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...

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!

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!