Don’t worry! I’m still keeping up on my Greaser Alphabet. I just got a little caught up over the past couple weeks in a little game called Red Dead Redemption. Without further ado, here’s letter I.

Colonel Windpipe’s Musical Brigade is a great little collaborative project started by uberkraaft and Lesley Barnes. What started as one illustration is quickly becoming an incredible menagerie of marching musical madness. Here’s my entry along with his bio.

BIO:
Sniffs is not his given name but he wanted one of those one-word names like his hero Slash. He’s definitely not the Slash of ukuleles, but he has the heart it takes to be in Colonel Windpipe’s marching band!

Art Works Every Time, a group art show I’m in, opens in LA tomorrow! I won a spot in the show through the Beautiful/Decay and Colt45 t-shirt design competition. You can find a short (but sweet) interview with me about my work in the show over at beautifuldecay.com

The opening should be a rockin’ good time with live music, vegan Colt 45 flavored ice cream, plenty of Colt45 to drink, and of course, great art. Fellow MPLS based artist Colin Strandberg is also going to be in the show among a bunch of other really talented folks.

Unforunately, I won’t be able to make it to the show, so if any of you can, will you send me pictures?

It’s been a while since I’ve written a process post. Whether it’s because I was too busy or too lazy…who’s to say? (My bet is on a mixture of both.) I recently received a request to show my process behind Fight Dirty, and I’m more than happy to oblige!

1. Sketching

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I’ve been wanting to try my hand at an ambigram for quite some time, but couldn’t think of a good reason to tackle one. Initial ideas were Flip Flop (kinda lame) or a Clean Dirty magnet for the dishwasher (I still might attempt that one someday). I let the idea sizzle in the back of my head for a while.
Months later, I was just sketching for fun (the best reason to sketch), and I drew the sketch below.

2. More Sketching

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Ah, the ambigram dream lives again!
(left) It didn’t take long to think of the text to match the drawing, so I set to work doing small sketches to see if it could work.
(right) I added the typography sketch to my previous one. Something I thought of later was to make the type look like it was a direct result of the fighting. Hence the note in the upper right corner.

3. Line Work

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Now that I have a solid sketch, I scan it into Photoshop to create the line work. I like to work as non-destructively as possible. That means I work on several layers because, at this point, I’m not sure how I’m going to treat different elements. I also create multiple versions of all my files just in case. The different colors show the different layers of lines I used for this piece.

Also note, just because I had a good sketch, doesn’t mean I won’t change it. The cloud adds a bit of interest to the composition. After all, what’s a dustup without a dust cloud?

4. More Line Work

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I finish the line work by adding the typography: on to adding color!

5. Color

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Now, my big areas of color are defined, however, they don’t look good. That’s OK because my flats are solid color adjustment layers with masks. I find this is the quickest way to try out color combinations until I hit the right one.

6. Texture

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I’ve got colors that feel good now, but flats are just that…flat. Texture adds a little randomness to a piece that has, thus far, been very planned and composed. It also helps to add scratches, dust, etc to a piece that’s about fighting!

7. Finished!

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At this point, I go to bed for the night. Gotta clear the brain and get a fresh perspective on the piece. If I still think it’s done after I wake up, then it’s done. In this case, it still felt a little flat, so I added subtle variations in color throughout the piece. I also toned down the texture around the outside edges because I felt like it distracted too much from the main event.



That’s all folks! If you have any questions or would like to see me delve into the process of another piece of mine, let me know in the comments!