Flag Project

I got hired to produce a flag for an online game site. It's a sci-fi setting and the client had certain elements he strongly wanted. The file would be used for the web, so I decided it was okay to include some raster elements.

The client wanted the image to be glossy and black and have a neo-heraldic feel. I designed the initial elements in Illustrator and gave them some vector Web 2.0 polish.

The only raster element is the radial backdrop, which could have been created vector, but even as a vector it would require raster effects to be run on it, so in the end it was easier to create some waves in Photoshop and distort it to create the radial image. A levels adjustment and a gradient mask gave it the look that shows here.

In addition to the flag there were some signature images (for a forum) that needed to be made.

The signature images were easy enough to create, as it is mostly a repetition of the flag image and a background galaxy that I illustrated.

Finally some medals for in-game achievements needed to be constructed. It was a nice project and I'm fairly happy with the results given the constraints I was working with.

An Illustrator Tutorial from Sparked.biz

I came across a solid tutorial showing techniques for vector illustration of fashion drawings. This is way more efficient than how I would have approached it.

http://www.sparked.biz/2010/02/27/sketching-in-illustrator-the-fashion-face/

Designing Color Schemes on the Quick

Ideally you should set your color scheme in the early stages of the design, but sometimes I get a little over-zealous on the black and white sketches and end up deep into the composition before I start thinking about color.

Typically when that happens I turn on Illustrator and poke around the Live Color Palette to browse for a nice harmony. But sometimes I'm not working in Illustrator and starting it up wastes time and hogs resources. Then I found this awesome online tool:

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

This nice little web app has some great features aside from finding color schemes. You can export HTML, Photoshop or Gimp palettes or text files. And best of all it is slim and takes up little under the hood.

Painting
If you're working on a digital painting this tool is very nice. You can find a color scheme and screenshot the block of colors on the right and paste it right into a layer of your painting and begin sampling. Honestly, it curls my toes.

Bikini Girl Vector Illustration

I've recently been contacted for some vector fashion illustrations and I noticed that I don't really have a strong portfolio in that area. So I needed to make a portfolio piece.

First step along the line was making a sketch. I decided to create an image of a woman in the water looking at the viewer provocatively. For vector work like this I enjoy composing directly in Illustrator so I just did a quick sketch to make sure placement and layout was proportional and so I had a basic framework to work with.

After the sketch is in place I dropped in the basic shapes in Illustrator, making sure to add areas for shadow and highlights. Here is the outlines view of the project.

Then it comes to color. I chose a nice color harmony based on the color of the water and added in her hair, skin and the rest. Most of the elements are colored with gradients, which colors a bit more subtly than solids.

Finally here is the image.

I was meandering around and saw this. It resonated with me, I think I'll try to work in letterforms as design elements on my next Graphic Design project that it makes sense for.

My iPad wishlist

iTablet, iPad, iSlate, Mac Tablet, whatever it is to be called. I have a bargain to make with you, Apple.

I'm a PC, guy. When I went to school I was trained on a Mac, because well, that is what people did. I work in the Graphic Design field where Macs are considered by most to be the only choice. But I have used a PC in my private life so long that I prefer the capabilities and the fiddly bits under the hood.

Be that as it may, I will change my cyber-religion and convert to the cult of MacFanism if you do one simple little thing. I really, really would love it if the screen on the new iWhatever has the capability interpret at least 512 levels of pressure via a stylus. I'd prefer 2000 levels, but I'll take what I can get.

I'm an illustrator and my holy grail is a fast, solid computer with a slim, one-piece form factor that I can draw directly on. And in order to draw with any kind of fidelity or finesse I need to be able to map Adobe Photoshop to recognize how hard I'm pushing on the screen.

Pretty please. Make this happen and I'll swear off Windows and even stop following Bill Gates on Twitter.

Thank you.

Milton Glaser Drawing in Real Time

MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES from C. Coy on Vimeo.

I'm very impressed with his purposeful strokes. It's amazing to see done in real time.