Logo Designs.

Every so often I get asked to make a logo which makes me happy that I paid attention in my design classes. A struggle I have with a lot of my students is that they think that as an illustrator they don't need to know design (or how to use a computer for that matter). Some of them often find out too late that it is essential. Even if you're not designing a logo per se, there is still a good amount design that goes into each illustration.

I recently finished this one below for His-n-Herbs and I've added some others that I have done over the years. I don't usually show these off.

Every year I get asked to design the logo for the Relay for Life in Medford, NJ. It is a 24 hour walk-a-thon that usually takes place at a local high school track. The logo has to be created keeping in mind that it will be used for a one color silkscreen for t-shirts, mugs, etc.

The logo for my church's youth group of which my wife and I help lead.

A hooded sweatshirt design. Typing Hebrew is not fun, since you have to do it backwards. Coming up with a method to make the design look weathered was also a challenge.

This one was done for Helping Hand, a concierge business. This design was for the 2 sided business card.

In connection with the Relay for Life stuff, this one was done for an after-treatment support group which was started by a good friend, Susan Jones, who has since gone home to be with the Lord.

And finally this was created for Lighthouse Tabernacle, a local church. I used the colors from their stained glass windows to construct the lighthouse.

Work in progress

This is part of a pair of hidden pictures- err, I mean, "seek and find"- being done for a nearby Conservation group. I'll post the finishes once I'm done.

Highlights Hidden Pictures Cover

Just received the copies of the 2009 hidden picture book in which I was picked for the cover.

Also, I am in this month's Highlights Magazine (November 2008). It is an older hidden picture piece I did back in 2001 that I think was reprinted for this issue, but I'm not entirely sure. It's kind of fun to look at how I have improved in just 7 years. I've learned since that removing the tone makes the hidden pictures harder to find and it takes much less time. I wish I had known they were going to reprint this, I would like to have re-inked it.

Short Cuts.

Two weeks ago I had to do a pretty quick turn-around job for Bryn Mawr College. The illustration was to be of 6 different crew boats with 30 people distributed between them. Since I didn't have the time to draw each individual, I drew 3 instead: one coxswain and one female and one male rower, plus the back and front of the boat. I then drew many different heads of different races (as shown below) and stuck them on the bodies.

I wish I had the time to vary the strokes each team was taking, but sometimes you just have to get the job done. I still think it turned out pretty nice.

Old Mac Donald.

I teach a sophomore class called Experimental Workshop at the Hussian School of Art. The whole point of the class is to make the students think outside the box. Most of the time we are creating 3 dimensional pieces but every so often I have them do an illustration. I start off by giving them a list of 58 animals/objects that Old MacDonald and his family are moving. The experimental side of this illustration is to draw everything that is on the list but to draw it using only INK. No pencil or research is allowed. They are given roughly 3 hours to complete.

Last year I decided to do one and here's what I was able to put together. I found that the hardest part of this was keeping the proportions right and just trying to plan ahead for what was coming next. There is some bad drawing here, and this piece is pretty big (6 x 22") that I had to take a photo of it, so please forgive the quality.

----------------------------------------------------------

Update: I found a away to scan it in using Adobe Bridge's Photo merge!

Washington's tomb

I drew this back in June when I visited the tomb in Mount Vernon, VA. I wish I had more time but I had to cut the visit short. It really is a beautiful place to visit.

More Psycholinguistic Technologies stuff.

I posted some of these earlier. You'll note the use of the same backgrounds used throughout these sets. I did this in order to cut down on production time and to make it easier for the viewer to quickly point out the differences in the scenarios when using the program.

I discovered in this first set that I really like to draw sad dogs, especially ones that have just gotten into trouble.

The design of this hideously ugly dress is actually based on one that a friend owns, but I won't tell.

I also love to draw grumpy cats.

Although I hate to draw hippies.

You can see Drew Phillips in the top right hand corner of this one. He helped me with the coloring on some of these.

Old fang.

Recently I noticed that some blogging illustrators took to drawing their, "teenage-selves." I went the other route...

Illiterate man.

I made this on the train coming home from teaching a few years ago...

Great Falls, VA.

My wife travels for a living and occasionally I accompany her on her trips. A few weeks ago I went with her to the DC area and visited Great Falls National Park on the Virginia/Maryland border. I sat in the gorge for a few hours and drew some of the dramatic scenery with my brush pens. The top drawing here is out of my comfort zone but I think it came out nice (for my benefit anyway).