SkekTek's Artsy Stuff

Boo Got Caught

2011-11-01T04:48:00.000-07:00

Got a design done while I was vising my folks in Indiana, and this one was done totally digitally: no sketch. Just me and the tablet. Although yesterday was Halloween, I still had ghosts on the brain. So here it is. Click on the image to go to the voting page if you read this before Thursday.

New Derby Entry- Scuba Fish

2011-10-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

Not many ideas as of late- family issues have prevented me from doing much more than managing my teaching, research, and travel time. So this is a major milestone in that I got one done for the derby this week. Click the image to go to the vote page.

Spiritgreen does it again

2011-09-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

This guy constantly amazes me. The stuff just keeps getting better and better, and this time he comes up with an amazing design, within two days, that totally blows out everyone else from the water. The detail is impeccable, the concepts are spot on, and everything about it is done just right (though i must say that the moon behind the design looks more like a watermelon since it's a bit too wide).

If you get a chance, check it out here.

Bag of Fish

2011-09-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

This week is a derby for the shirt.woot bags. We haven't had one of these for over 100 derbies, so this is fun.

Voting link here.

Are you going outside?

2011-08-19T05:47:00.001-07:00

This is a mild repurpose of an early (mid 50's) shirt derby entry. I really liked the idea of sad puppy eyes, so I tweaked it a bunch and this is what's left. Hopefully it'll resonate with the voters, but I've kinda lost the ability to predict what will be good or not. Has been a while since I had a design score >200 votes, that is.

Three shirt designs this week on shirt.woot

2011-07-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

I have been busy. While on vacation, I got three designs done. Two are not my best, but I do like the pill one.

Vote for Pill
Vote for Covalent Love

The other one isn't that good, so I'm not gonna post it.

Working on mexico idea

2011-06-24T07:28:00.001-07:00

This is a draft of one idea- an Aztec owl.

Trying out mobile blogger

2011-06-19T11:41:00.001-07:00

Well, trying it out. If this works i will try to post more inspirations as i have them.

For now, celebrating dads day with the boys at the pool.

Two designs for book derby

2011-06-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Hi whomever reads this, prolly no-one. I have two designs up for the derby. Please give them a vote, or if you don't have a vote, some kind comments in the blog would be good. I'm not sure if I want to keep doing this blog if there's noone reading it but me :).

Here's the first. Walk the Plank (Click here to vote)

Here's the second: How to Live Forever (click here to vote)

1.. 2.. 3..

2011-06-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

This week's derby is "Red", and as usual, with two kid b'day parties to go to (not my kids), I frittered the weekend away doing dumb things like watching kids have fun, grading, and prepping for summer classes this week. So I was late to the derby contest. I was working on several ideas, but they never gelled right. This one I just bit the bullet and finished to get it in the derby. Not my best, but it's good enough, and hopefully it will get over 100 votes before it is done. Or is rejected. But since Woot has made a mint off of a cookie monster design, I think it's also relatively safe in the realm of parodies. But I never know.

So it is up for votes here.

Another great derby design

2011-06-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

I should post more often. Especially when I come up with iconic, good looking designs that aren't retreads of some old half-baked idea. This one is for a anthropomorphic food derby, which going into it sounded like one where I'd get my ass kicked pretty soundly from the designer gods that are now regular entrants into the derbies. While I consider myself having decent skills for what I do for a living (neuroscience/animal behavior), I am nowhere close to the level of such woot greats as Bassanimation, Walmazan, SpiritGreen, and Patrick Spens.

So I take it as a great success when I can do something that stays in the top 20 in a derby. This one was a take on the Reservoir Dogs movie. However, there are a lot (and I mean a LOT) of hot dog designs out there, which rendered my first concept undoable. However, I thought of another iconic way to play it out, so here it is. It's early in the movie, when Mr. Pink and Mr. White go at each other, with Mr. Blonde looking on.

The reason Mr. White has a red splotch on his shirt is because in the movie, Mr. White has helped Mr. Orange into the warehouse after getting shot. So he has blood on him. Should I have swapped the bottles of condiments to make it seem like Mr. Pink has already gotten some ketchup on Mr. White? Sure. But it makes less sense since it would also appear I was "Lucasing" the movie and having Mr. Han Solo Pink shoot first, which didn't happen. So I left it. Also, I got calls asking for a light silver shirt, since people don't like white shirts, but that also looked silly since the nice thing about this concept was the stark B&W nature of the design. Plus, if I had made it on any other color, I'd have to color the hot dogs at least white, which would have been an extra ink color. I like it as it is. It's up for votes, but if you're reading this blog, you prolly already voted for it. But I'll take any comments you might have!

Voting can be done by clicking here.

The Silver Spectre

2011-05-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

I have a new shirt design on woot that I rather like, though it is skirting the theme by a thread...

Vote here.

Kingfisher rules over fishes

2011-04-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time since my last post. I've been doing designs, but none worth advertising up until now. I just did one for Shirt.woot's Royalty derby, and it makes fun of kingfishers. I love birds, I am a bird biologist, so this one is really fun to show off. Click on the image to vote for it.

Flynn Lives shirt on redbubble.

2011-03-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

I have been a big fan of the ARG for Tron Legacy called Flynn Lives. It's a project by 42 Entertainment, who won an ARG award for the campaign. In the last installment, a short film on the Tron Legacy DVD/BluRay shows the "background" to the mythos that is the ARG. At the end, Sam wears a distressed Flynn Lives shirt. This is that shirt. The link is a sales link in case you like the design.

Derby Entry- Jersey Devil

2011-03-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

This week's theme is woodcuts. My favorite is a childrens book called Earl the Squirrel. Really well done. So I decided to repurpose an old design I liked, with a woodcut pattern. Plus did some good tweaking in the design as well. Here's the link to the voting site.

Shirt in the do-over derby this week!

2011-03-02T05:12:00.000-08:00

Can't believe I forgot to push this- It's a derby where they give honorable mentions from previous derbies one more chance to get printed. I'm doing OK but need all the votes I can get. I'm hoping that the clean lines will get it an Editor's choice, but votes are always nice. Comments too!

Vote by clicking this link. Thanks!

This is SOOOOO True!

2011-02-19T17:23:00.001-08:00

Nuff said. Hot sauce rocks.

Cassette Roadkill

2011-02-18T20:15:00.001-08:00

You know the derby's really competitive when you crank out one of your best designs ever, and it's still consigned to being a 20th place finisher or so. But that doesn't dissuade me, no sirree... but it could use votes if you read this soon...

Vote here.

Two new designs for the Oddball Shirt.woot derby

2011-02-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

I have two entries up for votes this week. One is a cool snowflake among less cool droplets. The other is a late entry celebrating the best kids' game Duck Duck Goose. Apologies to all those Canadians who played Duck Duck Gray Duck...

Vote here for cool flake
Vote here for duck

Flynn Lives- Other poster versions

2011-02-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

Wow, I forgot to post the other designs I was working on. Here they are.

Flynn Lives- Tank version

2011-02-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

Another ARG (alternate reality game) poster recreation. This time, it's a tank design that someone saw at a Comic Con. Took me about an hour and a half, with a lot of time trying to preserve the gradients while still knocking out the black lines to make it look clean. Still some work to do, but overall, I think it's spot on.

Turtle T-shirt Jealousy

2011-02-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

A silly entry that kinda sends up the tons of turtle designs out there. People may hate what is popular, but I'm embracing it.

Vote here.

Two Emperor tamarin designs submitted to Shirt.Woot

2011-02-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

I was intrigued by the emperor tamarin monkey, so I drew this out this morning. I submitted one colored version, and one grayscale version. Not sure which one is better...

Click here to vote for grayscale tamarin.
Click here to vote for colored tamarin.

Tie Fighter Tesseract

2011-02-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

This week's Shirt Woot derby is things beginning with the letter T, so here's my idea of combining pop culture with four-dimensional space.

Voting like will be here when submitted

RatBot

2011-01-31T20:17:00.000-08:00

Something I doodled cuz I can't sleep. I always liked mechanical animals, so here's a ratbot. I don't know if it'll ever get on a design, but at least it's moderately done in case I need something for a theme. Perhaps gonna add it looking at a robotic cat. Or something.

The Good Luck Rat of Karni Mata

2011-01-30T11:00:00.001-08:00

Based on the rats of Karni Mata, finding one of a very few number of albino rats among the normal black rats is considered good luck. In addition, you have to go barefoot into the temple, so having a rat run across your foot is also considered good luck. Vote here!

Mandala of Life

2011-01-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

A more ambitious, abstract derby entry. A mandala is a sacred circle in hindi art, where patterns and images radiate out in concentric rings. I decided to imitate one form, that of sand, by making the elements sand-like.

Vote here

New design for the Star Derby

2011-01-21T05:26:00.000-08:00

Here I have tried to capture stars DOING something, rather than just a pretty picture with halftones. It's silly, but it's what I do best (cartoon illustration). Tried also to do variation in the background as well to give it more visual interest. Link for voting to be added after submission.

Two designs for the Fire Shirt Woot Derby

2011-01-13T22:07:00.000-08:00

Here are two designs I will be subbing in the Fire derby starting on Friday. Click the images to vote!

The first is called "Dances With Fire" and the second is obvious, "Meteor Shower"

01/11 Mouse Tron

2011-01-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

A random drawing at the doctor's office led to this. I wasn't trying to do a Tron design, it just came out that way. All of this was done in Photoshop using my new Bamboo Tablet. Currently 5 colors: gray, blue, white, red, and pink. Black is the shirt color. I still need to give the mouse in the middle a gray treatment and invert the front wheel colors (red/black). But overall a nice sketch almost fully realized. Tron Mouse finds a new way to keep other mice away from his cheese.

New Recognizer

2011-01-09T07:44:00.000-08:00

The original Tron movie, one of my favorites, had the iconic Recognizer symbol. But there wasn't a similar vectorized version of the new Recognizer. I proudly have an old-school Reco on my MacBook Pro, so it looks like it is capturing the lit up Mac logo on the lid when opened. So I made one for the new Reco as well. It's a vectorized file, so it reproduces razor sharp. The gif below has been sampled so it doesn't look as good.

01/02 VelociTron shirt

2011-01-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

This didn't win. Heck, it barely broke 90 votes, while the other entry that was similar won it all. I think it's superior in every way to the winner, but that's the nature of the derby. The first shirt always wins, and I was driving from Chicago to Philly. So I figured I would share it on the blog, since it was so good. Note I dated the above entry to when I actually submitted it.

Only one kid soul commented on the shirt in the thread. If you want to do so (and make me feel good), feel free to go over and say so here.

01/09 Finding a way out.

2011-01-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Another year, another derby shirt. This is a new take on a classic joke shirt- the tux shirt. Only I replaced the flower with a bride, and had a circuitous pathway for the groom to get away. There is only one solution (though you can go through the bowtie two ways), but a hint: if you find yourself tracing the lower buttons, you're not getting away anymore :)

Voting link here

Velocipede Entry on Facebook

2010-12-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

Hi folks!

I have an entry for a Tron contest that, if I win, will get tons of cool swag. Here's the link

And here's the design. I think it is really cool.

Derby 166- Commodore Capybara

2010-09-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've been neglecting this blog. Well, I've got good cause. I just co-edited a massive re-edit of a Physiological Psychology textbook, so look for a link here for that. Took 6 months. Then, I taught a lot of summer school. Now fall semester's in full swing. I gave up on the 365, but at least I'm still drawing. Here's my new entry for the derby- because I think capybaras are cute.

Voting link here.

Working for a living

2010-07-02T19:25:00.001-07:00

Another week, another derby entry. This one is based on the CITY derby, which was one of the first derbies as well (15 or so). But I get to use an old element, the pigeon. VOTING HERE.

Derby 153- Romeyolk and Juliegg

2010-06-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

My Shakespeare entry. First all-photoshop design too, if you don't count the original pen/ink sketch. I think it came out fine, but I had all sorts of trouble with the layers since I didn't start with them layered (colored the sketch, then realized my mistake). Oops. Lesson learned.

Vote here: http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=43406

DEVOlving DNA tie

2010-06-23T17:01:00.000-07:00

I have a shirt in the derby fog this week! It's an extra special derby too, with the winner being selected by DEVO to be a shirt for them, AND get a lot of cool swag (devo jumpsuits, and travel/tickets to one of their shows). Please support HERE!!!

I'm a bill looking for a job...

2010-06-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

This week's Derby is job shirts, and I must admit that I'm having a bit of an artist's block on doing a design. This is the only thing I came up with, so here it is...

Derby 150- Ceti United

2010-06-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

Ceti United won the championship in 2454. This is in the style of many european shirts where the major symbol is on a shield. I figured an alien-looking soccer ball would be the best image to use. Five colors on black. Vote if you like it by clicking on the image. Thanks!

Pandas for Peace

2010-05-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

Another week, another 4-5 hours down the tubes. But what I came up with is a level above my normal stuff. Here I sketched out a panda hippie with some very '60s era lettering and color scheme. May have gone a bit overboard with the halftoning, but I think it fits. Surprisingly it is only 6 colors- white, two greens, yellow, and two pink tones. If you like it, VOTE HERE.

Another shirt derby entry

2010-05-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

This one flies against almost 150 derbies of rules and bans. But it's still funny. Back a few years ago, shirt.woot.com opened its doors and derbies. There were no rules- anything went. I didn't enter a derby until 3, but if I did, this is what I would have done.

Votes appreciated, before it's rejected.

Two shirts on current derby

2010-05-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Hi folks. Haven't updated the blog, mostly because I don't think people are looking at it anymore. But in case you do come back, I have two shirts up for votes- one is a silly slogan shirt, and the other is an ode to the classic came Dig Dug. I like the latter a bit more because I had to draw it, but the former is clever.

Please vote if you got them!

Vote here for Slaw and Order

Vote Here for Prairie Dog versus Dig Dug

03/09 Solar Party

2010-05-05T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is a sketch originally meant as a design for an earth day daily, but it never got done. When the shirt derby contest came around, I totally forgot about this concept idea, and was too busy to get something done anyway. Oh well. Hopefully I will be able to finish this for either a future daily idea or possibly replace earth with some other planet (like pluto) to submit on the anniversary of the planet in question's discovery. The word Amish was not part of the concept, and was something I had already written on the paper. Note- on the design, I had Pluto being in time out in the corner while the rest of the planets ate cake! Bad Pluto!

03/08 Little crab character

2010-05-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

This is a concept for a helmet crab. Didn't know where it was going, but I thought it was cute. It is really fun when you are in a class, and doodle something in the margins. I decided to post this since it was one of my more special sketches. Dunno if I could do anything shirty with it, but I scanned it just in case.

03/07 Random Elements

2010-05-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Sketching to see what will come about, this was for the derby about books. I was trying to design a bunch of small elements to make a tic tac toe/chess game of classic drama books versus monster horror villains books IE- to kill a mockingbird, dracula, portrait of dorian gray, moby dick, scarlet letter, turning of the screw, scarlet pimpernell, catcher in the rye...

03/06 Colored monkey

2010-05-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

It's a monkey theme! Just can't get away from drawing those. This is my attempt to do a colored design for livetracing color in an attempt to make a more realistic chimp/squirrel monkey. As you can see, I was planning on putting a hat on him, but never got that far. This is part of a concept of a vertical line of monkeys on a rope, with a happy shark waiting underneath.

Enjoy!

03/05 Catching up on MSCE- bad monkey!

2010-05-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm going to TRY to catch up on MSCE, even though I am approximately 2 months behind! So I will be posting a bunch of sketches today in an attempt to get viewership back up and get some useful comments. Here's something I drew at around that time while in a meeting. People were senselessly arguing about petty stuff, so I drew a monkey. And the caption came naturally. Enjoy!

05/04 Spring showers

2010-05-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

Here's another woot shirt entry. On cranberry since I like the color contrast between the blue drops and the shirt color. Vote if you got 'em! I need all I can get!

How OLEDs work

2010-04-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I updated this, and even longer since I had a MSCE post. But work's been kicking me in the butt, and finally I got some time to do a really good design. This is my answer to where OLEDs come from... from luminescent insects!

Please vote if you got 'em here!

04/06 Tofuman!

2010-04-06T21:29:00.001-07:00

My second design for the derby, late of course. Tofu as a superhero. I like it, and hope it gets some last-minute votes. Vote here if you like it and are a shirt.woot voter! Thanks!

04/05 PhySycho

2010-04-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

My first derby entry this week. Trying to channel Jhonen Vasquez and Comic Noir. First attempt to make a design out of a negative space as if I scratched the design out from a black wax sheet and printed it using white ink. Please vote at shirt.woot if you like it!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone gets a chance to spend time with family today...

03/29 Surprise! Snake!

2010-03-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

I've been a very bad, very busy boy. It's been almost 3 weeks since my last post. I could come up with excuses, but they'd be hollow ones. I've failed. But I can save it. here's a new design for shirt woot's derby.

My first derby in 2 weeks. Please vote for Surprise! Snake! Great for kids!

Vote Here!

03/04 Cupcake

2010-03-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Cupcake! Must be from all the ones I ate while in NYC. Yums!

03/03 Chickendeer

2010-03-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

Playing around with the tablet again.

03/15 design for msce 03/02 The Plugz

2010-03-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

I realize it is 3/15. I've got a lot of catching up to do. But here's an attempt to get a day back. My shirt.woot design this week is for "the plugz"- a band from the '80s who did Reel Ten and some other really cool songs from Repo Man.

If you like it, vote here: http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=40626

03/01 A random dwarf

2010-03-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Wasn't sure if this looks like a dwarf, or a dude in a sock hat, but I was going for a dwarf. Of course, dunno what it really is.

02/28 Another robo

2010-03-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Again, doodling, this time enough free time to ink it properly. I'm afraid to try to do more on this because if I tried the body, I'd screw it up. But I like the look of what I got done so far.

02/27 Alienface

2010-03-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

Sketched this during 24. Started out looking really cool, then as the mouth evolved, it all of a sudden reminded me of something from the Simpsons. Figures.

02/26 Flapper

2010-03-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

Aborted concept for the current derby. Tried a flapper girl.Just couldn't get an idea how to fit it onto a shirt without it looking ugly.

02/25 Simply Irresistible

2010-02-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

This week's derby is vintage. It took me a while to get a good sketch I could vintage. Here's what I came up with- an ode to '80s fashion and Nagel without pandering to Nagel. I still need to slightly distress the design, but I'm thinking just some cracks in the white ink should do it rather than lots of splots of wear. It's based on the sketch I just posted... EDIT 2/26- tweaked the graphics a bit to lower the ears. Also color the hair more.

02/23 Basis of Simply Irresistible

2010-02-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm gonna stop lying to myself. I may not get caught up. But I'm trying. Here's an ink sketch I did a while ago. I cleaned it up a ton and I am using it as a basis for my shirt.woot design for this week's derby, and I figured this way I fill out a day and get closer to being caught up!

02/22 Revision of parking lot

2010-02-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

I got tired of almost getting clobbered every time I went into work. Problem was the lot was designed so that everyone was ducking in and out of side lanes. So I redesigned it to turn all the aisles 90 degrees and angle the spots. Voila. More parking spots, better flow, and if they do it, less accidents!

It's not a shirt design or a cartoon or something else for a shirt, but it is cool that the University's taking me seriously with this...

02/21 Pig in a Pickle

2010-02-23T19:45:00.000-08:00

Yes. A pig in a pickle. Did you expect something else?

02/20 Robot

2010-02-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

I have to admit- this isn't even close to being decent. It's actually not very good. But I needed to at least attempt to do something this week, so here it is. While I generally like the concept, I'm not happy with the treads or the details. But perhaps sometime soon I can fix the quick pass with the tablet with something looking better.

02/19 Running for MS research

2010-02-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

Just subbed this as a weekly contest entry at Good Joe. I hope it is well received!

02/18 How the cow really jumped over the moon

2010-02-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

This is my shirt.woot design. Although I'm not terribly happy with the moon, I love the cow's expression, which just kind of happened during the tablet time. Feel free to comment on what it looks liks and whether I should modify it before derby time...

02/16 YMCA Hope

2010-02-17T18:22:00.000-08:00

This is my submission for the GoodJoe YMCA contest. I tried to make it sweet, and although I'm not good at people, I thought it came out really well. The skyline I think was a good touch to make it more than just a heart on a shirt. I hope at the very least I get some comments about how I could improve it. Four colors on cream shirt.

02/15 Insane Clown Posturing

2010-02-16T18:06:00.000-08:00

Was watching 24, and I started doodling on a pad of paper. Just started with circles, and this evolved. I think it's a weird cross between a drugged-out clown and Bill Clinton. Wonder if I can make it into anything other than a funky drawing...

02/14 Pencil sketch of woman who doesn't exist

2010-02-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

Was working on eyes the other day for a tiger zodiac shirt.woot entry that never got finished. Started drawing human eyes on a slip of paper, and I liked it so much i kept going. Wonder if there's someone out there that looks like this... Hopefully if so, she's got a better developed nose :)

Okay, almost caught up!

02/13 Black and White study of pile of crap.

2010-02-14T22:12:00.000-08:00

Was hoping for inspiration by dumping a keyring, clock, slinkie jr and a pen on the table and attempting to see if something organically would come out of randomness. Nope. Looks like the objects. Maybe I can tweak in Illustrator...

02/12 Funky apple

2010-02-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

First painting done in quite a while. I just can't stand curves or fruit that looks like it's supposed to. So this is a funky attempt at using acrylics. One note, don't bend the paper after it dries. I lost a little of the grays as it flaked off between coats. Oops.

02/11 Robotic raptor

2010-02-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

ORiginally this was called "rode runner" and the basis for a poem about the futility of the Coyote versus the Road Runner. IE- the reason the road runner always won was that he didn't obey the traditional biological or physical laws because he was in actuality a robot. The turbines in his neck helped him run so fast, and his bionic eyes and loevred plates helped him stop on a dime. I have been tinkering on this for over two decades, soon it will get a proper tablet-ing...

Just so you don't think I'm fibbing about the two decades, here's the ORIGINAL sketch, dated 1989.

02/10 Heartflower

2010-02-14T09:21:00.001-08:00

Okay, I cheated. This is for Valentines day but since I'm very behind, this will have to suffice as my entry for the 10th. P'raps I'll try to get caught up with my MSCE today, after I go get my DW something for today's day. And despite the derby theme of a few weeks ago, this is totally new as of today.

02/09 Iiwi

2010-02-12T21:33:00.000-08:00

This is an improvement on a derby I entered a while ago. I love this Hawaiian honeycreeper, the iiwi. It's got a very metallic song, and is very pretty. Also, it's one of the few native birds that have shown some resistance to the avian pox and malaria that has decimated the island group of birds. Why? The Hawaiian island chain is the most isolated land mass on the planet- 2500 miles from the nearest continent. Which means the birds have developed in isolation from any disease-carrying mosquitoes for eons, and therefore do not have antibodies against them. So most are extinct now. But this bird is plentiful enough that it probably will survive.

Maybe I'll sub this as a good joe, since improving bird conservation on Hawaii is one of my big career goals.

02/08 Doggone Gator

2010-02-12T21:05:00.000-08:00

Now I'm a week behind, and I don't know if I can catch up. So I sketched something real quick in the hopes I can trickle back into creative mode. Just had a very depressing meeting where I learned that our new Governor has thrown out all the contracts and is about to place the onus on balancing the budget on those people least able to deal with it- the working men and women of the state. Nevermind corporate managers are getting huge bonuses, it's the state teachers that are the root of all that is evil in our state.

Sigh.

Have a hot dog, gator.

Double-take derby #8 is tomorrow.

2010-02-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that a shirt I made is up for re-votes in the next double-take derby. I am linking the image now, but will replace it with a voting link tomorrow when the new derby goes live.

I'm so excited to get my butt kicked by draxxx and tgentry! :)

02/07 Cafe Verve

2010-02-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

Again playing with the Intuos3 Tablet. This time making a fake cafe shirt for perhaps a startup coffee joint. I like fancy type, so this is fun stuff. Plus I liked the idea of having the coffee smiling happily, with steam coming up. The pale orange words are drop-shadowed, as is the saucer. This ended up being 5 colors, but if I eliminated the dark blue saucer for something more neutral like black, it'd be down to 4. Don't know if I'd ever get a job as a graphic artist, but it's fun acting like I could :)

02/06 Pet Blame Game

2010-02-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

This is a sketch that I was never happy with, but decided to give it a try with the tablet. It's two pets, who are blaming each other for breaking a bottle (or other breakable object). Obviously, the hamster is blaming the bird. Not sure if I should have colored the liquid, and I wasn't really counting woot-allowed 6 colored inks, but I was having fun. Despite being on a shirt woot template for color, it's never been submitted anywhere. Maybe someday.

02/05 Mile High Stadium

2010-02-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

This was my attempt to do a sports-related daily. Maybe someday if the Bronco's don't stink, I may finish it and sub it. Buu I thought it was worth sharing as I finally got around to shading and coloring this sketch from a few days ago.

02/04 Skull

2010-02-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm seriously behind on MSCE. Work is tough, so I don't know if I'm even entering this week's derby. All my entry ideas have either been done better by others (the oroborous idea) or just don't look right (several I ain't sharing). But I quick drew a skull yesterday, so I'm sharing. Just to get caught up one day.

02/03 Zodiac study

2010-02-05T05:12:00.000-08:00

I'm behind on the derby, and my msce work, so I quick sketched some of my animals for the upcoming derby just to see what I could do without looking at reference art. I plan on trying something abstract, embedding the cartoon animals for the signs in otherwise diverse distractors (swervy lines, etc. So the animals will be subtle, not obvious. That way, I avoid the cartoony look of just having the animals in there). But at this point, I'm not sure since the last thing I want to do is slap cartoon signs on a shirt in a grid pattern, since that's what a lot of people will do and it's not terribly creative. So I am still trying to come up with a unique idea. One is to use an oroborous circle, where each animal is eating the tail of the previous year's animal, but I'm not good at entire animals, and that'll be a lot of work for unknown benefit. We'll see...

02/02 Cats find true love

2010-02-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

I expect to get $%@#* from Adder for this... :wink: Please vote by clicking here

02/01 Spaceship

2010-02-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, normally I don't use Photoshop for my designs because I'm used to Illustrator. This is my first real colored design in Photoshop using the tablet. It came out purple/blue because that's the colors I started with randomly. The ship also was a creation of shapes that kinda developed. I think it came out rather well considering this isn't based on a sketch and is merely me doodling. Hope y'all like it.

01/31 Surfer Bunny

2010-02-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

I admit, I got lazy with this one. I should have done a better job of making the shapes of the wave, but I wanted to get something up before I get really behind on the msce stuff. I liked the overall concept, but the design is a bit too linear and not enough brushstrokes. But it's an attempt.

Another shirt derby entry- cold hearts can burn

2010-01-30T22:09:00.000-08:00

I retooled an old entry and subbed it to shirt.woot. Feel free to vote if you like it.

01/30 Heartterfly

2010-01-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

Trying to squeak this one actually IN the date it's supposed to be targetted to. It's kinda of a techno-butterfly in a heart shape in an attempt to try to be organic, yet non-organic.

Weird. Mostly tablet-based (which explains some of the weird shapes), but also some pen tool (the sharper areas). I hope to sub this sometime soon. Vote for this design on Shirt.woot here please!

01/29 Heartbeat v2

2010-01-29T20:57:00.000-08:00

I feel cheap. Cheated. But I revised the design yesterday for today due to lack of votes. Hope this is better, but noting the sudden lack of comments on my daily posts, I'm not sure if anyone's still reading.

01/28 Heartbeat

2010-01-28T21:44:00.000-08:00

I was tormented by this song growing up. And the fashion. The white sportcoat and pants with the colored t-shirt and loafers seen on Miami Vice. Almost as bad as the zippered black and red parachute attire. Also my shirt.woot entry for the week. I may resub some other designs, but this is totally new.

01/27 O Rly Wet!

2010-01-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

Cuteness attack. I was sketching freely, and this came into existence on the page. Wonder if it's worth pursuing in more detail. IE- fixing the boot issue, adding breast feathers, etc.

01/26 Neil A, Alien!

2010-01-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

I did it! I got an entry in to this week's derby! This is of course what really happened on the moon. Only if I had remembered to draw in the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator...

01/25 Irish Fish

2010-01-25T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have had several concept pieces for a St. Patrick's day shirt in the past. My favorite was a yin-yang design, but I had several others. This one I just finished. Wondering if people had critical comments on how it could be bettered. One idea would be to make the fish more unique. But other ideas are welcomed.

Here are the older ones that I liked, but didn't get any nibbles on over the months. Note, the zen one is NOT msce since it was an older design:

This last design is an animal of some sort I got when I overlapped the ireland shape over itself. I think it looks like a bear or a moth or something. Not sure what but it has possibilities. This is relatively new (tweaked it tonight).

01/24 Binary

2010-01-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

This was a strange one. I was trying to find plays on words that haven't been done before, and I came up with this one as my iTunes was on random. It selected Binary Sunset from the Star Wars IV soundtrack, and I started mulling "binary" in my head. That turned to bi-nary, and this was what I came up with. I haven't colored it since I'm still not terribly happy with the pockets or the 1. But it's a decent concept I think, one that needs revisiting when I have a spare moment (maybe March :)) Possibly it would be something I could sub to GoodJoe since it's about tolerance.

01/23 Madness at Bob Evans

2010-01-23T18:39:00.000-08:00

Trying to keep my son entertained, so I was sketching with just red and blue crayons. Thought some came out cool. Wonder what it looks like in 3-D?

01/22 Demon

2010-01-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

My first attempt at something hellish

01/21 Know your drugs!

2010-01-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to do a shirt with about 12-15 popularly abused drugs, drawn anthropomorphically according to their effects on the individual. I got about 3 done, and work decided to kick me in the pills. Also we had a tragedy in the work family (not my personal one) so that's messed with my mind as well. So I was lucky enough to give the sketch some life as 3 pills, in the hope that eventually I'll get around to finishing it properly and perhaps subbing it to somewhere as a daily. Of course, it's been four weeks and I haven't heard back from woot regarding my last daily, so I'm not sure if that'll be the target. I wish at least I'd get a "go away it sucks" email so at least I'm not waiting around hoping...

In case you can't figure them out: Ambien, Ritalin, Vicodin.

01/20- Pixar ripoff

2010-01-20T20:56:00.000-08:00

I was TRYING to draw a bird looking cynical. But what happened is that it just ended up looking like those birds from the Pixar short "for the birds". Dang. Even when I freesketch, those iconic images can't get out of my head. Ah well, it's not much, but it's something for today.

01/19 What if US lost Pearl Harbor?

2010-01-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

An attempt to blend two of my favorite things- symbolism and really cool custom fonts. I originally had the idea for this design this morning as a fake stamp, or possibly some contest where they want alternate realities. Mocked up the design and colored it, only to decide that it would not look very good on a shirt. Poster, yes.

01/18 Pigeon!

2010-01-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

It's a day late. Sorry. A pencil sketch using several different pencil densities (2B, 4B, 6B). Yes, I see this animal every day. I do research on how these guys learn about the environment (spatial memory) as a biological model for dementia and aging. So I do homing work, and some behavoral work in the lab in a small arena. It's a living. I will say that pigeons (Columba livia) are a LOT more messy than my original bird species of study- the white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys). Poo from a songbird is much more preferable to deal with than the poo generated by pigeons. Ick.