The *Biggest* Fan

(like, ever)

S'been a week since my last post, so I think I'm ready to make a design related post now! Here's a design which I had actually been meaning to make for a long time. Lemme put it this way; that conversation that I describe in my [Backstabber] post, in the second paragraph? The receipt I pulled out to write that "Blades & Blood" idea down on had a sketch for this design already on it.

(Click image for larger version)

So, lemme give you the backstory to this one. Before she moved, I'd hang out with my friend Adlyn about once a week to bullshit, catharse, watch a movie, or whatever.

Well, one of those times, on my way out, something caught my eye. So I pulled a receipt out of my wallet, popped the top off of my pen, and began sketching. When Adlyn asked me what I was doing, I told her I was sketching her ceiling fan and began rambling some nonsense.

To put it plainly (probably plainer than how I explained it to her), there was something about the way the ceiling fan looked that gave it the appearance of a character to me. Like it had eyes, y'know? Well anyhow, that's the original sketch to the left. That thing had been sitting in my wallet for a while...

I can't tell when or where the receipt is from, only that whatever it was cost me $8.03. Knowing me though, it was probably sitting in my wallet for a while before I even sketched on it (I like having makeshift canvases like this available, to take ideas down on should nothing else be available, so I keep such things stored in my wallet).

Fast forward to April 13th, and on the way out of Adlyn's I decided to get a reference photo of her ceiling fan, so that I could be prepared when the time came to crank out the design. Not too soon after, on June 29th, after finalizing a few other designs, I began work on it. Strangely enough, I also prepared and posted a blog on the same day, mentioning that I was actually in the process of finalizing the design near the end.... Geez, creating a design and writing a blog at the same time? I guess that could give y'all some idea of the way my mind works at times. At this point I remember wishing that I had taken a picture of the ceiling fan with a better camera (i.e: anything other than my cellphone) and with better lighting (i.e: anything better than with the lights off...at night). By then my friend Adlyn had already moved out of that apartment though, so that wasn't possible. Well, enough of my blabber. Here it is!

(Click image for larger version)

Pretty silly, huh? Designing this was straight forward enough, even though I began with a different vision of what it would be in my head. Still, I like this much better. After I sent Adlyn a text with a shot of it though, we kinda got into a little back and forth on the font choice.

Basically, it all boiled down to her not liking the asterisks. I informed her that they were there for emphasis, so she told me I should italicize the word. When I told her that I didn't want a design in which just two words were in use to have differing looking text she told me I should use all caps then. When I replied that all caps took away from the readability, and that the emphasis was of a quiet, self-assured type (with the all caps being more of a yelling type), she... Well, actually, I think she left me alone at that point.

It's alright though. I've made the ceiling fan design, sans the type, available as well. So anyone that doesn't like my font choice, the asterisks, or even the message itself can add in their own. Interestingly enough, some folk must not mind the font or the asterisk, as someone actually purchased 4 products with the complete design on them! I thought that was pretty cool. Also, I showed a friend a few days ago, and she couldn't stop laughing, so I'll take that as positive feedback. Or maybe she was just high? Most of y'all reading this probably are also, so maybe I've found my audience? Hahaha! Ah, what an asshole....

Drop on in by my shop every now and then. There's new stuff coming in irregularly, so look out for that stuff. I'll try to crank more of these blogs out, possibly even catch them up to the corresponding designs available. That's all I had for this one. Y'all carry on.


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!

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!

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!

[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!

Like, two months later...

(...and he swings in talking about money)

Anyone doing that "Amazon Affiliates" thing? I'm already trying to sell folk on ideas on here...and I'm already selling my used, school books on there...so I feel a bit dirty for even considering it.

Anywho, I've been really busy, but I'm gonna try to get back in here and into the swing of things (what swing is that? I only have, like, two blogs posted here). This place is pretty lacking for a design journal type thing, huh? I know, I know.

As far as the t-shirt thing goes, since I last updated, I sent for my second "Backstabber" prototype (I buy everything I design. Firstly, to check that it looks as well on the shirt as it does in my mind, and secondly because I freaking love t-shirts. It's a good idea though, since I didn't like how the first prototype looked at all), and loved it, so that is now the "production" model. My first "1911 RELOAD!" prototype is on the way, and this will be my first "digital direct" design.

Aaaaand...it's extremely likely that none of this means anything to any of you. I will get on here a blog a bit about the design, the idea, and maybe even show you some of the doodling I did to come up with the idea later, but for now, I'm gonna have to leave you with that! I have a busy day ahead of me, here, outside of my t-shirt designing dreamworld. Ain't reality and responsibilities a kick in the balls?

JR, out!

JR DAVILA

The first design task that I undertook (the logical choice, I think) was that of my "brand" (click on the image for a larger sample).

Being the detail obsessive individual that I am, I first spent about 3 months obsessing on the design orientation itself and on the name. For the name I had a few ideas floating around in my head and couldn't really make up my mind. Was the brand itself going to be "TaranTulas", or would tarantulas be one of the themes? Then I thought, "Y'know, my name is probably what I should be concerned with 'getting out there' right now." Once I had my mind made up on that, the arachnid design and the font orientation was something that I also fought with for a while. I came up with all sort of "wild" ideas, but in the end I just scrapped them all and went with the most simplistic one. Font from left to right and the arachnid on top. Simplicity is...well, it just "is". It works.

Next was the font face itself. I took typography and learned a few things, but I still felt like I didn't know enough about "font choice". After becoming a little frustrated with my perceived lack of knowledge on "appropriate" font choice, I brought it up to a buddy of mines, Jeremy Moses (you probably think I love name-dropping by now, huh?). He's a graphic designer, and has a lot more experience and education on the subject than I, an animation student, would. His advice actually caught me by surprise. It was something along the lines of "look around and pick whatever you like". I felt a little silly after that. I mean, all of that time I spent fighting with it, and it was just up to me? I thought there were some rules, guidelines, hierarchies, or something that one would follow when choosing a font for a design. I'll blame APA Style for putting the idea in my head that the font you use, beyond it being serif or sans serif, actually matters.

Once I got past that, I went online searching for some big spider reference images. Did I mention I hate spiders? That probably makes no sense, but it's true. The desktop background image on my laptop at the moment is a super close-up of some disgustingly menacing looking spider. Think of it as some sort of...self administered "exposure therapy". Funny that most of my nightmares since have included huge, disgusting spiders. Anyhow, after a cringe inducing google session, I found the image I would use as reference for this initial design. I believe it's a "wolf spider". A kind I've had to smash plenty of in my day. Creep me the Hell out...

So I dropped the image into Illustrator, double clicked the pencil tool and set it to fill outlines (I prefer the pencil tool over the pen tool for more organic subjects) and went to work. I've had to stick to uploading the current design to Spreadshirt as a PNG, since it doesn't fall within their vector parameters. I'm working on finding a different spider to replace it, but in the meantime, that's it. The font is just "Eccentric" with the counters removed and the dimensions warped to my liking. I played around with the idea of having the parts where the font and the spider legs meet turn negative, but it made the design a little busier than I would like, so I kept it as is.

For now, there is only one t-shirt using the logo, and the design is restricted to "digital direct" printing anyhow so it isn't an issue yet. It shouldn't be long until I have a "flex" friendly version ready.

The design was more of a requirement than anything, so I don't feel quite as inspired about it. Maybe one day I will and I'll revamp it however it is I feel, but until then I don't see it changing much. That's all I had for that one, peeps. Carry on!

JR, out!