Drunken Pumpkins

Some simple little pumpkins for work I had to do recently. Had fun keep it simple!

Gopher Garage

Third theme for "Critter Cribs"

Vulture Village

Second theme for "Critter Cribs"

Rabbit Ranch

Had to do an animal theme at work. Critter's Cribs was the overall "family" of games. This was one of them. Again no outlines - no black and playing with the blend tool in illustrator.

Good Catch

Symbols done for work with the theme of "Good Catch" -Kinda self explanatory, just playing around again with going sans outlines. Ive also gotten on this kick recently where i go out of my way not to use black. Here i think i used it very sparingly. Im liking the look im getting with this style so far. Seems to be somewhat natural to me, who knows why but when things like that happen you keep with it.

Super Zeros -No Outlines Again

Had to do a series of Super Zeros at work. Basically popular super-heros with a obvious twist. Fatman, TIRE-IRON man, and Incredible BULK. These got pushed back and pushed back but spent some time on them, just trying to do them from start to finish sans black outlines. I actually really liked this method. Felt it was really drawing WITH the computer. I also tried the blend tool alot in illustrator for my shadows and some highlights. That was a little challenging but also liked the result. Who knows may have found something here. Would have liked to have more time but thats usually the motto with things like this at work. All good though, got to try new things and i like promising results.

Mario Chalmers Illustration

Latest illustration I did for my own enjoyment. Had fun with this one as I did with the BRush illustration below. This actually was started before the Rush, just didnt get it done until now.

Box2 Round2

Got revisions on the second version I did of the Box-O-Dough design I posted below. This time they wanted "windows" on the sides. I wanted the front and backs to be the same as the "market" needs no explanation as to what this is for... and seeing how it is played in a bar, the person who sets it up may be somewhat under the influence... well this design allows for a "user error." The only other guideline I had was to leave on side blank for stickers, and to have a "window" on the top. This was fun. Spent some time with this one, but really got inspired by some retro art.

BRUSH close up

spent some time on this one... but i enjoyed it.

BRUSH

Latest illustration I did... for the fun of it.

The Box is Back

Well the first run of the box design I did seemed to go over fairly well. They ran out of them. Rather than re-print the same design they asked that a new design be made, this time however they were pretty specific that they wanted the box to have a jar full of tickets on all three sides. Without boring someone to tears, the short of it is... those tickets shown have been sold out of jar for the past, ooooh I dont know, 80+ years. They became to be known as "jar tickets." Well this box has been, what I assume to be, a revolutionary concept to all - and to help ease into this they wanted the thing to look like a jar. After a few drinks who knows it may fool some. Anyways this was my design... went with that retro feel to it. Kinda like this.

Dude and his Girl - Look Ma, No Outlines!!

In a previous post I showed a character of a customers friend. Well this time I had to do the customer and his girlfriend. This is actually a revamp from the very first character i did of him. That one, and I should post this for pure comedy sake, was done using only a blurry photo taken from someone's cell phone. If i can find it I will have to post as you really have to see this pic to truely appreciate the absurdity of it all. It was quite the moment. However this time I was provided with a much better pic... it was in focus! Hoo-ray!! Anyways here is a random dude and his girlfriend. With this one I set out to NOT use ANY outlines. That dosent usually translate well at work as these are literally shrunk down to .387" x .387" Still though we do posters and flyers so the detail does get seen. I really liked doing this without the outlines and may experiment with it further.

Child Rockettes

Had to do female rockers as babies and/or child like. Found someone who greatly influenced this with his style. He is an amazing character designer. Steve Lambe He had these amazing illustrations of kids the harken back to the golden age books from the 50's - He work def inspired and thought it would be great to carry his influence over to this project. And I just like trying new things. Glad they didnt mind little kid rockers as opposed to babies as the girls characteristics and style and personalities would have been REALLY hard to translate in infant form. The customer requested a Pat Benetar, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. Couldnt use their last names for copyright issues of course.

Dude

Sometimes we get random pics of customers who want to be characterized. This was actually a friend of one of our customers. I often wonder who is even going to know this guy who is about to be put on a game, poster and flyer. Ahh well he was kinda fun to draw.

Gas Station Attendants

Did these guys for work. They wanted gas station attendants shaking people down for money. I wanted the overall theme to the game to have a retro feel to it.

Mermaid

This has been a WIP for the past couple weeks... just got around to finishing. Might just end up in a story Im working on dealing with Circus sideshows. Enjoy

Girls Night Out

Girls Night Out, was a request for just simple girls out on the town. They make look familiar as they are the girls from the Bikini & Martini theme I did below. They have more clothing and are at a club now. The guy is new though. I really enjoyed these past two games. All again with a HEAVY influence from the G-Man himself Glen Hanson. I felt they may be a bit too inspired, not that, that is necessarily a bad thing... but I think its obvious where i drew inspiration from.

Bikinis & Martinis

Got to do some more girls at work. Title: Bikinis & Martinis - at first they were thinking of girls in bikinis shaped like Martini glasses. I sketched one out and it just wasnt working or looking all that well. So we called up the customer to get a little further explanation and see what they had envisioned for this game. Their response was something like "i dunno, we just liked the name, do what you think would look best." Ahh, man I like it when that happens. Freedom!! This customer is VERY VERY picky however, one of those " i dont know what I want until i see it " - they are notorious for changes as well. So I thought about it and decided to put the girls IN the martini glasses as opposed to the girls BEING the martini glasses. Made much more sense to me. Hopefully it will to them as well. I spent some days on this one, sketching, inking and coloring. Would like some more time to maybe had highlights and shadows... but then again i do like the simplicity of them. These were HEAVILY HEAVILY influenced by one of my favorite artists Glen Hanson The guy is truly an artist and amazing at line work, likeness and form. So this was my tribute to him.

Muscle Man

Circus Sideshows was the theme over at Art Jumble a month or so ago. Thought I'd post here as the jpg was sitting on my desktop. This was one of those times where the initial sketch just kinda flowed and was quick and fast, and didnt give me a lot of trouble. I like it when that happens... had a professor at KU once tell me that some of his best work he thought were his doodles and sketches when he was half paying attention and was somewhat semi distracted. This was the case in a sense with this. I was just getting ready to eat lunch, had some music on, flipped over a piece of paper and just tossed this guy on there. Man, its so fun and refreshing when you get something you like out like that. Anyways, I had a good time with this one! Enjoy!

Flea Market

Did this game a few weeks ago. Received the title and a very brief description of what was wanted for symbols. I was really swamped at the time I did these, but thats been the case the past couple of months lately. I liked the way the bugs turned out, dealing with 4 arms, with the request of having them all "filled" or holding something was a bit of a challenge though.

Batman

Latest Art Jumble

Squeals of Fortune

I had to do Pat Sajak and Vanna White as pigs at work last week. It seems to be a common theme here at work. Pigs, pigs, and more pigs. I would have really liked to do more with the shadows, highlights, and lineweight but this was one of a half dozen "rush" jobs I have had this past week.

Dogs Dogs Dogs

I had to do 15 different dogs that were to be in hotdog buns. This turned out to be a little more challenging and fun than I had originally thought.

Lobster

An Art Jumble lobster i recently finished. Theme was "Food comes to life" i guess in this case the food came back to life.

Box Design

Each artist at work had to design a box. Basically it was a tissue box they were going to fill with tickets and give to distributors free of charge. They wanted a generic theme and they wanted a name to accompany it. When it was pitched to us the phrase "advancing the business" as well as "the future of dispensing tickets" was repeated numerous times. Soooo I went with a futuristic theme. Ive always really liked the "retro future" - what people in the 50's and 60's visualized as the future. A little Jetsons with rocket ships. One of the best interpretations of this I have seen recently was in the movie The Incredibles. The environments and overall designs/concepts/themes for that movie were really well done. Right up my alley. If its your cup of tea too, I HIGHLY suggest checking out Art of the Incredibles. As for the name "Box -o- Dough" I thought it had that retro future feel to it. Besides our company has had the tag "Jar -o- Dough" for literally 50+ years. This being one of my few attempts at package design I really wanted to focus on making all sides flow together. So the rocket ships trail will match up and look to fly from the left side to the front. The sky lines/clouds should match up, I tried to focus and keep to a color palette, etc. Anyways they seemed to like it, so its gonna be made!! Maybe Ill get my hands on a finished, printed box and post pics.

Soda Jerk

Did this not too long ago. They just wanted an old time soda fountain type guy. Had fun with this. As per the post above I have always really been into all things retro. The 30's-50's especially. So whenever possible, I have liked to get a little retro feel across in my work. At least an "inspired by" feel to it. This one, I thought, got that across fairly well.