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Friday, June 28, 2013

I was asked by a local marketing firm to create a package design for a client who makes automotive cleaners, car washes, etc. This was only to be a comp for a presentation, and there are a couple of other illustrators contributing samples as well. The product will be a bottle of car soap. There was very little art direction, which made me a little nervous, because I have never done package design. Not label design, but actually designing the container. They just want it to be cool, so as to get the end client excited about the idea.

And I am sort of embarrassed to say how long I spent just trying to come up with an idea. But since this was the first time I have ever worked with these folks, I really didn't want to screw this up. Of course, I never want to screw a job up, you understand, but what I mean is that because this is a new…, oh, you know what I mean.

So it was really important to me to make a good first impression, even if it meant spending more time on this thing than the budget would allow for. I didn't know where to start, so I just went on line and looked at a bunch of really cool examples of package design by designers who know what they are doing. And I mean all sorts of packaging. And finally, after what seemed like forever looking at website after website, trying to get some inspiration, I landed on the realization that I was wasting my time.

So, I started thinking. And it occurred to me that there are all sorts of really cool, organic shapes to be found within modern cars and trucks. Shapes that could be quite elegant and ergonomic, if isolated and re-deployed. So what I came up with was a bottle designed to be reminiscent of the shape of a side view mirror. And I took this illustration well past the point of being merely a comp. But like the old deodorant commercial says, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. So I hope they will like this. It was done in Photoshop.


Thursday, June 6, 2013

This fellow's name is Rudolf Stussi. He is Swiss born, but now lives in Canada, I believe (why would anyone move away from Switzerland?). I had not heard of this fellow, but please don't conclude that I am an  idiot if he's like the most famous artist on earth, and I am the last one to find out about him.

Anyway, Rudolf Stussi isn't his real name, because his real name has two little dots over the "u." But I don't know how to make a "u" with two little dots over it on my keyboard. I don't even know what that's called, so I can't Google it. But his work is very unique. I am quite taken with it. He seems to paint in both oil and watercolor, but his work looks pretty similar from one medium to the other. I think most of the work I have seen is watercolor.

His application of color is broad and planar. There seems to be fairly little purposeful shaping and modeling, instead, he lets his washes wander across the paper either to exhaustion, or to be severed at the shattered, erratic edges he has imagined.

The colors, to me, are fantastical, and almost hallucinatory.Thin and watery, but aggressive. The thready linework seems to swoon under the weight of this bright, young world he has created. In all, very cool.

So come along with me, and soak up some loĆ¼sy paintings by a crappy foreign hack who is stealing work from me!










So, do you get the feeling he's done this a few times?

Monday, June 3, 2013

And now for the latest from the "Oh Great. Another Scary Good Artist!" Department:

http://www.stephenleeillustration.co.uk/index.html



This guy's name is Stephen Lee, and his work is fabulous. I believe he is from the UK, but is now living in Thailand.


Here's some new art I did. You will see from earlier postings that I am working on a short series of illustrations involving the characters of two adolescent girls and a talking bird. A raven, in fact. The first painting showed both the children riding on the raven's back as he flew over a quaint village. It's shown below. The second painting is in progress currently, and is also shown below, in it's unfinished state. The third one is this one, which I will eventually execute in oil as well. But for the purpose of a style sample, I went ahead and created it in Photoshop. I know full well that I will need other, complimentary styles such as this digital one, and also perhaps a watercolor style, to go along with the oil style. This was quicker and easier to execute than an oil painting.