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...

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!

(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!

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!

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!