things I drew at work

Haven’t updated in forever, but not because I haven’t been drawing anything. Mostly because once I’ve finished drawing, I never want to go through all the work of scanning and uploading things here. It took me awhile, but here’s a bunch of stuff from the last 2 months.

These were made with sharpies, pencils, highlighters, ballpoint pens and crayons, on the backs of meal tickets or regular old printer paper from the front desk. Smaller images can be clicked on for bigger versions. And if you see me on my lunch break don’t bother me with busy work!!

enter the wu-phabet (26 chambers)

I haven’t created an original font from the ground up in quite awhile, but I’ve had this idea rolling around in my brain for about a month. Of all the logos in the world, the Wu-Tang logo has to be one of the most distinctive and badass logos of all-time. Not just in rap music, but in everything, period. That bold W is just immediatly recognisable, and dammit, it just looks cool. So I wanted to make a whole alphabet built around that logo, and it took some effort, but here it is.

The project took a bit longer than I thought it would, but it was worth it. Now I can write out any word I want in little Wu-tangs. Like Wu-tang.

Or just any random word that pops into your head, like Fluffernutter.

Please do not use the Wu-phabet without either my, or Bobby Digital’s expressed consent. Continue reading for a peek at some of the stages it took to get this thing finished.

The Field of Dismay

The Attic Bits are bringing the chiptune scene to NH. If you don’t know what that means, then this interview and this article are probably more insightful than anything I could manage to type here. This is what they sound like. You should probably go and support them now.

I cranked out a poster for them a couple weeks ago, which I posted below. The poster is inspired by the narrative contained within the tracks of the new album. To the untrained ear, one could mistakenly believe the songs are just a buncha cool sounding beeps and boops, which I would not completely disagree with. Undoubtedly however, there is also an underlying story, and through the act of listening to it, you will inexplicably visualize an inner universe that is specific to each individual listener.

Also you can click here to see the initial rough sketch if you’d like. I can’t help but feel there was a certain strength to the original doodle that the cleaner version lacks, I hate when that happens. Lost in translation I guess.

Half a year since I posted anything in here, holy hell! I’m going to play catchup here soon and post some of the older stuff I’ve finished more recently, while hopefully also staying a bit more up to date with current projects. I’ve proven to be woefully inadequate at keeping this place updated, so we’ll just have to see how that goes. It is a spikepit after-all, so please don’t mind the cobwebs.

How It’s Made: Firepower 4 Edition

So the latest iteration of the Firepower mixtape series has been in the works for some time now, and it’s finally completed and ready to be unleashed for public consumption.

The album has an overall feeling of barbaric force to it, so I wanted the album artwork to reflect that, while also blazing territory not typically traversed visually by rap albums. As I think I’ve mentioned a few times, I can’t help but pop in the occasional ManOWar/Iron Maiden/Helloween CD from time to time. I don’t usually listen to a lot of metal, but every once in a great while, I get the urge. This project seemed like a perfect opportunity to pay homage to one of my favorite album covers, while also making something new that was eye catching enough to make somebody take notice no matter their musical preferences. I mean just look at this classic metal cover and try to tell me it isn’t badass. Try! It’s like crazy 80′s metal testosterone overload.

I wanted to replicate the overall aesthetic of this cover, but at the same time adding my own elements and doing it all from scratch. Just below here is our version in all its glory. Like Nabo Rawk said upon glimpsing the cover, “It’s like He-Man, Thundercats, and Conan the Barbarian all rolled into one!” I couldn’t have described it better.

I saved the project at various points, so I could track the progress. If you find talk of vectors, typography, and texture overlays boring, then proceed at your own risk. If it sounds like a grand old time then ask yourself, how does it feel to be a huge dork? I kid I kid, continue on for a step by step process of making Firepower 4…

slack slackin’ around

It’s been too long, too long. Been doing a bunch-O-stuff however, so next post should definitely be before December, contrary to my current posting habits. Here’s some of the art-things I been working on up till now. I made some avatars for my interweb peeps, and I figured I might as well cross post ‘em here, so they can be seen outside of the itty-bitty art forums. It’s a sorta art exchange so I got a bunch of neato images from people in return, I just need to gather it all up in some manner so I can marvel at all the fancy goods I hauled in. Feel free to mosey over to the thread itself if you please, though fair warning it does devolve to complete madness somewhere around page one.

Heres some of the things I drew for people who I know.

I also recently learned how to make animated GIF’s, which is weird because I really like animation, and they’re super easy to do. Time consuming for sure, but fun to mess around with. Look at em go!

I’ve been going to a lot of movies (Machete!) and shows (Brickhouse, Stone Church, Middle East, Big Easy), not to mention no shortage of excellent videogames that have come out lately. (Shank, Cave Story, Bit Trip, Castle Crashers, DQ9, Prof Layton!!) So while I haven’t been drawing quite as much lately, I did come up with a proof of concept image for a proposed mock-videogame. It was for a contest that revolved around the idea that you were presenting your game idea to a company, and could only bring with you one single image to get your point across, to sell them on the idea. I think my idea would probably scare most people.

I could explain how I think the game would work, but instead I’ll let the image do the work. The full image is a bit too H-scroll damaging, so click the image below to get redirected.

And I also finished this design for The Cow’s Ass, which I started like 4 years ago. I guess you could say it was on the backburner for awhile. Maybe they’ll use it for a shirt eventually? Or better yet a hoodie! I like my new job but I still miss this place.

I’ve been working on a lot of illustrations and designs for a campaign that will include CD’s, posters, and flyers, so expect an update on that very soon. It’s almost done!