Cryptic Arts

The Unicorpse Project

2010-04-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
As you may or may not know, I've been working on a project that involves creating all the artwork for a CD by the band Unicorpse. I started a seperate blog where I posted everything from start to finish and wrote about my concept and how I created the whole thing. It's called Cryptic Concepts and I would love for you all to check it out. But if you're not interested in the process and just want to see the artwork, then here it is.

Cover:

Panel 2:

Panel 3:

Panel 4:

Panel 5:

Panel 6:

Panel 7 (opposite side of the cover):

Panel 8:

Panel 9:

Panel 10:

Panel 11:

Panel 12:

This is the panel that will be behind the CD...

...and this is the back cover...

Unicorpse physical CD:

Thanks to all of those who read my blogs, and especially those of you who gave me input on what you thought. It's been a blast making this and it's a little bit sad that it's over.

Please leave a comment

Unicorpse Album Art

2010-04-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
I gave you a little sneak peak a few days ago as to what has been consuming my days lately. It's a big project and needs more attention than this blog can handle. I've started a new blog, where you can see the project through from concept to completion. Please check it out. The blog is called Cryptic Concepts, and I would love for you all to check it out and leave me some feedback.

Thanks for your support!

Graphic Design Art Kit

2010-04-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Another project in the bag! Here is my design for a box that would contain art supplies for future students of Mohawk. The concept came pretty natural to me. Most people probably see me around school carrying my huge red tool box for all my art supplies, so why no do the same for this box? It's very simple, but I feel it's effective none-the-less.

Please leave a comment

The Beginning of the End...

2010-04-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
There are 2 weeks left for me at Mohawk College, and I have a ridiculous amount of work on the go. Here is a sneak peek of my largest project to date. I don't want to give away too much right now, but there will be lots more coming very shortly, so keep checking back. I'm particularly proud of how this is coming out.

Sleep is for the weak!

Percy is Going for a "Dip" (Illustration Friday)

2010-04-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Beach weather will soon be descending upon us! Lock up your daughters because Percy wants to go for a "dip". (Illustration Friday's word of the week!)

By the looks of his bathing suit, he might be a bit of a dip, too. Seriously, who has a bathing suit with sleeves?

Desert Grave

2010-04-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Here is my latest gouache painting. It's a visual interpretation of the song "Desert Grave" by Dog Fashion Disco.

Here are the lyrics, if you're interested.

I'm digging you a desert grave underneath the burning sun
I'm digging you a desert grave you won't be found by anyone

Burying the sins of man in an eternal tomb of sand
Vultures circle in the sky and you my dear are the reason why

You fought so hard to get away from the tight grip of death
You tried so hard to run away until your last dying breath

Burying the sins of man in an eternal tomb of sand
Vultures circle in the sky and you my dear are the reason why

Go kiss the daylight good bye, as the sun lays down to die
And comes to end another day, as night falls on your desert grave

Man Flirt to the Rescue (Illustration Friday)

2010-04-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
In need of a super hero to save you from the notorious Goober Monster? Call your friendly, neighbourhood Man Flirt to rescue you!

Please leave a comment.

Rockin' Anniversary Gift

2010-04-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Over the years, I've become quite good at turning people in to cartoons. Not that my work is very well known outside of my friends, but I think this is what they recognize me best for doing. So, I was recently asked to create a little anniversary gift for the Aunt and Uncle of a good friend of mine. She gave me some pictures of them, because I have never met them before, and gave me some simple guidelines to follow. Basically, they were supposed to be at the bar in their house, the woman was supposed to be singing in to a wooden spoon and the man playing air guitar, and he needed to be wearing a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt, and finally, the fridge needed a Flyers St. magnet on it. With all that in mind, here's how it turned out.

No one has seen it yet, so please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Squirrels In Real Places (aka IF: Expired)

2010-03-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
2 posts in one afternoon! This is my Illustration Friday drawing for the word "expired".

This is kind of a censored version of a series of photos I took a couple of summers ago. One day I came home to find a hawk sitting just outside of my driveway. Upon closer inspection I found that he was eating a squirrel! A very rare thing to see. I was especially lucky in the way that the hawk let me get nice and close to him while he was eating his freshly killed prey and snap about 100 photos. If you want to see the uncensored version of this photo, you can head on over to my Flickr account. Also, if you are my friend on facebook, you can see many more of the photos in this series, which I call "Hawk vs, Squirrel". I have an entire album dedicated to it.

This is a piece I've wanted to do for quite some time, and this weeks word gave me the perfect excuse to put it together. I've never put one of my drawings on a photograph before, so this was a lot of fun. I've been doing a lot of experimenting with my work lately, and I would love to hear what anyone thinks about this.

Please leave a comment

Postcard for Cancer Research

2010-03-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Our class was recently asked to design a postcard to some what promote a bicycle marathon for cancer research. We were pretty much left to our own devices, but it basically had to have some sort of relation to cancer in a positive and uplifting way. Much more difficult then it sounds. Here is what I created.

In April, all the postcards will be posted to the website HammerCancer.com, and 7 of the designs will be chosen to be printed for the event. So, keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

Something Different

2010-03-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
I'm taking a class called Active Citizenship right now and it's all about being an active citizen, if you can believe it. :P Nah, it's about more than that, but I won't go in to detail about it now. We've been working on a project lately where we listen to/watch a lecture from TED.com and we have to make a press package for the lecture event. The main part of it was writing a paper discussing the ideas expressed. The lecture I chose to write about was surprisingly interesting, and actually quite entertaining. (I guess it pays to go in to these sort of things with an open mind). It's by a gentleman named Sir Ken Robinson and he talks about how the education system needs to be changed in order to have future generations succeed. In a nut shell, he says School Kills Creativity. If you have a spare 20 minutes, I suggest giving it a listen to.

The second part of the assignment was to create a promotional flyer for the lecture event. I decided to experiment and try a different style. I had a vision of many bright and unusual colours. After a quick image search on Google, I downloaded of photo of Sir Ken, and started painting away!

This piece was built from the ground-up entirely in Photoshop CS3.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this piece. Please leave a comment.

Oh! And I should also mention that my girlfriend Brittany added a cool touch to this. The light blue lines in the background that kind of resemble coral were drawn by her.

Zombie Rabbit

2010-03-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Here's another Illustration Friday drawing. The word this week was "subterranean". Awesome word! So I started thinking... and thinking. Subterranean, as defined by my Macbook, means "existing, occurring, or done under the earth's surface". So what do I think of existing under the earth's surface? Well, zombies, of course... and rabbits. Like in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons when Bugs would tunnel across the world (always forgetting to take that left turn at Albuquerque). So I pretty much just mashed the two thoughts together and got Zombie Rabbit! Easter is on the way, and the idea of a Zombie Easter Bunny is just that much more cryptic. ;)

Please leave a comment

Promo Post Card

2010-03-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Here's a little project that I'm feeling pretty proud of...

Front:

Back:

This is a self-promotional postcard I designed. The objective is obvious I think... to show off my work and get noticed. I'd love to hear what all you people in internet land think of this.

Please leave a comment

Story Boards

2010-03-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,
Here is one of my latest projects. This is an idea for a TV ad for "Nutz & Boltz cereal", which is a cereal that I created as part of a project in another class. The basic idea was to show people eating the cereal in a bunch of unlikely foods, like soups and sandwiches and say that "it's so good, you can eat it with just about anything" and then show someone else eating it out of a bowl (aka the regular way) and say "...but it tastes best on it's own".

Here is the rough idea:

and here is a few frames of the final coloured version:

Because I did the coloured frames in marker, the scanner doesn't really do them justice. I tried to correct the colours in Photoshop, but they still are pretty washed out and not nearly as vibrant as the originals.

Please leave a comment.

*Laptop Skin Redesign

2010-03-16T09:04:00.001-07:00

Dear Internet,
You may have seen my laptop skin already if you follow this blog at all, but here is the final version that will be printed. I was lucky enough to get a test print of my original design, and found that it printed very dark. So much so that all the details in the background were lost and just came out purple. So I made a few adjustments to hopefully compensate for the dark print. Here is the final.

It should be printed by next Monday, so let's hope it comes out better this time. :)

Please leave a comment.

Guts! (aka IF: Brave)

2010-03-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
It's that time of the week again... Illustration Friday. As you've probably seen, I like to push the envelope a li'l bit with these drawing, and this one shall be no exception. The word of the week was "brave", and I think another word for "brave" would be "guts"! Here's what my imagination gave me...

This was semi-inspired by a band that a friend just turned me on to called Unicorpse. They're a Doom-Metal band based out of Toronto. I plan on sending this to them, and hopefully they will enjoy it. I would love to do a digital version of this as well, because this is just a sketch when it comes down to it. I think hearing this band has been my driving force while working on this piece. As you may already know, I really want to be involved in designing for the music industry... doing CD covers and layouts, posters, t-shirts and all that stuff. Hearing this band and drawing this piece just gave me all kinds of ideas for them. So if you're in a band and reading this, send me a link to your music! I would love to hear it. :D

Rick Court's Blog

2010-02-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
As part of a class assignment, I was asked to do an editorial illustration for a new blog the Dean on Mohawk College has started. His name is Rick Court and you can read his blog here. So after reading his post, this is what I came up with.

The article was actually pretty interesting, so if you have a chance, I recommend you read it. This was the first entirely digital piece I've created, aside from goofing around in MS Paint when I was a kid. I actually had a lot of fun doing this. I usually like to get something on paper before bringing it to the digital level, so this was a nice change of pace for me.

Please leave a comment, and if you want to see the full size version, just click on the picture and you will be taken to my Flickr account where you can see it with other work I've done.

IF:Propagate

2010-02-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,

Now that you've seen what I've drawn, please allow me to explain. The word "propagate" means to reproduce or multiply from the parent stock. But what about the animals that can't propagate quickly enough? There are many endangered species in the world, one of them being some breeds of shark (which I have always found fascinating). I heard somewhere that there is a city in Asia where people can go to eat all kinds of strange exotic animals and some of them are endangered. Hearing that just turns my stomach. I don't know why someone would want to EAT the remaining population of a nearly extinct species. It's just sad that these animals can't reproduce fast enough to make perpetuate itself.

So this weeks Illustration Friday took a little more of a serious turn. As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Laptop Skin Design

2010-02-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
A few days ago I gave you a sneak peak in to one of my most recent projects, and I'm happy to say it's finished!

I had a lot of fun working on this. It allowed me to put my own style in to it, although there were some mandatory elements that needed to be added for grading purposes. Click on the image to see a larger version to check out the details. If you click on it, you will also be directed to my Flickr page where you can see more of my work. Thanks for stopping by, and leave a comment and tell me what you think! :D

Sneak Peak

2010-02-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
Life is busy! I've got so much on the go right now, so I haven't been doing many posts. Here is a little taste of what you've been missing if you follow this blog. This isn't finished yet, but it will be a new skin for my laptop. Let me know what you think of it so far...

Please leave a comment

Illustration Friday: Adrift

2010-02-19T11:55:00.001-08:00

Dear Internet,
This weeks word for Illustration Friday was "adrift". I wanted to try something a little different, but still stay true to my own style. This was the result:

I drew the polar bear in ink, then scanned him in and did a live trace in Illustrator CS3. I really liked the line quality that came from the live trace. It's very uneven and looks very cool. I drew in the ice block with the pen tool and used a ton of effects on the background. I was going for a very stylized look, and I think it came across. Let me know what you think of it. I would love some feed back.

Please leave a comment

IF: Muddy

2010-02-10T20:11:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
It's that time again! Here is what I came up with for this weeks Illustration Friday. The word of the week was "muddy". I really wanted to do something different. The obvious thing that came to my mind was stuff like kids playing in mud, rain and boots and etc... So instantly I scratched that stuff off the list. So how do I add my own flavor to this? Anyone who knows me probably knows I'm a huge music junkie. So when I thought of mud, I thought of the band Mudvayne. I've been a fan of theirs for many years, and I loved them best when they first hit the scene, wearing creepy make up and their hair was dyed with all kinds of bright colours of Manic Panic (which I used to use all the time). So once I decided which direction I wanted to go, it was time to put pencil to paper. Then I realized I had drawn a picture of Mudvayne way back in 2002, so I dug it out and used it as a reference.

Here is my original drawing from 2002:

So the next step was to re-draw the band in my modern style ;P

So once I got the band looking the way I wanted them to, I traced them on to another page and changed the compostion a little bit. I changed the page to landscape so I could fit them in better without cutting any of them off. After that, I scanned it and started laying down some colour in Adobe Photoshop CS3. I got them all coloured in and intended on leaving the background white. If you owned their first album, you would understand why. But since this was an Illustration Friday drawing, I wasn't sure there was enough of a connection to the word "muddy". So I splattered some mud in Adobe illustrator CS3 and imported into photoshop and warped it a little bit. Here how the whole thing came together.

(This version has lost some quality since I had to shrink it for the web. The full image has clean, crisp lines which show off the details.)

I really had a blast on this IF assignment. Last week I was kind of disappointed that I didn't have more time so I wanted to blow this one out of the water. I hope you all enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Please leave a comment

New Cryptic Arts Header!

2010-02-08T18:39:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
Check out my latest addition to the blog! I've just finished the new header for my blog and I think it compliments the site nicely. It definitely sums up the style that I love. I hope you guys like it, and feel free to leave a comment for me and tell me what you think of it!

Illustration Friday No. 2

2010-02-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
Here is my second Illustration Friday assignment. The word of the week was "focus". Not my best work, but considering I did the entire thing in an hour... I think it turned out alright. I would definitely love to go back and rework this thing a little bit. Next week I will try to set aside more time to work on IF number 3.

Please leave a comment

Better Late Than Never

2010-02-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
I just finished my magazine cereal ad. A little late but I told you in the last post I've been busy! Man oh man, this thing has been an adventure the whole way through. Allow me to explain...

Step one:
I had tons of trouble from the very beginning of this project. I must have spent a good 3 days at least just thinking about a concept. I consider myself a very creative person, but when it comes to fresh ideas, I really need time to think and develop them. Here is my rough sketch (which I spend a lot of time drawing neatly, rather that keeping it loose. The plight of a perfectionist :P )

Step two:
I quickly traced my sketch onto some marker paper to put together a colour comp. This was probably the easiest part of the project to me. I love laying down colour to bring my work some life.

Step three:
Here's where it got stressful again. I must have inked this thing a thousand time until I got what I wanted. I tried all kinds of papers and ink. I settled on a white paper that was pretty rough and I used real india ink for a real rich black. You'd think once I figured that out, it would just be simple to ink the page. Not so much. My rapidograph pen has given me so much grief since I opened it out of the package. So, it gave me lots of trouble on this assignment. So much so that it even broke while I was using it. The metal nib went straight up inside the pen! Luckily ink didn't spill out until I moved it away from my work *phew*, so I didn't have to start over again. I did get my nice, white drawing table a little inky and I did have to buy a new rapidograph pen for $40 though. On the bright side, the new pen works perfectly. Here is the result.

Step four:
The final phase. I scanned my inked drawing and imported it into photoshop. From there, I just started laying down colour. That went fairly quickly since I already knew what colours I was using (thanks colour comp!). I still spent most of my day today working on this. So without further adieu, here is my cereal ad for a magazine. (Keep in mind there is lots of extra space around the edges to allow space for cropping)

Remember - if you click on any of these pictures, you will be directed to my Flickr account, where you can see larger versions and lots more of my work. I'm posting new stuff on there constantly, and it doesn't always make it onto the blog.

Please leave a comment, and thanks for reading about my big ordeal.

Comics

2010-02-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
Today is a nightmare of a day. The rest of the week will probably be the same. I have so much work to do along with work and other junk. Not going to be fun. Anyways, I have a few minutes to spare at the moment so I thought I would update my blog with some older comics I illustrated that only a handful of people have actually seen. The first one I did the halloween before last. The second one is a two pager and I did that one not long after. None of these had any part of them done on the computer. It was all done with the sweat of my brow, as they say. Hope you like them.

Halloween:

Anti Smoking:

Please leave a comment

Gouache Painting

2010-02-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
Lately I've been thinking a lot about paint. There was a time in my life when I absolutely hated painting, but now I've got the gouache bug. Here is my latest piece which I created for my girlfriend as a Christmas gift. It was very much a multi-media effort. I used gouache, acrylic, pencil crayon and ink on an 8" x 10" canvas. Looking back at it just makes me want to start another. I just need to come up with an idea. I'm sure Britt would live it if I did a painting of her and Lady Gaga, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Maybe a painting of fish robot? :S In reality my next piece in gouache will be an advertisement for either Visa or Kodak for a class project. I'm still feeling kinda stumped on that one, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Please leave a comment

I Rock! (Pun Intended)

2010-02-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,
I didn't post all weekend! Ahh! Ok... I'm over it.

Here's a piece that is a little bit out of the ordinary for me. It's a wooden rocking chair and it's realistic! Ooohh. I usually tend to draw more cartoony/stylized drawings just because I get to have a little more fun with it. This was a sketchbook assignment for class to practice perspective and details. When I started it, I was totally unexcited about it. But the more work I put in to it, the more I ended up enjoying it. I think sometimes when you do something out of your style, you end up doing some of your best work. Hopefully my prof feels the same way. :P

Please leave a comment

Illustration Friday... on a Thursday

2010-01-28T05:33:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,

As promised, here is my drawing for Illustration Friday. The word of the week was "wilderness". Below you will see my rough work, my clean ink drawing and the final step, which was coloured in Photoshop CS3. I'm pretty happy with it, although there is more that I wanted to add. I just ran out of time with so much stuff on the go.

Step 1: Rough Pencil

Step 2: Clean Ink

Step 3: Final Colour

Please leave a comment

Fish Robot!

2010-01-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,

Sorry I didn't do a post yesterday. I didn't really have anything worth posting so I thought I would skip it and maybe heighten your anticipation to see what I've done today. Here is a little sketch I've been working on of a Fish Robot who has captured my dog, Pirate. Pirate is a french bulldog and he inspires me so much. He has so much personality. Apparently frenchies are often kept as pets by artists, and I can easily see why. I'm sure there will be many more posts about him in the future. So, here is the first of many. Keep in mind this is not finished yet. I'll definitely post the final drawing once I have time to complete it.

PS - Tomorrow is Illustration Friday! Ok, it will actually be Illustration Thursday, but I will be posting my drawing for this weeks Illustration Friday (which is a website if you haven't heard of it. It's one drawing per week based on a certain word). So be sure to come back tomorrow to see what the word was and check out a new illustration. Thanks!

Please leave a comment.

The Gang

2010-01-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,

For today's post, I thought I'd add a piece I created as a Christmas gift for my friends (not that I really wanted to keep going with the Xmas theme from last post). I have drawn some new, cool stuff, but I don't have access to a scanner at the moment. Looks like you are going to have to keep returning to this li'l blog if you want to see it. Anyways, back to this gift for my friends. It went over pretty huge. They were all thrilled with it, which felt great. Hope you enjoy it too.

(from left to right: Ken (aka yours truly), Nick, Jessica, Erin, Ryan)

Please leave a comment

Traditional vs. Digital

2010-01-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,

I wasn't really sure what to post today. I've been thinking a lot about how graphic arts are becoming less and less about traditional media. I love just putting a pencil to paper, or ink to paper, and etc. Don't get me wrong. I love working digitally too, but I feel like it doesn't always take as much drive to work on a computer. Whatever. Here are 2 pieces I created just before Christmas. They are both the same drawing, but one was done traditionally with pencil crayons and elbow grease and the other is a vector image created in Adobe Illustrator Cs3... and elbow grease. You be the judge. ;)

Please leave a comment

Zombie Apocalypse

2010-01-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Internet,

That's right. I'm now going to be starting my blogs with "Dear Internet". If you saw Conan's last night on the Tonight Show, then hopefully you'll get a laugh out of it. And even if you didn't, it may bring a smile to your face. Speaking of Conan, I saw Patton Oswalt on the Tonight Show not too long ago and he told this weird little story about what he thought was the Zombie Apocalypse, but was actually just some crazy people shooting their guns in the air on New Year's eve. Needless to say he was high. Conan and Patton make an awesome duo and it was totally hilarious. So in memory of Conan's seven months on the Tonight Show and all the laughs he gave me, here is a little drawing I did of the zombie apocalypse. :D

PS - I should also mention that if you click on any of the images in my blog, it will take you to my Flickr account where you can see a larger version and more of my work.

Please leave a comment.

Meet the Creeper

2010-01-22T08:43:00.001-08:00

Hey,

I've only got a few minutes before I have to run out, but I really wanted to add another image to this blog. Hopefully I can get used to writing a new post daily. This is a logo and character design I came up with for my little project called Cryptic Arts (obviously). This was done entirely in Adobe Illustrator CS3. Although it was very time consuming, I had a blast working on it and am happy with how it turned out. Enjoy!

Please leave a comment.

Blog-oh Numero Uno

2010-01-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

Hey,

I just started a blog about my artwork. I thought I'd start it off with one of my favorites, and it fits how I'm feeling on this Thursday morning... I think I need some coffee :S

Please leave a comment.