Christmas colours

So, I've rounded Chapter 9 and my goal is to at least get the first 10 done by Christmas. Shouldn't be a problem between all the holiday parties (Thanksgiving tomorrow, Channukah on 18th, Tree trimmings, food prep and gift making and wrapping).

But, one thing I need to do by week end is get this Holiday card finished and off to the printers!!

Now that Hoba is designed and sorted the actual character work has begun. In Gemmy's world their holiday colours are Gold/orange (for light), Purple (for wisdom) and Green (for spring). So, it's been fun designing holiday themed clothing that would look festive in their world and ours.

Mhetli and Sem's holiday outfits

Mhetli is more in the spirit and Sem pretty much does her own thing.

It's been fun using more traditional means of illustrating. One thing I've really enjoyed is using the light box and doing final drawings in ink. I have the filthy hands to prove it!

They produce suck crisp clean final drawing that are beautiful in themselves.

I've still been doing digital colouring in photoshop but have been using a 'marker' technique to get closer to Kishimoto-sensei's style. But, hey, I've still got to be me. :)

Here are the ink drawings of Gemmy and Hoba for the card as well:

 

Enjoy!
‽


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Darumas and Santas: My Kishimoto Christmas

Does Santa visit Arbea?

Nope. We got this guy - Hoba

Hoba visits bringing presents to children of Arbea

Seal of Hoba

In the old religion of Arbea, Hoba (or Hermit Hoba - the Striped Sage) was the trickster aspect of the god Arbea. He was originally depicted as a hermit who carried a staff made from a broken branch. Atop the twisted staff sat the symbol of Hoba (or the last cold snap of winter when it gets coldest just before the spring which is where the hermit gets his name). Miraculously from his broken staff there are two leaves sprouting.

The god Arbea manifests as Hoba after the long winter when there are no harvests to sacrifice to him for his appeasement. It was said that Hoba would come to your house and steal your children as tribute before he would allow spring to return. So, people would trick him by creating straw doppelgänger of their children for him to take away instead. This would appease Hoba and spring would return. It was how parents convinced their children not to go play out in the snow past dark even though the days got shorter.

In modern times Hoba is as you see him above - a jolly wendersell (travelling salesman) who brings toys to children. Families make dolls (or cookies shaped like people) so that Hoba knows which children to leave presents for. He visits on the holiday Arbeas which is similar to our Christmas.

Hoba is inspired by Japanese Daruma dolls which are mini representations of Bodhidharma. I've always been intrigued by culuture and how we can take something as solemn as a Bhuddist monk and turn them into essentially a charm for good luck. So, I conceived of this little egg-shaped man who brings presents and worked backwards to get to who this man really was and how he got from menacing monk to mirthful myth. There's so much more behind every folk tale.


Also, here are some sketches of how the gang will look now that they've had their Kishimoto inspired makeover for this year's Christmas card. It's going to be epic!!!

So, what do you think of Hoba?

Enjoy!
‽




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Animakeover for Christmas

Well, it should be Manga makeover, but you get the gist.

So, it's time to start designing my annual Christmas card. Every year I try to think of what the biggest things in my year have been but also if I could have one thing for Christmas what it would be. I then theme my card accordingly.

I realised this was a year of new things and renewals. So, for my card this year I decided to renew my childhood adoration of manga. So, I'll be taking the characters from Emersus Project and drawing them in the style of Kishimoto-sensei's world famous manga, Naruto, which comes to an end next month after 15 years!

Gemmy - Kishimoto style

Mhetli, Sem and Mercy

Gemmy and co started out as manga characters way back in the 90s when I first conceived of the story. I was absolutely obsessed with Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball. One of my more recent manga loves is Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto (or Kishimoto Masashi). So, I've been rereading The Art of Naruto: Uzumaki where Kishimoto-sensei takes us on a step-by-step journey through his illustration process.

So, this year I'll be walking in Kishimoto-sensei's footsteps to make my Christmas card. Here's the rest of the gang as if they'd stepped into Kishimoto's world. More character designs to follow.



Other blog posts on this year's Christmas card:
The holiday Arbeas differs from Christmas in many ways - 'Christmas colours'
Hoba is better than Santa I think. His mythology is wayyyyy creepier - Hoba is better than Santa


Enjoy!
‽


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Worth a thousand words

So, characters new and old are back in book two and I'm having a great time writing and drawing them again. I was drawing a portrait of one of our returning characters and it suddenly hit me that maybe just seeing her head and shoulders wasn't really enough this time around, though.

The first book's illustrations are mainly just portraits of the characters. The drawings were just as much for me really seeing and connecting with the characters as much for me as for the readers. The portrait theme in the first book also worked as it was very much a story about Gemmy at school/learning about himself and the illustrations reminded me of my old school portraits.

However, this time around I'm thinking I might have to give more in the illustrations. The landscape and what is happening around the characters is just as integral to the story as the characters themselves.

I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to express this. I'm definitely sticking with the pencil drawings for the book, but including scenery is going to present a new challenge and means I might have to reconsider my methods for drawing (i.e. scaling up the actual drawings).

What do you guys think?

Oh, and in case you're wondering who this returning character is. Here she is:

Any ideas who it is? Answers on a post card!

Enjoy!
‽




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Taking one for the team

As we start book two. Gemmy has begun bonding with the girls and is already taking heat to try and protect them, just like any big brother would do.

The biggest bullet he has taken was to help smoothe the relationship between his mother and Ilä.

"The biggest stalemate between Nereth and Ilä was over her hair. Gemmy had hoped that letting his mother take him for a haircut would have reduced her determination, but her triumph only reinforced it."

Well, Gemmy, if nothing else, at least you got a much needed haircut.

 What do you think? Has our boy improved with a bit of a trim?

Enjoy!
‽




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Blossoming in Bristol

I recently developed a logo for the company Bristol Gardens, a fresh and stylish horticultural/landscaping business in, you guessed it, Bristol.

Bristol Gardens logo

It was a genuine pleasure to work with them. It's always nice when a client comes in with a clear and strong concept that I just help bring to the next level. It started off with the idea of paying visual homage to Bristol's shipping port history, but also, of course, gardening. Overall it needed to be professional yet a bit informal using the colours sage and slate grey.

They wanted there to be a hand-drawn quality to the logo. Design rule No 10: If you want something to look hand-drawn, draw it by hand! So, I sketched out the logo and when we decided on a concept I then carried it into illustrator and redrew it as a vector image. This allowed me to play with the bumps and jumps in the lines of the ring. I then paired the hand-drawn look with a classic font - Caslon - which is also a digital translation of something that was once hand done way back in the 1700s. I know modern post marks tend to use san-serif fonts for readability, but I wanted to firmly cement the look as 'old-school'. The whimsy of it all is in it's retro quality.

Using something as tactile and visually distinct as a postmark is  a recipe for great design. Giving the logo a hand-drawn feel made reference to the 'inkiness' of postmark. But I think it also lends itself to the idea of gardening and working with the earth. Clean lines are for slick corporate offices. You want someone down to earth and approachable who's going to get out there and literally get their hands dirty? Call these guys!

In the centre we used the Flower of Bristol - Lychnis chalcedonica (also known as Maltese Cross). Why? Well, because it's the flower of Bristol! Traditionally the flower is red but Bristol Gardens colours are sage and a slate grey. Also adding too many colours takes it away from the simple 'stamp and ink' feeling. My personal favourite part are the individual petals of the flower that are merged together as if the ink has pooled on the page. :)

Flower of Bristol

Using the stamp idea was also an opportunity to represent the logo in two forms: One as a fully realised illustration where the plant grows into the 'postage rings'. Then another version that can be used as just that, a stamp (ya'll know how I love to make my mark). This is where it's always nice to collaborate with a client. I was just happy to have the petals in the centre but the client asked for the leaves to be integrated as if we were looking at a bouquet from the top down. I think it gives the circular version of the stamp it's own identity while still clearly belonging to the larger version. This will be particularly useful for things like social media and maybe even as a watermark for invoices.

Enjoy!
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My design rules

We don't all have a natural creative flair. But, I believe that anyone can be a competent designer with the right training and understanding. I've learned a lot from trial and error. But mostly I've learned from the people who taught me good design, ignoring their advice, and then finding out they were right.

So here are the things that I keep in mind when embarking on any new design project.

Fonts

1. Type is King!
A picture is worth a thousand words... unless it's a very well thought out, well placed word. Typography can be used as image just as pictures can speak for themselves. Get to know how to use typography if you want to be a designer. If not - give up and become a photographer or illustrator.

2. Know your fonts
Most fonts were designed for a purpose and they as well as their designers have a story all their own. Sometimes finding the right font for a project is a happy accident. But if you're clever and have a strong concept for your design choosing the right font will be easier if you know the era/style that the fonts were conceived for/in.

3. No more than three fonts per project 
I mean it. And that counts for bold, italics, sizes etc. Your design will automatically look sleeker and more professional if you limit your font choices. This goes for documents, posters, anything.

Example: 
Font 1: Arial 12 pt (body text)
Font 2: Arial Bold 12 pt (sub headers)
Font 3: Arial 24 pt (headers)

You may think it's clever to chuck in a cheeky wee pink 36pt Garamond header, but for what? It disrupts readibility and can make your document hard to follow.
(You'll notice, by the way, that I've technically used four fonts. That's because A) I'm awesome and know what I'm doing and B) see answer 'A' and C) see No. 4)

4. Establish a hierarchy
There should be a hierarchy to your text (see above example). Having set fonts to express certain sections or ideas in your project will make it easy for people to follow. It will also LOOK better! Again, this is not something to muck about with. Also, don't be stupid and do things like make your header twice the size of body text and bold it as well. Why? It's already twice the size! Why does it need to be bold as well? You need to question this and have an answer so that the viewers don't have to.

This also goes for imagery. If the focus of your document is an image, think about how the text compliments and supports that. If the image is secondary to the text, well, make sure you give the text its rightful due.

Layout

5. Prepare
Do you think Leo DaV just rocked up to a canvas and painted the Mona Lisa? Step away from the computer and pick up a sketch pad. You are not a genius. Make scribbles, sketch your grid, image placement, where you think you want text to sit, etc. You'll be able to approach your project with a lot more clarity and a lot less wasted time.

Also, think about how it’s going to be used. Will it be online, print, product packaging? It may need to be translated across different media platforms. Think about how the layout and focus of things will change across mediums.

6. Establish a grid
If you're designing a publication in particular. You need to establish a grid (columns, margins, etc) where your text and images will fit. It's the foundation. And yes, you can add pizazz and break out of the grid on occasion. But the only way these elements will be surprising is if you've established some sort of order to begin with.

7. Break the rules big style
If you're going to do something, do it big style. You want that image to bleed off the page, you want to break your grid? Then make it extreme. If it's just a teeny tiny corner it will look like a mistake and the impact (and your credibility) will be lost.

Finishing touches

8. Printers are the devil
Every designer knows that printers are evil. A printer will fail you when you need it most. Fact! Know your printer. Keep back up ink. Know which of your friends have printers you can use. Get to know the folks in your local copy shop - buy them chocolates and give them Christmas cards... seriously.

9. Print everything out
It looks great on the screen, right? Well, in real life, it's uneven, twice as dark as you expected, the font's unreadable and the whole thing is actually pretty artless. It all looks different on paper. These are kind of like sketches. Test your design out in whatever format it's going to go in to make sure it really holds up. NEVER send anything to a client, professor, printer before you've seen what it looks like in situ. If you can test print it at actual size and on the printer you're going to use, even better.

10. Hand draw your shiz
You want a nice hand drawn font... draw it. Remember, Comic Sans is supposed to be a hand-drawn font. Don't be Comic Sans. Hand write that jack and retrace in illustrator or use any number of font creating programmes and even websites!

You want that logo to have a hand-drawn feel? Draw it and scan that shiz in. Nothing looks more fake than 'hand-drawn' system images and textures. They look like tacky clip art designed by an artless 12 year old with a mad-on for rainbows and being 'wacky'.

11. Save everything
Develop a compulsion for hitting 'Cmd + S'. It will save your life.
Save new versions. Never just overwrite things. It will save your life.

12. Colour
I'm colour blind - I kid you not. But you know what, I studied colour (and I know when I need someone to confirm reds and greens for me). And I don't mean 'what colour means' because colour meaning is totally cultural (though it is handy to know). I mean study the science of colour - vibration, hue, shade, mixing, etc. It will add a depth to you work that no one else understands. And even though kuler is wicked awesome don't just rely on it.

13. Rule of 3
When presenting someone with your ideas for a design always present options. Chances are you already have two ideas anyway. The third design, the one you will like the least that they will probably like the most, will push you. It will force you to scrounge around and look at other people's stuff to help generate a new idea that you otherwise would not have come up with. Sometimes it will be your best work.

And lastly (because never end on number 13. Another rule?) 14. Don't be a dirtbag
Seriously. Stand your ground. Explain your ideas. But bottom line is (if you're working for someone else) it's your job to make other people's crap ideas look good. If you can't swallow some tasteless jag's idea that all text 'MUST be that shade of fuchsia' get out of the business and design posters for your kid's school play.
Everyone will have something nasty to say about your work. Don't be that guy who gives it back. Be nice to other designers and learn to ignore rude or unhelpful people.


Enjoy!
‽




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