Commissioned Work - 1 of 3

In the wake of my Woot printing, I was contacted by a rapper from the west coast. He liked my work and wanted to know if I could do some illustration work for him. We settled on not 1 but 3 illustrations! Well, this post is all about the first of those 3 pieces.

Original Concept Presented to Client

This piece started as a simple enough concept. Upon hearing his lyrics, I heard him rap about things like "smoking blunts for breakfast." So in honor of his praise of marijuana, we decided to do an Alice in Wonderland themed design.

One of the unifying themes of the work I'm doing for the rapper, is the Asian themed dragon. It's part of his logo and symbolic.

This shirt is being DTG printed which is totally different from what I usually do. There are no limits on numbers of colors in DTG as it is full digital. This has allowed me to have some cool textures and lighting.

The following are a series of progress shots so you can see the design process that took place. More than 20 hours of work went into this piece.

I'm Gonna Be Busy!

Upon my shirt going on sale on Woot, I've received a ton of good comments as well as a job offer! An underground rapper of the West Coast contacted me and inquired about doing some merch design for him. Long story short, I developed 3 concepts and to my surprise, instead of buying 1, he bought all 3! Over the next few weeks I will be busy working away on these illustrations and bringing them to life.

Announcement

Hey readers, just a brief announcement. Firstly, my giant octopus tee has sold 1200 shirts as of this moment. It's thrilling to know that at minimum, there will be at least 1 tee in all 50 states of the union. Very cool! It's safe until early may. The reckoning will be May 9th, so as long as we can push this tee into the top 20, we will be on sale for some time.

Also, I am planning on making a youtube channel to link with this sketchbook. I think it's a little selfish of me to just use this site as a sketchbook. I plan on making a series of how to videos for those who ask me what my process is. I'd like to show starting artists how to go from doodle to finished tee and every step in between.

The first video I'm planning right now is going to be "Anatomy of  a T-Shirt Design" in which I will feature this octopus tee and show how the design started, how it got to become a digital file, and all the layers and processes in between.

Finally, I am thinking about doing a signup newsletter where by I can notify my readers who sign up for it when I have a new video, contest or tee for sale/voting.

Let me know what you fine folks think of these ideas. I think it's time I make this site more usable. I would love to make this an interactive site where people can see how I choose to do things and where we all can learn off each other. I'd love to collaborate with other artists through here, and give away a few t-shirts in the process. More to come in the near future!

Let’s Get Kraken

Well, as promised, my octopus shirt is officially on sale at Shirt.Woot.com! here is their bizarre writeup about it:

Shirt.Woot Design Comp

And so I said to Dorothy, “Well, what else would I do with my ink now that I’m at Harper’s?” 
But you get a tough skin in this city, so I pay it no real mind. Naturally, as an out-of-towner, my first instinct was to hide in some coral or maybe beneath a tea cozy made of shells. Harpo took me aside and explained how that would only make me a target. “Larger than life, my friend!” he said, “And then they can’t ever touch you!” He understood camouflage, that man. I suppose he had to, though. Did you know his real name was Adolph? Talk about needing a place to hide!Yes, she laughed at that too, she’s a darling girl. Not like that nasty Harold fellow. Did you know that last week he ordered a cuttlefish stew just as I walked in the room? Of course, as an octopus, I’ll eat basically anything, and he didn’t know that. You should have seen the look on his face when I sat down and asked Luigi for a spoon of my own. I though Donald was going to burst with laughter.

I have my critics, sure, we all do. Those sharks would tear me apart if I let them. But I’ve got a stranglehold on this town, and I’m not letting go. If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere. And at least nobody mistakes me for a squid! Except maybe in the Village.

Design Detail

Wear this shirt: on your way to the rooftop garden, in the shade.

Don’t wear this shirt: around the Gorilla’s Union. They’ll be pretty upset.

This shirt tells the world: “First, we take Manhattan.”

We call this color: I Guess The Navy Would Have Jurisdiction But It’s Really Hard To Decide

This shirt will be available for sale for a minimum of 7 days on shirt.woot.com. It will be $10 for today only, and $15 after that. It will stay for sale on shirt.woot.com so long as the sales figures stay relevant. This is an exclusive contract I signed with Woot, so I can not sell this design elsewhere. So, if you want to rock this tee, time is running out!

Zombie Starbucks

Shirt.Woot! shocked and excited their artists this week by announcing this weeks derby theme to be zombies! Zombies have become a pop culture icon. I really wanted to make a statement this week instead of just drawing a generic zombie shirt, and I wanted to show off my skills for character design and gritty art.

Zombie Starbucks - Original Pencil Concept

The statement I wanted to make is an Anti-Starbucks stance. I'm a coffee guy, OK? As a Graphic Designer in a production setting, I inject coffee directly into my veins. For those of you who wonder, I prefer Tim Horton's coffee to all of the competitors. I think Starbucks has the worst tasting cup of coffee on the market. It tastes charred and bitter and requires far too much cream and sugar to make remotely drinkable. I'm making a statement here against the zombie culture of consumerism. I wanted to portray the morning zombie line of corporate folk lining up ready to fork over $4 for a cup of burnt tasting Joe.

Zombie Starbucks - Finished Inks

I really got to use the new Wacom Cintiq in this derby. From pencils to inks, everything was done entirely digitally. It amazes me how much these pieces really look like the medium they are supposed to represent. The versatility this equipment provides is unbelievable. Wacom should really start paying me to brag about their equipment, because I can't say enough good things about  their products.

This style is really typical to my kind of artwork. Yes, I try to do simplified cutesy designs to sell tee shirts, and you could call me a sell out, but I wanted everyone to know that this is really what I do and what I'm capable of. I'm very proud of the raw gritty sketchiness I brought to life in this piece. There was one problem however. I am a terrible colors. Fortunately, my friend Tony Odysseyroc Avina, who is a professional comic book colorist, offered to color this piece for me.

Zombie Starbucks - Tony Odysseroc Final Colors

What's most important to me is that this is my first collaborative piece I have ever done. I am very used to doing everything myself from start to   finish. There has been no bigger thrill for me than to see a true professional's take on my artwork. Currently, this piece is in 67th place in the derby, but that's with my crappy slapped together colors. Tony and I plan on shopping this design around and selling it to a website that appreciates what I'm trying to say, and our artwork. Let me know what you think of the APSketches, Odessyroc collaborative zombie coffee shop piece.