Meat Pyramid

(No, not that kind of meat, pervs!)

So, about a month ago, before I began writing the blog for the GI 1911 RELOAD! 2.0 design, and idea popped into my head. This even excited me enough to mention it at the beginning of the blog! Now, I won't claim that it is my most original design idea yet, but I designed it myself and I've yet to see anything like it on Spreadshirt. But, let's cut the gibber-gabber and get on with the blog!

The concept: The idea for this came from a pretty mundane source. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but the origins of human behavior are of high interest to me, and I am someone who believes that we should do our best to live in a more..."natural" state, for the sake of our bodies and of our minds. So with that said, I am completely opposed to the idea that being a vegan or vegetarian is better for you. That shouldn't be that much of a surprise. I mean, I just posted some blogs about a design which includes a hot chick, a gun, and a car. Would anyone really think I'd not be a meat lover after those little revelations?! I'd think not.

I don't want to go off into a rant, but I'll say this much; A friend of me who was mostly vegetarian quit recently after seeing her health go progressively south, and after finding out that soy products are just about the worst substitute for meat, in relation to health. I had been telling her about that for ages, so my gentle "I told you so" kinda sparked this idea in my head. I hadn't made any very provocative designs up until this point (what a damn liar!) so I thought I'd take a stab at it! You could say this is my blatant, offensive way of letting the world know that I enjoy eating other animals very much. If you agree though, then you might also find humor in it.

The execution: First, as always, I began by hunting down some reference images. I got myself a hen, a piggy, and a cow.

(Click image for larger version)

I started with the hen. This was pretty straightforward. I think I wanted to go a little less detailed with the silhouette, but...well, it is what it is! The only thing of note that I can think about with this design in particular is the change I made with the legs. If you haven't noticed, this design is not a perfect copy of the reference image I have linked above. The first silhouette was, but that rear leg just bugged me to no end, so I chopped it off!...and then copied the forward leg, dragged it back a bit, played around with the orientation and there you have it! I personally think it works a lot better now.

(Click image for larger version)

Next, we have the piggy! Same as the hen, It was pretty straight forward, but I feel like it's the least detailed of the bunch. I mean, it's got a pretty plain form, but I guess I can blame the reference image for that. Same as the hen though, I altered it as I saw fit to get the message of "Hey, it's a pig!" across loudly and clearly. The more obvious of the two is the third leg back. If you note the reference image, you'll see that its hind legs are close together. That just wasn't working for me, so I took the first leg, added more leg to it and moved it back into place. The next change (which I consider the least obvious, but it probably depends on the individual viewing it) is the extra piggy ear. In a true silhouette of the reference image, you wouldn't see that second ear, but this was something else which I felt would help solidify that this is, in fact, a pig. So, there you go!

(Click image for larger version)

And last but not least, we have the cow! This was a little tougher to get done in a simplified enough manner. On one of the initial runs (I have to create an outline for these from start to finish, and it's difficult going back and fixing something midway through) I was going too detailed so I had to start over from the start. Later I realized that I didn't have a clear view of the hooves, so I had to leave those alone, find a separate reference image for cow hooves and then return and make some while playing it by eye. So yeah, those hooves are a definite edit made by me that wasn't found in the original reference image. Next, is that utter to the left. As you might have noted, there's a calf suckling the one in the reference image, so I had to play around a little with that. That's about all I did with the cow design.

Next I created a triangle, played around with the distances from animal to animal, and then with the distances in between the animals and the horizontal dividers...and then with the sizes of the animals and the width and height of the triangle itself. Getting it all sized and spaced to where it felt good and right was a pain in the ass! That problem took the most use of my braincells (I might have even stopped the music from playing on my iTunes so I could concentrate, haha). So, here is the finished product!

(Click image for larger version)

As you might be able to tell, the animals are not perfectly centered, but that's because it felt wrong when they were. The alignment I used was by eye and based on the proportions of them instead, and I think it worked much better. There was just something...unnatural about having them in a symmetrically centered fashion. Even though the designs were centered, their weight wasn't. Also, I mirrored the cow to face in the opposite direction. It would have been weird having both the pig and cow facing the same way in sequence when the hen wasn't, so I alternated them all by simply having the cow face left. I actually just got a version (I chose a red pyramid with white animals) of the t-shirt in the mail a few days ago and it looks great (this photo doesn't do it justice, but I have no better lighting to work off of. Also, the pyramid really is red, but the light is reflecting off of it and making it all kinds of different colors in the photo).

In relation to the "disclaimer" calling y'all pervs at the start of this post, it's related to something that happened the same night I received the t-shirt. I had a friend over, and before leaving to have dinner she jumped in my bed and noticed it laying there, so I took it and hung it out in front of me for her to get a better view and said "I call it...the 'Meat Pyramid'" but before I could say another word, she replied "You should make it have a huge cock at the top instead of that chicken!" (typical), so I told her "That would match your diet very closely. I'll be sure to make one like that just for you..." in my most sarcastic tone.

With that in mind though, I have considered making alternate meat pyramid designs (no...not with cocks), but have come to the conclusion that these animals are satisfying enough eats for now. Maybe, in the near future, I might get a clearer vision concerning other alternative food pyramids to design, but for now this is all I got! Interesting to note is that this design is still the only one that comes up when one searches for a "food pyramid" on Spreadshirt. I think that's pretty cool!

Well, that's all I have to say on this design! Remember to swing by my designer shop from time to time, as new designs will continue to drop in irregularly. Now go on, get out of here...git!

J, out....

Danger & Beauty: Last Half

(Surprise surprise?)

I swear I wasn't trying to fake anyone out when I posted this just yesterday. I actually didn't expect to start up on this until like, at least, a few more weeks. But!...circumstances have presented themselves that have allowed me to sit and prepare this post. So....let's wrap this two parter up!

In the first half, I went into some personal philosophy and over the process that spawned the girl in this 3 part design. So let's discuss the next design in the compilation. In truth, this was actually the first design of the three which I undertook, and the one which I thought would be the more complex of the three; the gun. As you might know from some of my past blogs, I'm kind of a fan of the 1911's design. With that said though, having already made a more complex, 1911 vector design, churning this one out was actually easy enough.

(click image for a better view)

See? Not very complex at all, but it had enough divisions and negative space in it to push Cindy to nag me about the girl standing out for being to simple, in comparison to this pistol and the car. I agreed...

(click here for the 1911 parts guide)

Anyhow, the source image used was that of a Taurus PT1911 that I found online. I wanted the profile of a "modernized" 1911, and Taurus's version includes pretty much everything, externally, that you see on modernized 1911's. Things like the skeletonized trigger (which I did not depict here, because the dimensions of the holes and all wouldn't have gone over well with Spreadshirt's vector design restrictions), the flat mainspring housing, the sights, the "beaver tail" grip safety, and the ring hammer (of course, there is much more to it, but I'm only concerned with those which show on the design).

If you have an eye for detail, then you might have noticed that the hammer on my design is different from the hammer on the reference image. The reason for that is that the other hammer wasn't looking as good as I wanted it to. It's no biggie though, since the hammer that I improvised actually looks closer to the hammer on a stock PT1911. As with my other vector 1911, the negative space between the grip panel and frame, and the negative space in between the slide and the frame are subtractions of forms that were overlaid. Aside from some tweaking with the placement, and the fact that I mirrored the design so that it would face to the right, there's not much else to mention about it.

The next and final design to speak of this day, which was actually the second task undertaken for this compilation, is the car. I've had a thing for the Infiniti G35 since I saw one roll by, so it was a no-brainer when it came down to choosing a vehicle.

(Side notes: First off, that's actually how Infiniti spells its version of the word. Secondly, I'm aware of the existence of the G37, but it just doesn't turn me on as much...)

(click image to view larger version)

This was the chosen design in the end. The search for a suitable reference photo was almost as tough as the search for the girl's reference photo. And actually, I had a completely different idea in mind when I originally envisioned this compilation. I wanted a profile view of the vehicle, and had decided on this photo as a reference right up until the point when I lined the 3 references up. The G was just too wide and too short compared to the girl, which is thin and tall, and the pistol, which was somewhere in between.

So, I decided to go with a perspective shot instead. This proved to have several advantages over the old idea. One, was that its diagonal direction, from upper left to lower right, matched well with the pistol's, which I had pointing diagonally from lower left to upper right. Another was that it's height and length were closer to that of the pistol's as well. It brought the rest of the design together, I thought, with the opposite diagonally pointing car and pistol flanking the girl.

I still don't feel like it is perfect, and I've changed the design of the G35 a bit from what it was originally a few times already, so only time will tell how much this latest design will last. Construction was pretty simple on this as well, although that front, passenger's side tire was a PAIN! I messed around with that thing so much, and I still don't like it! I got a notice of commission earned from someone using the individual design for a product of their own recently though, so someone liked it enough! Hah....

But, without much further ado, here is the visual manifestation of my aphorism;

(Click image for closer look)

That's all I had for this one. Don't forget to drop on by my Spreadshirt designer profile and my designer shop from time to time to see what's really new. Until the next time, this is J, the birthday boy, signing off.

Out!

LYPHE

(Also known as "life")

So!...things like school (and the beach, and drinking fishbowls full of alcoholic beverages, and discussing art with friends) have kept me more that just a little busy these past few weeks.

(*checking out when my last post was made*)

Holy Hindu cows! June 30th, huh? (*cringe*) O.K. so maybe it's been a little more than just a few weeks. But, what can I say? I like for these design posts to be nice, clean, and well put together. So while I could just drop in, post a bunch of images and say "There ya go!" it would be incongruent with my M.O. Half ass-ing (stuff I'm into) is definitely not my thing.

You could say that I've gone a bit art heavy on my chosen courses this school quarter, so I will be busier with that stuff regardless. But also, the first few weeks are busier to boot. It's the time when I have to make several adjustments to my schedule, acquire books and supplies, and get my mind in the game.

So with all out there, I think it's safe to say that I won't be making any significant posts for at least a few more weeks. I don't like leaving a two part post all alone by itself like that, but it is what it is!

Still, there are new designs available beyond what I have featured in this blog, so feel free to check out my Spreadshirt designer profile, or my designer shop, for peeks at those. I know, I know! The designs are not as pleasing to view in their small size on there (which is kind of the whole point of this blog!), but it'll have to do in the meantime. That's about all I had for that. I have a lot of drawing to do for class! So, until next time, carry on!


J, out!