction and rationalization.

They lack Inspiration:

Another barrier to constant illustrative practice is the notion that whatever we draw in our books is not good enough… it is a matter of inspiration. The freedom to scribble and scrawl what we want is somehow inhibited by our audience.

But who is our audience? I submit that it is only ourselves. In this realization we are one step closer to being able to create whatever the heck we want!

I also employ another method that will certainly freak out the classic book lovers out there… I once heard that, in a creative rut, an illustrator I respect would draw on paper that was already printed upon. Not willing to be outdone, I got a copy of a really old book with a low reputation (subjective, I know) and I began drawing all over the pages.  A scribble here, a doodle there – I would cut certain pages creatively and draw inspiration from a word or two… To this day I find it a truly freeing experience and have filled two REALLY lousy books with art that I truly love.

They will probably give up sketching some day:

The practice of carrying and using a sketchbook on a regular basis is cumbersome and “weirds out” the natives. It’s tough to be taken seriously when you whip out a goofy book full of coloring in a networking meeting or start scribbling in a tome during a client meeting. There has to some practical reason to maintain this vital and misunderstood practice.

Keepsake Shmeepsake

ThoughI am a creative creature, I never wanted to seem wimpy or whimsical. I never wanted to look longingly at my bookshelf and see row after row of old books into which I poured my teenage angst, my collegiate optimism and my mid-life depression. I needed a real reason to hold on to my old art. I believe I have found it. I keep notes from client meetings and write down mileages in my sketchbooks. I make important notes and jot down lists for shopping.

One of my illustrations...

After I fill the darn things to the brim with frivolous creation and mundane recollections as well as inspired artwork, I write the date on the spine and ram them into the book case. That way, if I ever get called into court or lose my ever-loving mind, I can recall things that happened long ago! This frees up hard drive space for more important things like recalling lines to old movies and remembering the lyrics to every 90′s song ever written.

Also, I like to cut (or rip) out interesting things that I see in advertisements and paste them into my books. This makes for a great repository of inspiration for later. I look back (not whimsically mind you) at all of the things that struck my fancy and find more ideas.

The sketchbook is one of my most important tools in my toolbox of illustration. Do you agree with me? Do you violently disagree? Do you want to tar and feather me for writing in mediocre works of fiction? I welcome your feedback.

Flash will be relegated to funky game sites and designers who don’t know how to code…

Recently I have been re-thinking my web design strategy and I ran across a blog that rated 10 things every developer should know to survive the next 10 years. While I agreed with most of the blog article I had to take exception to the last entry: “Flash”.

Flash is a great product that allows artists/developers like me to crank out animated and interactive sites that are dazzling and entertaining. I know how to use Flash so I feel safe for the next 10 years (according to the recent blogger) but I take serious issue with what Flash doesn’t do.

Flash makes neato looking animations but renders the page un-searchable by the search engines. What good is a great looking page that no one can find?

Similarly, Flash is not readable by the iPhone… silly to say at first, but when you see the mounting numbers of smart phones hitting the market and realize that 80% of those phones are iPhones… you feel the pressure to develop pages that work on the little buggers.

Lastly, based upon my knowledge of the market and that knowledge telling me that 60% of the viewers of web pages are still on Internet Explorer 6… I can only wonder at how many of those cavemen haven’t updated their Flash either! That is to say that if a view comes to a Flash enhanced site and their Flash software is not up to date, they will not wait around to see what you have to offer. BOUNCE!

In conclusion, I am redefining what I think web design will look like and I think Flash will be relegated to funky game sites and designers who don’t know how to code dynamic pages in CSS, XHTML, and Javascript.

Just my opinion.

A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a website icon, page icon or urlicon, is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage. A web designer can create such icons in several ways and many recent web browsers can then make use of them.

The Favicon is the little icon you see on the open tab of the web page you are currently viewing… The one you are on should look like a navy blue ‘w’. Well, Midsummer Night’s Design now has one… I almost forgot it too. It is easy to overlook such a thing. This is why I am commisioning my Project Manager (love you!) to start a checklist of ‘often overlooked items’ in web design… this one goes to the top! When the list is finished (which it may never be!), I will post it here.

The Favicon is not SO important so as to draw great attention… but something does seem wrong when it is NOT there. Such a little thing lends a lot more credibility to a page.

Just a note to those who wish to tinker with favicons in your design… check out a google search on the subject and use the snippet of code in the head of the page… without it, some browsers will not use the favicon. Also — there are favicon generators on that search. It makes it idiotproof.

I find that the visibility of the Microblog allows clients to see into what goes on… real time! If a client sees a post that says, “The layout is wooping my butt… I don’t do kids books often enough.” and that is their project… they have more insight into the work than they would normally have. Now, I will probably endeavour to keep the posts more positive than that, but clients deserve transparency in this post-modern age.

The transparency not withstanding, the constant updates of the Microblog also increases relevance for search engine crawlers. SEO (search engine optimization) is a bit of a beast as it is… I still have to work on those meta-tags, but any help I can get is worth it!

Don’t forget the geek factor! I use the Twitterverse to debug and troubleshoot problems on a daily basis. If you see an “@” symbol in front of someone’s name (during the twitterfeed), that means I am replying to them; it is like a direct message. I will ask other geeks out there how to do things or ask why YOUR page doesn’t work on some browsers… it is an open community.

To summarize:

• Microblogging maintains transparency
• Microblogging increases SEO compliance
• Microblogging is geeky

I encourage you to check back in on my feed. It might give you some insight on how well your project is going or just provide some amusement in any other event.


]]> http://crumart.com/2008/06/24/midsummer-nights-microblog/feed/ 0 midsummernightsdesign http://crumart.com/2008/06/24/hello-world/ http://crumart.com/2008/06/24/hello-world/#comments Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:45:33 +0000 midsummernightsdesign ]]> Welcome to the blog of Midsummer Night’s Design.

This is not an attempt to break free and make loads of cash while experiencing intense personal freedom. It is a project intent on expressing my love for illustration and web design. It is patently obvious that I don’t work for free, but my passion for my work will fuel great creative process for clients as well as keep me sane (the cycle – It is amazing how this works!)

Current Projects:

Progeny Construction – A custom deck and fire pit builder in Colorado Springs. Richard is the owner and a good friend; Rich knows his image is in need of an overhaul and he has ZERO web presence. We are working on the image of his company and will branch out to web design within the week. The page should be about 4 deep.

Houses of the Blooded – Local LARP:

Live Action Role Playing is a phenomenon that most of us are not even aware of. I am designing a site to bring such awareness as well as player support to a local group. This site should prove to be demanding as there needs to be some interactive components. We are still in fledgeling design phases now…


]]> http://crumart.com/2008/06/24/hello-world/feed/ 1 midsummernightsdesign