40 days of lettering...lucky day 13!

Who says the number 13 isn't lucky? I've never been superstitious about it, but it sure lent itself to a theme for the day. Obviously (hopefully), you can see that I tried to tie in various luck symbols. I don't know much about lucky cats or their origin, but they seemed to be a natural fit with this. I tried to do a slightly looser lettering feel especially for "MAKE." I used the pencil tool here for a rougher edge. This is the kind of doodled design that is difficult to know just when to stop. I just kept adding little curly q's, etc. Hopefully I stopped in time before it got too busy! Good luck with the rest of your day!!

Looking for more interesting blogs? Check these out blog parade  A group of my fellow classmates (organized by the lovely Linda Tieu) from the Make Art that Sells course, are participating on a monthly blog hop. Part B of Lilla's course starts next week! 

40 days of lettering... day 12

Let's face it... we've all been there. If you work anywhere in a creative field, it's that sinking feeling you first get when given a new project. What the heck am I going to do?! Hopefully, once you sit down and hash it out, you eventually come up with some ideas but that inevitable first stage of nothingness never seems to go away, at least for me. Actually, back when I worked at Hasbro, I had this same quote pinned to my bulletin board. It was a panel from a G.I. Joe comic book, with "Joe" asking one of his underlings this very question. The poor private had this same dumbfounded look on his face. 

I tried to work a bit more quickly on this one and worked pretty much all using the pencil tool to give it a looser, more graphic look. I also tried to limit my colors, somewhat successfully, at least for me ;) Well, here's to an abundance of good ideas! (and at least 28 more for me...)

40 days of lettering... day 11

Actually, I never really liked twinkies all that much anyway. I mean, if there's no chocolate involved, what's the point? But anything involving a chocolate/peanut butter combo is a winner to me, so no surprise, funny bones were a personal have, alongside ring dings of course. I actually used to skip lunch, save my lunch money, and buy this junk on my way home after school...ahhh, the good old days ;)

For this exercise, I tried to do a style reminiscent of the old double bubble tiny comic inserts... a little bit of dot gain and poor registration. I also tried to limit the colors for more of a retro feel, which is always tough for me. I like doing pieces like this and trying to make the different type elements all fit together like a puzzle.

So, did I make you hungry? Go treat yourself to a ho ho/ding dong... it's on the house ;)

40 days of lettering... day 10

I may have gotten a little carried away today. I found this quote from "Alice in Wonderland" that I really liked and I instantly knew that I wanted to incorporate the cheshire cat and his wide grin in a tree alongside the type treatment. For some reason, this kind of graphic look just seemed to lend itself to a book cover, so I decided to turn it into a possible sequel to Alice's original adventure. Who wouldn't want to go back to wonderland, anyway? I then took the opportunity to add the white rabbit, since, well, I really like bunnies in general, so throwing him in the mix was a no brainer. I wasn't going to include the cat's eyes, or at least both of them...at one point, I had a cat eye in the hole of the "A" in "mad" but there really isn't a cyclops kitty in the story, so I moved some things around and fit in the requisite two eyeballs. Besides, I really liked how the green eyes looked and popped against all the purple. 

Well, I'm officially one quarter finished with this little project! I think I may need to simplify my efforts here, but this was a fun one :D

40 days of lettering...day 9

Today, I tried to loosen it up a bit more (something I struggle with...) but trying to achieve a brushier overall look. Most people would just pick up a paint brush and a bottle of ink, but no! Not me, haha. I remain steadfast, for better or worse, in my dedication to pure vectors. Ok, so maybe it's more like I'm afraid of picking up a paintbrush, but don't tell anyone ;) I first penciled all this script, then redrew the more straightforward letters with the pen tool. The looser letters (like fairy) were essentially done using an ink brush with my trusty wireless mouse within illustrator. I then added a few highlights to help mimic actual paint a bit more. 

I stumbled upon this quote on the packaging for one of my daughter's hair accessories, and I knew I wanted to use it. Actually, the quote began with, "If I'm honest, I have to tell you..." I chose to edit it down a bit, but I have to agree with Audrey on this one.

illustration friday... together, plus day 8 of 40 days of lettering

That's right, I'm killing two birds with one stone. I hadn't done an illustration Friday topic for a couple months. When I saw this week's word, it seemed simple enough to treat it as lettering (which is often my fallback approach to these). I struggled a lot with this lettering, color-wise, treatment, etc. I'm still not sure I like it, but I was well over my self imposed time limit of an hour, so I called it done. Not sure why I ended up with another circular design, but I do like that it is a bit looser than some of the lettering I had been doing. Happy weekend!!

40 days of lettering...day 7

Here's a little play off of the "Life is Good" brand. If only I could come up with something that is a hundredth as successful as that! This was once again, my not so successful attempt at a limited palette :/ Sometimes, I just can't help myself when it comes to color. I knew I wanted to end up with a circular layout, so the accordion kind of worked well for rounding up the bottom as a border of sorts. I sketched any number of kids/animals to be playing it...from squirrels to bears, bunnies, etc. but ended up with the newspaper hat wearing cat (who seems to have exceptionally long front legs). I also used some water color brushes in illustrator for a more hand drawn look. Have fun out there!