The Killers are Battle Born!

The Killers return this Fall with a brand new album!
You could say I'm just a little more than excited!

Splitting Lanes...

Don't ask me how, but I got this stuck in my head,

and it's been there for a few days, now...

Gourd in the Head...

I know things have been nearly dead silent, here, as of late. Between getting things swinging over at Neverland Transit Authority with the new Galactic Gun story - “The Twisted case of Station 77” - and the quick break... all four days of it... before Summer quarter kicked off this week, with its usual delays, issues, and trouble, there's not been a lot of time and energy to get anything posted here in quite a while.

But, I've just completed the silly but fun first exercise for my Photoshop class.

I was given this...

And on a single layer,using the selection tools, I created this...

Mister Potato who?



What makes this so much cooler is that it was also the first spin of my very first drawing tablet, ever*. And I did it without cussing and shot putting it through an open window.

So, there; little victories, I suppose.

*Technically this is my second Wacom tablet. The first I had in 2002, a gift from a friend, at the time. It had a three inch drawing square and was pretty much useless, at the time.

Building character...

Just a couple of bad asses out for a stroll...

Despite the rather tongue and cheek approach I take with Galactic Gun, there are a lot of aspects - some rather serious - I'd like to take the comic and its stories. To that end, I've often wondered how effective the cartooning style I'm often to use is. Times like those produce imagines like these; where I take the pivotal characters of the Galactic Gun universe, and give them a more “realistic” look.

This gives me the more legitimate look, for sure; something needed to be taken more seriously as a Graphic Novelist. But, I wonder... and, maybe worry... if, in getting more to a standard look, I might be sacrificing some of the more expressive tools of the characters and their stories.

Whether I'm trying to use cartoons to express seriousness, or illustrations to be funny, I fear something's going to be a little lost in the translation. All the more reason to keep hunting for that just right look; blending the spectrum of design.

I don't know; what do you think...?

My card...

Or, to be more precise, my business card assignment in Studio Design class over at school.

Each one was created in Adobe In Design by making a master page and plugging in the graphics - found at stock.xchng - and texts accordingly. The first three are for the fictitious town of Neverland, Ca. (Pronounced "N'ver-lund" by its residents.); part of my model train layout. The last one, I think, may, with a little more work, become my new personal card.

Words... In Design

Okay, so these past two weeks we've been learning something about Adobe In Design. I find that, while it's good for paste ups - setting pages, flyers, and the like - it's really not so much a creative tool. And, yet, here I am showing off my creative assignment in a not so creative tool.

Image from Stock Xchng Quote by Charles Bruce Catton

Recipe from Recipes.com Image from www.sxc.hu/

Image from Fbook Covers Words by Charlie Irons (Inspired by A Softer World)

The idea of the assignmnet as to, using the concepts of design, text wrap, paths, and other effects, take any image and set of words to create... well... these. We had to have one that was orented portrait, landscape, and squared. Otherwise, the content was pretty much up to each student.

I do not own any of these images; which are used with the intent for only the project; each are linked to their source. Authors are noted, as well.

"Up, Up, Down, Down" - Designing a CD single cover

So, over in my Typography class, we've been working on doing a CD cover using only type; no picutres are allowed anywhere. So I grabbed nerdcore rock greats Kirby Krackle, and their quirky "love song" Up Up Down Down, from their self titled debut.

I have to admit that the initial design sort of quickly snapped together. However, I then spent three days obsessing over how the title would go.

In the end, I went with the Komica font. The idea was, in font size and position, to capture the idea of going up, up, and then down, down. The background lettering is in NES Controller font - no, really; it's the Nintendo font used on the actual hardware - and set at 35% opacity. The band logo is imported; I didn't do anything to it.

Since KK is a nerdcore rock band (Comics, video games, etc.), the news print comic strip look was essential to attract its target audience. In that same way the font choice was pretty obvious. (Which is a bit of a lie; you'd be surprised how many comic styled fonts are out there, these days.Yeash...)

And just how quirky is this little love song? Well...

The Comic Sans theme!

Finally! A song about a misunderstood, and deserving, font...

No... wait... That's...
I see what you did, there.

To the Sky...

From the great minds of the past to the coming genius of the future; the owrds of Carl Sagan still are as inspiring, and as important, today, as they were in his time...



Meanwhile... in art class...

Mask, Mug, and The Bottle makes Three by Charlie Irons
Charcoal and pencil on paper

Just in case you thought I'd stop being all artist like in my non-design class. We just started perspective, so expect something wacky and fun, soon.