#138 More Card Designs

- click images for larger size -

I have really been doing a lot of graphic design lately, and honestly I've been enjoying it immensely. I get a thrill out of arranging images, text, and colors harmoniously (you can be the judge of that). This set of cards is going to be part of a paper goods gift box for a gift exchange I'm participating in later on in the holidays. And as I'm sure you can tell, I'm a big C. S. Lewis fan. I hope that whoever gets these is too!

It would be awesome to see if there's any demand for these things. If so, I could start offering them on Etsy. Just give me a shout. You can make it happen!

And hopefully I'll have at least one illustration post before Christmas - just hang tight!

-Will

#137 New Year Postcards

front

back

alternate version

My family will be hosting a New Year's Day party soon, so I offered to come up with some invitations for them. The postcards were designed in Photoshop by scanning in some Alaska graphics from a 1960's book (I adore that look). Used the free typeface Mod from Font Fabric
and created a layer mask from it. My mom said her decorating theme for January is snow, so I wanted something minimalistic, snowy and cold. The vintage graphic and the turquoise blue keep it from getting to stark, adding a little warmth to the overall feel.
The last image is an alternate design that didn't make the cut.

#136 CARGO Comic Cover Art

http://cargocomic.tumblr.com/

The home for my new wordless comic "CARGO" is finished - the previous Tumblr theme I installed was distracting, so I toned it down a bit - but this is the new cover illustration I completed today. Bear with me - I learned a lot through doing this cover, and that is exactly what I intend this project to be - a learning experience. The cover itself leaves a lot to be desired in my own opinion, but I think things are moving forward nicely. I hope you all will pitch in with any feedback you might have as the project moves forward!

I'll post a preview link here on Drawing the Sword when new Pages go up soon!

-Will

#135 Mollie Greene's Make & Do Holiday Giveaway!

I love a good giveaway!
So I really want to tell all ye good folks about Mollie Greene's amazing paper work, and her cool new book which she is giving away on her blog here: molliegreene.com I love anything that re-purposes vintage paper into cool stuff that you can enjoy. So enter the giveaway and spread the Christmas Cheer! And thanks so much Mollie for this sweet giveaway!

About Make & Do:

Released in September 2011, Mollie Greene's paper craft book Make & Do: Paper Fascinations for Every Lovely Occasion includes tutorials for old Royal Buffet favorites and new soon-to-be Royal Buffet favorites, Mollie's best pointers for working with paper, and fabulous photography that walks you through each step of the way. A perfect gift for yourself or for anyone who can handle scissors.

Links:
http://molliegreene.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/royalbuffet?ref=top_trail

#134 Space Comics!

Hey everyone!
I'm excited to announce a new project of mine - my very own webcomic!
CARGO is a sci-fi short comic about space exploration and, well, CHOMPERS (see diagrams above). I've pretty much stuck my neck out by posting all this because now I actually have people expecting me to finish it! So I will.
Go ahead and bookmark the official site: http://spacecomics.tumblr.com/ where the comic will be published (I'll post updates here and on Twitter as well). I look forward to sharing the pages with you as I get them done!

#133 Calender

Some calender designs I helped create for a friend.

#132 IT'S COMING!

HERE'S WHAT I'M WAITING ON TO COME IN THE MAIL. GET YOURS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

Justin Gerard Sketchbook 2011 (Get it Here)

#131 Inspiration Levels: LOW

As I'm sure any artist can tell you, sometimes inspiration is hard to come by. Really I suppose I mean motivation in my case, and today is a prime example. Lately I have been tinkering with a Lego Star Wars set, coming up with a bunch of spaceship ideas. Yes, I admit it I am, and always will be a Lego fanatic, and I can't help but fool around with them occasionally. So I'm trying to use the photos I took of the designs I made as a springboard into a Photoshop concept painting. But it's not going the smoothest. I think I'll probably scrap it, and move on to something else. And then rewatch my Ryan Church DVDs. Bleh.

#130 Gandalf Bookmark

Gandalf will guard the interior of your bound volumes.

Done entirely in black & white in Photoshop, in a bookmark format. Taking a lot of inspiration from the work of Chris Koelle lately (buy his stuff). Is there enough detail in this thing to even read well as an image? Let me know if you see any major problems here.
If I printed this, would you buy one? Would the Tolkien estate sue me? Would you buy one for everyone on your Christmas list? Does the idea of unique bookmarks even interest you? I hope so. It does me. I hope to have a whole bunch of them done up here in a couple of weeks.

#129 Illustration Friday: Stripes

Stripes - Pencil drawing w/Photoshop 8x7"

My first ever Illustration Friday submission! I had a lot of fun with this one - it took about 4 hours to finish. Did a couple of preliminary sketches to establish the pose and the construction of the car. A little Photoshop magic (well, a lot really), and there you go! 1960's race car action!
Looking forward to more of this Illustration Friday stuff!

#128 Captain Brown

If you're like me, you like period drama. So last night I watched Cranford a BBC show about this small English town. It's quite fascinating and compelling, and the characters are splendid.
I have unofficially declared November to be Drawing From Life Month for myself, so I began by working from stills of this show, which afforded me some very interesting faces to draw, and superb light and shadow (which is hard to find in photo reference).

The beauty of it is, however, that I don't have to show you the photo, because then you would see how off I really am. I felt a bit rusty on my drawing skills, but to tell you the truth it felt so good to get back into that mode of separating light and shadow and getting it onto paper.

#127 Inktober 2011 Sketchbook Flip-Through

Here's a little video flip-through featuring all 31 pen & ink drawings for INKtober 2011 in their unaltered, unedited state in my Moleskine sketchbook. I thought it would be fitting to collect them all into one video here on the 1st of November as a little thank-you for everyone who followed this mini-project and left feedback & suggestions. And a big thanks to you, Jake Parker for inspiring me to take the journey in the first place. It was certainly worth it!
I can't wait to do it again next year!
Happy November everyone!