2nd Departure: Double the Cross

(Double the Cut)

So, it's time for the next "variations" blog post! Someone pointed out that "deviations" is what they call things on deviantART, so I figured I'd call it something else...maybe.

Anyhow, as with the 1st of these, I will be going over designs that are derivatives built from the components of some of my other original designs. In this instance, it is the main components of the first two backstabber designs; the KA-Bar and the tanto. The origin of the following is exactly the same as the origin of the "Twins!" designs linked at the top of this paragraph. I was playing around with the solo KA-Bar design, and thought "Hm...This would probably work better if I put another one in there..." And, voilà! That was it. That's some exciting origin story, huh? I hope to give my future children origin stories about themselves that are just as exciting. Hahaha....

So, here they are! The KA-Bar Cross and Tanto Cross (Click image for full size)

Again, as with the "Beaut(y/ies)" designs, I chose to combine these to make the design possibilities cheaper to purchase. Initially, only the "edge out" versions existed, but as I played around with them, I realized that an "edge in" variation would look better if the design is flipped tips up, and thus I made and uploaded an "edge in" version for both of these.

And, actually, one of the reasons why I've delayed as much as I have with this blog post is because I've been fighting myself about several other two-blade design arrangements. Fighting, because part of me is lazy and doesn't want to do it, and because the other part of me is all like "Dude, it's too late. You already thought of them, you might as well arrange them and upload them to Spreadshirt!" But I decided to just make an addition to this post when I get around to that. It would take less than half an hour to work on the arrangement and so on, but I'm just not in the mood at this moment.

Also, I've yet to find any sort of caption to add to these. Like, putting "Twins!" at the bottom of the Beauties design just made sense. Here? I'm kind of drawing a blank. If you've got any suggestions, feel free to share. Just know I won't compensate you for it. Haha...

That's it for that one. By the way, that brand redesign that I had been blabbing about (WOW! That was all the way back in January? FML!) for a while got finalized and produced at last, a short time ago. Either I was going through some sort of creative block that just kept me from visualizing it, or I am undermining the genius of the idea and what the minimal amount of effort required was going to be, just to get close to visualizing such a nebulous concept. Either way, it doesn't matter anymore. It is done (For now. I am meaning to tweak some minor things.) and I can move on to visualizing and producing the next twenty concepts ricocheting around in my head. So, until the next time, I leave you. Carry on!

J, out...

Once a Backstabber, Always a Backstabber; The Tanto

(you can count on that)

Upon sitting down to start preparations for my next "deviation" blog, I realized that I hadn't actually gone over one of the designs that I would be featuring a deviation for. Obviously, that's no good, so here I am!

For this post, I will be (briefly, I predict) going over a "Backstabber" variant, this time (if you had't surmised as much from the title) featuring a Tanto. As mentioned in this follow up Backstabber post I plan on making several other Backstabber variant designs, featuring all sort of pointy objects. With as many ideas as I have coming into my head, it's difficult to actually execute on very many of these (and yes, I have a long list of Backstabber variants already). I won't even mention my time constraints (but I did)!

So, the same as with the KA-BAR, I created a Tanto "icon". The process was pretty much the same. The reference image used was this one. I like it. It's plain, clean, sharp, and gets the message across (that being "Hey, look! I'm a tanto!!"). Next I opened up my Backstabber "work" file (I save the "work" and "finalized" versions of every design separately. Makes it 79% easier to go back and make any fixes or revisions), removed the KA-BAR, and readjusted the blood a bit. Once the Tanto design had been completed (you can't really tell, but I'm pretty anal about these designs, and the final appearance betrays the attention to detail that goes into it), the rest was pretty much just about orientation and what-not.

Anywho, here's what the "Tanto Backstabber" looks like. I'm considering (meaning, I will...just not yet) creating some "Backstabber" text of my own (meaning not from one of the template Illustrator fonts), so I haven't actually gotten a t-shirt of my own with this design on it yet. With as many Anime/Japan geeks as there are in my school though, I'm sure several would stop and ask me about it if I wore it (sure, the KA-BAR Backstabber that I wear every now and then gets reactions, just...y'know).

In other news, a recent gaffe involving a digital direct print has halted some of my Spreadshirt shopping progress. Basically, I want to wear this damn design (done right!), so I'm waiting until the return gets back to them and they credit it to me before trying again. Until then I'm gonna sit here (not the whole time, mind you) and wait for the email with the digital coupon code. I understand that they'd recently become very backed up (some partner's shop was getting a massive amount of orders for digital direct printed designs), and they had to up production by adding more personnel and working throughout the week, so I'm attributing it to that (especially since the t-shirt that I ordered with my "GI1911 RELOAD! 2.0" printed on it over half a year ago looked awesome, and still does after many washes!).

Well, I'll stop boring you with my personal problems now. I'm gonna try a little harder to at least do one of these a week, so that I can finally get caught up. The designs featured in my shop with a blog post of their own are currently outnumbered by the ones without, and I'm not exactly happy about that. It sort of dissuades me from getting to cranking out some of my other ideas, because that will just back me up more on this end, and that's not good if getting more designs into my shop is my goal. That's enough for now. Until next time, 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!

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!