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...

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!