scared kiddos

Recently, I've been trying to participate in the Bi-weekly Challenge (I say "try" because this is my first, official, complete piece). I was excited to do the Grimm's Fairy Tale challenge. We just had to create a piece based on one of the stories.

I based my piece on "The Water Nix" (quick read here). I liked the idea of drawing terrified children. A "Nix" is basically a sprite. That creeping dark thing in the upper left corner is the Nix.

This is my first complete vector illustration in a long time. The last time I made one was back when I was a student at Miami Ad School. Adobe Illustrator and I haven't had the long relationship that Photoshop and I have had, so any and all work in the program is a great learning experience!

I think my favorite thing about working in Illustrator is the ease of replicating elements. For example, I created the boy's body, and then just copied and pasted it for the girl.

Here are some preliminary sketches.

redheaded kiddos

I'm still obsessed with drawing ginger kiddos. I probably will always be obsessed with drawing them since my nephew & niece are cute little gingers. They both have beautiful red hair, fair skin, and "blueberry eyes" as my nephew says.

I posted these kids before - they were drawn with markers. I decided to digitize them (vectorize, to be more exact). Not quite sure what I'm going to do with them...I've toyed with the idea of turning them into a repeating pattern. However, I'd like to have more of them, instead of just these two. I'm also not sure they're done yet. I may push them further.

The Little Sirs

I've joined the annoying forces on Instagram that create accounts just for their pets. My poochies' account is @thelittlesirs. I usually update it on a daily basis. Instead of having a photo of them for the avatar, I created a vector illustration.

I gave them bow ties because they are "sirs." Although, they have yet to really earn that title. The part I enjoyed creating the most was the shape used for Louie's ears. Ahh, curves. I've been working on getting myself more acquainted with the pen tool in Illustrator.

some logos

A friend of mine works with a guy who is on the committee of Duluth Superior Pride. Word trickled down that they were looking for a new logo. Technically it wasn't a "logo" in the traditional sense, because they wanted A LOT of info on this "logo:" the year, the theme name ("What a Difference a Gay Makes"), and GLBTAQI, with each word spelled out on it. With all those words, I think of it more as an "event design" than a logo.

These are just a couple of the designs I came up with. The committee didn't choose any of mine because I didn't match all of the criteria listed above. Oh well! Some additional design experience under the belt.

personal branding

Some designs for a personal logo. These were mocked up in Illustrator after pages and pages of doodling and sketching ideas. I can't commit nor can I design something I truly like. I need to figure out what I want my personal branding to convey. I guess that for now these are just exercises in design.

2nd Qtr: Vector Artwork

I'm taking a class about Adobe Illustrator CS5 this quarter.  This is some of the vector work I've created. To me, Illustrator is a distant cousin to Photoshop, like twice-removed. I guess I like it. Photoshop will always be my one true love though. Click for larger views.

Personal logo - initial sketch and vector renderings.

Self-Portrait on a 10 of stars card.

HIPSTERkins: original characters