Super Saiyan Series #3

So, in the ever continuing Saiyan Illustration Series, the Original Sketch turned out to be a great launch for my latest series of avatars. This Image is the next step in the process. Instead of merely scanning the sketch for this go round, I slipped the sketch onto a light board, and inked a "clean" copy on another piece of paper, then scanned it in.

Earth Background

Space Background

Namekian Background

I put the inked version to the side temporarily to work with my more "sketchy" version. I did three variations, an earth background, a space background, and a Namekian background based on the landscape of Planet Namek.

I had to draw in the clouds and a Namekian landscape to complete the overall loose feel of the two images, then I added the appropriate color fills and effects to finish them.

The space background was pure Photoshop fun! I picked the star field up from some old school notes I had taken a while back, and I actually just played with various effects and shapes to create the planets. I love "playing around" and seeing what I can accomplish! ;)

 

Avatar Montage

After I had created each version, I decided to put them together in a bit of a Warhol-esque montage. Turning simple illustration into high end pop art. Cool, huh! I am willing to sell some prints!

Final Vectorized Version

Once I had played around with my sketches enough, I picked up the inked version and set to work to complete it. Illustrator makes this task pretty easy and fun. I did some color fills with the Live Paint function, and added some slight shadows. I found a font that replicates the DragonBall Z font very well and stretched some of the letters to fit the image. I had to do some work and hook the "O" up to make it look wore like the DragonBall in the original font. For the background I took the "sea" from the earth sketch, then I used a Cloud Tutorial from one of my favorite design tutorial websites abduzeedo.com to give it the same feel as the main image.

This is phase 3. Phase 4 of the series is already done and I'll be posting it soon, so stay tuned!

Harvest Fest 2011 Flier and T Shirt

Harvest Fest 2011 T Shirt Design

I had fun with this design as a whole. I got to do a little research on the images, break out the olde graph paper, and then played with the placement. The style is something that is not new to me, but one that I haven't used in a while as a "finished" piece.

After a quick scan and a couple of image adjustments in Photoshop, I dropped it in Illustrator and went to work. since the T Shirt deadline was due I started that one first. Originally I converted it to the wrong live trace format which cause my progress to be slow initially, but once I figured out what I had done, I just started from the beginning (Thank God it was only black & white!) and finished it in the amount of time that I had been mucking around with the bad format.

After the T Shirt was approved, I did a colorized version for use a the flier, which was fun considering that I got to play with a full color palette. I do have a few variations that I didn't go with, but may at some point make a montage of the "prints".

Harvest Fest 2011 Flier, a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

The Waffle King Logo

The Waffle King Logo, a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

I know I featured this in the previous blog post, but I just had to give it it's own 'solo shot'. I had a lot of fun with this one. I completely worked it up in Illustrator using multiple techniques to pull off the over all look. A Look worthy of a king...The Waffle King as it were.

VOG Flier Project

Each year our "young adult" choir has a concert and invites all of our family and friends to come out and praise God with us on one special night. Being blessed with artistic abilities, I volunteer my services for the choir and do the promotions for the concert each year. This year, with coordinating the volleyball ball team, The SYDe, folks traveling, and a myriad of other activities, all of our concert preparation was pushed back...Way back. I can't believe our concert is in two weeks! Normally I like to get visuals out to people a month in advance, and just give reminders as the date approaches. To give you an indication of what kind of time frame I'm working with, we just came up with our theme last week. The most important part of the concert is the music, of course, and for that portion, we will be ready to go, but presentation is also a big part, and a good visual can go a long way to enhance the whole experience. Besides, who doesn't enjoy a cool visual?

This year's theme is "It Ain't Over". Based on one of the songs we will be presenting, it speaks of hope and perseverance through adverse times and circumstances if we have faith in the Lord. Not having a long amount of time to do a complex illustration, or long photo shoot, I decided to go simple and focus more on typography, and something more abstract. I took some time to sketch out a concept, with type, then looked for a type face to approximate what I sketched out. The closet thing to what I envisioned was the typeface "Dogma", so I set to work in Illustrator to see just how I could manipulate this type. I first played with the size, merged and overlapped some paths, and added a gradient. Then with the the new look, I reversed some of the outlines added a couple of off set paths, then overlapped 3 variations at different opacities.

With the main type together, I went to look for a cool background that I could create that would fit well with what I had envisioned. Thanks to networking on Twitter, I had connected with an awesome designer in San Francisco who posts various tutorials on how to make some cool backgrounds and effects. For this one I used Fabian Sasso's (aka Abduzeedo) Hexagonal Bokeh Background tutorial to give the flier it's overall look, and graphic punch. (Thank you again for sharing Fabian!)

I want you to consider this your official invite to the VOG 2010 Concert. We know you will enjoy the praise, and I hope you enjoy the graphics...I still have to design the actual program, so I'll get to cranking on that so you can have a piece of my work to take home with you. More information is on the flier, or you can visit our Facebook Event Page, or the Inglewood Southside Christian Church Page for the address and contact numbers. Hope you can join us!