Danger & Beauty: First Half

(Partitioned for the sake of the readers)

So, let's talk some philosophy. As anyone else in this world, I've been shaped and educated by my own life experiences. These experiences have made me come to find many of the things that the majority of people consider "Dangerous" as Beautiful. I've also come to learn that things such as a rose, nature...or a woman, which are often considered to be "Beautiful" by most, can be Dangerous. So with that idea in mind, I came up with (what I'm proclaiming as) an "aphorism" of my own; Dangerous things are Beautiful... Beautiful things are Dangerous.

I don't believe that because something is or can be dangerous that it should be avoided. No, in fact, I believe these are the things that we should all strive to "master". Master how to interact with a beautiful woman (and keep your heart intact), how to survive in nature, how to wield a deadly weapon....how to drive a powerful car!

But...the reaction that I got from my friend Cindy when she saw the compilation of reference pictures that would make up this design was nothing short of hilarious! I'll cut to the chase a little and say that the design consists of a car, a girl, and a gun. I really couldn't have come up with an arrangement that was more macho, and possibly sexist, than that, but I hadn't seen it that way until I got the immediate (and whiny) "JUAN!" out of her! Hahaha, that still has me laughing. But let's move on to discussing the design process!

We'll start with the Girl. Finding a reference image for her was a nightmare! After about an hour of searching through photo after photo of girls in bikinis (how horrible!) Cindy decided to help from her computer. My requirements were for a picture of a woman with decently sized hips, for her to be standing (if in a pose that would be a plus) and for the image to show all of her body. I don't remember what the Hell it was that Cindy entered into the her search, but she had an image that I found suitable within minutes. I don't have the original, but this is what it looked like after I erased some of the rest off. It was a group of four, and none of the other girls really caught my eye. Well, Ok, so one other did. We called her "pale girl", and you'll probably agree if you see part of her arm in the right of that image. The reason she stood out was because she was so pale and her hair so dark, compared to the rest of them. Cindy thinks the reason she stood out to me is because she's convinced that I'm into really pale girls, and that might be true, but that wasn't it, promise!

Hahaha...Anyhow, this is what the finished silhouette looked like. (click the image for a closer look)

I thought I was done there, and I even went on to finish the other two designs, but before I could call it a day, Cindy had to step in and start pointing out things that bugged her. Top of her list was the girl's right foot. It went something like this; "Ew! What's wrong with her foot?", "What are you talking about, that's how it looks in the picture!", "Well give her a heel!", "A heel? But her other foot doesn't have a heel on it!", "Just - do it!", "Fine!"

So, I gave the girl a quick vector heel and Cindy, of course, thought it looked better. I strongly disagreed though. I thought her having just one heel was pretty ridiculous, plus I started thinking that maybe her bent right arm made her appear like an amputee, so I scrapped the whole the thing and started my search over. It wasn't too long, and I attribute this to lots of random luck, but I was able to find this lovely young girl!

It wasn't long after that I had another silhouette done, and this is how it turned out! (click image for a closer look)

A distinction from the source image is the hair. I like curly/wavy hair, but I felt that my simplified version of hair got the message across better. Another distinction is her right arm. I wanted to show off her curves, and the arm was in the way of that, so I took it out of the equation. The next distinction is her breast. If you're reading this, lovely girl, know that I have no problem with your cup size, I just needed this to be emphasized a little more!

Something else that is different is her height. For some reason, Cindy thought that the shorter, slightly wider version appeared "too young" (don't even ask me for the logic in that one). So, yeah. I made her taller and she thought it looked better. I personally didn't see enough of a difference in it to bother fighting her some more over it...but that doesn't mean there weren't more fights (there's a reason I'm splitting this blog)!

So, the next point of contention had to do with uniformity and simplicity. If you've been following this blog, and you've seen the other designs, then you know I do use a lot of negative space. With that said, the car and the pistol that were flanking the girl in the design had negative spaces and divisions incorporated into their designs, so I do agree with Cindy on this one point. The girl was a little simple by comparison. My solution? A bikini bottom made out of negative space:

(Click image for a closer look)

I like it! So it stayed. But once I showed Cindy and asked her if she thought it fit in better now, she said "Yeah!...But shouldn't she have something on the top?" This went back and forth for a good minute also. I absolutely refused to give the girl a negative space bikini top, as that would take away that boob I worked to enlarge and emphasize to begin with! Cindy then suggested giving the outside of the bikini top, on the boob side, a small outline, but I got her to understand that I would have to make the outline quite thick (compared to the girl's proportions) for the design to fall within Spreadshirt's bigger than 0.06 of an inch minimum, so she dropped that idea.

"How about, like, a space underneath her boob?" I gave that a try, not really liking it much at all, but Cindy, liking it of course, suggested that I add another underneath her outer boob. I gave that a try also, but I hated it even more. "Nah, it ain't working for me. I hate it! They're both coming off..."

I don't have any file saved with the negative spaces underneath the breasts, but they basically looked like smiles. They just didn't feel right at all to me, and they deviated away from my vision enough for me to definitely turn the idea down.

Plus, y'know what? I really like the idea of the girl not having a top on! Hahaha. That's everything I had for that one. Stay on the lookout for the last half, I'll try to get it going soon. Until next time, carry on!

J, out!

A Quick Peek

(at my ideas list)

So, with the rushes of ideas that I get at random, from time to time, sometimes several stack up and it becomes a little too much to try to manage by my memory alone. In all truth, if an idea has enough of an impact on me, it won't ever really disappear from my mind, but it might be lost in there somewhere until I am reminded of it again. So, my solution is to simply write their names down in a little sketchpad that I keep close by (this comes especially handy when I get an idea late at nigh, as I won't be able to fall asleep from continuing to think about it until I at least put it down on paper).

I wouldn't say it is the number of ideas as much as it is what makes up these individual ideas that make them all difficult to just hold in my head. Anyhow, here's what the current list looks like;

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 [omitted]!

* "SPIDER BOSS"

* 4 Horse Men

* Davilaisms

* *BIGGEST* FAN!

The one's with the strike-through are just so on paper, basically designs I've already completed. And with the "Backstabber" designs in particular, it would be hard to forget about doing the rest of them when I've already got two made (one of these days I'll get around to posting a blog detailing that variation from the original).

The "food pyramid" one I've also done already. Actually, I did it first thing after posting this blog, and it's actually the idea that I mentioned at the start of it. I guess it just motivated me that much! If you check out my shop and look over the designs though, you'd spot it pretty easily. The small display there doesn't really do it justice, but yeah...I'll blog about that soon enough, so no worries.

Another thing to note from that list, is what I've left out, or the vagueness. Well, if you've been reading the rest of the posts before this point, then you might have already figured out that I'm kind of protective of my ideas and designs. It's necessary though. A good example of that is the "Davilaisms" one (after my own last name). Davilaisms just include ideas that I feel are too hard to define, or that would not have anything else to compare them to, to create their own categories for. Some include just images, others have funny sayings of mine, while the rest are what I describe as personal "aphorisms". So, of course, I would leave said sayings and aphorisms from view.

Also interesting to mention is that the last item on that list is one from before I started keeping the list, and I just remembered about it a little while ago. I'm actually in the process of completing that design, so look for it later in the shop! That's all I had. Carry on!

J, out!

A Few Thoughts

I like to sit down to re-read through my posts a few days after I've written them. It gives me a "fresh eyes" kind of perspective, and I am able to catch little mistakes or to cut some stuff out (for the sake of brevity). I noticed something different though...

I stated in my first blog that I would do my best to either explain any of the jargon that I might use, or to leave it out all together if possible. With that in mind though, some "jargon" is necessary for the sake of brevity. For example, when concerned with brevity, "slide" is better than "that top, long, horizontal piece of metal that moves back and forth to aid in the ejecting of spent bullet casings and in the feeding of fresh rounds into the chamber of the barrel".... See?

I mean, I know not everyone reading this will know what the Hell I'm talking about when I'm describing gun parts, and I don't expect them to. I don't expect that very many of you would know how to take an M16A2 service rifle apart and put it back together in seconds while blindfolded (I'm mentioning that, of course, because I could). Not very many of you visiting what is, essentially, an art blog will know your way around firearms. So with that in mind, I put the following together:

(Click image for larger view)

I put this together for the sake of brevity, readability, and understandability in my Reload! 2.0 and Reload! 1.0 blog post. It contains just about everything essential to cosmetically describing a 1911 type pistol. So if you go back and read those, you'll notice that I've edited this image into them. This should allow me to cut some of extra fat off from the sides.

In other news! I was speaking with a friend of mine recently and he was telling me that he's interest in acquiring a Beretta 92fs. The 92 is basically the civilian version of the M9 which, if you didn't know, is the current standard issue service pistol of the U.S. Military's conventional units. The switch from the M1911A1 to the M9 is considered controversial to some (I know some old timers that still think the M9 is shit and that it was a mistake downgrading from the .45 caliber round to the 9mm), but that's a discussion for a whole different day!

My interest in my friend's interest in acquiring a 92fs is that I want to do my next "RELOAD!" designs based on the M9. I personally never cared for the M9 while I was in either, but I know a lot of folk who like it plenty (*cough!* probably because they've never held a 1911 *cough!*). If he owned one himself, I could get some great reference photos to match my vision as much as virtually possible!

...I have a funny story, related to this. So, several years ago I convinced this same friend to buy "Super Dragon Ball Z". He wasn't interested, and felt disappointed enough about most attempts made to turn DBZ into a solid fighting game not to want to try it, but I persisted! "Dude, it's from the makers of Street Fighter II! How could they mess it up?!" Well, he gave in, we drove to Wal-mart, picked it up, went back to his place, booted it up and.....an hour later we were at Gamestop trading it in because Wal-mart wouldn't give him a refund.

So, with that bit of history on my mind, I feel a little guilty when I consider egging him onto buying a 92fs of his own (when I wouldn't buy one myself). An alternative is renting one to shoot at a local gun range and taking pictures of it there, on the low (they don't "allow" photography there, and the shooting area doesn't have the best lighting in the world, so it's an undesirable alternative). The third alternative is searching for some good images online, but if my search results for the prior two "RELOAD!" projects were any indication, that will take me a few days and the results might not be worth it (no offense, but gun owners make really bad photographers).

Man...having a consciousness sucks sometimes! Well, that's all I had for that one, I suppose. Don't forget to swing by my shop sometime! New designs will keep popping in, unannounced, until I can catch my blogs up. So, until next time, carry on.

J, out...

RELOAD!...1.0?

(the pseudo predecessor)

As those of you who read this blog might know, 2.0 came before 1.0, so why the backwards number designation? Well, I explained it in that first "RELOAD!" post, but I will go over it again briefly. Basically, even though I made the decision that this would be a "twin" design (two versions of it would be produced) from the very beginning, 2.0's full color, dynamic perspective, and realistic representation of the M1911A1 just made it feel like the more "modern" design. While 1.0's more iconic, flat, minimalistic representation seemed like the more "primitive" of the two, thus the number designations for each. Now that the nomenclature has been beaten around some, let's move on to the execution!

My first step, in case you couldn't guess, was to find a good reference! But...finding a 1911A1 with its slide locked open, from a profile view, was basically impossible. Hell, finding the reference for 2.0 was easier! It seemed that I would have to acquire one of my own to photograph to get exactly what I wanted. The best I could do was to, basically, "compose" my own out of what was available. I ended up having to settle for these two. I basically only used as much as I needed from each, as show here (#1) and here (#2).

Refer back to this image if you need help locating the part of the pistol that I may be referring to.

So, basically, in trying to represent an authentic "A1" 1911 (also know as the "GI") I did the following; excluded both front and rear sights, "beaver tail" grip safety, and ring hammer from #1, then added the sights, "GI" grip safety, spur hammer, and arched mainspring housing from #2. Did I lose anyone yet?

(click image for larger view)

So...I'm just now realizing that I totally forgot to include the loop at the bottom of the mainspring housing that they would have attached the lanyard to. But...now that I think about it, if it wasn't a conscious decision made then (I think it could have been, but I would have remember...right?) then I am fine with that little omission. I think it looks fine as is without the lanyard loop. Moving on...

So my next step was to use Illustrator's pen tool with stroke and no fill. I outlined the parts of interest, selected all and switched it all to fill with no stroke. For the slide serrations, I left a rectangular area open there while creating the outline of the slide, then I returned, made a rectangle shape, and stretched it to be suitably high. Next, I played around with its width until I had what I felt was a thin enough (but at least wider than 0.06 inches, the minimum size restriction for flex prints on Spreadshirt) and multiplied it until I had enough of them to space out to a least the 0.04 inches of distance required.

My next challenge was to create a grip panel. I started by setting the pen tool to no fill with a 4 point stroke and outlined the grip panel, diamonds and all, making sure that the bottom end of it extended past what I already had of the frame. Next, with those strokes still selected, I went up to the top menu, under "Object", selected "flatten transparency" and checked the box that says "convert all strokes to outlines". This stroke was green in color, so when I selected everything and chose "merge" from the pathfinder window, it merge the green outline and made any of the red underneath it disappear (if the outline would have been red, like the rest of the design, it would have just become one with the rest). All I had to do then was use the "direct selection tool" to pick the green outline, delete it, and voila! An illusion of a grip panel was created. The process to create the negative spaces representing the pins and screws was the same, except that I used the ellipse tool set to fill and no stroke and made sure to make circles wider than 0.04 of an inch.

Last, but not least, I used the text tool, found the font that I felt fit the design the best, messed with the kerning, flattened it with the "convert all text to outlines" option selected, played with its sizing, distance from, and orientation to the 1911 until it felt right, and called it a night! So there you have it, as pictured above. This is the "GI 1911 RELOAD! 1.0"...

Interesting to note is that I have gone back and adjusted the spacing in between the text and the pistol, and made the text a different color from that of the 1911 since first producing this design. I wanted to give anyone ordering a t-shirt with the design more room to personalize its colors as much as possible. Sure, two color flex designs (referred to as "flock" there) cost more, but if one makes the color of both the pistol and text the same, the price will actually adjusts down to that of a single colored design. This makes my life easier because now I don't have to worry about uploading and managing two separate files!

That's pretty much all I have for this one! Been wanting to get this blog out of the way (believe it or not, I find creating art more fun that blogging) for a good minute! As mentioned previously, my shop is open for business! A link to it can also be found in my Spreadshirt user page, which you can find by viewing my "complete" Blogger profile on here.

Well, now that I have all of that out of the way, I will leave you to your devices! Until next time, carry on.

J, out!

Like I Cracked My Head Open, and Ideas Are Spilling All Over the Place

(that's gonna leave a stain...)

This is kind of funny. You might not be aware of this, but I've been trying really hard to catch my blogs up with the designs that I have made. Like, I want all of my designs to have a coinciding post of their own, y'know? I've been getting around to that, but there is a phenomenon that has occurred now that I have free time in my warm little hands; I've received an influx of creativity and the motivation to do something about it.

Just last night I ended up creating a new "Backstabber" design, another all new design, and by midnight I had revised and tweaked the KA-BAR Backstabber design! What does that all mean? Simply put, that I'm churning out designs faster than I am posting blogs to detail their conceptions and gestations. Of course, if you faulted me, a visually creative person, for this, I would disagree with you in a strongly worded fashion. But, still, I feel like at least some sort of explanation is needed. Why?

Because my designer shop is open for business! Now, any design that I have available there is, more or less, open to public viewing. I guess you could say that I like to give everything a little bit of context, lest I feel a bit naked. But feel free to peruse all you wish, and keep an eye out for any additions. Meanwhile, I'll continue my efforts to get my posts caught up to my designs. Until next time, carry on.

J, out!

RELOAD!

(Quick aside; Just before I started writing this I came up with another great idea. I even did a quick search on Spreadshirt and found that no one [for shame!] has undertaken the task of creating such a design, so I am taking it upon myself to provide it to the world!... Now back to your regularly scheduled programing...)

I am finally getting around to dedicating a post to the idea that started it all. "RELOAD!" One simple word, with one simple meaning, yet (I feel) very iconic! Seems crazy that I've been referring to this design since the start (and I've had it done since!) but I am just now getting around to this.

I don't know exactly what it was that was going through my head at the moment, while I was sitting in Survey of Media & Design and listening to the lecture, but I was just doodling in a sketch pad, just spitting out ideas (I was actually trying to come up with the Brand) when some pistols started making it onto the page. Now I really wish I could go back in time and get in my head, because I really have no idea what brought about the next thing. As I was sitting there doodling some more, it seems like the word "RELOAD!" did something for me, and soon after I wrote it down that first time I had what is the sketch for the original concept; a 1911 pistol that's run out of ammo, with its slide locked to the rear.

Now that I got that out of the way, let's get down into the execution! This was a bit of an exercise, though I'll probably make is sound super simple. What I did first was to find a suitable reference image. The pistol I wanted for this is the legendary 1911. Genuinely American, like yours truly! Also, I grew up on Metal Gear Solid, so when I saw Big Boss drooling all over a 1911 (starting at 03:44, but check this one out too!), it definitely caught my attention and I went off and researched it. You could say I've been a fan since!

While I referred to it as a Colt (the original manufacturers of the pistol, back when John Browning designed it) in that sketch, I ended up finding one that, while being a Springfield Armory 1911 instead of a Colt, fit my vision almost perfectly, so I went with it in the end (a little too much blue for my taste, but I took care of it soon enough!). What I did next was to take the image into illustrator and used the pen tool set to stroke with no fill, with a stroke size of about 4 points, and gave a heavy outline to all of the outer edges. Then I went in with a smaller stroke size and lined out the rest of the details.

I'll provide this image to use as reference, should any of you not understand what part of the pistol I am describing.

(Click image for larger version)

This is what the basic "outline" looked like. I had some people watching as I created this and they seemed pretty wowed. I was thinking "Pfft! Dude, I'm haven't even started..."

I always felt like it looked a little off, like the barrel was too long and the rear of the slide was too short, but if you compare it to the reference image, you'll see it's the same. I guess my artist brain doesn't want to be OK with something being fine as it is. Silly brain!

My next step was to select all and copy the outlines, open up a new photoshop file, paste them in there, rasterize them, bring in the source image on a separate layer, and prepare to add some color to the whole thing.

(Click for larger image)

I'll go ahead and make the 1911 design available now, as a living, breathing, visual aid to my ramblings.

So, with the photo in the background for reference (and color picking) I made a new layer under the outline and started on the barrel. I used the color picker (also known as the eye dropper tool) to choose what was just about the barrel's main hue and just applied it to all of the outline's barrel. Next I isolated sections (with the selection tools, mainly the lasso, actually) mimicking the shape of the highlights, midlights, and lowlights on the actual 1911 barrel and went over them with either the dodge (to lighten) or burn (to darken) tools. These ended up looking pretty sharp, squarish, and posterized looking. To remedy this, I selected all of the paint for the barrel and blurred it until I attained the look that it has now.

Next I used the color picker again to find a median shade of gray to use for the frame, slide, and the rest of the parkerized parts of the 1911 pistol. You could totally miss it if you don't have an eye for details (or if your monitor sucks), but the parkerized parts are done in gradients, going from dark to light (and vice versa) from front to back, back to front, down to up, up to down and side to side. I had fun with this, and it was probably the most time consuming part of the whole thing. Next I did the same thing with the wood grips, the went a little crazy with some hatching and cross hatching lines. To wrap that all up I picked the layer with the outlines, went into the adjustments and turned them black.

(click for larger image)

After I was pleased with those results, I applied the text, colored it in with a gradient of a light to dark red, flattened all of the layers together, then made a copy of that combined layer, placed it underneath the original, filled it in with white and set it to sit slightly to the bottom and off to the right, flattened those layers together, and called it a night!

The length of this post is just about proportional to the length of work that I put into this design. I'm sure I spent over 8 hours working on this, and that's not including the sketches, pondering, and the search for the reference image. All in all, I am very pleased with the outcome, and even though it took me very long to finalize this, I am looking forward to the next one. The full title for this piece is "GI 1911 RELOAD! 2.0". The "GI" denotes the model type (it's supposed to be a WWII replica, a bare bones M1911A1). The "2.0", however, warrants a longer explanation...

From the beginning, I planned on making this a "twin" design. One replicating the real thing closely, and one in a more "iconic" style, such as the style used on my Backstabber design (I explain what I mean by "iconic" in the 3rd paragraph of that post). Since I consider the iconic one to be the "retro" design of the two, I am giving this design the 2.0 designation, and the iconic the 1.0. Stand by and I will be getting around to hashing out a post for the said "iconic" RELOAD! design. Until then, y'all carry on!

J, out!

Designer Shop

(Kinda late for an update. It's past my bedtime! Haha...)

I'm working on getting a designer shop set up at the moment. I've had a premium account on Spreadshirt for a minute now, but I haven't had the opportunity to work through the intricacies of setting up my designer shop. The advantage of a "designer shop" is that I don't have to worry about all of the minutia that I would with a standard shop (available to anyone with a free account). Some of these "minutia" include what I believe are some pretty important details. For example, what piece of apparel should a design go on? Should it be a heavyweight men's t-shirt, or a woman's v-neck t-shirt....in pink?! What about the color of the design? The exact size and placement?

Sure, as the originator and creator I have a vision, my own artistic direction, to each design. But what happens if  a person loves the design, but not necessarily my arrangement? What if an individual likes my Backstabber design, but would rather have it without the text on the front? Or even yet, what if they want the design on the front of their apparel?...

If you can't tell by now, I could come up with many more scenarios for why a designer shop, which allows the customer to set up the design they want (in whatever color, size and orientation), on what piece of apparel they want. There is A LOT to choose from, clearly too much for me to decide what gets in and what doesn't. I actually have about 10 new designs waiting to be approved, so for now, I won't be making my designer shop active. Also, I will be deactivating my old "Tarantulas" shop and designating the new designer shop as such. It's kind of useless at this point.

I'm feeling kinda rushed, so I don't know if I left out anything else that I might have wanted to mention, but for now, that is all I had for y'all. Carry on!

J, out!

Brand, version 3.0 (or "Let's Get to it Already!")

I've been posting updates about the "Brand" for a good while now, so I think it's about time that I got on with it. I've already made a post about how I came up with the design and so on. Not a day later and I posted another update about a change of heart I had on the usage of the brand, for sake of keeping the costs as low as possible. And finally, just last week, I posted an update about some of the changes that the Brand has gone through during the time since I made that first post debuting it, but it was nothing but vagueness, so I'm addressing it here!

My first reason for changing the first design was that it was not compatible with "Flex" printing. The simple way to explain it is that sections of a vector design have to be at least 0.06x0.06 inches big, and spaces in between sections need to be at least 0.04x0.04 inches big. Obviously (or not, just from looking at it), the first Brand design did not meet the criteria, so a redesign was in order.

The way I tackled it was pretty simple, and looking back, I could have probably gone with a thinner type face, since the type I went with was definitely much wider than 0.06 of an inch. Anyhow, I opened the design with the original spider by itself in Illustrator, took the eraser tool sized to a circle approximately 0.04 of an inch wide, slashed through the divisions already in place on the body and legs, joined the fangs with the thorax (as well as for making the points of the fangs hang downward), got rid of the eyes, and made leg sections thicker were needed, mostly near the ends. To finish, I then joined it with a thicker font and left the store URL out (font that small would obviously not fit withing the 0.06 inch width).

The image to the left here (click for larger version) is the final product of that effort. It's definitely not as organic as the original, and I dislike that the eyes are gone, but I like the legs thicker. I had a digital direct version (so that it would match the main design on the front, in color, feel, and texture) printed on the back of the "GI 1911 RELOAD! 2.0" t-shirt prototype that I ordered, but noticed that it was a little large for the role I wanted it to play (I wanted the "JR DAVILA" a bit higher up on my back, but the spider pushed it down a bit too much so it fell out of my vision for the placement), so I immediately decided that I would be redesigning it.

An aside, and something that doesn't really matter now (you'll see when I show you the final revision), was something else that my friend Cindy pointed out to me. She was reading the brand out as *JUNIOR* Davila, while I meant it to be read as *Jey-Ahr* Davila. When I told her this she went "But you ARE a Junior!", "That doesn't matter, it's supposed to be my first and middle initials!", "What, R****?", "Don't call me that!"

*Ahem!*... So, yes, that's why I'm not signing off as "JR" anymore, either. Moving on...

Fast forward two months (like 3 weeks ago) and I got some time to sit down and hash it out! Plugged my tablet in, opened up the original spider design, selected the pencil tool set to fill all strokes and went at it! It took me longer than I'd rather admit, so I'll just skip to it and show you the finished result!

(Click image for a larger version)

It's beautiful!...in, uh, it's very own, disgusting, creepy, arachnid kind of way (gag). And I was even able to add in (or would that be subtract out?) some eyes for it! That's one of my favorite parts about it. I'm going to post an update later with some of the doodles that I made while still trying to decide what my brand would look like, and explain the significance of the six eyes then.

Y'know what though? I'm surprised it took me all the way until this post to start mentioning Cindy, since she seems to be one of the only other artist critiquing my designs before, (more on that later) during, and after my creative sessions. So far, she's been the only person to question my choice to go with six eyes instead of eight. Of course, I quickly explained to her that some spiders have even less. Besides that she loved it though! She didn't actually see it until I was already wearing it on my "GI 1911 RELOAD! 1.0" tee. It rides right on my left shoulder blade on that t-shirt. She liked it so much that she wants me to get her something with just the spider on it though. She thinks it's "cute" (I strongly disagree that anything with 8 legs is cute, but...).

As far as usage for this brand design goes, as I mentioned before, it will be just for promotional purposes, so it will only go on t-shirts that I order for myself or for friends. I'll also be making PNG versions to coincide with any digital direct designs, and those will contain the shop URL in a crescent path around the spider.

That seems like just about everything I wanted to say about the brand for now. Keep a look out for the next post, when I'll return to muse about my "RELOAD!" design. It'll be a good one, I promise! Y'all carry on now.

J, out!

Keep it Simple, Stupid

I just wanted to make a quick "heads up" post. I want to keep this one short because the tips of my fingers and nails are hurting quite a bit right now. I was at the beach earlier today, and while digging a hole with my bare hands, found out just how tightly packed the sand is down there. Like...WOW! I think I almost ripped my nails off trying to break through it! I can see under there a little, and...it looks kinda red in there. I'm thinking about going and dipping my finger tips in rubbing alcohol. Man, that's gonna burn though... It shouldn't have surprised me that the sand was packed so tightly though, with around 67% of folk in our great country being overweight or obese!.....

Huh.... Did not see that random rant coming. Let's get back on track....

This, is about the brand. It just so happens that I have redesigned it twice since that post was made. It makes me laugh a little that after much brain storming, and lots of trial and error and tinkering, the design that I reached in the end was the simplest. The title of this post is something that I need to remind myself of, should I run into problems like this in the future. A fault of mine is that, sometimes, I fall into some sort of obsession with the details and become overly focused on things that are, essentially, unimportant. I need to learn to step back and give my brain a chance to focus outwards, on the Big Picture.

This seems like a lot to write for a "non-post", but I guess I just felt like some self-disclosure tonight. Truth is, this "journal" is as much about the artist as it is about the designs, since neither exists exclusive of the other, and the latter is wholly dependent on the former. Let's cut this short here before it dives deeper into the theoretical and philosophical. I could go on about things of the sort for an eternity. Y'all carry on...

J, out!

Reactions and Thoughts on the KA-BAR Backstabber

I thought it would be good to do a quick follow up blog containing a little more info, beyond that concerning the design itself (pictured left. Click the image for a larger version).

To start I want to say that the colors on flex print are very vibrant. The red "[Backstabber]" font on the front of my t-shirt contrasts so very highly with its blackness that it can't help but catch the eyes of anyone within viewing distance. With it catching so many people's attentions, a few things have been brought to my attention...some realizations.

First, is that the pop artist known as Ke$ha has a song titled Backstabber. But the way that this knowledge was made available to me was by way of being asked "So, you like Ke$ha?" That was an interesting conversation, and I found it highly amusing, but as those of you who've read my prior post are aware, this has nothing to with Ke$ha's song.

The next realization is that t-shirts with front and back designs, in which those two designs are dependent on each other for the complete narrative, are a type of special experience for those who are exposed to them and thus become its audience. The experience of those who see the KA-BAR and the blood before the text on the front is different to those who see the text before the knife and the gore on the back. And likewise, the experience of those who only saw the back, and the way it made them feel, is very different to those who only read the text on the front of the t-shirt, and how that made them feel. How exactly? I couldn't tell you. That makes me think about the next thing though...

A girl I see around often enough, but who's a bit of a stranger to me, commented on the t-shirt. She dropped me a "Well, at least now I know not to trust you!" with a smirk. I found that intriguing. I mean, I know it was just an attempt at flirting, but I took it and I thought about it for a bit. So I ponder "What does this t-shirt say about me?" What does the Backstabber t-shirt say about the person wearing it? To answer that, I need to take this back to its origin.

In Modern Warfare 2, the Backstabber title is earned by sneaking up and stabbing an enemy player in the back while playing in any of the online multiplayer matches, and while I play (Or more like, when I played. I just don't have the time anymore) it is a title that I wear out proudly. It was a badge of honor given for being a sneaky fuck. And, honestly, I like it. You could say that I like to think of myself as a clever, sneaky, fox type of person. But the type that stabs my enemies in the back because of my cunning, not the type that tabs my friends in the back through being deceitful. Does that make sense?

To round this out though, I'll speak about how I figured these design choices would be read, and you could say that what I was aiming for initially was some sort of irony. You have a t-shirt labeling the person wearing it a backstabber, and all the while the person has a knife in their own back...

That's it for that follow up on the KA-BAR Backstabber t-shirt. Expect Backstabbers featuring different...weapons in the future. They'll start coming along as soon as I get the next thousand things out of my head. Carry on!

J, out!

[Backstabber]

(These designs have been updated as of June 25, 2010)

Been talking about this one for a while, so let's get to it! To start, I'll give you a little bit of background on what brought about the idea...at least partly (I have so much going on in my head, and I take in so much stimulation from everything in the environment that either emits or reflects light  [is that impossibly inclusive enough?] that it's impossible pointing at all definite sources. I really don't know). Well, anywho, on to the story;

Basically, I enjoy playing Modern Warfare 2 as much as the next guy, and the manner in which I was playing (sneaking around then running up and stabbing enemies in the back) earned me the "Backstabber" title pretty early on. It wasn't until sometime later, when a friend of mine with a thing for violence and I were strolling through the mall, talking about my idea for the "Reload!" t-shirt that the vision came to me. A few more did also, and I even went and decided right then and there that I would call the line Blades & Blood, but this isn't about all that, so I'll move on...

From the start my vision was of a two color design, and I wanted it to be very...iconic. Do you get what I mean by that? By "iconic", I mean that I wanted the elements to be icons. To me this means simple, clean, crisp representations of the things depicted. Like the sign on a public restroom's door letting you know which gender it is for, or the sign that represents a person in a wheel chair over the handicap parking space. When you look at these, even though people don't look anything like how they are depicted, you know what they mean, almost at a primal level. I wanted the design to speak in the absence of any font or type...and yet, I didn't want it to be so simple that it would look unrefined. I didn't want the common representation of a knife people see everyday. Don't get me wrong, that plain old thing gets the message across, but I wanted something more. This had to be mine, I had to own it. With those things in mind, a vector design seemed like the best bet.

I began by choosing a knife with a powerful link to my past. The KA-BAR fighting knife. This knife - its pommel, hilt, and blade - are ingrained into the memories of my time served in the U.S. Marine Corps. The knife itself is iconic, and as far as I'm concerned (being a Marine, so I don't really know if the other services use it), it's a Marine fighting knife! So, now that I've given you the long back story, I can tell you about the design process...

 (Click the image for a larger version!)

First off, I don't have the image that was used as reference, but a look at any old KA-BAR will give you a pretty good idea of its basic build (so, yes, the blade is supposed to sit that far forward). Secondly, I want to make it clear that Spreadshirt has very strict standards on their "flex" printed designs, so these designs can be a bit of an undertaking (I got more stories, trust). The biggest restriction is that sections in a design cannot be smaller than 0.06x0.06 inches in size, and gaps between sections cannot be smaller that 0.04x0.04 inches in size. These restrictions in particular turn generating and finalizing these designs into some sort of artistic math problem!

Using Illustrator, I took the pen tool, set to stroke only, blocked out the sections that you see, selected it all, and then switched it all to fill with no stroke. The way that I created that oval with the negative space around it, on the spine of the blade, was by using the pen tool to shape out the form, set to stroke only, in a color different from that of the rest of the knife. I then went to the top menu, and under "Object", chose to flatten, checked the box that says "turn all strokes to outlines" and OK'ed it. After that I pulled up the "Pathfinder" window, and chose the "merge" option. This made it so that the part of the blade below the off-colored oval disappeared, so after that all I had to do was individually select the oval with the "direct selection tool" (shortcut key "A"), press "delete" and voila! An oval of sorts divided from the rest of the blade by a negative space.

Above and to the left you have the finalized KA-BAR icon design. That was about two thirds of the work.

My next step was to create a dripping, blood stain (I'm not sure how else to describe it) to stab  the KA-BAR into. It's kinda funny creating a design that you won't be using all of in the end...

To start, I free handed (with a tablet and pen) the blood with the pencil tool, set to fill, and used the eraser and such to refine it. Once I had its basic form down, I went and changed its aspect and size so that all of its parts fell within the 0.06x0.06 inch size minimum. I basically widened it a whole bunch. The initial design was much narrower. From there I took the KA-BAR and, like, castrated half of its blade (Did I mention how it bothers me that a part of the design that I am proud of isn't even being used?!) and messed around with its orientation until I got it to a place where it felt right. Below is the finalized "KA-BAR Backstabber" design, in all of its vectorized, digital glory!

(Again, click the image for a larger view)

So, yeah. There it is, boys and girls! Here's what one looks like on a t-shirt, in case you were wondering. I have a fellow "artist" friend who disagrees with the flatness of the KA-BAR, as he figures it would look more "dynamic" if it had some perspective to it, but the flatness and plainness is precisely what my vision was. So in the end his opinion, though appreciated, was kind of irrelevant. You can call it arrogance if you wish. I call it staying true to the vision and to the feel that I set out to achieve from the get go. This is meant to be an icon, not principled "art".

And....I think that's about all I have for this one.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, simply post them over in my comments and I'll see about getting back to you. Carry on!


J, out!