Weekly comic book review

Logo work for weeklycomicbookreview.com. Fun project, good fit for me. I've been really into faux vintage lately, as you can see. I feel like vector art isn't finished until it gets some texture, it seems too slick to me.

I started with something happy. I thought it was fun—not what they were looking for.

I had many ideas, these were some of the more resolved ones:

SF wallpaper

I like making wallpaper patterns sometimes, this is definitely my most elaborate one. I have been wanting to mess around with isometric designs lately, so this is what I came up with.

You can see it repeated here: jeremyforson.com/sf_iso_art.html

Jakob and Jessica

Paintings! These are private commissions for the talented and kind Jakob Westman and his girlfriend, Jessica. I'm particularly proud of these. Jakob specifically wanted to commission me to do this style of painting, from what I call my "Night Life" series. This is what those paintings could have looked like, if I hadn't had to finish them in 1 to 2 days.

Sadly, I don't think there will be any new paintings from me in the near future. I'm shifting into a designer/developer career path, and I won't have time to paint until I'm gainfully employed.

Video game mock-ups

I've been sitting on these for a while. This was some pitch work I did over the summer. A team of local programmers was working on a Rock Band style game that used a real guitar to pitch at E3. Sadly, at E3 Rock band announced that they were going to start using real guitars. Beat to the punch I guess. Still, it was a fun project. This was the beginning of my interest in 3D. It's hard for me to believe now, but I was ecstatic to use Google sketch-up with PS, AE, and AI to make these. Mostly because I didn't have to worry about perspective, which I don't enjoy drawing. If I had known how easy other 3D programs were to use I wouldn't have used sketch-up.

Cthulhu

You know how if someone is missing for 7 days you can legally declare them dead? I believe that if you don't hear from the client for a month, you can declare the project dead. This was supposed to be a record cover. I was timid about working for a band again, as I have had bad experiences with them in the past. I took a chance and accepted a cover job for a small band, and a small fee. At this point, the band is nowhere to be found. ::Sigh:: I will never do that again.

The real shame is that I think this would have been the best CD cover I've ever done. The difference is that this is designed to be eye catching, iconic, and to read well at a small size. I used to try putting epic pieces on those little 5" squares (or whatever they are), but that's really not the way to go. Simplify the message.

This probably would be a good submission for Spectrum, but I don't see the point in entering anymore. I'm not looking for work as an illustrator, and I don't have money to waste on submission fees.

This is mixed media. It's a charcoal, pencil, and white gouache drawing, colored digitally. I think it's a great way to work. It has the speed and flexibility of digital, with the texture and "artist's hand" that makes traditional so nice.

Sorry if this post is a downer, I was burned by another band, rejected for yet another job, and I filed for unemployment today. I've been out of work for over 2 years, and it's getting to me.

Christmas

Some other stuff

Some random stuff nobody has seen. I've been experimenting with video the last few months. Video is just awesome. I'm not very good at it yet, but I'm surprised how generally easy it is to pick up, if you are already familiar with other creative programs. The main problem is how long it takes! Hours and hours of rendering. These videos need a lot of work, mostly on the animation which is not so fluid. I made them just to learn, so I'm not concerned with a high level of finish. The Victorian with the lit sign was going to be part of a new website layout, but I ultimately decided to go another direction. Kinda sad because I put a lot of work into it, but I remember thinking when it was done "Man, I really wish this was a drawing!"


The character sketches were developed for Sunken Castles, and since now they will never be used for anything I guess I can post them. I recolored a couple of them when I was learning to paint digitally.