Fun with Frisket and Funky Woof

This week I created a logo for my Aunt's 'brand' of colourful dog clothing "Funky Woof". It may have some legibility issues but here's what I have so far... I can't decide between them. Actually I think now I am leaning towards the right one, with the curvy front leg.

This earlier version had a blanket on, which I liked because it got across the idea of dog clothing but it doesn't get across the outrageous/colourful feel of the clothes my aunt is selling. I couldn't get this idea to work with the random colours and shorter legs (the descender on the 'u' is messing up the legibility especially).

In my other spare time, I'm not really sure what possessed me, but I decided to experiment with a bottle of liquid frisket I had lying around. I had heard a lot about liquid masks and this frisket stuff, especially from the airbrush magazines I have in my collection. I've never fully understood what it was until now.

It's basically just liquid latex, a lot like the latex I was putting on my face to create a dead skin for the zombie shuffle. Liquid latex is a bit like PVA glue only smellier and it doesn't bond to much except itself.

The horse skeleton idea came from a t-shirt design I was doing on the computer one day with a skeleton image borrowed from the web. I've always needed to replace the idea with original art so I thought this was a good way to experiment and be productive at the same time.

It was kind of cool, at certain stages it looked like a tar covered fossil and peeling away the frisket was fun, a bit like excavating my own little fossilised art piece.

In other news my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project arrived. Yay! I chose "Science project gone wrong" as my subject. I'm thinking of doing a series of little monsters and stuff whose designs will be based on warning labels, for example: not suitable for children, may contain traces of nuts. That kind of thing.

The Sketchbook Project and other stuff

Wow it's been a while since my last update! I've been working on a new website and some freelance work, so that's been keeping me busy.

While I was looking around at some graphic design blogs I discovered a link to The Sketchbook Project which sounds very awesome. For a fee, each entrant is sent a Moleskine sketchbook and provided a theme. Finished sketchbooks are then exhibited around the US before finally being cataloged in the Brooklyn Art Library. Artists can track how many people viewed their book and have the option of offering the sketchbooks for sale if they like.

My only regret is that I won't be able to be there to see the sketchbooks in person! Thankfully though, some books will be scanned and available to view digitally. Now is a good time to join since our dollar is doing pretty well too! :)

C.H.O.W #213 : 8 - Bit character redesign: Splash Woman

Another Character of the Week activity. This time redesigning 8 -bit game characters. Here's my version of Splash Woman from Mega Man 9. I quite enjoyed listening to the music of the level while working on this haha.

and as usual a post of irrelevant spastic scribbly.... goodness? No..

Official Strawberry Swing video

I'm kind of late to see this considering I'm a pretty big fan of Coldplay but I like to think anyone who's into animation or illustration can take something from this (even if you don't like their music). It's a crazy confusing combination of stop motion and traditional animation all drawn on a single rectangle of bitumen. It's cool, creative and you've got to hand it to them for the huge amount of work that went into it.


 

C.H.O.W #212 The Veteran

My entry for the Character of the Week just passed. The topic:

He has seen a thousand wars... Known as “the Veteran”, some say Battle was his father, War his mother… Scarred by battle, the Veteran is a legend on the battlefield!

I really rushed my entry, submitting it with minutes to spare. I went for a female orc because there were already so many graying men.

Military Unit: Hacker

I finished off my hacker character. I imagined it to be better but I had to decide to just finish it at some point. Now I can move onto other things. Critique welcome.

I added a progress animation. I made a lot of changes along the way, I think it's a symptom of poor planning. Taking note of that.

New coins released: Bush Babies - Australian Sugar Glider and Young Collectors - Backyard Bugs

The next coin in the Australian Bush Babies series, the sugar glider, was released earlier this month.The sugar glider coin is my personal favourite in the series and I had the most fun illustrating it. Sugar gliders have such beautiful fur patterns and are just all round adorable little creatures.

Image from Talisman coins

Also released in August, the Young Collectors Backyard Bugs coin collection. I worked on the coins and some of the packaging. This project was still in the works when I left the Mint and the other designers have done an amazing job with the packing and booklets. The new website looks great too.

Image from Downies