Artists - Who We Are

The New York Times has just done a report on a report on artists. Very interesting.

Ray Frenden - He's Everywhere

Ray Frenden is exploding. And now he has gone and won the 2007 Threadless Bestee Select Award for his "Medusa" t-shirt design. Congrats, Ray!

Happy Birthday Chicago Artist Forum

Chicago Artist Forum in action

A year ago, Denise Dorman put some ideas into the head of one, Kevin Sandstrom of Dick Blick Art Stores. Next thing you know, a place for artists to gather, show off portfolios, and generally talk shop and fun was born in Wheaton, Illinois. It has now grown to a nice little event that brought out about 30 artists in 0º Chicago weather this past Saturday.

The artists range in experience from 30+ year veterans to folks in their freshmen year in art school. But all of them love to draw and respect the craft, which makes for great discussions and plenty of learning and networking opportunities.

The CAF will have a website soon that will list the upcoming presentations and events. I just did a slideshow/talk on what I learned at the Revelations Symposium in Seattle and coming up are Ray Frenden demoing Manga Studio techniques, Joe Lester on sculpting monsters, and Dave Dorman on traditional painting. Plus, live models!

In the meantime, check out their CAF MySpace page.

Happy New Year 2008!

To all three of you who read this blog - Happy New Year!


My much better half, Julienne, and moi.

2007 was quite a treat in Burning City's life:
- San Diego Comic-Con
- The Devil's Candy Store
- Los Angeles Movie Studio Trip
- My father's 90th birthday
- My 50th birthday (and Sputnik!)
- Many family visits!!!
- My sister's wedding!
- Sue's wedding!
- WildClaw Theatre company
- Many, many great new friends
- My new Electra bike
- Working out with a freakin' trainer
- Regular pickup basketball games in the park with the Comix Revolution guys
- The official start of The First Fear comic book production
- And much more... all worthwhile.

2008 should be quite the rollercoaster. I'm starting it off with a bang at the Conceptart.org Revelations Symposium in Seattle this week. And to help start your year off right, I'm going to remind you of the one-day Comicraft Font sale that only happens on January 1.

Sketch Porn

Gizmodo has a review - "Simply Amazing"

Revelations Symposium

I'm excited! I'm going to the Massive Black/ConceptArt.org Revelations Symposium in Seattle this January. Four days immersed in making art and watching some of the best in the business doing it. Can't wait. Gotta go, there's a pencil and sketch paper waiting for me to come over and play.

Burning City Redux

I am planning, designing, researching, and mostly thinking, thinking, thinking, and taking notes of said thinking on the revised business model for The Devil's Candy Store. Since I often think better while performing a mundane task, I am also rearranging the Burning City World Headquarters. Wise? Hmm, maybe not, but people who know me will recognize this as a creative exercise I do with maddening regularity. When in doubt, change your surroundings.


Chaos


My new view from my biz desk

24 Hour DUX

This week, Marc Rettig and I hosted a Tutorial for the DUX 2007 Conference entitled, "24 Hour Comic Session". DUX stands for "Conference on Designing for User Experience" and my connection to it comes from my days at HannaHodge as a Business Strategist. Yes, a Business Strategist.


It was my big shoulders and Marc's big shoulders that they counted on.

This was suppose to be a literal 24 Hour session ala Scott McCloud's challenge, but turned out to be 7.5 hours. Go figure. Marc and I made some adjustments and were very fortunate to get 8 people attending who were of good heart, sound minds, and full of energy and creativity. They finished a ten page comic book that they wrote, designed and produced. Very cool.

The Great God Pan WIP 10: I'm Happy

Thank goodness the director, Charley Sherman, speaks his mind. We got to a good place in this poster for the play. Up until now we had several posters, but none of them were quite right for this upcoming production nor the style of the theater company. A change in background, fonts, text placement and we were able to fit everything in and capture the mood of the play.


Here's a much bigger version.

The Great God Pan WIP 9: Director Is Happy

Okay, we are closing in on an image that is close to the intent of the play. I like the feel of it now in relation to the play, because it is more like a dark, Italian, Dario Argento poster at this point and I like that.


See a really big version.

The Great God Pan Poster WIP 9: Another Tack

Well, the director wanted something different than the direction this piece was going, so after some delay at working on the poster (a new company to plan, out of town guests, etc.) I have returned to work it some more.

The Great God Pan WIP 8: Cleanup Stage

Okay, time to cleanup the image some more. I'm happy with the overall piece, although it will help to get away from it for a bit to see if my eyes have just fogged over. After taking out the rough spots, I will incorporate the logo with some hand drawn lettering. Hope it turns out.


You can see it larger.

The Great God Pan WIP 7: Darker Gods

While still not polished, here are versions of the poster taking darker, more iconic tones. They actually look much richer and full of detail . They were made at 300DPI at 12"x17" and have been reduced to 72DPI and 400 pixels wide.

These first two images will seem identical, but there are subtle differences in color, contrast, and detail.




See this one larger.

This one is nice, but I'm not sure about the lack of green in the bottom half of the figure right now. The last two shots are detail from this version.




See this one larger.

The Great God Pan WIP 5

Okay, we've got all the major monster tentacles.

The Great God Pan WIP 4

While great progress is being made, it sure looks like it is turning into a mess. Don't worry, there will be order in this chaos as soon as I can get some sleep. More tomorrow.

The Great God Pan WIP 3

Monster tentacles can be tedious, but oh so much fun!

Great God Pan WIP and a Benefit

I'm making slow, but sure progess on the Great God Pan poster. I need it done quickly though for several reasons, not the least being the WildClaw Benefit at the Four Moon Tavern on October 29th. Help us raise money to benefit WildClaw Theater. They are dedicated to putting the scare back into live entertainment. And I'm on the board of directors. So go.

WildClaw Theater Benefit
October 29th
Four Moon Tavern
1847 W Roscoe Street

Flist - The Bloggers Art Show

On Friday, October 5th at 7PM-2AM, there will be an opening reception for Flist. Our pal, Ray Frenden, will have some work in this puppy. The show will be at the Happy Dog Gallery at 1542 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

New Horror

One of my favorite things to do is create posters for the theater. I am currently working on one for my friend Charley Sherman's WildClaw theater troupe. It is an adaptation of the seminal horror classic, The Great God Pan. Here are some sketches showing some progress towards the final piece.



After reading the script (but before I spoke with the director/adaptor, Charley), I took a stab at an image that would capture the essence of the play. These elements seemed to be a Victorian leading lady with creepy monsters. The sketch is a lady with her face in partial shadow and monsters creeping from beneath her skirt. After showing this to Charley, we discussed the play and realized this image was wrong for many reasons, including possibly giving too much away. Plus, it wasn't a "grabber".



The next thought was much more "Alien" chestburster. More movement and more possibilities with composition. And Charley liked that it read HORROR play much more than the first.



Charley was wondering if we should place some monsters into the scene, as they would be in the actual play.



We wrapped up our two and a half hour discussion confident that I had a handle on several ideas for the poster. One issue was trying to find a POV for the lead character in the poster. Should she be looking straight at the viewer? I gave that a stab here to think about it. I don't always sketch the whole poster, just the part I want to play with.



It wasn't quite working, so I went back to thumbnails of the whole design and settled upon a centered image of the woman wrapped in monsterous tentacles that are reaching skyward. At her feet would be the other monsters in shadowy silhoutte.



I drew a larger version in pieces on tracing paper. This one is about 11" x 23". The proportions are off for the typical 11" x 17" poster, but it gives me the elements to play with. I took the monsters out, because they drew your attention away from the dynamic attention of her reaching up towards the title of the play.

I like this sketch and so does Charley. I think we're on our way.

Ray Frenden - Superstar

Once again, one of my favorite blogs, Drawn.ca, has put Ray's talents to good use and place his work where other artists can benefit from his talents. Check this puppy out.

The First Fear Ad

I'll be attending a small Comicon tomorrow in the western suburbs with Alex Wald and Dave Dorman, among others. I needed something to show for the work done so far on The First Fear, so I whipped up this screensaver.


The text reads:

They have always been with us.

Immortal.
Forever.

We have always been afraid.


And that's just the way they like it.

The First Fear
A graphic novel of horror and escape.

Shakespeare Xmas Cards

I have finally put the improved Shakespeare Xmas cards back up in the Burning City store.



The inscription within is:
"Joy, gentle friends! Joy, and fresh days of love accompany your hearts!"
Wm Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V, Scene 3

Get 'em while they're hot.

FTF 10th Anniversary Poster, Really

Today's the day and I finally finished the commemorative poster for the FTF/TIC anniversary party tonight. The thumbnail above reflectives the current thinking re the poster, but I was off on another tear for awhile. A whole 2001: A Space Odyessy Incubator logo as monolith concept. I like this one better.



And here is the final piece. I'm getting it printed in the Banner section at Kinko's. They're nice enough and the other banners look great. So here goes...

FTF Celebrates 10 Years!

I designed these two posters for a pretty big event in coming up. It is a double celebration - the twentieth anniversary of the Technology Innovation Center, one of the country's leading incubators for tech startups AND the freakin' TENTH anniversary of FTF (Face To Face). The annual parties for FTF have grown to be very well attended by current incubator tenants, TIC alumni, and curious bystanders.

Pretty amazing for an incubator that was told over and over that it should not, could not, and would not exist by various parties of varying degrees of ignorance. As for FTF, it started as a few fledgling companies coming up for air and sharing a few beers and chips at the end of another endless work week. A decade later we're celebrating that willingness to share and build a community among seeming competitors.

As a founder of FTF, I would personally like to thank co-founder Larry Mills-Gahl, Jim Currie, Dennis Director, Charles Smith, Rob Jacobi, Andrea Winship, Louise Burton, and Tim Lavengood for their faith, hard work, time and money over the last decade. I believe it was worth it. Thanks to the brave souls who showed up at our small, dingy joint for around 500 FTF parties, big and small. Some of you have created companies like Google and Peapod or invented the Skip Doctor or were successful enough to become venture capitalists yourself, while others have seen the harsh, brutish side of entrepreneurship. I salute all of you.

And thanks to Dan Kelch of Lulu's for all the great food.

Halloween Party Invite Part Two

That's done and it didn't end up anywhere near where I expected. Lotsa surprises and getting use to a Wacom tablet again after many years. Much to learn and practice. Now for the insides of the beast.

Halloween Party Invite Part One

Okay, some drawings. Not from The First Fear, but drawings none-the-less, damn it. We're having a small gathering of an odd assortment of friends that are connected in a weird sort of way and I thought I would throw together a Halloween related invite.



I wanted to include Julienne in the piece and so here is an initial sketch of her sweet face. I was gonna be in the damn thing too, but realized there is only so much my friends can take.



This is a piecing together of several sketch ideas to get the foundation of the illustration going. I quickly draw these out on paper, scan them in and then manipulate details in Photoshop. I'm going to set up the Wacom tablet tomorrow and I may just continue working directly in the computer from this point or I may go over this sketch collage again in pencil. Once I feel good about it, I'll attack it in Photoshop for the final piece.

Favicon

A special tip of the hat to Ray for helping me out with the Grand Mystery of the Favicon. As cliche as it sounds, the Internets sure is great for meeting new artists and swapping information. Thanks, Ray!

New Branding

In getting ready for the conference and the new website, it was time to refresh the brand. Some have argued against it, but it was not only recharging the look of Burning City, Inc., but represented a fresh start for myself, as well. I thought I would show a small part of the work process and follow the birth of this one design.


Step 1 is the scanned first doodle that I wanted to play with. It was tiny. Step 2 is the enlarged and cleaned up version to place into Illustrator to go from raster to vector. Step 3 is the first vector draft that could then manipulated to my liking.


I soon realized that the full figure didn't lend itself well to a logo design. Duh. I cut the figure in half and added detail to the gas tank on her back and played with simplifying the eyes. All with an aim to size reduction.


After adding some text, I felt the need to edit some more and enlarge the eyes so that they would read when reduced. Now we're getting somewhere. I'm willing to live with this version for awhile.


And here is a stab at a black t-shirt design for the Wizard World Chicago conference.