A Quick Peek, As of November 2011

As some of you might remember, I posted a blog a while ago (partially) revealing how my list of Designs that Need Doing was looking as of that time. Currently, it is looking something like this;

Designs that Need Doing:

* I saw a gun in her hand (LIGHTS)

* Food pyramid

* Devil dog beta type

* Next needs up (demon)

* Any backstabber

* Any blood burst

* (something with spiders!)

* A spider ate my homework!

* "SPIDER BOSS"

* 4 Horse Men

* Davilaisms

* *BIGGEST* FAN!

* REFRESH!

* Cupid Kills (Male/Female)

* [omitted] Ninja (!!)

* "The Creation of Next"

* "I'm [omitted]"

* [omitted] can be deceiving

* NEXT's face

* Next Needs Up spider's face

* Girl with headphones, and [omitted]

* NEXT NEEDS UP tribal

* "SPIDER"

* You can't [omitted]

...yeah. I know.

These are all either very general, or censored to the point of illegibility, but it's for a reason. As I mentioned in the previous "quick peek" post, I'm kind of protective of my ideas, and more so if I feel like they're pretty original, so that is what's behind the omissions. Sure, some are spelled out pretty clearly, but for those I believe that either no one would be able to figure out what I mean by that, or that no one would visualize it in the same manner, thus making them irrelevant to protect.

Something I feel I should note, is that I've created designs since that were never on this list. They were designs which I felt inspired to create right there and then, and literally did, so I had no reason to scribble them down on the list. Others, which are text based, I've already begun working on, and left saved for later. Their nature of starting out as lines of text made it so that I simply opened a new Illustrator file, pasted or wrote in the text, saved them, and closed them out for later.

I can't tell exactly what design my next blog will be going over, since....well, I'll have to look at the design creation chronology to figure out which is next in line, but I can say a little about the design I will be working on next, and the image to the right, used only for research (and not referencing) purposes, is one of the obscure hints that I am willing to give at this time. It's going to be a pain in the ass, and I don't know exactly when I will be done.

The reason being that I will be trying to make a very modular, almost global design. It's very obsessive, this idea, but I don't feel right making it otherwise. So, as you might know, the thing with modularity is that many parts have to be made in preparation, and just the thought of that is what I'm hung up on at the moment. I'll probably get over it once I actually start to crank it out. Currently, I'm still stuck in the drafting stage, concepting, brainstorming, researching, consulting with artist friends,and deciding what the best route forward will be.

(I write a lot, don't I?)

Anywho, that's about as much obscure nonsense as I feel like writing for today. Stay tuned. Things should get interesting! Carry on for now.

J, out...

RELOAD! Reactions

(Reactions besides immediately reloading...)

Click image for larger version

This is a family of designs that I feel gets...less reactions than I would like. As much as I might tout my obsession with my arachnophobia, RELOAD! is kind of my flagship design. And even when they do get reactions, I always get a sense that the people reacting to it are not fully aware of what it is that my designs are depicting. As some of you may know, the whole premise behind my RELOAD! designs—which up to this point include the GI1911 2.0, GI1911 1.0 (pictured here), and another which I've yet to present in a blog—feature semi automatic pistols with their slides locked open, signaling that they've run out of ammo. It's that little detail which I feel people don't quite understand, which is fine, but still an unfortunate wasted of human visual recognition capabilities. I think people would enjoy or appreciate it a little more if they were able to connect the text with the imagery.

I suppose that Hollywood is partly to thank for its continual depiction of pistols who only indicate that they are empty when the trigger is pulled and they go click. But mostly, it is the reality that most people don't have any real understanding of how firearms function. I mean, Hell, even during my time in service, a majority of us were taught only as much as we needed to know about the firearms that we handled on a daily basis. Even the manuals I read incorrectly stated that Condition Two "does not apply to the M9 Service Pistol". What?!


But, it's Ok. I understand that most people might never need, or care, to know all of these things. Like the cycles of operation (firing, unlocking, extracting, ejecting, cocking, feeding, chambering, locking), or the differences in between a recoil operated gun and a blowback operated gun, as examples. I get that not everyone's brains are sponges for information. But with that rant (and my revelation that I've got a bit of a hard-on for the guts and inner workings of firearms) out of the way, I think you might have a better understanding of some of the...validation that I felt when the following happened. These are the exact words that I posted as a status on Facebook on the 12th of this month, minutes after it happened:

"So, I'm walking to get my mail, and I notice two Sheriff's patrol cars parked up ahead. I notice that one of the deputies has his passenger side's door open, and he's pouring some kind of solution onto his hands and scrubbing away. (Probably just got done busting someone's head open or something.) Anyhow, as I get closer, he faces in my direction, and then keeps starring at me. I can see he's squinting his eyes even. So I'm thinking 'Grrrreat! What now?...', and right when I'm about 10 feet away he says 'Nice shirt!' So I respond 'Thanks!' while thinking 'Whew.' Figures though, that it would take someone who carries a pistol around all day to appreciate my 'RELOAD!' design..."

Hahaha. I'm such a little kid, huh? The specific design I had on was the one pictured above, in all white and on a black t-shirt, so it's what I'd call high visibility. Speaking of, I've actually been thinking of updating the 1.0 design, since it was one of the very first for Flex printing vector designs that I've made. I've gotten working within the restrictions down to more of  a science now, so feel like I could do a better job. I'll probably leave it alone until I've cranked out several more of the designs on my list though. I've got enough on my plate just with those as it stand. Well, that's about all I have or this update. Be sure to swing by the shop if you want any of these designs for yourself, and to see what's new. (I'll probably get around to updating the look in that place soon here as well.) So, until the next time, y'all get out here!

J, out...

Next Needs Up: "Demon(s)"

(Have I mentioned how much I love titles? Coming up with and giving them to things, namely? You should see the files in my computer. Sometimes [...] sits here trying to find my pictures so she can reminisce on something and she just gets frustrated at how little sense it all makes to her. Haha.)

Anyhow, here's the first design entry in the Next Needs Up series. (But be sure to stop by and read this post first, if you haven't already gotten acquainted with Next Needs Up's origin story.)

Click image for larger version

Here, to the right, is the official (*cough*!) design document...

So, Ok, maybe it isn't so "official" looking. Or even very clean and thought out! (Excuse alert! Brace yourself...) But I'm not on a "team", so I've got little need to create accurate visualizations of what I have in mind for anyone else to follow. I've pretty much got what I want fully visualized in my head, so a quick, messy sketch like this one, with the only "corrections" or "revisions" being substituted by chicken-scratchy notes works perfectly.

If you took a second to read said notes (if you can read my handwriting...), then you should be getting an idea of what Next Needs Up's "essence" is. If I had to put it into as few words as possible, I would have to say that it is tension, discontent, confusion, and anxiety, overall. He's a character that I've always imagined would look shaky and jittery at all times, stopping to look over his shoulder every so often. It's possible that it was born from my arachnophobia. (Which, I should probably note, a friend mentioned that she doesn't believe that I'm scared of spiders very much anymore, after spending the last few years obsessed with them. She might be right.)

Click image for larger version

And here is Next's  full body, simplified "icon" rendition, based on the above shown sketch. Not that it wasn't already a streamlined character, but these lines capture the basest essence perfectly, I feel. I am pretty happy with it as an icon for Next. I called this design "Demon"...at first. If you noticed, the title makes mention of there being a plurality of this "Demon".

Some artifacts, that come from my design process when working with vectors, created some questions in my mind, as to which "Demon" version I should choose to represent Next with. I will attempt to explain this as plainly as possible. Basically (you know you're in trouble when I start a sentence with that word), to make the negative spaces that form the eyes and the fanged frown, I used curves with no fills and strokes set to about 0.04 of an inch (Spreadshirt's minimum size for space between elements) in size. With them, I made the circles for the eyes and the lines for the frown and fangs on a layer on top of the solid shape that I had set down for the body. I then flattened the transparency to turn the strokes into outlines, then selected them and the body shape and merged them using the pathfinder window. (Found under "Window > Pathfinder", or by hitting "Shift + Ctrl + F9") The strokes were colored differently from that of the body shape, so when I merged their outlines on top, everything on the body shape that was underneath them was subtracted. And, since they were a different color from the body that they were merged to, all I had to do was select them on their own, with the "direct selection tool", delete them, and voilà!

Here's how the design looked by this point. The leftover circles in the eyes, and the triangular shapes in the fangs are the "artifacts" that I mentioned. Next, again with the direct selection tool (shortcut key "A" in Illustrator), I proceeded to select the circles in the eyes and deleted them. No qualms there, since the big, empty eyes communicate what I wanted the design to perfectly. But then, I selected the triangular shapes, deleted them, and stopped and thought, "Hm...does it look better with or without the triangular shapes filling that space?" So, I undid it and stared at it for a while. Then deleted them again. And undid. And deleted again. Finally, I copied it over to compare them side by side. Still undecided, I took a picture of them with my cellphone and sent it to several of my friends, in hopes the they would help me defeat my indecision. (One of them being Adlyn, of course. With her being Next Needs Up's "godmother" and all...) The verdict was mostly mixed, but one of the people who replied asked why I couldn't use both. Brilliant! Why couldn't I think of that?!

So I uploaded both, naming the one with negative space for eyes and fangs "Demon Alpha", and the one with shapes for fangs "Demon Beta". Not long after, I decided to also make one with shapes for both its eyes and fangs, and one with only shapes for eyes available, and renamed the whole bunch. Here they are, from left to right. Demon Alpha, Demon Beta, Demon Delta, and Demon Gamma. What a happy (but tense, confused, and anxious) family, huh?

Click image for larger version

They're currently available as Flex prints as either singles, pairs, or trios, grouped by type, and arranged horizontally. (For example here's an example of a trio of Alphas.) That's all I have for this one. I'm not making any promises or predictions, but I'm going to try and crank out as many posts as possible so I can catch up to all of the designs which I've yet to cover. Feel free to swing by the shop if you want to sneak a peek at any of these. (Or purchase a t-shirt or accessory with the design on it to see it in its full glory.) Until the next time, y'all carry on, I'll be going to sleep!

J, out...

Next Needs Up: The Origins

(Some needs must be met, as some origins must be known...)

This post has been coming for a long, LONG time. Not only that, it's been a while since my last post. I've actually been sitting here and reading back through some of them in an effort to get myself back into the groove of it, so please bear with me.

This is a tale of a creature  that was born in the depths of my subconscious. How it got there is somewhat mysterious. But even more mysterious than that, is why it got its name. That is something that in all honesty, I am still unaware of to this day, and I am almost certain that it is a question that I will never be able to answer. Its name is "Next Needs Up"...

Click image for larger version

I cannot say exactly when it came into being, since I do remember there being prior instances of me drawing it which I do not have on hand, but the drawing on the cover of this notebook, which I began to use for a "Contemporary Ethics" class in early October of 2009, is the earliest recorded instance of its appearance that I have available. This "face" came from a smiley that I began using regularly around that time. Some of the girls in school and I would text back and forth a whole lot back then, and we'd always invent these crazy looking smileys. The one that this creature came from is ":E". As you can see, it's got the beady eyes, and the distinctive three fangs.

The next known instance is found as a doodle on a loose sheet of paper with all sorts of scribblings on it. The presence of a doodle labeled "duodenum" on this page leads me to believe that it was all done during "Intro to Human Anatomy", which I was taking during the same quarter as the aforementioned ethics class. Those doodles and scribbles are how Cindy and I communicated (don't ask) during many of our classes, hers being in pencil and mine in ink in this example. As you can see (as if I hadn't make it plainly obvious), the creature is present again, and with a whole body this time. The changes that it has gone through up to its final iteration are not many. It is basically more rectangular now, as seen in this instance (whose original file I cannot find) found on my Facebook, dated November 22, 2010.

Now that Next Needs Up's (Adlyn and I began calling him "Next" for short.) physical origins have been explained a little, I'd like to get to the subject of its name. The mystery surrounding this is something that interests me greatly, since my curiosity for it will never end, and it has probably given Next a lot of appeal for me. Just the origin of its name is something that has pushed it into being a character that I will continue to proliferate, maybe in hopes of growing to understand it. Anywho, on to the name...

Click image for larger version

It was a chilly night, and I was having many, many drinks with friends. The occasion: My friend Adlyn had lots of left over alcohol, and she enlisted my help to try and get rid of it...properly. In the morning, while we were all sitting around eating breakfast and laughing about the previous night, she showed me something that I had doodled the night before, and she was laughing at how strange it was. It was on a page on the very back of one of her school books, and it is the image you see to the right.

This...confused me. A lot.

(I'd like to note that I just took a break from typing to stare at the drawing, laugh a whole lot, and to yell "What does it mean? What does it MEAN!?" It is truly baffling...)

So I just looked at her as if to say "What the fuck is this?!" From top to bottom, you have some crazy monster thing (as I named it) with the words "basic needs" in parenthesis. Next down the line, you have my recurring character, which I labeled as "next needs up" in parenthesis. But what does that mean? If it is the next needs up from the previous...thing, which I labeled basic needs, then why is it below it in line? Was I referring to Maslow's hierarchy of needs? And if so, does that mean that I meant for it to be a physical manifestation of the "safety needs"? But why would it look like some monster/demon thing? UUGGGHHH!... Next down the line, is some...really stupid looking thing, which I labeled as "wut?" in parenthesis. Yeah...exactly. (Interesting to note is that these three, if looked at from top to bottom, have progressively less fangs showing from one to the next. Wonder what that could mean...)

I was positively blacked out while I drew this so, of course, I have no idea why I drew any of it, and lack any recollection of what was going on in my head, or around me, during this time. So, after a moment of inspecting it some more, I began to ask her questions. "Why did I draw this?" She didn't know. "Well, what were we talking about?", "Nothing. You were just laying down the moment before." "Well...was I saying anything?!", "No. You just dragged the book over to you, pulled out your pen, and started drawing without saying anything..."


Fucking. BAFFLED! It's, like, the perfect mystery! I could try to attribute some kind of meaning to this, but it would just be a lie. I have no freaking clue! So, that day I just decided, "Well, I guess that's his name! Next Needs Up!" and Adlyn and I have just run with it ever since. I kind of love it now! Hell, I feel safe in stating that I am as obsessed with Next Needs Up as I am with spiders and my own arachnophobia. (And hilariously enough, here is a merging of both!)

Since this post has run a bit longer than I anticipated (really now?), I will be turning it into its own post, and linking posts which contain Next Needs Up related designs back to it, for anyone who cares to read about its messy origins. Thanks for reading this far. I know it's a lot of craziness to read through. Until the next time, take care of yourselves, and carry on!

J, out...

2nd Departure: Double the Cross

(Double the Cut)

So, it's time for the next "variations" blog post! Someone pointed out that "deviations" is what they call things on deviantART, so I figured I'd call it something else...maybe.

Anyhow, as with the 1st of these, I will be going over designs that are derivatives built from the components of some of my other original designs. In this instance, it is the main components of the first two backstabber designs; the KA-Bar and the tanto. The origin of the following is exactly the same as the origin of the "Twins!" designs linked at the top of this paragraph. I was playing around with the solo KA-Bar design, and thought "Hm...This would probably work better if I put another one in there..." And, voilà! That was it. That's some exciting origin story, huh? I hope to give my future children origin stories about themselves that are just as exciting. Hahaha....

So, here they are! The KA-Bar Cross and Tanto Cross (Click image for full size)

Again, as with the "Beaut(y/ies)" designs, I chose to combine these to make the design possibilities cheaper to purchase. Initially, only the "edge out" versions existed, but as I played around with them, I realized that an "edge in" variation would look better if the design is flipped tips up, and thus I made and uploaded an "edge in" version for both of these.

And, actually, one of the reasons why I've delayed as much as I have with this blog post is because I've been fighting myself about several other two-blade design arrangements. Fighting, because part of me is lazy and doesn't want to do it, and because the other part of me is all like "Dude, it's too late. You already thought of them, you might as well arrange them and upload them to Spreadshirt!" But I decided to just make an addition to this post when I get around to that. It would take less than half an hour to work on the arrangement and so on, but I'm just not in the mood at this moment.

Also, I've yet to find any sort of caption to add to these. Like, putting "Twins!" at the bottom of the Beauties design just made sense. Here? I'm kind of drawing a blank. If you've got any suggestions, feel free to share. Just know I won't compensate you for it. Haha...

That's it for that one. By the way, that brand redesign that I had been blabbing about (WOW! That was all the way back in January? FML!) for a while got finalized and produced at last, a short time ago. Either I was going through some sort of creative block that just kept me from visualizing it, or I am undermining the genius of the idea and what the minimal amount of effort required was going to be, just to get close to visualizing such a nebulous concept. Either way, it doesn't matter anymore. It is done (For now. I am meaning to tweak some minor things.) and I can move on to visualizing and producing the next twenty concepts ricocheting around in my head. So, until the next time, I leave you. Carry on!

J, out...

Sex Sells

(But is that what I'm selling?)

Been a while since my last post. I'm, like, Opposite of what I say-Man. When I'm all, like, "I'll try to post more often!", I definitely do not. And then, when I'm all, like, "I'm gonna be falling off of the face of the Earth for a bit" I come back and post something the very next day. How about I just don't comment on when I will and will not be able to post more? Sound good? Great. Moving on...

About the title of this post; I've noticed that my girls (including the singles) have been selling pretty regularly. That makes me think about how some of the future designs that I'm planning to add to my "Davilaisms" section also have to do with the, um...gender. They'll be fun, so stand by for those!

I'm also thinking about (it's more, like, I've already made up my mind, and am thinking about when to sit down and crank it out) redesigning the brand. I predict that it won't be the last time, either. Anywho, I feel like what I have in mind will look pretty fucking wicked... I just have to get to it.

That's about all I wanted to say for now, I think. So yeah, until the next time (which I refuse to predict when it'll be), y'all carry on!


J, out...

Once a Backstabber, Always a Backstabber; The Tanto

(you can count on that)

Upon sitting down to start preparations for my next "deviation" blog, I realized that I hadn't actually gone over one of the designs that I would be featuring a deviation for. Obviously, that's no good, so here I am!

For this post, I will be (briefly, I predict) going over a "Backstabber" variant, this time (if you had't surmised as much from the title) featuring a Tanto. As mentioned in this follow up Backstabber post I plan on making several other Backstabber variant designs, featuring all sort of pointy objects. With as many ideas as I have coming into my head, it's difficult to actually execute on very many of these (and yes, I have a long list of Backstabber variants already). I won't even mention my time constraints (but I did)!

So, the same as with the KA-BAR, I created a Tanto "icon". The process was pretty much the same. The reference image used was this one. I like it. It's plain, clean, sharp, and gets the message across (that being "Hey, look! I'm a tanto!!"). Next I opened up my Backstabber "work" file (I save the "work" and "finalized" versions of every design separately. Makes it 79% easier to go back and make any fixes or revisions), removed the KA-BAR, and readjusted the blood a bit. Once the Tanto design had been completed (you can't really tell, but I'm pretty anal about these designs, and the final appearance betrays the attention to detail that goes into it), the rest was pretty much just about orientation and what-not.

Anywho, here's what the "Tanto Backstabber" looks like. I'm considering (meaning, I will...just not yet) creating some "Backstabber" text of my own (meaning not from one of the template Illustrator fonts), so I haven't actually gotten a t-shirt of my own with this design on it yet. With as many Anime/Japan geeks as there are in my school though, I'm sure several would stop and ask me about it if I wore it (sure, the KA-BAR Backstabber that I wear every now and then gets reactions, just...y'know).

In other news, a recent gaffe involving a digital direct print has halted some of my Spreadshirt shopping progress. Basically, I want to wear this damn design (done right!), so I'm waiting until the return gets back to them and they credit it to me before trying again. Until then I'm gonna sit here (not the whole time, mind you) and wait for the email with the digital coupon code. I understand that they'd recently become very backed up (some partner's shop was getting a massive amount of orders for digital direct printed designs), and they had to up production by adding more personnel and working throughout the week, so I'm attributing it to that (especially since the t-shirt that I ordered with my "GI1911 RELOAD! 2.0" printed on it over half a year ago looked awesome, and still does after many washes!).

Well, I'll stop boring you with my personal problems now. I'm gonna try a little harder to at least do one of these a week, so that I can finally get caught up. The designs featured in my shop with a blog post of their own are currently outnumbered by the ones without, and I'm not exactly happy about that. It sort of dissuades me from getting to cranking out some of my other ideas, because that will just back me up more on this end, and that's not good if getting more designs into my shop is my goal. That's enough for now. Until next time, carry on!


J, out...